Does More Than Meets the Eye retain its title
as best comic you’re not yet reading?
Let’s see.
Cover:
Yes,
there are multiple covers (it’s and IDW book so of course there are), and yes I
grabbed the one on the top (the Alex Milne cover). This one depicts Rodimus carrying Tailgate
(who has been dying for the last few issues) as they are being chased by the
Legislators (personality-less robots that were bred to kill by Tyrest – the main
villain in this book as of the last couple issues).
I like
the art on the cover as it is telling a story while featuring two of the
prominent characters from the book. It
also forces us to ask questions if we are a new reader such as “what is chasing
Rodimus?” “Why is Rodimus carrying Tailgate?” or just a general “Who are these
characters?” The composition leads us to
Rodimus’ face as the main focus of the cover, however the coloring actually
forces our eye to the giant bright yellow triangle over his right
shoulder. While I understand that that
actually makes sense based upon the overall lighting scheme of the cover in
general, it doesn’t help the composition when the coloring is in direct
contrast. That being said, shrouding a
good portion of Rodimus’ face in shadow doesn’t help force the eye there
either. This is the unfortunate cross to
bear with more “realistic” computer coloring.
If this comic was produced twenty-five years ago, the reds would be red,
the white’s would be white and the yellows would be yellow, and distinctions
would be able to be made because of it.
Now the Transformers comics
are some of the best on the market in terms of combining the lineart with the
color to create a cohesive image, but it just doesn’t work well on this cover
(which is unfortunate as the cover is where you want it to work the most). There is also a slight tangent if you look at
the tip of Tailgate’s right foot and Rodimus’ knee. This is exacerbated by the fact that they are
pretty much the same color as well, so even with the heavier outline it is
difficult to determine where one stops and the other begins.
The
only other gripe that I have is with the signature. It’s huge!
Believe me, I’m all for signing your artwork and taking ownership of it
in terms of receiving the due credit, but holy crap. This is along the same lines as the 1990s
Todd McFarlane or Greg Capullo signatures that were, at times, oppressive to
the artwork itself. While Milne at least
kept his signature confined to the lower right corner (and he avoided putting a
box or some other device around it to draw even more attention to it) the
signature itself is just too involved in the artwork, and something that should
be present but not oppressive is quite the opposite.
6/10 – While the overall design is good, the execution hurts
the image.
Story:
The
story by James Roberts is nearing its conclusion, something that has been
building up since issue number one. Reading
a lot of the Transformers comics every
month, it took me a little time to remember what happened in the last
issue. The “story so far” box on the
inside front cover helps a bit, but seeing the ramifications of the events
unfold as jump cuts on the first page caused me to pause and search my memory
banks for some semblance of what happened last issue. While I am glad that there is a page in the
back specifically dedicated to showing each of the Transformers involved in
that story (especially since this book doesn’t use a whole lot of the traditional
Transformers that we all know and love) not having that info available at the
outset causes me to try and remember who everyone is, and sometimes the
color-scheme and designs are so similar that it becomes confusing.
The
story itself is great. It doesn’t really
tie up any loose ends as much as it forces them to their next logical stage
before the conclusion. Roberts does an
excellent job of juggling at least four different aspects to the story, each
part focusing on different characters and then bringing nearly all of them
together by the end, ensuring that the final part is laser focused. When you have a stable of characters, both
heroes and villains, in which to pull from, it may seem difficult to develop
some of the lesser known characters and give them the same weight that a
franchise staple would have. Take for
example Tyrest, the villain. When you
have villains such as Megatron, Shockwave, or Bludgeon at your disposal,
building up Tyrest to that kind of level might seem like an insurmountable
task, but Roberts does it, and it only takes a few short issues to do it. His actions, and more importantly the
motivations for those actions, are as heinous as anything you would expect to
see from any of the aforementioned villains.
Roberts writes him as almost a delusional cult leader, with his actions
being justified (in his own mind anyway) by the fact that they will bring him
closer to eternal light. The fact that
there may be actual credence to his claims by the end of the issue is a shock
in its own right.
Not
only do we get all of that story development, but Roberts also takes the time
to weave in character development for Skids, everyone’s favorite memory wiped
Autobot. We as readers finally get to
learn how Skids got in the condition he’s in (think Men in Black memory wiping device, but with the ability to implant
a thought or suggestion in the brain of the target). It’s actually a bit more complicated than
that, but it brings us back to Tyrest and shows that he has been in the thick
of things from the beginning. The fact that
Roberts said that this “Remain in Light” storyline was the big payoff to all of
the previous issues, and then to actually exhibit the skill to pull off that bold claim is incredibly
impressive. Roberts is by far one of the
best writers in the business today, and hopefully IDW can keep him attached to
this book for a long time to come.
9/10 – The story itself is top notch, the little parts in
the beginning where things just progress naturally from the last issue takes a
couple panels to get used to. The cliffhanger
ending is one of the best I have seen in recent memory, and actually gets me
excited to read a comic book again (who knew that was possible).
Art:
Alex
Milne, with Brian Shearer’s assistance on the inks and Josh Burcham and John-Paul
Bove on colors, provide another artistic tour de force. I’m not going to lie, sometimes the artwork
can be a bit confusing with all of the different moving parts going on, but the
fact that Milne and Co. pack so much into each page, hell, each panel and it
doesn’t become an unintelligible mess speaks to their own individual
abilities. Milne is a master of
expression with these characters as well, making them feel more like human
beings in disguise as opposed to giant hunks of metal. The thing that makes me hesitant to really
embrace Andrew Wildman’s classic Transformers work (the stiff blocky nature and
overall feel that everything looks like the old toys) is the exact opposite
here. There is so much movement in the characters
as well as the overall design of the panels that everything feels organic and
animated.
Milne
also does a good job of mixing up camera angles in this one. He still tends to rely too much on midrange
shots, with very few, if any, long establishing shots thrown into the mix,
which is either a blessing or a curse with his amount of detailed work. Even without the long shots, he does a decent
job of changing the angle of the camera up enough to ensure that the exact same
shot is not repeated over multiple panels (unless it’s for dramatic
effect).
9/10 – Milne is the quintessential Transformers artist in my opinion and regardless of the title he
works on I will be a longtime fan of his work.
Overall: 9/10 – The cover
aside, this book was a masterpiece of storytelling. Showing how to successfully move a story
along (and actually move it along, not just give the impression that it is)
while setting up the next issue to blow the minds of the readers. I don’t know why I have to repeat myself by
now, but if you aren’t reading this series, pick it up now.
No comments:
Post a Comment