Review: Star Trek vs. Transformers by John Barber, Mike Johnson, Philip Murphy, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2019 (contents: 2018-19)
Acquired and read June 2019

Star Trek vs. Transformers

Written by John Barber & Mike Johnson
Art by Philip Murphy & Jack Lawrence
Colors by Priscilla Tramontano, Leonardo Ito, & Josh Burcham
Letters by Christa Miesner

This was a fun, a crossover between the cartoon of Star Trek and of Transformers, which turns out to be a good aesthetic match, even if one is from the 1970s and one the 1980s. The Enterprise discovers that Klingons and Decepticons have teamed up to attack a dilithium mining colony, and must team up with the Autobots to defeat them. It's got a lot of the stuff you might expect and that you want: someone says "more than meets the eye," Spock makes fun of why giant robots would "disguise" themselves as dinosaurs, Starscream makes fun of the Klingon language. The very best part is when Captain Kirk mentally bonds with Fortress Maximus, reconfiguring him into Fortress Tiberius.

Captain Kirk "knows every rivet and fuse"? Really? Hey, if it gets me a transforming Enterprise, I'll allow it.
from Star Trek vs. Transformers #3 (art by Jack Lawrence)

Honestly, the downside of this book is that it's not nuts enough, especially coming off the back of reading Transformers vs. G.I. Joe. That series had more craziness in its #0 issue than this does in five, and it's not as if this is a premise that demands to be taken seriously. And John Barber is a co-writer on both! Give me Spock vs. Shockwave in a logic battle (or Spock vs. Galvatron!), or Uhura finding a Decepticon cassette in her console. But what is here is fun.

I really liked Philip Murphy's artwork. It's styled after the old cartoons, down to basing panels on stock shots from Star Trek occasionally, but it uses those templates as a basis for being expressive and inventive. Occasionally storytelling was clunky, but to be honest, I'd read a whole legit Star Trek comic drawn this way.

Next Week: This turns out to be a good transition, because now I'm reviewing a series of Star Trek comics I read, from the movie era.

Review: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: The Quintessential Collection by Tom Scioli & John Barber

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2017 (contents: 2014-17)
Acquired January 2018
Read May 2019

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: The Quintessential Collection

Written by Tom Scioli & John Barber
Art, Colors, and Lettering by Tom Scioli

I picked up Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #0 solely because it was free at Free Comic Book Day 2014, which I guess is the point of it all. As a dedicated un-fan of G.I. Joe, I expected nothing out of it... and it blew my mind. Tom Scioli's comic told an entire story on almost every page, doing more with the medium in one issue than many writers accomplish in entire careers. People should be teaching that zero issue in universities. I knew from that moment that once a collection of the entire series was released, I would have to buy it, and I read it to cap off my run-through of all IDW's Transformers comics.

I love everything about this page, from the fact that it is technically a "silent interlude" because despite being covered in text, no one actually speaks, to the way the narration culminates in the triumph of the last line.
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #0

I'm pleased to say the entire thing is mostly as good as that #0 issue. Any single issue here could be a premise for an entire miniseries of its own. Scioli and co-writer John Barber rocket through ideas: Decepticons making a fake peace mission to Earth, G.I. Joe as insurgents on Cybertron, Cobra teaming up with the Decepticons on Earth, Metroplex as inhuman prison, Scarlett in an experiment to convince her both G.I. Joe and the Transformers are just toy lines... everything here is awesome, from the big ideas, to the small details. The whole thing has the exact right tone, alternating between the sublimely ridiculous and the ridiculously sublime. Scioli knows you can't take this seriously (someone goes "Yub Nub!" at a victory party) and that you can only take this seriously (G.I. Joe guns down the entire UN because they're not handling the conflict seriously enough).

I like the way Scioli and Barber often extrapolate worldbuilding from features of the shows: Decepticons can fly, while Autobots usually can't, so of course a Decepticon-ruled Cybertron would feature deadly highway traps.
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #2

It falters a little bit in the third quarter. Scioli and Barber's commitment to never staying still means the whole thing escalates too quickly for its fourteen-issue length, and it seems to me that some of the flashback stories in that part of the series are designed to stall things to keep the pacing in place for issue #13. But the last couple issues are delights all over again, as things keep getting bigger and better.

Has death in the gutter ever been more horrifying but matter-of-fact?
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #7

Honestly, there are times where it's like something you might come up with as a kid. I loved the occasional inclusion of maps and diagrams, the stuff I used to obsess over (or try to make!) as a ten-year-old fan of Oz or Narnia or what have you. But it's the pleasure of childhood combined with the seriousness of adulthood in a way that diminishes neither. Some Transformers comics and even more G.I. Joe comics often seem to want you to forget that this is all ridiculous by making everything Proper and Serious. But Scioli never loses the sense of play that drew you into these series to begin with. This is everything you could ever want a comic book about giant transforming robots to be, and more, and better.

On the one hand, this evokes kids playing with action figures by sticking them in their mouths. On the other hand, this is a guy being chewed to death inside Megatron's disgusting-looking mouth. Comics!
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10

Next Week: Meanwhile, in the Federation... it's Star Trek vs. Transformers!

Review: Transformers: Fall of Cybertron by John Barber and Dheeraj Verma

Comic PDF eBook, n. pag.
Published 2013 (contents: 2012)
Acquired August 2014
Read April 2019

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Written by: John Barber
Art by: Dheeraj Verma
Colors by: Sanjay Kharwar & Priscilla Tramontano
Letters by: Chris Mowry

After making my way through all of IDW's original continuity, I'm finally free to explore some other Transformers comics I've picked up along the way, beginning with this, the first of two stories about the Dinobots set in the so-called "Aligned" continuity, an initiative from 2010 to 2017 to create a common continuity for videogames, novels, cartoons, and of course comic books.

I have often thought one of the marks of a good leader was inability to control anger that leads to the destruction of one's own property.
from Transformers: Fall of Cybertron #1

It's a pretty typical John Barber Dinobots story. That guy loves his Dinobots, but is often unable to make me love them. Here, we see where they came from in the Aligned continuity; they were the Lightning Strike Coalition, but when they disobeyed orders to rescue one of their own, they were captured by-- who else-- Shockwave, and he experimented on them to turn them into the Dinobots, though they-- of course-- refused to work for him.

Oh, good. MORE Shockwave monologueing. I sure missed that.
from Transformers: Fall of Cybertron #4

It's okay, you know? Lots of narration, and not as fun as I think a story featuring giant robot dinosaurs ought to be. I think after Barber's frequent use of the Dinobots in the IDW continuity, he doesn't say anything here that he didn't say there. They're angry, and they don't obey the rules, but they have regrets and hidden depths. Sure.

Note: despite the title, Cybertron does not actually fall in this story. That happens in the next Aligned Dinobot story.

Next Week: Later, still on Cybertron... it's time for the Rage of the Dinobots!

Review: Transformers: Unicron by John Barber, Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Andrew Griffith, Kei Zama, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n. pag.
Published 2019 (contents: 2018)
Acquired and read April 2019

Transformers: Unicron

Written by John Barber, with Chris Ryall, David Rodriguez, Brandon Easton, Christos Gage, Magdalene Visaggio
Art by Alex Milne
Additional Art by Sara Pitre-Durocher, Andrew Griffith, Kei Zama, David Messina, Nelson Dániel, Juan Samu, Paolo Villanelli, Fico Ossio
Colors by Sebastian Cheng, David Garcia Cruz
Additional Colors by Joana Lafuente, Alessandra Alexakis, Mattia Iacono
Letters by Tom B. Long, with Curtis Fandango

Though I gave up on John Barber's take on Transformers a couple years ago now, I still had some curiosity about how it would all end, and so I dutifully picked up Unicron, which ties up the IDW continuity that began all the way back in Infiltration-- three-and-a-half years of reading for me, and thirteen years of storytelling for them.

I don't know why Rung of all people would be at the center of Optimus's memories of the fallen, but hey, I love Rung, so I'll take it.
from Transformers: Unicron #6 (script by John Barber, art by Alex Milne)

Anyway, it's about as bad as all post-Dark Cybertron John Barber Transformers comics have been. Too many characters I don't care about, too much ancient Transformer mythology, too many banal human beings, too many shoehorned-in other Hasbro properties, too much indecisive Optimus, too many characters reverting again and again. Why did Starscream undo his progress from Till All Are One? Why am I reading about yet another millennia-long Shockwave masterplan? Didn't the jokes about Thundercracker writing screenplays wear thin years ago?

Why yet another story where Prowl is a jerk and this backfires?
from Transformers: Unicron #5 (script by John Barber, art by Alex Milne)

I guess the biggest point of frustration for me is the title character itself. Say what you will about the 1980s Transformers film, but Unicron is awesome in the original sense of the word. Its coming feels ominous and significant and unstoppable; it is the doom of a universe. Where and why does it come from? Irrelevant. It hungers, and it will have you. Here, though, Unicron never dominates. Neither the writing nor the art give it the immensity it deserves, it always feels squeezed in, instead of dominating. And then to give it an origin story that ties into one of the mediocre Hasbro properties! Visionaries, I think? I've already forgotten. This diminishes Unicron and thus the whole story.

I usually like Alex Milne, but his Unicron just feels really unimpressive. Ooh, it's sucking up some rocks.
from Transformers: Unicron #0 (script by John Barber, art by Alex Milne)

The IDW Transformers universe had a strong start in Infiltration, and despite missteps such as All Hail Megatron, went some very interesting, unprecedented places once the war ended. But John Barber, the same architect of those innovations slowly dismantled them after Dark Cybertron and then piled on the mistakes with the Hasbro comics shared universe-- necessitating the destruction of the entire continuity, because there was no other way to reset things to the way they'd been. But that destruction turned out to be as banal and uninteresting as the writing that made it necessary to begin with.

Next Week: Meanwhile, in another universal stream... the Fall of Cybertron!

Review: Transformers: Salvation by John Barber and Livio Ramondelli

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2017
Acquired and read August 2018

Transformers: Salvation

Written by John Barber
Art by Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long

I have basically given up on John Barber's Transformers, but given I'd read the first two installments of the "Redemption of the Dinobots" trilogy, and given each is only forty pages long, it seemed worthwhile to finish it off.

This was a very predictable page-turn moment.

Well, maybe it was or maybe it wasn't. I like the idea of the Dinobots, bred for war, trying to find their place in a postwar universe, and I like the idea of them finding that in defending Cybertron's first field of new sparks. But the actually story here is disjointed and confusing, and like too many Transformers tales from the late IDW period, revolves around an ancient evil coming back to haunt the present. Like, the emotional meat of the story is not that! Give me the Dinobots! Instead, they feel lost on the edges of a story that's got too much going on for its page length.

Next Week: Meanwhile, also on Cybertron... Starscream finds himself swept up into an unexpected belief that he's waiting until Till All Are One!

Review: Revolution: Transformers by John Barber, Mairghread Scott, James Roberts, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n. pag.
Published 2017 (contents: 2015-16)
Acquired January 2018
Read April 2018

Revolution: Transformers

Written by John Barber, Mairghread Scott, Nick Roche and James Roberts
Art by Andrew Griffith, Naoto Tsushima, Alex Milne, Corin Howell, Kotteri, Josh Burcham
Colors by Thomas Deer, Joana Lafuente
Letters by Gilberto Lazcano, Tom B. Long, Chris Mowry

This volume collects three Transformers-focused Revolution tie-ins, as well as the Transformers Holiday Special. Since I already reviewed the latter on its own (wish I'd known it was collected here before buying it!), I'll just be reviewing the Revolution tie-ins.

Basically, each of the Transformers ongoings gets a story that takes place during Revolution, expanding on some story details and crossing over with one of the non-Transformers titles. The subtitle-less series formerly known as Robots in Disguise tells a story about Tundercracker and Marissa Faireborn battling Dire Wraiths (from Rom); Till All Are One features Windblade on a journey to the Microverse (from Micronauts); and More than Meets the Eye has the Scavengers teaming up with a G.I. Joe member and encountering a lone Dire Wraith.

Has any IDW artist outside of E. J. Su been good at both humans and robots?
from Revolution: Transformers #1 (script by John Barber, art by Andrew Griffith)

They're, uh, they're okay, I guess. The Transformers one confirmed that I am tired of John Barber's take on Thundercracker, the Decepticon-gone-native-who-has-a-dog-and-wants-to-write-screenplays-and-apparently-is-crushing-on-Marissa-Faireborn. What could have been an interesting character has Flanderized into a one-note joke.

The Till All Are One one is pretty flimsy. Windblade is summoned to Earth to communicate with Metroplex (explaining why she's there in the main Revolution story), she does so, she journeys into Microspace where she meets some people, she goes home. I think this set up something about the Micronauts or Rom in the main Revolution story, but by the time I read this, I'd forgotten most of what happened when I read Revolution. The story is pretty detached from the setting and ideas that actually drive Till All Are One, aside from Windblade herself. I guess it does point toward some growing discontent from Windblade with Optimus's leadership.

I'm down with anything that makes fun of M.A.S.K. Like, why are they even called that? They don't wear masks, or anything, their power is driving cars.
from Revolution: Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #1 (script by Nick Roche & James Roberts, art by Alex Milne)

Finally, the More than Meets the Eye one doesn't have any of the Lost Light crew (how could it, they died six months ago when their planet blew up?), instead focusing on the Scavengers who come to Earth so one of their members can go on an Internet date. It's a pisstake of the whole concept of Revolution (one of the characters keeps chanting about "the Brand"); the best bits are MP3, the world's worst G.I. Joe member, and the two Scavengers pretending to be members of M.A.S.K. It's not James Roberts and Nick Roche's best work, but I enjoyed it well enough and laughed several times. Which makes it the best part of Revolution. (Which is damning with faint praise.)

Crankcase accurately summarizes the plot of Revolution.
from Revolution: Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #1 (script by Nick Roche & James Roberts, art by Alex Milne)

This Friday: Meanwhile, in space... we return to the Lost Light!

Review: Revolution by John Barber & Cullen Bunn and Fico Ossio

Comic PDF eBook, n. pag.
Published 2017 (contents: 2016)
Acquired January 2018
Read March 2018

Revolution

Written by John Barber & Cullen Bunn
Art by Fico Ossio
Colors by Sebastian Cheng
Letters by Tom B. Long

I believe I previously compared IDW's Dark Cybertron crossover to Crisis on Infinite Earths, but Revolution is the real Crisis on Infinite Earths analogue. Cosmic threat, disparate groups of heroes, big status quo changes. Revolution crosses Transformers over with a set of Hasbro-properties-turned-IDW-comics, some preexisting, some made into comics for this event: G.I. Joe, Rom, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, Action Man. I think that's all of them. When I first read Crisis, I had only a dim notion of the world in which it took place; I was a DC comics neophyte. That's not too dissimilar from my reading of Revolution-- I know IDW's Transformers very well at this point, but G.I. Joe only from previous Transformers crossovers, Action Man from the tragically truncated Saturday morning cartoon of 2000 to 2001, and the rest not at all-- yet Crisis worked for me while Revolution didn't.

You always know a character is The Girl One because they have a romantic history with half the male team members.
from Revolution #1

Part of this is intellectual and unfair. Crisis draws on its participants', well, conceptual weight. Historical weight? I dunno. You might not have actually read a Blue Beetle comic, but you know that Blue Beetle has a decades-long preexisting history when he turns up. You might not have read an Earth-3 story before, but you know that the Justice League has been there many times. And this even bleeds over into worlds newly established for Crisis, like Earth-6. But here, Rom and M.A.S.K. and Micronauts and Action Man... it's just like, why should I care? They were basically made up for this story, so seeing them in danger here has no effect. They have fifty days worth of history, not fifty years.

Literally no one else was worried about this, dude.
from Revolution #4

Related to this... these concepts don't seem all that good? Fifty years of evolution mean that every DC character to appear in Crisis had been refined and honed over the years. They were all good ideas... to some extent at least. But like M.A.S.K. is like Knight Rider times five or something? And Action Man is a man who is good at action? And the Micronauts are just small folks? Except they come from a universe where everything is small, so they're not really small in a meaningful way. Like, Transformers started out dumb, and still kind of is, but thirty years have allowed it to accrue some good concepts and ideas. I can't say the same for any of the other concepts here.

I do like how Soundwave seems to believe polite apologies make up for genocide. (This does seem to work for Transformers, judging by Megatron.)
from Revolution #5

Which leads me to my next point... Cullen Bunn and John Barber's story doesn't work on its own terms, either. It's a jumble of characters no one gives you a reason to care about. Like, M.A.S.K. supposedly has a moral dilemma when they realize Transformers are sapient, but their characterization is so flimsy, and the reasons so nonexistent, that you can't get interested in this dilemma. But if you don't care about that, all you've got left is people in super-cars... which is not interesting, and doesn't play to the strengths of the comics medium. Exactly who was doing what when with a magic space rock was another thing I could never really discern. Say what you will about the Anti-Monitor (and I have), but he provides Crisis with a focal point. Revolution is murky. What's at stake? I dunno.

If only I cared about you or your morality, Scarlett.
from Revolution #2

Fico Ossio is an above-average artist when it comes to drawing figures for IDW, but I found his panel-to-panel storytelling unclear at times.

Oh, gee, a character I don't care about has switched from one team I didn't care about to another team I don't care about! (I actually didn't even recognize her until the Transformers wiki clued me in.)
from Revolution #1

I shudder to think how this is going to negatively impact the IDW Transformers line, which has already (outside of More than Meets the Eye) been moving in a direction I don't care for. It has definitely solidified my plan to not pick up Optimus Prime. When the regular series resume, it'll be Lost Light and Till All Are One for me, and that's it.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Earth... it is still a time for Revolution!

Review: Transformers: Titans Return by John Barber, James Roberts, Livio Ramondelli, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, 118 pages
Published 2017 (contents: 2016)
Acquired January 2018
Read February 2018

Transformers: Titans Return

Written by Mairghread Scott, James Roberts, and John Barber
Art by Livio Ramondelli and Priscilla Tramontano
Colors by Livio Ramondelli and Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long and Chris Mowry

In this volume, recent events in the title formerly known as Robots in Disguise have repercussions for the whole Transformers galaxy, as an ancient Prime returns, reanimating Titans with him. This is more of the kind of Transformers stuff I haven't really cared for: ancient cosmic evils, big robot fights, blah blah blah.

The events of Titans Return connect to all three Transformers ongoings (the subtitle-less Transformers, More than Meets the Eye, and Till All Are One), but it is structured differently than previous Transformers crossovers. While Dark Cybertron and Combiner Wars had a unified story that alternated between the two titles involved in the crossover, Titans Return has a kick-off issue that involves all three series, then a two-issue Transformers story, and then a two-issue More than Meets the Eye one. This is good, because it lets each series maintain its own unique identity.

Sentinel Prime starts out on Cybertron, fighting Ironhide's new police force seen in Till All Are One, Volume 1, as well as Windblade and Starscream. There's some Windblade-Starscream banter, and both Tankors turn up-- it's not much of a role for TAAO, but it does allow for some reflection on how far Cybertron has already come, as Sentinel Prime views with disgust the achievements that Windblade and company have made in reintegrating postwar Cybertron. It does get a bit too technobabbly. (Relative spark temperatures are a significant plot point, and I would contend that this should never be the case.)

I do kind of like that Sentinel Prime's alt-mode is a gigantic, bad-ass space train with cannons. I mean, why not?
from Transformers: Titans Return #1 (script by Mairghread Scott, James Roberts, & John Barber; art by Livio Ramondelli)

From there, Sentinel makes it to Earth, where the by-now normal John Barber tediousness happens. I enjoyed this guy's character driven writing at first, but since the move to Earth, it has almost disappeared. And geeze, if Garrison Blackrock and Marissa Faireborn never appeared in this comic again, I don't think I'd even notice. But now there are G.I. Joes for some reason?

Review: Transformers, Volume 10 by John Barber, Andrew Griffith, Livio Ramondelli, Priscilla Tramontano, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2016 (contents: 2016)
Acquired and read January 2018

Transformers, Volume 10

Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith, Casey W. Coller, Livio Ramondelli, and Priscilla Tramontano
Additional Inks by Jamie Snell
Colors by Josh Burcham, John-Paul Bove, Josh Perez, Joana Lafuente, and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long and Chris Mowry

In this volume (which has "All Hail Optimus" on the cover, but not the title page, but finally does drop "The" from the title page even though it disappeared from the cover with volume 7), Optimus Prime essentially annexes the Earth in order to protect it from Galvatron, bringing it into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds that was established in Windblade: Distant Stars.

This could be interesting. People wonder if Optimus is doing the right thing, or if he's turning into a conqueror like the Primes of old; Camiens, on the other hand, wonder if Optimus is really a Prime after all, given that he no longer bears the Matrix.

At no point in reading a Transformers comic have I ever thought, Thank God they added yet another combiner.
from Transformers vol. 2 #53 (art by Priscilla Tramontano)

But what happens? Does the story examine this stuff? Instead, Optimus stands around in a desert a lot, reacts to what the humans are doing, and the whole thing ends with (what feels like) the one millionth fight with Galvatron, who in his brief run as this series's principal villain, has already been around too long. Plus it just feels like Barber is shifting gears to set up for the next storyline (Titans Return), even though this one never actually took off!

That's right, Prowl. Do nothing. Nothing at all.
from Transformers vol. 2 #50 (art by Andrew Griffith)

At the beginning I was worried that Prowl was going to be in it, but thank God it just turns out to be a one-issue cameo.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Cybertron... Windblade learns that there are lot of challenges to be overcome Till All Are One!

Review: Transformers Holiday Special by Mairghread Scott, Corin Howell, James Roberts, Kotteri, John Barber, and Josh Burcham

Comic PDF eBook, 30 pages
Published 2015
Acquired and read January 2018

Transformers Holiday Special

Written by Mairghread Scott, James Roberts, and John Barber
Art by Corin Howell, Kotteri, and Josh Burcham
Colors by Thomas Deer and Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long

Aptly and coincidentally, I read this collection of three Christmas-themed Transformers tales just after the New Year. Well, of course I would love the More than Meets the Eye story, where Brainstorm's "contrivance engine" has affected the Lost Light... causing the ship to need to utilize equipment that looks exactly like a Christmas tree, ornaments, paper hats, and Christmas crackers. Swerve, Nautica, and Whirl receive a baby Transformer via subspace hatch on (what is essentially) Christmas Eve, and have to protect it from Ultra Magnus... while drunk. It's amazing. Lots of good, in-character jokes: basically my favorite thing.

Moping Megatron is adorable Megatron.
(script by James Roberts, art by Kotteri)

The other two are decent, as well, though I preferred the Windblade/Till All Are One story, a How the Grinch Stole Christmas-esque tale of how Starscream created a holiday to honor himself... but no one came to give him presents! The Robots in Disguise story about the jet robot who writes screenplays primarily goes to show that jokes about the jet robot who writes screenplays started off funny but are starting to get repetitive.

The Grinch just wasn't thinking big enough with his anger.
(script by Mairghread Scott, art by Corin Howell)

I want this to happen every year.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on the Lost Light... Megatron and company discover that their own crewmates are More than Meets the Eye!

Review: The Transformers, Volume 9 by John Barber, Sara Pitre-Durocher, and Andrew Griffith

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2016 (contents: 2015-16)
Acquired October 2016
Read January 2018

The Transformers, Volume 9

Written by John Barber
Art by Sara Pitre-Durocher and Andrew Griffith
Colors by Josh Perez
Additional Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Tom B. Long

I just cannot get into this series's post-Dark Cybertron change of direction. At least Prowl is gone now, thanks to the events of Sins of the Wreckers (though I'm not sure there's actually a continuity gap where Arcee and Kup could have gone off and done the things they did in that series, at least not yet), but the premise isn't very interesting (fighting over ancient Cybertronian mysteries), and it just doesn't go anywhere. I am pretty sure that Spike and Blackrock have a conversation in a jail cell that lasts for all four issues collected here. Meanwhile, there are too many Combiners, and too little focus on that characters and situations unique to this book.

One of the issues is told from the perspective of a dog and a nonverbal diagnostic drone. It's kind of cute, but it's been done better elsewhere.

Panels with gray borders depict how the dog, Buster, hears things. I like the way the dialogue is done, with most of it jumbled, but occasional fragments a dog would understand in the clear. (And of course a dog's first question to someone he doesn't already know would be "Do you have food?")
from Transformers vol. 2 #48 (art by Andrew Griffith)

This is the last volume of the series formerly known as Robots in Disguise that was contained in the Humble Bundles that are my primary source of Transformers comics. I've already bought volume 10 in a comiXology sale so that I can wrap the series up, but it will have to be very good to convince me to carry on into the post-Titans Return/Revolution relaunch of this series as Optimus Prime.

Also this sequence is pretty good. Go Buster!
from Transformers vol. 2 #48 (art by Andrew Griffith)

Next Week: Meanwhile, throughout the galaxy... it's time for some Christmas cheer in the Transformers Holiday Special!

Review: Transformers: Redemption by John Barber and Livio Ramondelli

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015
Acquired and read December 2017

Transformers: Redemption

Written by John Barber
Art by Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long

This follows on from the events of Punishment by the same creative team; after the events of that book, the Dinobots find themselves at a loose end before being hired to do some underhanded stuff by a Decepticon and some Camiens. Well, suffice it to say they find what's promised by the title. There's some interesting stuff (a romance between a Decepticon and a Camien demonstrates the increasing nuance of the post-Great War reintegrated Cybertronian society), but man if five different Dinobots (who have really generic robot modes) and a bunch of other robots too is too much for me to keep track of. That's over a dozen character models I need to distinguish! And all the Dinobots have the same personalities. I can't do this stuff, John Barber, you gotta make it easier on me.

This book probably features Livio Ramondelli's prettiest art, though.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Earth... G. B. Blackrock is up to the same old shit with those Robots in Disguise!

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!

Review: Transformers: Combiner Wars by Maighread Scott, John Barber, Livio Ramondelli, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Acquired October 2016
Read September 2017

Transformers: Combiner Wars

Story by Maighread Scott & John Barber
Written by Maighread Scott and John Barber
Art by Sarah Stone, Livio Ramondelli, and Marcelo Ferreira & Corin Howell
Additional Inks by Corin Howell, Brian Shearer, & John Wycough
Colors by Yamaishi & Thomas Deer
Letters by Tom B. Long

Combiners, man... I dunno. I'm sure they're awesome if you're playing with the toys, but I think their very nature is intrinsically antithetical to telling good stories about groups of them. I mean, I liked what was done with Devastator back in Robots in Disguise okay, but Combiner Wars needs to feature multiple combiners warring. Thus five different combiners, each of whom consists of five Transformers. That's twenty-five different characters in a six-issue story! Plus all the usual regular characters like Optimus Prime and Windblade and Starscream and Rattrap and Prowl and so on, as Combiners Wars is actually a crossover between Windblade and the subtitle-less Transformers comic (formerly known as Robots in Disguise). There's even some minor interplay with More than Meets the Eye; a group of Lost Light crewmembers were shown shuttling back to Cybertron at the end of volume 8, and here they become a group (the "Protectobots") in two seconds, then stand around in the background a lot, then become a combiner who just shouts and fights a lot. Which is typical of the amount of focus any of these characters can receive in a story like this.

The hours must fly by with jokes like that.
from Transformers vol. 2 #40 (story by Maighread Scott & John Barber, script by John Barber, art by Livio Ramondelli)

It could be an okay story, but like so many Transformers plots of late, it gets derailed by a character of whom I am growing increasingly sick: Prowl. How many times can he concoct a secret plan and charge into a situation and make it worse for everyone through his interference? It's repetitive, it's boring, and it makes the other characters look stupid for not being able to stop him from doing it. The more these comics focus on him, the less I like reading about him. C'mon dude, if no one can tell the difference between normal you and controlled-by-Decepticons you, maybe you should change up your approach. But no, we just get the same thing with him again and again and again. Optimus Prime, you are a bad leader.

Just kill him!
from Transformers vol. 2 #41 (story by Maighread Scott & John Barber, script by John Barber, art by Livio Ramondelli)

Everyone else kind of gets lost in the shuffle, but there are some potentially interesting ideas about the lost Cybertronian colonies, and I do like Rattrap and Swindle. But, overall, meh.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Earth... something something something Blackrock!

Review: The Transformers: Punishment by John Barber and Livio Ramondelli

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2014)
Acquired and read September 2017

The Transformers: Punishment

Written by John Barber
Art by Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long

Given the plot of the book formerly known as Robots in Disguise seems to have permanently moved to Earth, I guess I'm grateful that IDW continues to update us on life on Cybetron, first with Windblade, then with the Cybertron-set single issue in First Strike, and now with Punishment: they definitely feel like their own sub-series, with the focus on Windblade and Starscream and the denizens of Drift's bar. In First Strike, Optimus Prime left Earth partway through to take care of something on Cybertron; in Punishment we see what that was, as he comes home to celebrate the anniversary of receiving the Matrix of Leadership, but ends up investigating mysterious murders in the Decepticon ghettos.

Don't go easy on him, Optimus.
from The Transformers: Punishment #4

It's okay. I like the continued exploration of an integrating postwar Transformer society on Cybertron, but the murder mystery is incredibly obvious. Like, could it be the never-before-seen* old friend of Optimus who's in the right place at the right time? What a surprise! Still, there are some nice moments between Optimus and Windblade, as she tries to come to grips with a planet emerging from a millions-year war, and Optimus tries to adjust to this brave new world. I particularly like the pair of moments above and below, where Optimus makes it seem like he suspects the Dinobots of being behind the murders. He's being deliberately misleading to draw the real culprit out (ah, that old chestnut), but as we find out, he's not exactly lying:

Always a laugh a moment with Optimus.
from The Transformers: Punishment #5

I like how this takes a heroic trait of Optimus that you could think of as naïve, and portrays it as more of a curse than a blessing, but also something Optimus can manipulate-- you don't get to lead an interstellar war for millions of years and not be as good as manipulation as Starscream or Prowl.

The art is also an above-average effort for Livio Ramondelli, with sharper linework than he usually uses and less muddy colors, well-suited to the story's vaguely noirish tone.

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Caminus... it's time for planets to collide in the Combiner Wars!

* I guess technically he'd appeared in the IDW continuity before, but not as he'd register on you if you weren't the most hardcore of fans.