IDW The Transformers #44 Review

Synopsis
LOVE AND HATE! Two emotions only inches from each other—and TRACKS and NEEDLENOSE have felt them both. On opposite sides of an eons-long war, what happens when they meet again? And what’s ARCEE up to on CYBERTRON?



Story

John Barber takes a slightly different turn with this month's issue of The Transformers, while still keeping up the Combiner Wars aftermath threads, and dipping into some of the material unearthed with the Combiner Hunters one-shot. And we get to sort of see some old friends, too.. read on to find out more about #44!



It may seem a little odd at first to have Arcee framing the story, as it initially focuses on Tracks and Needlenose, as synopsis, previews and advance material readily suggest. I mean, ignoring the very first flashback page, of course. But if there's something Barber is good at, it's blending multiple linear (or not) stories into one.



And there is one particular story that he adds in to the side which is bound to raise some eyebrows, wrinkle some brains and worry some worriers. Though thinking about it, it's not that out of place for what and how the character has been established previously, in this very series, even though there is a new twist to it this time round.



And with Needlenose and Arcee, we have a double-sided look at where this series might be going, as the vacuum left by Megatron, the vacuum left by the civil war, leads into yet another shift in the precarious status quo of the various events of the past couple of publication years. Where to? We'll have to wait and see.

Art

The linework is actually a lot more linear, and definitely well-suited to the story, than we might expect. Andrew Griffith does a mighty fine job in offering both exterior and interior shots, for an otherwise very static issue - in terms of action (though there are some hectic moments). And the final page is everything, once you realise.



Josh Perez' colours are magnificently accompanying the grimdark - I mean it in the best way possible! ok, bleak, bleak! - setting for the issue. Inside and out. There are some truly stunning passages slower moments in the narration, and it all just works, beautifully.



Tom B. Long gets some fun parts too, adding signs and sounds where the locations really needed some, and keeping the dialogues and fonts in check across the board. I will never stop being amazed at how easy he makes it look. We have seen the two main covers in the past, featuring a self(ie)-keen Tracks and Needlenose by Griffith and Perez, a melancholy Arcee with Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente, and the entirely appropriate and adorable tumbnailed RI variant by Agnes Garbowska.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

As I was writing the review for Combiner Hunters, I kept saying, and made clear in the piece too, that I hoped to see further development from Arcee's lines in further issues of the ongoings. I really did not have to wait that long, as Barber takes the step a couple of inches further in this issue, and surrounds it with an extremely well-taut series of lines across Cybertron (mostly).



It takes a seriously impressive variety of previous storylines that have been somewhat suspended as corporate did its thing, and may be a hint towards IDW authors being able to write their own stuff and redevelop it for a while yet. Which can only be a good thing, whatever the voices say.