iTunes Preview for Transformers Optimus Prime 3

Barber's Soundwave is becoming one of the best. Has really stood out as well done since RiD 20-ish and just gets better.

I also really like how he's got a rub sign in the flashback and a full on Decepticon badge in the present day scenes.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Agreed to both. This Soundwave is probably the best one we've ever had. He's brilliant

Well, don't forget Cybertron's Garry Chalk Soundwave who was a mid-00s raver. We'll always have that and the world is better for it.

In other June listings for IDW Publishing comics, courtesy of Amazon.com, we also have the first collected trade paperback for the new ongoing series Optimus Prime. Check out the provisional cover art and more information below - and follow the discussion as it happens in the Energon Pub!

REVOLUTION is over—but the danger to Earth is just beginning. As OPTIMUS PRIME pulls Earth into the larger universe, he’s painted a target on it… and a new alien incursion begins when a corkscrew shaped craft drills into our world! Collects issues #1–6.

Product Details

Series: Transformers
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing (June 13, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1631409697
ISBN-13: 978-1631409691

Kurona wrote:Something I've really been loving so far about Optimus Prime compared to RiD/Transformers is how much it's focusing on the characters of Jetfire and Pyra Magna.
In RiD/Transformers (post-Dark Cybertron since they're practically different books), we... didn't really learn much of anything about the characters outside the mains. Optimus, Soundwave, Thundercracker, Prowl... that was about it (aside from Arcee which I still have no clue what they're trying to do with her). Which was all fantastic, you can't convince me these aren't the best incarnations of Soundwave and Thundercracker ever; but... their teams were just kind of there. Jetfire, Jazz, Sideswipe, the Combiner teams, basically any Decepticon not called Needlenose... which is what really put the book behind for me (aside from the somewhat shaky plot). I was still enjoying it, but MTMTE and Windblade's comics just had so many more characters that were so interesting and drew me in every time. RiD/Transformers had... Cosmos. Who's great. But when we're shown guys like Kup and Jazz who are supposed to be Optimus' big main team and they get a tad bit of focus at the start, to see them largely ignored and to learn nothing about them was endlessly frustrating.
So already, Optimus Prime is so much better in this regard. It's giving me reasons to care about the larger cast and is doing interesting things with them which I can't love enough. It's fantastic.

Also, Optimus Prime is fixing up one of the few flaws I had with it itself - they brought back Cosmos! They're finally bringing back and showing where the hell all the guys were aside from who's immediately on-hand in Autobot City! Which is nice, because I loved Cosmos. He's great. I never expected a comic to make me care about Cosmos, but... hey, I never expected one to make me care about Rewind or Hosehead's Headmaster either.

This comic is so good.

I agree. I like that it's focusing on other characters and actually giving them some personality, such as Pyra Magna (which is one of the better Transformers names in a long while). I could hope for any characterization for the other Torchbearers, but I'll take what I can get for now.

Still not a huge fan of the art.

Thanks to John Barber and Alex Milne himself, we have news that Milne will be filling in for Kei Zama for art duties for Optimus Prime #4, due out next month! Milne has been absent art duties recently as Jack Lawrence has been drawing the first story arc of Lost Light, so the fill in is a nice return for Milne prior to his art duties for a Lost Light arc. You can read the pair of tweets below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Alex Milne wrote:So I guess I can mention I filled in for interiors for Optimus Prime issue 4. Super fun to work on. I hope you will like it

John Barber wrote:Optimus #4 is the first time @markerguru and I worked together as artist/writer since we did 3 Dark of the Moon in-pack comics in 2011.

Oh, nice. I'm slowly warming to Zama's art, though it's still not my favorite. I just worry that this issue will spoil me for being a style I already really like instead of one I have to get used to.

Synopsis
An uneasy peace between Optimus Prime and the newly arrived Junkions is threatened by Soundwave’s discovery within their massive ship…



Story

First of all, I apologise for the lateness in this review. There is a life outside of this screen, and it is getting messy and busier by the day. Still, duties are duties, and I thank you for not giving me flak for dropping this a week later. And I hope you picked it up, because there is plenty to talk about in this third issue of Optimus Prime.



We reach the third issue, the central one in the first arc of this new book at the hands of John 'Continuity' Barber, and we check-in almost directly with Thundercracker's work-away-from-work as deals start taking place with The Crown Jewel of The IDW Universe - apparently - and some more backstories get filled in, via Marissa Faireborn.



The other major storylines, however, are even more intriguing, with Soundwave's inner monologue proving the caption commentaries this issue, as we dive back into his first encounter with Orion Pax, as they were very much (but maybe not) on the opposite sides of the beginning of history - compared to where they both are now. For however long.



That, while taking the current plot forward as well, as we find out what happened to Cosmos, the cassette-birds, and the whole idea of the Decepticon commune in spaaaace, in Barber's probing of the Junkions' intentions on Earth. Plus. in much better characterisation that previous works by the same author - we re-visit Jazz' character concept of understanding Earth culture, Jetfire's early motives, Prowl's Prowlness - and lots and lots of Thundercracker.

Art

I really do like Kei Zama's work, if that hadn't been clear in the previous posts about this series, and I believe we get to see a different side of her art in this issue: more humans, more organic cast, more humour to work with alongside the political intrigue of both past and present. And I'm satisfied we what we find - though there is always a touch of the sinister in the inks.



You want a darker tone to your stories? You want police/cop drama set in the past? You want political intrigue and chess-playing in the past and the present? Get Josh Burcham to add colours to Zama's linework: it plays with the heavy inks beautifully, it doesn't sacrifice diversity in the palette, and it delivers a great looking book.



Likewise, the lettering is an incredibly nice touch on top of what the art and dialogue already carry, as Tom B. Long's caption are never intrusive but still always there for new and old readers alike (the added snark in them is a bonus). The covers are a full IDW TF roster too, with Zama and Burcham on main, but Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez (thumbnail), Joana Lafuente, and Casey Coller all deliver some truly exquisite variants.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

The series is working very well, as looking at the reviews so far will have suggested, and what we find in issue #3 is a slower pace than the previous two, maybe not needed, maybe necessary, definitely present. That does not slow down the book's build, at all, but it will give a distended - and humorous at several points - read compared to the other book out this week, and compared to recent TAAO issues - so they work well in parallel at that, nicely scheduled IDW. (Totally not a dig at IDW's scheduling spoiling TAAO.)



There is plenty of humour too, as we see some of Barber's early RID work shine back through, and we get a very good look at Zama's style all round, as more organics, more beastformers, more humans, more facial expressions join the cast and the fray for the issue. As I said, the speed of the plot may have taken a slight slower route, but there is plenty to enjoy nonetheless.

I really love the Soundwave, the Jetfire, and the Jazz in the current story. Those 3 really stand out to me.

And the art was much better this issue and it grew on me. It really did look good. Jetfire really stood out with looking good with the art as well

Our final preview for tonight fresh from iTunes is for IDW Optimus Prime #4! #4 starts off with a hoard of Sharkticons, some Junkions, and some more Zeta Prime/Orion Pax business from about 4 million years ago. Give it a look, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Zeta Prime looks pretty great here unlike...




The Transformer sized human in knight armor on the right.