All three Transformers books this week are sloooowly drawing together; you can start to see how everything’s going to fall in place in the next few issues. See below for reviews of Optimus Prime #22, Unicron #3, and Lost Light #22.
As a heads up, I’m going to try and dance around the major plot points for these three issues, but you might be able to read between the lines. Also I’m going to spoil the hell out of the previous issues, so if you’re not caught up you might want to save these reviews for later.
Optimus Prime #22
Story-wise this issue is getting closer to catching up with the latest issue of Unicron (distribution delays have played havoc with the timelines, but that happens in the industry a lot; the 2015 Marvel Secret Wars books were all over the map.) We see now how Optimus and Bumblebee were brought back from the dead, how Rom found out his planet was being attacked, and how everyone finds out about Unicron for the first time.
I’m enjoying how this story diverges from the 1986 movie; I love the movie but I don’t need to hear the same story twice, and considering how we’ve got characters like Windblade and Pyra Magna, I’d rather have a new story than the old one with new characters shoehorned in.
The story takes a big leap forward at one point, jumping from the moment Rom realizes something’s wrong on his home planet, to the moment after the Unicron Free Comic Book Day issue. So if you haven’t read that issue yet, it’s now on Comixology for free (they waited a bit to put it up there since the whole point of Free Comic Book Day is to get people to go into an actual store, but they released it digitally eventually.)
We also see another familiar face this issue, and I’m not going to spoil it, but if you’ve seen Sara Pitre-Durocher’s variant cover you already know who it is. It was awfully nice to see him, especially in Kei Zama’s style.
Kei Zama’s work is even better this issue than usual (and his “usual” is pretty darn good.) I’ve said it before, Zama’s retro style is like the best of the 1980s Transformers books, except better. The faces this issue I thought were especially good (There’s a panel of Prowl talking to Optimus that just broke my heart.) And there’s a page of Windblade talking with Optimus, standing in front of a frozen 3D hologram, which is extremely pretty, especially with Josh Burcham’s colors; I enjoy his usual warm, slightly faded color palette, but these panels were all in reds and blues, exactly like a room being lit by a holographic projection. It was impressive, is what I’m saying.
There’s even a handful of humans in this issue, and while I like my Transformers books human-free whenever possible, I like humans when Kei Zama draws them: there’s a panel where the president has shoved past Marissa to confront an Autobot, and the appalled look on Marissa’s face is hilarious.
Having read this issue I feel a little less confused as to what’s happening in the other books, so I’d recommend reading this one first this week.
Unicron #3
“We have to do something!”
“We can ruuuun.”
“Shut UP, Starscream!”
I think the most interesting thing we learn this issue is exactly what Unicron is, how he was created, and by who. It has to do with what Arcee realized last issue, and why she seems particularly bummed out by it.
Once again, I like how this story diverges from the 1986 movie, and now it’s diverged again from the 1980s comic book. Unicron’s origin there was more of a creation myth, but this story is grounded in something more like human nature (Well, Cybertronian nature?) Remember, in all the stories we’ve heard about ancient Cybertronians, as a whole they weren’t always the most peace-loving people, and what goes around comes around.
Windblade gets a little ticked off about Cybertronian aggression at one point, until it’s pointed out that the colony worlds only happened because of Cybertronian aggression and expansion, so there’s some shared history there.
Starscream, again, is reverting to the whiny, self-centered, despot-wannabe that he’s always been, though he does show signs of remembering who he might have become. I’m still hoping his arc ends in a good (well, relatively good) place.
We get an info dump halfway through, explaining a new Big Bad for the issue (not Unicron, someone new) and I think we’ve lost some more people but I’m not completely sure because in the giant knock-down drag out fight things get confusing fast.
Art-wise there is so much going on in this issue. There’s a huge battle between starships and then Victorion jumps into the mix, and sometimes it’s so chaotic it’s a little hard to see what’s going on. But the art is as beautiful as it is (sometimes) chaotic, because it’s Alex Milne of course. Also ..okay I’m a bad fan, help me out here: the ships that started out playing for one team and then got switched over? They look very familiar, and I thought “Oh that’s Scourge and the Sweeps from the movie and….hm, no, that’s not it. Not Cyclonus either. Or Galvatron’s ship. Or the Junkion’s ship. Where the hell have I seen those ships?”
…they’re not Bayformers are they?
ANYWAY, the art’s beautiful, and I’ve been meaning to ask: do comic book companies ever print up whole pages to poster (well, slightly bigger than usual) size and sell them? I’ve seen that done to covers and to comic book characters certainly, but not usually interior pages, and if it’s one thing I say over and over in these reviews, I’d love some of these pages to be framed and hung up on my wall, the last page (of the main story) in this issue especially. Is there a reason why publishers don’t do that more often? Because I would pay very good money for that. Hell, if they took suggestions for pages we want I’d start making a list.
Lost Light #22
No matter how many times James Roberts uses this technique, I never get used to it: in the first few pages I felt completely lost. I thought I’d missed or forgotten something, and that I was supposed to already understand what was going on, and I didn’t. Don’t worry. You’re not supposed to understand everything in the beginning, and you haven’t missed something. (Well, maybe you have, there is a lot going on lately, but in this one part you’re probably good.)
This issue we’re finding out things at exactly the same time as the crew of the Lost Light. They’re confused, so we are too. Give it a few pages, someone explains it very carefully to them, and everything will make a lot more sense.
That includes (SPOILERS) Megatron’s first few words to Ultra Magnus. It’s just a couple sentences, but for a second it seems like a weird, vague thing to say. It gets clearer, I promise, and you’ll like it.
I’m not sure I understand everything that’s going on with the “God Gun” and why exactly five Cybertrons needed to be created to make one and what they were hoping to accomplish, other than killing all the things, but I sure as heck liked the reveal about what came through the portal, and why they can’t just blow it up.
(Also: mild Dratchetbaiting ahoy.) (And I will never get enough of the Misfire and Swerve Show, never.)
Brendan Cahill had the art this issue, and when I saw that my reaction was “awww rats I really wanted Jack Lawrence this issue and….ooooooooo, this is pretty…” (Sorry, Jack, my love is still true, I just really liked Brendan’s work this time.)
Once again we get a heck of a reveal in the final panel. I’m not sure how it fits in yet with everything we know about the character, but I’m sure Mr. Roberts is going to tell us. He’s got three more issues so there’s still time. Especially since we’ve finally got everybody in the same place (…mostly…)
