Corey Brotherson
Apr 27, 2008, 11:11 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/idw/0308/TRF_Spotlight-Grimlock.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/idw/0308/TRF_Spotlight-Grimlockt.jpg" align=left alt="The Transformers: Spotlight: Grimlock" hspace="5"></a></a>Reviewer: Corey Brotherson, cbrotherson@googlemail.com
Story Title: Grimlock
"Vocal processor... damaged?"
Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Marcelo Matere
Colours: Zac Atkinson, Liam Shalloo and Andrew Elder
Letterer: Amauri Osorio
Edits: Andrew Steven Harris
Editor In Chief: Chris Ryall
President: Ted Adams
Published by: IDW Publishing (www.idwpublishing.com)
“Me Grimlock no kisser. Me Grimlock king!”
And so it goes.
The hugely successful Transformers cartoon popularised the rather quirky speak pattern of prominent character Grimlock which has long become his signature, creating a bit of a problem for writers of the comics who attempted to make the Dinobot into something more than just an unthinking brute with big jaws and a cool looking sword. The funny thing was, the ‘Tech Specs’ given to Grimlock (as each character's toy box was blessed with) described the Dinobot’s intelligence as above average (seven out of ten, if you’re as old and/or sad as this writer to remember). Physically slow, yes, arrogant, definitely, but stupid? Nah. Something of a mischaracterisation made by the cartoon that stuck, turning a fearsome and powerful leader into a fearsome and powerful, well... child. At least by comparison to his often more measured comic book iterations who could stand toe-to-toe with Optimus Prime and Megatron.
So Grimlock became almost schizophrenic in his portrayals, some showing him as dim-witted, others explaining it away as a cunning ruse to just make rivals merely think he’s dumb. Both of which, the latter in particular, have lead to some sterling stories in the past.
Sadly, this issue of Spotlight falls short of being one of them.
Much like the duality that Grimlock has shown himself, this comic is a frustrating mix of ideas that refuse each other time or space to truly breath, potentially leaving its readers as confused as the titular protagonist come the story’s end. Neither the writing or artwork is to blame on a whole, more a combination of everything not quite coming together as well as it could.
Plot-wise, it follows Grimlock’s escape from human-led government organisation, Skywatch, a covert operation looking to collect and use Tranformers for its own use. Underling this is the Dinobot’s guilt over the fate of his now defunct unit, mostly because of his own selfish actions. It’s a nicely different approach to the usual smash and bash Grimlock fare, allowing us to see a more considered side to the character while simultaneously expressing the main thing that matters to him – his ‘brothers’. His loyalty to the Dinobots helps define Grimlock in this issue, and makes for a good theme to carry things through. Unfortunately, the use of Scorponok offering Grimlock a way out comes off a little too light and uneven to balance out against the core premise. The two ideas – Grimlock’s guilt and Scorponok’s machinations to have them affiliated because of their fugitive status – mesh well in concept, but there are almost too many agendas to make the story work effectively; either the issue needed to be longer to flesh things out more (and explain things for any poor new readers who will likely be bewildered by the Headmaster’s appearance and lightly touched on history) or made into a ‘Part one of...’ sequence. Because, as with some other Spotlights, it reads far too much like an opener rather than something that can stand on its own merit. As a part of the grander mosaic writer Simon Furman and the other TF scribes are building, it’s fine – as anything else it’s far too meandering.
There's also a lack of any true tension. The narrative unfolds in a fairly predictable manner, as Grimlock’s cogitation soon gives way to a rather standard confrontation and climax. Again, had there been more to continue the story beyond its obvious ties with the current IDW continuity (where it’ll be picked up at a later date) it would have probably been more compelling.
None of this is helped by some occasionally muddy artwork. Marcelo Matere’s pencils and inks are good, offering line work reminiscent of legendary TF artist Andy Wildman, being both expressive and dynamic. However, it’s the colouring which lets things down, switching from being too bright and garish to too washed out and light. There’s no consistency and it hurts the book’s flow and overall storytelling. Making matters worse is the slightly botched editing and production, with a page not correctly aligned cutting off some of the dialogue, spelling errors and even a misplaced speech balloon coming to the fore.
What it all adds up to is a mixed up comic that fails to clearly bring itself across in purpose or presentation. It’s not a bad book, don’t be mistaken – but it’s reliance on past (and future) continuity, lack of story independence, muddled colouring and lapsed production keep it from being anything more than a slightly confused curiosity (which is ironic given part of the issue also manages to make sense of Grimlock’s speech pattern differences). For a tale about a Transformer who’s a T-Rex, this is a story that regrettably lacks anything near a memorable bite.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tffull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tffull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tfhalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tfnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tfnone.jpg
Roll out and buy these issues online now from X-WORLD, and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=1043&cat=IDW+PUBLISHING)
Story Title: Grimlock
"Vocal processor... damaged?"
Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Marcelo Matere
Colours: Zac Atkinson, Liam Shalloo and Andrew Elder
Letterer: Amauri Osorio
Edits: Andrew Steven Harris
Editor In Chief: Chris Ryall
President: Ted Adams
Published by: IDW Publishing (www.idwpublishing.com)
“Me Grimlock no kisser. Me Grimlock king!”
And so it goes.
The hugely successful Transformers cartoon popularised the rather quirky speak pattern of prominent character Grimlock which has long become his signature, creating a bit of a problem for writers of the comics who attempted to make the Dinobot into something more than just an unthinking brute with big jaws and a cool looking sword. The funny thing was, the ‘Tech Specs’ given to Grimlock (as each character's toy box was blessed with) described the Dinobot’s intelligence as above average (seven out of ten, if you’re as old and/or sad as this writer to remember). Physically slow, yes, arrogant, definitely, but stupid? Nah. Something of a mischaracterisation made by the cartoon that stuck, turning a fearsome and powerful leader into a fearsome and powerful, well... child. At least by comparison to his often more measured comic book iterations who could stand toe-to-toe with Optimus Prime and Megatron.
So Grimlock became almost schizophrenic in his portrayals, some showing him as dim-witted, others explaining it away as a cunning ruse to just make rivals merely think he’s dumb. Both of which, the latter in particular, have lead to some sterling stories in the past.
Sadly, this issue of Spotlight falls short of being one of them.
Much like the duality that Grimlock has shown himself, this comic is a frustrating mix of ideas that refuse each other time or space to truly breath, potentially leaving its readers as confused as the titular protagonist come the story’s end. Neither the writing or artwork is to blame on a whole, more a combination of everything not quite coming together as well as it could.
Plot-wise, it follows Grimlock’s escape from human-led government organisation, Skywatch, a covert operation looking to collect and use Tranformers for its own use. Underling this is the Dinobot’s guilt over the fate of his now defunct unit, mostly because of his own selfish actions. It’s a nicely different approach to the usual smash and bash Grimlock fare, allowing us to see a more considered side to the character while simultaneously expressing the main thing that matters to him – his ‘brothers’. His loyalty to the Dinobots helps define Grimlock in this issue, and makes for a good theme to carry things through. Unfortunately, the use of Scorponok offering Grimlock a way out comes off a little too light and uneven to balance out against the core premise. The two ideas – Grimlock’s guilt and Scorponok’s machinations to have them affiliated because of their fugitive status – mesh well in concept, but there are almost too many agendas to make the story work effectively; either the issue needed to be longer to flesh things out more (and explain things for any poor new readers who will likely be bewildered by the Headmaster’s appearance and lightly touched on history) or made into a ‘Part one of...’ sequence. Because, as with some other Spotlights, it reads far too much like an opener rather than something that can stand on its own merit. As a part of the grander mosaic writer Simon Furman and the other TF scribes are building, it’s fine – as anything else it’s far too meandering.
There's also a lack of any true tension. The narrative unfolds in a fairly predictable manner, as Grimlock’s cogitation soon gives way to a rather standard confrontation and climax. Again, had there been more to continue the story beyond its obvious ties with the current IDW continuity (where it’ll be picked up at a later date) it would have probably been more compelling.
None of this is helped by some occasionally muddy artwork. Marcelo Matere’s pencils and inks are good, offering line work reminiscent of legendary TF artist Andy Wildman, being both expressive and dynamic. However, it’s the colouring which lets things down, switching from being too bright and garish to too washed out and light. There’s no consistency and it hurts the book’s flow and overall storytelling. Making matters worse is the slightly botched editing and production, with a page not correctly aligned cutting off some of the dialogue, spelling errors and even a misplaced speech balloon coming to the fore.
What it all adds up to is a mixed up comic that fails to clearly bring itself across in purpose or presentation. It’s not a bad book, don’t be mistaken – but it’s reliance on past (and future) continuity, lack of story independence, muddled colouring and lapsed production keep it from being anything more than a slightly confused curiosity (which is ironic given part of the issue also manages to make sense of Grimlock’s speech pattern differences). For a tale about a Transformer who’s a T-Rex, this is a story that regrettably lacks anything near a memorable bite.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tffull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tffull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tfhalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tfnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/tfnone.jpg
Roll out and buy these issues online now from X-WORLD, and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=1043&cat=IDW+PUBLISHING)