Comic Review...

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #6

Writer: John Barber
Artist: Livio Ramondelli

(covers by Casey Coller and Livio Ramondelli)

Cover "A" by Casey Coller

Summary: ONCE HE WAS: OPTIMUS PRIME! The Autobot gave up his title-returned to his role as ORION PAX! But that doesn't mean the fight's over! A shattered planet leads Pax and a squad of fan favorite characters on the trail of the deadliest Decepticon of all... SHOCKWAVE!


Comments: Orion Pax meets up on a space station with Hardhead and is directed to the dead world of Arduria. Wheelie, Garnak and Hardhead all come along with him as does Hardhead's prisoner, Jhiaxus (who had been catatonic until this incident when he began to come alive again, in response to a mysterious signal originating from the dead world). They discover the dead beings on the world are Shockwave's handiwork and wonder exactly what he did here and how. They find Monstructor and some kind of rocket absorbing all the heat in the area... Monstructor awakens and attacks them and on the ship, Bludgeon appears, attacking Wheelie and Garnak. He rescues Jhiaxus and together with the Monster Pretenders, they escape aboard Bludgeon's ship. Hardhead extrapolates that they are on course for the planet Wheelie and Garnak had escaped from. Orion orders a pursuit course...
   It seems this story will involve some kind of treasure hunt after Shockwave's varied experiments he performed centuries ago. It might also possibly follow up on the Quintesson plot thread left behind some time ago in the Wheelie Spotlight issue. All in all, a good story set-up even if we don't yet know the endgame for it all. It's nice to see Orion/Optimus in action again and to know he hasn't been totally forgotten  in the story (now if somebody would just figure out where the heck Megatron is).
   Livio does the art this issue. It's mostly good--although his Monstructor is a bit hard to figure out who he is. (To be fair, though, Monstructor was never intepreted all that well in comic form. He seems like he might look a bit generic in combined form and that's what we get here. The color scheme in all of Livio's art is that murky painted look, which could be responsible for further distorting the appearance of the Monster Pretenders. They were quite bright as I recall but this style doesn't really allow for that).

Verdict: Good. 

Cover "B" by Livio Ramondelli