Transformers: Aspects of Evil! [Library Binding]

Transformers "Aspects of Evil" is another in the outstanding collection of Manga-Sized offerings from the wonderful Titan books, re-printing the stories that originally appeared in the Marvel UK comics. These collections pack a lot of story and action into a value price book that Transformers fans will love. All of the stories in this 80 page book are written by Simon Furman and certainly no writer seems to have a better grasp of Transformer knowledge and lore than Furman. His characterizations of the Autobots and the Decepticons are always right on the mark. The art is provided by a host of talented gentlemen including Jeff Anderson, Simon Coleby, Staz Johnson, Geoff Senior, Art Wetherall, and Andrew Wildman.

In the opening stories and aged Rodimus Prime is relating to his young protégé the tales of the most evil Decepticons. Each tale sparks a new story about such nefarious Decepticons as Scorponok, Galvatron, Shockwave, and Magatron. As the tales go on, the young Transformer grows more and more agitated as he wants to hear of the most vile Transformer villain, Unicron!

In another tale Rodimus Prime finds his body possessed by an evil force, rife with power and ready to destroy the Autobots. The Autobots find themselves in a precarious position of needing to stop the rampage, but not wanting to cause harm to Prime. Meanwhile, within the Matrix, Prime finds himself in a battle with his evil aspect that not even he is sure he can win.

Then there is the tale of the Deathbringer, an android who is charged with cleansing disease and pestilence from whole planets. Somehow this android has come into possession of the creation matrix imbuing him with God-Like powers. Even Optimus Prime knows that battle would be fruitless until he uses brain over brawn to come up with a solution.

While the artists vary from story to story, all of the art work is top notch although my personal favorites would be Geoff Senior and Andrew Wildman. These are a bit different than old time Transformer's stories as they deviate from the typical Autobot Vs. Decepticon theme but the change of pace is well done. Great Stuff!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Transformer fans will be quite pleased with Titan's new smaller collections of the UK Transformers comic series. The stories are a lot shorter than their color couterparts, but they still manage to pack in the same amount of characterization and action that make the entire Transformers comic series such a superb read. My only complaint with these issues (and, indeed, with many of the later Tranformers comics in general) is that the Autobots are constantly facing off against super-powered beings, instead of fighting Decepticons on "even-footing," so to speak. I know variety is good, but the Autobots never seem to get a break.