“Told you not to go solo! Told you!”
“I’m a total convert to the wisdom of that idea. Call in everyone.“
Keep reading for a review of Transformers #13 (2019).
Minor spoilers below.
After last month’s fun little outing with Nautica and Road Rage, we’re back with the Ascenticons and Autobots.
I sometimes wonder if it’s all the years of peace that have caused all the Cybertronians to act like complete boneheads when it comes to strategy. Bad guys and good guys can’t get a frigging clue, everybody’s always rushing in without backup, or blatantly assuming that a flashing light isn’t an alarm or a giant half-immersed titan can’t hide bad guys in its head. I mean seriously, Springer was appalled at the idea of anybody hiding in that giant thing, and didn’t make the connection that bad guys + on the run + easily defensible high ground = THEY PROBABLY HAVE WEAPONS AND WILL SHOOT YOU. DUMBASS.
I hope this is all intentional. I hope it’s everybody starting out naive and bumbling, and with time and experience they’ll eventually get battle hardened and smart. Because seeing Elita tell Bumblebee, when Soundwave surprised them, “..you never hear him coming, you never know when he’s listening,” I thought “He didn’t have to try very hard you didn’t post a lookout!” Backs to the door, poking around in his files, of course he surprised you.
Other than that, the plot is still slowly moving forward. Bumblebee showed he’s not afraid to sucker punch a bot twice his size, Windblade is almost out of her coma, and Sentinel Prime is bored to death with diplomacy.
Sentinel’s been sending out brute squads to harass investigate the locals, trying to do what Optimus and his team couldn’t: find out who killed Brainstorm and Rubble. The squads are using that age-old technique, “running at people with guns and screaming that if they’re not guilty there’s nothing to be afraid of.” It works about as well as you’d expect.
We end the issue with Ratchet’s theory on Brainstorm’s killer, and it was a “dun dun DUN” kind of reveal. I know the character they’re talking about, it’s an interesting choice, my question is: will his buddies be involved too? Because I’d really like to see how that group fits into this new incarnation of Transformers.
Angel Hernandez and Alex Milne split the art this issue (with amazing colors by Joana Lafuente and Josh Perez.) I thought Angel’s work was solid this issue (Sideswipe and Springer looked particularly good) I was just completely distracted by seeing Alex’s interior work, since we haven’t seen him since last November with the final issue of Unicron.
I follow Alex on instagram and twitter, but I’ve been going through withdrawal, I was hoping he’d be part of the new Transformers series. He and Nick Roche were what first sold me on IDW’s Transformers way back in 2011 and 2012, and it’s so nice to see his panels again. So many excellent images: Bumblebee beating the tar out of Skytread, the brute squad breaking into the Energon Opium Den, Chromia’s profile as she’s saying “Ratchet? Not now, sorry…” There was some beautiful stuff this issue, is what I’m saying.