The Energon Pub

Am I shamelessly capitalising on a current big trend with that review title, like a daredevil?
Definitely maybe.

A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

It's..... the Anti-Spiral from Gurren Lagann!? Of course the enigma of combination is just fighting spirit! Believe in the Senator Shockwave that believes in Optimus Prime! Oh wait that's, that's something else. All jokes aside, I think it's a proxy for the fan built combiner, whom I speculate to consist of characters from Caminus who obtain the enigma at some point. Yes i know it says the fan combiner's going to come from the sea of rust, but windblade was supposed to hail from Kaon, so the claim is not entirely valid.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

It's..... the Anti-Spiral from Gurren Lagann!? Of course the enigma of combination is just fighting spirit! Believe in the Senator Shockwave that believes in Optimus Prime! Oh wait that's, that's something else. All jokes aside, I think it's a proxy for the fan built combiner, whom I speculate to consist of characters from Caminus who obtain the enigma at some point. Yes i know it says the fan combiner's going to come from the sea of rust, but windblade was supposed to hail from Kaon, so the claim is not entirely valid.

and who says it has to be the Sea of Rust on Cybertron...?

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

One of them is clearly Batman, so I guess it's just a matter of "did Defensor or Superion's head get turned into a potato?"

ScottyP wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

One of them is clearly Batman, so I guess it's just a matter of "did Defensor or Superion's head get turned into a potato?"

I am so tired of Batman being in everything!

As far as #40 goes... Meh. I can live without it. The book just lacks star power. I need more Mirage, and even more treachery from Starscream. But most of all I need a Prowl that is IN HIS RIGHT MIND. Right now the guy thinks he's Scrapper with roof lights.

I enjoyed the book it was a good read, but it felt a little rushed and some of the panels were a bit confusing. I wish it was a longer crossover, because once Prowl gets involved in things they tend to escalate fast!

I feel like this issue would have been better suited for Milne or Stone's art. While Ramondelli 's style is great for a dark, grungy battlefield, a 'talky' episode like this is really reliant on how expressive its characters are.

Man, sometimes Prowl maks you feel as though he really believes that what he does is for the betterment of Cybertron...

And the. There's those times when you need Michael Caine to say "some bots just wanna watch the world burn."

I love his decent into madness; it's so different from anything else going on right now.

iTunes has the free preview of Transformers: Windblade Vol. 2 #2 - Combiner Wars
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/transformers-windblade-vol./id983453961?mt=11

I can't read the text, but I can see that Ramondelli is doing the art on these pages at least. What's Sarah Stone up to?

That Bot wrote:I can't read the text, but I can see that Ramondelli is doing the art on these pages at least. What's Sarah Stone up to?

I think it's some scheduling conflict or deadline, or mandate, or something that Ramondelli did windblade #2. I think(?) stone's going to do the rest of the windblade series for the foreseeable future after that.

Have a comics preview for a weekend! Coming out this Wednesday, the first three pages of the new chapter in IDW Publishing's Combiner Wars has appeared 'magically' (thank you Mariel) on iTunes - in Windblade #2. Check them out below, mirrored via Seibertronian Madeus Prime, come back on Tuesday for a full preview, and Wednesday for our review!

PROWL makes his move… and the galaxy will never be the same. Can WINDBLADE stand against the threat of the COMBINERS?

Sarah Stone should just draw all the IDW comics. They should clone her or something.
I'm kidding of course but I do love her art, especially her faces and her use of color. It's so expressive and vibrant, whereas all of Ramondelli's characters look so gritty and rough and even his daylight scenes are dark. Bah. Whatever, I'll live.

As a note: Ramondelli has a very fast output, and the issues are coming out very very quickly if you consider that it's two monthlies for the same story. Creative decisions had to be made by the team, meaning that he took over for this issue of Windblade, while Stone is working on issue #3.

I know she'll be back. I know stuff happens. I understand Ramondelli outdid himself drawing two books in one month. He's not a terrible artist as some would insinuate (he draws better than I can, for sure). But I was really looking forward to Stone's art for this issue so I'm a bit disappointed that it'll be another month. Ah well. The story preview is good. Windblade gets more snappy dialog and that's always worthwhile.

Oh I know, not calling you out on anything! Just making sure we're all aware of why the 'change' happens.

I can't help but feel like Starscream is being under used.

At least he's doing a better job of distinguishing one robot form another. I find, often, that's the primary weakness of his work. It's just hard to tell who's who, especially when he attempts to put cameos or Easter eggs in a scene.

Unfortunately, Stone's work is too intricate for the amount of time she'd need to doe these (too bad they couldn't get a few months ahead of the schedule).

Not going to lie, it is a disappointment to relaize this is Windblade 2 and not see Stone's work, but at least she'll be back for #3.

My question is though, what happened to the other TF artist? Are there now only 5 main artists for Transformers now?

Ebonyleopard wrote:At least he's doing a better job of distinguishing one robot form another. I find, often, that's the primary weakness of his work. It's just hard to tell who's who, especially when he attempts to put cameos or Easter eggs in a scene.

Unfortunately, Stone's work is too intricate for the amount of time she'd need to doe these (too bad they couldn't get a few months ahead of the schedule).

Not going to lie, it is a disappointment to relaize this is Windblade 2 and not see Stone's work, but at least she'll be back for #3.

My question is though, what happened to the other TF artist? Are there now only 5 main artists for Transformers now?

Milne, Stone, Griffith, Ramondeli...

Help me out here Va'al; I know I should know this, but are there any other regular artists working Transformers?

I'm only not counting Raiz because he doesn't appear regularly.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

Ebonyleopard wrote:At least he's doing a better job of distinguishing one robot form another. I find, often, that's the primary weakness of his work. It's just hard to tell who's who, especially when he attempts to put cameos or Easter eggs in a scene.

Unfortunately, Stone's work is too intricate for the amount of time she'd need to doe these (too bad they couldn't get a few months ahead of the schedule).

Not going to lie, it is a disappointment to relaize this is Windblade 2 and not see Stone's work, but at least she'll be back for #3.

My question is though, what happened to the other TF artist? Are there now only 5 main artists for Transformers now?

Milne, Stone, Griffith, Ramondeli...

Help me out here Va'al; I know I should know this, but are there any other regular artists working Transformers?

I'm only not counting Raiz because he doesn't appear regularly.

Current regulars: Milne, Griffith, Stone for the three series, Ramondelli for events and special issues. Scioli for TvJ. Upcoming are Howell and Tramontano (Windblade and RID).

Occasionals, but less than Ramondelli, are Shearer and Cahill, sometimes Rojo and Raiz, and the guest artists like Sakamoto.

Then you have covers: Casey Coller, Nick Roche, plus the rotating artists for the RI variants.

Currently active in the franchise in some form are Guidi, Matere, Santalucia.

I love the way this is panning out especially as more colony worlds are found a council will build with all the relationships that will bring with it. Though I can see a rebellion being left against starscream before too long.

ZeroWolf wrote:I love the way this is panning out especially as more colony worlds are found a council will build with all the relationships that will bring with it. Though I can see a rebellion being left against starscream before too long.

Well, the seeds are already there; Optimus, Windblade and Ironhide. Bt at the same time, Optimus is torn because he realizes Starscream was chosen by the people of Cybertron democratically. He may not like it, but he can't do anything about it without hard evidence for the same reason they needed to hold Megatron's trial in public. And Windblade already jeopardized her credibility during her first miniseiries. Not to mention, when Prime and the people of Caminus find out what Chromia did, that's gonna drive another different wedge in current affairs.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I love the way this is panning out especially as more colony worlds are found a council will build with all the relationships that will bring with it. Though I can see a rebellion being left against starscream before too long.

Well, the seeds are already there; Optimus, Windblade and Ironhide. Bt at the same time, Optimus is torn because he realizes Starscream was chosen by the people of Cybertron democratically. He may not like it, but he can't do anything about it without hard evidence for the same reason they needed to hold Megatron's trial in public. And Windblade already jeopardized her credibility during her first miniseiries. Not to mention, when Prime and the people of Caminus find out what Chromia did, that's gonna drive another different wedge in current affairs.

Starscream still needs the spacebridge to contact other colony worlds, so he needs to keep Windblade in his good graces. Letting Chromia's crimes become public won't do that.

I imagine that Chromia's actions are going to be used more thematically than as an actual plot point. Windblade is learning that an effective leader has to compromise sometimes, as she did in agreeing to help Starscream in exchange for protecting her friend. For all her talk, she still had trouble seeing Optimus as a normal bot rather than a demigod, and she's only now learning that he has foibles as well.

I think the real problem is going to be the Mistress of Flame. Windblade seems to accept that a Prime can still be a flawed individual. The Mistress of Flame seems to be having much more trouble with the concept.

Looking for your weekly fill of Transformers comics? IDW Publishing has you covered, with the third chapter in the Combiner Wars event taking place in the pages of Windblade #2! Check out a full preview below, and head back here to Seibertron.com on the day of release to keep the discussion going with our own review.

Transformers: Windblade—Combiner Wars #2
Mairghread Scott (w) • Livio Ramondelli (a) • Casey W. Coller (c)
PROWL makes his move… and the galaxy will never be the same. Can WINDBLADE stand against the threat of the COMBINERS?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
Combiner Wars Part 3!
The biggest battle on CYBERTRON is about to get bigger!
Variant Hasbro Combiner Wars poster cover!