Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #31 – Review

By: James Roberts (writer), Atilio Rojo (art), Joana Lafuente (colors)

The Story: Was it Megatron? In the Rod-Pod? With the Fusion Cannon?

The Review: Remarking upon the main cast of Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, one bot famously observed that, “as far as I can make out, all you do is argue, crack jokes, and get sidetracked doing pointless, silly things that only you find amusing!” It may hold a scant thirty issues and an annual against the full history of the Transfomers brand, but MTMTE has carved out a well-defined niche as a place where the brand can indulge its sense of humor, its talkative nature, and its love of narrative experimentation. If you need proof, look no further than More Than Meets The Eye #31.

“Twenty Plus One” is a classic bottle episode, a television term for a dialogue-heavy story that takes place in a single location with few guest stars or visual extravagances. The idea was pioneered and perfected by the original Star Trek in an attempt to stretch the budget for other, more effect heavy episodes. Despite their pragmatic origin, bottle episodes are frequently an opportunity for character-building and significant conflict thanks to the difficulty of holding audience attention and their similarity to staged theater. Thoroughly enamored with the trope, James Roberts conducts the issue like an old-time murder mystery, paranoia, prejudice, well-timed power outages, and all.

Stuffing twenty Autobots(?) into close quarters allows Roberts to call upon the myriad tones of MTMTE all in one issue. Fittingly, the best elements of this story are generally the highlights of the series: a blurred, honest line between comedy and drama; a complex but easily followed plot; razor-sharp dialogue; and a contemplative approach to the social and political aspects of being a Transformer being notable examples.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #28 – Review

By: James Roberts (writer), Alex Milne (art), Josh Burcham (colors)

The Story: Megatron ended the war with a badge and fought it with a canon, but he started it with a pen. Only now does he look down at the story he’s written to find that it’s a tragedy.

The Review: Say what you will about IDW’s handling of the Transformers brand, but it’s been a while since you could honestly say that they’re getting stale. John Barber and James Roberts have done an impressive job of recombining the desperate elements of the classic franchise in new and fascinating ways. Two years of reconstruction and five months of “Dark Cybertron” and transformers is trying something new again. Last week Optimus Prime set off for Earth to find that the more things change the more things stay the same and before that, Transformers: Windblade showed us that the classic TF political reformation story need not be a series of grandiose battles but can thrive using simple effective character work. Both reintroduce classic elements of the mythos, but move in new and interesting directions.

In this new world that the it falls, most of all, to More Than Meets The Eye to keep the spirit of the past few years alive and the shared universe expanding.

Caught, like all of the Dawn of the Autobots issues, between “Dark Cybertron”’s fallout and the present day, MTMTE #28 returns us to the Lost Light and its group of rag-tag crusaders. The roster has changed slightly, but the ship’s character remains the same.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #27 – Review

by James Roberts, John Barber (Writers), Alex Milne, Brendan Cahill, Livio Ramondelli, Brian Shearer (Artists), Josh Perez (Colorist)

The Story: It’s the time for celebration on Cybertron, as the crew of the Lost Light returns in triumph. However, not everyone is up for good times, as debts, incriminating evidences and general hatred don’t make for a nice ambiance for everyone.

The Review: This is probably the nicest of issues in the whole Dark Cybertron storyline. While the crossover wasn’t bad by any means, the rather odd pacing and the constant jumping around did not make for the most satisfying reading experiences that both MtMtE and RiD can be sometimes. Good ideas were thrown around as well as some impressive character moments, yet those were amidst some huge events that weren’t the most fantastic or even that good to begin with. While not a mess, the Transformers certainly had some better comics in the past.

What makes this issue a different beast, though, is the fact that it celebrates the very fact that the cast of both ongoing titles are finally brought back together, alongside other characters that weren’t always around. With both John Barber and James Roberts using this to the book’s advantage, many confrontations and nicer moments that were long time due are shown, such as Ultra Magnus arguing against Prowl due to the Overlod incident, Swerve finally meeting Blur and other scenes are things that fans of the franchise should find satisfying in many ways.

Using the very continuity they established as well as past one, the exchanges between most characters feel satisfying, but also character-defining, with Prowl being on the defensive, Ultra Magnus striving to let go of his Tyrest Accord connection, Soundwave’s devotion to Megatron and many other seen in plenty of nice interactions. Some are actually amazing, with both writers showing a depth to Megatron that makes his imminent inclusion in MtMtE an anticipated affair, inserting a code of honor, a new depth and simply some relatable qualities to what was essentially known before as a tyrant, a token evil character.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #26 – Review

By: John Barber & James Roberts (writers), Andrew Griffith & Livio Ramondelli (artists), Josh Perez & Livio Ramondelli (colors)

The Story: Well That’s Just Prime or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Matrix.

The Review: As this issue opens, Iacon is infested with a death plague and Orion Pax finds himself at the mercy of Nova Prime. With only one-third of the crossover remaining, this would be a fine time for the climax to begin, or at least for things to finally start happening. Thankfully, that’s exactly what this issue provides, if not quite in the expected fashion.

This is probably the most exciting issue of “Dark Cybertron” so far, but it seems that no one told the writers. Though the content of the issue is a step above, the constant switching between settings feels more than a little artificial. Stepping away from the Orion/Nova showdown mid-punch is a strange choice, especially if it’s only to check in with Ultra Magnus. It also doesn’t help that the artists drawing the two halves of the book couldn’t be more different, but more on that later.

Barber and Roberts cushion the blow by having dialogue trail from one sequence into the next, however this technique is most effective when the dialogue comments on each scene differently and the issue is rather hit-and-miss in that regard.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #22 – Review

by James Roberts (Writer), James Raiz (Artist), Josh Burcham (Colorist)

The Story: ”Lost Light: The Movie” starring the crew of the Lost Light!

The Review: Humor isn’t the easiest thing to write. No matter how funny any creative team think they are, there’s a certain sense of timing and a pre-established knowledge of the humor material that is needed in order for anything to produce laughs. Some books may create a line or two that may cause chuckles or amusement, yet comedy that actually do make people laugh is actually pretty hard.

Well, it seems that James Roberts can very well proclaim that he can actually do comedy well, as this transition issue before the big crossover event is a fun and laugh-worthy entry to this series as the writer continues what he does great: characterization.

Simply put, Roberts let the character speak for themselves as the context of a sort-of documentary film allows for some kind of study in how most of the crew of the Lost Light are pretty dysfunctional. Close to every important characters from this series get to appear here, with some funny lines that adds to the whole experience. The jokes are not only a bonus here, as they are the key to what makes the issue works as they not only bring laughs, but characterization as well.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #18 – Review

By: James Roberts (Writer), Alex Milne, Brian Shearer (Artists), Josh Burcham (Colorist)

The Story: The crew of the Lost Light fight an invasion of seemingly single-minded robots that are out to take Skids while Rodimus and those that went with him in his exploration are waiting for justice.

The Review: I have to admit, I know close to nothing of the Transformers lore. It is kind of foolish of me to review a series such as this, one that relies on the knowledge of its readers to make sure they get most of everything out of each issue, yet my impulsive streak always gets the best of me.

Despite my confusion over some of its terminology and some of the events, James Roberts fills this book with so much energy, so much humor and with a colossal amount of innovation that I find it hard not to enjoy. Under his pen, we have seen love, religion, medicine, a caste system and politics adapted to this universe in ways that not only made sense, but were also incredibly fun to read, making this title one that the readers could easily invest their time into.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #17 – Review

By: James Roberts (Writer), Alex Milne (Artist), Josh Burcham (Colorist)

The Story: The crew of the Lost Light arrives on Luna-1 as they make several discoveries, while some weird robots arrive and want to take Skids.

The Review: If there’s something that always astound me when I read this title, it’s the fact that despite the huge number of characters that I have no knowledge about and the huge lore around those transforming robots, I always manage to understand close to everything. At least, I manage to understand the very important facts about what’s happening, along with the emotional impact it’s supposed to have.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eyes #15 – Review

By: James Roberts (Writer), Alex Milne (Artist), Josh Burcham (Colorist)

The Story: Overlord is free to be the psychopath he has always been on the Lost Light. Hilarity and carnage ensues.

The Review: James Roberts does not pull any punches, does he? Just when he made me like and care about all those transforming robots, he goes ahead and do things like this. He unleash the big bad right in their midst and let us see the chaos and violence that soon follows. If this sounds like the beginning of a rant, I do apologize, as it is the very opposite of such a concept that I am trying to bring here.

Swerve – Review

By: Jon Judy (story), Dexter Wee (art), Chris Hall & Alfredo Rodriguez (colors),

The Story: I knew the pro wrestling world was crooked, but not his crooked!

The Review: It has been a long time since we reviewed anything that didn’t come from one of the big-name publishers—not just the Big Two, but the prominent “indie” companies as well.  I don’t really have a romantic view of these creator-owned comics, frankly; as I’ve said before, I’ve read bombs, winners, and solid middleweights in roughly the same proportions as stuff coming out of the Big Two.  It’s just a matter of different expectations.

When it comes to non-superhero works, you expect a higher degree of originality, and Swerve does deliver on that front: the story of Eric Layton, a guy who turns to pro wrestling when his college football dreams get shuttered, only to discover an entire criminal underworld attached.  It’s really novel to get a plot that is entirely grounded in reality, without any supernatural, sci-fi, or fantasy element poking its head in.