Hubris #6 review

Hubris#6

Well it’s been a while between issues, although any comic reader they will simply scoff and cite Daredevil mini-series by Kevin Smith or Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine as examples of delays. So how does the latest issue of Hubris measure up?

Well in terms of print quality it can’t be beat. 32 pages of US format comic book for £1.50 with a nice glossy cover and heavy stock interior. Arguably one of the best put together fanzines you will see. Sure something like Spaceship Away has the card cover but it’s about four times the price. (Can you tell I’m Scottish?!)

The cover is all Graham’s work as he uses Masterpiece Megatron as the basis for a suitably moody cover picture. I’m reliably informed it won’t be the only bit of art we will be seeing from him. Which is always welcome.

What about the contents?

Well it should come as no surprise that Hubris has continued along the same lines as before with a mix of comic strip, text stories, reviews and text features so there should be something to appeal to everyone. Instead of aping the old Marvel UK “TransFormation” page Graham has went for a new look which is very clear and uncluttered, there is the familiar Hubris PCB pattern at the top of the page.

Kicking off the magazine is All In A Day’s Work a two page comic-strip written by Josh Van Reyk (who handles the Mosaic project over on the IDW boards), lettered and coloured by Graham and drawn by me. Now I’m not going to review this, as that would be ego stroking but I just wish I’d done this after the animated series had started to air so I could have gotten a better handle on the characters. Still the story is nice and breezy and Graham’s colours are as lovely as always.

Booting Up Cold takes a look at the various starts to the Trans Formers printed incarnation from the Marvel comics, to Dreamwave through to IDW. Although sadly no mention of the true continuity i.e Ladybird (and no Ralph didn’t make me type that). Like Graham I do think the Marvel approach was the strongest and the first twelve issues do read like they could make one damned fine trilogy of movies. I could go on at length regarding my feelings towards the Dreamwave era but I shan’t bother.

From reading the comics and Graham’s article it’s clear that Marvel introduced the characters to the world. Whereas IDW’s approach doesn’t really seem to be geared towards new readers but to older ones. Using a lot of shorthand when introducing characters and giving them just as little attention as when they were introduced in the marvel line and counting on reader familiarity to fill in a great deal of the blanks.

Timecode starts up again with The War Without and we can see this alternate spin on events post G2 as becoming even darker. The characters are managing to be somewhat more unpleasant than they normally are without going all evil alternate reality beard on us. I’m looking forward to seeing how this one continues.

The Harvest is a suitably creepy tale as we see that some of the other Decepticons covet the nanomachine powers of certain members of their ranks. The ending does rather leave everything unresolved so I wonder if Graham plans on revisiting the tale at some point in the future as I am certain that Soundwave would not allow those assaults to go on unpunished. Especially knowing that he could potentially be next.

Hold Tight Iacon was the highlight of the magazine for me, both chapters were equally engaging. Browning’s usage was splendid and such a great idea for an assassin. I’m curious as to how that angle is going to play out. The second chapter has Blaster being much less of a dick than he will eventually become, so it’s a bit of a shame that we see him at his best knowing full well what the future holds.

MORE!! MORE!!

The A-Z commentary is a nice touch and thankfully we still get a proper a to z on the back page and with some splendid art by Matt Dallas to boot. Always good to end on a high!

The reviews were a nice bag as well covering a good mix of toys, comics and cartoons.

Well was it worth the wait?

I think so and I am looking forward to seeing more issues later this year.