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Thanks to iTunes we have the early three page preview for Transformers: Robots in Disguise #29 - Dawn of the Autobots. The preview is mirrored below, and as always stayed tuned for the full preview and Seibertron.com review.

DETONATION BOULEVARD! Who is MARISSA FAIREBORN—and why does she want OPTIMUS PRIME dead?! And more importantly… how did she start working with on of the AUTOBOTS deadliest enemies…? Dangerous allegiences form, thanks to the terrifying shape the CYBERTRONIANS have twisted planet Earth into!

Wow, the art and colors on that last page! (and boy it feels weird to see humans in these comics now)

So, I think Va'al mentioned somewhere that Andrew Griffith said something about the colors being off last issue.

That said, I have to ask if this is still Andrew Griffith on art duties. Because, while I've always been enough of a fan of his robots, the humans look good here, RADICALLY different than the previous issue.

So, I think Va'al mentioned somewhere that Andrew Griffith said something about the colors being off last issue.

That said, I have to ask if this is still Andrew Griffith on art duties. Because, while I've always been enough of a fan of his robots, the humans look good here, RADICALLY different than the previous issue.

That Galvatron design is definitely asking for a toy.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:So, I think Va'al mentioned somewhere that Andrew Griffith said something about the colors being off last issue.

That said, I have to ask if this is still Andrew Griffith on art duties. Because, while I've always been enough of a fan of his robots, the humans look good here, RADICALLY different than the previous issue.

It does, doesn't it? I have a feeling there may be a different artist on the first two pages, as it's a flashback (Cahill or Guidi, maybe?), and Griffith on the third one with colouring that fits his style more this time round! Let me just..

Aha, it is Guido Guidi on those pages! He's taking care of flashback duties, with Joana Lafuente (probably) on colours. Sez Griffith.

This week, IDW Publishing brings us and the Transformers back to Earth once more, as we discover what discussions the Decepticons and Marissa Faireborn have been having, and what it means for Optimus' team - check out below a full preview, with flashback art by Guido Guidi and a page by regular Andrew Griffith! Come back tomorrow for the Seibertron.com review, too.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #29: Dawn of the Autobots
John Barber (w) • Andrew Griffith (a & c) • Brendan Cahill, Guido Guidi (a)
DETONATION BOULEVARD! Who is MARISSA FAIREBORN—and why does she want OPTIMUS PRIME dead?! And more importantly… how did she start working with on of the AUTOBOTS deadliest enemies…? Dangerous allegiences form, thanks to the terrifying shape the CYBERTRONIANS have twisted planet Earth into!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
• DAWN OF THE AUTOBOTS continues!
• OPTIMUS PRIME’s back on Earth—and Earth wants him dead!
• Variant Cover by Marcelo Matere!

Synopsis
DETONATION BOULEVARD! Who is MARISSA FAIREBORN—and why does she want OPTIMUS PRIME dead?! And more importantly… how did she start working with on of the AUTOBOTS deadliest enemies…? Dangerous allegiances form, thanks to the terrifying shape the CYBERTRONIANS have twisted planet Earth into!



Story

Where did we leave off last month? Optimus Prime and some Autobots arrive on Eart(h) in search of Alpha Trion, seek help from Thundercracker (who lives in a hangar and writes fanfiction screenplays and has a dog called Buster. They find out he's already been contacted and told about Megatron by the Decepticons, now led by Galvatron and Soundwave. And the humans are in it too. Full time.



With this, John Barber goes a little deeper into how the Earth/Decepticon alliance came to be, showing short scenes from the aftermath of All Hail Megatron, and the first re-encounter with a now 'military' Faireborn and the new Decepticon faction - and Soundwave's highly diplomatic and cunning statements, somehow keeping Galvatron at bay long enough.



Other main players in the issue are Jetfire and EV-A D.O.C. dealing with the ship, as they are still evading Earth's defenses and attempting to repair the damage so far, the fun, green bunch of the Constructicons, also on the ship, and everyone's favourite tableflipper, schemeplotter, mindcontrollee and reluctant greenbot himself - Prowl.



Overall, Barber delivers a significantly slower issue, with a lot of explaining and setting up: Soundwave and Galvatron setting up their 'plan', Marissa Faireborne setting up Earth's current state, Jetfire setting up the Constructicons, and them setting up Prowl's backstory, in a way - but the dialogue and chemistry with the latter two/seven is brilliant, as is Jetfire in fact, and Soundwave really shines.

Art

There were complaints during some RID and Dark Cybertron about multiple artists on the same book, but I think that Guido Guidi and Brendan Cahill work really well with Andrew Griffith's core work. Guidi gracefully takes us through Faireborn and the Decepticons' dealings before we reach the present day, and Cahill carefully creates some Cybertronian past scenes with Prowl, among others. Griffith, on the third hand, handles well the 'today' bits, with the final pages packing a magnificent, gigantic punch.



As for the colours, Josh Perez takes egregiously care, as usual, of the present day scenes, while Joana Lafuente looks masterfully after the flashback sequences, be they on Cybertron or Earth, each working really quite well with the three artists. Tom B. Long on lettering, meanwhile, has a field day with the soundwords and section titles in the issue.



And now, a note on the covers: other than being absolutely amazing, the Constructicon variant is Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente's work, while the ongoing incentive featuring Optimus, Rodimus and Hardhead (thumbnail) is Marcelo Matere's lines and John-Paul Bove's colours (and not Tramontano, as some digital issues might claim)! Aren't they pretty? So pretty.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

We get to see Prowl developing into ..something intriguing, at the moment, Soundwave's actual leadership-behind-the-Galvatron, Earth's almost justified hatred of the Cybertronians, Arcee's new alt-mode AND SOUNDWAVE'S TOO and some really nice action scenes and dialogue moments, with highlights pointed out above. Yet it somehow feels a little slower that the opening issue, and its other two companions this month.



It's really not that much, and there are panels and lines that really pick everything up again, but I feel the flicking between timeframes for different characters, though quite clear and signposted, got in the way of much needed conversation between Faireborn, Jazz, Optimus and the rest of the main cast - maybe in the coming issues? The issue looks great, nevertheless!

These comics make it a great time to be a Transformers fan, despite the horror inflicted on us by Michael Bay. Yes, yes, I know: we should all be grateful to him for increasing the popularity of Transformers... But it doesn't change the way I feel about his movies. And yes, I'm about to start another random, off-topic movie-related ramble.

I tried watching Revenge of the Fallen the other day & simply couldn't force myself to get through the whole thing. As much as I want to enjoy the movie series, I find them so unbelievably awful that it's easier to just pretend they don't exist. There are so many "problems" with RotF (& the series in general), but what really hit me the most this time around was my intense dislike of all the humans.

Although I'll concede that he does great work when it comes to action, Bay somehow manages to makes every human character so horrendously arrogant & unlikeable that it's just too painful to sit through. All these pint-sized, fast-talking humans talking down to a group of morally questionable 50-foot robots & then NOT being squashed into jelly as a result strains credulity, in my opinion. Yes, in a movie with giant alien robots, it's the human characterisations I find hard to believe. On top of that, you have these superhuman individuals surviving outrageously UN-survivable situations.

I'm sure everyone's sick of hearing movie-hate, but I had to get this off my chest (well, again). I mention all this because I just now re-watched the trailers for AoE & all I can see is the same irritating characters, played by different actors. I'm really not holding high hopes for this new movie & that, more than anything, disappoints me the most.

I thank Primus the IDW series' cater to my delusional GEEWUN-obsessed mind in an acceptable manner. Seriously, these guys are putting out some of the best comics on the stands in my opinion. Who would have thought that there would be so many stories to tell by following a bunch of weirdo's aboard the Lost Light & what's more, at the END of the franchise-defining war? Not only that, but some of the best Transformers stories of all time? Best comics run for TF's ever in my opinion. It's a shame Bay couldn't learn something from them about storytelling.

End rant (for now).

I'm just not into this story. Yes, it deserves another issue or two to ramp up, but so far, I am just plain bored by RiD 28 and 29. I can't really point out anything particularly bad about them, I just plain don't care. I still think Earth should've been left be, they wrapped up the story quite fine at the end of the Costa run.

MegaDump wrote:These comics make it a great time to be a Transformers fan, despite the horror inflicted on us by Michael Bay. Yes, yes, I know: we should all be grateful to him for increasing the popularity of Transformers... But it doesn't change the way I feel about his movies. And yes, I'm about to start another random, off-topic movie-related ramble.

I tried watching Revenge of the Fallen the other day & simply couldn't force myself to get through the whole thing. As much as I want to enjoy the movie series, I find them so unbelievably awful that it's easier to just pretend they don't exist. There are so many "problems" with RotF (& the series in general), but what really hit me the most this time around was my intense dislike of all the humans.

Although I'll concede that he does great work when it comes to action, Bay somehow manages to makes every human character so horrendously arrogant & unlikeable that it's just too painful to sit through. All these pint-sized, fast-talking humans talking down to a group of morally questionable 50-foot robots & then NOT being squashed into jelly as a result strains credulity, in my opinion. Yes, in a movie with giant alien robots, it's the human characterisations I find hard to believe. On top of that, you have these superhuman individuals surviving outrageously UN-survivable situations.

I'm sure everyone's sick of hearing movie-hate, but I had to get this off my chest (well, again). I mention all this because I just now re-watched the trailers for AoE & all I can see is the same irritating characters, played by different actors. I'm really not holding high hopes for this new movie & that, more than anything, disappoints me the most.

I thank Primus the IDW series' cater to my delusional GEEWUN-obsessed mind in an acceptable manner. Seriously, these guys are putting out some of the best comics on the stands in my opinion. Who would have thought that there would be so many stories to tell by following a bunch of weirdo's aboard the Lost Light & what's more, at the END of the franchise-defining war? Not only that, but some of the best Transformers stories of all time? Best comics run for TF's ever in my opinion. It's a shame Bay couldn't learn something from them about storytelling.

End rant (for now).

Mark is actually a great actor and so are a bunch of other actors in this movie and voice actors as well (John Goodman as Hound) so the new cast is already made this movie better then the other 3.


And also this time they have plans for a trilogy instead of retconing things with each movie.

Please, let's keep this topic for the discussion of the comic.

Va'al wrote:Please, let's keep this topic for the discussion of the comic. :)

And free of excessive language. >:oP

ScottyP wrote:I'm just not into this story. Yes, it deserves another issue or two to ramp up, but so far, I am just plain bored by RiD 28 and 29. I can't really point out anything particularly bad about them, I just plain don't care. I still think Earth should've been left be, they wrapped up the story quite fine at the end of the Costa run.

The main thread I want to see them follow is Prowl. That, and Soundwave.

Which I think would work out well on Earth, to be fair, but I'll see where this is going.

One thing that didn't make sense to me was the Jazz/Prime relationship. When Faireborn mentioned Jazz killing a human, Prime's dialogue reflected that he didn't know about the incident when he was present on Eart(h) at the time (a few miles away, shooting Soundwave in the head but still present). Then Jazz's apology for freezing up seems completely inappropriate. He's a "guy" that's been shown to have military training in both covert ops and leadership. Freezing up just isn't something he would do. Heck. Even after the human killing incident, Jazz went behind the backs of his superiors and snuck out of the Autobot hidey-hole in Omega Supreme to destroy Spike's military base. He took a handicapped, wheelchair bound human with him! It just plain doesn't seem like him.

And why is he here on Eart(h)?! I thought he broke away from the factions to chill in Blurr's bar?

That being said, I am a big fan of Jazz. That's why I rant and can never watch those M.Bay disasterpieces. Especially after what they did to him in the first movie.

And, where is Kup's cy-gar?

Va'al wrote:

ScottyP wrote:I'm just not into this story. Yes, it deserves another issue or two to ramp up, but so far, I am just plain bored by RiD 28 and 29. I can't really point out anything particularly bad about them, I just plain don't care. I still think Earth should've been left be, they wrapped up the story quite fine at the end of the Costa run.

The main thread I want to see them follow is Prowl. That, and Soundwave.

Which I think would work out well on Earth, to be fair, but I'll see where this is going.

Yeah I feel a little bad being a downer on it, because it's clear it's going somewhere, I just can't tell where that is and so far I don't care where that is. The way they've written the humans makes them look very simple minded, and this Galvatron is different. Every other iteration of IDW Galvatron had purpose, this one just seems angry without much explanation as to why. Additionally, I get now why the Autobots are on Earth, but what are the Decepticons doing there? Just to look for Megatron? Maybe I read too quick but the motivations for these characters is extremely lacking.

Brawl nearly killed Bobby Hill.

And, uh, spoiler alert.

It's a miracle!

Someone from IDW besides Shane McCarthy understands Transformers!
We have-

Autobots Vs. Decepticons

Earth modes

Transformations

Transformers on Earth

Some of the dialogue and characterizations of the Transformers were a little off, and the military was not ignorant or bloodthirsty enough to be totally believable... but this was the best I have seen from IDW in a long time. I felt like I was reading a Transformers comic based on Generations!