General Information:
Synopsis:
Three Years Ago...
Eight Months Ago... The Autobots board Magnus' ship and meet Verity, who has been onboard helping out. Springer shows up, introducing Kup, Twin Twist, Topspin and Perceptor. Ironfist is impressed, especially by Kup. Springer explains that their mission is to infiltrate G-9, a task no other Autobot ship has managed to accomplish. He warns however that sometimes a Wrecker's first day can be his last!
Two Years Ago... Onboard Magnus' ship, the Ironfist has fallen unconscious and slowly reboots. The crew is concerned, but he tries to dismiss what has happened. Guzzle then outs him as a writer who has written extensively about the adventures of the Wreckers. Twin Twist is surprised that "Fisitron" is among them, having read his work. Ironfist explains that he is a huge fan of the Wreckers and their history, taking data gathered from different sources and cobbling together stories. When Springer asks if he's okay he is dismissive, not wanting to address the problem at all. Kup shows concern for Springer, knowing that the younger Autobot has a lot on his mind. Springer contemplates just how futile this mission and the team seem, but Kup knows the true source of his reservations: their current mission brings back thoughts of their lost comrade Impactor!
One Month ago... Onboard Ultra Magnus' ship, Magnus and Verity have detected a ship in the flight path of the Autobots. The ship is heavily damaged,looking as if it has seen heavy combat. Before Ultra Magnus can complete his hail, the ship explodes! A lone figure exits from the ship however, and it is none other than Impactor!
Story: On the Decepticon side, it's cool to finally see Overlord take his place in American fiction. His inclusion fascinates me because if you look at a bulk of the characters in this story, they were European exclusive Transformers including the Predators and Pyro. Indeed, even Overlord was a figure released in Europe, but never in the US. It's fantastic to see these characters get some "air time" at long last! Overlord in particular is interesting. His promises of entertainment to the Decepticons do not echo the conquering drive of Megatron or other Decepticons we are used to seeing. He seems to have a purely sadistic streak combined with a craving for power of a particular type. I am very interested to see how the character is interpreted in this incarnation going forward. A huge surprise for me was seeing Verity on Magnus' ship. Going in, I forgot that Verity had been brought back to life in "Devastation" and thought "Wait, wasn't she dead?". I was happy to see the character playing an active role in helping the Autobots as opposed to being some damsel in distress (something that is commented on by the Autobots to boot!). Little hints of her work include seeing her using some type of armor to work on the ship and get around. This definitely utilizes the smart aspect of the character that I feel largely got ignored after "Escalation". I also enjoyed her "Cyber Sexism" comment to Rotorstorm, a fun shot at the very "male-centric" Transformers race. Roche and Roberts manage to inject a lot of fan favorite touches and humor into a storyline that has been (by my taste anyhow) relentlessly grim. "All Hail Megatron" was downright depressing, as were many events in "Maximum Dinobots". Now, I'm not saying Fortress Maximus getting ripped to pieces is happy time, but the interaction of the Wreckers with each other is fantastic and the scene with Dipstick was a nice nod to the use of non-toy characters made up for the comic books. This is a tradition that began with the Marvel Comics Generation One series, and it's nice to see it survive to this day. It's cool to see small touches like the mention of Ironfist's "Lightformer" cannon, a reference to his sub-group in the toy line and seeing Kick-Off as a hardcore warrior fighting gladitorial battles, a story element pulled straight from his G1 tech specs. Clearly this is a book written by fans for fans and it is done very well. Of course, having Impactor show up is awesome, and I eagerly await to see the IDW take on this character! On another note, I laughed pretty hard at the comment that Pyro "stole" Optimus Prime's look since, for the most part, if you look at his design he does look like a "Prime" character. Artwork: There are some artists whom I like, others that I really have to work hard to appreciate. Then there are those I positively gush over, and Nick Roche is one of them. When he did "Spotlight Kup" I was blown away by his distinctive style. He blends the best of animation, character models from G1, toy influences and some anime influence and merges them into spectacular looking robots. His panel layouts are nothing short of visually dynamic and at times, a bit mind blowing. Along with Don Figueroa, I place Roche high on the pantheon of my personal favorite Transformers artists. Along with John Wycough doing inks, there is a lot of detail and depth to the work here, and Josh Burcham's color work is appropriately bright in the battle scenes and downright scary in the darker scenes such as the scene where we see Kick-Off fighting in front of Overlord. I was very happy to see the designs for many of the Wrecker recruits resembling their G1 toys a lot. Sure there are embelishments such as Guzzle's cannon dwarfing the rest of his body and some odd greebles here and there, but for the most part the characters are instantly recognizable and don't stray too far from the traditional Generation One based Transformers appearance. In some cases such as Kick-Off and Rotorstorm, it seems like there are no changes at all, something that is nice to see now and then. I'm a fan of cool interpretations of characters, but sometimes it's just nice to see a character translated into a new medium, especially if they've never existed in that medium before on an ongoing basis. Another comment on the art before I continue. Roche has a fantastic sense of motion. Every battle panel has explosions drawn not just as poofs of circles, but with parts that trail off, making them look like they're moving. When he draws a Transformer moving or changing modes, the character has a dynamic feel instead of a static transformation from say, vehicle to a standing straight up pose. These touches may not seem significant taken individually, but add them up over the course of a whole issue and they create a very fluid visual experience.
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