p = m • vA Review of
Transformers #5Free of any explicit spoilers, but some may be unintentionally implied.Well, some people do! We've been a little harsh on IDW's rebooted
Transformers series, with concerns about pacing reaching a boiling point for some. With the fifth issue out a couple days ago, have things picked up? Yes indeed, they have. Read on for more (late) thoughts about this latest chapter of Brian Ruckley's Transformers tale.
Plus, don't forget that you can buy
Transformers comics directly from
Seibertron.com's eBay store, including this latest issue!
You can check out all the details in this separate article.
Surprising, right? Things have been slow over the first four issues but to get straight to the point, stuff finally happens. A steady build of momentum culminates by the end of these 20 pages into a moment that, with some hindsight, feels a bit like it was an inevitability while retaining some of its surprising properties. Pieces of the slow-burn journey to get here play smartly into both the dialogue between characters and the captions of inner monologue, putting a capstone on the well defined but open-ended story that is "The World in Your Eyes". While I could ask for some more character justification for at least one scene involving Soundwave, the fact that the plot is moving would make that feel greedy. Some mysteries can wait if some others are moving along.
Yeah well it took long enough The cast on this issue is kept pretty tight, focusing mostly on four characters with contributions from some others like Chromia, Prowl, Wheeljack and Megatron grounding the story within its wider version of Cybertron. It may not be a surprise that this is the best issue since the series' first which also featured a pretty small cast of characters. We all love dozens of Transformers but it can be hard (though not impossible) to tell a story with large ensembles. As the first series in a new universe this tight casting is a positive sign, especially given Ruckley's writing style as seen so far which to me places more emphasis on what is happening rather than how the characters feel about it. While not devoid of the latter, given that this issue has satisfying plot moments that provide benefit to the former the final output of this issue is enhanced as a result.
The visuals landed really well here The art duties on this issue are split between Anna Malkova, Sara Pitre-Durocher and Angel Hernandez, with Joana Lafuente providing colors throughout. The general color temperature of different settings helps provide an identity to the different locations on Cybertron where the story takes place, making things easy to follow even on a new version of the planet. Transformers stalwart Tom B. Long provides letters as usual and makes some smart bubble/caption placement choices that increase the dramatic moments in the final pages. Big, lengthy captions might have taken away some of the immersion, so it's good to see that editors David Mariotte and Tom Waltz channeled them through to the final product.
Something just didn't land visually here You may have noticed this review skipped mentioning the line art outside of names in the preceding paragraph. While I found most of the composition to range from good to outstanding, the mix of artists on this particular issue didn't feel as cohesive as it has in past issues. While I'm sure the split duty approach is necessary to keep pace with the aggressive bi-weekly publishing schedule, the transitions from one scene or point-of-view to another also accompanied by an artist switch were more obvious in this installment. Hernandez in particular has a good grasp on the environments and seems to have found comfort in Rubble and other frequently drawn characters, but the depiction of Quake was initially missing a sense of presence. Maybe some thicker inks or a different choice for the reader's sight line, or possibly a blockier approach to that character's depiction would have helped his initial appearance in the issue have even more impact than it did just by virtue of the story itself.
On covers, buyers have a choice of regular covers with Andrew Griffith and Thomas Deer providing a fun ensemble on the "A" cover while Cachét Whitman provides the more story-relevant "B" cover used for this review's news story's thumbnail. Guido Guidi lends an awesome "35th Anniversary" cover for the ten copy incentive, while Adam Riches' work can be seen on a Vault Collectibles exclusive a cartoon inspired Optimus Prime and Megatron. Rounding out the covers is John Gallagher, with two featuring Grimlock and Swoop in their robot and alternate modes - and this Dinobot-fanatic reviewer would like to know where and when these will be available, because we currently have no idea! 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 #5, but please note it contains a character appearance list which probably won't spoil you on anything unless you're
hyper picky about spoilers and choose to click that link anyway.
VerdictGears cameo, round two! Momentum can be a tricky thing, but this series now has that on its side for the first time since issue 1. After issue four, even our own forums had examples of readers proclaiming their readiness to drop the series from their pull-list, but after this issue those sentiments may have been as premature as those posting them probably hoped they were. Some further patience and allowance for plot development has been earned with this issue that will hopefully keep up into both issue 6 and the next five-part story that begins with issue 7. A tight cast and dramatic developments make this the best issue of the series in two months, but while a little inconsistency in the line art holds it back from true greatness it must be emphasized that this is a major improvement over the previous three issues.