The Allspark: Transformers News Movie Comics Animated - Generations 2011 Vol. 2 Manga: The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos

The Allspark’s comments

The second volume of Transformers Generations 2011 follows the recent tradition of pairing the Western creative team of Simon Furman and Guido Guidi to produce a brand new Japanese-exclusive comic: "The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos". This comic was developed as accompanying fiction for the upcoming United Stepper with Nebulon action figure, which was available to order through the purchase of the previous Transformers Generations 2011 book, Volume 1. The Allspark is extremely proud to be able to bring this great comic to a broader audience with this English edition based on the original English language script.

This story takes place in a universe that Illustrator Guido Guidi describes as a "small crossover/fusion of various G1-themed lines from US and Japan". While it depicts Japanese characters Stepper and Artfire, there's a big Marvel G1 Universe influence, as it has Autobots and Decepticons binary bonded with non-green skinned Nebulons and features Marvel G1-styled artwork and coloring. A good number of the United figures from TakaraTomy appear in this comic, featuring those designs and color schemes. The additional characters not found in the United line either use their Generation One character models or other recent toys released in Japan such as from Henkei! Henkei! Some notable exceptions are Thunderwing (who uses his Hasbro Generations toy) and Artfire (who uses a recolored Universe (2008)/Henkei! Henkei! Inferno design with a gray and black Power Core Combiner Pinpoint as Nightstick). Guido and Writer Simon Furman have confirmed that TakaraTomy have no plans to release Thunderwing or Artfire as of the time this comic was originally put together.

There are a couple interesting differences between Simon Furman's script and the final product. For example, the original script called for Jazz to appear among the infected Autobots, but he is notably abscent. In another note from the script, the only Decepticons said to be present in the battle at Nebulos are Straxus, Scourge, Lugnut, Frenzy, and Rumble. The addition of the G1 Targetmasters, Headmasters, Sixshot, Wingspan, and Ramjet was likely added to further the "crossover/fusion" aspect of the comic. Lastly, Fort Max, while not specifically identified in the script, appears in the first panel as part of Autobot City.

You may also notice that in the first epilogue Optimus Prime hands out metals to both Stepper and Kup that bare a close resemblence to the Elite Guard symbol and the Vanguard Team / Cybertron Defense symbol. Guido has said this was done on purpose, as he intended the badge to resemble both faction symbols but not any one specifically.

Also noteworthy is that Lugnut continues to infilitrate the G1 universe, first with his appearance in the Hasbro produced Rodimus VS Cyclonus comic, then again in the United comic included in the Generations 2010 book, and once again here in this comic.

We hope you enjoy the read!

(See our Unite for the Universe article for more great Guido/Simon Japanese-exclusive comics!)