Strike One
(Spoiler free-ish)
(Spoiler free-ish)
Synopsis
The crossover of the year is here! Earth is finally ready to officially join the Cybertronian Council of Worlds and appoint their first representative to the Council. Too bad the ceremony is interrupted by a massive explosion and the forces of COBRA! Now it’s up to Scarlett, Optimus Prime, G.I. Joe and the Autobots to save two worlds!
Because it worked so well last time...
Story
It begins. For a long while now IDW Publishing and the comics media mill have been promoting the first full crossover (since Revolution, anyway) for the various Hasbro properties licensed to the comics world: this is where we start, with issue #1, by Mairghread Scott and David A. Rodriguez - which also contains an additional story - The Origins of Evil, Part One: Redcliffe Club, written by John Barber. I'll talk more about this below, in summary.
Tone set
The first thing to note is that, due to IDW scheduling issues, this beginning of a brave new world in the Hasbro Universe is actually spoiling at least one of the series that lead up to it (Revolutionaries, in case you were curious), and probably needs a little more context from both Optimus Prime and GI Joe to actually reach the starting point we're at.
...wait for it...
That is obviously no fault of the writers, and what they do offer in terms of plot is actually a satisfying approach to a crossover: easing in the various factions, with GI Joe and Transformers taking the first brunt, rather than crashing all of the properties at once. The villains of the piece are set up, and the coda story does some more to attempt round-off the major players on this side too, if briefly so.
note: this gag is excellent
The better part of the story though, and the only one that can be fairly judged this far, is most definitely how the various characters are built up and interact with each other - Skywarp and Scarlett's Joes are clearly the stand-outs here - something that a recent interview had probably clarified, at least for me. We'll have to see how the wider game is played, now that the initial set-up has begun.
Art
Max Dunbar is at the helm here for the issue - and I can't help but wonder why the art doesn't feel up to his usual standards. There's nothing horribly wrong, but something in the designs for the Transformers in particular, especially on profile shots, and every other odd panel just don't line up with his usually stellar work on Micronauts. Perhaps a tighter deadline for the big event?
Similar issues can be held up to Netho Diaz (pencils) and Walden Wong (inks), though I wonder whether having lines and inks applied to the main story, and leave the back-up to a single artist may in fact be a solution to the problem. Again, it's not bad, it's just not overly consistent, and I can it putting readers off.
..eep
In terms of colours, Ander Zarate - Dunbar's partner in crime on Micronauts - is doing well to bring some of the sheen of Till All Are One for Cybertron, but perhaps uses a little too much lighting on the faces of the characters, and Scarlett suffers the most in close-ups and wider shots alike.
Similarly for David Garcia Cruz on the Barber-coda, some of the colours used on the heavier lines makes jawlines and facial features a little too flat at times (Baron Ironblood in particular), something that seems to happen with these books with a regular frequency.
There are good moments too!
Veteran on robotic lettering Tom B. Long takes on this issue too, and the captions that some find irritating in other books are actually the best solution (and placement) in an event like this trying to attract new readers - and there's a pretty spiffy Kachoom to marvel at, too, before a BUDDABUDDABUDDA.
Covers? There are many. The one spotlighted in the thumbnail is the variant from Sara Pitre Durocher, showing the robot side of the event from a crowd perspective - as most of the other artists chose the character spotlights instead. You can view them all in our Comics Database, as usual, and choose your favourite.
Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead
Much like the case of Revolution, the visuals do not shine kindly on the artists involved, as all of the people working on here are usually a pleasure to see on the page. The pressure of the event, the scheduling issues, editorial shortstaffing - I am most definitely giving the benefit of the doubt to all involved for the first issue, but I can see this heading in a similar direction to the previous project, in terms of art, meaning that creators will feel much better when the five issues are over.
I'm also down with just a series of Skywarp/Roadblock's fashion commentary
As for the story, however, there are no real complaints from me so far. The issue is most definitely a GI Joe story set-up, that just happens to use the setting of Cybertron - and that is not a bad thing! Easing into a crossover is a much better plan than expected, and I am glad this approach was taken. I am definitely interested to see how the other franchises will be brought in, at this stage, and that's the best outcome that could've happened, really.
. 
out of
out of
All good though, typing on my phone in between meetings so some brevity is in order.
