“I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR ANY TABOOS I’VE VIOLATED!”
I fell behind on my reviews last week because, uh, time has no meaning? I know, excuses excuses.
After the announcements by Diamond Comics and IDW, this may be the last Transformers book we get for a little while. Luckily for us it’s the final issue of this 2-part arc. Keep reading for a review of Transformers: Galaxies #6.
(Minor spoilers below.)
This issue got suuuper dark. It’s not just the violence (though there’s lots of that, Deathsaurus is quite the sociopath) it’s also Cliffjumper’s backstory. We already knew he’s got an inferiority complex from being mistaken with/compared to Bumblebee all the time, but now we know how far back that complex goes. It’s so heartbreaking it almost makes you laugh, poor Cliffjumper.
I also liked this exchange Cliffjumper has with Deathsaurus:
“I’ll go refine those spires of dormant energon. Then we leave. Works out for everyone.”
“What about the Probats who live in those spires?”
“They’ll either get out of my way or be burned to death, obviously…”
“But…this is…a colony world…”
“What do you think these colonies are for, exactly? Farming?”
It’s a really eye-opening look at early Cybertronian practices. This is pre-war, so everything’s peaceful, but they’d already peacefully expanded pretty far into the known universe, and they weren’t doing it to make friends with people. Even the nicest Transformers were turning a blind eye to what was happening. This was also a great line from Deathsaurus:
Sentinel is playing with the organics, so… Orion Pax with dither, Megatron will pontificate, and the other factions will whisper while the big boys flirt.
That Deathsaurus, he’s a sociopath, but he’s not wrong.
(In this one instance. He’s insanely wrong everywhere else of course.)
The dialog is so clever, I love the way his new little friend talks, that matter-of-fact honest she has, and I love the back and forth between Cliffjumper and the natives who’ve been tricked.
“He was dead when I got there!”
“Liar! Bad liar!
“Clumsy falsity!”
“Insultingly thin deception!”
(It’s true by the way, nothing insults our intelligence like being lied to by someone who isn’t even trying to be convincing about it.)
(Also, har, we all caught the “you’ve got the touch” reference.)
I can’t go into more details without spoiling the story. The main thing for me is that I was never a huge fan of Cliffjumper (nothing against the guy, he just isn’t always on my radar) and this story still made me care about him, I was rooting for him the whole time. It was just immensely satisfying and terrifically well told. AND well drawn, but it’s Alex Milne’s beautiful lines, with some amazing colors by David Garcia Cruz, of course the art’s amazing.
There’s a glorious image of Deathsaurus burning the spire, that stained glass cover is gorgeous, and I loved everyone’s expressions (Chromia and Prowl’s disgruntled scowls were very fun.) But I was especially impressed with the page of Cliffjumper transforming and racing down the hallway. It’s so dynamic and clean, you get the entire transformation in there with all the breakneck motion as he races towards you, it’s really, really well done.