Transformers - ongoing series

[Dominic]

Issue 25:
And, the intrigue continues. Prowl and Streetwise are not as dishonest as Spike has been, but they come pretty close. If I read the issue right, a third party is doing its part to drive a wedge further between the humans and Autobots. Costa seems to be avoiding the bildungsroman cliche with Spike, leaving Spike more or less where he was in issue 1. I really hope that Spike, or at least a few of his similarly inclined subordinates, survive this arc. And, this puts a new gloss on the whistle-blower from "International Incident".

Ultra Magnus's role here makes sense. His formal authority is largely gone, but he has habit and informal authority to keep him going. Prowl, in contrast to Spike, is changed from issue 1. He want from being completely ruthless, to being overly squishy, to a more sensible and nuanced point where he is ruthless when needed but mindful of fall-out.

Grade: B


Dom
-gonna miss Costa.

[andersonh1]

Ultra Magnus's role here makes sense. His formal authority is largely gone, but he has habit and informal authority to keep him going. Prowl, in contrast to Spike, is changed from issue 1. He want from being completely ruthless, to being overly squishy, to a more sensible and nuanced point where he is ruthless when needed but mindful of fall-out.

Good call. I think both character analyses make good sense.

[Dominic]

Here is the preview.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=9836

Plot wise, it consists of "fight and continuation of the obligatory misunderstanding". I might have to pull out my Sunstreaker and Drift figures this week, as both are likely to get a chance to shine this issue. (And, hey, remember the "Drift" series, there may be some baggage between these too. Hopefully, it will be concept based.)

The art is really purty.


Dom
-happy to have this book every two week.

[Dominic]

Ongoing #26:
And....it is...bad.

The plot consists almost entirely of the fight scene from the preview. While the art style itself is not bad, the artist's choices in what to draw are iffy, making some pages difficult to deciper unless a readers knows/cares about minutia. Not a heck of much happens actually.

Grade: C


Dom
-has not said that about a TF comics in a good long while.

[andersonh1]

I've got the same complaints about the art that I did a few issues ago. The art, while moody and fairly well drawn when it comes to character models, fails to accurately convey what's going on half the time. The visual storytelling is weak. I think it's generally the dark and murky coloring that's to blame. And everything that happens in the issue could have taken place in five pages rather than an entire issue. It doesn't feel like deliberate pacing that's building to something, it feels like poor pacing. Someone had a very detailed "movie" in their head, but it's not translating well as a comic.

I'm really disappointed with the Cybertron half of "Chaos". The idea behind the story is sound enough, but the execution is lacking.

[BWprowl]

I didn't think it was *that* bad, though the pacing could definitely have been done better. Almost a full issue for a couple of guys to suicide bomb the kill sat that was threatening the Autobots just last issue does seems a bit drug out. On top of that, was it just me, or was it really unclear whether the Throttlebots were talking to the Primes over the communicator, or whether they knew those guys were up there, and if they didn't who *was* talking to Prime over the communicator (this is why those sorts of bubbles should really be color-coded, except almost everyone involved in the scene was some shade of red or orange, so maybe not)? The other parts were good, I generally enjoyed Wheelie and Cliffjumper's scenes together, with Wheelie of all guys having things totally together and CJ generally not knowing what was going on. Megatron's escape was well-handled too, though maybe it would've been better to spend some of the pages wasted on blowing up the space colony on building up his breakout. Still, well-done. Though I was kinda disappointed that the guns just turned into stereotypical spider drones. Would've been way more entertaining if they'd all been tiny Megatrons.

I'm still loving the art, and the only issue I've had with it is that this guy is drawing Rodimus and Ironhide's heads just a little too similarly, making it hard to tell who's who at a glance. Otherwise the whole thing looks slick, with some really great 'setpiece' moments (I just love the scene with all the air-based Autobots taking off, I almost wish that'd been a full page). Megatron's reveal on the last page looks really nice too, even if I'm left questioning where he got that extra armor from (is it, like, made out of the drones?).

[andersonh1]

I think the art is good in most respects, except the one that counts the most: telling the story clearly. It's a nice change of pace from the clean cartoony lines and colors of Figeroa or Guidi, certainly. Visually it's very distinct. It just doesn't always convey the plot and actions of the characters as clearly as I would like.

[Sparky Prime]

The art is hit and miss with me... Some pages I think really conveys the scene well while others I think could be more detailed and make it more clear as to what's going on. The story of this issue on the other hand, there just isn't much to it. They focus on the cannon and that's about it despite this big set up they have at the start of the issue of having two offensives to deal with the ground troops and Rodimus going to take out the cannon. And how the cannon got destroyed I felt was too easy. Hopefully the next Cybertron based issue will be better, but this issue I felt was pretty weak.

[Dominic]

The problem with the art seemed to be "camera range". Shots from a distance, with the exception of Trailbreaker's force field, looked good. But, close-ups were hard to parse.


Dom
-unsure why he started a new thread for this issue.

[Tigermegatron]

The art is hit and miss with me... Some pages I think really conveys the scene well while others I think could be more detailed and make it more clear as to what's going on. The story of this issue on the other hand, there just isn't much to it. They focus on the cannon and that's about it despite this big set up they have at the start of the issue of having two offensives to deal with the ground troops and Rodimus going to take out the cannon. And how the cannon got destroyed I felt was too easy. Hopefully the next Cybertron based issue will be better, but this issue I felt was pretty weak.

thanks to everyone who gave a issue #26 review reply in this thread.

I get my comics once a month & won't be able to buy issue #26 until 3 weeks from now. because my local comic stores is over 50+ miles away round trip.

I appreciate these reviews & I thank everyone who did them.