It’s Elita Prime Time!
A bold new era for the Autobots and this book begins! Robert Kirkman, chief architect of the Energon Universe, writes the flagship Transformers title and Jason Howard takes over as regular penciler for this new story arc with Mike Spicer on colors. Howard had previously drawn issues # 13 and # 14 of this book, along with many covers.
In this thirty-second issue, Elita Prime and the Autobots that chose to follow her return to Cybertron via a space bridge portal and land in enemy territory. It isn’t long before Shockwave arrives with a welcoming party for them and a huge battle erupts! Can Elita prove herself worthy of the Matrix in her first major test as the new Prime?
Fighty-fighty?
Oh yeah, this entire issue is a big fight between Elita and Shockwave’s forces, allowing Jason Howard to showcase his artistic chops at action scenes. Things quickly become desperate for the Autobots and Elita Prime ends up having an “Open, dammit, open!” moment with her new Matrix that has a surprising result.
Meanwhile, Kirkman gets to show off his love of other Transformers cartoons aside from G1, as many of Shockwave’s troops are Decepticons from the Animated and Prime corners of the franchise. You’ve got Blackarachnia, Lugnut, and Lockdown from Animated, and Skyquake, Makeshift, Knock Out, and Breakdown from Prime. Thrust, Ratbat, Octane, Sunstorm, and Acid Storm from G1 are there as well for good measure. I applaud Kirkman’s transplanting these characters from other iterations of the franchise into a heavily G1-styled universe, although this is certainly not the first time this has happened.
So a character-driven fight scene, right?
Well, sorta. It mostly serves as a way for Kirkman to put Elita Prime over, and it does that job pretty well. Ultra Magnus gets a moment to deal with his trauma as he confronts his torturer Shockwave again, but the other Autobots are mostly there to get their cans kicked. There are seemingly no major “permanent” casualties in this dust-up either, which is somewhat deflating to Kirkman’s bold statement with Trailbreaker’s death a few issues prior. However, I guess I don’t have to quibble about wasting characters for shock value here, so that’s good.
Speaking of “shock”, Shockwave was revealed to still be alive some issues back, despite missing a head. He’s got a floating glowing single “eye” over his neck now, which does make for a striking visual. I still don’t really care for this incarnation of the character though- the cold, calculating logistician is nowhere to be found in this version. This Shockwave just seems to revel in being evil, cruel, and very emotional… not quite the guy classic fans once knew. Maybe that’s coming, who knows?
Cube?
Let me say that I like Jason Howard’s art for the most part, but I do think (and this will probably be the popular opinion) that it is a big step down from Dan Mora or just about any of the previous regular artists on this book. Howard’s characters are more exaggerated and cartoony, which can work, but I’m not certain it works with the tone Kirkman is trying to go for and I don’t know everyone will be as generous with it as I am.
That said, I can’t deny having some harmless fun reading this issue and Kirkman is clearly having fun using characters that he believes are outside the usual box. It’s hardly new or revolutionary; IDW did this quite often as well, especially in later years. However, I do believe you shouldn’t have to lock away characters just because they’re in a different toy box and I’m glad Kirkman has let his Transformers geekdom show.
Buy Transformers # 32 this week and wonder what happens when Kirkman introduces the Stunticons and realizes he just introduced a different guy named “Breakdown”.
