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Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye # 17: Less Gloom, more Adventure

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye # 17: Less Gloom, more Adventure

MTMTE17 cover

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye # 17
Written by James Roberts
Art by Alex Milne
With colors by Josh Burcham
Published by IDW

Ever since Pat Lee sent the good ship Dreamwave plummeting towards the bottom of the sea to give the monsters from Pacific Rim something to read, the Transformers comics license has been held by the good folks ad IDW comics. A year and a bit ago, their main Transformers comics, then written by Mike Costa, imploded in upon itself in a black whole of overblown stories and bad or outright non-existent characterization, and in the aftermath, IDW came back with two new ongoing titles, subtitled “Robots in Disguise” and “More than Meets the Eye” respectively.

In the seventeen issues that followed the relaunch, “MTMTE” has proven itself the far superior book, due in no small part to the writing of James Roberts, whose masterful characterization and world building have made this basically the best Transformers comic EVER.

The series follows the crew of the Lost Light, a band of misfits and half-insane Autobots and Decepticons on a quest to find the mythical Knights of Cybertron, a group of legendary beings who’ll supposedly solve everyone’s problems if they just find them and ask them nicely. However in the last several issues, Overlord, an insane Decepticon general who was secretly held aboard the ship, broke out and killed several members of the crew before getting killed (or WAS he?) himself.

The new issue, which hit stands yesterday, gets the series back on track from the doom and gloom of previous issues with a good old fashioned mystery. After waking up from his recharge slab, Ultra Magnus steals a shuttle and heads for parts unknown (which in itself is pretty damn mysterious given he has a giant hole in his chest and is on the fast-train to dead town). After tracking him through a giant space portal, the crew find themselves face-to-face with the lost moon of Cybertron, and a landing party follows the trail to the surface, led by Hot Rod, the lost light’s captain, and a host of series mainstays including Ratchet, Whirl, Chromedome, Cyclonus, Rung and a few others.

After the last few issues, which have generally been insanely depressing, the new issue largely dispenses with the downtrodden tone with a fairly MTMTE17interiorstraightforward set-up, though there is enough drama and intrigue to keep the reader hooked from page to page, and some pretty important character development towards the beginning.

As is to be expected from Roberts, we also get a fair bit of that signature world building, again done in a way that doesn’t feel like we’re getting a fire hose of expositional dialogue sprayed in our faces. Really, one of the best things about Roberts’ writing is that we’re constantly learning about the rules and history of the current version of the TF universe, and this issue is no exception.

But as is also to be expected from Roberts, we leave the issue with as many questions as answers. Several older characters make surprise appearances, and learning how they got there should be interesting.

The art, courtesy of Alex Milne, continues his fine tradition of being effing gorgeous, and for the most part avoiding the usual problems of fellow frequent TF artist Nick Roche, whose panels tend to be extremely crowded and borderline incomprehensible. It’s a testament to any artist’s quality if they can have a panel featuring ten Transformer characters at once and have them all be easily distinguishable at a glance. Mile’s also managed the master the delicate art of giving Transformers the proper amount of expression, a difficult task indeed given that many of them don’t have faces in the conventional sense.

MTMTE # 17 personifies everything that’s great about the series. It’s fun, chock full of interesting characterization, expands the current TF universe in new ways and presents enough mysteries to leave you desperate for the next issue. The dialogue is witty and clever (“Sometimes I wonder why we even have alt-modes”), the art is gorgeous, and while the repercussions of Overlords rampage are still being felt, the tone of the book takes a much appreciated shift, rather than getting stuck in a gloom-rut. Tranformers fans, or comic readers in general, are highly encouraged to pick this one up.

[wpchatai]