Hey there all, it’s Crooker back again with another review of Skybound’s ongoing Transformers series! This is issue #29 written by Robert Kirkman and penciled by Dan Mora, the team’s fifth issue together. Only one left with Mora after this, sad to see him go. A great issue though, so let’s dig into what we have this time.
Skybound
Story wise, this is fairly standard fare, mostly just a big fight scene, but plenty of spots for character development and good interactions. The confrontation between Megatron and Thundercracker, though brief, had a lot of us spooked when the cover teased it. Glad ol’ crackhead came out of it in one piece – I’d hate to lose him so soon after becoming an Autobot. Soundwave’s escape and subsequent hyper-loyalty to Megatron isn’t a shock, given what we know about him from franchise osmosis, but it’s a shame that none of Prime or Thundercracker’s words even seemed to have lingered on him while making that choice. Missed opportunity for some drama? Solidification of characterization? Who can say?
I can already tell the ending has the potential to be a bit… controversial to the fan base, given the extreme passion surrounding Elita-1’s character and her dynamic with Optimus this go around being more hostile than a lot of fans wanted out of them (I’ve got my pairing too, I get it). Then again, a lot of people love this kinda stuff, so who knows? I think it manages to get the reader appropriately frustrated with her, setting her up as a good anti-hero adversary for this arc. Maybe “anti-hero” isn’t quite the right word, but I think you guys get what I’m driving at (Get it? Drive? Ahahaaaaa… aaaah. Yeah.). Anyway, so long as it’s done well, I’m into it! Also, still not much in the way of any human intrigue this issue, which is a bummer. I love this Spike and Carly, and I wanna see them do stuff! C’mon Robert, you’re great at this in Void Rivals!
Skybound
By and large, this is one action-packed adventure of an issue. Mora’s talent as an artist is on full display here, with some incredibly fun fight scene choreography. I wouldn’t ever say that from reading his other books that I ever pegged Mora as “the fights guy”, but he does a great job here, especially considering how hard it must be to draw all these fairly geometric and complicated (relatively speaking) characters in motion. Sarah Stern on colors is also fantastic here, complementing Mora’s pencils beautifully and feeling very reminiscent of Spicer’s work on the book, lending some seamless visual continuity. Very poppy and bright color choice with lots of greenery that feels at home in an ’80s cartoon franchise, especially one usually set in very… orange environments.
Transformers #29 feels nice and solid. It gives us a good taste about how Kirkman’s long term formula is likely going to work, what kind of battles we can expect, how he chooses to write these guys in the thick of it all, it’s a good “meat and potatoes” issue, I feel. You get exactly what you want out of a Transformers comic, a solid action adventure with strong characterization and drama. I still wish there was a bit more going on with advancing Spike and Carly though. It’s seriously felt like the human cast has just fallen by the wayside since Kirkman took over, and I hope that doesn’t turn into a permanent spot on the back burner. Overall, really good! You know you gotta pick it up if you already like this stuff, c’mon.
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