Kickin it Old School

So I was going through my pile of freshly bought comics recently, and I read three in a row. It was not until I was done that I realized the common theme that all of these comics. They were all based off of TV shows I watched in the 80’s, namely, ThunderCats, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. So now, for all of you who know exactly what I am talking about, let us take a walk down memory lane with some old faces on fresh pages.
First we will start with ThunderCats #2 from Wildstorm. Now I was always somewhat ambivalent about the ThunderCats. You see I liked the concept fine, and the opening and closing credits were really cool. These are important things when you are a kid. The show had two major, major flaws however. The animation was sketchy as hell. One show it would be decent, the next show…well…let’s just say that the Korean animators probably went on strike. The animation was often terrible. The second, and less forgivable sin, was that the stories always had cop-out endings. It would seem like Mumra had all but won, and some fluke, deus-ex-machina plot device would intervene and save the day. Now if, I don’t know, Lion-O did a ThunderCats Ho, and all of the rest of them went straight into ass-kicking mode, that was cool. But too often the plots just had really lame resolutions. I was 10 years old but I could still tell when the writers had run out of ideas. I wasn’t stupid. So the major task of the new comic would be to solve those plot problems, right? Well, they try. Seems Mumra is tired of Slithe’s shit, so he puts Vultureman in charge of the Mutants. Yeah, that’s what the team needed, a change in leadership. So, with Vultureman at the helm, the Mutants get their asses easily kicked once again by Lion-O, Tigra, and some random Samurai named Hachiman. Same shit, different decade. The best thing about this comic is the Jim Lee comic. Lion-O wished he were as cool as he looks here.
Moving on to G.I. Joe #8 from Image, we find a nice little family reunion…that family being the Dreadnoks. The Gangs all there…literally; Ripper, Thrasher, Monkey Wrench, Zarana, and the leader, Zartan. I always liked these guys, just because their major motive in life seemed to be to break things and get paid for it, two ideals very close to my heart. Zarana is transporting a sensitive piece of computer equipment to Dr. Mindbender, looking Fabulous in his Purple Full-length Cobra Blouse. Hilarity ensues. Seriously, the G.I. Joe is worth it. It has all of the plot and characterization the show lacked, but without the ridiculously high turnover rate of the original comic book run. That was realistic, true, but did they have to kill off EVERY Joe I liked? Geeze.
Lastly, we have Transformers: The War Within preview issue from DreamWave Productions. Now DW is also responsible for the wildly popular, and very good Transformers Generation 1 series that’s on its 5th issue now. Since those comics are so damn good, and faithful to Transformers, I knew this series would not disappoint. And it does look promising; this series will tell the story of the original civil war on Cybertron, sometime after they kicked the Quintessons into space, and before they arrived on Earth. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you are reading the wrong article. Anyway, the Transformers you know are there, but they look different because they are still in their Cybertronian bodies. All this adds up to some really fucking cool new versions of Grimlock (who’s a tank now), Starscream, Bumblebee, and Devastator (whoa). Long story short, buy these comics. Actually, no don’t because I don’t want them to be sold out before I get one. So for the ratings. I give ThunderCats #2 2 Energon Cubes out of Five, G.I. Joe #8 3 Energon Cubes, and Transformers; The War Within preview 4 Cubes. Enjoy your flashbacks kids. BTW, DreamWave folded, and someone else picked up the Transformers label, I think it's IDW publishing.