The Energon Pub

From the minds and hands behind Transformers: Punishment, another tale set in post-war Cybertron, this time featuring the baddest of them all - the Dinobots. Check out the full preview below, and head back here in the week to read the Seibertron.com review!

Transformers: Redemption
John Barber (w) • Livio Ramondelli (a & c)
INTO THE WILD! The DINOBOTS engaged in some of the most brutal missions of the war—which made them damaged goods in the peace. Now, a mission to change the face of CYBERTRON offers a chance for something they never imagined… redemption.
FC • 48 pages • $7.99

Bullet Points:
From the creative team that brought you TRANSFORMERS: PUNISHMENT!
The DINOBOTS’ last chance!

Yay! Barricade's back!

This should be interesting. Wonder how it ties in with Bludgeon?

I like what they are doing with Barricade as a cop. Nice!

I too am wondering where Bludgeon will come in here. and Slug really needs some attitude change there. Everyone is hating him now

Forgive my ignorance, but why is slag called slug now?

Ironhidensh wrote:Forgive my ignorance, but why is slag called slug now?

Mostly because "slag" is a UK slang term for "whore", and they started to distance themselves from using it when Dark Cybertron became a toy pack-in comic.

In universe, someone suggested " Slug" because "slag" is a Cybertronian swear also, and that it was offensive. It's not a great excuse, but it's something.

At, so typical pc idiotic bull then. Figured as much

Ironhidensh wrote:At, so typical pc idiotic bull then. Figured as much

Not a new development, for the record.

Synopsis
INTO THE WILD! The DINOBOTS engaged in some of the most brutal missions of the war—which made them damaged goods in the peace. Now, a mission to change the face of CYBERTRON offers a chance for something they never imagined… redemption.



Story

After Punishment came out, it was clear that John Barber was itching to tell another story of the post-war kind, looking at how some of the pre- and during the war misfits may have adapted - or not - to a time of peace, with still increasing tensions now that the universe is a much bigger place. You do not have to have read Punishment, but there are definitely leads into this story.



And it's, in fact, a story that picks up some of the threads that both Windblade and The Transformers have been playing around with, including an overt crossover with issue #46 of the latter - but from the Dinobot perspective this time, as has been known for a while now, and their still badly fitting shapes and temperaments in the brave new planet that is Cybertron, with its expanded borders.



There are some pleasant, and fully aware, parallels with gritty cop stories, but most especially with the Mad Max series, and overtly so with the latest instalment of Fury Road, and they're not painful to see develop, and compare how Barber's story of redemption compares to that of the film, with their very different casts of characters.



The parallels, however, also open the book to more criticism than if they had not been there in the first place. The relationships and bonding, for example, formed between the characters in the book can feel a little contrived, or lack the depth of chemistry of other pairings in the TFverse. Some of the poignancy of certain scenes is lost as a result, unfortunately, and feels as though could've been set-up differently.

Art

Livio Ramondelli returns to the TFverse for this one-shot, too, and brings his trademark style more into the light than usual - which is only a good thing, even with the tone of the book and the potentially confusing angles that could arise with the variety of characters, both background and fore. There is much more clarity, in the lines and composition, and they allow...



...for the visual effect of the Mad Max references and inspiration to really shine through. Even the colours, which rotate through an intriguing choice of palettes for each region encountered by the main cast on their mission, convey enough setting for the reader not to get lost in the fogs of Rust or fights, though without ever leaving the grittier shades required.



While the title is not the work of Tom B. Long, I always admire what he does with a a Barber/Ramondelli script and layout. The dialogue changes according to the tones, and the interactions are made more emotive by just a few modified letters, even more so than with other books. Only two covers present this time round, with Ramondelli taking charge in the main variant, and James Biggie (also the logo designer) covering the alternate image (thumbnailed) playing very nicely on the same themes in different style choices.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

John Barber likes to play around with references, but sticks to a couple per book rather than packing them all in. He's a tone-setter, rather than tone-masher, and Redemption definitely plays to those trends and to Ramondelli's visual strengths - and is clear and explicit when doing so, as shown in the back matter of the issue (definitely worth a read, if you're so inclined).



As mentioned above, however, it's the inclusion of those references that points out the lapses not as much of the story per se but of the surrounding narrative and character interaction. I can't help but think that an either more explicit link or just a nod to the material would've increased my enjoyment of the book overall. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable ride, and a good companion to the ongoing, Combiner Hunters and Punishment, with some good links to Monstrosity, and other past TFverse books.

Really disappointed in the mad max rip off and totally fed up with how the dinobots are portrayed as complete idiots in idw verse.

Also nobody noticed a Dino version of the Bot they are using as a city just laying on the ground

Total waste of £5.49

I just got done reading this and, once again, no matter how hard I try, I struggle to stomach Ramondelli's horrendous artwork. Regardless of what are, in my opinion, his horrible bot designs, there is once again a pronounced lack of clarity as to what exactly is going on in a number of panels. Considering the volume of material this guy has now produced for IDW, one would think that he'd have improved his storytelling ability by now. I've seen many others make similar complaints, so the man must surely be aware of his critics. That he hasn't improved, despite these criticisms, is a very poor reflection on what he considers "acceptable" for his comics, in my opinion. I'd like to think I'm not a complete Nazi in my sentiment here - I can accept that there are people out there who love his designs - but what I find inexcusable is the clear lack of improvement in his storytelling ability, a feature I think everyone would agree is vitally important in the comic book medium.

Nice little one-shot. Gets the dinobots out of the main picture and now we have a new dinobot, plus a combiner and a dinoforce roaming the Rust sea. I am sad about Barricade though, I really was liking him as a character

I really liked this one. Managed to have a consistent tone, developed existing characters, introduced new ones and developed them in interesting ways, looked good (in my opinion), paid homage to something without ripping it off, and made me interested to read more.

I agree with the score Va'al gave it just because it isn't quite a "five out of five" for me, and it gets one whole point redacted for that small scene with the turbofoxes. You monster Barber, that was really sad!

That said, I would personally give this a score of "Mad Max: Fury Road, except I was entertained by this comic" out of a possible "Darude's Sandstorm".

MegaDump wrote:I just got done reading this and, once again, no matter how hard I try, I struggle to stomach Ramondelli's horrendous artwork. Regardless of what are, in my opinion, his horrible bot designs, there is once again a pronounced lack of clarity as to what exactly is going on in a number of panels. Considering the volume of material this guy has now produced for IDW, one would think that he'd have improved his storytelling ability by now. I've seen many others make similar complaints, so the man must surely be aware of his critics. That he hasn't improved, despite these criticisms, is a very poor reflection on what he considers "acceptable" for his comics, in my opinion. I'd like to think I'm not a complete Nazi in my sentiment here - I can accept that there are people out there who love his designs - but what I find inexcusable is the clear lack of improvement in his storytelling ability, a feature I think everyone would agree is vitally important in the comic book medium.

And I thought I was the only one. It doesn't exactly piss me off, but his art is definitely my least favorite of the recent IDW artists.

Great job, IDW. You killed one of the only interesting characters in this comic. Let's see, the Dinobots only have one personality trait each; any camien character is boring and unnecessary; why did you make a reference to "Age of Extincshit"? Barricade also has the trait of being one of the only good Decepticons left. Strafe looks horrendous, and why choose Strafe? There's already a character named Strafe. Are you going to kill him off too and have the only Strafe be this horrendous piece of junk? "Age of Extinction" was not only the worst movie in the franchise, it butchered the Dinobots. Any reference to that movie can burn in the Pit of Tartarus. The only interesting characters in this comic were Barricade and Bludgeon. Can we not have anymore random camiens, please?

Genericon #378 wrote:Great job, IDW. You killed one of the only interesting characters in this comic. Let's see, the Dinobots only have one personality trait each; any camien character is boring and unnecessary; why did you make a reference to "Age of Extincshit"? Barricade also has the trait of being one of the only good Decepticons left. Strafe looks horrendous, and why choose Strafe? There's already a character named Strafe. Are you going to kill him off too and have the only Strafe be this horrendous piece of junk? "Age of Extinction" was not only the worst movie in the franchise, it butchered the Dinobots. Any reference to that movie can burn in the Pit of Tartarus. The only interesting characters in this comic were Barricade and Bludgeon. Can we not have anymore random camiens, please?

Strafe was actually pretty cool, and could you really see a female transformer from caminus being named slash or scorn? Strafe works the best of the 3 (though i would prefer to see a G1 Scorn). And no need to get up in arms over a movie reference. they have happened before and we all know they are meant to be different. And it is cool to see movie references made in other comics, which is why the Axiom Nexus comics are so cool since people from anywhere live with each other. And the other Strafe is in MTMTE, so the names are not to be of any confusion for these stories

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Genericon #378 wrote:Great job, IDW. You killed one of the only interesting characters in this comic. Let's see, the Dinobots only have one personality trait each; any camien character is boring and unnecessary; why did you make a reference to "Age of Extincshit"? Barricade also has the trait of being one of the only good Decepticons left. Strafe looks horrendous, and why choose Strafe? There's already a character named Strafe. Are you going to kill him off too and have the only Strafe be this horrendous piece of junk? "Age of Extinction" was not only the worst movie in the franchise, it butchered the Dinobots. Any reference to that movie can burn in the Pit of Tartarus. The only interesting characters in this comic were Barricade and Bludgeon. Can we not have anymore random camiens, please?

Strafe was actually pretty cool, and could you really see a female transformer from caminus being named slash or scorn? Strafe works the best of the 3 (though i would prefer to see a G1 Scorn). And no need to get up in arms over a movie reference. they have happened before and we all know they are meant to be different. And it is cool to see movie references made in other comics, which is why the Axiom Nexus comics are so cool since people from anywhere live with each other. And the other Strafe is in MTMTE, so the names are not to be of any confusion for these stories

Ita not the naming choice that irks me the most. It's the unneeded reference to "Age of Extiction" that does. Why reference that movie? Why? Is it good? No. And killing Barricade? Really? You've got a full cast of characters to kill, and you choose Barricade? You choose him instead of the random camiens Aileron, Swift, Sterling and whatever her name is? I know there is a possibility that he's still alive; I mean, look how many times Megatron's been shot, stabbed and blown up and he's STILL come back from most of those encounters.

Genericon #378 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Genericon #378 wrote:Great job, IDW. You killed one of the only interesting characters in this comic. Let's see, the Dinobots only have one personality trait each; any camien character is boring and unnecessary; why did you make a reference to "Age of Extincshit"? Barricade also has the trait of being one of the only good Decepticons left. Strafe looks horrendous, and why choose Strafe? There's already a character named Strafe. Are you going to kill him off too and have the only Strafe be this horrendous piece of junk? "Age of Extinction" was not only the worst movie in the franchise, it butchered the Dinobots. Any reference to that movie can burn in the Pit of Tartarus. The only interesting characters in this comic were Barricade and Bludgeon. Can we not have anymore random camiens, please?

Strafe was actually pretty cool, and could you really see a female transformer from caminus being named slash or scorn? Strafe works the best of the 3 (though i would prefer to see a G1 Scorn). And no need to get up in arms over a movie reference. they have happened before and we all know they are meant to be different. And it is cool to see movie references made in other comics, which is why the Axiom Nexus comics are so cool since people from anywhere live with each other. And the other Strafe is in MTMTE, so the names are not to be of any confusion for these stories

Ita not the naming choice that irks me the most. It's the unneeded reference to "Age of Extiction" that does. Why reference that movie? Why? Is it good? No. And killing Barricade? Really? You've got a full cast of characters to kill, and you choose Barricade? You choose him instead of the random camiens Aileron, Swift, Sterling and whatever her name is? I know there is a possibility that he's still alive; I mean, look how many times Megatron's been shot, stabbed and blown up and he's STILL come back from most of those encounters.

But the reference is still cool and saying the movie sucked isn't really justification for not including it. If anything this is the first major reference to the movies in IDW G1. And with all the other franchises referenced, why not this one? Many people hate the unicron trilogy, yet the MTMTE 35 had humongous UT references. Some people may hate beast wars, and as a result hate Rattrap and the whole Eukaris story. Some hate animated, and don't care for the reference to Jetfire/Jetstorm or "Blitzving". Just because we don't like a part doesn't mean others don't, as I love the movies and that is how I became part of the transformers, and I love that they made that reference, all other things aside. and for all we know, Barricade could still be alive(unlikely, but still) and I do like him, so i feel the outrage at this. killing Swift may have been a better approach, but then again I hated that Trailcutter died when someone else could have bit the bullet, but it happened

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Genericon #378 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Genericon #378 wrote:Great job, IDW. You killed one of the only interesting characters in this comic. Let's see, the Dinobots only have one personality trait each; any camien character is boring and unnecessary; why did you make a reference to "Age of Extincshit"? Barricade also has the trait of being one of the only good Decepticons left. Strafe looks horrendous, and why choose Strafe? There's already a character named Strafe. Are you going to kill him off too and have the only Strafe be this horrendous piece of junk? "Age of Extinction" was not only the worst movie in the franchise, it butchered the Dinobots. Any reference to that movie can burn in the Pit of Tartarus. The only interesting characters in this comic were Barricade and Bludgeon. Can we not have anymore random camiens, please?

Strafe was actually pretty cool, and could you really see a female transformer from caminus being named slash or scorn? Strafe works the best of the 3 (though i would prefer to see a G1 Scorn). And no need to get up in arms over a movie reference. they have happened before and we all know they are meant to be different. And it is cool to see movie references made in other comics, which is why the Axiom Nexus comics are so cool since people from anywhere live with each other. And the other Strafe is in MTMTE, so the names are not to be of any confusion for these stories

Ita not the naming choice that irks me the most. It's the unneeded reference to "Age of Extiction" that does. Why reference that movie? Why? Is it good? No. And killing Barricade? Really? You've got a full cast of characters to kill, and you choose Barricade? You choose him instead of the random camiens Aileron, Swift, Sterling and whatever her name is? I know there is a possibility that he's still alive; I mean, look how many times Megatron's been shot, stabbed and blown up and he's STILL come back from most of those encounters.

But the reference is still cool and saying the movie sucked isn't really justification for not including it. If anything this is the first major reference to the movies in IDW G1. And with all the other franchises referenced, why not this one? Many people hate the unicron trilogy, yet the MTMTE 35 had humongous UT references. Some people may hate beast wars, and as a result hate Rattrap and the whole Eukaris story. Some hate animated, and don't care for the reference to Jetfire/Jetstorm or "Blitzving". Just because we don't like a part doesn't mean others don't, as I love the movies and that is how I became part of the transformers, and I love that they made that reference, all other things aside. and for all we know, Barricade could still be alive(unlikely, but still) and I do like him, so i feel the outrage at this. killing Swift may have been a better approach, but then again I hated that Trailcutter died when someone else could have bit the bullet, but it happened

I'm just going to assume Barricade's still alive. Just hope for the best. Hey, if Bludgeon survived, so can Barricade.

The follow up to both Punishment and Redemption, the short series of one-shot Transformers comics from John Barber and Livio Ramondelli - Salvation - was announced back in March for its June release, but we now also have both regular (by Ramondelli) and subscription (by Jeffrey Veregge) covers available via Previews World! Check them out below.

Exiled from civilization, the Dinobots are the last line of defense against the ultimate Cybertronian dinosaur-Trypticon! But how much are the Dinobots willing to sacrifice for a world that hates them?
• Dinobots versus the biggest dino of them all-Trypticon!
• John Barber and Livio Ramondelli finish their Dinobot trilogy that started in Transformers: Punishment and Transformers: Redemption!

Courtesy of iTunes as usual, we have a three page preview of the upcoming one-shot from IDW Publishing in the trilogy of works by John Barber and Livio Ramondelli - Transformers: Salvation. Expect the book to be released in a couple of weeks, and in the meantime, check out the preview below!

Exiled from civilization, the Dinobots are the last line of defense against the ultimate Cybertronian dinosaur—Trypticon! But how much are the Dinobots willing to sacrifice for a world that hates them?

I guess Trypticon thawed out....

This looks like fun.

It will be good to see the Dinobots again, as well as more of Bludgeon's long term plans (I assume he's behind Trypticon's resurrection). Livio's art works well for something like this.

sooooo books with amazing writing and coherent art like Till All are One get cancelled, but Ramondelli is still allowed to wipe his a%* with comic pages and call it "art"?

SG Roadbuster wrote:sooooo books with amazing writing and coherent art like Till All are One get cancelled, but Ramondelli is still allowed to wipe his a%* with comic pages and call it "art"?

This is entirely unnecessary.

From this I feel Ramondelli's improved, actually. One of my bigger problems with his art - at least for a Transformers comic - is that everything felt rather flat. Characters and objects melded into the backgrounds and weren't distinguishable from each other; nothing popped or jumped out at you or made an effort to feel three-dimensional.
But not so much here. I've ran out of descriptive words so I'll repeat myself by saying it feels three-dimensional in comparison to his previous works and it doesn't get in the way of my reading it. He's not my favourite artist but he's come a very long way since Chaos.