More worlds – more problems! After the events of Combiner Wars, Windblade and Starscream race to recruit the lost Cybertronian colonies to the Council of Worlds – but which of them will control the fate of Cybertron?
The official description from IDW doesn’t quite describe how detailed, quirky, and fun this issue is. Click the link for a review and preview pages of IDW’s Windblade #4.
Following the Combiner Wars, Starscream is attempting to reach out to the lost Cybertronian colonies and bring them under his rule…. um, experienced leadership (if you believe his spin anyway.) While Windblade wants these colonies to join Cybertron in a united society, she knows Starscream will grab total power at the slightest opportunity. She wants real unity, not a dictatorship.
Unfortunately tensions are still high on Cybertron. Decepticons and Autobots are openly resentful of each other, no one trusts the newcomer Camiens, and the Camiens still suspect that Cybertronians are just insane. So when the representatives of Velocitron meet with Starscream, there’s not a lot of “unity” to be seen.
It doesn’t help that the lead representative of Velocitron is openly condescending to the Cybertronians. Velocitron is ruled by speed; races decide everything. They’re happily closed off from their neighbors, and only a winner of one of their major races could propose a pact between planets.
So handy that Blurr is running a bar on Cybertron these days…
The writing by Mairghread Scott is excellent as always. There’s a lot of great little details about post-war life, about why Velocitron would’ve come up with a racing-based society, and what a party at a bar on Cybertron is like. The exchanges between the characters is always fun and interesting.
But the art was what grabbed me. I always enjoy Priscilla Tramontano’s art (though maybe not in the regular cover to this book: Windblade’s face is a little too organic for my tastes this time, I wasn’t a big fan of the pouty lips, but that’s just my preference) (but wow is the retailer incentive cover by Naoto Tsushima amazing) but Corin Howell’s art in this issue is excellent. It’s an extremely cartoony style, but I don’t mean that in a bad way: the character’s expressions are all hilariously dynamic, and everything is just exaggerated enough to be really fun. The clean lines and bold shapes work very well with our favorite Cybertronians, and would work really well in an animated version. (Hint hint…I think a Windblade cartoon would be excellent, if anybody at IDW is listening…)
The story ends on a nice cliffhanger; I think I know what they’re implying, but I’m interested to see if I’m right. Compared to the dark and serious storyline in Combiner Wars (which I enjoyed, don’t get me wrong) this one is light and straightforward, while still being detailed and interesting. The fourth issue definitely makes me look forward to the fifth.
Written by: Mairghread Scott
Art by: Corin Howell
Colors by: Thomas Deer
Regular cover by: Priscilla Tramontano
Subscription cover by: Casey W. Coller
Convention cover by: Sara Pitre-Durocher
Retailer Incentive cover by: Naoto Tsushima and Jet Enter
Preview images courtesy of IDW.