Some overdue comic reviews

[exatron]

Went out to eat and played laser tag with some of my coworkers on Friday. It was a pleasant experience, and we'll probably do it again.

Transformers: Escalation #5

More plot comes together as Megs and Prime have a big fight scene as Hot Rod unthinkingly jumps in to the other Autobots' mission, even if he does end up saving the day, while other subplots get some attention and human archaeologists uncover Shockwave.

I liked this issue, partially because it's always fun to see Megatron and Optimus Prime pound each other to scrap, and partially because the layouts were more than the standard series of rectangles. I should probably be able to identify the Decepticon at the beginning of the issue, even if he is just a broken-down, severed head in the shadows.

Ultimate X-Men #80

The characters continue to adapt to life without a major character as several storylines, including a few that seemed forgotten, start coming together. Nightcrawler, freed from the psychically-induced coma the professor put him in, meets Ultimate Pyro (An interesting reinterpretation of the character.), and learns about the Morlocks; Colossus considers moving in with Northstar (I also detected a bit of tension between the lovebirds); Angel tries to inconspicuously ask about his undercover mission now that the person who gave him the mission isn't around any more; Scott, Jean, and Ororo are put in charge of the school; Logan leaves (naturally); Lilandra decides to go through with funding the school, despite what happened, while her assistant continues plotting for the Hellfire club; and Bishop has a chat with his incarcerated younger self. The issue concludes with Scott deciding that the institute will become a normal school for mutants while we learn that the character who got killed off isn't actually dead.

I like that so much stuff started coming together and moved along, but I think I could have done without seeing the dead character actually being alive. The writers spent some time in the previous issue trying to say that this character was undoubtedly dead, and it would have meant a major departure from 616 X-Men since it was an important character that got killed off. Sure, it's nice that he's actually alive, but I'd rather have Beast or Gambit back among the living.

Transformers Spotlight - Soundwave

We get a nice, long look at one of the most iconic Transformers characters. It was a bit weird to hear Soundwave being so verbose, but it's easy to get used to since we're mostly hearing his internal monolog. The writers played up his skills in espionage, information dealing, and blackmail while weaving the story into the larger plot in IDW's other Transformers titles. Soundwave's situation at the end of the story has some similarities to an early season 2 episode of G1 and references his now anachronistic altmode.

Gargoyles #3

After retelling The Journey in the first two issues, we get the start of the first new story arc of the series. It has a few interesting twists and a lot of setup, but it felt satisfying.

The trio is quite eager to celebrate Halloween; although, Angela needs a bit of an explanation for why she should be excited. Meanwhile, Goliath and Elisa have a talk while Xanatos meets a fellow Illuminatus. I really like the visuals for Xanatos and Hacker's conversation since they parallel what Goliath and Elisa are discussing. (Major spoiler territory if I said more.)

The issue closes with Goliath and Brooklyn visiting the Labyrinth to check on some new arrivals, a meeting between the Illuminati and the Quarrymen, and an old enemy trick or treating at the Labyrinth just after Goliath and Brooklyn leave.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #3

This issue takes place during the show's seventh season, and starts off with an attack by an unknown enemy that has a weird Federation/Romulan/Borg hybrid ship. It felt mostly like setup for the rest of the miniseries since the hybrid ship got blowed up after Troi revealed some interesting facts about who was aboard, but we didn't learn much about the attackers.

The most interesting thing in this issue was a preview of the upcoming Star Trek: Klingon - Blood Will Tell miniseries. It's mostly going to retell classic stories, like "Day of the Dove", "A Piece of the Action", and "The Trouble with Tribbles", from the Klingon point of view. This preview appears to be for the Klingon's side of "Errand of Mercy". Artwise the book has potential, we get the classic look for the Klingons, and the backgrounds have lots of nice details. My only complaint is that someone else's comic book makes the layouts look boring by comparison.

Transformers: Official Movie Preview #2

I'm trying to give the movie, and this comic a chance, I really am, but I keep hearing a lot of little things that annoy me. They have to say "The Allspark" instead of "The Matrix" because of a certain movie, Hugo Weaving voicing Megatron, and movie Starscream's design (Okay, the general look of most characters), for example. This issue doesn't help a whole lot. It's not bad exactly, but it doesn't feel quite right.

Comments

[exatron.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had fun, once my gun started working.

It was a cartoon from the 80s, so plot wasn't usually a priority for the show. The writers seemed to do a better job at universe building.

It's an interesting subplot; although, I wish they'd get back to dealing with Nightcrawler's homophobia. Colossus coming out to him was an interesting chat. ("I will admit your skin is cute, but you're not my type.")