Timey Wimey Stuff
(Spoiler free-ish)
SynopsisOUTLAWS! Before the war, Orion Pax was part of the Establishment—until a friend opened his eyes to the truth behind the lies and he vowed to overthrow the system. Now, it seems as if his newfound enemies are willing to go to any lengths to see him dead—even if it means waiting four million years...
Yup, definitely enemies (?)You will probably remember what happened all the way back during the 2009-11 ongoing series, in particular the Chaos Theory arc that James Roberts co-wrote. You might also have in mind the continuation of that story in Shadowplay, the Shockwave/Orion Pax arc during the first season of MTMTE. If you do not, you probably want to brush up for issue 36, as Elegant Chaos continues the pre-war story.
Oh, and all of that, tooThough not exactly as we might all remember it so far (strange choice of words, I know, but you've seen what's been happening in MTMTE so fa r, right? The trousers of time have many legs, and several are unravelling at the same time). Time travel only muddles plotlines, by its own nature, and this issue is not exception.
RealimusWhich, unfortunately, finds itself to come to standstill in the overall trajectory of the series post-Dark Cybertron. Don't get me wrong, the issue is a great read, fantastic interactions, good dialogue, characters and Whirl. Especially Whirl, in both his present and present-in-the-past situations, along with some amusing time-paradox musings.
WHIRLMASBut it doesn't really do much else, sadly. It reinforces old situations and concepts; it has a smirk-inducing conversation between two key players which is really a one-sided admission and reflection; it sets the stage, but only that smidge more than the last two-three issues, for Elegant Chaos. And I wanted it to do more.
ArtAs far as unintentional bottle episodes happen, however, the art brought to the issue by Alex Milne is a joy to behold - especially in its cranked up expressivity in both facial and body language, including some of the least likely to be able to do so (looking at you Whirl). On top of that, action sequences are magnificently laid out, with a proliferation of double-spreads and panels spanning multiple pages.
Whirl is BOOOOOOOOREEEEEEDDDDWhich are obviously but enhanced by Joana Lafuente's gorgeous colour approach, already from the very first panel of the very first page. And it just gets better from there, really, adding action to action, emotion to emotion, decoration to interiors, atmosphere to planets and making everything look just so good.
I meanTom B. Long and his lettering are not to be underestimated, either - and the title of the issue, and the arc, are an example of the font magic that man can do. The subtle sounds around the scene are also cleverly worked in, and never intrusive, but definitely still there. In terms of covers, we've seen the Alex Milne/Josh Perez Anniversary piece
already, and the main one with juiced up Roller - check out the thumbnail for the moody Nick Roche/Burcham Orion Pax variant.
ThoughtsSpoilerish aheadAs I said above, the issue is not a bad read, a bad comic or a bad piece of writing. It just did not do what other issues playing around with time, or indeed, arcs in the Functionist plotlines have done previously, such as the wonderful Shadowplay. That is not to say that we may very well see this all play out fantastically as of next month or the forthcoming issues in general.
Roberts, you there?From an artistic perspective, though, the book dazzles and deals a dizzying delight - not only because of some wonderfully executed double-spread pages, colours and composition, but as a general aid to extricate the intricacies of the potentially convoluted plot. Here's to you, visual storytelling. Make sure you track down a paper copy of this one.
