Head Start
(Spoiler free-ish)
SynopsisTHE LAST AUTOBOT! Once he ruled CYBERTRON with a brutal (and literal) iron fist... left for dead four million years ago, SENTINEL PRIME is back. But in a world where STARSCREAM rules CYBERTON, OPTIMUS PRIME has invaded Earth, and MEGATRON is an AUTOBOT—SENTINEL doesn’t like what he sees!
I'll take revenge murder plot for 500, AlexThe last couple of months (years?) have had a lot of change in the world of the Transformers - since Dark Cybertron ended, Dawn of the Autobots and Days of Deception happened, Megatron had several changes of heart, Windblade erupted into the world, Optimus started his journey to True
Prick Prime status, Starscream actually still rules Cybertron, and the ex-colonies have returned. Now, imagine you were left for dead when you were a fascistic despot bent on superweapons and conquest. It's bound to mess with your
brain, right?
Even tyrants need recapsThe three-author structure is actually well deployed in the book, allowing us a pre-Dying of the Light look at a flashback under movie night banner from (predominantly, one assumes) James Roberts, and avoiding a
talking heads part. Which also means Swerve and Whirl get to annoy Megatron for a bit, as Cyclonus lets the true noble purpleness of his heart shine - plus some smile-worthy social commentary. In fact, the whole section has heaps of it.
CyclobunThe second section has an unfortunate bit of a crossover - though not crucial, the two scenes are more complementary than anything - with the events of The Transformers #55,
delayed in its print form to next week, but available on digital, it seems. Looking at the status on Earth after the rise of the Titan, and more Primes than you can can wrap your
head around.
The Actual True PrimesBetween John Barber and Mairghread Scott, the two
heads together prove that they can
master the voices of the other, as the third section is also the longest, set on Cybertron with Sentinel doing a lot of stuff. Stuff that shows character in pretty much everyone around him, from Starscream to Ironhide to Windblade, along with establishing him as
ArtLivio Ramondelli is the sole author of the visuals, and - unless you're not a fan of his style in general - he does an excellent job of bringing together a chaotic, hectic, pretty much planet shattering return, even if not of Titanic proportions as such. Between some of the establishing shots, and the lighting games that are being used throughout the book...
Shiny(dome?)...and the more detailed looks at the characters, their interactions, and even some of the battle scenes, we get another strong performance in the G1-esque direction that Ramondelli's art, colouring and layouts has taken in later months. It works for the big bad bot, it works for the Lost Light cast, it works for Ironhide in particular. It works.
PUNCH ITTom B. Long returns to the work he had been doing in books like Autocracy/Primacy/Monstrosity, keeping the fonts more or less simple and clear, but having fun with the sound effects as Sentinel brings on a bit of a rampage wherever he goes or might end up going. And we get some good covers too, in the main Ramondelli one we've seen for a while plus the ROM exclusive, the thumbnailed Priscilla Tramontano encapsulates the story's potential direction, and there's a very fun double cover by Chris Giarrusso for Acme Comics.
ThoughtsSpoilerish aheadThe visuals are Ramondelli at its best, as of recent, and it's good to see him in such top shape, and colour, and... The writing, not only of the different characters as pointed out so far, but of Sentinel himself, is very entertaining - as far as a character such as his can be. He will be loved and hated in equal measure, and stands as a dead ringer for certain vocal elements of the fandom at times, too.
Yeah. I said it.A one-shot that actually does fairly well in bringing together the three coexisting series at the moment, and sets up a stage that doesn't feel to constrained or artificial, with hints in the other books that can be linking bits together for detail-oriented readers, and a callback to a much earlier stage of the IDWverse. This book does good, and it does it well.
