Transformers Ongoing #11- Review and such.

My feelings about Transformers Ongoing #11 in a nut shell... finally we get to have something. We have some pretty good signs of improvement.

You should know that in the 16 hours or so leading up to its release, many of the ideas and details that I mention below could be considered possible SPOILERS to your reading enjoyment of the issue.

With the pleasantries out of the way, here we go.






This issue the Autobots and Skywatch take a step in the right direction. For the betterment of all, they actually do something ‘under the radar’ and a bit deceitful. Last issue to try to support the president’s mandate that Cybertronians may not be used as soldiers, Skywatch and the Autobots went on a mission to South Korea to try to ‘convince’ the Combaticons to move along and find another resource for their energon. As you can imagine the Combaticons did not take this suggestion well and pulverized the Autobots, who for sillies sake (oh and stealth too-- they didn’t think little aluminum foil hats would stop the government from watching them--), they stayed in their vehicle modes trying to defeat the elite Combaticon group (which is minus Swindle, so no Bruticus). So the Autobots were going to try to handicap themselves when fighting tactically superior warriors with the word combat in the subgroup team name? Sounds like a sure fire Autobot win!

It turned out to be a silly plan (who knew?). I know that last issue I said to myself that I had about had it when they employed this strategy. This seemed worse than any contrived cartoon plan. The Autobots were sure to get pulverized, and they did, turning tailpipe and barely getting away with their hides intact. What were you thinking when you wrote this Mike? None of us actually thought they had a chance.

But this issue, we see that perhaps Skywatch and the Autobots are not quite as dumb as we thought, and that Mr. Costa had a fairly sound plan for them.

Continuing on to this issue, the Combaticons celebrate their victory with some well earned energon, as they razz the Autobots (and rightfully so) for their lack of tact, strength, or brawn (why?). And then it hits the fan, figuratively, but almost literally if you look at the image below.



Vortex becomes a main goal as the Autobots mount a new attack. Having been a big reason why the Autobots got trounced in their ‘vehicle modes only approach’ (ie they are sitting ducks for Vortex), the Autobots look to remedy this advantage in Round 2. Poor Jetfire was not even enough to defeat this master of the air (last issue), so Ratchet and buddies try to keep him grounded.




A couple of other things also happen at this time to help turn the Autobots’ luck:

-They get air support from a very unexpected source (or an expected one if you’ve looked at any previews, or images from the early pages, or covers for this book).

-They get to use their robot modes this time thanks to satellite interruption.


So round two shows the Autobots delivering blows to the Combaticon unit. Outnumbered, outgunned, and now with no tactical advantage, it looks like the Combaticons need to white flag in a hurry.

And then we get another surprise. Another partial combiner team shows up. And again, it’s not much of a surprise because of the way IDW is choosing to do their comic covers. Basically, one ahead of the actual content in the issue has been happening an awful lot, at least in one cover version. It happens again. I don’t want to mention the team, but as the Combaticons were working for a dictator in South Korea, these crashers welcome themselves to the skirmish in the employ of the Republic of China. Interesting, or a played out idea? You can decide for yourself.

In this issue we find some good:

-More Thundercracker characterization. He must be someone’s favorite at IDW because he is really one of the few characters that IDW has truly given great life to. His non-friendship with Bumblebee and the Autobots makes for some interesting dialogue, and an interesting relationship explored!

-The Autobots don’t seem like tactical fools.

-Lots of action.

-Humans are very minimally involved.

-Good to great art.

And I want to take a moment to talk to you about the art. I truly have not been impressed by any artist on this series yet, until this issue. Yes, there are still some problems, but Guido really gets it right a lot of the time this issue. You know who robot characters are when you look at them, even if they might have a slight redesign. The style does slide towards a more animated type of drawing at times, especially with expressions, but I think that is still acceptable here, and compared to what we were straining to see in the first arc’s art. Guido also seems to like smirks a lot.




Just check out a few of these images below to whet your appetite.






This issue really seems to help the devoted and frustrated TRANSFORMERS comic reader to believe that this creative team may be able to pull ‘it’ off. They may produce a product that more than just the truly stubborn (ME!) readers will look to buy, and will enjoy! It’s too bad that so many readers have probably written the series off now, and won’t think twice on their decision, causing them to possibly miss out on something good.

A couple of points to the negative:

-Too many partial combiner teams. I understand these sub-groups seem to want to stick together because they had a previous allegiance, but I wonder if we are getting into the combiner overkill arena.

-The art is a little inconsistent. Like my writing. There are some really excellent panels in here. And then there aren’t. Good do outweigh bad though.

-Still seems drawn out. How many pages do BB and TC need to get through this?

-Why would the Autobots leave Brawn behind? Is he that much of an unthinking, untactful behemoth, or do they truly just not like him? (this plot point is explored in the issue)



Here’s the list of folks who got it done this issue...





Some bot symbols to help you visually see my thoughts. Each category is out of five bot symbols:

Art

Writing/Dialogue .5

Writing/Plot .5

Worth the $3.99

Check out the five page preview here, and look to your local shop for this issue tomorrow, or in the very near future.