It’s only been two weeks since we got the first issue of the brand new, completely rebooted Transformers, and issue two is already here. Keep reading for a review of Transformers #2. (The 2019 incarnation.)
(Very minor spoilers below. I’m recapping the issue, but I’m trying to avoid the biggest plot points.)
The biggest takeaway for me this issue is that, when the body is discovered, Prowl shows up, along with HIS BOSS CHROMIA. I’m not surprised that Chromia is head of security, she’s always been tough as nails. I’m just surprised that SHE’S PROWL’S BOSS. She mentions that Prowl is a great investigator and would be head of the detail if he didn’t have a habit of ticking off everyone he meets, and you know what? I buy ALL of that.
The other takeaway is that this death (and it really does seem to be a death. Dang, killing off familiar characters in the first issue? Brave.) is the first time a Cybertronian has been killed by another since before Bumblebee was born. Supposedly violence isn’t an issue, unless it’s on the “Colony Planets.” I’m curious to see if that means the Cybertronians have the same aggressive expansion technique we were told about in the last few issues of the former series, and if this “peace” is all about subjugating organic races.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that Bumblebee and Windblade (and possibly Chromia and Prowl) aren’t actually Autobots. It looks like they might be what the old series called NAILS (Non-Aligned Indigenous Life-forms.) Maybe they’ll take sides in the event of an actual war?
Speaking of sides, Megatron is talking to his followers, the Ascenticons, and we get a little more of an idea about what he stands for: he talks about their powerful natures, their longevity and adaptability, and the fact that they’re “constrained.” He talks about their energon being doled out to them, how they have to break free of their shackles. I think maybe that “expansion” I was talking about is what they’d rather be doing, and the Autobots are keeping them in check?
Angel Hernandez’s art is definitely growing on me this issue. Several of the panels stand out to me as being especially well done, like the panel where Chromia says “Yet here we are.” The view is looking up at the four Transformers, and I love how their faces are drawn, especially Chromia’s: you see the side of her face as she looks back over her shoulder, and it’s a subtly difficult pose to do well, but Hernandez does it very nicely. There were lots of examples of well-placed angles, and he’s particularly good at drawing the characters from a distance, giving us just enough detail while not cluttering everything up. There’s also a series of panels where Wheeljack is talking to Rubble, who’s not paying attention, and I really like how that was arranged.
I enjoyed Hernandez’s work here more than in the first issue, except for Windblade’s face: I’m still not sold on the design there, a lot of times she’s got these lines coming down from the corners of her mouth. It’s a stylistic choice and it’s not bad exactly, it’s just not my favorite face of the issue.
Cachet Whitman’s art is closer to an animation-like style (if that makes sense, it does look like it’d be at home in an animated episode) and she’s still drawing a lot of the faces in the crowd in this neat, G1 style that I really like. I loved Megatron’s “Who dares??” half-crouched pose, but some of Megatron and Soundwave’s other poses seemed a little stiff, especially any time they were standing with their hands to their sides, though I was distracted by the fact that look look it’s Soundwave! He’s my favorite, so I’ll always be happy to see him, and his design and colors look very nice, we just didn’t get to see him move around a lot this issue.
It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Joana Lafuente and Josh Burcham’s colors were excellent as always.
And my favorite art of the issue is actually two of the covers: Nelson Daniel’s beautifully textured shot of Chromia, and then just before the credits page on my review copy there’s this amazing painting of Soundwave, and I can’t for the life of me find the artist credit on that one. Anyone want to help me out? It’s Soundwave! And he looks amazing.