Hey, you try taking a picture while looking into the white hot center of the sun.
Issue 13 was quite an interesting read. A real change form the stories I have been reading in the first twelve issues of the Transformers comic. The story is about a small time crook named Joey Slick and Megatron who makes his return in this issue. But before I get started with my review lets talk about the cover art.
The cover for Transformers issue 13 features Megatron in his realistic gun mode taking up most of the cover. He is being held by, one can assume Joey Slick. The bottom of the cover is littered with tattered buildings, tanks and people with a bright yellow sky above them. The Transformers logo at the top of the page is orange color while ‘The Menace of Megatron’ sits on the lower right corner of the cover in bold white letters.
Transformers Issue 13 Cover
The comic book opens up on Joey Slick, a small time crook who is running through the woods trying to escape some mafia henchmen who are trying to gun him down. Joey Slick discovers a gun in a stream and tries to use it to defend himself, but the gun does not work. That is, it doesn’t work until the two Laughing mafia henchmen tell it to blast them. Which it does.
Free of the henchmen, Joey finds safety in an empty warehouse and discovers that his new gun is in fact a Transformer calling it’s self Megatron. Due to damage withstood from a fall in a previous issue, Megatron is unable to think for himself. He now responds to what he is told or ask to do.
Jake Lomax, the mafia crime lord becomes enraged when he learns that his Henchmen failed to to collect on Joey Slicks unpaid debt to him. He orders the henchmen to killed Slick immediately.
While returning to his run down apartment in an old neighborhood, Joey Slick is greeted by just about everyone on the street. People who he knows for one reason or another. People who all see the best in Joey, but Joey himself only see failure. In his apartment Joey is attacked again by the henchmen. With Megatron in gun mode he is able to escape, but needing money he robs a convenience store and again uses Megatron to stop police who chase after him. By this point Joey is started to see the possibilities of this gun and soon uses Megatron to start a crime spree.
Soon after Joey’s realization we see him as a rich man and surrounded by mooches. Feeling sadder and more alone then ever, Joey returns to his old neighborhood to reconnect with his past. What he finds are old friends scared by his new gun. He comes to the understanding that he has man up and face his problems.
Joey goes to Lomax’s compound and confronts the mafia crime lord. Lomax starts to begs for his life. Joey tosses his gun away and punches Lomax out. Joey then throws the money he has owed Lomax on his unconscious body. While turning to walk away he finds Megatron towering over him. The impact from having tossed the gun away has reconnected Megatron’s higher level brain functions. Joey tries to command Megatron like he has done in the past, but this angers Megatron as he attempts to kill the fleshling. Joey shows no fear at this which impresses Megatron enough to spare his life.
The comic book ends with Megatron leaving to rejoin the Decepticons and Joey Slick willingly being arrested by the police.
ISSUE 13′s Ads
No letters to Marvel in this issue.
Comments are closed.
Sounds like a cool side-story. I can’t remember if you already wrote about this topic, but I always found it funny when a giganti robot could transform down to the size of a handgun, or boom box, etc. Do they ever try and justify how that is possible?
I have heard the term “size shifting” only when people where talking about the live action movies. They felt that was to much for an audience to handle so they never did it. So far in the comics they have not done anything to really explain it under say something like “…and from his normal sized gun mode, Megatron transforms in to his dominating robot mode. Most Transformers, I think transform 1:1. Car to robot, jet to robot. There are not that many that shift sizes. Megatron, Soundwave, Blaster, Reflector are the only ones I can think of. I think to a kid though it makes some sense. Why would Megatron transform in to a large gun that no one can use or hold?
I remember as a kid watching the cartoon, it always seemed odd to me that Megatron could transform small enough to fit into Starscream’s hand. I didn’t know what physics were at that point, but I knew something was wrong with that. But then there was an episode where he attached to The bottom of Starscream while he was in jet mode. So it was inconsistent. That certainly didn’t cause me to dislike the show, but I definitely noticed. I always wondered if other kids noticed the inconsistency there, or if it was only genius kids like myself that noticed. 😉
[…] Yoshi’s Blog Post on this issue […]
[…] Picking a number 1 Budanskie story is so hard. I wish I could travel back in time and ask my younger self this question because I believe I would have been more sure about my answer. As an adult, I find my favorite story is always changing. Currently it’s issue 13, ‘Shooting Star‘. […]