Back again with another knockout issue in Skybound’s Transformers series, still fantastically crafted by writer/artist Daniel Warren Johnson and colorist Mike Spicer. It goes without saying by now that everything these boys touch has turned to gold thus far, with this issue being in no way an exception.
This latest issue continues the fantastic track record set by the previous issues, with not a single beat of story wasted by beating around the bush. Things move fast, and they move intensely at that. The last issue did promise some real badass action with the final page (which even became a bit of an art trend on Transformers related Twitter), and this one sure does deliver. It’s an all-out battle between a fully powered up Decepticons and the struggling half repaired Autobots, who have only just started to gather the energy needed to revive their forces. There’s a ton of cool little character moments that end up resulting from this, so many that I can’t really comment on them all, so I’ll just say I very much enjoyed seeing Arcee and Wheeljack up and kicking, filling out that promised roster from the promotional material.
The usual really sad and heroic Optimus Prime moment comes at the start, with a parallel flashback showcasing the similarities between Prime and Sparky, a fitting and somber note to start the issue on with the two father figures. Optimus gets some really great moments to shine in action too, as usual, but running around with Megatron’s arm cannon has led to some insanely cool action beats that were just a joy to read. And of course, I can’t not mention that Johnson has once again left us with an absolute killer of a cliffhanger hook, this time by having an even more battered and beat down Optimus have to square off against the classic Decepticon combiner: Devastator! What a way to build hype.
Skybound/Image
On that note, the art continues to kill it. Johnson’s action scenes are some of the best in the business, and doing a big group brawl like this really helps showcase his immense skill at choreographing a fight scene. The sense of speed, power, and motion behind these robots is just immaculate, and it’s clear that he’s taking a lot of lessons from the Mecha genre of manga and anime in how to best utilize a mechanical design aesthetic in motion. It also gave me immense amusement to see how the Megatron arm cannon integrated into Prime’s classic transformation, and I thought it was a cute touch. It feels that Johnson has really gotten comfortable drawing robots at this point, which makes it all the more sad that he’ll be giving up main artist role to focus on the writing soon enough. His art was, and is, the exact fresh look that I think Transformers needed, not beholden to prior expectations for what Transformers drawings are “supposed” to feel and look like. It’ll be a shame to lose his talent on that front, but hey, lets enjoy him while he’s here.
Skybound/Image
Another fantastic issue, all around. It certainly feels like we’ve settled into a proper groove for this opening story, and are certainly nearing the climax and establishment of whatever this book’s status quo may end up being. You don’t bring out the big guns (literally) like this if you’re not gearing up for something big. I’m really looking forward to what’s cooking for next issue and beyond, and I fully expect my expectations to be completely and totally flipped on their head once again.
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