Transformers hits the big issue number 2-0, #20, a very impressive milestone for any ongoing series in today’s landscape. This issue is brought to us by the usual dream team of Daniel Warren Johnson, Jorge Corona, Mike Spicer and Rus Wuton. I got a lot to say today, so I’m gonna get right to saying it.
Two years. Nearly two years of reading reviewing this book since before it even officially hit shelves. 20 issues isn’t quite a usually celebrated milestone, but I find it immensely impressive that public interest in the book has remained so strong after such a stretch of time. It really doesn’t feel like any time has passed at all, and DWJ and the rest of the Skybound crew are still delivering us great single issues that leave you wanting more. Two years, and we’re finally at the big showdown. Megatron is well and truly here.
Image/Skybound
And wow, Johnson’s Megatron really leaves an impact. With sparse appearances in the past, and a flashback last issue, we have had a very limited scope of how THIS Megatron was going to be written. The question I found myself asking was often: “what will make this one stand out against the vast swath of varied takes on the character?” It’s not an easy question to answer – Megatron started life as a very simplistic, one-note villain in the style of many similar cartoon bad guys of his day, and many writers over the years have offered their own ideas on how to inject that with nuance. Johnson does what Johnson does best, and that’s deliver on the hype, the spectacle, the “hype moments and aura” as people say these days. That isn’t to say there’s no nuance – there’s actually plenty to chew on – but this is a Megatron that’s cruel, brutal, sophisticated in his speech and vicious to see in motion. This is a Megatron written by the guy who made Optimus Prime suplex a guy in his debut issue. Here, the word of the day is “hardcore.”
Image/Skybound
This issue to me feels like a return to the start of Johnson’s story, appropriate for his final hurrah as head writer of this comic. We loop back around to a touching, introspective moment from Optimus and Spike, after all has been said and done, we still find them as the heart of the story. We get some absolutely fantastic sycophantic Starscream writing, who now truly feels complete with Megatron back to brutalize him immediately after healing him of his various accumulated wounds. They’re moments that feel like they could ripped right out of the show’s script, as polar opposites in tone they may be. The dichotomy is still excellently done, and I feel a lot of my previous reservations about this arc melting away.
Image/Skybound
Corona is doing fantastic work in this issue. His art feels the most like Johnson’s itself it ever has been. Perhaps that might partially be how I’m perceiving this issue as a “full circle” kind of moment, and maybe it actually is an intended choice, but either way, I like the result. I feel like Corona hasn’t had as many chances to do the quieter, more peaceful moments in the series, mostly being used in issues with lots of high-octane action from cover to cover. While the brutal Megatron is definitely the highlight, I think the best drawn scene is still Spike and Optimus looking at the sun, a well executed moment of tranquility, like the calm in the eye of the storm.
Transformers #20 feels like this series has come full circle. The final battle is on the horizon, and after this we will be saying goodbye to Johnson’s time on this book. It really does feel like an era coming to an end, and I’m glad the issue took the time to not double down even more on the action this time, and remember to pull back and really get back into the characters’ heads and learn their feelings in a moment of peace like those early issues. It can only go uphill from here.
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