It’s
another installment of the Transformers
Spotlight series. This time with
100% more Trailcutter!
Cover:
Cover “A”
by Matt Frank (the interior artist) does a great job of giving us an idea of
what is actually going on in the issue itself.
The other covers are stock illustrations of Trailcutter, so I am lucky
that I grabbed the “good” cover to evaluate.
It’s Trailcutter versus the Insecticons!
While Trailcutter in the comic itself is a little more confident than
what he shows on the cover, it is a decent representation of what we are going
to see. The design is fairly effective,
giving us a feeling that Trailcutter is being swarmed and overwhelmed just by
making the shapes on the top darker and therefore more foreboding. Not only that, but everything points right to
Trailcutter on the cover, making sure that he remains our focus.
I really
enjoy the coloring on this by Josh Perez and the way that he (and Frank)
balance the heavy shadows on the top with virtually no shadows on the body of
Trailcutter himself. The force field
effect is impressive as well as it leaves an orange highlight on everything
that is most intense on his hands, where it emanates from.
8/10 – A nice sense of claustrophobia and dread created by
the design and exceptional coloring make this an impressive and powerful cover.
Story:
The story
by James Roberts, part of the writing juggernaut of the two regular titles,
highlights a character that we just do not see much of in the more than meets the eye book. This is a problem with books, and universes,
that contain so many characters. It is
hard to feature all of them in the light that they deserve while also moving
the story along at an adequate pace.
This is why the inclusion of these Spotlight issues was a good
thing. Not only do they highlight
certain characters that do not get a whole lot of facetime in the regular
issues (Megatron and Bumblebee issues notwithstanding) but it
also gives us little glimpses into the world that we were not privy to
before. They are “side quests” or
“downloadable content” to borrow phrases from other media. These stories are not essential to
understanding or enjoying the bigger narrative, but they are nice additions
that help to flesh it out more.
Roberts, as
he does in the regular series, does a masterful job of making sure that we know
who everyone is while also moving the story along. He is almost Claremontian in his ability and
willingness to just slip the names of the characters into the dialogue instead
of expecting the readers to recognize and know the characters on their
own. Every issue is someone’s first is a
great mantra to live by and it feels like Roberts lives by this. The story itself is a pretty standard tale of
someone wanting recognition, and having to save his peers in order to get
it. When you have a property as old and
far-reaching as Transformers, sometimes it’s necessary to dig back into the
vault of story tropes, as long as you put your own spin on it. This Roberts does with a great amount of
success, blending action and humor together, along with his knowledge and
obvious love for the universe to create a tale that is all his own. Trailcutter (known as Trailbreaker until he
changes his name midway through) has a powerful forcefield that is what sets
him apart from the other Autobots. He is
known for this and while it helps the “cause” he gets very little recognition
for it because it’s just “what he does”.
It would be the same as awarding you or I for breathing. When he realizes that he is the only ‘bot on
the ship without any kind of recognition, something that Rodmius, the captain
of the ship, seems to be handing out like it’s no big deal, he pouts. While he is wallowing in his self pity
though, the insecticons attack, disabling everyone on the ship (basically
freezing them all in place). Trailcutter
is safe though and goes out to meet the challenge head on. When he realizes that the only thing that he
relies on in battle, his forcefield, is disabled, he relies on his wits to
outsmart and subdue the insecticons. He
saves the ship and the crew and gets the recognition he deserves by the end of
the issue (though Rodimus is apparently handing out bigger awards by that time
much to his chagrin).
As you can
see, pretty standard story, and one that you have probably seen in one form or
another many times over. The dialogue,
character progression and the way that Roberts ties it back into the universe
takes something that could be seen as tired and unimaginative and changes it
into an interesting and fun done-in-one story.
9/10 – Just because you start with a cookie-cutter doesn’t
mean you can’t have something original in the end.
Art:
Matt Frank
(with colors by Thomas Deer) does a great job of blending different
Transformers styles that we have come to enjoy from the more than meets the eye and robots
in disguise titles. We get the open
forms and muted colors coupled with the cartoony nature of the titles that
creates an overall sense of continuity.
I am definitely a fan of that style, especially on these titles, and
Frank does an exceptional job of making this feel almost like an episode of a
cartoon show as opposed to a comic book.
The one
thing that leads to confusion is the fact that many of the panel borders are
razor thin lines of color, which do very little to separate the panels, and the
action therein, from its surroundings.
With characters that have so many moving parts and little details, even
in a cartoony style, expanding those panel border would go a long way to
increasing the clarity of the comic. It
would also be more beneficial (in my mind at least) if Frank had stuck to more
of a grid in terms of his panels, or at least not done so much with inset
panels. I don’t see a real benefit of
every page being all inset panels within one or two larger ones, especially
given the fact that the borders don’t separate them.
As you can see, it all gets fairly jumbled, especially on pages where the colors are so similar throughout. Breaking the barely-there panel borders doesn't help either.
The slanted panels at the bottom are unnecessary. Thomas Deer does do a decent job of changing up the way the interior and exterior of the ship is colored, but all the inset panels can and do lead to some confusion.
7/10 – The art on the page is very good; it’s just how that
art is presented that is not as effective.
The thought is there, but the execution doesn’t follow the idea to
completion. Frank is a very talented
artist though and if he doesn’t try to get too fancy with his layouts I think
he would be better served.
Overall: 8/10 – Like many of the Transformers comics currently
being published, this one doesn’t disappoint.
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