Tag Archives: Geoff Senior

Comic Reviews, Transformers: Generation 2

TRANSFORMERS GENERATiON 2 #10: LOOKiNG ‘GRIM’

Leave a comment

It’s another issue without any of Derek Yaniger’s artwork inside but don’t lament, #10 of Marvel US’ Transformers: Generation 2 more than makes up for it. Not only with this fantastic image by Derek but also by welcoming back Geoff Senior for the back up strip. We’ll get to that in a bit. First, the escalation of events is clear from the cover and inside the comic the main 16-page strip Total War! doesn’t hold back.

Thanks to Starscream, the combined Autobot and Decepticon forces have been found and their defences bypassed. An epic battle breaks out at Autobase on Earth, which should be an exciting prospect, right? The thing is, despite writer Simon Furman’s electrifying script this may as well be taking place on any of the barren space rocks calling themselves planets we’ve visited throughout the series.

That’s a shame because in every other aspect penciller Manny Galan, inker Jim Amash, colourist Sarra Mossoff and letterer Richard Starkings are on sizzling form (with only the occasional silly elongated neck). Things kick off with what almost amounts to an all-out slaughter of their forces by Jhiaxus and his highly evolved troops. The dialogue between Optimus Prime and Megatron is natural, exciting and at times even funny. In fact, Megatron gets a lot of the best lines in the comic!

Elsewhere, on board the Decepticon’s now-shared Warworld spaceship things are going equally badly as Starscream forces his way on board. Even the silly human-shaped teeth glinting in his silhouette can’t ruin the moment for once. Yes, yes, I know I’ve whined on about them in recent months. I’ll forgive them this one time though, especially since by the end of the issue Starscream may have finally upgraded them to something more palatable. More on that below.

I know the characters are based on toys but for the most part depictions of our toys in our comics haven’t felt that way. Look at the brilliant (but criminally short-lived) Ring Raiders to see how tiny Matchbox planes were depicted, for example. But I must say, Manny’s very toy-like. Transformers when they’re in their aeroplane alt modes really pleases me. It takes me right back to the battles I’d wage in my childhood bedroom with my old Hasbro toys.

There are some nice interactions here which really play up to the characters’ strengths, such as Tracks and Manta Ray above, then the Predacons and Dinobots too! Not that Jhiaxus appreciates their strength in diversity, but then again given what his ultimate goal is of course he wouldn’t. His gall at the “adversity, guile and sheer bloody-mindedness” of his foes is fun to read before he dials things up and calls in his second wave. Yup, everything that went before was just the appetiser.

On the Warworld the troops sent up with Starscream discover the bridge has been abandoned and escape pods are leaving for the surface. They race off in pursuit, assuming Starscream is behind them. But this is Starscream, he has bigger and much more selfish plans afoot and heads off to find the Autobot Matrix of Leadership wired into the centre of the craft.

Back on Earth we get possibly one of my favourite moments in the entire G2 series. Even though Megatron is in his new form, the panel below still harkens back to the earliest days of Marvel UK’s G1 comic. The layout, angle and most of all the depiction of Prime. We also get another funny moment from Megatron, even if it’s also a bit frustrating because he’s never actually given us the reason behind his choice of second-in-command (beyond the comic following the new toy line).

Surely a fan favourite panel, right there!

Megatron does have a plan, though. In fact it’s revealed he had several back up escape routes when he walked into Autobase to form an alliance with Optimus. One such plan was a cruiser with an invisibility cloak parked right next door. Smart. However, while Prime is grateful he’s also very aware they’re still fighting for two very different sides. Retreating to the Warworld he wants to use it as a powerful communications tool to try to reason with Jhiaxus against the new threat, while Megatron sees it as the ultimate weapon. Time for a quick break between strips.

This month’s Bullpen Bulletin contains a few interesting snippets. In the border we find out The Iron Man of 2020 was to get his own mini-series. I really enjoyed this character when he appeared twice in the back up strip in Marvel UK’s Transformers. Former Transformers writer Bob Budiansky was now Special Projects Executive Editor and The Incredible Hulk comic really did sound like it was unmissable. Also, if you read the ‘Question of the Month’ column, the writer of the Alice Cooper comic (there was an Alice Cooper comic?) has a response which in light of this last year or so seems rather telling!

Then it’s straight on to the six-page Tales of Earth back up strip and that exciting moment of welcoming Geoff Senior back to Transformers. Again, this is a straight continuation of the main strip instead of a separate story but I’m not complaining. The whole issue has been action with great characterisation sprinkled throughout and that continues with these last half dozen pages. Jhiaxus’ troops are fired upon and quickly destroyed by incredibly powerful weaponry from the Warworld. But it was reported the ship was secured and in their control. Prime and Megatron witness this as they approach and Megatron continues with his quips.

The battle continues on the surface too and the Dinobots and Predacons are fighting side-by-side in what must’ve been a fan dream come true (even though the Predacons weren’t G2 toys). I particularly like the very Geoff-esque additions such as seeing Razorclaw’s leap, transformation and attack in one panel and Grimlock’s bandana and the ‘Big Grim’ on his arm! Brilliant stuff. Even just seeing the close up of Prime’s eyes drawn by Geoff brings back all the feels.

This is fantastic stuff. The interactions between the characters, the humour, the explosive action and of course elsewhere there are still knife-edge tensions between the usually opposing sides. For example, Razorclaw thinks Megatron’s new troops are enjoying fighting alongside the Autobots a little too much. It all builds up to what is ultimately a letdown of a final page.

Starscream has absorbed the power of the Matrix and melded with the ship. However, a fantastically rendered page by the legendary artist is let down by suddenly atrocious dialogue and an over familiarity with G1’s Underbase Saga, when Starscream absorbed the all-powerful database of information and became a similarly all-powerful entity. It’s the only disappointment in an incredible issue though.

It should come as no surprise to find the Transmissions letters page is chock full of complaints, anger and disbelief at the upcoming cancellation of the comic (announced in #8). While Simon’s response that it was always intended for the first 12 issues to form one story is completely understandable, I do believe the last couple of issues have seen a ramping up of events, perhaps moreso than he originally intended in order to complete as many stories and character arcs as possible.

That’s a rather silly (not to mention expensive) idea from reader Adam Edward Patyk! Not only would it be expensive for all the readers he’s asking to partake in his idea but he seems to have already spent a lot of money and all for nowt. The reply is interesting however, with retailers refusing to acknowledge the title was selling well and instead cutting orders. The curse of being a toy licence comic in the 90s. I’d also forgotten about the mysterious mention of the Leige Maximo way back in #4, so let’s hope that’s resolved over the next two months.

The only reason that final strip page was so disappointing is because every page before it was so perfect. The story, the characterisations, the dialogue, the action, the art… this would’ve been the best issue by far if it weren’t for that cliffhanger. But I’m still positive that the final two issues are going to be incredible and I can’t wait for Sunday 27th July 2025 for the penultimate chapter.

iSSUE NiNE < > iSSUE ELEVEN

TRANSFORMERS: GENERATiON 2 MENU

MAiN TRANSFORMERS MENU

Comic Reviews, Transformers: Generation 2

TRANSFORMERS GENERATiON 2 #2: 2-iN-1!

Leave a comment

Well this second issue of Marvel US’s Transformers Generation 2 feels a heck of a lot lighter after the extra long strip (and 16 page advert in the middle) of last month’s premiere issue. The contents is also more like the UK comic than the previous G1 American title, with a 16-page main strip and a seven-page back up strip which was originally printed in a special mini-comic given away with toys for Halloween that year (1993).

The cover immediately tells us this issue will pick up from where the G.I. Joe crossover finished in #142 of their comic so I was excited going into this one, but absolutely thrilled to see the first two pages! Not only are favourite characters of mine, Scarlett and Snake Eyes right there in the very first panel of the story, but on the title page we see a team of artists were involved this time, including the simply wonderful Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville working alongside each other.

Inside The Ark, Megatron still has Dr. Biggles-Jones captive on his way back to Cybertron but Spike is also on board and sneaks off to find the rest of himself, namely Fortress Maximus. Not sure why Max has been left in his decapitated robot form (Spike was his HeadMaster companion) to protect the spaceship instead of his battle station form , but oh well.

Hot Spot is one of only two survivors of the battle with Megatron and Cobra, and realises the humans have access to advanced Cybertronian tech, unaware Megatron has made it unusable. Knowing humans can’t be trusted, he sets off to destroy it and I did laugh at Cobra Commander’s threat having to use a different word than “head” in the panel below. Then, is that Starscream Megatron is reactivating? Oh, this could be interesting.

Fortress Maximus seems to have slimmed down somewhat, but then again various artists in the original comic would draw him at different scales, although here he doesn’t even look like himself and more like a regular Autobot. (There’s also no mention of Spike transforming into Cerebros first, instead he just changes into Max’s head directly.) Skydive also joins in the fight and I’d completely forgotten he was lying waiting for his timer to ding and reactivate himself after G.I. Joe #142.

Look, I know this is a classic Transformers comic, and a new classic Transformers comic as far as I’m concerned, but that doesn’t change the fact my main highlight is the return of the Joes, especially Snake Eyes. They may only be on a few pages but when those pages are drawn by Andrew and Stephen you can’t blame me. I had no idea these characters crossed back over into this comic.

They aid Hot Spot but after the weapons are destroyed Cobra surrounds him; they want any Cybertronian technology they can get their hands on, no matter how. He ends up sacrificing himself and explodes(!), although from the art that’s not 100% clear until it’s mentioned later. Meanwhile, Spike and Fortress Maximus also seem to sacrifice themselves by entering the “antimatter stream” powering The Ark, allowing Skydive to rescue Dr. Biggles-Jones.

The ship explodes with Maximus on board, apparently taking Spike with him, although it appears Megatron was also destroyed and we know he’s not easily killed. Plus there was a new toy of him just out, so we’ll see who all return in a future issue. Then it’s on to the back up strip.

Light on plot but heavy on the action, character moments and throwing in a few laughs, it reads very much like one of writer Simon Furman’s monochrome strips from the latter part of the UK comic’s run. Anyone who followed along with my real time read through of the original comic will know this isn’t a complaint, far from it in fact. It’s a brill little strip, and to complete that UK comic flavour it’s even drawn by Geoff Senior (and kudos to Richard Starkings and John Gaushell’s letters below and Sarra Mossoff’s excellent colours).

Even Bumblebee and Bludgeon are back. It feels like the original comic had never been cancelled! On one of the planets Bludgeon and his Decepticons had randomly selected to terrorise, the Autobots have arrived. There’s an underground cache of advanced weaponry and Optimus Prime et all can’t allow them to fall into Decepticon hands, although there’s a hint within his thoughts that Prime actually wants them for himself, playing to the darker version of the character we saw last time.

Hot Rod has been sent down to activate some kind of auto-defence system to help them out, so when this monster appears Prime assumes it’s a hologram. He’s mightily impressed with Hot Rod’s capabilities, especially when its huge alien eyes take out one of Bludgeon’s minions. Then the young Autobot reappears, apologising for not being able to find anything to help in the battle, producing this funny moment from Optimus!

Confirmation then that they were also here to secure weaponry. They leave with the understanding they can’t go down that route again, as that would defy everything they stand for and recalls the war they fought for millions of years. The Next Issue caption mentions “Primal” and “Old Evils” and I still can’t shake the feeling of this leading to a path well trodden. Hopefully Prime’s speech is a hint in itself, that the story won’t simply be treading the same ground again.

To finish off with I couldn’t help but have my attention drawn to two of the advertisements in this issue. One is for a reissue of the original G.I. Joe 12” figure, which we knew as Action Man here in the UK, alongside a cool action figure version to sit among kids’ 80s toys. The other advert is for pants.

Not wishing to end the review on a bum note, I’ll just say how much I really enjoyed both stories this time. I’m not sure if it’s a one-off thing having two strips but I hope it’s something we can have at least once in a while over the next year (no spoilers please). Fingers crossed for more of the same on Sunday 24th November 2024 then. Actually, just typing that has made me realise my decorations will be up just in time for that next issue! Oh, now I’m excited.

iSSUE ONE < > iSSUE THREE

TRANSFORMERS: GENERATiON 2 MENU

MAiN TRANSFORMERS MENU

Comic Reviews, Death's Head

DEATH’S HEAD #9: HEAD WiTH A HEART

Leave a comment

With a cover by none other than the legendary Walt Simonson (Thor, Star Slammers, Jurassic Park) and Mark Farmer, the penultimate issue of Death’s Head contains no official warning that the comic was about to come to an end. There’s a bit of a hint on the editorial page which has a ’Next Issue’ panel in place of the usual subscriptions offers, not that readers at the time would’ve picked up on this as they’d have been too excited at the prospect of our Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent meeting Iron Man next month.

After a price rise last issue we got another one this month too, by 5p again. I remember the second half of 1988 and into 1989 my comics always seemed to be increasing in price, such were the struggles of an industry at a time when readerships were declining in the face of competition from television and computer games while production costs were soaring. Death’s Head would become a casualty of these changes soon enough but let’s enjoy the issue at hand first.

The editorial describes how last month The Doctor dropped off Death’s Head in the middle of Earth’s Dark Ages, which is actually 1989. Given writer Simon Furman‘s Dragon’s Claws took regular swipes at the 80s UK government (in the comic’s future vision of Britain) this could be more about accuracy than a quick joke. Simon is back after a month away from the comic and co-creator Geoff Senior finally makes a very welcome return as artist.

I didn’t even know the big rock guy
is the leader!

As you can see The Fantastic Four are the special guests this month. I’ll admit this is the first comic featuring them that I’ve ever read. I’ve never seen an issue of theirs and never saw the cartoons as a kid or any of the movies, so I really am going into this blind. I didn’t even know the big rock guy is the leader! It starts off very light-hearted with The Thing and The Human Torch bickering in a very superhero way.

Clobberin’ Time continues new editor Steve White’s brief time behind the wheel, with regulars Louise Cassell and Annie Halfacree on colours and letters respectively. That title soon becomes tiresome though. I understand it’s The Thing’s catchphrase but he uses it so frequently I feel like shouting, “Okay, okay, I get it, kids are meant to be copying him!” at the pages. Perhaps this is keeping within character but it’s just so annoying. What is good is the funny moment this sequence ends with, where it looks like they’ve made up.

Meanwhile, up on the roof someone isn’t too happy at being dropped off in the wrong time again, much like how he ended up in 8162 in the first place, even if he did settle in there and made it his (lucrative) home. However, not only is he out of time he’s also in precisely the wrong place as The Fantastic Four’s security system automatically opens fire. I have to say for the good guys their security system is very much shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later. Although it does lead to a laugh or two thanks to Death’s Head quips and his long-running bad luck.

Their building is a bit naff though, as huge holes are blasted open and its roof is destroyed as the automated weapons try and fail to take down Death’s Head. You’d think their HQ’s walls would be a bit more secure, that they’d stand up to their own security. But it’s all a bit of daft fun so we’ll not get caught up in the details (this isn’t Twitter). Using his rocket boots to fly through one of the aforementioned roof holes he finds himself in what could be described as their garage, full of hi-tech gadgets and transport.

Convinced this level of tech on 1980s Earth could mean they’d have access to a time machine, Death’s Head thinks aloud, “Just hope they’re nice, sane, normal people…” when he gets a rock hard tap on the shoulder. Meanwhile, back in the Los Angeles of 8162 Spratt is still fighting with their pet vulture (see #5) and takes another phone call from the mysterious woman in previous issues who’s been proclaiming she’s his business partner’s love. This time we also see part of her attire.

I’m still none the wiser although I’m assuming she must be a known character, given how she’s slowly being introduced. The Evil Dead’s Death Nell? If you remember the identity of the caller please don’t tell me in a comment or on socials; no spoilers! Hopefully I’ll find out in our final issue. As for this special crossover event it boils down to The Fantastic Four’s not-so-fantastic security program going rogue and dispatching a hovering droid to see off everyone.

At the beginning of the issue Reed Richards is working on one of the computer chips powering it and he was interrupted by the infighting, inadvertently making a mistake and corrupting the programming. At least this is the suggestion that’s thrown out by Reed, it’s never actually confirmed. With their bickering and the over-zealous zapping at Death’s Head having destroyed a lot of the building, it goes into full defensive mode.

During a protracted fight between the team and their new visitor it becomes clear that Death’s Head’s supposed fighting back is a case of mistaken identity. It was actually the computer attacking them but they were too busy assuming it was Death’s Head that they didn’t see the obvious. Between these reactions and the way their system was programmed I don’t have much faith in this superhero if my first impressions are anything to go by.

Eventually they calm down and think rationally, realising they need to team up with this comic’s lead character when Reed and The Invisible Woman’s child is put in danger. With Death’s Head being a mechanoid and able to hack the system that’s trying to kill them, soon it comes down to our ruthless hunter of bounties (I didn’t say it), a paid assassin, a mech programmed for self-preservation, to rescue a child.

The droid has handcuffed itself to the young boy in his bedroom, coldly using him as a bargaining chip. Now, our anti-hero isn’t exactly known for being subtle. Clicking a laser cutter onto his arm to snap the connection to the boy he leaps into the room and actually ends up damaging the droid and setting off its self-destruct! For a brief moment we see the Death’s Head we’d expect to see if this were any adult human, but it appears there’s a glimmer of a soul behind the facade.

That third image says it all and with the constant countdown you can feel the palpable sense of desperation in that penultimate panel. Superb, exciting stuff that Geoff’s penmanship is just perfect for. This may be the printed page but somehow he’s always able to make his art feel so animated when the script calls for it. After the umpteen pages of fighting earlier in the comic, after the build up in the story prior to this, this is single-handedly the most dramatic and exciting moment.

The panic it sets off is key to what’s next,
the story for our final issue

Yes, Death’s Head had to save the kid in order to gain access to their time machine but you can tell that’s not the reason he put his own life at risk. Ultimately though, this brave and heroic moment earns him the trust of The Fantastic Four and they set up their machine to take him back to 8162, a device that transports him in a green bar of energy from the feet up.

As he disappears, The Thing tells him that he had him all wrong, that the mech must be “what passes as a superhero in 8162”, to which Death’s Head tells him no, he was right all along. He then finally introduces himself by name and tells them what he does for a living…

This was a suitably funny final line for the character and the panic it sets off is key to what’s next, the story for our final issue. Back in the earlier days of reading Marvel UK’s Transformers for the blog’s Instagram the Machine Man of 2020 back up strip introduced a future-version of a certain main character in the publisher’s lineup. The hero’s identity had been completely taken over by another person. In the year 2020 Iron Man was no longer Tony Stark, he was Arno Stark.

No longer a hero, the Iron Man of 2020 was a mercenary-for-hire (which should make things interesting next month) and after being defeated by Machine Man he reappeared in a Spider-Man comic (also published in Transformers) when his family were held hostage by a killer and he had to travel back in time for the story’s resolution. The story ended in disaster, with Arno losing and seeing his city of the then-far future destroyed. His next appearance after that was in #10 of Death’s Head.

I knew Iron Man was to be the special guest star in the final issue but I had no idea it was this version and I’m super excited to see what happens. I really loved his two stories in Transformers. He was clearly the bad guy in his first appearance and for all intents and purposes was exactly the same when he returned. He was forced into a position of doing the right thing but in doing so went up against an actual hero, so young readers’ loyalties were tested. It made for fascinating reading.

I’m hoping for more of that kind of storytelling in Death’s Head next month. The pieces are certainly in place for an explosive finale and a suitably powerful send off for what has been a brilliant comic series. If it’s as good as it has been so far, and as good as those Iron Man of 2020 appearances were, then it’ll certainly take the edge off having to say goodbye. The final contract is on Monday 5th August 2024, right here.

iSSUE EiGHT < > iSSUE TEN

DEATH’S HEAD MENU

Comic Reviews, Dragon's Claws

DRAGON’S CLAWS #10: ORiGiN END

Leave a comment

This month’s strip may have an extra page. It may end on a splash page of the whole team pledging they’ll never stop fighting injustice. The cover may be a special painted one by Geoff Senior (Steel does look a bit like an alien panther, although if he were it’d fit his personality). The story may be called End of the Road. However, there’s no editorial mention that this is the final issue of Dragon’s Claws.

While the story makes it pretty clear this is the end, how clear it would’ve been to a much, much younger me at the time, I do not know. The comic was devised as an ongoing title and there had even been a subscription offer in the early issues, so I’m just a little surprised there isn’t even a small note about its cancellation. It was mentioned in the pages of Transformers, I remember that.

I mustn’t quibble. It’s now 2024 and I knew this moment was coming, as much as I didn’t want it to. End of the Road begins with this thrilling opening of a hijacked chemical waste transporter with both Dragon and Deller attempting a rescue. It appears after everything that happened last time they’re at least trying to work together. The tension between them does make for some funny dialogue here and there, reminding me of some of the best buddy cop movies of the 80s.

Elsewhere, in Switzerland, we see Ambassador Golding fresh from his ordeal in the last couple of issues and standing up for the Claws at the headquarters of the World Development Council. Isolated amongst snowy peaks, their clear separation from the people they’re meant to serve is echoed by the way their chambers of power tower over anyone wishing to speak with them. On this occasion, Golding is here to plead the case for the innocence of the Game team.

Clearly just as corrupt as modern day governments, all they’re concerned about is saving their own backsides. Golding becomes enraged with them at one point in this issue and I’ve really grown to like the character, one that I assumed was just a one-off hostage to be rescued back in #4. On a side note, at one point the chairman addresses the entire board as “gentlemen”. Sigh. Not one single woman anywhere to be seen. No wonder the world is falling apart, we clearly haven’t learned any lessons from the past.

We jump about some more and head off to Havana in Cuba a few hours earlier to catch up with Tanya, her father and Michael, her son (and Dragon’s adoptive son) and they’re still hostages of ex-Game team Shrine. Kurran is leading his team on supposed holy missions to weed out evil, but in actual fact it’s all a front for death, destruction and getting rich. Still believing Tanya’s family to be related to Deller, who paid Kurran’s brother’s team to attack Dragon in #1 (resulting in his death), Tanya finally lets the truth slip to one of the more rational Shrine members.

I’m very happy to see I wasn’t wrong about this story arc being the focus of the final issue, as they deserve a proper ending unlike some of the smaller arcs which were concluded off-page last time. The hijacker of the chemical waste transport pops up here too, hired by Kurran to smuggle a defector out of the country to safety and at this point we return to the battle to regain control. We also check in on Golding’s speech to the council, including a specific example of the Claws’ good work.

Anyway, back on the road and Dragon and Deller’s working relationship (if we can call it that) is so enjoyable it breaks my heart to know we won’t get any more of this! It feels like such an 80s action flick again, just like those first two issues did, especially Deller’s very 80s-action-man one-liner in the midst of the action. This is a blast! Finally for this scene, our unnamed court jester looks like he’s about to dispose of the defector, but instead just plops a clown nose on him. Another character I’m left wanting to have seen more of.

Holden, the defector, seems to have gone to the wrong person to get him safely out of the country and he soon realises his error; upon finding out it was Dragon that saved him he gladly tells him all about Shrine, Tanya, Michael and where to find them. We now flash forward to the team arriving in full force upon Shrine’s base, the arrival of their craft The Pig sending Kurran into a panic and ordering Strength to eliminate all of ‘Deller’s’ family.

Now fully aware of who they really are, Strength sees to their escape instead but Tanya hands Michael to her father and tells Strength to get them to the ship. In keeping with her character she knows the full force of Dragon’s Claws are about to come down hard on the place and she won’t have anyone die because of her, not even those who kidnapped her family.

All hell breaks loose, Dragon crashing through doors all guns blazing and it looks like Tanya’s unhappy prediction is coming true. Was she right about Dragon’s wish to win at all costs? When push comes to shove would he let her down, even as he rescues her? Will his emotions get in the way of justice? Actually, no. While things start off as a typical action movie climax, the usual body count never happens.

Writer Simon Furman is clearly trying to leave readers exhausted after an incredible ten months

Instead, the team incapacitate each member of Shrine, one by one, then picking them up and getting them to safety so they can face justice and jail. But upon crashing through one of those doors, Dragon accidentally knocks over a flaming torch, setting fire to drapes nearby and soon the entire complex is burning, ready to come down at a moment’s notice. Just as they’re about to go after Kurran himself (Dragon’s instructions being to shoot to wound only) Tanya screams at them all to stop!

She shouts at the whole team, their storming in has caused the fire and stopped Michael and her father getting to safety. These are the consequences of Dragon’s actions, something she’s been trying to get through to him since the very beginning of the comic. Writer Simon Furman is really cranking up the tension in this issue, clearly trying to leave readers exhausted after an incredible ten months. As Dragon rushes off to find Michael, we quickly check in on Deller. Is he really a reformed member of the team after his heroics over the last few months?

That would be a ‘no’. Rationally speaking, this was always going to be the outcome here, wasn’t it? Deller couldn’t have Dragon finding out he was responsible for everything that happened in #1, and for everything that Dragon, Tanya and Michael have gone through since. But I was so swept up in the story, and in what I thought was Deller’s redemption, that this was a genuinely shocking moment. To see Deller in the final page of the story (see below) as part of the team just heightens that feeling of loss, because this could’ve made for some brilliantly tense story arcs in future issues.

I’d never read a single issue of the comic before this read through. I’d no idea what to expect, I just knew I was a big fan of the creative team behind it

Then as if that wasn’t enough, tragedy strikes. For a second I thought it was Michael who got killed by the falling beam but a closer glance sees him safe in Dragon’s arms. There’s very little in the way of dialogue and no captions on this particular page but it doesn’t need them. Geoff Senior’s art is dramatic enough. Heightened by Steve White’s colours, it’s the final shocking twist of not just this chapter but the whole comic.

I’ll get back to the final few pages of the strip in a second. First, the only extra feature in this issue is Scavenger’s fact file. For the most mysterious of the team there’s little here needing answers in further stories. I do love the little mentions of how the world at large has changed (mention of ‘the Austro-Zealand crosslands’) and I would’ve loved to have seen a story based on The Tunnel Wars. The rest we’ve actually seen already. (I guess very little was known about him after all!)

However, I wanted to finish the review with the final splash page of the strip, so back to the last pages of the story we go and Tanya has run off, never to be seen again. Back at Dragon’s Nest, Golding confirms the W.D.C. has agreed to let the Claws continue the work they were doing above and beyond (and in spite of) Matron’s orders, with Golding now as their direct supervisor, and in exchange the W.D.C. will use their resources to track Tanya down. It’s kind of like the situation with Archangel overlooking the crew of the Airwolf working for The F.I.R.M.

In that 80s action show Stringfellow Hawke recovered the stolen Airwolf helicopter but kept it until The F.I.R.M. could locate his M.I.A. brother, working on covert missions for Archangel in the meantime. This all adds up to this final Dragon’s Claws chapter feeling like a new beginning, almost as if the ten issues were one long origin story. Of course, if the comic had continued indefinitely this ten-issue arc may have gone on much longer, but as it stands now it feels as if everything is finally in place, that it was all leading to this moment and the tales of Dragon’s Claws can really begin away from readers’ eyes.

“Dragon’s Claws were reactivated to bring order to chaos, to make this rotten world a better place for children”

Dragon

So a very open ending then. I’d never read a single issue of the comic before this read through. I’d no idea what to expect, I just knew I was a big fan of the creative team behind it. I wasn’t let down. This has been an incredible series and I can see why it’s still held in such high regard today. I can confirm after reading it now, even without any form of rose-tinted glasses fans may have, that I’d highly recommend it to anyone. Each issue usually goes for a few quid on eBay so it won’t cost you the Earth and they’ll be worth every single penny. So long Claws, it’s been an absolute hoot.

BACK TO iSSUE NiNE

DRAGON’S CLAWS MENU

Comic Reviews, Dragon's Claws

DRAGON’S CLAWS #9: OOH, MATRON!

Leave a comment

Last month there was a feeling this fantastic comic was shifting gears towards a suddenly imposed ending, which with hindsight we know is coming in #10. At the very end of this penultimate issue of Dragon’s Claws it feels like there’s a rush to finish it all off before the unfortunate cancellation. For the majority of the strip however this isn’t obvious and it’s another belter of a chapter with these sadly short-lived characters.

The issue’s FastFax, normally a way of adding depth to the world in which the comic resides or hinting about future storylines or guest characters, is a more straightforward ‘Story So Far’ page like we’d get in other comics. While the fictional news service would obviously focus on the events in N.U.R.S.E.’s headquarters, it adds to the feeling of the title wrapping things up, when I was so used to this page being used as a way of looking forward. A sad reminder the end is nearly here.

The strip itself is called Treatment and the main focus is Matron’s capture of both Dragon and The Evil Dead’s leader Slaughterhouse. All three of them are linked up to a mind control machine Matron uses as a way of accessing their memories, then torturing them with those same memories. Yes, it’d be much easier to just kill them both and she mentions this at one point, but like all the best James Bond villains she wants to have her fun first.

She’s completely confident in her success and feels the destruction of both teams and the deaths of Deller and Golding are inevitable, so she wants to drag it out and savour it as much as possible. Despite an underwhelming cliffhanger involving Matron last month, the character is superbly written by Simon Furman here, her psychotic nature making me wish we’d seen more of her all along.

We get to see inside the minds of both team leaders, with Dragon being made to watch as his wife Tanya and son Michael confront him before being killed by Deller, which as we know didn’t happen despite Matron’s orders. In fact, I’m assuming their arc will be the final part of the story to get wrapped up next time. In a particularly dark and shocking scene Deller shoots and kills the young boy! We see the shot and then his dead body on the ground in the next panel!

It’s all rather harrowing for a Marvel UK title young Transformers fans may have been collecting after it was heavily promoted in that comic. Outside of his mind we see Dragon curled up and crying desperately, his own insecurities around the ones he loves leading to that scene playing out in his mind, Matron merely triggering them rather than forcing the scenario. At this point I was intrigued as to what resided in Slaughterhouse’s mind!

But first we head back down the building to catch up with the rest of the characters. Matron has seen on her screens that Stenson is dead, The Evil Dead and Dragon’s Claws are about to decimate each other’s ranks and World Development Council ambassador Golding and Deller are trapped in a burning room dozens of floors up from the ground. No wonder she’s confident.

For the unlikely pairing of Golding and Deller there’s only one option for escape, and that’s out the window and back in again to a different room. There’s a pole sticking out from the building which Deller can use to swing out and back in again through another window, then break down the locked door to get Golding out. But first he must overcome his fear of heights!

This is something that hasn’t cropped up before simply because the story has never put him in such a position. It adds drama to a sequence that plays out over a few pages scattered throughout the rest of the issue. In fact, we come back a few pages later to see he’s frozen to the spot and it’s Golding who encourages him to take the leap, to believe in himself after all the humiliation he’s faced in previous issues (albeit by screaming at him).

There’s a definite theme this issue of people from all sorts of backgrounds and from completely different sides coming together to fight a greater enemy. An enemy that’s using them all, that’s creating division and fomenting hatred to turn the populace against each other for their own selfish needs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Dragon’s Claws could easily be released today and be just as relevant, if not more so than it was in the 80s.

Death Nell and Steel’s romantic history gives the story an opening to bring the two teams together to launch a united frontal assault on the upper floors of the building where the majority of security has amassed to protect Matron. As a reader you know it’s coming, even as the opposing sides continue to fight, Mercy in particular sticking the boot in. (Boom, boom!)

On a side note, I was surprised to read Nell saying, “Wise Up!” because as far as my friends and I were concerned this was always a Northern Ireland phrase. Indeed, when I used it myself in Scotland with some friends there in my teenage years it completely confused them. Perhaps we were wrong, but most likely it’s just a coincidence and wasn’t known to be a popular phrase in this part of the UK.

It’s at this point we finally get a look into the mind of Slaughterhouse. I was really looking forward to this and Simon doesn’t disappoint. His memories start off hard with an abusive father hitting him with a baseball bat because Slaughterhouse’s own mum died during child birth. Damn, this goes dark. This was enough to lead him to a life of crime, then once captured the corrupt government experimented on him in return for reducing his sentence.

The side effects included his pointed teeth, his skin colour and blood red eyes and Slaughterhouse, who was very much the victim of his life’s circumstances, couldn’t handle it and he turned on the whole world, the world that had beaten him down so cruelly time and again. But his mind was lost by this stage and he began killing people, seeing everyone as an imaginary enemy, and within just a couple of pages Slaughterhouse’s entire origin story is told.

“We do this my way!”
“The weak way… the stupid way!”
“Let’s just kill ’em!”
“Try it, curly!”

Dragon’s Claws and The Evil Dead

We can only guess if it would’ve been told at this stage (or so quickly) had the comic not been cancelled but somehow it doesn’t feel rushed. In fact, it just makes me lament the fact we can’t see more character development for him now that we (and Dragon) know the truth. The whole chapter is a great piece for both leads. Dragon’s own insecurities while leading his team and in his position in the world could’ve made for a wonderfully deep character too.

As the Claws and The Evil Dead make an uneasy alliance to take down N.U.R.S.E. and rescue their respective leaders, the two men’s minds are thrown into a climactic final battle, one which Matron fully expects will mentally tear them apart, leaving them gibbering wrecks and essentially dead. But she hasn’t reckoned on the power of said minds. Dragon slowly realises he’s in his old Game uniform and tries to convince Slaughterhouse it’s all fake.

He does so through reasoning. Yes, they’re physically fighting of course, we have to have our action in an action comic, but they come to realise they’re flip sides of the same coin, that they both do what they do because they believe in it, they’ve both been manipulated into becoming what they are and they agree giving in now would be the easy way out. But they don’t do easy. For once the hardest thing to do isn’t to fight each other, it’s to work together and they turn their minds on Matron’s.

They start to take her mind down in another physical battle but we’re inside her thoughts now so she’s all-powerful and the two men have to fight side-by-side if they’re to survive. Dragon only wants her beaten, so she can face justice for her crimes in the real world, but Slaughterhouse can’t stop himself. His thirst for revenge is too much and inside the mind machine he slits her throat just as Nell does so to her physical body.

It’s a shock ending but then it all kind of deflates on the next page, the final one of the strip. In just five panels we get a lot of exposition and explanations about what takes place next instead of actually seeing anything. The Evil Dead are let go, Dragon knowing they could never work together, Deller is somewhat redeemed in his own eyes, the team decide what they’re going to do now their employer is no more… a lot happens ‘off-screen’, dealt with through a very quick conversation between the team.

I understand the next issue is the last and it’ll most likely wrap things up for the Dragon family’s arc, but so many other important story arcs just seem discarded far too easily, like one of those final scenes you’d see at the end of an old 80s cartoon. To be clear, it’s only disappointing because of the quality of what came before, not just in this exciting chapter but in the whole run up to now.

The team should be incredibly proud of this chapter though. Writer Simon Furman, artist Geoff Senior, colourist Steve White and editor Richard Starkings are to be congratulated. What the final page lacks is what the other 21 pages do superbly, quickly wrapping up as much of the main story as possible without feeling rushed. Which is why page 24 feels so unlike what we’ve come to expect.

To round off this penultimate review is Digit’s fact-file and more interesting tidbits of information on Dragon’s teammate that would’ve been elaborated on in future issues. These include the fact he’s Scottish, a missing amount of time in his life and just how stable/unstable he actually is. I bet his lost memories would’ve made for some great stories. Instead, we must say goodbye. That’ll happen a little over a month from now. The final issue didn’t go on sale the same day as Death’s Head for the first time, instead it appeared a week later. So watch out for the review of #10 of Dragon’s Claws on Monday 11th March 2024.

iSSUE EiGHT < > iSSUE TEN

DRAGON’S CLAWS MENU