Broken Frontier

Unicron destroys a planet in some quiet corner of the universe and the movie everyone loves to hate to love begins. You can already hear the theme music, can’t you?

That’s right readers—BOOM-DA-BOOM-DA-DA—BOOM-DA-BOOM-DA-DA—TRANSFORMERS! Do you remember that cheesy eighties music that opened the now classic film? No? Then pick up this comic and your mix of memories will come flowing back like a tsunami of fear and wonderment. Yes, I approve of the unnecessary and somewhat changed adaptation. The popping art and the fan-favorite lines flowed into this reader reminding me why I got my son into those robots in disguise in the first place. Perhaps, since the anniversary of this film is nearing, and the new live-action one is also soon to be released, that is exactly what this book is supposed to do.

By giving Bob Budiansky, no stranger to the Transformers mythos, the helm, IDW started things off right. He practically created the Matrix of Leadership as a center of the universe, and if he didn’t create it, then he helped mold it into what it is today. That aside, however, with this comic, you can also see his love for the story. He pays homage to the original movie, adding a few lines of dialogue here and some explanatory captions there. But, not counting the wholesale slaughter of some of the most loved characters by the corporate monster of Hasbro, which unfortunately he had to put in otherwise this really couldn’t be called an "adaptation," the comic is a great reminder of my youth. Some of the most powerful lines are still intact—"Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost," and every grumble and rumble from Kup.

But as I stated, for every Primus, there is a Unicron. Which is what this story essentially is. With the passing of Optimus Prime, Ironhide—who died with Megatron’s horrific words, "Such heroic nonsense"—echoing in his head, and all the others, the original Transformers were sadly destroyed. Don Figueroa, thankfully, makes these sad and sometimes disturbing scenes tolerable. His sharp line work and attention to detail add a touch of mechanical magic to the comic it would be lacking with virtually any other artist. Like Budiansky, his scribe cohort, Figueroa has had a great hand in helping the mythos. His stylized look, which is a mix of classic Japanese mechanoid magnificence and American nineties pop art is, quite simply, meant for the Transformers.

No, the original animated film was not perfect. In fact, it was far from that, even disturbing at times. But it is a piece of my youth and it is probably a piece of yours. Did it really warrant a comic adaptation twenty years later? No. Do I care? No. The comic is fun to read, fun to look at, and fun to have.