IDW Publishing The Transformers #37 Review
Wednesday, January 21st, 2015 7:57AM CST
Categories: Comic Book News, Reviews, Site ArticlesPosted by: Va'al Views: 46,263
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(Spoiler free-ish)
Synopsis
THE ONYX PROTOCOL! As PROWL confronts SPIKE over the human’s betrayal, the mystery of G.B. Blackrock and the Onyx Interface deepens. Meanwhile, Tokyo becomes a battleground as Arcee faces the Constructicons… and Galvatron!
Story
In issue #36 of the Transformers ongoing, we had the different factions setting themselves like pieces on a chessboard (with chases and explosions, of course). We also found out Prowl's real - for now - feelings towards Spike, and how much the two may or may not be very similar beings. All in an effort to locate the Enigma of Combination, and prepare for the Combiner Wars event.
And despite Prowl and Spike being once again key players in this issue, John Barber makes two other characters really shine: leader but not quite of the Decepticons Galvatron, and Autobot but not sure Arcee. Their disputes, their interactions and Galvatron's slow game are a thing to behold.
We also return to some wider concepts forming the basis to the current situation on Earth, and Blackrock's personal goals and stakes in the whole thing, but so far, not as fully realised as the robotic side of things - until the very end, that is, when the worms are out of the can.
It's nice to see a progression towards a conclusion of the arc before the beginning of the next one, without the feeling that one is being rushed or cramped for the other. Nice to see a couple of secondary characters take a little bit of light too, but the main action, because action it is, is what you're here for in this issue.
Art
Regular artist Andrew Griffith takes the full burden of the artwork this time round, and a heavy burden it is. He performs brilliantly, too, with some fantastic panel layouts, and his Arcee and Galvatron really capture Barber's script underlying the interactions.
Effects obviously aided by not one but two colourists: Josh Perez and Thomas Teowisonte Deer, whose styles are different enough to be noticed, but without ever interfering with the artwork's aesthetic. Plus, we get some fantastic sky/ground transitions.
Tom B. Long's lettering is wonderfully placed, adding exactly what is needed to the various scenes, and remaining specifically absent in others, which is to be appreciated given their context. The covers are magnificent too, and bring in another fan artist for the 30th Anniversary cover - Kotteri (thumbnail) - alongside Griffith/Perez for A and Nick Roche/Josh Burcham for the bluesome B.
Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead
As I mentioned above, there is something still a bit slow in an otherwise very well-paced issue, featuring some wonderful action of both the verbal and physical kind - allowing a decently sized playground for the visual team to try out their skills, be they layouts, body language or colours.
What I am concerned about at this point, however, is the reasoning behind Blackrock's schemes, as well as the role that Prowl and Spike will actually play in the upcoming major arc of Combiner Wars, and what actually is Galvatron's personal gain from it all.
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Posted by Nemesis Maximo on January 21st, 2015 @ 8:06am CST
Posted by Nemesis Maximo on January 22nd, 2015 @ 9:23am CST
Also, what's Arcee's game? What's Prowl's game? What are Kup and Sideswipe gonna do about Sky-Lynx? Where's Jazz? Is World War T gonna bring more Transformers to Earth? So many questions!
I liked Blackrocks line about the lonely trillionaire. Creepy comedy at it's sleaziest. And Galvatron's face:
Those are some pretty glorious facial panels. He looks so distinguished. I bet that's what all the fembots look for in an older mech. And it was nice to see him interact with Arcee.
Posted by wetwithwaterwings on January 23rd, 2015 @ 4:59am CST
Posted by Va'al on January 23rd, 2015 @ 8:04am CST
wetwithwaterwings wrote:Good review, Va'al. My memory is about as clear as that motion blur and I haven't read anything pre-RID. With everyone deceiving everyone I can never tell if I've forgotten a detail, the detail is a mystery, or the detail was revealed but now the speaker is lying. Do we know who actually killed Spike's dad and why? And why did his dad (Sparkplug/Daniel?) consider him a traitor? And what specifically did Spike do to betray Prowl? And why did it look like an atom bomb when Galvatron hit the ground? Was the satellite that Galv and Arcee destroyed important, or was that just to look cool? Is there a trade I need to read to better understand the earth/cybertonian war that this book references so much? Should I just give up and focus on the pretty pictures?
Spike's dad was killed by Galvatron a couple of issues ago.
Spike's betrayal of Prowl's trust consisted in killing Scrapper (a Cybertronian) all the way back in the 2009 ongoing, as revenge for Devastator's actions in All Hail Megatron.
All Hail Megatron is also probably what you need to understand the Cybertronian war on Earth; that, and the -ations.
The satellite was pretty much just a detail of no importance, unless it bears massive importance as of next month.
Posted by wetwithwaterwings on January 23rd, 2015 @ 2:03pm CST
Posted by 1984forever on January 24th, 2015 @ 8:19am CST
Or
2) Thundercracker was the only one left on the shelf
There were so many left over Thundercrackers at the end of '85 that stores returned them to Hasbro. Hasbro took them out of the original boxes, put them in tiny little rectangle boxes and sold him thru the mail for $8 and a few robot points (not people points IDW, ROBOT points)! As for the fans who weren't born yet... you only like Thundercracker because you fed into the hype
Posted by Nemesis Maximo on January 24th, 2015 @ 12:54pm CST
Also, thank you for (a) trying to speak for every fan from 1984 as to their Thundercracker buying habits, and (b) insulting those of us who do actually like new things, instead of living 30 years in the past. Go back to writing slashfics where New Year's Day of 1985 never happened.
Posted by 1984forever on January 24th, 2015 @ 2:37pm CST
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 24th, 2015 @ 3:14pm CST
Change is good, just keep whispering that to yourself when you read this series. This is better then the animated series