Transformers spotlight
5
Ultra Magnus
Summary :
On Zull
Ultra Magnus, apprehends the war criminal Swindle for selling Cybertronian
technology to alien races.
Swindle
however dangles the location
of an even bigger war criminal in front of
Magnus` nose in exchange for his freedom.
Despite
going in against all of his principles and wondering if he breaks his
principles, where exactly it will end, Magnus agrees and cuts Swindle free.
The
information leads Magnus to Nebulos, where he find that Scorponok is using the Zarak consortium as a front.
Magnus
infiltrates the consortium and finds among other things, a Nebulan who appears
to be able to transform.
Shortly
after that Magnus, his holomatter avatar is revealed and destroyed.
Nagnus forces
his way in to the facility in his
robot form, where he encounters
Scorponok.
Though
Scorponok normally flees when found out. This time around he is on the breakthrough of something enormous
in scope and is willing to take Magnus
on.
In the ensuing battle Scorponok's business partner,
Mo Zarak is damaged and seemingly
killed.
Magnus makes use of the distraction to shoot
Scorponok in the face.
Damaged and stymied in his endeavour,
Scorponok flees via an
randomised artificial wormhole
generator.
29 cycles later
Magnus finds swindle on Burgas
and takes him in once more.
Swindle once again tries to bargain and Magnus
wonders once again how many compromises he is willing to make.
Credits:
Writer :
Simon Furman
Artist :
Robby Musso
Colorist
: Kieran Oats
Letters
: Neil Uyetake
Editor :
Chris Ryall, Dan Taylor.
Notes :
Released
17 Jan
2007, the first Transformers comic of
2007 along with Escalation 1.
The
report Magnus gives at the end, is received by Prime during Escalation 1
This
issue takes place in 1988, except the
last two panels which take place in
2006.
Review :
Despite
being an Autobot that has always been in the spotlight to a degree:
From being the temporary new leader in the 1986 animated
movie.
Rodimus'
second in command in the cartoon.
The
pivot of Operation Volcano and a powerhouse in
TF UK.
( That often got his tailpipe handed to him by Galvatron )
And the
leader of the Wreckers in Dreamwave.
Ultra Magnus
actually never had much of a personality, in
any of the G1 incarnations beyond
generic brave noble Autobot.
The
only personality he had, came from his
bio where it was said that he would
rather be lead, then lead, but was a
born leader and it was a shame that he didn't
realise his himself.
As such,
Ultra Magnus is one of the first characters in the spotlight issues, that actually gets completely reinvented.
Future
spotlights such as Kup, Wheelie, Blur and others will do this as well.
While
others are all to happy to riff off the
spotlighted characters original personality,
such as Shockwave, Hot Rod,
Grimlock etc.
And that
is fine, because their original
characterisations were rock solid to begin with.
Shockwave
after all, has always been portrayed as
a being of utter logic.
While I
am all for moving on and reinvention in
Transformers, some characters are iconic in their own right.
So Magnus
his complete reinvention then
He is a complete
and utter bureaucrat, who does everything by the book and follows the rules to the letter.
Straight
laced and unwilling to bend him or his principles for anybody
He works
for the Tyrest Accord, a shadowy nebulous ill defined greater burocracy, that gives Magnus the authority to go
as he pleases and take out
rouge Cybertronians.
Magnus
himself is portrayed as unflinching, incorruptible, willing and able
to do anything and waltzes through the
defences of several alien species, as per the opening pages of the comic when he
takes Swindle in.
Being a
straight-laced less fascist, certainly
not as violent, version of a robotic
Judge Dredd. Magnus is unfortunately a bit bland and boring.
While
the idea of a lone cop, making sure that
an accord between Cybertron and the rest of the universe is duly followed and enforced if necessary. So
that the
conflict doesn't spill over too much
is a very interesting idea
and plays handily in to the cloak and dagger cold war backdrop, Furman has been setting up these
past 20
issues or so.
Magnus
himself however, is far too straight-laced to be interesting.
He is
borderline boring. ( Revelations later on, in More Then Meets The
Eye, that turn him in to a bit of a joke not withstanding. )
Furman
wisely and immediately breaks Magnus straight-laced
persona and has him question his
own principles, when Swindle tempts him with Scorponok. A rouge Decepticon, which happily and all too
willingly flaunts the codes of an interplanetary accord on sharing Cybertronian
science.
And
flaunts it quite happily and brazenly.
Which
brings us to the most interesting part of the
story.
The
infiltration of Scoponok's deep cover, the Zarak consortium.
Which
lies on Nebulos.
And we
get a second and so far, last glimpse in
on Nebulos. Where the Nebulans are once again
the bald aliens of the cartoon.
Though
thankfully they aren't all green.
We are
also introduced to Zarak here, better
known as Mo Zarak, ...no don't laugh.
Mo Zarak
himself, is a direct copy of the Rebirth
3 parter, Zarak.
And his apparent
demise is more then enough to cause Scorponok to tuck tail and run.
Swindle here is also a perfectly serviceable character, who is in
his G1 old self and again that's fine. It's not just his most memorable
characterisation, with a name like Swindle he can't be much else. ( Oh, but later down the line he tried. )
As a
character Ultra Magnus is rather cut and
dry.
Too
simple and too focused to be interesting,
but when he is forced to break his principles, it gets more interesting. Because
sooner or later he will break them again and again.
Until he
crosses the lines he is supposed to uphold.
Where
does it stop ?
This is
a problem Magnus himself ponders and wisely, Furman doesn't offer any
awnsers.
With the
book ending on a loop.
Magnus has
arrested Swindle again and Swindle wants to deal again.
Spotlight
Ultra Magnus is an intriguing look in
to how
the rest of the universe, deals
with these sentient robots and their
cold war.
With
perfectly serviceable art, but it still
suffers from Dreamwave disease with
dubious anatomy, ballooning Transfromers and dull surprises expressions.
Musso's
art would improve later on, when he tackles Spotlight Cliffjumper.
Other
then this interesting look at how other
species deal with Transformers and how
rouge transformers wheel and deal
their way across the cosmos.
Spotlight
Ultra Magnus doesn't really do much with
the reinvention of Magnus himself.
He is
too dour and dry to be a main character.
And Furman
never does much with him and why is he
the only enforcer of the Tyrest accord
?
Wouldn't
it make sense to have more then one enforcer
?
Spotlight
Ultra Magnus is propped up by
interesting ideas and notions.
The
reintroduction of Scorponok and the reinvention of Ultra Magnus as an
enforcer, rather then by the actual execution.
An
interesting experiment that just is a
bit lacking.
It's a
light meditation on compromises, to
get at a goal, and how far one is willing to go to achieve it.
Spotlight
Ultra Magnus is a solid entry in the Spotlight series and its not a huge misfire, such as Sixshot.
But you
wont miss much by skipping it all together either.
