We’re just weeks away from a multiple-series-finale of Transformers at IDW and things are speeding up, not just in the action, but in the release of books: this week we got three Transformers books. (And next week we’ll get another one…this is gonna be a busy summer.) See below for a review of Lost Light #20, Optimus Prime #20, and Unicron #1.
Mild spoilers below: I’m going to try and keep things vague but you might be able to read between the lines, so if you’d rather read the issues first and then come back here, I promise I won’t mind.
Lost Light #20
Okay, I’m not going to spoil the story here, I really think you should go read it. To be as vague as possible: yes, we get some explanations to the things that weren’t clear last issue (how everybody got to where they are, and why they’re in that condition.)
And yes there is a certain kind of resolution. It made sense, the pieces all fit. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but when I finished it I sat back in my chair, took a deep breath, and said “Yep. I’m satisfied.”
The story isn’t finished, though, just one particular part, so it’s not a final resolution, we get that in five issues.
But we do get beautifully snarky dialog.
“I’ll tell you who’d know exactly how the sprinkler system works: Ultra Magnus. He’s obsessed with them! Swerve says he writes sprinkler fan fiction.”
“I don’t understand half of what Swerve says.”
“I don’t listen to half of what swerve says.”
Also, Swerve and Misfire need their own spinoff recap comic book and they need it now. Yes I know the series is rebooting but I need this spinoff first!
The art, as always, is beautiful. And there’s a neat thing done with the colors about 4/5ths of the way in that made me very happy.
Optimus Prime #20
I admit to not having kept up with this one. Kei Zama’s almost retro-style art (with Josh Burcham’s colors) is always well done, I just prefer the more modern look over on Lost Light. Plus the Optimus Prime story is usually the more serious one, and I like the sarcastic, quippy Lost Light humor.
What’s happening in Optimus Prime plays right into the Unicron special, so I did some research to catch up. It’s very complicated, and the TFWiki (ALL PRAISE THE TFWIKI!) does a better job than I ever could at summarizing events, but in short: (SPOILERS) Bumblebee’s not dead, he was sucked into Infraspace, and Optimus Prime is there too after being thrown in by Shockwave (who is also not dead, and also turns out to be a time-traveling false prime who basically set up events millions of years in the past to arrive exactly where we are now, up to and including having Starscream be the Supreme Leader of Cybertron.) (Like I said, complicated.) Bumblebee and Optimus guess that he was able to talk to Starscream as a “ghost” because in Infraspace you exist as thought, and since Starscream isn’t really comfortable in his current form (see the last issue of Till All Are One for more on that) that made it possible to open a link between himself and Bumblebee in Infraspace. (That…seems awfully contrived, but I’ll go with it.)
Meanwhile Starscream briefly got out of jail but now he just wants to surrender because everything is awful and he’s tired of being a time-traveling sociopath’s bitch-boy, but the local Decepticons are so disillusioned and desperate they actually think maybe making Starscream the leader again might be a good idea. (Windblade is busy elsewhere but I can’t imagine she’ll approve.) (Neither would Soundwave, but he’s in the doghouse right now for killing Horri-Bull and his opinion doesn’t count.)
Meanwhile meanwhile Shockwave is leading an army of Maximals and Devestator against Windblade, Aileron, Arcee, Elita One, the Mistress of Flame, Victorion and their allies. Lots of battles and explosions.
There is a lot more going on, but that’s the gist of it. Moving on…
Unicron #1
First up, the publishing delays of several issues have caught up to the story, because the summary at the beginning mentions how Shockwave returned to threaten Cybertron, and then was captured. I’m guessing that actually happens in next week’s Optimus Prime #21? Also Bumblebee and Optimus are with Windblade and the rest of her crew now, so they made it out of Infraspace. Spoilers? That’s okay, I think we all knew Shockwave would get defeated (..for now…) and Optimus would figure a way out.
If you read the Unicron #0 released on Free Comic Book day you’ll know that Unicron has appeared and already taken out several planets. (Including Rom the Space Knight’s world, though most of the population was saved.) And you probably also know that the timeline in this comic is completely different from the 1986 movie or the 1980s comic book, so no one has ever seen Unicron before, but he does exist in Cybertron’s mythology, a dark force to balance out Primus’ light.
To give a (much too brief) summary, this issue is Optimus and the Council fighting against Unicron and Shockwave’s leftover army of Maximals. Optimus, Arcee, and Bumblebee go inside Unicron to try and find a way to defeat him, while everyone else outside tries to not die. I’ll tell you right now, not everybody makes it. There’s sacrifices all over the place, some bigger than others. The whole issue is a preview of what we’re going to get for the rest of this series: a lot of major character deaths, and some gorgeous art.
The art you guys, the art, holy cow. First of all I love all the covers, especially Sara Pitre-Durocher’s tribute to the classic Transformers #1 cover, and Alex Milne’s tribute to the 1986 movie poster. That one is definitely my favorite: years ago when we first saw the poster for Transformers the Movie (and traded with our next door neighbors for their copy) I remember Kathryn and I liked it, but there was this slight dissatisfaction in the art. We just thought it could’ve been better. Apparently this cover is what we were waiting for.
Alex Milne is the best, he is hands-down my favorite Transformers artist around (and considering how much I adore the rest of the IDW art team, that is really saying something.) This issue is beautiful, and I could babble on for another page about how beautiful it is but in short: he has such a great grasp of anatomy that every movement and pose always looks completely natural and flowing, even though we’re looking at giant blocks of metal. The expressions are terrific, the action is dynamic, it’s just a fantastic issue. And Sebastian Cheng’s colors are amazing, they just add so much depth to Milne’s linework: precise gradients and a lot of jewel-toned hues followed by warm, high-contrast panels. I could just linger over this book for ages, and I can’t wait for the rest of the series.
