So, yeah. Optimus Prime starting off bathing in the magnificence of this majestic forest...only to end up flattening a poor, helpless deer is a little much. This just ruins his day....and maybe some animal lovers in the audience have their day ruined, too, who don't come to Transformers comic for something like this. But...Optimus being SHOWN how fragile this world is compared to Cybertron does hit. It leads to a good scene. I can understand people who think it's distasteful or excessive, but it does make the conversation between Optimus and Spike hit harder. There are consequences to bringing their war to this world. It illustrates the stakes. It's a good metaphor.
I also really like this shot of Cybertron in the background. Something about it just helps sell the scale of it. It's "lit" well, I think.
And, hey, we get our first glimpse of Megatron! He probably won't be in these first issues (especially if you've been looking at the solicits for the Cobra Commander mini), but I wonder if he'll either be the villain for the second arc or...maybe the cause of the first crossover.
And, hey, Cliffjumper! He's totally freaked out by these bags of walking meat, and I can't blame him. It's something we don't get to see a lot of. The Transformers not really "understanding" organic life. It's another nice moment when he realizes he's being rude, too. This is probably the only time we're going to get something like this, but I'm kind of glad we had this little moment.
And you know what? I even kind of appreciate seeing Optimus using his Trailer as a actual repair bay for other Transformers. We REALLY don't see that often, anymore. I think IDW might have done it once, but it's possible we haven't seen him use it like this since the Marvel comics. For such a big feature of the original toy, it gets overlooked a lot.
And, again, Optimus is just ready to whip out the Matrix, right here and right now. He wants to use it SO BAD! Optimus is a nudist in this continuity...that's my headcanon. He just wants to let the Matrix hang out in the breeze! Just itching to flash anyone in sight with his Matrix energy at any given time. Also, we establish that the Matrix is tied to Optimus' very life force! That's probably going to be important later!
And Starscream stomps on another human. I will note...it's always been Starscream who's done this so far. Even Skywarp just smashed a police car that didn't have anyone actually inside of it. Starscream is being shown as the only Decepticon going out of his way to kill the locals, and I think that's probably on purpose. Starscream's probably going to be getting comeuppance by the end of this arc, I would guess.
"CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!" At least Skywarp's having a fun time.
Is it ironic that Duke is piloting a "Viper"? I know that's a real jet, but still. That's GOT to be on purpose. But, yeah, this is just a cameo to lead into the Duke mini. But, it's not a BAD cameo. It makes sense, and it doesn't feel forced. This early on, this is actually a good way to build up the universe. And it's giving us a reason why Duke would have a grudge against Transformers.
And this is just a REALLY well done dogfight scene. This art does action good! Starscream transforming in mid-air is just neat to see.
And Starscream swats one pilot like a fly. Again, I like that it's the LOGO that's gory, not really the scene itself. It's a good way to show the violence without being too gory about it. It's....tastefully done slaughter, at least.
Also...these pilots had winged jetpacks. That should have clued us in to these being Joes before we even saw Duke's nametag.
Laserbeak's following Carly, that can't lead to anything good.
And here we have something interesting, when Carly learns her father is dead. Now, we have three different main humans in this cast, and they ALL have different perspectives on the Transformers. Spike seems to be COMPLETELY on the side of the Autobots. Sparkplug seems to be heading towards wanting to DESTROY ALL MECHS! And Carly...Carly's kind of in the middle. Carly's dad was killed by Decepticons...but she's also seen them be good people. It's going to be interesting to see what Carly ends up doing, later. I don't know if they're just going to end up having her be the peacemaker between father and son later, or if they're heading towards something else.
Over in the letters page, they're offering a prize for naming the letter's page itself. They don't say what the prize is, though. Makes me curious about it. I'm never any good at these mailbag naming contests.
Also, if you haven't googled "Kenta Kobashi Burning Hammer" yet:
But, the most hearbreaking thing...Lil' Danny never did find his Optimus' hands! That's terrible! But, I guess I'm glad I got closure on this epic story. There's a pretty good chance he's going to end up with dozens of little baggies of Optimus hands mailed to him in the future.
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