Comic Review: Transformers Robots in Disguise #20

                Another Transformer’s book this week?  You bet.  Buckle up.

Cover:

                This issue deals with the aftermath of the Decepticon uprising and the crowning of Starscream as the new ruler of the Transformers (there are no longer Autobot and Decepticon factions allowed within city limits as Starscream has banished all that were unwilling to throw down those monikers).  Fittingly, all of the covers of this issue prominently feature Starscream.  The cover I picked up (the first one visible) had Starscream standing over the fallen body of Metalhawk, Starscreams “friend” that he killed to further his own personal and political agenda during the last story arc.  This is a poignant moment that relates quite a bit to the book itself as the beginning of the story is Starscream speaking to his dead friend, explaining his actions and the motivations for those actions.  I am a big fan of the stark white background and the way that the figures and Starscream’s cast shadow pop out against it. 

                One major thing to look at in terms of a cover is obviously composition.  Is it composed in a way that draws you in, that makes it an interesting image as opposed to just a stock shot of the characters presented?  This cover by Andrew Griffith does that masterfully, combining a narrative with a shot that you don’t always see on covers (a downshot).  The fact that Griffith went with this particular angle also helps to show Starscream’s importance and prominence.  Not only is he the figure closest to us, but if you combine his figure with his cast shadow it makes a larger, almost suffocating presence on the cover, which works well considering the fact that he has that presence in the book at times. 

9/10 – The cover conveys a powerful message about the rest of the book, especially considering that Starscream is standing over the fallen body of Metalhawk as a victor and not kneeling as a friend might do.  This mixes a strong design sense with the ability to tell a story, something most modern covers just don’t do anymore.

Story:

                This definitely feels like a filler issue.  That’s not necessarily meant as a bad thing either.  It’s just the fact that past issues have been so chock full of action and development that a quieter issue like this is going to feel a little weaker by comparison.  I see that John Barber is starting a slow build up to the Dark Cybertron storyline that will be taking over soon, but this issue definitely feels like it is there to get us to the next issue and not much more (until the cliffhanger at the end).   This issue does a good job of wrapping things up from the previous storyline, but it almost feels like the last forty minutes of The Return of the King.  It’s nice to have but it doesn’t really add a whole lot.

                I like the fact that as Starscream has kind of usurped Megatron’s place as leader, he now has a bot come along and take his place in the form of Rattrap.  Someone that is scheming and sneaking and looking out for his own interests, as Starscream had done throughout the entirety of his existence up to this point.  How Starscream deals with Rattrap moving forward is setting up to be an interesting plotline.  Beyond the introduction of Rattrap (and the subsequent actions to show us that he is basically the new Starscream) and the reveal at the end (a fan favorite is not as dead as you thought he was) this was a pretty tame read.

5/10 – It’s setting things in motion, but compared to the last few issues (and especially compared to its sister title More Than Meets the Eye) it feels kind of boring. 

Art:

                Andrew Griffith provides the art here and it is, as always, well executed.  The level of detail that encompasses every page and every panel of the book, along with the ability for Griffith to transpose human emotion on the faces of these hunks of metal makes for a good read.  He does a great job of taking something that can be clunky and hard to emote feel almost human.  There are artists out there that can’t convey that kind of acting and emotion with human characters as well as Griffith can with robots.

                Griffith does tend to dwell in the middleground in terms of his shot selection though.  He doesn’t usually take the camera to the extremes, which can lead to a bit of a stagnant and boring comic at times.  While I understand that an extreme close up is not always necessary in a story like this that is mainly exposition, backing the camera up and giving us an establishing shot, or just letting the characters breathe a little is something that would be both appreciated and welcomed.

                The coloring does tend to get a little muddy at times as well, especially in the outdoor sequences at night.  A dark blue sky against the dark colors of the various Transformers just tends to lead to an overall dark panel or page (and it doesn’t help that Griffith tends to lay out his panels so that they are smaller and have a large white border around the page itself instead of having the images bleed off the page).  This contrast would look good if it didn’t just highlight the fact that the panels themselves were so dark.

7/10 – The linework and actual drawing is as good as ever by Griffith.  I’d like to see more attention paid to pacing the story a bit better and using the wide range of shots available instead of settling into three or four different medium shots.  The coloring is a bit dark and muddy as well.

Overall: 6/10 – This isn’t the best issue of the series but it serves its purpose to get us to the next chapter while putting a bow on the previous storyline. 

Comic Review - Transformers: Robots in Disguise #11

Because of the impending Turkey Day, you get your comic review one day early!  Don't thank me, thank the guy that created stuffing! 

            The new issues of both Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye, the two newer Transformers titles from IDW came out this week.  This left me with a decision to make on which one to review, but to avoid any spoilers given that More than Meets the Eye is finishing up a three-part story arc this week, we’ll go with Robots in Disguise #11. 

Cover-

            Being a standard IDW book, there are multiple covers for the title.  I chose cover “B”.  This cover depicts the character Arcee fighting what looks to be generic Decepticons.  Arcee is one of the only female transformers and Casey Coller does a great job of not only showing her power, but distinguishing her from the bigger, bulkier male autobots.  Even without the pink color scheme and the lipstick (really? lipstick?) Arcee still has a feminine quality about her that helps her stand out.  It doesn’t hurt that she is written in this series as a pretty bad-ass assassin too, which this cover just helps to distinguish.  The design of the cover is very interesting too as the circular path of the flaming electro sword is cut by both Arcee’s figure and the gun that she is holding (which looks like a Rob Liefeld special out of a 1991 X-Force book).  The gun does a great job of pointing to the focal point of our cover though: Arcee’s face.    

Joana Lafuente, the colorist on the cover does a good job of utilizing the electro-flame sword and its path through the air as a light source.  I may have made her blue eyes a bit more prominent in order to get her face to pop even more, especially since it is backlit in the orange glow of the electro sword.  Regardless, this is a very solid cover that utilizes both design and color to create a quality illustration.

9/10: Not only a well done cover in terms of execution, but it is also nice to see a cover depicting a Transformer that is not necessarily one of the “major” characters.

Story-

            Robots in Disguise is interesting in that it carries far more plotlines than any of the other Transformers comics being published.  You could seriously branch this series off into at least one, if not two others and it would work just as well.  That being said, the “previously in” page is nearly essential to make sure you remember what happened in each issue.  This one is no different, especially considering the fact that last issue was a time-jumping jumble starring Optimus Prime that only hinted at parts of the main story that John Barber is telling here. 

            One of the interesting parts in this series is that each issue, except for the two focusing on Optimus, are generally told through the eyes of one of four Autobots: Bumblebee, Prowl, Wheeljack or Ironhide.  This issue takes a break from that and uses Starscream as the “narrator” which works really well as he is not primarily “Megatron’s bitch” in this book as he is in most other Transformer’s fictions.  Barber has done a good job of really fleshing out the character of Starscream, and even though it is hard to trust his true motivations knowing what we all know about him, the fact that he is more than a one note character anymore really makes this book work and provides more than just the standard good vs. bad, black and white conflict.

             The most important thing with a big team book like this is properly identifying the characters, especially since many of them look similar aside from a different paint job.  True, many of the people that are going to be regular followers of the books are well versed on the different characters, especially the ones that are primarily used here, but by subtly slipping the names of the characters in here and there, it assures that any new or less fanatic readers are not playing a guessing game or spending the majority of their time on Wikipedia trying to determine who is who.  Barber does a decent job of this.  He could go all Chris Claremont and tell you who everyone is along with their alt mode in each initial appearance of the book and that would actually not be too intrusive if he kept it to the main players, but this way he provides us the information while allowing us to avoid breaking the flow of the story.  While a dossier would be nice, it is not a necessity and Barber does a great job moving the story along while interjecting new characters (to that issue).  A book involving a huge cast like this is not easy but Barber handles it with ease.

            Now, the meat and potatoes of the story:  Barber continues his story of the three political factions on Cybertron, all hoping to gain rule through free elections.  This is where Starscream the character really shines as he has always been a master schemer, and really that works best in a political setting.  This issue mainly deals with the way Starscream is handling the Decepticons, led by Shockwave, and their plans to ruin his bid for leader of Cybertron.  The uneasy alliance that he makes with Prowl, who in turn uses Arcee as his main weapon against the Decepticons, is sure to backfire but it also keeps the mystery on Prowl chugging along.  Prowl seems almost Judge Dredd-ish in his upholding of the law and the fact that his right hand, Arcee, is basically an assassin just adds another level of intrigue to the character.

            The most stunning revelation actually shouldn’t be much of one at all.  It was hinted at two issues ago, but nothing was confirmed until the last page of this issue, and it’s a doozy. 

            The one main problem that plagues this book is just the amount of stuff going on.  This does not really bother the casual reader that just picked up this issue, but two issues ago the dinobots and Ironhide were out in the wilds of Cybertron where they encountered the aerialbots, combined (seemingly against their will) into the form of Superion.  This was interesting and made for a great cliffhanger.  After waiting an extra month because last month was an Optimus issue, I come to find out that there are no revelations about Superion or the dinobots.  Not only are we waiting for that cliffhanger to resolve itself from two issues ago, now we have a new, even bigger one at the end of this issue.  Barber does a good job of weaving the web, but a little closure of some sort would have been nice after the two month wait. 

8/10:  This is a book that combines political intrigue, action sequences, and transforming robots.  Plus it has many of the more well known characters from the mythology which makes it fun for young and old fans alike.

Art-

            You would think that it would be difficult to create the illusion of emotion using a robot, but that is exactly what Guido Guidi does here.  The transformers in this book have more emotion than many human characters in other comic books.  He does a decent job of varying the angles to aid in the storytelling as well.  The relative absence of shots pulling far enough back to depict the feet of the Transformers is a little odd, but the level of precise detail required in drawing these characters could contribute to the lack of longshots.  The backgrounds are pretty sparse but the group shots and action shots are very well done. 

            I am not wild about the colors by Priscilla Tramontano.  She gets the colors right, no doubt, but it seems like she is too concerned with making sure that parts of each character “lights up” be it their eyes or somewhere on their bodies, and this becomes distracting after a few pages.  It also seems like with the overwhelming amount of purple in the Decepticons that she would make the background in those scenes a little less so.  

7/10:  Good art suffers a tad from lack of backgrounds and a few coloring missteps.  This is not a poorly drawn book and the fact that such detailed characters do not become jumbled messes proves to me that the art team has done an admirable job.

A decent transformation but seems pretty generic, almost like the old generation one toys

so...much...purple

Overall- 8/10: Initially I enjoyed More than Meets the Eye more than this book, but with the emergence of Arcee and the intrigue behind both Starscream and Prowl, this title is quickly becoming my favorite of the Transformers books currently being produced.

Have a great Thanksgiving, to all of you  that celebrate, and to those that don't, eat a turkey anyway.