Cover Image: Transformers vs. The Terminator

Transformers vs. The Terminator

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Member Reviews

I had an absolute blast reading this graphic novel. It starts with a peek into this grim future where the Terminators were losing this war. When one gets sent back in time, they take on a challenging mission. Things seem to be going well, until somehow the Transformers start waking up. To save the future it looks like uneasy alliances will need to be formed. As this graphic novel comes to a close, it looks like the war might not be over yet.

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A thoroughly enjoyable mash-up of two of the greatest franchises fro the Eighties. We see an alternative timeline where the Decepticons have ravaged the earth and the only surviving intelligence are the Cyberdyne systems Terminators who launch one last attempt to stop the Decepticons by sending a lone T-800 in to the past to stop them before the war can ever begin.

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This was an interesting crossover and I'm certain that it will leave many readers amused. The art style is definitely reminiscent of a more old-school 80s style which is more than appropriate.

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Great crossover art work, still has all the witty one liners for the transformers not as much for the terminator..

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Eighties robot violence, squared. The set-up does pull off one pretty clever surprise (and this is made clear early enough that I don't feel bad spoiling it away): the obligatory apocalyptic future isn't Skynet versus the Autobots, it's a Skynet that never went rogue versus the Decepticons who destroyed humanity. Thereafter, though...sometimes even I can't find a pseudy angle. A Terminator who's clearly meant to be Arnie (Sarah Connor mentions his German accent), though doesn't look much like him, delivers some of the greatest hits of his dialogue while shooting at Transformers as Mount St. Hilary erupts. Prime gets to do his 'Freedom is the right of all sentient beings' speech. Starscream gets to be a treacherous little shit. It ticks all the requisite boxes well enough to pass the time, but even if we limit comparison to other recent Transformers crossovers, it never comes anywhere near the invigorating, intoxicating jouissance of Tom Scioli's Transformers Vs GI Joe.

(Netgalley ARC)

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I know I got an advance review copy and everything, and a digital one at that, and so I might not have the real thing, but I find it really quite indicative of the quality of this book that they don't even bother to tell me, a humble reviewer, who the heck wrote or draw it, until the last line of the last page. Sure we find out the editors, etc, on what does pass for a credits page, but no, all that might sell it is the concept written into the title, and anything else – any craft, intelligence or interest provided by, you know, real humans – can go hang. Another indication of its merits is how one of those four-poses-in-one-frame panels, of Ravage transforming, has a chunk of lettering right across one of those poses. Still, what it does have, where the Terminator franchise at least lies, is veracity – Sarah Connor has humongously bad hair (seriously – in one image I wasn't sure if the reference was Thundercats or Whitesnake), it has riffs and in-jokes to pin this to the canon (or at the least, paper-clip it to it), and the whole comes with the same horrendously ugly colouring and heavy inking of most early 1980s monthlies. That verite doesn't really mean it's a great read, however, although for fans of the 'Formers the sight of Sarah Connor finding her feet on the battlefield of the two sides, with an Endoskeleton rattling around in the action too, might be worth the price of admission. But the artwork still needed to be a heck of a lot clearer, and I do find the lack of credit where it's due an admission it was all about the USP of the mash-up and not at all about the creatives. Two and a half stars.

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