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: Combiner Wars: First Strike by John Barber, Andrew Griffith, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2014-15)
Acquired October 2016
Read July 2017

The Transformers: Combiner Wars: First Strike

Written by John Barber
Art by Sarah Stone, Livio Ramondelli, Andew Griffith, and Brendan Cahill
Colors by Josh Perez
Additional Colors by Joana Lafuente and Thomas Deer
Letters by Tom B. Long

Unlike its sister title, Robots in Disguise didn't lose its leading article... it just lost the whole rest of the title! Now plain old Transformers, but at least it's gained full subtitles in lieu of volume numbers, as this volume is called Combiner Wars: First Strike. To my surprise, it actually opens with a Windblade continuation of sorts, keeping up that series's development of events back on Cybertron, and even using Windblade's artist, Sarah Stone. Awakening after his apparent death (back in volume 5, I think? I lose track), Wheeljack is confronted with a strange new Cybertron, ruled by Starscream and inhabited by women! (like Windblade), and he has to decide where his loyalties lie. It's slight, but I like Wheeljack.

A girl!?
from The Transformers: Robots in Disguise vol. 1 #33 (art by Sarah Stone)

After that, though, it's just confirmation that the new direction of this comic book is not one that I am enjoying. Pompous journeys into Cybertronian history are becoming increasingly dull to me. They're just a cheap way of attempting to add weight to banal proceedings (so is Livio Ramondelli's artwork). And then we're off to four whole issues of Prowl being an asshole to everyone, another thing I have rapidly become tired of. It doesn't even make sense for Optimus to leave the mentally compromised Prowl in charge, something he seems to acknowledge:

Everyone says Optimus Prime is a Great Leader, but when I read scenes like this it's hard to believe it.
from The Transformers vol. 2 #35 (art by Andrew Griffith)

Prowl dominates the book so much in its current form that there's not much enjoyment to seek elsewhere. I've never really cared for this version of Spike Witwicky since he was introduced in All Hail Megatron, and though I liked Jimmy Pink in Simon Furman's stories, he's not really the same without Hunter and Verity alongside. I like Arcee, but she's mostly a bystander here, and the rest of the Earth-based Autobots are barely interesting at best.

Even when Prowl's not there, all everyone else does is talk about him!
from The Transformers vol. 2 #38 (art by Andrew Griffith)

I just don't get why the series has gone in this direction, throwing aside its unique selling points in favor of generic, uninspired Earth infiltration while everyone chases after some kind of generic, uninspired maguffin. Why make Optimus the leader of the Autobots and then send him out in the field? Why isn't he leading his people? Why can't he delegate? It's a weird and not very organic development of the series post-Dark Cybertron.

Next Week: Meanwhile, in space... even the Decepticon Justice Division can be More than Meets the Eye!

Review: The Transformers: Windblade by Mairghread Scott and Sarah Stone

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2014 (contents: 2014)
Acquired October 2016
Read July 2017

The Transformers: Windblade

Written by Mairghread Scott
Art by Sarah Stone
Letters by Chris Mowry

Windblade first appeared in Dark Cybertron, as a female Transformer from a lost colony who ended up throwing in her lot with the Autobots. A Cityspeaker, Windblade is now the representative of the Titan Metroplex, where the majority of Cybertronians are now living following the devastating events of Dark Cybertron. Windblade actually feels more like a continuation of the first five volumes of Robots in Disguise than Robots in Disguise, Volume 6 did. Aside from Windblade and her friend Chromia, all the main characters of Windblade were characters in Robots in Disguise up until that series relocated to Earth, and the concerns of Windblade are much more like that of volume 1-5 of Robots in Disguise. That is to say, this is about Starscream, Ironhide, Blurr, Waspinator, Rattrap, and others on a rebuilding Cybertron trying to move beyond war.

I appreciate that Ironhide still has a home, series-wise.
from The Transformers: Windblade vol. 1 #2

The high point of the book is Sarah Stone's painted art, which is gorgeous and unusual for a Transformers book, but much more dynamic and lively than Livio Ramondelli's painted Transformers art. Stone does a good job capturing personality and dynamism, and the characters have distinct, interesting designs. Mairghread Scott does a good job with characterization, too, populating her story with a number of distinct, memorable people-- I particularly liked the regulars at Blurr's bar.

I appreciate the inclusion of the Beast Machines Tankor and the explanation of how he fits with IDW's other Tankor.
from The Transformers: Windblade vol. 1 #1

The story itself is a little disappointing. Big things happen, but feel underdeveloped: someone tries to kill Windblade, but it doesn't quite seem as dramatic as it ought. If Windblade really does think Starscream is trying to kill her, I'm not sure that the actions she takes make a lot of sense. You'd think she'd do more than muse suspiciously. And the ending revelation of who is responsible is kind of weird, in that it makes someone into a horrible person beyond plausibility, and I don't like the way that person's deeds are dealt with. Also, the end indicates that Windblade's conflict over her two worlds was supposed to be a driver of the book, but I don't think it entirely sold that throughout.

A beautiful moment, but it doesn't entirely feel earned.
from The Transformers: Windblade vol. 1 #4

Still, I enjoyed reading this moment to moment even if the story as a whole left me cold. Good characters, good art, good jokes, and as there are future installments of Windblade to come, I can see how this could potentially improve into something great.

Next Week: Meanwhile, in space... time travel shenanigans run amok in More than Meets the Eye!