22 May 2018

Review: The Transformers, Volume 8 by John Barber, Andrew Griffith, and Livio Ramondelli

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2016 (contents: 2015)
Acquired October 2016
Read October 2017
The Transformers, Volume 8

Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith and Livio Ramondelli
Colors by Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long


There was no volume 7 of this series, you know that? I guess Combiner Wars: First Strike is being retroactively counted as volume 7, but that wasn't on the title page or cover. (Maybe it was on the spine; I'm reading the eBooks.)

Anyway, volume 8 primarily serves to confirm that the post-Dark Cybertron, Earth-focused approach of the series formerly known as Robots in Disguise is doing nothing for me. There's more obnoxious stuff about Prowl, continually making Optimus Prime the galaxy's most ineffective faction leader:
C'mon, dude, accept some personal responsibility. Optimus Prime was more convincing as a great leader when he wasn't actually leading.
from Transformers vol. 2 #42 (art by Livio Ramondelli)

Plus Galvatron does his evil thing, in a way that's incredibly obvious yet somehow his ideologically motivated followers fail to notice. I do like the focus of the post-DC era on Soundwave, as he's an interesting fellow, but he's also a bit of a patsy, especially considering his ability to monitor electromagnetic radiations. He should know better!

Spike cares as little about this subplot as I do.
from Transformers vol. 2 #45 (art by Andrew Griffith)

All the stuff with G. B. Blackrock and Alpha Trion and ancient Cybetronian artifacts is the complete opposite of what got me into More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise: a serious exploration of the issues raised by a civilization that's undergone millions of years of war. This is just tedious cod-mythology, lots of mysteries where there's no reason to care about the resolutions.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Cybertron... Windblade must make overtures to some Distant Stars!

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