I wanted to dance around the plot points in this issue to avoid spoilers, but I couldn’t pull it off; the whole issue is a prequel that retcons a classic plot point, if I don’t talk about the plot the review boils down to “interesting idea? I liked the art.”
So, fair warning, ALL the spoilers are below. If you’re okay with that, keep reading for a review of Transformers ’84 #0.
I read the issue and was a little confused. So I reread the original Marvel issue #1 (Yes I own a copy. No I didn’t have it on hand, I was traveling. I bought a digital copy on comixology. It’s a dollar. And it’s awful. I regret nothing.) and then reread this one, and I think I’ve got it sorted out.
So. In the original story Cybertron is in the middle of a civil war that’s so violent it knocked the planet out of orbit, and now it’s headed for an asteroid field. (That bit about leaving to find energy for the war was the G1 cartoon’s spin on it, I think.) Optimus leads a band of his best men in the Ark to take out the asteroids and save the planet. Megatron finds out and figures they could take advantage of the weakened Autobots, kill their best leader, and win the war. Rather than let the Deceptions win, Optimus rams the ship at a small planet, figuring he and his crew will die but at least they’ll take out Megatron. Four million years later everyone wakes up, etc etc, insert the rest of the G1 cartoon/comic/movie.
Issue #0 says there’s more to the story.
Cybertron could have been saved with careful explosions that changed its orbit, but nobody would listen to Optimus when he said Megatron was the bigger threat. So he had the Ark built to take out the asteroid field (even though his commanding officers knew it wasn’t needed) staffed it with his best warriors (because Megatron would figure it was a ruse if they didn’t go all out) let Megatron find out about it (to lure him to attack) and once the Deceptions were on board, intentionally crashed the ship to kill everybody, which had been his plan from the very beginning.
In order to make sure I had it straight, I spelled out the issue for Kathryn.
Kathryn …why exactly did they think they needed that extra wrinkle?
Elizabeth Maybe they wanted to rewrite it so Optimus wasn’t caught so…
Kathryn Flat footed?
Elizabeth Right. Smacks of “Han shot second” doesn’t it?
Kathryn Where if you like a character they’re not allowed to make a mistake?
Elizabeth Yeah.
Unlike the Han Solo Episode Four “fix,” though, this story paints Optimus in a worse light, as he was willing to kill quite a lot of good people to take out Megatron. Story wise it’s an interesting idea, but I don’t know if I needed it? I mean, I can completely understand the desire to fix the first issue, but that’s more for the three or four pages of characters standing around awkwardly introducing themselves than for any plot points. (Seriously, if you haven’t read it in a while, you should. I loved the original series, but that issue is wonderfully terrible. Well worth the dollar.)
The story gets even more complicated by jumping back and forth in time between the point where Optimus and the Ark leave Cybertron, and a Viking battle happening in 1017 in Northern France. If I understand correctly, the point of that jump was to show that not only did Optimus premeditatedly sacrifice himself and his crew to take out Megatron, he also recruited someone to keep an eye on the crash site for millions of years to make sure the Decepticons (and Autobots) never found it.
That…seems very complex. I’m not going to say “needlessly complex” because Optimus was that determined to make sure Megatron stayed dead. But I can’t help thinking there could’ve been a better way, both to keep Megatron dead, and to show the lengths Optimus was willing to go. (It’s possible that the Viking storyline was a nod to another G1 Transformers plotline that I’m not familiar with, maybe one of the UK stories? If that’s the case, please feel free to clue me in.) (EDIT – TF Wiki confirms, it’s from the Man of Iron UK story.)
As a love letter to long-term fans of the original series though, it works well. The style of the dialogue reminds you of the original issue, without being nearly so awkward. They even gave a nod to the “let’s stand in a group pointedly saying each others’ names” trope, but it’s done with love.
I enjoyed Guido Guidi’s art with John Paul Bove’s colors, because it’s retro, but such a vast improvement on the original art. The page of Optimus saying “The real issue… is Megatron” is just beautiful. And I loved how the colors of the characters matched how they looked in the original issue: Soundwave is purple!
I especially like how their cover for this issue was an homage to issue 2 of the original Marvel series: same colors and similar placement of Optimus and Megatron, except in this cover Optimus is the one firing, which points to Optimus being more of an instigator in this version of events. (…unless I’m reading things into the cover that weren’t intended. I don’t think I am, but Kathryn and I have been wrong before about creators implying things when they really, really didn’t.)