I'm SorryA Review of
Transformers #7Free of any explicit spoilers, but some are implied. After the interlude showing the relationship between Orion Pax and Megatron in issue 6, we are back in the middle of the detective story. We get a scene straight out of CSI with Ratchet giving the rundown of some autopsy results to Prowl and his gang. The cross promotion here is rich since there are shots where only very detailed Siege toys talk to one another, two being exclusives that aren't even out yet (Greenlight and Ratchet). I am thankful the designs and colours stick with the G1 palettes since there are certain shots of Ratchet and Prowl as talking heads and the colour of their head crests is basically the main thing to identify them with. With colour thus being rather important in this issue, I think Lafuente and Burcham did a good job in that regard.
The bulk of the issue, however, follows Bumblebee and while this is the segment that follows the main plot of the series so far, it is by far the most boring. As with other issues, the plot advances at a snail's pace and ultimately you feel like nothing happened in this issue. It may be warranted here more than before since a lot of time is spent with Bumblebee being contemplative and rethinking some recent events that deeply affect him. It was still too slow for my liking, personally.
This issue does a better job at illustrating Cybertron than before. We see more architecture rather than barren landscapes and it feels more lived in than before. I especially like the Cybertronian neon signs We also get actual Transformations shots and we see some characters in their alt modes.
While the story is as lackluster as ever, the inconsistent art only adds issues to the comic. Here we have 3 artists contributing to the book and there is no order to it. Just look at the how the comic is organized:
ANGEL HERNANDEZ (pages 1-3, 7, 10-15)
ANDREW GRIFFITH (pages 4-6, 8-9)
ANNA MALKOVA (pages 16-20)
That means that there are scenes which begin with an artist and end with another, like the conversation between Orion Pax and Bumblebee. While Andrew Griffith is excellent, and gives us some of the best art he has ever done, it only hurts Hernandez by comparison. You can see an example of two shots of Orion from two back to back pages below.
The art clashes a lot, not only in the different artistic styles, but with the backgrounds and how they are muted in some shots and not in others. For some reason, this issue contains the most shots of stairs I have ever seen in a comic since
Secret Avengers 18 and those similar shots and backgrounds made it really noticeable when the artist changed.
At least the final portion of the book, with Cyclonus, has the same artist throughout it and is isolated enough from the rest of the book to not be as jarring a change. Plus Anna Malkova provides us with some great macabre art, along with an actual Transformation shot.
The covers available feature a rare sight with Christian Ward as the main cover artist. This Montreal artist has been a colourist on several Transformers books and projects and he finally gets a chance to shine as a cover artist. We also have covers by Transformers superstars Livio Ramondelli and Guido Guidi.
As always, you can also find images of all of the book's covers along with full credits for the issue in our
Vector Sigma Database page for Transformers #7.
Verdict
The book is back on track and I do like that we are getting more diverging plots, following different characters. It makes the world feel more alive, which is further shown in (some of) the art. However that means that there is little advancement in either the sub plots or the main plot. Here is hoping we get more Andrew Griffith as the series progresses, he really knocked those Siege designs out of the park.
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