Sneak Peek - IDW Optimus Prime #4

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.