The Energon Pub

I must be going nuts, because the art style is growing on me... I think I've been spending too much time on DA and playing Megaman Zero. In terms of what little I see in this preview there's little to nothing gripping me about it, as can be said of pretty much anything this writer has done that I've looked into.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:

Vicalliose wrote:they'd better bring Drift back.

Yeah, no. No more Drift please.

Why not If we have to put up with this amalgamation of "fan made" nonsense? >:oP

Vicalliose wrote:Kinda wish I had the capacity to go and get me a copy right away. I'd love to write a lengthy and whiny review about everything that's wrong with this.

Pray do tell.

Va'al wrote:

Vicalliose wrote:Kinda wish I had the capacity to go and get me a copy right away. I'd love to write a lengthy and whiny review about everything that's wrong with this.

Pray do tell.

Yes, please, enlighten us feeble-minded simpletons as to what felonies this comic has committed by giving life to a character that the general public decided upon.

I'm writing the Seibertron.com review right now, so any further negative comments will make me look at it more objectively - seeing as how I adored the issue.

Elita one, wingblade, starscream faces look to human not enough rough edges to make them look robotic prime, megatron and reattrap look like bots in faces but not others

The artwork has character, but it doesn't suit any male characters. It's really unappealing. I will pick up the first issue to see how it's going, but I don't have high hopes for it.

It reminds me of someones fanfic... like on the next page Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are making out or some **** like that. I just can't get behind this art style for Transformers. Sure, it does the female robots for the most part but even then it feels like it's too much.

Naaah, I love Stone's aesthetics.

This looks stellar, buying it tomorrow/preordering #2.

I agree Down_Shift. I'm not a fan of the art style either.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:When I first read this, I thought they were talking about FLIRTATION systems. I was like, "oh Starscream, you smug snake, making Wingblade feel all uncomfortable around you.

Would you put it past Starscream to do that just to make someone uncomfortable?

Exactly why I thought it was intended. Now I kinda wish it was!

Synopsis
WHO IS WINDBLADE? In the aftermath of DARK CYBERTRON, WINDBLADE takes the planet by storm! But where did she come from—and what does her secret mean to the future of the TRANSFORMERS? A powerful new chapter in the TRANSFORMERS saga begins here!



Story

So, that was it for Dark Cybertron. Things happened, characters died (for now), and other, new names showed up across the Transformers board. Make sure to check out the latest Twincast Podcast for some further thoughts on all of that too! Somewhere along the line, we encountered three apparently gendered, and of female gender, characters, introduced by John Barber and James Roberts during the crossover: Nautica, Chromia and Windblade. And here begins the story of the latter two, and their coming to terms with the new Cybertron, eons after their departure.



Mairghread Scott is at the writing helm for the first issue in the (as yet) mini-series of four, and she shows the same flare for dialogue that early issues of the Prime: Beast Hunters comics run had. The main cast, Starscream, Windblade, Chromia, Ironhide, Rattrap, even Metroplex and Blurr to an extent, all have their own voices, and interact actually quite well - good humour, nice set-ups and overall decent action, too.



I've seen complaints about Windblade's naivete towards Starscream in particular, but I believe that is what makes the comic work so well. The readers, mostly, *know* what everyone on Cybertron is already like. We know them, all of them. Chromia and Windblade have yet to learn, and believe you me, by the end of the issue they have an idea of what awaits them.



As a first issue with entirely new characters dealing with an unknown scenario, it definitely hit all of the buttons I wanted it to. It does world-building with Caminus and the home and roles of Windblade and her companions, links it all in to the current continuity, and it doesn't feel stretched or shoe-horned in. Add to that the good dialogue and actually good monologue too, and you've got me very interested. And oh the bar scenes.

Art

Now, the artwork. We knew it was going to be quite different from what we've seen so far in the franchise, and we saw how good it could be from the covers - but newcomer Sarah Stone hits it so far out of the park that it comes all the way back and slams you in the head. Artfully. There's character expression, and excellent panelwork, good personality to the designs and the art really fits Scott's storytelling.



The colours, you might ask? It's still Stone, working her magic through lighting, shading, gloss and darkness. The blackouts running through, the different environments, the switches between settings and moods - Stone gets them all perfectly in her colours, with some amazing stuff happening while inside Metroplex and during the random power cuts. And that one page. Wait for that page.



Really exceptional lettering work by Chris Mowry too, with some particularly creative and poignant effects in the 'after' sequences (you'll see when you read it). Other than Stone's subscription cover, we get some excellent stuff from Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente on A, and Livio Ramondelli on the interlocking incentive one too!

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

So, is it a buy? Yes. Gods yes. You will not regret picking this one up, especially after the strange feelings that came with Megatron's return all the way back in Robots in Disguise #12. Transformers: Windblade in this one issue has done what RID wanted to when it started: political intrigue, games of exhaust fumes and chromed steel, one of the sexiest, most devious Starscreams to this day, and all with *two* entirely new characters added to the mix.



And then, just to top Scott's writing off, we get the icing of Stone's artwork and colours, with some nice little decorations from Mowry. The story is frustrating, anger-inducing, enticing, funny, intriguing and full of excellent moments of backstory without hamfisting it out or sledging in hammers. You'd do yourself a disservice by not picking it up, it's a beautiful piece of work.

If you don't buy this in some form or another today (paper or digital) I will call the fan jail for you myself to see if they have any openings.

Seriously, this book felt like a mid-late G1 Season 2 episode where there's all kinds of cool world building and new stuff going on. It's rad as hell, and really moves things in a cool direction.

No really, GO READ THIS (legally, or else it'll end in four months).

So glad that today is pay-day. First stop after cashing my check will be to head to the mall and snag this and the final issues of Dark Cybertron that I need. Sucks having a job affected by the seasons and by bureaucracy. Makes it hard to support a comic book habit in the winter/early spring months.

Not too surprised that this reviewed so well but I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of people not liking it much. There is just too much in the way of "black & white" in the attitudes of many Transformers fans so something new is usually a hard sell with them. I'm all on board with this new mini-series though. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

The way I see it, a lot of folks get mad at new characters when there's hype built up to them. Knock Out and Dreadwing from TF: Prime didn't get nearly as promoted at Windblade has been, yet fans took them rather easily. All Hasbro and IDW want is for fans to be as acceptive of Windblade as they were of Knock Out, Dreadwing, or any accepted new character, yet all the hype they use to promote Windblade only helped to stir up the mixed feelings, even if some of those feelings were misguided by a few of the more harsh critics.

T-Macksimus wrote:So glad that today is pay-day. First stop after cashing my check will be to head to the mall and snag this and the final issues of Dark Cybertron that I need. Sucks having a job affected by the seasons and by bureaucracy. Makes it hard to support a comic book habit in the winter/early spring months.

Not too surprised that this reviewed so well but I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of people not liking it much. There is just too much in the way of "black & white" in the attitudes of many Transformers fans so something new is usually a hard sell with them. I'm all on board with this new mini-series though. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I think that the harshest opinions will fare from the readers who are not big fans of the recent IDW stuff (and by recent I mean the past two years, MTMTE and RID). This is good comics stuff, and in the same vein as the two ongoings - but with enough of its own voice to stand as its own thing.

EDIT: Also, what Sabrblade said up there. The fear of IMPOSED CHANGE, FORCED PROGRESSION, HAMMERED GOODNESS loom over a small but vocal minority of readership in comics, not just the robot ones.

Va'al wrote:

T-Macksimus wrote:So glad that today is pay-day. First stop after cashing my check will be to head to the mall and snag this and the final issues of Dark Cybertron that I need. Sucks having a job affected by the seasons and by bureaucracy. Makes it hard to support a comic book habit in the winter/early spring months.

Not too surprised that this reviewed so well but I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of people not liking it much. There is just too much in the way of "black & white" in the attitudes of many Transformers fans so something new is usually a hard sell with them. I'm all on board with this new mini-series though. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I think that the harshest opinions will fare from the readers who are not big fans of the recent IDW stuff (and by recent I mean the past two years, MTMTE and RID). This is good comics stuff, and in the same vein as the two ongoings - but with enough of its own voice to stand as its own thing.

EDIT: Also, what Sabrblade said up there. The fear of IMPOSED CHANGE, FORCED PROGRESSION, HAMMERED GOODNESS loom over a small but vocal minority of readership in comics, not just the robot ones.

Obviously, a lot of it is going to do with the art. I happen to really like it, especially how Starscream looks. But a big part of how much I enjoy a comic will be the art; I don't care if the Bumblebee miniseries from 2009-2010 is the Transformers equivalent of the Batman Knightfall, I hate hate HATE the art on it, so I won't read it. (And I'm not usually one to outright reject something.)

Yes, good point, also true.

Heart of Darkness comes to mind, with its fairly important story in the Chaos build-up, and its utterly abysmal visual power.


I was blinded by my complete and utter adoration of the colours of Stone's work, and focused mostly on the content in my point above.

Va'al wrote:Yes, good point, also true.

Heart of Darkness comes to mind, with its fairly important story in the Chaos build-up, and its utterly abysmal visual power.


I was blinded by my complete and utter adoration of the colours of Stone's work, and focused mostly on the content in my point above.

It's goygeous, ain't it?

Overall I enjoyed the issue. I agree that the art was rough in some places, while fantastic in others. I like that Arcee's origin is intact. The dialogue was mostly fantastic, but a bit wonky here and there. Good stuff. Is it good enough to sustain an on-going? Probably not, but I wouldn't be against it.

I was actually going to purchase a digital copy of this because I wanted to see more of Windblade and how her design turned out, particularly in alt mode, but sadly I'm running a PC (Windows 7, not 8/8.1) and my only option for viewing legit digital copies of this is iTunes, and since I f***ing HATE iTunes, I have no options that I can stomach.

xyl360 wrote:I was actually going to purchase a digital copy of this because I wanted to see more of Windblade and how her design turned out, particularly in alt mode, but sadly I'm running a PC (Windows 7, not 8/8.1) and my only option for viewing legit digital copies of this is iTunes, and since I f***ing HATE iTunes, I have no options that I can stomach.

What about going after a print copy?

T-Macksimus wrote:Not too surprised that this reviewed so well but I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of people not liking it much. There is just too much in the way of "black & white" in the attitudes of many Transformers fans so something new is usually a hard sell with them.

I haven't seen too many of those people (though we have a particular you-know-who around here that'll show up and rant incoherently, without naming any names) chime in on this book so far. I think it's probably exhausting to be one of those fans anymore, especially with how much the brand changes. Reaction here and on other fansites seems to be very positive and the criticism seems constructive, so I'm encouraged so far by the fan community reacting to something positively and maturely!

xyl360 wrote:I was actually going to purchase a digital copy of this because I wanted to see more of Windblade and how her design turned out, particularly in alt mode, but sadly I'm running a PC (Windows 7, not 8/8.1) and my only option for viewing legit digital copies of this is iTunes, and since I f***ing HATE iTunes, I have no options that I can stomach.

Doesn't Comixology have a web-based reader?

ScottyP wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I was actually going to purchase a digital copy of this because I wanted to see more of Windblade and how her design turned out, particularly in alt mode, but sadly I'm running a PC (Windows 7, not 8/8.1) and my only option for viewing legit digital copies of this is iTunes, and since I f***ing HATE iTunes, I have no options that I can stomach.

Doesn't Comixology have a web-based reader?

No idea and I don't see any info about one on their site. When you go to the checkout page all it talks about is iTunes, Google App store (for Android), Kindle and the Windows Store (Windows 8/8.1 only).

edit: Yes, I just checked and they do (I bought one of their 'free' comics to test it out). It doesn't like IE11 but it works fine in SRWare Iron so it looks like a can buy a copy .

I gotta wait till friday, payday n all, to pick up my copy; but so far from what i've read in the previews and the reviews I think i'll like the mini series, granted Windblade might be a bit to naive, but it makes sense to me in context.