Review of IDW Optimus Prime #3

I love johns writing and have always favored RID/TF/OP over MTMTE/LL but I can't help but feel it hasn't gotten to the point that it did with season One of RID. Maybe it's because that was such breath of fresh air in the comics in 2012 or maybe it's just me. Anyone else feel that way?

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

Randomhero wrote:I love johns writing and have always favored RID/TF/OP over MTMTE/LL but I can't help but feel it hasn't gotten to the point that it did with season One of RID. Maybe it's because that was such breath of fresh air in the comics in 2012 or maybe it's just me. Anyone else feel that way?

As I kinda touched upon in the review, I feel like we're very much back there, with some more humour and some even better characterisation. He's working with new characters, or ones that haven't had much about them yet, rather than your usual core crew (plus Metalhawk) - and I like it!


What stands out to you as being not as good as RID?

D-Maximus_Prime wrote: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

The panel before the one I used, with Prowl and the Flyentist, is where I fell for Jetfire. QUESTION HIM, DUDE. QUESTION HIM TO JUNKION AND BACK. (Of course Prowl intervenes.)

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!

Wow, that Milne + Burcham combo. I just felt nostalgic for 2012. Masterful, just perfect

Zeta Prime looks pretty great here unlike...




The Transformer sized human in knight armor on the right.

Deadput wrote:Zeta Prime looks pretty great here unlike...




The Transformer sized human in knight armor on the right.

Well what do you expect? Steve Kurth did his best based on a design made by Livio in Apocracy. He had to deal with dreary pages that you couldn't tell what you were looking at. Just showed how bad that design really was and I'm glad kei went back and did a redesign for this

aw mann... Milne must be a guest artists on all books man.

Really epic representation for any TF graphic novel/comics.

Wish he can have a guest artist go at Till All Are One as well... i cant imagine the level of weight and scale that he can bring to that book. Titans all over the place attacking Metroplex... all out Cybertron planetary war with, and against new colony arrivals...

Such detail

arghh . One can only dream (Please IDW make this happen

^ I love Milne's work to pieces, but Sara Pitre-Durocher is doing so darn well on TAAO that I'm not fussed if she draws the book for every issue ever.

Also via comics news site Newsarama, we have a full preview for the other Transformers book from IDW out next Wednesday - Optimus Prime #4, guest starring Alex Milne on interior art! Check it out below, and head back next week for a review, plus the discussion in the Energon Pub.

Optimus Prime #4
John Barber (w) • Kei Zama (a & c)
NEW CYBERTRON! Optimus Prime struggles to unite the Junkions, Cybertronians, and humans—but will diplomacy be scuttled when the Junkion’s secret comes out?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
- Variant cover by Nelson Daniel!

Looks great! I love the take on Zama's style. It's a little clearer than hers, but still very distinctive.

Seems like we'll be getting a little more backstory for Pyra Magna, which is great. I hope she isn't the only Torchbearer who gets any characterization, though. There's still Dustup's secret that Jumpstream found out during Victorion's first formation.

My only nitpick is that every single bot has to be identified with a caption, while whomever is narrating also has their internal dialogue going on. It's at its overkilliest (yes, I made that up) when Pyra Magna narrates why she became the Torchbearers' leader..... when the caption right next to her repeats the same thing.

I'm enjoying this new book tremendously. It may actually be my favorite of the ongoings at this point in time!

Synopsis
NEW CYBERTRON! Optimus Prime struggles to unite the Junkions, Cybertronians, and humans—but will diplomacy be scuttled when the Junkion’s secret comes out?



Story

We return to Earth, which has Cybertronians and Junkions on two sides of an agreement which may not be, as humans reluctantly also maybe agree to disagree, while two leaders very much disagree as other two leaders disagreed in the past. We return to John Barber's vision of the new order of the things - Optimus Prime #4 is here!



Let's get this out of the way: Optimus is reaching peak Prowl. There are a number of moments where this is obvious, and I can't but think of this being a consequence of Combiner Wars (still) and his moment so close to the Autobot's master manipulator - other than being around him for pretty much the entirety of his life as an Autobot himself, of course.



It's good, it's very good to see some development of Pyra Magna's character, as all of the Torchbearers were teased as having secrets and intrigues which we are still waiting pay-off for. But having that development also be pitted against Optimus is a super extra treat. Two very strong leaders with strong ideals, in their own way, against each other for very similar causes, at not the best time, but also maybe the best time too.



The rest of the story is a very good exercise in build-up, I felt, too, with a subtle increase on the pressure valve (up to the final act, where subtlety is chucked out the window) - but also a very welcome distraction in the form on Thundercracker and Buster, and a lot more about Marissa Fairborne in just a couple of pages.

Art

We knew of Alex Milne's subbing in for Kei Zama in this issue, and it's very good to see him back on a TF book interiors, even halfway through an arc. He keeps to the style that makes him beloved to the fandom and readership, while also thickening some inks, and adding a lot of black, black spaces for added tension, emotion, and pacing.



What is truly extraordinary on the art side of things, though, is the combination of Milne's lines with Josh Burcham's continuity colouring, keeping the transition between the two artists as smooth as possible for the book (the blue shading really does help), without sacrificing the differences of the two styles. It's a feat he achieves perfectly, I feel, and really helps the issue.



The devices used in the script to carry along the narration require skill from the lettering side of the book, once more in the capable hands of Tom B. Long, who is also still painstakingly bringing us mini-bios for each character as we read through - and somehow manages to never make it intrusive. There is a full roster of TF veterans in the cover roll, and you can see all of them and full credits in our database entry here, from Zama to Griffith, with Nelson Daniel, Casey Coller, Joana Lafuente (thumbnailed), Burcham and Josh Perez fully acknowledged too.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Having Pyra Magna as the point of view for the running commentary on the issue is a great way of bringing in her voice on top of the placing against Optimus' leadership, and a welcome addition to that of Arcee, and Soundwave so far - and using the parallel threads of the past (the panels mirroring Zeta and Optimus are exquisite and very revealing) alongside the multiple storylines in the present and her personal beliefs, works out as a very revealing and definitely enticing, plot movement and pacing.



The reintroduction of a different, but established, visual team does not disrupt the book at all, and the whole issue comes across as perhaps a seminal one in the aftermath of whatever may happen with the Junkions in the arc - will Pyra Magna get something more than she expects? How will the colonists react? What role will Aileron play?

Great issue, but I have to disagree about the lettering slightly. The mini-bios are rather intrusive, because they happen every single issue. Add that to the narration boxes and speech bubbles and it looks slightly cluttered. Pyra Magna's little mini bio says the EXACT SAME THING that her narration does right next to it. Clutter. There's no need to recap who everyone is Every. Single. Time.

Bounti76 wrote:Great issue, but I have to disagree about the lettering slightly. The mini-bios are rather intrusive, because they happen every single issue. Add that to the narration boxes and speech bubbles and it looks slightly cluttered. Pyra Magna's little mini bio says the EXACT SAME THING that her narration does right next to it. Clutter. There's no need to recap who everyone is Every. Single. Time.

I can see your point, for sure, but I'm also coming at the comic from this perspective: This is the book that non-TF readers have been told to go read after Revolution. Those captions are for them, not us. And for what they do, I don't find them that much in the way (and I love the comments in some of them, too).

Va'al wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:Great issue, but I have to disagree about the lettering slightly. The mini-bios are rather intrusive, because they happen every single issue. Add that to the narration boxes and speech bubbles and it looks slightly cluttered. Pyra Magna's little mini bio says the EXACT SAME THING that her narration does right next to it. Clutter. There's no need to recap who everyone is Every. Single. Time.

I can see your point, for sure, but I'm also coming at the comic from this perspective: This is the book that non-TF readers have been told to go read after Revolution. Those captions are for them, not us. And for what they do, I don't find them that much in the way (and I love the comments in some of them, too).

True, some of the comments are amusing, I agree. And it makes sense why the captions, I just hope it won't be a permanent thing.

Bounti76 wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:Great issue, but I have to disagree about the lettering slightly. The mini-bios are rather intrusive, because they happen every single issue. Add that to the narration boxes and speech bubbles and it looks slightly cluttered. Pyra Magna's little mini bio says the EXACT SAME THING that her narration does right next to it. Clutter. There's no need to recap who everyone is Every. Single. Time.

I can see your point, for sure, but I'm also coming at the comic from this perspective: This is the book that non-TF readers have been told to go read after Revolution. Those captions are for them, not us. And for what they do, I don't find them that much in the way (and I love the comments in some of them, too).

True, some of the comments are amusing, I agree. And it makes sense why the captions, I just hope it won't be a permanent thing.

They should fade out, hopefully, yes!

Cool! Torchbearer characterization. Wonder what Dustup's little secret is.

I really wish I gave a damn about this while Optimus/Pyra/Matrix thing. Originally I did but with Primal winning the contest I don't really care anymore and it's due to we know her and Victorion won't take the Matrix. Now I'm just asking "well how is that going to work?" Two characters named Optimus, both will have the title of Prime and the matrix is broken. Obviously IDW is going to do their own thing and base the story as loose as possible with the toy line like Combiner Wars and Titans Return but the fan vote stuff is included regardless. I'm sure Carlos, John, and Margaret are all sitting down saying "alright how the hell do we out this together?"

Alright, so hear me out.

First, this is my favorite comic right now. I am loving this book.

Second, with the matrix: what if seeing as how it is now prominently shown up the alternate universe in Lost Light, the matrix from that universe is ready to make a transition over, much like how Regeneration one brought a good matrix to a world where the matrix no longer exists. also, what if there is a way for colony worlds like Caminus to restore the matrix, seeing as how they are playing off of the glowing matrix on Caminus dealio

Also, Damn I hated Optimus towards the end. You outright said you are just using people who worship you even though you acknowledge frequently you are not. I want something from that combining experience to show up again, so that way it makes more explicit sense Prowl has infected him,the same way I wish the other bots force to combine would show up to show the side effects of that.

Either way, loved the issue

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Alright, so hear me out.

First, this is my favorite comic right now. I am loving this book.

Second, with the matrix: what if seeing as how it is now prominently shown up the alternate universe in Lost Light, the matrix from that universe is ready to make a transition over, much like how Regeneration one brought a good matrix to a world where the matrix no longer exists. also, what if there is a way for colony worlds like Caminus to restore the matrix, seeing as how they are playing off of the glowing matrix on Caminus dealio

Also, Damn I hated Optimus towards the end. You outright said you are just using people who worship you even though you acknowledge frequently you are not. I want something from that combining experience to show up again, so that way it makes more explicit sense Prowl has infected him,the same way I wish the other bots force to combine would show up to show the side effects of that.

Either way, loved the issue

I do agree but I do like this Optimus than simon furmans Optimus that just refuses to do anything except stand around and do nothing but I am kind of tired of atheist Prime. Yes the proof of is very ambiguous in IDW and is all based on personal perception but come one Prime. The damn thing came out of the ground essentially, reformatted you twice and remade the planet.

MagicDeath wrote:Cool! Torchbearer characterization. Wonder what Dustup's little secret is.

It'd be great so see it go in depth a little more beyond just Pyra. By the end of this one the others were standing in the background and it was effectively a metaphor for what most of them are in the book!

First Aid was given characterisation in MTMTE; Blast Off and Onslaught were given characterisation in TAAO; it's finally OP's turn to give characterisation to the Combiner components
Maybe after this we can finally learn something about the Aerialbots after 31 years of their existing. Probably not!

I'm really enjoying Optimus Prime so far. Heck, even my dad, who's a mild GEEWUNer is enjoying the story so far. The only thing I'm worried about is that Rumble and Frenzy were "hi and die" characters. We only just lost Ravage, and so I don't wanna see my favorite duo die so quickly into the series.

The Optimus Prime ongoing series is also showing off some more variant covers, over on Previews World, with the Retailer Incentive and Subscription covers for issue #5 surfacing - and bringing Andrew Griffith and E.J. Su (which interlocks with the Lost Light #4 cover, up next in the news) along with them! Check them out below.

NEW CYBERTRON! It's battleground: Earth once more, as the uneasy peace between Optimus' forces, the Junkions, and G.I. Joe collapses amidst betrayals and subterfuge. Will Optimus Prime and Pyra Magna be able to put aside their differences-or is war really the only way forward?

Optimus has really buff thighs. He didn't skip leg day.

I want the Sharkticon cover though. I don't know a comic store that carries it though. Bummer.

WreckerJack wrote:I want the Sharkticon cover though. I don't know a comic store that carries it though. Bummer.

Ask!

I'm super-late to the party on this, but ALL HAIL OPTIMUS PRIME!


I'm workin through MTMTE Vol3 still so I'm waaay behind.

bodrock wrote:I'm workin through MTMTE Vol3 still so I'm waaay behind.

It's a pretty good journey aside from the crossovers; have fun

Thanks Kurona!

Comic Book Resources has updated with the full preview for Optimus Prime #5! This issue sees the Junkions and their Sharkticon armada take on the Autobot on Earth as they try to protect all the really important humans they managed to amass for the unexpected show stopper. Meanwhile, we keep an eye on Jazz as he tries to make a new human friend. Check out the preview, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Daaaaaaaang. Prime's getting scary. Looks like more of Prowl's influence from their Optimus Maximus time is seeping in.

I wonder if it's less "Prime is being corupted" and more "Prime is tired of everbodys shit".


Of course, that can serve as an alternate definition for Prowl, too.

Va'al wrote:

WreckerJack wrote:I want the Sharkticon cover though. I don't know a comic store that carries it though. Bummer.

Ask!

I plan on it. I have been writing down some other titles too.

ya know on the "optimus maximus" thing were all blaming prowl for the change in attitude in prime but think about this.

sunstreakes a narcissist.

ironhides stuborn.

and mirage is a snob.

combined with prowl thats a heady mix for a mindmashed optimus to deal with ontop of whatever effects actually being leader has on him.

so it could be more than just everyones favorite prick to blame here.



what i'd find interesting though now is to see if the effects has bleed over to the other characters. theres scope for some fun to be had anyway.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum; Prowl's settling down for a bit with Fort Max to step outside his usual boundaries and possibly stepping towards some sort of redemption arc. Heck, in Sins of the Wreckers he even showed some sort of compassion towards Hubcap, someone up until that point had been antagonising him. There's some Prime-y traits going on with Prowl imo.

I asked around locally for dat Arcee cover for Op #2, but to no avail.

So I just ordered it from Coliseum of Comics for $5.99, then $7 for shipping.

Totally worth it lol, but now I gotta get 3,4 & 5!

Kurona wrote:Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum; Prowl's settling down for a bit with Fort Max to step outside his usual boundaries and possibly stepping towards some sort of redemption arc. Heck, in Sins of the Wreckers he even showed some sort of compassion towards Hubcap, someone up until that point had been antagonising him. There's some Prime-y traits going on with Prowl imo.

On the other hand, Mirage has basically not shown up again since he has yet to show back up in Lost Light. And Ironhide really hasn't seemed to have changed over in Till All Are One.

As for poor Sunstreaker, he's been part of 2 combiners, with Slugslinger, Sky Lynx, Cosmos, and Thundercracker to boot. If there were side effects, he would have lots

I'm fairly certain prowl has nothing to do with anything. They seem to be pretending that combiner wars didn't happen, especially the bit with OP Max.
My thinking is, they are making Megatron the good guy, and so they need a bad guy. This version of prime has had bipolar disorder since the early days. In the prequels he was angry and agressive, beating swindle near to death. Then went back to being a hero. In the infiltration era he was depressed, giving up his position and surrendering to spike. In the chaos Era he was the noble hero again, till death of optimus when he went emo-loner. Hero again after that, for a time. Now he has a God complex.
Over a Million years of war have pushed on prime till he broke. He's straight mad.

Now they either have Megatron be the hero and stop an evil Optimus, or make Megs snap and go super evil and force OP to be the hero again.

I can understand Optimus going a bit more ruthless, but the thought of him going truly bad and Megatron going heroic is too much for me.....!

I'll be honest -- when he shot Galvy in the face, I couldn't quite believe it....but I felt like he had no choice, and it was due to the millions of war torn years. But still, this was Optimus! I accepted it.

I've even come around to Megz sporting the Auto-brand.

But Optimus as a villain? I can't even....

partholon wrote:ya know on the "optimus maximus" thing were all blaming prowl for the change in attitude in prime but think about this.

sunstreaker's a narcissist.

ironhide's stubborn.

and mirage is a snob.

combined with prowl thats a heady mix for a mindmashed optimus to deal with on top of whatever effects actually being leader has on him.

I like that. That's pretty cool. Hope it's true!

Synopsis
It’s battleground: Earth once more, as the uneasy peace between Optimus’ forces, the Junkions, and G.I. Joe collapses amidst betrayals and subterfuge. Will Optimus Prime and Pyra Magna be able to put aside their differences—or is war really the only way forward?



Story

The turbofox excrement hit the ventilator last issue, as you might recall, with Sharkticons pouring out of the Junkion corkscrew ship by the thousands, Pyra and Optimus not entirely seeing eye to eye (and the complications, if you will, seen in the Ghost Stories annual), and the human side of the alliance still being the squishier part of the two - not ideal in most combat situations.



For an issue that is very, very much tense and building up to a potentially even bigger rupture point, John Barber manages to work in a lot - and I mean a lot - of humour: quips, side comments, snide comments, jokes, tension being maaaybe defused by the likes of Wreck-Gar, Cosmos, the captions, even Aileron and some early snark from flashback cameos. Prowl is undoubtedly not amused.



The narrating voice this issue belongs to Arcee, whose story is still somewhat being developed, and we get to find out more about her attachment to Sideswipe, why she needs him to live, how she might do that, and how her skills will turn in handy in this new fight erupting just over Earth again. The tone, at times, feels a little discordant with the action taking place, I'll admit, but not entirely distracting.



A number of readers and followers of the story have commented on the ruthlessness of Optimus Prime as seen in the preview, and speculation is running high on why he might be behaving this way after all. There may be more to it in the flashback again, as it develops both his motivations (next to omnipresent Prowl) and, in a very nice parallel track, Soundwave's. More on this below!

Art

Kei Zama returns to the artwork after the one month fill-in, and we get to see even more of her Sharkticons in action, plus the dynamism of the various action sequences in the issue are brought out in their wider framing without losing any of the detail that her style focuses on. Plus her Optimus looks truly menacing, with the broken faceplate and warlord stances.



Staying as the staple connector between artists is technicolour wizzzard Josh Burcham, and I still really appreciate the contrasts between flashback and current time, plus the paler palettes used to counteract the heavier inking of Zama's style - Junkions and Sharkticons both continue to look excellent, and battles are even more vicious as a result.



Where I mention above that the Arcee caption monologue can be jarring, the result is definitely tuned down by the lettering, marking them out as separate, in effect, from the action in the panels they show up; the lettering choices by Tom B. Long make it easy to separate and follow equally. Cover-wise, we have a full TF roster with week with some excellent Casey Coller/Joana Lafuente, Andrew Griffith/Josh Perez and EJ Su pieces to accompany the main Zama/Burcham one. All can be seen in our database entry for the issue, here.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

What started out potentially a just-action-fight-scenes sequence, turned out to be a pretty excellent chapter rushing towards the finale in the next issue, and a highlight for many characters involved in the cast: Arcee gets her moments, though I expect more next time; Jetfire, Aileron, the Colonists get some nice time, Cosmos is thrown about and even Optimus himself has a decent block of character added to him.



But it is Soundwave that absolutely shines here, and shows his true Decepticon ideological self - echoing some of the best revolutionary discourse, showing his actual political inclinations, deploying the skills that made his so valuable to the purple cause in what could've been a devastating new conflict - and resulting much scarier (if HECK YEAH) in the process. Suck it, Funny Truck.

This was an amazing issue and I loved it!

I'm willing to bet that the this flashback scene is where Optimus goes from the awesome good cop of the MTMTE stories to the hardass cop from the Autocracy stories

I enjoy that the passage from "Towards Peace" used is the same one that Twincast 159 started with. My favorite lines that James has defined from the imaginary work, and Barber's usage here is dead on point and extremely complementary to the character of Soundwave that he's built up.

Cassette Sharkticons, please. Plz.

Anyone else wondering where Rumble and Frenzy are though? Or is Cosmos the only one who survived

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Anyone else wondering where Rumble and Frenzy are though? Or is Cosmos the only one who survived

Just another two Season 1/2 crew to chalk up to questionable status!

Rumble & Frenzy - Status unknown
Blitzwing - Status unknown
Dirge - We haven't seen him for years seriously where is he
Astrotrain - Status REALLY unknown what the heck is going on in MASK

Man, along with Shockwave, Thrust, Ramjet and Ravage being dead there's so few left. Megatron, Soundwave, the original 3 Seekers and the bird Cassettes represent.

I really enjoyed this issue, but.....for the love of Primus.....can we PLEASE be rid of the captioning of every individual in EVERY SINGLE issue?? I realize it may have been for "new" readers to the book, but five issues in, it's now just clutter. Zama's artwork is already fairly heavy and dense, and captioning everyone is really starting to work against it.

Bounti76 wrote:I really enjoyed this issue, but.....for the love of Primus.....can we PLEASE be rid of the captioning of every individual in EVERY SINGLE issue?? I realize it may have been for "new" readers to the book, but five issues in, it's now just clutter. Zama's artwork is already fairly heavy and dense, and captioning everyone is really starting to work against it.

I still really like it in the Joe book because I'm bad at remembering their names. Also the captions on the captions are quippy and knowing that would irritate Prowl makes it entertaining! But yes, I can understand wanting a little less text bubble too.

While we have seen two of the variant covers offered for IDW Publishing's Optimus Prime #6, out next month, we now also have another Kei Zama / Josh Burcham piece of art, featuring Skylynx, Optimus and Metrotitan, in clean linework and full colour! Check it out below from Zama's Twitter feed.

I'm starting to warm to Zama's art, though it is still a bit heavy looking for my tastes.

Va'al, any chance we'll be getting a TAAO #8 review?