Comic Review... (belated)

Transformers: Stormbringer #1

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Don Figueroa

(Covers by Don Figueroa)


Synopsis: Jetfire and the Technobots investigate Cybertron for energy readings and find something on the surface below. They go to the planet and find a ruined world full of storms and desolation. Scattershot asks Jetfire what it was like back when the "incident" happened and Jetfire recalls it (but they don't reveal what happened). Elsewhere, Optimus Prime ponders things when Searchlight interrupts him and tells him Prowl's group has sent him a message. Prime finds that Earth's Decepticons are moving faster then scheduled and tells Searchlight to monitor things and keep him updated. Prime thinks of some apocalyptic event and how it never ends (tm). Back on Cybertron, Jetfire recalls what happened back when Cybertron was decimated (but again, we only get vague hints). Suddenly, the Autobot team is attacked by invisible enemies and beaten. On their ship in orbit, Nosecone and Afterburner detect several missiles coming their way... they launch a distress buoy and are presumably destroyed along with the ship. Prime flash to a big battle and how Cybertron somehow stopped their great foe's advanced... epilogue: Jetfire awakens in a cavern beneath Cybertron's surface--there, he finds several warriors worshipping Thunderwing!

Comments: Another story set in the Universe of Infiltration/the IDW "Alpha" Universe (although that story bears little relevance here so far). I see a potentially interesting story in this mini-series but unfortunately the opening issue beats around the bush a little too much for my tastes. I like foreshadowing as much as anyone but this issue was a bit annoying. All we get is that:
A) Cybertron was decimated sometime in the past in this continuity.
B) The world is (apparently) slowly regenerating from said-catastrophe.
C) Somehow, Thunderwing is the cause of the original decimation. He was apparently some sort of unstoppable enemy that briefly united the Autobots and Decepticons and was thought to have been destroyed somehow in a final effort on Cybertron's part.
I just wish we could've gotten a little more--like a decent flashback instead of bits and pieces (mostly from Optimus' memory, apparently). Otherwise, the art was good (as usual) and the writing competent. I was worried that Simon Furman might not be able to find a way to sneak his trademark phrases into these new comics but I see that was a misplaced fear. This issue sees the appearance of "It never ends." Now, if he can just find some way to have someone say "It is over. Finished." (I think it must be in his contract to have these sentences continually sneak their way into every TF story he's ever written). A decent story in general. I just hope we get more into the meat of things next issue (and I really, seriously hope that Thunderwing isn't a minion of Unicron! I'm so tired of that old fallback--try something new already, somebody!)