Sneak Peek - IDW Transformers: Windblade #4 iTunes Preview

I'm still having real trouble adjusting to Corin's art.

I'm really missing Sarah Stone's input here.

MemphisR56 wrote:I'm still having real trouble adjusting to Corin's art.

Yea, well for 1 we can PASS ON WINDBLADE at least now anyway,
esp. with (the underwhelming) "COMBINER WARS" already being
over & done. It's to bad because CW's shoulda been A Huge
Story/Saga that lasted all summer-- at least till Devy drops.
Right??
Like Prowl-astator should of been more center stage! They just
blew it; did Bruticus even appear? Like WtF!


They COULD OF dug deep into Prowl/Devastator gestalt crew dynamic.
That would of been the smart move Imo.
&/or had like A 'Menasor one-shot' or something.
A "Superion one-shot" or an ish ALL about them;
where they could of broke down the whole 'Sling Shot'-'Alpha Bravo'
fiasco. Man,,,, So unfortunate-- "COMBINER WARS" should of been A classic.

We still got Miline's 'Transformers Robots in Disguise' coming
though, time to catch up wit The Lost Light crew - THEE BEST
Transformers series ever! RID. 4Ever!

& yes, [Corin] her Art is Terrible for Transformer's- backgrounds are weak, there's little detail. Her art has an unfortunately childish narrative- aesthetically anyhow.
Keep her on 'Bat-Mite' Or put her on 'Archie', 'Scooby Doo' or something kid-friendly ya know.

Despite my thoughts about combiner wars, I'm not about to give up hope on Windblade just yet. I like her as a character and the role she's found herself stuck in.

I'm another one though that hopes Sarah Stone returns to art duties one day though I find this newcomers art less jarring then the art of gi joe vs transformers.

I actually feel a little more comfortable with this art now. It is still not Sarah Stone's art, but it looks ok for me. I don't mind the cartoonish look to it.
And I am actually looking forward to Windblade as an ongoing series. This will be the colony book, and I look forward to seeing what colonies we find and what kinds of crazy stuff can happen.
We already have Caminus, Velocitron, Eukaris, Prion and the spaceship, so we still have 8 to go! who knows what we'll find!

As much stock as we put on the writing of any good comic (and you shouldn't demand anything less than spectacular) the artwork should be even more of a consideration for such a visual medium. Just as I'd never want to see Jae Lee pencil the latest Archie comic I don't think Howell's artwork is suitable for portraying mechanical, alien cultures that are constantly embroiled in warfare and conflict.

Whether we want to admit it or not, Transformers physiology is based on adult humans of somewhat different physiques. With that said, the "little guys" such as Swerve or Tailgate share similar diminutive frames that suit their personalities (or vise versa?). When I look at this artwork I see a society of Swerves with their child-like proportions. It doesn't work and distracts from the overall (dramatic) tone of each scene.

This series has potential and I hate to see it hampered by good talent that is unfortunately, not the greatest fit for the series.

Alpha Dominus wrote:I hate to see it hampered by good talent that is unfortunately, not the greatest fit for the series.

Very well said. I don't think this art is objectively bad on any level, it's just not a great fit. Which, yes, is what you said, this is just me agreeing with you

Im not a fan of this art.

And what happened to windblade, why is she winging all the time? And the framing. First Chromia is pushing a decepticon back and then she's whispering in Windblades ear.

This person may be a fine artist but the ball is dropped here.

God that artwork is horrible, it looks like fan art taken from the darkest depths of Tumblr.

You've clearly not seen my fan art then

Maybe instead of asking the artists to change to YOUR expectations, you folks might try pulling the stick out of your collective arses and maybe understand that this book isn't supposed to be the same as the other two TF titles. Once you get past that hurdle, which I sincerely doubt many of you are even capable of, you might be able to actually just sit back and enjoy the entertainment value. It's not a priceless piece of art FFS, it's a COMIC BOOK and the entire lot of you fall WAY short of being professional art critics to begin with.

Your perspectives and priorities are beyond messed up and you all just need to enjoy it for what it is: a few minutes of escapism from your otherwise hectic, screwed up lives.

Having an opinion of someones work is fine but most of you are just pricks about it and are doing it for no other reason than the fact that you can't wrap your tiny minds around something different and that does a disservice not only to the artist but also to yourselves.

You can express disagreement with the opinions offered before your post, CrankyOldTruck, but do so without resorting to personal insults. Thank you.

Hundreds of Transformers characters over the last 3 decades and they give this fan voted boring as scrap, poor man's Mary Sue her own series.

How about an interesting Transformer like Prowl, Countdown or Repugnus?

And she's a bot with hair? C'mon! I so wish Marvel or Dreamwave still had the licence.

And I'll take Corin's art any day over Livio or Wildman!

Windsweeper wrote:Hundreds of Transformers characters over the last 3 decades and they give this fan voted boring as scrap, poor man's Mary Sue her own series.

How about an interesting Transformer like Prowl, Countdown or Repugnus?

And she's a bot with hair? C'mon! I so wish Marvel or Dreamwave still had the licence.

And I'll take Corin's art any day over Livio or Wildman!

Well, I liked the fan created character. And I like how they have brought her front and center. She keeps up a good role, as expected since other people, like those who created her, voted with the hopes she'd be an excellent addition. And with her role, IDW has the ability to add so many more stories, and I like how her ongoing is now the colony centered ongoing.
As for an "interesting character", The Transformers is almost completely "Transformers: Prowl" so to speak, and More Than Meets The Eye is all about the almost unknown and forgotten. And I really like that.
And the only female transformer in IDW to have "hair" so far is Firestar, and she is not in this comic. And it actually kinda works. Just cause we're dealing with robots doesn't mean we cannot explore diversity and new designs.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:Hundreds of Transformers characters over the last 3 decades and they give this fan voted boring as scrap, poor man's Mary Sue her own series.

How about an interesting Transformer like Prowl, Countdown or Repugnus?

And she's a bot with hair? C'mon! I so wish Marvel or Dreamwave still had the licence.

And I'll take Corin's art any day over Livio or Wildman!

Well, I liked the fan created character. And I like how they have brought her front and center. She keeps up a good role, as expected since other people, like those who created her, voted with the hopes she'd be an excellent addition. And with her role, IDW has the ability to add so many more stories, and I like how her ongoing is now the colony centered ongoing.
As for an "interesting character", The Transformers is almost completely "Transformers: Prowl" so to speak, and More Than Meets The Eye is all about the almost unknown and forgotten. And I really like that.
And the only female transformer in IDW to have "hair" so far is Firestar, and she is not in this comic. And it actually kinda works. Just cause we're dealing with robots doesn't mean we cannot explore diversity and new designs.

Hear hear! I agree. I love it when new things are added in to the franchise, even more so when us, the fans, had some say in her development. You may call her a Mary sue but she'll have years of character development ahead, the likes of which we've already seen.

Also with her incursion in the new animated series, I don't think Windblade is going anywhere

As for the comment about hair; well its not like other bots haven't had hair before look at Alpha Trion from G1

ZeroWolf wrote:
Also with her incursion in the new animated series, I don't think Windblade is going anywhere

As for the comment about hair; well its not like other bots haven't had hair before look at Alpha Trion from G1

I completely agree with Windblade going nowhere anytime soon
And yes. Before a single person thinks about complaining about hair, look at Alpha Trion, Wreck-gar or scourge.

Even as a kid I thought the facial hair on Alpha Trion and Wreck Gar looked stupid. Alpha Trion is a horrible cliché. I've always hated him.
There's diversity and there's slaggin stupidity.
I really am getting fed up with this bloody franchise.

What's wrong with the franchise though? Everything seems to be going right for it. Yes there's some creative decisions I don't like but overall those are minor blips.

While we have still only seen the iTunes three-page preview for next week's Transformers: Windblade #4, the IDW Publishing Facebook page have revealed a previously unseen incentive variant cover featuring the main character herself - check it out below!

TRANSFORMERS: Windblade #4 out next week

RI Cover Art: Naoto Tsushima, Colors: Jet Enter
IDW Publishing's photo.

gorgeous me thinks

Absolutely love it. Needs to be made into a poster.

Very nice, windblade is very photogenic. ...For a drawing of a toy

After last week's initial epilogue of the Combiner Wars event in The Transformers #42, IDW Publishing picks up the other strands of the stories from Cybertron and the Council of Worlds in Windblade #4! Check out a full preview below, now that ComicBookResources have posted their exclusive, and head back here later this week for the Seibertron.com review.

Transformers: Windblade #4—Combiner Wars Epilogue
Mairghread Scott (w) • Corin Howell (a) • Priscilla Tramontano (c)
MORE WORLDS—MORE PROBLEMS! After the events of COMBINERS WARS, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM race to recruit the lost CYBERTRONIAN colonies to the Council of Worlds—but which of them will control the fate of Cybertron?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
The COMBINER WARS are over, but the fallout has just begun!
A new universe opens to the TRANSFORMER—will a new CYBERTRONIAN EMPIRE follow?
Featuring the art debut of new TRANSFORMERS superstar Corin Howell!
Variant Cover by Naoto Tsushima!

Good old Knockout. Stylin' and profilin'.

Love Knockout, glad he is back doing his thing.

We know about 4 colonies right?
Caminus
Velocitron
Eukaris
Onyx

What is the fifth one Starscream mentioned?

Now that we have a full preview I can say I'm happy with the art and this story arc now that combiner wars is sort of over. Love Knockout

Nice, always good to see more non-g1 interpretation of characters being added to the idw-verse. Knock out is always a hoot.

So here is my theory. We know for the most part where all the colony titans are/were possibly.

Issue 34 of RiD mentioned that shockwave did not choose planets randomly to seed The Regenesis Program. Alpha Trion hints that Shockwave chose those planets because they had a significance to to Cybertron.

Ore-1, "Time", from LV-117, which allows travel through time
Ore-2, "Death", from Gorlam Prime, which causes living matter to decay and die
Ore-6, "Cold", from Arduria, which causes the cessation of thermodynamic processes
Ore-7, "Change", possessed of transmutation properties
Ore-8, "Destruction", from Tsiehshi, which manifests as radioactive and explosive crystals
Ore-13, "Power Itself", from Earth, which boosts a Transformer's capabilities

Ardurians were mentioned to be "cousins" to Cybertronians.

we know that Golram Prime had a titan on it that laid dormant and there were structures similar to Cybertronaian culture.

The planet that appeared in Heart of Darkness was noted to have the same cybertronian like structures. it's possible theres a titan on that planet too.

We also know that Nickel hails from a colony that met a tragic end and with Earth having an Ore it's possible a titan is laying dormant.

that makes 8 colonies(maybe) plus Caminus, Veliocitron, Eurikaris and the 2 others this preview mentioned makes THIRTEEN.

Also shockwave did mention not all his ores grew to fruition yet Caminus has Energon and if there's othere colonies they too must have energon so his ores did mature just didnt become unique.

this is just my theory on this.

Randomhero wrote:So here is my theory. We know for the most part where all the colony titans are/were possibly.

Issue 34 of RiD mentioned that shockwave did not choose planets randomly to seed The Regenesis Program. Alpha Trion hints that Shockwave chose those planets because they had a significance to to Cybertron.

Ore-1, "Time", from LV-117, which allows travel through time
Ore-2, "Death", from Gorlam Prime, which causes living matter to decay and die
Ore-6, "Cold", from Arduria, which causes the cessation of thermodynamic processes
Ore-7, "Change", possessed of transmutation properties
Ore-8, "Destruction", from Tsiehshi, which manifests as radioactive and explosive crystals
Ore-13, "Power Itself", from Earth, which boosts a Transformer's capabilities

Ardurians were mentioned to be "cousins" to Cybertronians.

we know that Golram Prime had a titan on it that laid dormant and there were structures similar to Cybertronaian culture.

The planet that appeared in Heart of Darkness was noted to have the same cybertronian like structures. it's possible theres a titan on that planet too.

We also know that Nickel hails from a colony that met a tragic end and with Earth having an Ore it's possible a titan is laying dormant.

that makes 8 colonies(maybe) plus Caminus, Veliocitron, Eurikaris and the 2 others this preview mentioned makes THIRTEEN.

Also shockwave did mention not all his ores grew to fruition yet Caminus has Energon and if there's othere colonies they too must have energon so his ores did mature just didnt become unique.

this is just my theory on this.

There's also the matter of the deep space freighter Elita was piloting and why the bridge locked on to it. Either the ship is a titan, albiet a small one, or she cannibalized parts from a titan that Metroplex could pick up on.

Well caminus ended up cannibalising their titan (which he was fine with apparently). So its probable that it's happened several times before.

What happened to the titan that proclaimed Starscream to be the chosen one? He was obviously not connected to a colony unless he abandoned them

[qe="ZeroWolf"]Well caminus ended up cannibalising their titan (which he was fine with apparently). So its probable that it's happened several times before.

What happened to the titan that proclaimed Starscream to be the chosen one? He was obviously not connected to a colony unless he abandoned them[/quote]

Also, remembering the titan mass grave from Luna 1, either there are a lot fewer titans still alive or there were a lot more to begin with.

I forgot about that actually, you're right. Hopefully we're given more information about this as time goes on though I hope it's not a retcon...

Randomhero wrote:So here is my theory. We know for the most part where all the colony titans are/were possibly.

Issue 34 of RiD mentioned that shockwave did not choose planets randomly to seed The Regenesis Program. Alpha Trion hints that Shockwave chose those planets because they had a significance to to Cybertron.

Ore-1, "Time", from LV-117, which allows travel through time
Ore-2, "Death", from Gorlam Prime, which causes living matter to decay and die
Ore-6, "Cold", from Arduria, which causes the cessation of thermodynamic processes
Ore-7, "Change", possessed of transmutation properties
Ore-8, "Destruction", from Tsiehshi, which manifests as radioactive and explosive crystals
Ore-13, "Power Itself", from Earth, which boosts a Transformer's capabilities

Ardurians were mentioned to be "cousins" to Cybertronians.

we know that Golram Prime had a titan on it that laid dormant and there were structures similar to Cybertronaian culture.

The planet that appeared in Heart of Darkness was noted to have the same cybertronian like structures. it's possible theres a titan on that planet too.

We also know that Nickel hails from a colony that met a tragic end and with Earth having an Ore it's possible a titan is laying dormant.

that makes 8 colonies(maybe) plus Caminus, Veliocitron, Eurikaris and the 2 others this preview mentioned makes THIRTEEN.

Also shockwave did mention not all his ores grew to fruition yet Caminus has Energon and if there's othere colonies they too must have energon so his ores did mature just didnt become unique.

this is just my theory on this.

I guess it's a matter of distinguishing the 13 colonies from the ones the Knights of Cybertron used on a regular basis. During the "Remain in the Light" arc there were scores of dead Metrotitans on Luna 1?

Shuttershock wrote:

Randomhero wrote:So here is my theory. We know for the most part where all the colony titans are/were possibly.

Issue 34 of RiD mentioned that shockwave did not choose planets randomly to seed The Regenesis Program. Alpha Trion hints that Shockwave chose those planets because they had a significance to to Cybertron.

Ore-1, "Time", from LV-117, which allows travel through time
Ore-2, "Death", from Gorlam Prime, which causes living matter to decay and die
Ore-6, "Cold", from Arduria, which causes the cessation of thermodynamic processes
Ore-7, "Change", possessed of transmutation properties
Ore-8, "Destruction", from Tsiehshi, which manifests as radioactive and explosive crystals
Ore-13, "Power Itself", from Earth, which boosts a Transformer's capabilities

Ardurians were mentioned to be "cousins" to Cybertronians.

we know that Golram Prime had a titan on it that laid dormant and there were structures similar to Cybertronaian culture.

The planet that appeared in Heart of Darkness was noted to have the same cybertronian like structures. it's possible theres a titan on that planet too.

We also know that Nickel hails from a colony that met a tragic end and with Earth having an Ore it's possible a titan is laying dormant.

that makes 8 colonies(maybe) plus Caminus, Veliocitron, Eurikaris and the 2 others this preview mentioned makes THIRTEEN.

Also shockwave did mention not all his ores grew to fruition yet Caminus has Energon and if there's othere colonies they too must have energon so his ores did mature just didnt become unique.

this is just my theory on this.

There's also the matter of the deep space freighter Elita was piloting and why the bridge locked on to it. Either the ship is a titan, albiet a small one, or she cannibalized parts from a titan that Metroplex could pick up on.

i apologize i shoud have noted I do count Elita's ship as one of the 2 unnamed titans mentioned because metroplex did bridge the combiners there.

YoungPrime wrote:

Randomhero wrote:So here is my theory. We know for the most part where all the colony titans are/were possibly.

Issue 34 of RiD mentioned that shockwave did not choose planets randomly to seed The Regenesis Program. Alpha Trion hints that Shockwave chose those planets because they had a significance to to Cybertron.

Ore-1, "Time", from LV-117, which allows travel through time
Ore-2, "Death", from Gorlam Prime, which causes living matter to decay and die
Ore-6, "Cold", from Arduria, which causes the cessation of thermodynamic processes
Ore-7, "Change", possessed of transmutation properties
Ore-8, "Destruction", from Tsiehshi, which manifests as radioactive and explosive crystals
Ore-13, "Power Itself", from Earth, which boosts a Transformer's capabilities

Ardurians were mentioned to be "cousins" to Cybertronians.

we know that Golram Prime had a titan on it that laid dormant and there were structures similar to Cybertronaian culture.

The planet that appeared in Heart of Darkness was noted to have the same cybertronian like structures. it's possible theres a titan on that planet too.

We also know that Nickel hails from a colony that met a tragic end and with Earth having an Ore it's possible a titan is laying dormant.

that makes 8 colonies(maybe) plus Caminus, Veliocitron, Eurikaris and the 2 others this preview mentioned makes THIRTEEN.

Also shockwave did mention not all his ores grew to fruition yet Caminus has Energon and if there's othere colonies they too must have energon so his ores did mature just didnt become unique.

this is just my theory on this.

I guess it's a matter of distinguishing the 13 colonies from the ones the Knights of Cybertron used on a regular basis. During the "Remain in the Light" arc there were scores of dead Metrotitans on Luna 1?

That is something as well. i do realize that because Remain in light did show a graveyard of Titans and my thought is maybe those were the titans of those colonies from the working ores and Tyrest used their space bridge to bring them to Luna One but even i will say im making an excuse because there were dozens if not hundreds. they thought they were heading to mountains in the the comic only to be a mass grave.

I am continuity nut, comics are my medium. i am a fan of the comics before everything else anymore. as a kid it was the cartoon, as an adult its the comics and im not tooting my own horn when i say i take pride in knowing as much as possible about IDWs universe.

that being said, i will say im pretty unhappy with how continuity is going post Dark Cybertron. John and James have done an amazing job working with past continuity and retconning past stories to fix errors or modify what they are working on but post Dark Cybertron has just gotten out of hand.

Im willing to be fine with the 13 in IDW because it's established that they were just great cybertronians that were leaders of tribes. they weren't Primus' children forged to battle unicron. They dont prove The Guiding Hand exist or the Knights of Cybertron or Primus for that matter.

What im not okay with is trying to interlink them with colonies because IDW is using elements of the Aligned history like Megatronus betraying Solus yet apparently she is well known on Caminus and is their religious figure and their society is based on her. Same with Nexus Prime, even down to his design and Alpha saying only a Prime can kill a Prime yet 4 pages later Galvatron kills him.

They try to say females may have been native to Caminus, which i was cool with and say they may be that way because they believe that Solus Prime flows within every Camian. Im fine with that but then Nickel is introduced, then Moonracer, Elita One, Airrazor...so its not because Camians evoled, theres just more female transformers out there...

thats makes me ask "well why are there none on Cybertorn that were naturally forged? At first they say its all about Caminus but then were introduced to more from other colonies so that makes me ask "well whats the deal with Cybertron?"

biggest problem for me was during Combiner Wars when optimus opens his chest revealing the matrix when we now know he doesnt have it. he relinquished what was left after remain in light and dark cybertron back to cybertron. i asked John Barber on twitter "was it just his spark shining?" he wouldnt say, just stay tuned.

latley i just feel things are being rushed and mistakes are being made.

Making an attempt at answering questions:
1) Prime had the whole matrix container the whole time: he only ever gave away the crystal cores. He reclaimed Bee's back in issue 29 and he didn't scatter it to the winds. He just brought it back and has kept a hold of it. It is still whole.
2) We need to give them time to explain all the 13 colonies as well as the 13 primes connections and the 13 ores. We need all 13 colonies to explain it, and we have only been dealing with 2 (soon to be 6 (Eukaris, elita-1, prima and velocitron).
3) The primes ASSUMED they could only be killed by another prime, but it is when Galvatron kills Nexus that they flee, now aware that others can kill primes.
4) Cybertron ran dry a long time ago with regards to sparks. The titans could have had new sparks and let them go bit by bit, not a huge release that dries them up. Also, I feel this will be explained. After all, Cybertron has proven to be the exception rather than the norm. I feel it will all be figured out. Just gotta give it time to pan out.

thanks d

Ugh......I am not a fan of the art. Over-the-top, TV cartoon expressions in EVERY panel, even when it doesn't make sense- like she's just drawing them that way to show off how expressive she can make them. Grimaces, huge wide eyes, mouths gaping open, quizzical looks.....I half expect the Road Runner to drop a safe on Windblade- the art is that goofy. None of the characters seem dignified or scary. And in my opinion, it severely detracts from the serious portions of the plot. I thought Chromia was going to give a noogie to the one Decepticon who tried to attack Windblade. She doesn't look angry, she looks......weird.

I just really REALLY don't like the art style, and I feel like it detracts from my enjoyment of the story almost enough to unsubscribe. I don't want to pay money for a good story with accompanying visuals that look like they belong on a Loony Toons marathon, or a kiddie cartoon. Ms. Howell is talented, to be sure-I can't draw to save my life.. I'd MUCH rather have Sara Pitre-DuRocher or Alex Milne drawing this book. Unfortunately, it looks like Sarah Stone won't be back on the book any time soon, if ever, which sucks. She and Mairghread Scott created something amazing on the Windblade mini.

Actually I assumed that the 'only a prime could kill a prime' meant there was more to galvatron then I we were being told, basically he is one of the thirteen.

I just can't like this art. I don't feel it's appropriate. I mean it is overly cartoony. Wow. I wish Sara Stone would come back.

ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I assumed that the 'only a prime could kill a prime' meant there was more to galvatron then I we were being told, basically he is one of the thirteen.

I may not be right, but I'm pretty sure it meant that the primes were undivine but thought of themselves as divine. However, it would be a twist if he were a prime. afterall, we do not know the names of all 13

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I assumed that the 'only a prime could kill a prime' meant there was more to galvatron then I we were being told, basically he is one of the thirteen.

I may not be right, but I'm pretty sure it meant that the primes were undivine but thought of themselves as divine. However, it would be a twist if he were a prime. afterall, we do not know the names of all 13

Personally, I like the Underbase Podcast interpretation. The Primes built up a mythology around themselves that made them seem divine and untouchable, like the Egyptian pharaohs. They ARE very powerful to begin with, but they're no less mortal than anyone else who's got the bearings to challenge them.

Shuttershock wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I assumed that the 'only a prime could kill a prime' meant there was more to galvatron then I we were being told, basically he is one of the thirteen.

I may not be right, but I'm pretty sure it meant that the primes were undivine but thought of themselves as divine. However, it would be a twist if he were a prime. afterall, we do not know the names of all 13

Personally, I like the Underbase Podcast interpretation. The Primes built up a mythology around themselves that made them seem divine and untouchable, like the Egyptian pharaohs. They ARE very powerful to begin with, but they're no less mortal than anyone else who's got the bearings to challenge them.

That idea does sound good to me. I believe you are right

Hmm I don't know especially since the thirteen idea seems to be coming into force and the different continuities primes are being shared (with presumably their abilities being shared). I still think in the long run, Galvatron may turn out to be Megatronus.

It's one of the best mysteries of the IDW universe along with what Rung's alt mode.

[quote="Ze"]Hmm I don't know especially since the thirteen idea seems to be coming into force and the different continuities primes are being shared (with presumably their abilities being shared). I still think in the long run, Galvatron may turn out to be Megatronus.

It's one of the best mysteries of the IDW universe along with what Rung's alt mode.[/quote]

The only problem I'd have with that is that both being possessed by or actually being one of the thirteen kind of detracts from Galvatron's individual agency, since iit would literally be the devil making him do it.

That and it dramatically demystifies the religious notions in all the books, like the Guiding Hand or the Knights of Cybertron.

I understand that, but I'm just looking at the direction things have been heading, especially since they based the camiens around Solus Prime and obviously outed Alpha Trion

I can't get past this art. It's just so unfitting for the story they're trying to tell. She's not a bad artist by any stretch, from what I've seen of Angry Birds Transformers her art there is spectacular, but here? It's wrong. Sarah Stone had great expressions, but she rarely exaggerated anybody's proportions to create them. She had restraint, which is something this comic sorely needs, apparently. I hope she gets better and returns to Transformers soon.

Synopsis
MORE WORLDS-MORE PROBLEMS! After the events of COMBINERS WARS, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM race to recruit the lost CYBERTRONIAN colonies to the Council of Worlds-but which of them will control the fate of Cybertron?



Story

Once more, we look at the almost immediate aftermath of Combiner Wars, as one of the minds behind the arc's story takes her writing back to the series that first launched the multiverse. Mairghread Scott dwells on Cybertron, and the many worlds that refer back to it, more or less, and some old-but-new friends make their appearance.



Scott's script manages to be fresh while drawing from a number of sources, from Animated to Prime to older material still, and we finally also get a look another of the colonies: Velocitron, and its peculiarly self-assured inhabitants, as Starscream begins to build his empire Council - just as the Transformers fiction re-expands, too.



Having someone like Knock-Out, with his Prime personality, is a magnificent counterpart to the snark that Starscream brings to the scene, and provides some great character bouncing off for both Blurr and Windblade. The latter, however, is even better placed next to the more humble Moonracer, while louder egos clash in ..er.. negotiations.



Character-establishing, world-building, great interactions, fabulous characters from previous strengths and preferences, the first fully-fledged Windblade issue is a great venture into a wider verse and the smaller realities of the individuals populating it. And it's darn good fun, of course.

Art

While we have seen Corin Howell debuting in the previous issue of Windblade, this is the first time we get to see a full issue featuring her linework, from pencils to inks. And, despite some expected criticisms from readers expecting a 'Stone continuation', I enjoy the Animated-influenced perspective we get in the issue. Some sequences are full of life, and even joy - with some excellent homages and call-backs to what Windblade has already been established as in the previous run.



Thomas Teyowisonte Deer is another very nice addition to the creative team on the book, and the colouring style does fit quite nicely with Howell's line-and-ink performance. Some of the backgrounds are magnificent, though there are some more muted, almost silently contrasted to the otherwise joyous atmosphere of the party scenes. Nonetheless, you can see below what he can do elsewhere.



Lettering is left to Tom B. Long once again, a mainstay in the TFverse by now, and his work blends particularly aptly with Howell's small sound additions in the linework, both in font work and subtlety, and keeps some level of continuity with previous comics. As for the covers, we have another impressive array, with Priscilla Tramontano on main variant, the dramatically splendid Casey Coller/Joana Lafuente Cityspeaker, the stunning Windblade by Naoto Tsutshima and Jet Enter plus the SDCC exclusive Combiner Hunter version, by Sara Pitre Durocher (thumbnail).


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

There are many Seibertron.com staff words and thoughts in this review, and thought I should acknowledge them here before I get lost in my own - and overall, we agree on its merits. It's a fun, well-dialogued interaction between different cultures, characters and references that fans from across the franchise will enjoy as it starts laying out the steps to something bigger.



So big, in fact, that we may have seen the beginning of Titan Wars dropped in, very casually, in the early pages. There are cameos, there are homages, there are redesigns and reworkings of established elements of the mediatic Transformers universe, and most of all - it's fun. Light enough after the heavy-fisted Combiner Wars, without drifting off, or going off track. Chapeau.

I agree, it was a nice change of pace to have a more light-hearted issue.

But by Primus, that's some mighty distracting art. Over exaggerated facial expressions on EVERY single panel? Really, we get that Howell can draw facial expressions. We do. But when they become the focus of the page, rather than working WITH the words to tell the story, I lose interest VERY quickly. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I half expected the Road Runner to drop a safe on someone. The art is that juvenile to me.

I really hope Howell won't be a permanent artist on this series. Her style is a bad fit for it. Too bad Animated isn't still around; she'd be perfect for that.

*shrug*

Agree to disagree, of course.

Nice read, I'd say. Loved the whole bar sequence.

Quite like the art as well. It's a lovely refresher from that all red, all skewed, all depressing Livio stuff. Do not mind at all.

Looking forward to this whole racing adventure, as well. Sounds exciting. Also, Blurr. I wonder what will come off it.


And I agree, the one on the left is cuter.