Comic Review...

Transformers #30

Writers: Mike Costa and James Roberts (story), Mike Costa (script)
Artist: Livio Ramondelli
(Covers by Livio Ramondelli)

Summary:  Chaos, part 4, brings events to a devastating head: Megatron confronts his most formidable opponent yet! The Autobots scramble to keep out of the way of the Decepti-god's unstoppable rampage and Optimus Prime faces off against Galvatron, in a battle where the fate of the whole planet rests on the outcome! CHAOS concludes here and TRANSFORMERS will never be the same again!

Comments:  Between the two recent storylines, this has been the one I've found more interesting of the two (which is not to be construed as praise though). In this issue, we pick up the Arcee and Hardhead (I had thought he was dead!) thread where they rescue the survivors of Kimia plot and have them all set course to join the main story on Cybertron (which they later do). They also casually drop in the idea that Galvatron's being duped by D-Void via the Heart of Darkness. This very quickly becomes fact (there's no prior hints in any of the story that this is the case--which would've been nice. Even some subtle foreshadowing completely escaped Costa's grasp). On Cybertron, Megatron continues to battle the dark Decepti-beast thingy while the Autobots cower. In the core, Optimus Prime and Hot Rod confront Galvatron and his cronies but they are too late! Galvatron has just used the Heart of Darkness on Cybetron's core! Prime uses the Matrix and saves them all (Galvatron disintegrates but not before realizing something is wrong. He did the right thing! Arghh!) The story ends with Optimus Prime alone somewhere quite blue (the remains of the Dead Universe? Cybertron? It's unclear). As I said, there was no hint at all that Galvatron was being duped by D-Void/Heart of Darkness (although I had suspected as much some time ago). Showing hints of that before the very ending might have been nice--even a suggestion something might be amiss would've been intriguing to the reader. Instead it's just dumped at the end as a fact, which it apparently is. A more interesting take might've been to have had the Heart be part of D-Void (a terrible name, btw) but corrupted somehow by a sense of heroism (like how the Matrix had a taint of evil to it in the old Marvel series). A straight interpretation of the story was boring, frankly. They could've developed this story more--even used the space they wasted on the Prowl/Earth segments to flesh it out further and actually make people care. As it was, it felt somewhat superficial and ultimately irrelevant. (Since "The Death of Optimus Prime" is coming up, perhaps he was trapped in the Dead Universe--or something--as a result of the ending? But even that is pointless since he dies all the time and never stays that way for long).
   The art is more of Ramondelli's murkiness. It makes a dull story pretty in the technical sense but hard to decipher what's going on half the time. Art in a comic should easily convey the story and its natural progression. When a reader can't figure out what a panel is supposed to represent, it fails to do its job (to be fair, a large number of modern comic artists have this problem though).

Verdict: Average. I'm glad this story is over! I wonder what they'll do for the two remaining issues--a lot of pontificating by the characters over the fall-out? (Is the sky blue?)

Cover "A" by Livio Ramondelli

Comic Review...

Transformers #29

Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Brendan Cahill
(Covers by Brendan Cahill and Marcelo Matere)

Summary:  The Last Story On Earth ends here! When Prowl makes a breakthrough in his investigation, he assumes that he has the answers to all his questions until a shadowy adversary brings some shocking revelations to the Autobot's attention. Could this be the end of the human/Autobot truce? Mike Costa and Brendan Cahill bring this tale to its unexpected conclusion!


Comments:  This issue was a prime example of what I've hated about this comic series. We start off the story with Spike admitting he killed Scrapper and telling the Autobots they should be thanking him (exactly what I've been saying about this story's non-premise all along!) Then the Autobots and Skywatch go attack a human named Ben Simpson (no idea who he is) but apparently he's a facsimile (like in the old IDW Furman stories). Swindle is controlling him somehow, apparently, and we learn ultimately that he sold Skywatch's robot-busting tech to Spike (apparently this is supposed to reaffirm Spike's "seat-of-his-pants", wreck-loose mentality. It also shows us how stupid the humans are since nobody has the brains to reverse-engineer any of the tech on their own. Although, considering how advanced TF tech is supposed to be, maybe that's a good thing.) Anyway, Spike escapes before they can confront him further and meanwhile, Jazz goes and blows up a base with Skywatch's tech presumably in it. This was a boring, contrived story that had no ultimate relevance to anything (beyond wrapping up the Earth leg of this series, anyway). I wasn't engaged by any of it and wondered the entire time why they were even bothering. Also, it seems like Costa pulled a lot of stuff out of the thin air to try and give it a conspiracy-like feel. Either none of the elements he materialized here really existed until now or he used elements from before that were so slight I don't recall any of them enough to be amazed at his story composition now (who were half of the human characters that appear in this story, anyway? I have no idea).
   The art was passable although not really great. Brendan Cahill's art is decent but hardly spectacular either. I still hate all the pointless neo-G1 designs everyone has.

Verdict:  Pass. A confusing, contrived ending to a story that didn't need to be told in the first place.

Cover "B" by Brendan Cahill

Comic Review...

Cover "A" by Livio Ramondelli

Transformers #28

Writer: Mike Costa and James Roberts (story); Mike Costa (script)
Artist: Livio Ramondelli
(covers by Livio Ramondelli)


Summary:  CHAOS part 3 rocks Cybertron as the return of an unlikely Decepticon faces off against Sunstreaker who is looking for a little redemption--Megatron suits up for what might very well be his final battle--and you are introduced to something we had to call--the DeceptiGOD! 'Chaos' goes insane!



Comments:  The battle for Cybertron continues! We still don't learn precisely what's going on in this issue and we get more fighting on Cybertron but somehow I didn't mind this issue quite as much. It felt like the plot was moving along at least a bit.
    We have a prologue with some Autobot refugees in an escape pod (are they from Kimia? Or somewhere else?) who are rescued by Arcee (apparently she finally crawled out of that hole on Gorlam Prime). The prologue's significance, if any, is not revealed in the rest of the story (perhaps it's just an attempt to account for everyone?)  The rest of the issue is about the battle on Cybertron. The Decepticons from Earth come to Cybertron via a space bridge transponder Megatron had on his body (according to a theory by Jetfire anyway. The reinforcements say nothing otherwise). Again, I think they're there to tie up that plot thread more then anything else. The Decepticons stop moving eventually, start spouting binary code and all come together (along with the Sweeps and "Galvatron's army"--which has been visually absent in the art but apparently still exist) to form a giant monster (called "DeceptiGod" in the solicitation). It attacks the Autobots, who try to fight it off. Elsewhere, Galvatron tells Optimus Prime that only the Heart of Darkness can destroy the planet's core and save the Universe. He races off to do that... Optimus is contacted by Cliffjumper--who's communicator is taken by Megatron (he did not merge with the rest of the Decepticons). Prime tells him to hold off the monster, if he can, in order to save the planet. Megatron says he will do his best... Optimus goes after Galvatron.
    The art is still murky as hell, making some panels had to decipher while others look not too bad.
    The story, as I said, is decent and advances somewhat over the previous couple of issues on Cybertron. I wonder why the Decepticons are affected by the darkness/whatever-it-is but not Megatron or the Autobots. One thing that would greatly improve this story is if they would drop a few hints about what is really going on. We got a set-up in the Heart of Darkness mini-series but since then Costa (and Roberts) have played it too close to the chest. I understand we're coming to a big story revelation shortly but dropping a few hints here and there would help pique curiosity and so far we've gotten nothing at all. It is my hope next issue of Chaos actually gets to the pay-off but we'll see...

Verdict:  Average.

Comic Review...

Cover B by Brendan Cahill

Transformers #27

Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Brendan Cahill
(covers by Brendan Cahill and Marcelo Matere) 


Summmary: 'The Last Story On Earth' continues with shocking revelations into what the humans have done to Cybertronians and what they plan to do! Alliances between the two races are on the brink-can Jazz, an Autobot who killed a human, possibly bring both sides back before utter destruction occurs? Here's a hint: Not bloody likely!


Comments: This issue sees art by Brendan Cahill, which is easier to follow in some respects then Ramondelli's is. I wouldn't say he's my favorite artist either though (give me Roche, Guidi or Matere any day).
    So, Prowl survives a sneak attack thanks to Streetwise and they discover it was Brawl who attacked them. They incapacitate him and return to base. We also pick up another story thread about a woman who worked for Skywatch but betrayed them by ratting out that they were working with the Autobots in secret. Later, Prowl grabs her and tries to interrogate her to find out about who killed Scrapper. She hints at Spike and then he comes in and confronts them directly. Yes, he admits to killing Scrapper!  To be honest, I'm not even sure who this woman is (maybe I missed whatever story she was in? I skipped a few issues when they went to North Korea and fought the Decepticons). If she was in the second story arc, this is a long time later to come back to her since likely all but the diehard readers have forgotten who the hell she is. Or if she wasn't in that story, her part was so small I paid her no attention. Either way, this was a plot twist out of the blue...
    Finally, we get to the important part--Spike killed Scrapper and admits to it! The only thing is, who cares? In the issue (TF #9) where Spike committed his "crime", we learn Scrapper's actions caused human deaths so it's not like he went out and summarily executed an innocent party. Also, in case Prowl has forgotten, Scrapper is a Decepticon--his sworn enemy! At least if Spike had killed Bluestreak or something this story might make sense but as it is he did everyone a favor. This story highlights my disdain for this current series--it focuses on issues I just don't care about in a Transformers comic. I don't want more of the same per se, but I would rather the comic pull back and focus more on the bigger picture (like Furman's stuff used to) and less on touchy-feely characterization (or, at least, not so much on it all the time). Costa's approach works so much better for the GIJOE: Cobra comic (in part, because there are other comics in the same continuity being written about other things) but not so much here with only one title.

Verdict: Mediocre. 

Comic Review...

Transformers #18


Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Alex Milne

(cover art by Nick Roche and Marcelo Matere)


Summary: The Autobots have been beaten down, backed into a corner, and harried into making a huge mistake. But the biggest blow has yet to fall, as Prime sets out to face Megatron one-on-one in the final chapter of REVENGE OF THE DECEPTICONS. Nobody dies... but somebody's gonna wish they had.


Comments: From reading the solicitation synopsis above, one would assume this issue is mind blowingly awesome. That would be wrong. It's not a terrible issue per se but, frankly, not a lot really happens. After last issue's dramatic ending I had hoped for a real follow-up. Instead, the whole Jazz thing is all but ignored and Optimus goes storming off to fight Megatron. Megatron beats him but then surrenders himself--he wants to watch the chaos that is coming. Optimus is given suspicions that his human allies might not be as copesetic as they pretend... The Prime/Megatron battle is dull and the rest of the issue is set-up for future things (at least, I think it is. Costa doesn't seem to understand how to write comics very well. If you're going to set up a story element then pay it off! Don't set it up and ignore it because you suddenly had some other whim to pursue).

Verdict: Mediocre.



(Cover "B" by Marcelo Matere)

Comic Review...

(WARNING: The following review contains story spoilers for the issue's ending).


Transformers #17

Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Alex Milne

(Covers by Marcelo Matere and Nick Roche)


Summary: Megatron's plan enters its second stage as the Autobots continue to fall under attack from heavily armed humans. Elsewhere, Starscream attempts to initiate a plan of his own with an old ally. Costa and Milne aren't bringing everyone out of this issue in one piece as the REVENGE OF THE DECEPTICONS continues!


Comments: We start the story with Optimus and company finally being accounted for after missing for a couple of issues (they were shot down). Anyway, it's mentioned in passing that Megatron either shot them down or ordered it. He sends them a message and we find he has the Autobots from last issue as hostages. What makes no sense is that when last issue ended, it seemed like he'd left after having taunted them so I guess he turned around for some reason and captured them all anyway. The rest of the story makes sense otherwise and ends on an attempt at drama. Jazz does what any of the Autobots would've realistically done and kills a human when he sees it threatening fellow Autobots with a Megatron gun (unless we're supposed to assume they're all retarded or something. Why wouldn't they defend themselves rather then allow humans to kill them?) What he didn't realize is that the others had all but talked the man down (oops!) I look forward to seeing this resolved. Hopefully Prime will stick up for Jazz and not just have him be lead off and disassembled or killed.

Verdict: Recommended.


(Cover "A" by Marcelo Matere)

Comic Review...

Transformers #16

Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Alex Milne

(covers by Marcelo Matere and Nick Roche)

Summary: MEGATRON's plan enters its second stage as the AUTOBOTS continue to fall under attack from heavily armed humans. Elsewhere, STARSCREAM attempts to initiate a plan of his own with an old ally. Costa and Figueroa aren't bringing everyone out of this issue in one piece as the 'Revenge of the Decepticons' continues!


Comments: For once, I can honestly say I liked this issue. It wasn't earth shattering or anything but I found it sufficiently entertaining. Also, Milne's art was pretty good... I do wonder why Megatron revealed himself so early on in his scheme--I had assumed he'd want to stay behind the scenes for a while and pull strings (of course, he hasn't left Ultra Magnus and the others by the end of the issue so perhaps there's more to reveal next issue?) Also, I find it interesting that now that Megatron's back in charge again, now Starscream decides to act--against him. He had control of the Decepticons all that time and did nothing. Does he need Megatron as his muse or something? I would rather see Starscream act as a competent leader for once (just for the purposes of character development, if nothing else). All things considered, though, this wasn't a bad issue. Hoping more will be revealed next issue...

Verdict: Average.


(Cover "B" by Nick Roche)

Comic Review...

Transformers #14

Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Don Figueroa

(covers by Don Figueroa and Nick Roche)


Summary: Two Autobots felled in the past two issues and the punishment is only beginning! A shocking revelation and an unexpected attack begins the 'REVENGE OF THE DECEPTICONS,' the storyline that leaves a lot more Autobots on the operating table, and their entire future on Earth in question-and also features the return of superstar artist DON FIGUEROA!


Comments: I skipped the last three issues due to a lack of interest. In that time, International Incident ended (finally) and, presumably, Hot Rod got killed last issue (I base this off the description above). Bumblebee has also been assassinated as well by some kind of human anti-robot movement that materialized... This issue seems to exist to shuffle the plot elements around--we learn a little bit about BB's assassin and his motivations; the returning Autobots aboard a plane are attacked by some unrevealed source; the Autobots at the human military base are attacked by Decepticons who rescue their prisoner comrades and several guns that appear like G1 Megatron begin appearing on the Earth (including the weapon that shot Bumblebee). A giant cup of "meh". I guess Figueroa is back to drawing the art again (at least for the moment anyway). The story itself is unfocused due to its need to set up future events... Once again I am reminded of how little has truly happened in the IDW universe in the last five years.

Verdict: Neutral.



(Cover "B" by Nick Roche)

Comic Review...

Transformers #10

Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Guido Guidi

(cover by Guido Guidi)

Summary: 'International Incident,' Part 2: Spike and Optimus lead a covert team onto South Korean soil, but do they have a chance against a fully-armed platoon of Combaticons? Somebody's about to get their tail-pipe kicked in a big way. Costa and Guidi bring the pain with the biggest brawl yet in the Transformers ongoing title.

Comments: Like the previous issue, a decent story and reasonably good art (if a bit cartoony). My problem is that I'm tired of "decent" and would like to see more of "spectacular". I'd also like to see some tighter writing so stories don't go on and on forever. This story could've been wrapped up quickly but apparently its slated to go at least four issues! All International Incident really is ultimately is a extended battle between the two sides (it reads like the plot of a G1 cartoon episode). There's no intrigue or sub-plots really. What you see is what you get--and it's just not interesting or exciting enough for me. Of all IDW's output, I can't say they've really ever done a truly memorable story (although a few of Furman's came close)--and this is no exception. I planned to give the ongoing series a couple of issues to try it out and see how Costa did. I'm just not feeling it overall and after ten issues, I think it's time to call it quits. (I might still pick up a trade or mini in the future if it sounds good but I'm done with the ongoing for the time being).

Mildly recommended.