Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Don Figueroa
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 26th September
Warning: contains spoilers
With Beast Wars: The Gathering the stage was set perfectly for the second act. It gave us two stranded armies with no way of returning home. And no real way to support themselves or even affect the events transpiring around them. Yet rather than put their differences aside both sides appear determined to try and annihilate each other. But then that is always a plus in the Transformer books.
Issue one begins On Cybertron with what looks like a full blown war going on. There is no reason given for the Transformers kicking the slag out of each other, and witness to all this is an incorporeal MagmaTron. His unplanned trip home has somehow gone wrong and he is now stuck as an observer to the chaos around him. He is of course not very happy about this. But like all good Con leaders before him, he is making the best of a bad situation by observing all he can past, present and future. Including just before the planet Cybertron is destroyed by Shokaract and Unicron.
Every so often he even drops in on Razorbeast who he now considers a worthy adversary. And it is at this point our story really beings to take shape. It has been a deca-cycle since the events if The Gathering happened. The Maximals appear to have set up a base camp and have been defending themselves from Predacon raids while waiting on help from Cybertron that is not looking like it will arrive anytime soon.
While they wait, we get to witness a Predacon attack on the base and see old friends Prowl and Grimlock get some page space. Grimlock is beautifully written and has that Furman spark behind his character. But what appears to be another raid gives way to a full on attack giving Don a chance to flex his skills with some wonderful crowd shots. He uses three pages to give us a great sense of a war while only seeing a small part of it. The attack proves to be nothing more than a distraction for Ravage to further his own goals as he appears to have taken command of the Predacons in Magmatrons absence, and is completely pushing his own agenda.
The second half of the book sees appearances from Lio Convoy and The Pack who have been waiting on word from Razorbeast. And you will be pleased to know that they will be having a bigger role this arc. We also get treated to the potential rising of a new big bad guy which Simon has revealed to be Shokaract who will hopefully be as aggressive as past incarnations.
Simon has yet again provided a great start to what looks like a great arc. Issue one provides enough robot action to keep the fight fans happy and even though most characters only get a few panels, their personalities shine trough. The book moves at a fast pace and leaps nicely from one time point to another. And as with most of the IDW Transformer titles he is clearly building towards something bigger. I really cannot wait for issue 2.
Don again does a wonderful job on art duties, consistent and detailed. Magmatrons Limbo form is beautifully added to every panel he is on. The Cybertron forms are again well designed and look excellent on the page. Dons fight scenes are quick and filled with power. The Torcha page is excellent and already a wallpaper on my computer. The book also has some of the most creative sound effects I’ve seen since Nextwave. WHROOOT! Is just a great noise. The colours are bright and full of life till the book needs to cast a dark shadow over it, and the change in tone is handled elegantly.
We get three covers for this issue. Nick Roche provides us with Lio Convoy and Razorbeast being overlooked by Magmatron. Don provides the other two which combine to form a nice wrap around cover of the Maximals Versus Predacons, with a nice image of Magmatron in the centre of the two.
- Mark Hall Irish by blood, Transformer by obsession.