This week reveals the Epilogue of The Combiner Wars; Optimus confronts Prowl, which wraps up the current arc, and Arcee faces down Galvatron, starting up the next arc. Click the jump for preview pages and a review of Transformers #42. (Minor spoilers to follow.)
The Combiner Wars are over, and Optimus Prime faces the aftermath. Meanwhile on Earth, Arcee confronts Galvatron over the fate of two worlds.
I think a lot of us have wondered exactly what Optimus is thinking in regards to Prowl: one of his oldest friends, who seemingly went off the rails, joining a Decepticon combiner group and destroying a good chunk of Caminus. Some thought Optimus was handling it in his usual calm, dignified way. Some thought he knew what Prowl was going through and understood his actions.
And then he punches Prowl in the face, and we see he’s pretty damn mad.
Meanwhile, Arcee on Earth has formed an unlikely alliance with Galvatron, though a pretty tenuous one; she holds him in contempt, but tinged with a grudging respect. He doesn’t even pretend to belittle her (I think he’s well aware of how dangerous she is) but you can tell he’s not showing all his cards by a long shot.
I enjoyed the back and forth between the two stories; John Barber makes sure that there’s a subtle play on words that carries through the transition between Prowl and Optimus’ confrontation and Arcee and Galvatron’s conversation.
My only complaint about the Transformers book (formerly Robots in Disguise) is that there’s usually just a few too many humans involved for my tastes. That’s certainly not been an issue with Combiner Wars, or with this Epilogue: not a human in sight, though they’re mentioned a few times. We see a few cutting remarks about human technology being backwards and tiny, but they’re very interested in the datapad Arcee reveals.
I also liked that they portrayed Jetfire as a scientist; some may forget his and Starscream’s past as intellectuals in Cybertron’s history, but Barber generally remembers everything.
Andrew Griffith does a great job illustrating the Arcee/Galvatron part of the conversation. I was particularly happy with an image of Jetfire checking out the humans’ datapad with a jewelers’ loupe to his eye.
I’m terribly in love with Livio Ramondelli’s art though, so I hold him at an unfair advantage. There are times in other books when I’ve thought his images were toned a little too dark; it was great for atmosphere, but tough to see what was going on.
That wasn’t a problem in this issue; Optimus and Prowl’s battle is extremely clear and dynamic. Plus there’s something so extremely disturbing about Prowl’s one-eyed look; I feel like any long-time Transformers fan knows that some pretty critical circuitry has blown for his eye to not light up any more, and you cringe when you look at it, while at the same time you respect how bad-ass he is to take on Optimus anyway.
This issue wraps up Combiner Wars nicely, but still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I’m definitely looking forward to finding out what happens next.
Written by:John Barber
Art by: Livio Ramondelli & Andrew Griffith