Hello again folks, I’m back with my usual review of the latest issue of Skybound and Daniel Warren Johnson’s Transformers. This issue is brought to us by the usual team of DWJ himself writing and the current series regular and main artist Jorge Corona, with fantastic colors as per-usual by Mike Spicer.
Skybound
Once again, the plot can be very easily boiled down to continuing on the current arc with consistently solid pacing and character writing. Not much I can say for unique observations of this current story line at this point, I’ve said pretty much every bit of praise or mild criticism I can muster in regards to that and characterizations, so I won’t bother with the nitty gritty details there. Beachcomber continues to be cool, Optimus is still the high point of every issue, Soundwave is absolutely going to go on a bloody murderous rampage if somebody doesn’t fix his cat RIGHT NOW, and Carly and Spike are well handled, the usual. Everything is as solid as it’s been, if that’s all you came here to know. I like the trajectory everybody’s on, simple as that. I will say though, it was nice to see Ultra Magnus in play, even if his particular characterization here serves as our hook for next issue, so we don’t quite yet know how Johnson is going to characterize him outside this PTSD angle, which I already do like. Magnus is a character who’s been interpreted a number of ways, and has never really found that definitive personality that manages to jump adaptations, so I’m eager to see what this take has to offer my favorite 2nd Optimus Prime in cool blue power armor.
Skybound
The artwork has really been shining lately, too. Corona’s work in this issue and the last are breathtaking in my humble opinion, so full of life and detail without sacrificing a loose, cartoony aesthetic. Spicer’s colors only serve to elevate as they always have, but I also feel like we’ve reached a point here where Corona has fully settled into his role to the point that I think he’s even surpassed a lot of what we saw from Johnson in the early issues of this series. Not that Corona’s work in his first couple issues was bad, far from, but it’s feeling much more natural now than it did at first, like a proper evolution of Johnson’s style while still being distinctly Corona. As a quick aside, I enjoy the resurrection of the technique IDW used previously about depicting flashbacks in a very Marvel-TF-esque style of coloring and shading, dots and all. Fantastic stuff.
Skybound
As always, I’m very impressed by every new issue and continue to have a great time reading them, even if I feel like I’m running out of inventive ways to say “wow, this is good!” But that’s why I’m paid the big… uh… energon rations? I’ll get there. Anyways, there’s still some things I hope get followed up soon after this arc is over, like what’s going on with Optimus and Spike (I mean I totally know, but I don’t know know, so I wanna know, y’know?), and while he’s proven his action adventure chops a thousand fold, I want to see Johnson take the challenge of some quieter, slower storytelling to see if he’s got equal chops in the methodical. Time will tell! Until next time, ’till all are one!
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