TRANSFORMERS: ENERGON #26 REVIEW

[Drew Eiden]

Reviewer: Drew Eiden, EDeadpoolica@yahoo.com
Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Multiplicity

It's Cybergeddon! And other fun things to write on signs!

Written by: Simon Furman
Cover and Pencils by: Alex Milne
Inked by: Elaine To
Colors by: Jong-Im Lee, Sigmund Torre, Yvonne Poon and Josh Perez
Letters by: Ben Lee

WARNING: There are spoilers in this review.


Well after a bit thinking and waiting, Transformers: Energon #26 finally delivers. What does it deliver? Well that's debatable.

Let's start with the so-so's

First off, we have Optimus Prime on Earth shaking hands with earthen people in a peace compact. OK, makes sense, but Optimus was taken through a portal at the end of Transformers: Energon #25 and into the middle of Unicron... why is he on Earth? There's no brief spot that says "The past." or "Two weeks ago...” Starting off confused isn't a good start.

Second off, the introductions of Mirage and Slugslinger are so bland, so poor that it makes me want to pretend it didn't happen. Shakespearean quotes like these were found:

"I'm the bad 'bot formerly known as Tidal Wave. But hey, you can call me Mirage!"

Um...yuck. I KNOW Simon Furman has better ways of writing than that. No Decepticon and most especially Tidal "I like to say GARRRRRRR or maybe talk about astro fusion!" Wave is going to say that. I mean in issue 24 he was practically Dr. Doom with his language. Where'd that go? Guh...apparently he's still mad from a battle three issues ago with the Omni-Cons even though he's already beaten up Ironhide and fought Jetfire. Go figure.

I'm not saying it's bad for introductions to happen but at least introduce them. Slugslinger just shows up and the only way we know his name is from the Summer Special or if you've seen him on Transformers.com.

And then there's the saving grace.

Humans!

That's right. Humans saved a Transformers comic. For the first time in as long as I can remember, the humans in the book really make me like this issue. Kicker drowning? Alexis dead? Millions against the Autobots peace treaty? It all makes me want to read the next issue. Amazingly there's a lot of human interaction in here and it's pretty good stuff! (Although Milne has got to work on his humans.) We'll discuss this later on.) Rad, Alexis and Kicker get some serious page time and it comes off well and unforced as it seemed like they were on the TV show and past issues. Furman played them in well and make up for the lack of everything in Mirage's introduction.

The story has about five different angles going, which I like. It's "meaty". There's a lot to read and I'll always appreciate that from Dreamwave. The story with Jetfire now confronting the High Council looks like it could go places, as long as the High Council doesn't get overused (ala the Autobot Matrix). It could add a lot of characters that would look great in print. Jetfire is starting to warm on me. Too bad he wasn't in the book earlier, there's a lot that can be done with him. He's got a strong second-in-command vibe going. He's not a poor man's Optimus Prime (G1 Ultra Magnus), he's not a young kid (Armada/Energon Hot Shot, Beast Wars/Machines Cheetor, G1 Rodimus Prime) and he's not seen as just a warrior (G1 Prowl). If Optimus were taken out of the picture I think Jetfire could take over the Autobots easily.

The Omni-Cons (read last month's review for how much I enjoy these guys) are back on the scene with Kicker checking out an Energon well. Turns out the Energon Well is underneath the water. So why send in the robots when you can send in the air-needing little kid? Yeah... great idea but Kicker is too worked up about how the Energon is needed desperately. So he goes in himself. Watching Kicker go in the water is like putting a toaster on the ledge of a bathtub. You know something's going to happen either that toaster falls in the water and shocks the bejesus out of you or it falls on the other side and breaks or you're left with no toaster. Something bad is going to happen. Well during this little carousel ride, Kicker and the Omni-Cons are (you guessed it!) attacked. Kicker (being sustained by an air bubble created by Signal Flare) is suddenly jolted and is drowning. That's where they leave us.

Pretty good, I especially like the way Milne poses Kicker when the air bubble shakes away. Scarily real. But like I said though we'll talk about Milne in a bit. He's got that Yankees' Bubba Crosby-vibe going for him. He'll do well if he gets his time.

The issue also includes Prime vs. Megatron... in verbiage! Sound exciting? Yeah, it's not. It's a lot of build-up that plays off great on television when there's music playing to get the mood. With the comic it just doesn't come off as such tense words between the two. Still, having Megatron back in the book is great. You need the main villain; Scorponok just was not cutting it. He was boring. Downright boring. The Horsemen were great but haven't been seen and Snow Cat was fun but nothing fantastic. Megs brings back some realistic badass ness to the book, I mean the guy took on G1 Galvatron and won. G1 Starscream barely got out three words against G1 Galvatron in the 1986 movie (but they aren't the same Galvatrons! They are both parallel universe Galvatrons. Think Ultimate Spider-Man and the real Spider-Man) and 'screamers practically a Generation One god!

But enough about Generation One. This is Energon and it needs a defining artist. Guido was great in my opinion and Joe Ng is off doing the War Within volume 3. So Alex Milne is the new guy in. Of the three he's probably my favorite now.

I know, I've said I like Ng and Guido but Prowl looks like a friggin' warrior and not a marshmallow puff, which is a plus. I like the way he sets up panels, they look good and give a good sense of the story. I like the way he draws the Omni-Cons and the High Council. Jetfire actually looks normal in this issue instead of being some sort of orange/white head thing. The thing I enjoyed most was his background which looked true and not just there, something I've been disheartened by in the past.

The downside to his art is the way he draws from about 20 feet away from the figure. Alexis and Rad looked like dwarfs with giant heads walking down the street. However, in up close shots they look perfectly normal. His bodies are a bit too feminine for everybody. His robots look excellent in these frames however. I like what I see so far!

Drew's Cool Thing of the Month: Prowl. Looking at the intricacies of Prowl's back as he and Jetfire walk through Cybertronian walls is crazy. There's a lot of detail Milne put into it and all the pages but this one struck me.

Drew's Only Once Done Before SECOND Cool Thing of the Month: The signs by the humans. One reads: Cybergeddon. I'm surprised that hasn't been used before. Sounds Sci-Fi but ridiculously funny at the same time.

Well we're left off with the Terrorcons defining the title of this issue and taking it to the Earth cities only seen in movies like Independence Day and Armageddon (Cybergeddon!). Maybe Megatron will get what he wants next month and if does will it come with a music sound chip that plays as you read? That'd kick arse.

Definitely.



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[BeastbotX]

I actually thought this was the best TF issue DW has put out so far. I didn't have any problems with it whatsoever, except for the fact that Alexis was drawn kinda of weirdly. I really liked the verbal spar between Optimus and Megatron (No. No. NO.), and how things are really shaping up to be a kickin' story arc. (Also, at the Official Transformers Collectors' Convention, Furman said that Mirage and Slugslinger are going to be given a real introduction next issue. He fast-forwarded a bit to catch your attention.)

Oh, and Mirage's "I was formerly Tidal Wave" line didn't really seem out of character to me. Comic version Tidal Wave always seemed to be a kind of unique bad guy, who alternated between serious, smarmy, and downright angry moods. Here he's in a smarmy mood.

[Zachary J. Morrison]

OH! The review finally comes out. Good review, Drew. I enjoyed reading this and I can't wait to see what's in store for the next issue.

[Geen-man]

I dont know if anyone else feels the same as me but i really dont like the idea of changing the overall design of a character between books for no aparant reason. If tidal wave had been damaged in a previous battle, then i would give in. But to change his appearance, and make him look less impressive, is just plain disapointing.

Plus, could some one please tell me where its mentioned that unicron had the ability to clone the terrorcons

[BeastbotX]

Plus, could some one please tell me where its mentioned that unicron had the ability to clone the terrorcons

Next issue, I wager. Same thing with Tidal Wave's reformatting into Mirage.

[Danja]

Originally Posted by BeastbotX

I
Oh, and Mirage's "I was formerly Tidal Wave" line didn't really seem out of character to me. Comic version Tidal Wave always seemed to be a kind of unique bad guy, who alternated between serious, smarmy, and downright angry moods. Here he's in a smarmy mood.

It certainly beats the dialogue he was "blessed" with in the Armada cartoon. "Tidal Wavvvvvvvve!". Um, sure.

[Danja]

Originally Posted by Geen-man

I dont know if anyone else feels the same as me but i really dont like the idea of changing the overall design of a character between books for no aparant reason. If tidal wave had been damaged in a previous battle, then i would give in. But to change his appearance, and make him look less impressive, is just plain disapointing.

Um, it's to sell the toys. As much as Hasbro try, they can't flog the same figures every year, there's only so many colour schemes they know, and they deemed it a better idea for most of the new Decepticon characters to be upgraded forms of the ones from Armada. To be honest, I'm surprised that Furman went with that, though it does have advantages, so would having double the number of named Decepticons to lead Terrorcon groups or something.

[Geen-man]

thanx for the explanation. it makes things a bit clearer tho doesnt remove my disapointment for changing the design for no reason between issues.

In what issue is it stated that terrorcons can be cloned and why isnt insecticon on the fron cover?

[BeastbotX]

In what issue is it stated that terrorcons can be cloned and why isnt insecticon on the fron cover?

Again, next issue will probably reveal what happened to the Terrorcons.

And Insecticon isn't on the front cover most likely because in insect mode, he'd be too short for you to really see him anyways.

Either that, or the artist just thought the other three looked cooler. Your choice.

[Drew Eiden]

Yeah I read a post somewhere and the poster described it perfectly: Dreamwave is doing a show-first, explain-later storyline. That about sums up what this issue is doing: show-first.