Something Afoot
(Spoiler free-ish)
(Spoiler free-ish)
Synopsis
DAYS OF DECEPTION! All-out war erupts on the streets of Tokyo when PROWL finally gets his hand on the one human he wants to get revenge on… and when PROWL gets revenge, it’s never pretty.
They're civilians!
Story
We left the Earth crew of Cybertronians, both sides, to deal with Blackrock and the, so far not entirely understood, Onyx Interface ramifications - while on the other side, Decepticons under Galvatron and Soundwave may or may not be involved with humans too, and Thundercracker is still mulling over what he saw a while back.
You weren't there man..
Linearity? Not really. But John Barber's writing, and pacing of the different sides of the storylines running through, are clear to follow, and the framing of the story in Thundercracker's dealings with Soundwave, and Prowl's official motives, are a very good introduction to everything going on, without anyone really telling us as readers what that actually is.
An Enigma
The rest of the issue works through bike chases, Bourne or Bond style dealings, some Terminator type of sequences and sees the return of the relationship between Prowl and Arcee, now that the latter is aware of something being very wrong with the bulked-up cop and his intentions towards Spike. Or whatever is wrong with Prowl in general.
Don't think that's it
Barber is continuing to seed both Combiner Wars and a longer game from what I can tell, tinkering with characterisation for the key players, reintroducing the human factor without dwelling too long on it, showing actual interplay between the different sides and characters. And it works, it really does work throughout the whole issue, and undoubtedly will continue.
Art
With multiple storylines, the art was bound to playing around too, but the solution of having two distinct artist/colourist teams turned out to work even better than expected. Regulars Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez take the more-or-less main plot forward, with some fantastically executed action sequences, and great backgrounds - probably also thanks to Griffith's latest travels to Japan.
BIKECHASE with SASS
The Brendan Cahill and Joana Lafuente cooperation, however, is the big surprise in this issue. Looking after prologue, epilogue and flashbacks, the two conjure up a gorgeous sequence of panels, from storytelling, to linework, to colours to facial expressions - ranging from Buster to humans to Cybertronians alike, and it looks amazing.
Amazing
The lettering, once more in the hands of Tom B. Long, adds to the already fantastic deployment of backgrounds and personal voices, with some simple and simply effective touches scattered throughout the story. To top it all off, there is an amazing collection of variant covers, from the Griffith/Perez Faireborn main one, Casey Coller and Lafuente taking over Spike and Prowl's connection (thumbnail), and a truly wonderful Alex Milne/Perez 30th Anniversary variant!
Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead
This was a very well-paced, nicely-framed action-packed espionage-cum-thriller science-fiction-y issue of a franchise known for its reluctance to fit into any genre box. John Barber continues to impress with his writing skills, and seems to have really found his writing stride after the Dark Cybertron event, keeping the mastery of sequential storytelling already there.
And puns!
Visually, issue #36 is stunning. The scenes are well laid-out, Cahill and Griffith mesh exceedingly well together, and the presence of two colourists like Perez and Lafuente, who also combine so majestically just increases the enjoyment factor of the printed book. Days of Deception is not an arc to be missed.
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½ out of
½ out of
