Comic review - Transformers: Deviations

[Paul Agnew]

As part of IDW's 5 week What If-type event, Brandon Easton and Priscilla Tramontano explore your very own childhood fanfiction with Transformers: Deviations. A world where Optimus Prime turned the tide and won his epic clash with Megatron in Transformers: The Movie.

It goes without saying there are Spoilers ahead, so you've been warned.


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This comic... is an odd one. Hot Rod comes across as suicidal throughout the story, characters are killed off senselessly (including most of the 'new' Autobots who were ironically created to replace the 84-85 cast), and the climax involves Starscream going all Combiner Wars on Optimus.

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Any good then?

Or fanfiction quality?

[Paul Agnew]

Any good then?

Or fanfiction quality?

A little of both.

Let me put it to you this way. It's as if someone at IDW discovered a cancelled Dreamwave comic, sprinkled a little Combiner Wars into the mix, and published it. The comic's certainly not terrible (I really want Hasbro to make a Megascreamus Maximus now), but feels as though there should've been more.

[snaketales]

It disposed of characters a bit cavalierly and certainly wasn't a classical piece of writing, but I enjoyed it as a breezy read.
I certainly didn't take it too seriously like some commenters on TFW2005 have.

And now I want to make a Megascream

[ZoonMaster5000]

The only thing I didn't quite like is how little it deviated from the movie script. still a enjoyable read but I just feel that little thought and time was put into it.

Wasnt impressed with the name megascream but I thought his new body looked pretty awesome, and the bit at the end where hot rod saves prime was a nice touch.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I found this overall to be a lackluster read. I was hoping for more in pretty much all departments.

Still, guess it makes you appreciate how good the real script of the old movie was

[i_amtrunks]

I was very disappointed in it. It didn't flow and was not fun to read.

I'm not sure who they were basing some of the characters on, Ultra Magnus in particular didn't talk like either movie, cartoon or comic Magnus. Hot Rod was a bumbling idiot and Springer and Arcee may as well have not appeared.

Also a let down was the high school way of getting rid of characters [dies in explosion] that befell far too many bots and cons.

A waste of time, money and resources to create. I'd imagine there are many billion people on this mudball that could've done far better, even those with no exposure to the original material.

[philby]

Yeah it didn't seem to really change much....just a lot of the same things happening slightly differently...

[GoktimusPrime]

Picked this comic up today. WTH did I just read?
The concept and front cover blurb got me really excited. The idea of having an alternate universe where Optimus Prime doesn't die in TFTM. Unfortunately, the actual execution of this comic can only optimistically compared with a steaming pile of Bantha Poodoo.

It has all the trademarks of a bad fanfic and reminds me of precisely why I don't read fanfics! So many of the characters are just out-of-character that it's not even funny. Ultra Magnus is an unnecessarily harsh butthole. Unicron's line of, "Don't push your luck." What? Since when did Unicron: a) start using contractions, and b) start speaking in idioms?!? He's never done this in any Transformers continuity ever. It's as if the writer just wanted Unicron to say something funny, so this line was inserted. Unicron isn't meant to be funny! Giving him a smart alec quip diminishes him as a big menacing character. Not even Optimus Prime would ever say something like that (because he's meant to sound authoritative and stoic). Hot Rod is also far more reckless that he normally would be. It's as if the one event -- Optimus Prime not dying -- suddenly changed everyone's personas. Making them even shallower one dimensional caricatures than they already were in the original movie.

The story itself feels like something that a 10 year old just made up on the spot...
"Imagine that Kup stops Hot Rod and Optimus Prime doesn't die. So then he kills Megatron, and then Starscream goes back to Cybertron. And then they kick out all the Decepticons who got hurt in the fight. And then Starscream becomes the leader, and now Unicron's attacking Cybertron! Starscream talks to Unicron and Unicron makes him and his friends heaps stronger! And they can combine now! YEEAAAAH!"

Please tell me that this was written by a 10 year old. I refuse to believe that it was written by an adult. Unless that adult is Stephanie Meyer (Twilight Saga), because yeah, this comic really feels more like it was written in really bad prose (just like Twilight!). And the artwork here really isn't Figueroa's best work. It feels like he's regressed back to his bad-old-days at DW when he was attempting to emulate Pat Lee's style. Everyone's hands aren't drawn properly, and all their fingers are super-chunky (which would make it impossible for them to manipulate tools, weapons, keyboards etc.). I kid you not, but I would actually prefer watching a Michael Bay TF film over reading this comic. Both suck just as bad in story-telling, but at least the Bay films look good. This comic has equally sucky story but with lack lustre art. Gah.

Deviations #1 isn't worth the paper that it's printed on. Avoid. Or at least just browse-read it at your local comic book store and put it back on the shelf, but don't waste your money buying it (as I did).

I do think that the core concept of Deviations is interesting. Growing up reading the original G1 Marvel Comics, I always wished that Marvel had done a story on Transformers in their "What If--?" series. I hope that future issues do a better job (they couldn't possibly do worse, could they? You know if someone's comparing your work with Michael Bay that the standard is already pret-ty low), and hopefully expand beyond just the G1 cartoon universe. It's a good concept that has every potential to be done well.

[BruiseLee]

I love a good What If or Elseworld type story when executed well. Unfortunately this had had so much going for it but did not deliver. If Kup were to review it he would say "I knew you had potential lad...NOT!".