A Tale of Two Cities
(Spoiler free-ish)
SynopsisTHE BIG ONE! This is it—the battle every TRANSFORMERS reader has dreamed of! Titans clash on CYBERTRON! The fate of the LOST LIGHT! And ORION PAX fights fist-to-face against his ultimate nemesis! And from here on? Things only get bigger!!
LiterallyWith only three issues left after this one, it feels as though writers John Barber and James Roberts really decided to throw a spanner into everyone's idea of where the plot may be going, pointing and doing their best Nelson Muntz mock laughter impression. But with Shockwave. And battling Metrotitans.
Devious devious purpleThe plots so far have been more or less playing around with the separate storylines of the Lost Light, Dead Universe and Cybertron (in and out of Iacon), but the ninth chapter makes sure they all finally clash - except for the DU, not quite there yet. Megatron is in for a bumpy ride too, also tightening up some plot elements almost left behind earlier - and he smiles.
Well.. kindaThe events in the DU are actually quite interesting in their development, with Nova Prime embodying everything Orion has been fighting against, yet so alluring in its power and heritage that it takes Rodimus not-Prime to shift the paradigm, push the envelope and watch it bend. And Pax lives up to his name.
Role reversal?I was so pleased with the action, pacing and plotting in this one that I got very angry (in the best way possible) at the later pages with Shockwave, Jhiaxus, Galvatron and the revelation - sort of - of the wider scheming. Will we ever really know?!
ArtThe relatively new artists on the series leave their place back for Andrew Griffith to step in, along with Livio Ramondelli still in the Dead Universe. And it feels good to have him back on 'his' title, actually. After the impressive visual work with Prowlestator, the clash of (Metro)titans really comes across well. Ramondelli's battle between Pax and Nova is also really impressive, and satisfyingly grim.
Drippingly grimThe colours help Ramondelli's tone, of course, and he plays with them himself. Josh Perez, on the other hand, really delivers an amazing brush to Griffith's linework, just as he's been doing so far in the books. There is so much going on in terms of lighting, it's amazing what he can do with it.
Oh, hey, StarscreamThe lettering by Tom B. Long's really adds to the action scenes, both on Cybertron and in the Dead Universe - and some dialogue lines are excellently executed. In terms of covers, Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente's Optimus fight is glorious, we have an great looking Whirl by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr, and yet another titanic clash by Livio Ramondelli.
ThoughtsSpoilerish aheadFor the first time since More Than Meets the Eye #1, Bumblebee and the Autobots find out that the Lost Light are not dead. For the first time since Megatron Origin and Chaos Theory, Megatron does something unexpected. For the nth time, Shockwave surprises and teases everyone. Need I say more?
Oh SwerveI'm really intrigued to see where the plot goes with this, and how Megatron turns out in his Autobot badge self. The DU plot felt satisying enough to 'end', and the aftermath is to watch out for. There is a lot being set up for the final stretch, one issue of each title and the coda - I'm buying extra seat belts.
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