Review – Transformers Combiner Hunters One-Shot

This week IDW released the eagerly-awaited Combiner Hunters One-Shot, pitting Windblade and Chromia against Arcee, at least until something bigger comes along. Was it worth the hype? Click the jump for preview pages and a review!

This is a tough review to write, because for one, I’m just going to rave about it, like I raved about the last dozen or so IDW Transformers books. It’s getting boring, I know. I can’t help it. And I know I keep saying things like “this one was especially cool” but I’m constantly being surprised by how good these books are.

Mairghread Scott’s writing is excellent as always. In this issue she takes not one, but two fan-created characters, and writes for them as if she’d lovingly crafted them without the outside suggestions of thousands of Transformers-crazy fans. They’re believeable, realistic, and interesting, and this issue leaves you wanting to know a lot more about the newest of them.

She also, of course, writes everyone else well. Arcee has a particular sensitive spot about the Enigma of Combination, and the reasons behind it surprised me, but made a whole lot of sense.

But it’s Sara Pitre-Durocher’s art that blew me away (I’m always saying that, sorry, I say that about almost every IDW artist I talk about, and I always mean it!)

I loved the art. I adored the art. Especially the faces. The faces are great, very expressive, with clean lines but so much detail. We get to meet several new Camiens, and I want to see so much more of them, they were fantastic. The art was beautiful throughout the whole book, with great colors by Yaimashi; somehow highly saturated but with an almost faded texture in places, it was very well done.

But that’s the other reason this review is tough to write; I really want to go into more detail about the story, but I feel like anything I say will just spoil it. So you’ll have to go pick up a copy and read it. Right now. Go on, it’s okay, I’ll wait. Please drop me a line when you finish. We’ll talk.