After months of waiting it’s finally here: the first issue of the brand new, completely rebooted Transformers from IDW.
Just for the record, I’m going to try really hard to not compare this new series to the IDW comics that came before it, because I don’t think that’d be fair: I loved those comics because they were very good, but also because they were familiar. I’m going to try to judge this new series on its own merits, instead of holding it up to something that had thirteen years to win me over.
Keep reading for a review of Transformers #1. (The 2019 incarnation.)
(Very minor spoilers below. I’m recapping the issue, but I’m trying to avoid the biggest plot points.)
We open with Bumblebee shepherding a very new Cybertronian to a meeting or a lesson, and it’s nice to see a familiar face. Bumblebee seems happy, but not naive; he’s not some kind of new recruit, he’s someone with a little clout in whatever system currently exists on Cybertron. (“Currently” being “many, many years before the 1986 cartoon.”)
Another familiar face is Windblade, who swings by and saves the young student from some weird organic creatures (an octopus in a floating jar attached to the brains of a bunch of apes) that she called “Voin scavengers.” Consulting TF Wiki (all hail the TF Wiki!) turns up…not a lot. So these are new then. (Weirdly, the search did turn up an Autobot “spy changer” named W.A.R.S. who’s name in Russian is Voin. The TF Wiki also says “What is he good for? Absolutely nothing.” Bless you, TF Wiki.)
Windblade (and there’s no mention of Caminus in case you were wondering) is concerned that “The Rise” may have sabotaged something. That must mean the Ascenticons. Who’re they? Funny you should ask.
The scene switches to a meeting between Orion Pax (with a very Cybertronian design to his chest plate, since the Earth semi-truck design is a long time in the future) and Megatron, the leader of the Ascenticons. They’re both senators, and Orion mentions that he and Megatron were both forged, so I’m not sure what’s the difference between their followers. (Windblade, a plane, is with the Autobots, so it’s not a planes-vs.-cars thing either.)
There’s a lot of mentions at the beginning and end of the book about how Cybertronians are free to choose their role in life, so we’re not in a Functionist Universe, where your form dictates what you’ll be. Maybe the Ascenticons don’t have the same freedom as Autobots? It’s not clear yet.
But there’s clearly some bad blood between the two groups, if not out-and-out war (yet). Right now Orion would like Megatron to keep his Ascenticon rallies from turning into riots, because the cleanup is annoying.
All of the above was handled with a minimal amount of exposition, and no huge info-dumps for the reader to process. The writing is straightforward: not a lot of clever banter, but the dialogue mostly avoids being clunky. (I don’t need too many lines like “is my voice box malfunctioning?” We already know they’re robots.)
It’s a careful start to what I hope is a larger story. Well, I hope there are smaller stories too; big battles and world-changing events are good, but I hope we still get character development on a small, individual level.
As for the art, I really enjoyed Cachet Whitman’s pages (the conversation between Megatron and Orion) because of the detail and shading involved. Joana Lafuente had the colors from beginning to end (beautiful as always), which helped tie together the whole issue, but in Whitman’s pages I thought the gradients, the fine details, and the position of the characters in the frames added a lot of depth. The faces had a G1 look to them that I always like.
Angel Hernandez had the bulk of the pages, and I thought the art was good, except for Rubble and Windblade’s faces; I can’t quite put my finger on what felt “off” about them, possibly that the mouths look a little stiff? It’s tough to see any emotion in their faces, it looks like the same expression in most panels.
It’s possible that this was intentional: a lot of people like to point out that these are robots, and maybe their faces shouldn’t have the same mobility as someone with flexible skin. Bearing that in mind, I’d still love to see a little more expression in the faces.
I did like Windblade’s “transform and land in a dramatic pose” entrance, though, that’s always fun. The double-page spread of Cybertronian landscape at the beginning was beautiful, and I thought the final panel was a wonderfully creepy image. And I hope it doesn’t really mean what it seems to mean…
All in all I’m cautiously optimistic for the series, and I’m looking forward to what happens next.
