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THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

Marvel Comics
(1984-1994)
Japanese
Manga
Other Books
and Titles
Titan Books
(2001-2010)
Club/Con
(2001-2016)
Dreamwave
(2002-2004)
Devil's Due
(2003-2007)
IDW Publishing
(2005-now)

CLUB AND CONVENTION TRANSFORMERS COMICS

Balancing Act, Part 4
Reviewed by Blackjack

Issue Review

We must find them as quickly as we can! If we fail now, all is lost!
Still sub-par work, but it holds when viewed together with the others in the TPB. Skyfall’s memory mystery proves rather uninteresting, and it’s especially jarring when, after all the trouble Ramjet went to recruit the powerful, naïve powerhouse, he leaves the heralds off-screen. It’s frankly bad writing. Likewise, the battle between Sentinel Maximus and Dark Scorponok ends at a rather low note, with Sentinel batted around again. Sentinel Maximus, despite being in a whole lot of scenes, don’t get much in lieu of characterization. Adding another cartoon guy like Downshift is a nice touch, too, so we don't get overwhelmed by convention exclusives. Vector Prime and Ramjet are still the most interesting ones of the bunch, which is a shame since the two don’t get to do all that much this time around with the focus on Skyfall and Sentinel. Safeguard’s bloody cute, though.

Notes

Downshift is the character from the Energon cartoon, although here he is wearing his Universe-line repaint colours (which is a minor repaint, so he doesn’t look that different). This explains at least the location of one of the Energon characters while Cybertron goes on, and actually fits with Universe Downshift’s toy bio, which states that Optimus Prime assigned him to stay behind on Cybertron to guard the shafts leading to the core of Cybertron.

Ramjet refers to the Scrapmetal as Terrorcons, a term used to apply to them only in toy bios.

The term ‘autogun’ was first used in the Beast Wars cartoon, and had the same function. Beast Wars’ autoguns never have Energon mouth-gags, though.

Vector Prime mentions that he have seen similar zombies before, and uses the term ‘spark affliction’ that Ramjet used last issue.

As a testament to his past as Apelinq, Sentinel Maximus uses Apelinq’s maces this issue.

Goofs

The yellow Scrapmetal that’s with Ramjet in his campfire circle is absent at the beginning of this issue.

Thunderclash is absent from Ramjet’s Mini-Cons this issue.

Throughout the battle, Safeguard holds two swords. On page five, in the first panel Safeguard holds nothing, in the second panel he holds a single sword and in the last panel he holds two swords. In the next page, Safeguard powerlinxes to Vector Prime without any swords.
 
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