Hello folks, Crooker here again. Here we are, Transformers #24 from Skybound, by the legendary Daniel Warren Johnson, Jorge Corona, and Mike Spicer. What a journey. Two years I’ve been reviewing this book now, and through ups and downs, it’s remained a consistent source of excitement. Let’s talk about the end of DWJ’s legendary run with Hasbro’s Robots in Disguise.
In this final DWJ-penned issue, we get what is essentially his rite of passage that all Transformers writers one days dreams of doing themselves: quote the 1986 movie word for word in a completely different context! Aaaah I jab out of love, we all love it, and I can’t blame him because I’d do it too. The final slugfest between Optimus and Megatron is truly impressive, a brutal fist fight that only ends when Megatron pulls his underhanded supervillain stuff by threatening outsiders. What I love about this, aside from reinforcing the whole Superman-ishness of Prime, is that this whole issue exists to essentially remind us what kind of person Megatron is deep down: he’s not a warrior king, a noble leader, somebody you’d trust with your future, or any kind of well meaning revolutionary. He’s a liar, a cheat, and a coward, somebody who can’t win a fair fight nor wants one. This is the Megatron that DWJ leaves us, not the mustache twirler of the ’80s, the revolutionary gone bad of Hasbro’s modern stories, or the schemer of IDW’s reboot. This Megatron is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the devil that whispers in your ear. A truly fresh take on the character that I find to be immensely impressive, finally paying off that was set up and giving us a villain truly worthy of all the effort to build him up to this point.
Skybound
The way it all ends is not something I didn’t expect, in fact I already long deduced the likely candidates for who’d probably be biting the bullet and who wouldn’t before the issue even got sent out to reviewers such as I, so I wouldn’t say I was surprised. What I was, was satisfied. Deeply satisfied. The end of Starscream’s narrative journey in this, and how it ends, is something that I think was fairly obvious to anybody paying attention, but I do like how it was done. I have the mildest of concerns over the implications presented and what that says about his autonomy in his actions… but that’s a problem for another writer to play around with, I suppose.
Corona’s art is breathtaking as it always is, but his hard work bringing us this far, filling DWJ’s shoes in giving this book the strong visual identity that arguably is the main grab for a lot of folks out there, cannot be understated. This is a triumph of sequential storytelling, bold, strong, heart-stopping work only enhanced by Spicer’s masterful coloring that’s carried us since that very first issue with very few exceptions.
Skybound
Transformers #24 is the end of an incredible golden age for the property, and hopefully the start of a new silver age under Kirkman. This book has long since proven that it beat the odds and cemented itself in comic book history as one of the greatest triumphs of licensed comics, it, and DWJ especially, have nothing left to prove to us. There was always more to it than meets the eye. In the end, Skybound’s first two-year run of Transformers ends exactly as any good comic should, not with an extravagant, self-congratulation with a half-hearted promise to maybe meet again someday, but with a well told, well earned story that ends on the perfect, simple note, ready for you to pick up the next issue in the story as if nothing is going to change at all. It’s an ending that’s humble, an ending that feels small… but still mighty. Daniel, you dared to believe. You held the future in your hands, and you especially dared to keep your dreams alive. You won it all, ‘cuz you dared. Bravo. Take a well earned rest.
I’ll be back next month to cover Kirkman’s run too, so please read this comic and enjoy, everybody. And to all who worked on this series, who read it, gave it a chance and especially those who joined me on this two-year journey experiencing and talking about it…
‘Till all are one!
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