If you’re here to see if the new Transformers series is worth keeping up with, welcome! I think you’ll be pleased. If you’re here because you’re still desperately trying to avoid Endgame spoilers, welcome! This post is 100% Endgame spoiler-free. However I will spoil some things about this comic, so if that’s okay with you, keep reading for a review of Transformers #4 (2019).
I’m trying to get a handle on all the factions on the planet. The Autobots we know, and Megatron is the leader of the Ascenticons, who are pushing back against the intransigence of the Autobots. But there’s also the Rise, who are either a splinter group of the Ascenticons or just one with similar goals, except they’re much more violent about it. (Megatron says he’s happy to denounce them, but methinks he doth protest too much, I’m betting he’s behind both groups.)
But we’ve also had several mentions of Reversionists, who seem to be a religious group, possibly too religious for some. Bumblebee makes a mocking comment, and Iron Hide thinks Brainstorm would’ve hated to have one speaking at his funeral. I think they’re the people who want to return to Cybertron and be reabsorbed, though I hadn’t known that was such a controversial idea.
We also get a mention of Starscream from Prowl, and I hope we see him soon, I really do.
Angel Hernandez had the art for the middle section of the issue, and I’m still liking that style. There’s something appealing about how he sets up characters in the panels, placing figures to take advantage of all three dimensions of the space. Several of the faces were nicely done, though sometimes that’s hit-or-miss: Prowl’s face looks great in the panel where he says “I almost wish Starscream was here” and where he says “Okay, disappear.” But his mouth looks misaligned in the panel where he says “How’d YOU have enjoyed finding a murder victim,” and a couple of the panels almost look like the perspective was stretched artificially in Photoshop (when one Transformer was thrown to the ground in a fight for instance, or when Prowl says “No, you don’t.”) so I’m not sure what was going on there. But for the most part I’m enjoying his art.
Andrew Griffith had the art for the last part of the book, and it’s nice to see his work again; the lighter outlines on his figures worked well with the darker scene of the funeral, a lot of high-contrast shots against blinding light. A lot of the panels were repeated shots so there wasn’t as much of a chance to get a feel for his art. I’m wondering if we had a word bubble drop out: right after Megatron says “rather than demean it with cheap politics” there’s a shot of Optimus and Iron Hide, it looks like Op is keeping Iron Hide from slapping Megs upside the head, but it also looks like there should’ve been a word bubble above it, but I could be wrong.
And it’s totally unfair to compare Sara Pitre-Durocher’s art to the other two, because they’re all very talented artists, but I’ve been a fan of Sara’s Transformers art for years. Seeing her art in the first half of the book was so fun and comfortable, it’s like sleeping late on a Saturday and putting on your favorite t-shirt before having a cup of the good coffee that someone else fixed for you so you can sit back and read a Transformers comic. Drawn by Sara. Missed you, Sara!
In all seriousness, the dynamic shot of Windblade and Chromia going after Cyclonus was one of my favorite panels, I love the idea of Chromia taking off at a dead run while Windblade does that leap-in-the-air-transform-to-jet-mode-in-mid-jump-and-blast-off thing, and Sara draws it very well (with sound effects! TCHUNK vreeeeeee RAAAWR.)
One of my other favorite panels was after Windblade and Chromia left, it’s a shot of Cyclonus and what the heck is going on with Cyclonus? I can’t wait to hear more about that little development.