The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1350 · Tue Feb 04, 2020 5:07 am

Jeddostotle7 wrote:
UnderYourCloset wrote:This is cursed.

...wh?

How so?

I'm now picturing the scene from Mummy Returns where one of the soon to be dead henchmen says it constantly

Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:02 am

I think it's great.

News Credits: 656 · Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:17 am

Big Grim wrote:I quit it a couple of issues ago. Forgot it existed, I've seen so little news on it. I assume the reviews stopped?

We do need to catch up a bit, no reviews for the past few has a lot to do with my schedule (see: real job, this is a volunteer gig) and if it's down to time for a Twincast episode or a comics review, the podcast wins. They'll resume for the "main" ongoing hopefully soon, or when we get some more volunteers for site staff that would like to give it a shot.

Reviews for one-shots, Galaxies and other misc stuff may be expected on a more-or-less normal schedule, the releases have just been very sparse lately.

News Credits: 1646 · Tue Feb 04, 2020 6:48 pm

I really enjoy that cover, it's nice!

News Credits: 12 · Wed Feb 05, 2020 5:21 am

The cover's pretty, but Cosmos X Blastoff seems an odd choice. They're both space vehicles, but that aside do they have anything in common?

News Credits: 149 · Wed Feb 05, 2020 5:34 am

ScottyP wrote:We do need to catch up a bit, no reviews for the past few has a lot to do with my schedule (see: real job, this is a volunteer gig).

Oh, I totally get that Dude. No dig at you guys.

Wed Feb 05, 2020 6:33 am

Black Hat wrote:The cover's pretty, but Cosmos X Blastoff seems an odd choice. They're both space vehicles, but that aside do they have anything in common?

Feeling lonely up in space?

Wed Feb 05, 2020 6:59 am

Talk about 'Starcrossed'.

News Credits: 656 · Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:29 am

Big Grim wrote:
ScottyP wrote:We do need to catch up a bit, no reviews for the past few has a lot to do with my schedule (see: real job, this is a volunteer gig).

Oh, I totally get that Dude. No dig at you guys.

No worries, wasn't taken that way! ;)^

Thu Feb 06, 2020 9:30 am

Stormtalon wrote:Talk about 'Starcrossed'.

News Credits: 1350 · Fri Feb 07, 2020 2:51 pm

Greetings Seibertronians! Hot on the heels of the 3 page preview of Transformers Galaxies earlier today, Apple Books have given us the 3 page for the latest issue of IDWs Transformers ongoing. #17 promises to be an explosive issue indeed!

Here's the publishers description for this issue:

Megatron is faced with the ultimate decision. He can forge ahead on the path he’s started down, or he can take the last chance at doing things by the book. Either way, Cybertron is on the verge of change, and after this, nothing will ever be the same.

Transformers #17 is written by Brian Ruckley, with art duties shared between Anna Malkova, Beth McGuire-Smith and cover art by Livio Ramondelli.

You looking forward to this issue? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

News Credits: 1646 · Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:00 pm

cyclonus continues to be the best thing about this ongoing

News Credits: 8 · Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:15 pm

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:cyclonus continues to be the best thing about this ongoing

I hundred percent agree with you.

News Credits: 22 · Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:01 am

I gave up on this series a while ago, but I'm curious about something. Since Prime is the Siege version, does he get the galaxy upgrade in this book?

News Credits: 1646 · Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:55 am

Rodimus Prime wrote:I gave up on this series a while ago, but I'm curious about something. Since Prime is the Siege version, does he get the galaxy upgrade in this book?

Not yet. Probably will, but with the pacing, it'll probably be around issue 45

News Credits: 1082 · Mon Feb 24, 2020 9:48 am

“Perhaps Titans were -are- the ultimate expression of Cybertron, of us. Wondrous, vast, infinitely, capable.”
Vigilem quoting Codexa,‘The Way We Were, By One Who Saw It.’

The Change in Your Nature - Part Five - A late review without too many spoilers, even though the issue came out last Wednesday.

Written by Brian Ruckley with Art by Anna Malkova and Bethany McGuire, colors by Joana LaFuente and John-Paul Bove, with letters by Jake M. Wood and Neil Uyetake. Edited by David Mariotte and Tom Waltz.

The Rise is pushing even more boundaries and their next step is in motion. Skystalker has awoken Vigilem… What is the next step for Cybertron’s many factions? Vigiliem’s awakening cannot mean good things can it? The fact that the rise want to awaken him, based on their prior motivations does not seem like a positive step for the planet. But, many readers will be relying on their previous experience with the very large, very powerful, and very dangerous Titan (see 'Til All Are One') to better inform their prediction for what the outcome most likely involves.

Vigilem is the focus this issue, which as you can imagine, is not a small thing.

The first few pages take us right back where the last issue left off and speaking of not small things, check out Astrotrain's size in the image below. Our glorious gaggle of Risers is itching for more trouble, especially the XXXL-sized train bot. History will mark their deeds and judge what they have done as being right, wrong…or possibly something even more defining.

I choo-choo choose...WAR!

Cyclonus is physically healed up, but is also still dealing with his mental illness which might be PTSD or something else entirely, and is now growing angry with a new inner fire being sparked because of the Rise's destruction of one of his favorite places. Is there a reason for us to care about Cyclonus’ backstory right now? What bigger role will he and his memories play?

The Winged Moon, a consistent hangout of Wheeljack and his mentee Gears, is our main setting though...and space. Gears follows through with his difficulties with 0 gravity mentioned by Cosmos in the Transformers Valentine’s Day Special. More importantly, we learn of Vigiliem’s target…

Cue the alarms and the 2nd part of the Rise’s plan. Big bad rockin’ communicator bot and his communication friends not named Steeljaw, Ramhorn, Eject, Rewind, Raindance, or Grand Slam, work very hard to try to undo the virus that has taken down the Titan network. This is a bad thing, of course, because apparently there is no response to be had to re-route Vigilem by communication or by force (apparently).

BUT WAIT! Old friend Lightbright is ready to intervene with Titan Lodestar, results to be determined (and not spoiled entirely)…

Artwork duties are once again shared by Anna Malkova and Bethany McGuire. Both are adept at showing action and expression in their work. This issue has plenty of both to go around. There are some really large almost splash pages (you can imagine with showing characters the scale of Titans with regular bots). I’m not particularly fond of Vigilem’s ship-mode design, but that’s a small gripe, right? I feel like being the large scale that he is, there could be more detail in trying to show that MONSTROUS scale. But the artwork certainly helps tell our story, and certainly has some amazing shining moments of expression; especially AWE and FEAR…

Coloring duties fall to the duo of LaFuente and Bove, two worthy and capable individuals with plenty of Transformers and other comic experience to bring. The color work with Lightbright in Lodestar is a nice bit of work using Lodestar’s palette as inspiration for other interiors on the Titan.

I was most impressed by the art team’s panel below. This immediately caught my eye and I smiled to myself as I thought, ‘Wow, they nailed that shot…I really love it.’ The potential for even more is there.

And there are a few cover options, Livio's standard, Brendan Cahill, and Marcelo Matere in the thumbnail.

The story moves along well, with a lot of action- broken up with some moments of levity and build up for another part of the plot to pay off later via Cyclonus. There's a lot of history that is being introduced and some somewhat assumed for the reader, but not much built on yet.

All-in-all, I thought this was a good issue, and I look forward to the follow up -that ending-. Lots of IDW Transformers version 2 Titan lore came out, as well as, more information as to how Titans function, and are supported, some we were mostly aware of from prior experience, some brand new. We have mentions of knights, and plenty of Titan names that we have no idea who or what they fully did. And we get much of this from the memories of a Titan who has read works by Codexa (or downloaded them) and uses her words to express his/the mood. I did miss the Titan voice ballon work that we have seen in the past (and even in this issue). I think it helps to set apart the Titan's from the 'regular' bot and I'd love to see it consistently used again.

I thought that there were some possible missed opportunities with some somewhat bland panels of spaceship flying in space at many different angles, it does allow for Vigilem's exposition to be broken up, but otherwise, a solid issue with some new Cybertronian faces showing up to the party and many panels of pretty amazing artwork.

“Titans built our colonies, they fought for us, they WERE us.”

out of

Team Gears is blasting off again!!!

News Credits: 10 · Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:20 pm

Major Spoilers has a preview up on tomorrow's Transformers #18 -

http://majorspoilers.com/2020/03/10/pre ... rettyPhoto

I'd like credit.

News Credits: 1646 · Tue Mar 10, 2020 7:27 pm

Thanks to IDW Publishing, we have the full 5-page preview for tomorrow's new issue of IDW Transformers. The new issue sort of picks up after the events of issue #17, showing us a ground view look at the final page tease from the last issue, and will feature the couple of Arcee and Greenlight, and their young mentee charge, Gauge. We get a nice look at how Cybertron is dealing with the current events, and we also see that Gauge has a bit of an uphill battle ahead of her.

The issue is due out tomorrow and will be available for $3.99. Check out the preview below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:28 am

FFFFUUUUUUUUU.........! :-s

I read a book once called 'Red Mars' by Kim Stanley Robinson. In that, an orbital tether falls back onto Mars. Death and destruction ensue, naturally.

News Credits: 2 · Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:42 am

I looked at this cover and I had no Idea who the characters on it were.

News Credits: 149 · Wed Mar 11, 2020 12:33 pm

Is anything actually happening in this book yet?

News Credits: 1646 · Wed Mar 11, 2020 6:38 pm

Big Grim wrote:Is anything actually happening in this book yet?

Sort of? It has improved, but it's still not really flowing

News Credits: 22 · Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:35 am

For the first time since this book started, I'm curious to see what happens next.

News Credits: 11 · Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:22 pm

Having read this now, I have two questions. Why are robots sweating? And why is Arcee such a frigging Karen in this continuity?

News Credits: 4877 · Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:57 pm

Spotlight Arcee
A Review of Transformers #18

Spoiler free

I liked this issue. It is actually my favourite issue of the ones I have reviewed for the site. Of course that doesn't mean much, all I needed was an issue with less stairs and talking. And funny enough, I don't recall any prominent stairs here, instead it was more star wars type walkways and ramps. Now that i think of it, for a species that turns into cars, don't ramps make more sense than stairs? Why even have stairs? Eh, moving on.

This issue feels like a breath of fresh air compared to previous ones in the sense that it feels more like a spotlight issue. There is definitely still some world building, like the logic behind new bots being created, but no one is sitting around talking about it. Instead we see it through actions and other fun interactions. While she isn't spotlit on this issue's two main covers, the spotlight is really on Arcee. I do like how the idea of her being a hardened warrior is kept from the previous continuity, without being too world weary either. And we get more Greenlight here than we've ever gotten in G1 so hurray for that too.

It is a very simple story, just getting from point A to point B while kicking ass and taking names, ala Escape from New York, which works very well for these other characters born of the 80s. I did like the action, it was very well framed by the artists, though I did wonder the effectiveness of some moves. There is a really prominent shot of an antagonist throwing energon cubes at Arcee and you get the sense that he is skilled at this, but the next shot is just them bumping off her like they were empty cardboard boxes. It would have been more impressive to see her dodge them acrobatically, unless I was supposed to know that Arcee now has wonder woman gauntlets. It just felt a tad underwhelming after the emphasis on the battle.

Speaking of the artists, this issue had 2, Bethany McGuire-Smith and Umi Miyao, and I felt both their styles worked well with this issue. The change in artist never felt jarring, I wouldn't even have known if I wasn't told. It is of course helped a lot by Josh Burcham being the only colourist on this issue and giving it a very even feel. The art itself was fine, a bit reminiscent of Nick Roche (especially when coloured by Josh Burcham) but I did have some issue with the faces. Arcee especially is given a Jay leno chin and there are some shots in the issue where her Lea bunns helmet is cut off from the frame and it was not obvious it was her. Also, I never thought of Transformers sweating, but the artists give it a shot in this issue and it instead comes off as Arcee having a bad case of acnee.

The covers available feature Umi Miyao as the main cover artist and Beth Mcguire-Smith as the artist for cover B. I will say none really do it for me, especially the main cover where I couldn't even tell that was Greenlight. My favourite cover of the bunch is Kei Zama's retailer incentive which looks incredible, and does have Arcee in the spotlight. Regardless of my personal tastes, I do find it incredible that we all these covers are by talented women. It's a nice touch for international women's day, whether intentional or not, and it's nice to highlight diversity in this field which has been dominated by men since inception.
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 #18.

Verdict

Straight and to the point, just like I like em. Nothing too fancy, but it hit the spot for some Transformers fiction and I definitely wouldn't mind reading more from these characters, which is something I thought I would never say about this series.

Final Score
.

and a half
out of