Race Against the Light! On Velocitron, racing isn’t a sport―it’s a matter of life and death! Windblade and Blurr put the pedal to the metal to save Cybertron―and their own lives.
Once again the team of Mairghread Scott and Corin Howell have created a beautiful, interesting, and really fun issue. Hit the jump for a review and preview pages of IDW’s Windblade #5.
I’d been looking forward to this issue ever since I finished #4. The set up was great: the Cybertronians and Camiens are hoping to align with the lost colony world of Velocitron, but Velocitron’s whole society is based on racing, and they don’t believe Cybertron has anything to offer them. Windblade decides to play their ace in the hole, and convinces Blurr to come with her to Velocitron to sneak into a race where the winner can ask for whatever he wants.
The idea of a race of Transformers who base their lives on, well, racing, is fascinating. We get to see how their society is tiered (racers, support crew, and everybody else) and what they look like (all the designs are very sleek and light, the better to race with. Blurr gets called “fatty” on the track more than once.)
Last issue we left off with a quick view of a huge vehicle on wheels, and something burning behind it. I had an idea what was going to happen, but I’ve read Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire so I’m familiar with the idea of a city that has to constantly keep moving ahead of the dawn, or be burned to a crisp by the sun. And that’s exactly what Velocitron does with all their cities, and why they take racing so seriously: the slow ones wouldn’t be able to keep ahead of daylight.
Windblade is optimistic and cheerful as always, until she meets the Velocitron’s Titan, who’s been almost forgotten about even though he’s keeping them all alive. Windblade’s got several choice words about that situation.
The clever writing by Scott is once again very well matched by the almost whimsical art of Howell; it’s extremely expressive and dynamic. I have to say it again: this would make an excellent animated cartoon, if Howell was directing the art.
On the whole this is a great, lighthearted adventure, very fun and beautifully done. It’s a different style to the Transformers than what I’m used to, and I’m really enjoying it.
Windblade #5
Mairghread Scott (writer) • Corin Howell (artist) • Priscilla Tramontano (cover artist)
In stores now.
Preview pages courtesy of IDW.