IDW Transformers #34 Review

It's time for your monthly dose of Rucklin' and rulin', or something, as the ongoing Transformers title from IDW Publishing reaches issue 35 tomorrow. This is the second part of the "Sea of Rust" story, and features art by Anna Malkova, colors by David Garcia Cruz and Evan Gauntt, and letters by Jake M. Wood. The official synopsis for the issue says:

(W) Brian Ruckley (A) Anna Malkova (CA) Joana Lafuente
"Sea of Rust," part two! Termagax has many secrets - information that could forever tip the scales in the favor of the Autobots or the Decepticons. As the Decepticons close in, she allows Optimus Prime and the two other Autobots she respects into her inner sanctum to share her knowledge. But will the Autobots be able to act on it before the Decepticons start their siege? And where does Skywarp factor into the equation?

Check out the preview below and be sure to pick this issue up tomorrow at your local comic shop, through a licensed digital comics retailer, or via the Seibertron.com eBay store.

Who is the character next to Shockwave in that last panel?

Nice to see Blades' bloodlust portrayed.

Flamewar is funny, egging Hyperdrive on.

The long road through the Cybertronian War, or at least one of them, continues onwards with today's release of Transformers #35. Several months of build-up and maneuvering have culminated in a showdown at Termagax's house, House. While a single issue alone will never be enough to get me back "in to" this series, it came as a surprise to find plenty to like in the trenches of this series' latest installment.


Most of "Lord of Misrule: Sea of Rust II" takes place in the same setting as issue 34, though after a brief but pretty enjoyable skirmish at the beginning the action cools. An opportunity to have one very well focused issue, or at least relatively for this series, is cast aside so we can find out what "Skywarp" is up to this month. Some readers will like that, but I found it distracted from what this issue was doing on the whole. My intense dislike of what Brian Ruckley has done with the character and the series' presumable overarching villain probably doesn't help here.


That aside, and without giving too much away, what this issue does is set up and begin to execute a big, exciting, fun to read set-piece battle between a bunch of Autobots and a just-as-large group of Decepticons. It provides at least a small amount of payoff for the series' excessive cast, jumping from group to group while nearly managing to pull off the impressive feat of building up that cast in a positive way as it does so. While I didn't like every development within the battle and found Optimus Prime to be abhorrently misused during it, it was still very exciting and makes this the most entertaining issue of the series in a long while.


The art steals the show here without question, as Anna Malkova shows off every skill she's developed as a Transformers artist in as big a way as could be imagined. There are dozens and dozens of characters in this issue doing dozens of different things while conveying a wide spectrum of emotion and it's hard to pick a spot where things ever get bad, though Sandstorm's teeth are a little weird. David Garcia Cruz and Evan Gauntt provide the colors, and outside of the orange tinted hues of the Sea of Rust looking marvelous there's great lighting work as well. Jake M. Wood's letter work never distracts and some of the effects serve as a welcome compliment to Malkova's transformation sequences. You can't literally hear Sky Lynx or Sixshot transform, but you will and they sound very different. Tremendous stuff.

This section went a bit long so remember that as always, you can find all the cover images and full credits for the issue through our Vector Sigma Database page for Transformers #35.


Transformers #35 could have been another chapter of this series where I frantically looked to push this review off onto another staff member, but the art and key battle sequence provided enough entertainment that I wanted to let you all know about it. There's certainly still a healthy helping of things I really, genuinely disliked, but at least there's cool stuff here to distract from, say, one of the hands-down worst versions of Optimus Prime that has ever existed, which I'm happy to go into on the boards where spoilers can roam more freely.

If you ignore everything but the battle scenes this is a 4.5/5, but on the whole, the issue has some really excellent stuff that's dragged down by its wider circumstances and context. If you've been enjoying the series, ignore my "average" rating for this one and keep that high score in mind instead.


This issue is out today, September 22nd, and you can pick it up at the Seibertron.com eBay store or at your local shop, check here to find the closest shop to you.

I went back this weekend and read issue 1 to current with all the mini series and tie ins and I’m just going to say it, this is some of the best transformers comics I’ve read in over 5 years. I like the first IDW-verse. I think John barber is without a doubt one of the best writers there’s been. While RID/TF/OP had its ups and down I enjoyed it a lot. That said I think this current iteration of the comics is without a doubt on par with the first year of RID and MTMTE in 2012 and is leaps and bounds better then the 5 years of MTMTE/LL. It’s pacing is better, it’s actually paying things off while also exploring other lore and giving some wonderful character development but also it’s not written like a f$@?ing television show but not just a television show it’s not written like red dwarf/dr who fan fiction. It’s written like a comic but not only a comic but an ongoing comic and what I mean by that is I couldn’t tell where the arc breaks were binge reading it all.

I love the stories, the characters and what’s going on with them. You can complain about Skywarp all you want but he’s being handled not too dissimilar from how he was conceived by Bob Budiansky. A deadly character who is kinda off and a prankster. Hate to break it to ya but Brian Ruckley read the bios of characters and is utilizing them to a very good extent.


I’ve seen people complain about the pacing and how slow the series and how little goes on and it’s all talking. Reading it from start to current, the pacing isn’t slow. It’s not just talking and there’s tons of stuff going on! The problem have been the delays. Even I was struggling a little at a point but reading it all I blame the delays and that’s unfortunate but that’s not the story’s fault.

I’ll say it again I think this is some of the best transformers comics in over 5 years and I highly recommend it. It’s leaps and bounds better the the last 2 years of the the original IDW verse and better then the -ation start that’s for damn certain and I loved the -ation series a lot.

ScottyP wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:You say most misused optimus...is that even worse then what they did in the latter days of IDW 1?

He spends this issue talking to Termagax while the big ol' cool battle scene happens instead of participating in it. I don't care how important that talk is to him, no Optimus should ever do that. He doesn't seem to give one crap that some of his soldiers are out there probably dying and I mean, wow, unless the point is that he's just not any better or much different from Sentinel then I don't get it.

Ah I get what you're saying.

Now, I’m not big into comics, or even reading this series (still making my way through IDW1), but I’ve been keeping an eye on the reviews and have seen many of the responses readers have had. It seems to me that there’s a good chance these pre-/early war story arcs will be much better in retrospect, when one isn’t limited to one issue a month, and when more of the seeds planted here have paid off. To borrow a phrase from ScottyP’s Beast Wars review, the approach here could very well be "writing for the trade" (I could be using that entirely wrong).
As I said before, I’m not finished with IDW1 yet, but so far it seems like MtMtE was much more focused on the stories within individual issues and small story arcs (often underdeveloping some of the longer-term stuff). On the other hand, IDW2 looks like it places heavy emphasis on world-building and planting seeds for later plots. So it would make sense that each series appeals to a largely different audience.
I could be wrong, though.

I tried giving this a shot when it 1st started, but after 5 or so issues I gave up, it was boring as hell. I suspected at the time it might be better to read it through TPBs. I'm probably still going to do that.

James Roberts is a mediocre comic book writer.

IDW-1 being the "best Transformers fiction the franchise has ever had" is a matter of opinion and 1 I don't share. It's probably in the top 10, maybe even top 6. But considering ALL the continuities and fiction from the last 37 years, it's not something I am eager to revisit as certain others.

I hope that doesn't happen for a long time either. There's a lot of potential in telling stories that take place on Cybertron, the Transformers having been at war for millions of years before arriving on Earth. Honestly, the whole crashing on Earth story is getting pretty boring by now. NO MORE HUMANS.

It's 'Howl's Moving Castle'!

09/12/2021 [Edit] If the rumours are true, IDW will lose the rights to TF comics in 2022 and the 'Bold New Era' will end. Someone else will have to come up with a 'Bolder Newer Era'!