IDW Transformers: Combiner Wars - The Transformers #40 Full Preview

If that's the artist rendition of Menasor, I could only hope something like this is Swindle's file photo.

That cover.

Talk about mass-shifting - look at the scale of that foot compared to the 'bots underneath.

Holy crap, somebody remembered Spotlight: Mirage! And it's actually canon now, finally free of its muddied status.

My interest in this series shot up about 30% with his inclusion and new-found foresight.

I was pleasantly surprised with the last issue of Combiner Wars. The story ended up going in a direction I was not expecting.

This looks even more intriguing. I can't wait to see what role Mirage is going to play in this story.

legundir wrote:That cover.

Talk about mass-shifting - look at the scale of that foot compared to the 'bots underneath.

Yeah I understand why artists love to overscale the combiners as it makes for a much more imposing presence. I never really got into that. According to that cover, if Mixmaster were to change to robot mode he'd still be well over twice the size of any regular size Transformer.

I must say, for all the crap I give Ramondelli for his art, the man does have his moments. Those Combiners look like proper NIGHTMARES in that dream.

On this note, it appears as though not only is Spotlight: Mirage finally having implications, but also the final member of Ultra Prime is making his way to Cybertron. Ironhide is there, Prowl is coming via spacebridge and Sunstreaker most likely stayed behind when the Lost Light launched a second time. Rook is probably also on Cybertron.
I do agree: those combiners look absolutely frightening in these images. Nice!

I doubt prowl will combine with prime not all the cw toys will make appearances (at least not this year) look at cyclonus, he won't be joining halvatron for a while.

ZeroWolf wrote:I doubt prowl will combine with prime not all the cw toys will make appearances (at least not this year) look at cyclonus, he won't be joining halvatron for a while.

I'm just hazarding a guess based on the toys, that's all. I could be very wrong and there is a fifth member other than Prowl, but we won't know till next month!

ZeroWolf wrote:I doubt prowl will combine with prime not all the cw toys will make appearances (at least not this year) look at cyclonus, he won't be joining halvatron for a while.

Shame, he could have been Prime's right-hand man again.

I think Mirage is coming to Cybertron with the rest of the Protectobots for a Protectobot reason. Eh? Think about it: all five original members plus some dude who just happens to have some bad sounding internal damage, and may possibly need to be rebuilt, and who just happens to be an odd man out among Protectobots.

Zerowolf, darling, agree with me here.

Shuttershock wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I doubt prowl will combine with prime not all the cw toys will make appearances (at least not this year) look at cyclonus, he won't be joining halvatron for a while.

Shame, he could have been Prime's right-hand man again.

I applaud you.

Anybody notice how in that scary picture of the combiners, Devastator (out front) has what appears to be aerialbot arms and constructicon legs? Just curious.

Hot town, scramble in the city. Every other book is dirty and gritty...

Alpha Dominus wrote:

legundir wrote:That cover.

Talk about mass-shifting - look at the scale of that foot compared to the 'bots underneath.

Yeah I understand why artists love to overscale the combiners as it makes for a much more imposing presence. I never really got into that. According to that cover, if Mixmaster were to change to robot mode he'd still be well over twice the size of any regular size Transformer.

In normal context, I fully agree regarding the combiners. However, as cover art,I think Mixmaster here is as much symbolism as scale. Here, he is as much a representation of the weight of the combiner issue as a whole as he is anything else. But i could be wrong.

Alpha Dominus wrote:

legundir wrote:That cover.

Talk about mass-shifting - look at the scale of that foot compared to the 'bots underneath.

Yeah I understand why artists love to overscale the combiners as it makes for a much more imposing presence. I never really got into that. According to that cover, if Mixmaster were to change to robot mode he'd still be well over twice the size of any regular size Transformer.

In normal context, I fully agree regarding the combiners. However, as cover art,I think Mixmaster here is as much symbolism as scale. Here, he is as much a representation of the weight of the combiner issue as a whole as he is anything else. But i could be wrong.

Va'al wrote:

Shuttershock wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I doubt prowl will combine with prime not all the cw toys will make appearances (at least not this year) look at cyclonus, he won't be joining halvatron for a while.

Shame, he could have been Prime's right-hand man again.

I applaud you.

I, too, add my applause.
This is worthy of a sig quote.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I think Mirage is coming to Cybertron with the rest of the Protectobots for a Protectobot reason. Eh? Think about it: all five original members plus some dude who just happens to have some bad sounding internal damage, and may possibly need to be rebuilt, and who just happens to be an odd man out among Protectobots.

Zerowolf, darling, agree with me here.

God d....you just blew my mind. I'd much prefer that over anything else.

Va'al wrote:In other IDW Publishing comics releases this week, we have the next chapter of the Combiner Wars event in The Transformers #40 - Chapter #2 (if you exclude Opening Salvo) of the biggest thing to happen to Cybertron, and not Cybertron alone, so far. Check out a full preview below, and come back for a review tomorrow, when more people will have had a chance to read the book!

Transformers #40—Combiner Wars
John Barber (w) • Livio Ramondelli (a) • Casey W. Coller (c)
The COMBINERS have arrived! STARSCREAM wrestles for dominance with
OPTIMUS PRIME as surprising reinforcements approach—from the Lost Light!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
Tying in with Hasbro’s 2015 Transformers: Generations toy line, this epic will be supported across multiple media platforms!
Combiner Wars Part 2!
Variant Hasbro Combiner Wars poster cover!

Galactus is in combiner wars? stricking resemblance

Synopsis
The COMBINERS have arrived! STARSCREAM wrestles for dominance with OPTIMUS PRIME as surprising reinforcements approach—from the Lost Light!



Story

As we left the Windblade title last time to start dealing with the diplomatic and political aftermath of Menasor's actions on Caminus, and the arrival of Optimus as the Thirteenth (of sorts) - we shift back to The Transformers, with the next chapter in the Combiner Wars event, co-plotted by Mairghread Scott and this issue's writer, John Barber.



Barber's writing in #40 is really quite ambitious, given that it's both an aftermath and a cranking up of the perils that the 'discovery' of Caminus and combiner technology can bring to Cybertronian society, including some older friends which had somehow escaped the wider continuity nets.



Also, he manages to use a fair good dose of humour running through the narrative, interspersing media reports of the events taking place as an unreliable device to comment upon the inner workings of whatever the Cybertron-Caminus representatives are actually discussing. Juxtaposed to some moments of clarity and bringing back to focus and otherwise Optimusisms that instead really hit home - or should.



Meanwhile, in all of this, not just one but a handful of characters, plot away in the background. Not everyone is happy with how things are being handled, of course, we still need to figure out exactly what Starscream's plans are, Prowl may have even more agents around than we thought possible, and I'm sure the Camiens will also have something to say eventually.

Art

Livio Ramondelli takes again the main interiors, and will do so for a couple of chapters now - and in this issue, I had much less to pick out than, say, TF #39. The layouts are really interesting, and some character designs are expected by now (oh hey Leader Starscream). There are some really well executed more organic, or at least not full-on robotic, scenes which makes his art and style shine. Ominously.



The mediatic perspective that Circuit and Starscream bring to the issue also allow for some more creative layouts, or at least an opportunity for both Ramondelli and letterer Tom B. Long to play around with how different characters speak and interact with each other, in some ways. That said, the first page and a bit can be a little confusing in setting name to character, as the order of the boxes does not appear in sync with the art.



I will take a little detour here, as out of the three covers offered with the current issue, one is the regular, Ironhide as Atlas Casey Coller/Joana Lafuente, the secondary is the thumbnailed Livio Ramondelli poster variant - and then we have a lovely take on Menasor from Hasbro's official material, including its games. But no artist credit. The only clue is from the artists themselves, in this case Marcelo Materefor the pencilwork. Hasbro, please credit somehow, somewhere, your artists. Please.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Overall, the chapter that follows a big reveal and a big fight was bound to be a little slower in pacing, but it does so fairly well in what it stops to explore and expand upon, through the art and the story. Fans of early days of RID will remember the style, with a lot of backstabbing, dry humour and snide comments - and some good continuity games, with the added touch of Barber's heightened characterisation post Dark Cybertron and Ramondelli's more visual plays on multiple screens and panels.



Superion and the underlying questions of Gestalt technology are really well done, despite offering no conclusive answer, of course. The Protectobots are introduced neatly, just like the 'new recruits' for the other teams before them, and in a self-aware nod. Ironhide is used a little more, and might play a bigger role again, along with Mirage. It's a good read, and still moving upward in the storyarc.

Am I shamelessly capitalising on a current big trend with that review title, like a daredevil?
Definitely maybe.

A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

It's..... the Anti-Spiral from Gurren Lagann!? Of course the enigma of combination is just fighting spirit! Believe in the Senator Shockwave that believes in Optimus Prime! Oh wait that's, that's something else. All jokes aside, I think it's a proxy for the fan built combiner, whom I speculate to consist of characters from Caminus who obtain the enigma at some point. Yes i know it says the fan combiner's going to come from the sea of rust, but windblade was supposed to hail from Kaon, so the claim is not entirely valid.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

It's..... the Anti-Spiral from Gurren Lagann!? Of course the enigma of combination is just fighting spirit! Believe in the Senator Shockwave that believes in Optimus Prime! Oh wait that's, that's something else. All jokes aside, I think it's a proxy for the fan built combiner, whom I speculate to consist of characters from Caminus who obtain the enigma at some point. Yes i know it says the fan combiner's going to come from the sea of rust, but windblade was supposed to hail from Kaon, so the claim is not entirely valid.

and who says it has to be the Sea of Rust on Cybertron...?

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

One of them is clearly Batman, so I guess it's just a matter of "did Defensor or Superion's head get turned into a potato?"

ScottyP wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:A question with those nightmare combiners I can make out menasor, superion, prowlastaor and Defensor...but there is obviously another shadow there. Who is that?

One of them is clearly Batman, so I guess it's just a matter of "did Defensor or Superion's head get turned into a potato?"

I am so tired of Batman being in everything!

As far as #40 goes... Meh. I can live without it. The book just lacks star power. I need more Mirage, and even more treachery from Starscream. But most of all I need a Prowl that is IN HIS RIGHT MIND. Right now the guy thinks he's Scrapper with roof lights.

I enjoyed the book it was a good read, but it felt a little rushed and some of the panels were a bit confusing. I wish it was a longer crossover, because once Prowl gets involved in things they tend to escalate fast!

I feel like this issue would have been better suited for Milne or Stone's art. While Ramondelli 's style is great for a dark, grungy battlefield, a 'talky' episode like this is really reliant on how expressive its characters are.

Man, sometimes Prowl maks you feel as though he really believes that what he does is for the betterment of Cybertron...

And the. There's those times when you need Michael Caine to say "some bots just wanna watch the world burn."

I love his decent into madness; it's so different from anything else going on right now.

iTunes has the free preview of Transformers: Windblade Vol. 2 #2 - Combiner Wars
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/transformers-windblade-vol./id983453961?mt=11

I can't read the text, but I can see that Ramondelli is doing the art on these pages at least. What's Sarah Stone up to?

That Bot wrote:I can't read the text, but I can see that Ramondelli is doing the art on these pages at least. What's Sarah Stone up to?

I think it's some scheduling conflict or deadline, or mandate, or something that Ramondelli did windblade #2. I think(?) stone's going to do the rest of the windblade series for the foreseeable future after that.

Have a comics preview for a weekend! Coming out this Wednesday, the first three pages of the new chapter in IDW Publishing's Combiner Wars has appeared 'magically' (thank you Mariel) on iTunes - in Windblade #2. Check them out below, mirrored via Seibertronian Madeus Prime, come back on Tuesday for a full preview, and Wednesday for our review!

PROWL makes his move… and the galaxy will never be the same. Can WINDBLADE stand against the threat of the COMBINERS?

Sarah Stone should just draw all the IDW comics. They should clone her or something.
I'm kidding of course but I do love her art, especially her faces and her use of color. It's so expressive and vibrant, whereas all of Ramondelli's characters look so gritty and rough and even his daylight scenes are dark. Bah. Whatever, I'll live.

As a note: Ramondelli has a very fast output, and the issues are coming out very very quickly if you consider that it's two monthlies for the same story. Creative decisions had to be made by the team, meaning that he took over for this issue of Windblade, while Stone is working on issue #3.

I know she'll be back. I know stuff happens. I understand Ramondelli outdid himself drawing two books in one month. He's not a terrible artist as some would insinuate (he draws better than I can, for sure). But I was really looking forward to Stone's art for this issue so I'm a bit disappointed that it'll be another month. Ah well. The story preview is good. Windblade gets more snappy dialog and that's always worthwhile.

Oh I know, not calling you out on anything! Just making sure we're all aware of why the 'change' happens.

I can't help but feel like Starscream is being under used.

At least he's doing a better job of distinguishing one robot form another. I find, often, that's the primary weakness of his work. It's just hard to tell who's who, especially when he attempts to put cameos or Easter eggs in a scene.

Unfortunately, Stone's work is too intricate for the amount of time she'd need to doe these (too bad they couldn't get a few months ahead of the schedule).

Not going to lie, it is a disappointment to relaize this is Windblade 2 and not see Stone's work, but at least she'll be back for #3.

My question is though, what happened to the other TF artist? Are there now only 5 main artists for Transformers now?

Ebonyleopard wrote:At least he's doing a better job of distinguishing one robot form another. I find, often, that's the primary weakness of his work. It's just hard to tell who's who, especially when he attempts to put cameos or Easter eggs in a scene.

Unfortunately, Stone's work is too intricate for the amount of time she'd need to doe these (too bad they couldn't get a few months ahead of the schedule).

Not going to lie, it is a disappointment to relaize this is Windblade 2 and not see Stone's work, but at least she'll be back for #3.

My question is though, what happened to the other TF artist? Are there now only 5 main artists for Transformers now?

Milne, Stone, Griffith, Ramondeli...

Help me out here Va'al; I know I should know this, but are there any other regular artists working Transformers?

I'm only not counting Raiz because he doesn't appear regularly.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

Ebonyleopard wrote:At least he's doing a better job of distinguishing one robot form another. I find, often, that's the primary weakness of his work. It's just hard to tell who's who, especially when he attempts to put cameos or Easter eggs in a scene.

Unfortunately, Stone's work is too intricate for the amount of time she'd need to doe these (too bad they couldn't get a few months ahead of the schedule).

Not going to lie, it is a disappointment to relaize this is Windblade 2 and not see Stone's work, but at least she'll be back for #3.

My question is though, what happened to the other TF artist? Are there now only 5 main artists for Transformers now?

Milne, Stone, Griffith, Ramondeli...

Help me out here Va'al; I know I should know this, but are there any other regular artists working Transformers?

I'm only not counting Raiz because he doesn't appear regularly.

Current regulars: Milne, Griffith, Stone for the three series, Ramondelli for events and special issues. Scioli for TvJ. Upcoming are Howell and Tramontano (Windblade and RID).

Occasionals, but less than Ramondelli, are Shearer and Cahill, sometimes Rojo and Raiz, and the guest artists like Sakamoto.

Then you have covers: Casey Coller, Nick Roche, plus the rotating artists for the RI variants.

Currently active in the franchise in some form are Guidi, Matere, Santalucia.

I love the way this is panning out especially as more colony worlds are found a council will build with all the relationships that will bring with it. Though I can see a rebellion being left against starscream before too long.

ZeroWolf wrote:I love the way this is panning out especially as more colony worlds are found a council will build with all the relationships that will bring with it. Though I can see a rebellion being left against starscream before too long.

Well, the seeds are already there; Optimus, Windblade and Ironhide. Bt at the same time, Optimus is torn because he realizes Starscream was chosen by the people of Cybertron democratically. He may not like it, but he can't do anything about it without hard evidence for the same reason they needed to hold Megatron's trial in public. And Windblade already jeopardized her credibility during her first miniseiries. Not to mention, when Prime and the people of Caminus find out what Chromia did, that's gonna drive another different wedge in current affairs.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I love the way this is panning out especially as more colony worlds are found a council will build with all the relationships that will bring with it. Though I can see a rebellion being left against starscream before too long.

Well, the seeds are already there; Optimus, Windblade and Ironhide. Bt at the same time, Optimus is torn because he realizes Starscream was chosen by the people of Cybertron democratically. He may not like it, but he can't do anything about it without hard evidence for the same reason they needed to hold Megatron's trial in public. And Windblade already jeopardized her credibility during her first miniseiries. Not to mention, when Prime and the people of Caminus find out what Chromia did, that's gonna drive another different wedge in current affairs.

Starscream still needs the spacebridge to contact other colony worlds, so he needs to keep Windblade in his good graces. Letting Chromia's crimes become public won't do that.

I imagine that Chromia's actions are going to be used more thematically than as an actual plot point. Windblade is learning that an effective leader has to compromise sometimes, as she did in agreeing to help Starscream in exchange for protecting her friend. For all her talk, she still had trouble seeing Optimus as a normal bot rather than a demigod, and she's only now learning that he has foibles as well.

I think the real problem is going to be the Mistress of Flame. Windblade seems to accept that a Prime can still be a flawed individual. The Mistress of Flame seems to be having much more trouble with the concept.

Looking for your weekly fill of Transformers comics? IDW Publishing has you covered, with the third chapter in the Combiner Wars event taking place in the pages of Windblade #2! Check out a full preview below, and head back here to Seibertron.com on the day of release to keep the discussion going with our own review.

Transformers: Windblade—Combiner Wars #2
Mairghread Scott (w) • Livio Ramondelli (a) • Casey W. Coller (c)
PROWL makes his move… and the galaxy will never be the same. Can WINDBLADE stand against the threat of the COMBINERS?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
Combiner Wars Part 3!
The biggest battle on CYBERTRON is about to get bigger!
Variant Hasbro Combiner Wars poster cover!

lol @ Prowl's description on the Roll Call page.

"FIXIT AND THE CO-CALLED PROTECTOBOTS"

Is it too late to spot typos? And wonder why a name-check for Fixit is accompanied by a closeup of First Aid?

Not that I'm knocking it - truth is I'm stoked.

Anyone else think it's kind of sketchy how Optimus allows the Camians to perceive him as a god just to take power away from Starscream?

And yet when Astrotrain did it in "The God Gambit" apparently that's a bad guy thing to do.

prjkt wrote:lol @ Prowl's description on the Roll Call page.

I know right?

Prowl is Prowl

Shuttershock wrote:Anyone else think it's kind of sketchy how Optimus allows the Camians to perceive him as a god just to take power away from Starscream?

And yet when Astrotrain did it in "The God Gambit" apparently that's a bad guy thing to do.

It's worse than that. He's not just taking Power away from Starscream, but he's using the Camian religion as a way to insert himself into the power structure that he can keep Starscream in check.