Right on schedule, another issue of Transformers after only two weeks waiting, woo! Warning, BIG spoilers below. I’ll try to talk around the biggest plot points but you’ll be able to read between the lines, so if you haven’t read the issue you should probably stop reading now. But if you’re all caught up, keep reading for a review of Transformers #7 (2019).
Right out of the gate we get the resolution to the cliffhanger from two issues ago. And they didn’t pull a bait and switch; what you think you saw happen, really happened. I’m impressed. I hadn’t really connected with the character yet (we only had 6 issues to do that…no, make that five, since last issue was all about Megatron and Optimus.) But I think they did a good job showing how it’s affecting everybody else. Prowl’s mad that he didn’t stop it, Ratchet is disgusted that the signs point to this being a second criminal, and Bumblebee is just floored.
Poor Bumblebee. I thought he was realistically portrayed too. He’s despondent, but now he’s more determined than ever to join the Ascenticons, because something is wrong and he wants to do something drastic to change things immediately.
Course, some of the Ascenticons want to pick a fight about it, and considering Bee’s mood, that goes over as well as you’d expect.
(Did anybody else catch the fact that they called the one bot “Refraktor” instead of “Reflector?” I’m more used to the Reflector name, but I think Refraktor was either used in toys or Japanese continuity? TF Wiki uses both names but doesn’t specify which comes from where. Experts, weigh in please?)
Meanwhile Cyclonus is still wandering around the wastelands (I believe he’s one of the many bots living off the grid and not collecting his official Energon ration, he’s tapping some unofficial sources somehow.) He mentions how he’s still hopeful that Exarchon will come back (the leader of the Threefold Spark; Codexa mentioned last issue that they used to trust him, which obviously didn’t go over well.) So Cyclonus was definitely on the losing side of the war, but we could’ve figured that out by his (imaginary?) dead friends who’re following him around. (He asks them to be quiet for just a minute, and they ignore him. PTSD is the obvious cause, but does anybody else wonder if this is a Starscream/Bumblebee situation? I’m sure it isn’t. But it could be.)
He stumbles across an interloper, who takes a shot at him and really pisses him off, and that’s where we leave things. Does anyone recognize the interloper? We got a very good look at them, but they don’t look familiar to me. Considering how many familiar faces we’ve seen in this series, I’m sure it’s someone I’m supposed to know. (EDIT – TFWiki to the rescue, it’s Flamewar. Though…that’s still not a character I’m familiar with. Bad fan, no cookie!)
We had three artists on the issue this week, and it’s fun to try and parse out their different styles. Angel Hernandez has very dark outlines and blocky shapes (not in a bad way; they’re robots! They look very three-dimensional!) and his backgrounds are probably the best I’ve seen in the new series. Andrew Griffith is very familiar to those of us who read the previous IDW books, and he’s got a more G1 style, with for the most part great faces and expressions. (My only quibble this issue was at one point Ratchet’s chin was so long it was practically an Egyptian statue, but most of the faces are great.) Anna Malkova (she did the issue 3 cover that I loved so much, and her upcoming Cyclonus cover looks amazing) is a little like Griffith’s work, I like how she did Cyclonus’ face and his creepy, dead companions, I look forward to seeing how she draws more familiar characters.
(Josh Burcham and Joana Lafuente had the colors this week, and they all looked fantastic. It’d be neat if, on the credits page, they broke down the pages for each colorist the way they do for the line artists, so I can see who did which pages, but I’m a nerd like that.)
All in all I couldn’t pick a favorite out of the three artists, though I lean a little in Hernandez’s direction; his faces still tend to be a little expressionless, but those images of Bumblebee looking out over the city were just gorgeous, and there’s a great shot of Bumblebee in the fight with Refraktor running at him, it’s a cool, dramatic panel.
