Conquerors?
(Spoiler free-ish)
SynopsisCONQUERORS: CONCLUSION! The most dramatic action ever taken by an AUTOBOT sets the stage for next month’s mammoth issue 50. Earth and CYBERTRON. OPTIMUS PRIME and GALVATRON. SOUNDWAVE and COSMOS. It all comes together at four billion miles an hour.
Good questionHere we are, at the end of the big build up everything after Dark Cybertron, through Combiner Wars, across the Transformers universe as we know it, with old gods, fake gods, heroes, villains and conquerors converging into one single spot, one moment in time: Earth, Now.
Build-up continues...And to be entirely honest, it falls short of ..well, everything. All of the build up, all of the hype. It feels rushed, glossed over, reasons and motivations don't hold up, the major arcs created for however many past issues are just half-resolved without much else to go on. The various settings and scenes are just glomped together.
GlompI am not sure what John Barber did with this issue, as his big landmarks usually pan out much better. It is likely that issue #50 will develop those shortcomings into something that sticks better together as the piece of a wider, universal puzzle. As it stands, however, the pieces are all mismatched and a little scattered.
See, there, that is Windblade's characterThe characters do, to an extent, still work, of course - but some of them just feel like they're going along with whatever Optimus has decided to do, for whatever reason. Galvatron's side of the story may be the most interesting here, and the repercussions it has among the Decepticon idealists hit hard - but everything else is just - there.
ArtOn the other hand, I have no complaints whatsoever with the art. Sara Pitre-Durocher's style is a delight to follow through the various scenes, with some peaks in Skywarp's moments to shine (heh) and there is heavy emotion felt by the various characters - and the readers. The moments with Soundwave and Cosmos carry some serious weight, in light of the events taking place.
...The colours are also magnificent, blending fantastically well with Pitre-Durocher's lighter linework. Josh Perez and Josh Burcham are a wonderful team, and bounce off each other's style easily and seamlessly, bringing one of the crispest issues I've noticed in a while.
Just gloriousTom B. Long has a lot of playground space in the lettering sandbox, too, to work his own stuff, filling in the various silent spaces with good-looking sounds. Why do letterers never get enough praise? With all that action, we are still able to see what is being said. The covers are also great, with Alex Milne/Perez continuing the massive mural (thumbnailed), Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente dabbling with Victorion's hefty presence, and Andrew Griffith emulating Klaus Scherwinski.
ThoughtsSpoilerish aheadIf I sound disappointed, it's because I am. I had been seriously looking forward to the development, and preliminary conclusion, to this arc - to see what Galvatron was to do, to see how the Autobots would respond, how Soundwave in particular would respond, how the various characters would play out against each other and together, depending on their circumstances. I don't feel we got any of that, unfortunately.
or Spotlight: ThundercrackerA less coherent, more Soundwave/Cosmos/Skybyte response:
Seriously? Windblade and crew are just going along with Optimus' decision? Sideswipe, Alpha Trion and Arcee in a shuttle forever, just to get punked by Brawl and Needlenose? I do hope that the next issue, and
All Hail Optimus in general, has more time, and space, to start straightening the puzzle out. I really do.
