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biblionautbuckton's review against another edition
3.0
An underwhelming collection, but with a few moments and setpieces that shine.
Megatron Origin
A frustrating read, especially as a first introduction to the world of Cybertron. For a story introducing us to Megatron, I never quite got a sense of his character. The art, while detailed and atmospheric in places, was also messy; I struggled to follow the action in several panels, which is a problem for something as combat-focused as Transformers.
Spotlight: Blurr
After the previous story's murky colours and cynical tone, the coherent designs and bright colours of this short were very refreshing. I was distracted by the plot’s similarity to the film Cars - but in a children’s comic about robots that turn into vehicles, I ought not to have found this surprising.
Spotlight: Cliffjumper
An exciting story, but one that feels like a bit of a pointless exercise. If you put Transformers in a setting where the inhabitants abhor any type of violence in any context whatsoever, then of course they're going to feel betrayed when they see the effects of the Autobot-Decepticon war. Nonetheless, a good introduction to this version of Cliffjumper.
Spotlight: Shockwave
Dinobots are a waste of time. You either have to break verisimilitude by having them just turn up, or use valuable narrative space to contrive a story in which it half-makes sense that they turn into dinosaurs. This story opts for the latter, and suffers for it. I'm with Shockwave on this one. Dinobots are lame.
Spotlight: Nightbeat
A fun little mystery story that showcases interesting elements of evolution and transhumanism (transtransformerism?) in this universe. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out in future instalments.
Spotlight: Hot Rod
Easily my favourite of the spotlights. Simon Furman just seems to have a knack for these things; here we see get a fantastic sense of place(s), some espionage the type of which is suited perfectly to the Transformers franchise, and a remarkably involving short story for its length.
Spotlight: Soundwave
Soundwave's spotlight was... fine, I guess. But it's strange that Furman struggles to give the effortlessly cool Soundwave a convincing internal monologue.
Infiltration
Now this is the Transformers fiction I like. An exciting, human-focused story that explores the differences between the cultures of Earth and Cybertron - with a lovely sheen of cool "Holy shit, that robot's turning into a FRIGGING PLANE!!" action to boot. Far from groundbreaking, but much closer to my taste.
Megatron Origin
A frustrating read, especially as a first introduction to the world of Cybertron. For a story introducing us to Megatron, I never quite got a sense of his character. The art, while detailed and atmospheric in places, was also messy; I struggled to follow the action in several panels, which is a problem for something as combat-focused as Transformers.
Spotlight: Blurr
After the previous story's murky colours and cynical tone, the coherent designs and bright colours of this short were very refreshing. I was distracted by the plot’s similarity to the film Cars - but in a children’s comic about robots that turn into vehicles, I ought not to have found this surprising.
Spotlight: Cliffjumper
An exciting story, but one that feels like a bit of a pointless exercise. If you put Transformers in a setting where the inhabitants abhor any type of violence in any context whatsoever, then of course they're going to feel betrayed when they see the effects of the Autobot-Decepticon war. Nonetheless, a good introduction to this version of Cliffjumper.
Spotlight: Shockwave
Dinobots are a waste of time. You either have to break verisimilitude by having them just turn up, or use valuable narrative space to contrive a story in which it half-makes sense that they turn into dinosaurs. This story opts for the latter, and suffers for it. I'm with Shockwave on this one. Dinobots are lame.
Spotlight: Nightbeat
A fun little mystery story that showcases interesting elements of evolution and transhumanism (transtransformerism?) in this universe. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out in future instalments.
Spotlight: Hot Rod
Easily my favourite of the spotlights. Simon Furman just seems to have a knack for these things; here we see get a fantastic sense of place(s), some espionage the type of which is suited perfectly to the Transformers franchise, and a remarkably involving short story for its length.
Spotlight: Soundwave
Soundwave's spotlight was... fine, I guess. But it's strange that Furman struggles to give the effortlessly cool Soundwave a convincing internal monologue.
Infiltration
Now this is the Transformers fiction I like. An exciting, human-focused story that explores the differences between the cultures of Earth and Cybertron - with a lovely sheen of cool "Holy shit, that robot's turning into a FRIGGING PLANE!!" action to boot. Far from groundbreaking, but much closer to my taste.
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