Transformers: Dark Cybertron Finale – Review

By: John Barber and James Roberts (writers), Phil Jimenez (layouts), Brendan Cahill (pencils), Brian Shearer (inks), Josh Perez (colors)

The Story: At the end of time all things are possible. Up is down, black is white, past and future are one and the same, and Megatron even finds himself indulging in “heroic nonsense.”

The Review: “Dark Cybertron”. What a long, strange event this turned out to be. I remember reaching the half-way point and thinking that this was only really exciting because it was supposed to be. This was the culmination of my IDW Transformers, in the late Furman days, and yet it dragged on. Could a story come back from an opening that sluggish?

With a smirk worthy of Starscream, himself, John Barber and James Roberts have answered, “yes.”

To quickly address the content of my opening paragraph, this issue does not redeem six, eight, ten issues of bided time, though it provides important context for much of it. Indeed this whole affair might have worked better without the branding, as this is less a finale for “Dark Cybertron” and more of one for the whole of IDW’s phase 2, possibly even one for the entirety of this universe so far.

There’s a lot going on this month but Barber and Roberts do an excellent job of keeping the action clear. Transformers; especially Transformers filled with Headmasters, comics-only characters, and other relatively obscure bots; can sometimes have trouble differentiating among their larger casts, but not only are all of the characters visually and narratively distinct, many of them are effectively reintroduced for new and confused readers – and not an infodump in sight!

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #25 – Review

By: John Barber and James Roberts (writers); James Raiz, Atilio Rojo, and Livio Ramondelli (artists); Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli (colors)

The Story: Spread across two universes, Bumblebee, Orion Pax, and Ultra Magnus all find themselves in the belly of the beast.

The Review: Things are looking pretty grim this issue; Orion Pax and Rodimus are captives of Nova Prime; the Lost Light and crew are beset by a horde of murderous mini-cons; Iacon is burning; Megatron has been bisected; and, perhaps worst of all, Shockwave informs us that “we are far from the endgame.”

Yes, even at this late stage, Shockwave still stands amidst his Crystal City headquarters twirling his metaphorical mustache, awaiting the beginning of his mysterious master plan. Luckily for the cyclopean Cybertronian, his scenes feature someone eager to steal the spotlight. Galvatron is a delight in this issue. His grumbling is simultaneously intimidating and humanizing and helps to highlight the line between the mostly Golden Age bots that are part of Shockwave’s conspiracy and the post-war factions who oppose them. The scenes in Crystal City are probably the issue’s most exciting and benefit from a cast that includes strong personalities like Megatron, Bumblebee, and Waspinator.

Atilio Rojo provides the art for the Cybertron sequences. His style has a clean, traditional Transformers look and seems well suited to some of the more dramatic compositions featured in the issue. That said, at times the bots don’t look quite mechanical enough, their slender forms resembling humans in armor a bit too much. This problem affects Galvatron far more than any of the others, but Starscream remains rather off model and the normally hunchbacked Jhiaxus is looking mighty generic. Despite these problems, Rojo does provide a number of lovely close-ups that not only avoid his misteps but are extremely expressive.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #24 – Review

By: John Barber and James Roberts (writers), Robert Gill and Livio Ramondelli (art), Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Livio Ramondelli (colors)

The Story: Shockwave proves that you don’t need a face to smirk as Cyclonus makes a new friend.

The Review: “Dark Cybertron” has been full of interesting moments but, so far, it’s moved at a fairly leisured pace. Though the stakes are increasingly apocalyptic, there’s definitely been a sense of preparation rather than action.

With its fifth chapter, “Dark Cybertron” is finally beginning to pick up steam. Shockwave’s plans have been millions of years in the making but finally they begin to come to completion. The consummate master planner, it doesn’t bother the cycloptic Cybertronian one bit when a joined Autobot-Decepticon coalition bursts through his wall.

Though it’s hard to tell what’s occupying some of the bots, especially as Shockwave’s troops are handily outnumbered, the issue opens with a suitably impressive battle scene. The book focuses in on individual conflicts, allowing for good character work and solid storytelling. It even has Waspinator. The team dynamics are strong and familiar, even if I’m getting a little tired of Prowl complaining and Bubmblebee…well, bumbling. Shockwave gets the best of it though, absolute arrogance apparently being eminently logical.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #22 – Review

By: John Barber (writer), Andrew Griffith and Levio Ramondelli (art), Priscilla Tramontano and Levio Ramondelli (colors)

The Story: Soundwave vs. Shockwave beneath the crust of Cybertron in an ancient city WHERE TIME AND DEATH HAVE NO MEANING!!!!!!

The Review: I admit that I’m a little sad to see another month go by without an appearance from Starscream, especially after the prolonged delay between issues 20 and 21. All the same, if you’re in the mood for beloved Decepticons and can’t get a Starscream, you can’t go wrong with Soundwave and Shockwave or, as some of you might know them, the tape guy and Sark.

Though Soundwave’s claim to fame for many is his highly processed robotic voice, this issue has done away with it and instead reveals that, even in this more talkative form, still energon runs deep. Early depictions of Soundwave in the mini-series era emphasized the  self-serving and sly nature found in his original toy tech specs, while, after All Hail Megatron, he tended towards a cartoon-like robo-loyalist persona. This story, for it does continue from last month’s issue, leaves us with a clever amalgamation which I think fans of the character will appreciate. He hasn’t had much time to shine, but I think we finally have an iconic version of the IDW Soundwave.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #20 – Review

By: John Barber (writer), Andrew Griffith (art), Priscilla Tramontano (colors)

The Story: Starscream deals with a lack of respect, the bloodthirsty media, and even sabotage as he leads Cybertron through the first night of his reign. Yes, that Starscream. In charge of Cybertron. It’s gonna be a long night.

The Review: IDW’s Transformer series have come a long way since the days of back to back miniseries, but they’ve rarely been as innovative as they are now. You may have heard good things about Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, James Roberts’ sleeper hit. Its sister title, Robot’s in Disguise, hasn’t received the same praise, but that might change soon.

With Optimus Prime resigned from his post and Megatron captive, Cybertron is finally seeing a sunrise without war, but the long road to rebuilding is just beginning. Though readers of the title have seen Bumblebee’s attempts to maintain order against Decepticon radicals and social division within the populous, all that recently changed when Starscream was declared the chosen one and banished any bot unwilling to relinquish their old alliances.

As treacherous as ever, Starscream is at once a perfect and terrible administrator. John Barber turns the beloved Decepticon backstabber into a pragmatic reformer, determined to better the state of his people, and himself along with them. He’s still Starscream, but he puts in a legitimate effort to channel his traitorous tendencies into something positive.

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 Eye #16 – Review

By: James Roberts (Writer), Agustin Padilla, Jose Aviles (Artists), Josh Burcham (Colorist)

The Story: People reacts in different ways to the fact that Overlord had been on the Lost Light as blames get pushed on someone. Meanwhile, Chromedome has to live with the fact that his most important person has just died.

The Review: I have no words.

Okay, that’s not entirely true, I have a good lot of things to say about this issue, but I feel like nothing I will say shall do justice to what I have just read. To say that this is an emotional issue would be underselling it. To say that the character work here is majestic would be just superfluous as it is something that I do believe should be experienced before anything else is said or written about it. With all the huge stuff that just happened in the last issues, with characters dying, being beaten to near death, with all the chaos just laid down on the cast and the book, we now see the fallout of all that.

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.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eyes #14 – Review

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

The Story: Chromedome investigates the whole memory of Overlord as he tries to understand some things about the psychopathic ex-Decepticon.

The Review: This is a tough one to grade and to properly review. For a very simple reason, some people will probably enjoy this issue a lot more than others and it is due to a single thing: whether or not you have read Last Stand Of The Wreckers or not. It is a splendid miniseries that showed for the first time what kind of wonder James Roberts could do with the Transformers universe, but if you haven’t read it before picking up this issue, you’ll get a lot less from this issue.

The main reason for that is due to Overlord, the big bad of said miniseries being the very focus of this issue alongside Chromedome, a regular member from the cast of this book. Overlord, an actually very interesting villain in his own right, works much better in this context if you really know who he is. While they make quite a lot of efforts to provide the necessary background here for other people to follow just what kind of person he is, it is just much more efficient if you have read the mini in question; doubling the impact of everything he does and says.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eyes #12 – Review

By: James Roberts (writer), Alex Milne, Brendan Cahill (artists), Josh Burcham (colorist)

The Story: The crew of the Lost Light fights against a bunch of Decepticons and deals with the aftermath.

The Review: I have a strange history with the Transformers franchise. I never actually watched the show and never had any nostalgia toward any of the concepts or any of the characters. I watched Beast Wars on the television sometimes, but that was pretty much it. I’d even say that ever since I’ve seen the first two Michael Bay movies, I have every reason to hate Transformers with a passion. Yet, there seemed to be a buzz about a particular title that was almost made for skeptics like me, a book called Transformers: More Than Meets The Eyes (or MTMTE for short).

Reading the trades and several issues, I was rewarded with actual depths to a whole universe and concept that I thought was actually quite stupid–which can also be found in this issue as well. It seems that James Roberts knew very well that a lot of people dismissed the whole franchise as something dumb and without any complexity. Now there is an history full of societal structures, ancient prejudices and political struggles, which makes the whole wars between the Autobots and Decepticons factions so much more fascinating to me.

Maximum Dinobots #1 – Review

By Simon Furman (writer) Nick Roche (pencils) Josh Burcham (colors) Chris Mowry (letters)

The Story: Unsure who to trust, and trapped on Earth and on the run from the Autobots, Decepticons, and Scorponok, Grimlock is the last free Dinobot. To clear his name and rescue his fellow Dinobots, he’ll need to fight to uncover the truth behind Epsilon Holding’s CEO, who holds a secret that may enslave all the Transformers in the galaxy.

What’s Good: Grimlock. You can’t go wrong with the big guy. I really like the loner personality he’s developed over the years. I doubt a standalone series would hold up too long, but there’s some room to work a few one-shots I think. The IDW art style rarely disappoints. The battles are chaotic but clear, especially the flashback of Cybertron. I’m not sure how effective it is outside of Transformers titles, but here the exquisite details really get to shine.

What’s Not So Good: As good as the writing is, it’s difficult to determine where this story falls in the overall Transformers continuum. We have Scorponok, Headmasters, and enslaved Dinobots. There’s no real explanation or setup, which is what makes me think it’s part of the larger IDW story. But Maximum Dinobots implied a separate story to me. We’re also left with a lot of questions. How did this company capture the Dinobots? How did Grimlock escape? Why can’t they go to the other Autobots for help? The story centers on these events and none of those questions are answered in this book.

Conclusion: I’ve always thought of the Dinobots as Autobot SWAT. Not so much the weapons or tactics portion, more the taking on dirty jobs with an ends justifying the means feel. That said, other than Grimlock the Dinobots are barely in the book. I’m sure that will change, but so far it’s “Maximum Grimlock.”  The book makes a lot of assumptions about the reader’s working knowledge of the story, and you know what happens when you assume. Despite an unclear continuity, the book makes for a fun read. Be patient though, I feel like answers are coming in due time.

Grade: B-

– Ben Berger

The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1 – Review

By: Shane McCarthy (writer), Guido Guidi (art), Kris Carter (colors), Neil Uyetake, Chris Mowry (letters), Klaus Scherwinski, Trevor Hutchison (covers)

I’ll say it again; IDW’s run on Transformers has been hit or miss. All Hail Megatron has a lot of potential to be a hit, and if the creative team can keep it up through issue #2, I’ll be more convinced. The basic setup is that Megatron is running the show on Earth. There are no Autobots, and we of course aren’t equipped to fight off The Decepticons. How these events play out will be key as to whether or not the series is successful (in my mind).

One of the things I like best about the comic is Megatron, himself. Megatron is a bad dude, and we get to see this a number of ways. We see him take out a skyscraper with one shot of his arm cannon, we see his followers terrified of failing him, and we see him sweep away Earth’s defenses with an insane amount of ease. Shane McCarthy does a great job of setting up the next several issues with minimal dialogue. The reason for The Autobots absence is hinted at, but not totally explained which is a good choice for issue one. I’m also thankful that we don’t get a lengthy tear-filled monologue as to why Prime is down. It’s a powerful moment that resonates better without any potentially cheesy dialogue.

Not since Pat Lee and Brad Mick have The Transformers looked so detailed in their G1 forms. Guido Guidi does an excellent job of showing the devastation the ‘Cons unleash while making everyone stand out from the wreckage. Megatron walking through the fire while laughing is my favorite shot, very Terminator-esque, very cool. I love the various covers to the comic as well. Trevor Hutchison’s feel like political propaganda posters, though I hope the story doesn’t go that route. Klaus Scherwinski’s covers have more of menace to them, especially the one with Megatron holding Prime’s head. The different covers peak my interest for different reasons and all are strong in presentation.

All Hail Megatron #1 is an excellent pilot and does everything a good first issue should. It sets up the world quickly and efficiently while leaving you wanting more. How does Megatron seize complete control of the planet? How did he take out Prime? Why haven’t The Autobots attempted to save us? I want to know, and if you read this comic, so will you. (Grade: B)

– Ben Berger

Steve Gerber Dead at 60 (1947-2008)

Steve Gerber died today at the age of 60. We at WCBR give his family our condolences and thoughts. Steve was best known for creating Howard the Duck for Marvel Comics. He also wrote for TV shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, G.I. Joe, and Transformers.

Rest in peace, Steve. You will be missed.