Zombie Titans. In. Spaaaaaaace
(Spoiler free-ish)
(Spoiler free-ish)
Synopsis
REVOLUTION is over but the danger isn’t over! A wave of undead TITANS threatens CYBERTRON! STARSCREAM will need more than secret police to stop the oncoming horde, but our Fearless Leader finds himself short on friends and firepower. Who can be called upon—and why aren’t they stepping up to the plate?
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Story
Rather than tying up what Windblade was concerned with in Revolution (though not disregarding it), the latest issue of Till All Are One brings us more directly to the aftermath of Titans Return, and Sentinel Prime/Infinitus' plan to unleash zombie Titans upon the universe - as they now approach Cybertron, we catch up...
Or News Admins..
We know what's coming. We know the Titans are on their way, even if the story had been set on pause for the duration of Revolution, and we're being brought up to speed just when, just as Starscream is in-story, and probably with similar reactions to the Chosen Supreme Leader of Cybertron and his ghost pal, and the rest of the Council of Worlds.
His Pettiness
Mairghread Scott provides a script that allows for a little de-tension before the ramping up of the tension starts again - dotted with some dry humour from the various parties involved - as a planet-wide action is taken to counter the Titans' arrival, allowing for each characters' capabilities to shine...
Oh hi Zetca!
...but it also provides an excellent foil for a discussion around Windblade's role and position in the new society still forming, as worked towards in the Revolution one-shot already. That, and we have some very interesting deal/diplomacy parallels between her, and her frenemy-nemesis (frenemenemenemenisis?) Starscream himself.
Art
After the break, we have Sara Pitre Durocher take on the Cybertronian environments, as well as the layouts and everything else that comes with the artwork - including some seriously impressive work in conveying the tension of the script in the building of the panels and pages, running through the issue all the way to the handful of climax points towards the end.
Nope, not spoiling
The colours are at the hands of not one but two regular artists: Joana Lafuente and Priscilla Tramontano; both work wonderfully in sync with the linework provided, and carry across the latter's work on the Titans Return books as well as bringing some wonderful backgrounds to life in a very tense sequence or seven. Astounding.
Times, they are a-changin
Similarly, both Chris Mowry and Tom B. Long are involved in the lettering and, production wise, the issue has a fair load of different fonts, voices, effects and soundwords - perfectly handled for otherwise distractingly busy page. As for covers, we've seen the excellently slick Sara Pitre Durocher regular cover way back when, Tramontano's gorgeous 'every anime ever' variant in the preview, and now Jack Lawrence (hey, read our interview with him!) on in the thumbnail, with Prime's best couple.
Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead
The issue is excellent. That's my thoughts, right there. The constant build is constant, and incessant, not only in dialogue, script and direction, but also through the visual, the angles provided for the action, the layouts of the pages and the panels, and the decision not to rely on larger pages for the actual climax, but rather as a mid-point punctuation mark.
Obsidian just loves good news
I am very interested in those parallels between Starscream and Windblade I mentioned above, and curious to see whether they develop further. Seeing multiple characters from across the franchise's history work together brought a slow smile to my face, and their voices work really well as the interact with one another. As I said, this is great - and the end point is just evil.
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