Welcome back to another review for Skybound’s ongoing Transformers series! This is issue #31 written by Robert Kirkman, and introducing new artist, replacing Dan Mora, Ludo Lullabi! And y’know what, they did a great job – this issue looks fantastic! But does it read just as well? Well I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you, so let’s do it. Spoilers ahoy!
Megatron, Megatron, Megatron. This issue is all Megatron, and that’s fun! I like Megatron, as much as one can like an evil megalomaniacal sentient gun from the Andromada galaxy who wants to kill us all. Nice guy, that Megatron. Anywho, Kirkman uses this issue to dig into a question set up by Daniel Warren Johnson a long while ago: what’s the deal with Megatron’s evil matrix? Why did the Quintessons give it to him? Well, in this half-flashback/half-hallucination, we do get an answer to most of those questions, as well as a name for the evil Matrix: the Matrix of Oppression. Well, it’s not my pitch of “Matrix of Slavery”, but it fits. Kinda means the same thing anyway. The real treat though, is Megatron’s own version of Optimus’ vision quest within the Matrix of Leadership, this time being met by…a background character from the G1 Cartoon episode “Five Faces of Darkness”. Oh, and Straxus and the Fallen I guess… whatever, nobody cares about those guys, right?
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No but seriously, the actual factual Fallen, in all his Dreamwave glory, on the page standing face to face with ol’ Gunmetal Grieves himself. Megatron meets Megatronus. Now there’s a hook for ya. Maybe it won’t get everybody back in the book’s good graces (there has been much debate in the month and change since last issue leaked online and then came out), but boy is it a fun swing, and feels right out of the playbook Kirkman’s been working with over in Void Rivals. Just the right amount of fan service and intrigue to keep you going. He’s got me again.
The art by Lullabi, is also as I said up top, superb. Look, nobody wants to be the one to follow Dan Mora, least of all a Dan Mora who followed new fan favorite Jorge Corona, and ESPECIALLY not if they followed up from the superb, Eisner-winning pinnacle that was Daniel Warren Johnson… so, I do not envy the position here. But what a way to rise to the occasion. A fantastic sense of dynamic action and motion, Megatron feels like he’s dancing from page to page with exaggerated movement and expression work. And how can you beat those absolutely stunning panels of him with the Fallen, who radiates just as much 2003 Shredder level presence as he did back in the ol’ days of War Within. Great stuff, absolutely jazzed for more. Nobody wants to follow a star-studded line-up like that, but it takes real talent to stick that landing and keep running!
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Skybound’s Transformers #31, yay or nay? Yay! In my opinion, anyway. The past couple issues have been divisive in the Transformers community at large, many citing pacing issues or padding, and I feel like this issue does a great job addressing that problem. This issue feels properly meaty, reminding me, again, more of what Kirkman’s been up to in Void Rivals. Maybe his scripts were lighter in previous issues to be easy on poor overworked Dan Mora? Who can say, and not really the point, I suppose. Books are published as they’re published regardless of the circumstances and they need to be judged accordingly, but it does help frame the bigger picture. Maybe with a new artist on board who’s more rested up and ready to go can bring out the best of Kirkman’s storytelling, and I’d say this issue serves as a strong signal toward that theory being true.
The guy’s name is “Trannis”, by the way. The Junkion looking guy is named “Trannis.” Bet you didn’t know that, did you?
Okay fine, I looked it up. Happy? Just buy the book.
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