IDW Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #21 Preview

I love the tease with the missing page 3. Wait until everyone reads the actual issue which the Seibertron.com Comic Staff was treated to last night!

Seibertron wrote:I love the tease with the missing page 3. Wait until everyone reads the actual issue which the Seibertron.com Comic Staff was treated to last night!

Yeah, that was Mariel Romero, and good call indeed! Working on the review this weekend, will have to tread lightly with spoilers after reading it..

Seibertron wrote:I love the tease with the missing page 3. Wait until everyone reads the actual issue which the Seibertron.com Comic Staff was treated to last night!

Well put. I'm itching to discuss the whole issue, but I won't. Yet.

Seibertron wrote:I love the tease with the missing page 3. Wait until everyone reads the actual issue which the Seibertron.com Comic Staff was treated to last night!

that's good to hear. The excitement for this reminds me of when the last issue of Wreckers was about to come out. only a couple more sleeps

Cyclonus vs. Star Saber.

Oh, dis gunna be GEWD...

Heckfire wrote:Cyclonus vs. Star Saber.

Oh, dis gunna be GEWD...

That's what I thought when it was going to be Star Saber vs Dai Atlas. I hope they don't make the cyclonus star saber thing only a couple panels.

Cyclonus has a pretty big role in the whole issue. Fans of him will not be disappointed.

Did they really need to have Star Saber refer to "God" and Primus separately?

Manterax Prime wrote:Did they really need to have Star Saber refer to "God" and Primus separately?

Yeah, it is a bit disconcerting. Isn't Primus the TFs' god?

I think the same thing happened in Issue #20.

Why yes he is. As Thew put it, "basically he's the god of robots".

Va'al wrote:Cyclonus has a pretty big role in the whole issue. Fans of him will not be disappointed.

Really?

Do we get payoff from the hug?

I mean Whirl did try to kill him once already and this is an even better opportunity...

Henry921 wrote:

Va'al wrote:Cyclonus has a pretty big role in the whole issue. Fans of him will not be disappointed.

Really?

Do we get payoff from the hug?

I mean Whirl did try to kill him once already and this is an even better opportunity...

Yes. And no. And you'll have to wait.

Synopsis

ENDGAME! A handful of heroes stand in the way of a tyrant with the power to destroy AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS alike. But what if stopping him carries an even higher price? Get ready to say goodbye to some old friends as More Than Meets The Eye delivers on two years’ worth of promises.



Story
The highly awaited fifth part of the Remain in Light arc is here. Will Tyrest win and his mad plan kill everyone? Will Tailgate die? Will there be death death and more death aboard the Lost Light and Luna-1? Quite probably. Or maybe not. I mean, the death thing is certain, but not the victims. Will we get answers to all the questions so far? Read on!



This is a heavily packed issue, with a lot of plotlines being tied up crossing paths, returning from previous collections and death. Of course. Tyrest's plan seems to be succeeding so far, inside Luna-1, while on the outside Whirl, Cyclonus and the Circle of Light fight against Star Saber and the Legislators. And I have to say, the fight scenes are well planned and thought out. Cyclonus in particular has some really good moments, and First Aid is getting better and better.



The rest of the story, however, did not satisfy me as much as I thought it would. It's good, but it doesn't give enough closure for MTMTE to now lurch into Dark Cybertron. There are some fairly emotional moments, and some anger-inducing ones. There are some '..really?' moments, and some smirk-provoking ones. But sadly, I can't help but feel that the issue has been overhyped.



It's good writing, but there are tone discordances, using humour in the wrong places, dragging in plots and more plots and resulting in a chaotic sequence of facts, which work a lot better in the prose extracts included at the end of the issue than the issue itself. A similar thing happened to the Overlord arc, it's a shame to see it here again.

Art

Artistically, Milne had a lot to do for this one. There are multiple characters in most panels, and Roberts did not go easy on the details! While the story may be very dense, the artwork makes it a lot easier to follow what is happening on the page. No inker is credited, either, so it must all be Milne's work.



Colours on the issue are done by both Josh Burcham and Joana Lafuente, and they look stunning. The Cyclonus parts have some excellent work on shading and lighting, and really set the tone of his story. Some amazing colours show up in Skids' panels, but I cannot show them here, for good reasons.



Same for the lettering, by personal favourite Tom B. Long. He shines best in all the scenes I can't show in the review, as the soundwords are mostly of characters killing, being killed or revealing the secrets of life the universe and everything. A shout goes to the cover artists, Nick Roche, Josh Perez and Andy Suriano, who did an amazing job, especially the latter's Samurai Jack Rodimus special variant!


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Overall, the end of Remain in Light is good. But there are so many nagging questions and unresolved issues and hand-waving resolutions that I'm left with the feeling that an extra issue would have made it a lot better. As I said, the prose extracts at the back are a lot more helpful and enjoyable to the overall understanding of the plot, and give a better sense of closure, after a fashion.



The artwork is good, as usual, but it's the colours that really stand out for me in this particular issue. Cyclonus and Tailgate get some great palettes in their personal storylines, and Skids has some excellent colour and sound stuff going on. So yes, pick this up, but be prepared to still feel hungry.

A bit harsher than I thought, but it's fair. This comic has always suffered from bad pacing in the final issues. That rarely bothers me though. As long as the more current and pressing issues get answers I'll most likely be satisfied.

Is it bad I think that pic of Pharma is swoon worthy? That expression makes my inner fangirl melt. Come tomorrow that will probably change to horror or anger once that photo gets more context As usual Milne does an amazing job.

Ty for the review Va'al. Yet another bang up review to whet my appetite

I don't agree with everything here, though a lot of it is dead on point as well. Guess I'll talk more about it tomorrow so I don't accidentally get all spoiler on ya'll

I have one question... Why is Orm calling himself Tyrest?

ScottyP wrote:I don't agree with everything here, though a lot of it is dead on point as well. Guess I'll talk more about it tomorrow so I don't accidentally get all spoiler on ya'll

Oh, I'm interested to see what you think I got right.

I realise I may have been a little harsh, but it's mostly out of conflicting sentiments out of which bitterness prevailed.

I thought Va'al was being a bit harsh with this review, but now that I've read it I kinda agree with him. I did really enjoy this issue. I think that the part that's holding it back from being amazing is my expectation of it. This issue raises so many questions it really outweighs any resolutions it presents. This was advertised as a conclusion and that's what I expected it to be. there's just so much new unanswered stuff now. it just seems like the beginning of a new ark (which it is I guess) not an ending. this arc needed to be put to rest properly, and then move forward. It was a great read, just not the conclusion I was hoping for. Given time, I will forget what I expected it to be and just enjoy it.

Yeah, that's the thing. The hype made it to be so much more in terms of resolutions, loose ends, closure and whatnot that the story felt a bit crammed. And as someone mentioned on the IDW boards, the prose piece was actually necessary for some things to be explained, rather than an added bonus.

Va'al wrote:Yeah, that's the thing. The hype made it to be so much more in terms of resolutions, loose ends, closure and whatnot that the story felt a bit crammed. And as someone mentioned on the IDW boards, the prose piece was actually necessary for some things to be explained, rather than an added bonus.

And don't forget the cop outs:

Oh, Tailgate didn't die! Cyclonus healed him by offering up spark energy from his Great Sword. Wow. That sounds a bit dirty.

And apparently Ambus wore so many layers of armor that he was A-OK mega fine, despite his spark shrinking which was magically fixed by plot convenience Ratchet finding a cure for everything, apparently.

At least Pharma and the Legislators actually died to provide some resolution.

And c'mon, Cyclonus, why do you deny yourself resolution to your ongoing subplot? Well, at least the fake out was fun while it lasted...