Thursday, September 23, 2010

Transformers TPB v1: For All Mankind

I'm easily satisfied. Mike Costa continues his run from All Hail Megatron, and he's still doing a wonderful job moving the Transformers mythos forward while still keeping almost everyone acting as they did in the cartoons I loved as a kid.

With the Decepticons defeated, they're reduced to stragglers rampaging around looking for energon. And with the humans using reverse-engineered Transformers tech, the humans are usually capable of taking them out themselves; the problem is that they are all too willing to take out Autobots too. At a loss, Optimus surrenders to the humans, fracturing the Autobot army.

Most of the old group stick around following new leader Bumblebee. This group includes Ratchet, Wheeljack, Jazz, Brawn, Blur, and more. Hot Rod leads a group who wants to just leave Earth behind. His crew is Red Alert, Jet Fire, Prowl, Blue Streak, and more. It's pretty cool seeing more and more obscure characters showing up and taking sides, (including Omega Supreme!).

The bad guys get a lot of time too. Swindle of the stunticons is the main troublemaker, but Costa spends a whole issue showing things from Thundercracker's (my first TF) point of view. Sure, nostalgia fuels my affection for this property, but it is solid stuff.

I'm not a huge fan of the art, Don Figueroa's art really looks too much like the movies for me. The robot faces look too jaggy and sharp. I'd like them a bit more smooth like the old cartoon.

Good

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