The first thing I noticed was the increased cover price. Two bucks
more than usual. Not being a fan of fancy expensive covers, I
wondered what Devil's Due did to justify the jacked-up cost.
How about twice the usual number of pages?
Nice move. I'm happy to pay a bit more money for twice the story, and
it avoids the "gotta cram it all into 22 pages" problem. It remains
to be seen if the rest of the miniseries is also extra-length.
On to the story. Two years after the original Devil's Due crossover,
Cybertron tech floods Earth's black market. GI Joe begins to use it
themselves to combat the new menace, as illustrated in the first 7
pages...technodreaknoks, anyone?
Cobra Commander has learned of Teletraan 3 on Cybertron and wants to
use its wormhole technology (it appears to control space bridges of a
sort) to deliver his troops, without warning, to any location and then
tele****t them away when the strike is done. He comes to Destro for
money; Destro agrees, but insists on accompanying CC to make sure CC
is playing straight with him. Starscream is CC's captive. And
Destro's butler...is Chuckles, who re****ts the news to the Joes, who
attack Cobra and Starscream's attempt to use the space bridge. A
malfunction means they all get sent to Cybertron...
....where the Autobots are trying to get energon in a raid. Shockwave
has dominated the planet in their absence on Earth. They're attracted
to the lights and chaos, and the machine's still going haywire.=20
Shockwave is about to waste everyone--Joes, Cobra, Starscream, the
works--but the Autobots intervene, erecting a tem****ary force field
around the machine and the group. Some of the group are struck by
bolts from the machine and vanish.
Cyclonus is Shockwave's lieutenant.
Perceptor says that the malfunction has cracked the time stream,
sending various Transformers to Earth during different time periods.=20
If they are not retrieved, the feedback from the time disruption will
destroy Earth. Joe and Cobra must cooperate to get them back. They
have twelve hours to do so...even if they succeed, the forcefield will
wear out in time and Shockwave's boys will attack. Furthermore, the
robots have gone through the camouflage process and been adapted to
the time period they landed in. Perceptor can, however, offer them
tracking devices to help find the robots and disruption units that
will help them transform out of their disguises.
Storm Shadow, S**** Eyes, Lady Jaye and Zartan go to the 70s. Jazz
makes a great pimpmobile :) Poor Bumblebee is a pinto-sort of
thing... They crash in on a drug deal sting and find Ironhide and
Blitzwing.
Baroness, Roadblock, Beach Head and....unknown Cobra...end up in the
1930's....
***
Overall, this series looks to be more about fun than about gritty
war-tales. It's a romp through time, playing with giving the robots
different alt modes, etc. The time-machine malfunction, while perhaps
contrived, is a fun setup for the next few issues. There's lots of
humour, but it's not stupid humour like RiD... If you're looking for
a serious, dark, momentous story, go read Age of Wrath. If you at all
find the idea of Jazz as a pimpmobile funny though, check this out.=20
The comic is very entertaining.
And apparently a future issue will involve a trip to a
Decepticon-controlled future.
--Enfilade
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