Review - Tales of the Fallen #1: Bumblebee

Just picked this issue up today, and bloody hell is it great. Writer Chris Mowry and new guy Carlos Magno collaborate to form Tales of the Fallen: Bumblebee! I was originally a bit apprehensive of this series, but I just had to have it once I viewed the five-page preview. By the way, this series consists of several one shots focussing on a single character from the TF movieverse. AKA TF movie Spotlights. Sooo cool.

The Good: Wow. That's all I can say when I read this comic. Wow. This is one of the greatest ... no, the greatest movieverse comic I have seen since Reign of Starscream. This "Spotlight" has the internal monologues which are supposed to be standard in Spotlights, but have been driven to extinction by Shane McCarthy. It's a welcome return for me. The story is well-written, and awesome action sequences toward the end. Carlos' art is cool, this guy has promise that could be developed in the future (who's drawing the ROTF sequel Nefarious?). Old hand Chris Mowry does a superb job with his pen. I haven't enjoyed a Transformers movie comic in a long long time. And Alex Milne's cover (I was fortunate enough to get this one) is beautiful, great design, great colors too - Alex, you have to do your own colors now, I'm in love. Sorry Josh Perez, you color great as well.

The Bad: As a Transformers fan, I m easily pleased by what IDW gives me every month. However, when I want to nitpick, I will nitpick mercilessly. Now is that time. Carlos' art was great, but it looked very rough - not hurried-rough, but kinda grainy-rough. It wasn't enough to ruin the experience of reading it, but it nevertheless niggled in the corner of my eye as I perused the issue. Also, the RE cover (fan expo exclusive apparently) is a bit dumb - just a photo of Megan Fox aka Mikaela Banes who isn't even in the comic. I mean, they could at least have put a photo of Bumblebee on it to somehow link it into the story, but no.

The Ugly: I have identified no uglies within the comic itself, but on Carlos Magno's cover B (pictured) the Tales of the Fallen subtitle is wrong. In the publisher solicits it is as above, but when it was actually released the title was set underneath the TRANSFORMERS title, in the same font as the title above it. I'd say "get it right, IDW", but that'd be nitpicky.

Verdict: A solid comic with quality job done all round. This series is a must for all you TF movieverse fans - make sure you get Alex Milne's cover though. Rated 9.5/10.

Posted by Fanbot at 1:36 pm, SUNDAY 16 August