THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

CLUB AND CONVENTION TRANSFORMERS COMICS

Transformers Timelines #3: Shattered Glass
Reviewed by Blackjack

The day belongs to the Decepticons!
What the heck do you know, this is actually pretty good! Shattered Glass had been hyped to death by many fan sites, and when I got ahold of the issue itself… it was not not bad, but it was actually good. I’ve seen many terrible Mirror-Verse fan fiction, but how the authors did this is pretty well done. Now this is the kind of things they ought to do, instead of make pointless, boring stories like many of the past convention exclusive comics. Unlike ‘Dawn of Future’s Past’ or ‘Descent Into Evil’, none of the toy characters feel shoehorned in the way Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Flamewar and many others felt in those issues. The most that felt shoehorned in are the Predacons, but they work fine as Decepticon troops and aren’t in there a whole lot. The plot is much more palatable, with an extensive backstory actually managing to be worked in. It’s connected to the normal Fun Publications work, yet you don’t need to understand them to appreciate the sheer campy craziness of this issue.

Putting the nail down, it’s not quite that good yet. But it will spawn a series of text stories, which are very, very FUN. That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it? For fans to have fun with characters that would otherwise never appeal to the general audience. It’s full of meta-references, and can only be appreciated by fans. The tone of this comic, with two on-screen deaths, is a bit dark compared to other more campy SG fic, but it’s a nice set-up. All the characters are quite engaging, and it’s a nice touch not to force guys like Ricochet and Nightbeat and Jazz to say something for the sake of speaking something. SG characters are not complete reverse caricatures (although some are when it makes sense) so it doesn’t read like a bad fanwank. Megatron and Optimus Prime are both very interesting, and Optimus even welcomes Cliffjumper into the Autobots, which is a nice touch. Starscream is a bit boring, but that comes with the role of being a competent second-in-command. Rodimus is pretty fun here, and especially in later work where the writers go all crazy nuts with him, capische? Sideswipe… I think he works just fine, although I won’t sing his praises. He’s mister exposition and the guy who Cliffjumper can trust. Cliffjumper, I think, is the best thing about his story. After being portrayed as a caricature of the cartoon version in the Classics comics, Cliffjumper is just the right guy to be placed into a crazy situation here. He’s just like us, another sane, slightly impetuous guy who’s thrown into all the madness. Scripting is okay, and the Don Figueroa art is gorgeous. A piece of great work, but more importantly it’ll spawn much more than just one issue, which is a good thing.


Yup, we need a who’s who section here. Shattered Glass is so chock-full of references in character portrayals and designs alone, this way is easier.

-First up, Cliffjumper is a migrant from the Classics splinter timeline, which is a Fun Publications exclusive alternate ending for Marvel G1, ignoring G2 and the UK comics. He pops out from the portal after the events of the magazine comic ‘Crossing Over’.

-The convention-exclusive toys first… the SG version of Optimus Prime is a repaint of the Classics Optimus Prime toy, but not in the Nemesis Prime/Scourge paint scheme, but an all-new ‘evil’ purple and black colour scheme. He is also pretty insane, by the looks of it.

-Megatron is a retool of the Energon Megatron toy with a new head based on G1 Megatron. SG Megatron is very a polite, cultured and understanding person, even when faced with someone who would appear to be crazy.

-Rodimus is a repaint of Classics Rodimus in black and purple. He’s got a goatee, too, which is inspired by Mirror Universe Spock from the Star Trek series, one of the main inspirations for Shattered Glass. Rodimus has quite an attitude. He speaks in the mannerisms of Vinnie Barbarino, a smart-ass teen heartthrob played by John Travolta from Welcome Back, Kotter. It’s a convulted homage to Hot Rod’s voice actor being Judd Nelson, who himself played a teen heartthrob in The Breakfast Club.

-Goldbug is a retool of Cybertron Hot Shot with a new head to resemble G1 Goldbug, in a paint scheme based on the ‘Stealth Bumblebee’ repaints of the Movieverse ‘Bee. He fought his way up the Autobot hierarchy. His profile would reveal that he used to be Bumblebee, but clawed his way into a stronger body and a high rank.

-Grimlock is a repaint of Classics Grimlock in an evil gray and green colour scheme (which makes him look like Nemesis Prime/Scourge, really). Here he is portrayed as Optimus’ dumb attack dog. However, in April Fools a fake Shattered Glass preview with Grimlock as a genius talking in a stuffy British accent proved very, very popular (for good reason) and later SG Grimlock would gain sentience to become that portrayal.

-Jazz is a retool of Cybertron Crosswise with a new head. His paint scheme, unlike many of the others, is identical to his original G1 paintjob. His speech mannerisms are based off Mr T.

-Ricochet is a repaint of the SG Jazz toy. Ricochet’s paint scheme is a restructuring of his black-and-red paint scheme similar to the obscure Jazz repaint Zoom-Zoom. While he would be a relatively larger player in later comics, he doesn’t do anything this issue (like many others as well).

-Blurr is a retool of Armada Blurr with a new head, again in black and purple. He still talks fast.

-Starscream is a repaint of Cybertron Starscream, in Skyfire/Jetfire’s paint scheme. SG Starscream is a highly competent, intelligent and loyal second-in-command to Megatron, a scientist and actually earns genuine praise from the Decepticon leader. Sound the bells.

-Sideswipe is a repaint of Armada Wheeljack, retaining the latter’s slashed Autobot insignia due to his own faction swapping. Sideswipe was left behind for dead by his ‘comrades’, and was rescued by Megatron, thus causing his side-switching. This is the same reason that Armada Wheeljack defected. SG Sideswipe is pretty intelligent, coming up with the alternate universe theories. His paint scheme is based off the unreleased Universe Drench, itself a repaint of Armada Wheejack in homage of G2 Drench.

-Whisper is a repaint of Wind Sheer, which is gang-molded with the Armada Wheeljack toy. Whisper, unlike his G1 counterpart, is LOUD, and has no sense of stealth whatsoever.

-The Predacons are a trio (Razorclaw, Rampage and Divebomb) who are repainted from the Classics beast Mini-Con toys. Razorclaw is now a wolf, while the other two keep their original beast modes. Profiles reveal that the three of them have, prior to this, had a mishap with the Decepticons which turned them into Micromaters. Razorclaw is a teacher to the other two Predacons.

-SG Nightbeat, who appears in one panel, is a retool of Energon Hot Shot with a new head.

-Soundwave, while not receiving a toy during BotCon (as does the rest of the names down this list), is actually based on a real toy. Painted white and in a different design with his G1 counterpart, SG Soundwave is based off the Sonic White MP3 Soundwave released by Takara. You know, the Soundwave toy that actually works. Soundwave doesn’t get a line of dialogue here, but he’ll be a major character in subsequent Shattered Glass installments.

-Reflector is a single ‘Con who is physically based off Spy Shot 6 from the movie toyline (who also transforms into a camera). He is coloured predominantly yellow.

-The Decepticon Tapes… Frenzy and Rumble presumably have their paint schemes based off their Autobot counterparts, Eject and Rewind, respectively. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw are solid red and solid yellow respectively.

-The Constructicons are good doctors sporting Protectobot colour schemes (the First Aid/Blades scheme, specifically). We only see Scrapper, Hook and Long Haul’s head this issue.

-Ruckus is a cowardly Triggercon who has the paintscheme of the G1 Triggerbot Backstreet.

-Cyclonus doesn’t speak, but he has Hot Rod’s sunny paint scheme and is based off his Classics toy.

-Heatwave is the guy you don’t recognize in the Decepticon assembly scene. Along with Skyfall, Landquake, Topspin and Breakaway, Heatwave forms part of the dimension hopping combiner squad Nexus Prime. He’s a repaint of Energon Barricade in the set’s candy cane colour scheme.

-Slugslinger sports the paint scheme of G1 Air Raid.

-Quake… he’s rather shadowed, but he has a dark paint scheme. Some people claim that the creators say it’s inspired by G1 Landfill, but personally I don’t see it.

-Perceptor appears for only one scene, but his colour scheme is based on the Microman toy that would be redecoed into G1 Perceptor. Or, in a roundabout way, the paint scheme of Magnificus. This trend of using an old toy as an SG character would later be used for many, many other SG characters.

-Sunstreaker sports the paint scheme of Alternators Dead End, who was repainted off Sunstreaker.

-Another cameo seems to be Hound in Skywarp’s paint scheme, although I’m not sure about this one since he’s seen from the back and in later stories Hound sports a black-and-red paintjob. Could be Red Alert or Lightspeed or someone, I dunno.

-Poor, poor Dropshot. In the Armada Dreamwave comics, Dropshot was an unused Diaclone concept that became the basis of a redshirt Autobot. In the mirrorverse? He’s still a redshirt.

-Several SG Go-Bots also appear. Cy-Kill is one of the revolutioneers that joined Optimus Prime in the flashback. Leader-1 (in Cy-Kill’s colours) and Fitor are both cannon fodder that were killed by the Predacons. Leader-1 being killed is probably a reference on how Cy-Kill was always killed on-screen in Transformers stories.

-Optimus Prime have the dead bodies of SG versions of Overlord, Skyquake, Clench and someone who might be Krok or Banzai-Tron.

Among the characters that appear physically, several characters are also mentioned in passing. Shockwave is mentioned by Megatron as a psychologist. Sideswipe name-drops Straxus as someone who does poetry. A SG version of Cliffjumper also exists as Optimus Prime’s favourite sniper who went missing three stellar cycles prior to this story. Goldbug mentions an old, treacherous advisor of Optimus Prime’s, which, from the description, seems to be Alpha Trion.


The establishing monologue as Cliffjumper goes to the portal is a homage to, of all things, the Bible.

Cliffjumper mentioned following the ‘red and blue robots back on Earth’, as well as seeing Rodimus a few hours ago, which is a continuity reference to the dimension hopper combiner squad (it’s my pet name for them) that he was separated from when going through the Space Bridge in the Classics universe. Specifically, ‘Crossing Over, Part 6’.

Iacon is more or less a faithful replica of its appearance in the Sunbow cartoon. In an in-joke, there is one of those lamp-posts that pre-Earth G1 Soundwave turns into outside the Autobot base.

The Autobots have a Smelting Pool, a fixture that are usually Decepticon property. The Smelting Pools first appeared in the Marvel comics. Rumble is put on a kangaroo trial on a platform dropping him to certain death, which brings to mind to the Quintessons’ trial scene from the 1986 Movie. Goldbug is less serious about being a prosecutor, though.

When Cliffjumper refuses to execute Rumble, Optimus Prime says ‘oh, so unwise’, quoting a line from the 2007 movie’s Megatron.

Among the corpses hanging from the ceiling is the head of the toy model of G1 Jetfire.

A Darkmount exists in this universe as well. Optimus Prime mentions the ‘Torus Heights’, an amalgation of the Tri-Torus Loops and Tagan Heights in the Dreamwave comics. Optimus dumps Cliffjumper in the Rad Zone, one of the Cybertronian locations made by Simon Furman during the Dreamwave era. Megatron comes from Polyhex, a Decepticon state first seen in the G1 Marvel comics.

An adorable Diagnostic Drone (from the Beast Machines cartoon) helps the Constructicons fix Cliffjumper. It has a cute widdle nurse’s cap!

The history of SG Cybertron as told by Sideswipe is one big homage to, among others, the G1 Marvel Comics origin. Optimus Prime’s cry in the flashback is a paraphrase of Megatron’s dialogue in that issue. Stagnate like the cancer they are and all. The idea that Optimus Prime was called Optronix, and his profession as a librarian, mirrors that of the origin in Dreamwave comics. The fact that transformation is a technology gained by one side and later copied by the other, both homage the origin story in the Sunbow Cartoon.

Profiles would reveal that the Autobots and Decepticons have learnt about Earth from radio transmissions, which would explain the otherwise unexplained beast modes of Grimlock, the Predacons and the tapes, as well as the Earth-inspired vehicle modes of some of the Autobots.

Transformers in the SG universe have Embers instead of Sparks, which are the same technobabble like Sparks but are reverse polarity. This is probably based on Beast Machines where sparks are shown to have positive polarities.

Transformers in the SG universe have never heard of Primus or Unicron at all, though Cyclonus evidently knows something, the way he smirks like that…

The faction names for Decepticons and Autobots get new origins here. The Autobots are named so because they are rebels and stuff. The Decepticons named themselves that because they discovered transformation technology first.

Cliffjumper says “ponderous, slaggin’ ponderous”, a homage to his voice actor’s Casey Kasem’s line “ponderous, f*cking ponderous, man” in several outtakes while recording American Top 40.

Instead of the Ark being used to destroy asteroids, here Optimus Prime builds the Ark with the conscious intention of conquering other planets and plundering energy.

Optimus Prime spars against holographic enemies based on the combat drone that battled Hot Rod in the 1986 Movie.

Dropshot’s name-drops Sector Seven (the organization in the live action movies) as a literal sector.

Jazz’s line “I ain’t getting’ bombed by no plane!” is a reference to the catchphrase of B.A. Baracus from the A-Team, “I ain’t getting’ on no plane!” SG Jazz speaks in the style of characters played by Mr T, who, of course, plays B.A.

Rodimus, Goldbug and Blurr are Seekers. While in G1 Seekers are a bunch of guys with the same bodies and different paintjobs, here Seekers are a bunch of guys with similar paintjobs (black with differing accents) but different bodies.

Megatron says a variant of ‘freedom is the right’, which is usually Optimus Prime’s credo

The panel where Megatron takes the blast meant for Cliffjumper is so similar to that of Ironhide taking the blast for Hot Rod in IDW’s ongoing (and later homaged in TF: Ironhide) to be a coincidence. This is quite amusing, since Shattered Glass came out quiteeee some time before IDW even planned to launch the ongoing.


Cliffjumper migrated from the Classics universe, but the ugly silver decals are missing for the entire issue.

Goldbug and Blurr are both slightly miscoloured on page 15.

On page 16 and 17, the Predacons are nearly as tall as Starscream when they’re supposed to be the size of Micromasters.