A brief reflection - TF: Tales of the Fallen covers by Alex Milne

Hellooo internet viewers! In recent light to Chris Ryall's sound verbal beating on his TF ongoing art, he has attempted to appease us with an offering of other covers from Tales of the Fallen. These four covers, by movieverse artist legend Alex Milne, are exquisitely designed and beautifully done. Here they are, in all their glory.

First up is Alex's cover for Tales of the Fallen: Sideswipe, which comes out on 9 September (click here for a preview of this):

Wow. Awesomely totally awesome. Alex said that when he was doing these he wanted to go for a more "designed" feel to the artwork. And boy does it show. I mean just look at it! The lines are clean and smoothly done, the colors are absolutely perfect. I couldn't wish for more. Rated 8.5 out of 10.

Next up is his cover for Tales of the Fallen: Jetfire:

For some strange reason this one was put out into the internet ahead of the Sideswipe one. But it is pretty cool nonetheless. The SR-71 Blackbird silhouette for the lettering is awesome, and Jetfire is in a well-drawn pose - though in one that implies he is (in the pic at least) a lot younger than in ROTF. Bit weird to think about; Jetfire, not old? Woah! But anyway, The art rules majorly. Though the colors are a bit more drab than the rest of the set. Rated 8 out of 10.

Next, the cover for Tales of the Fallen: The Fallen (lol repetition):

Now this one is probably the best of the best. The Fallen's pose looks like he's beckoning you, to come into his deathly embrace ... breathtaking artwork. Those colors are beautiful. I don't really know how to put it, they just strike something inside my inner Transfan. Nuff said. Rated 9.5 out of 10.

And finally, the cover to Tales of the Fallen: Ravage (Arcee is not provided):

This cover comes in for me at a close second place to the Fallen's cover. The layout and Cybertronian hieroglyphs make it look like some ancient engraving, prophesizing the rise of Ravage. Art: awesome. Very well set out and drawn (why isn't Alex drawing the actual comic?). Colors: great. Misty, with effective contrast in Ravage's circle that draws the eye to him. Rated 9 out of 10.

Well, that wraps it up for a while, until Transformers: Nefarious kicks in. Remember to watch out for Tales of the Fallen: Sideswipe, out on September 9. Transformers forever!

Posted by Fanbot at 4:34 pm, TUESDAY 8 August

Review - Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #3

Creative team:
STORY  Mike Mignola
ART  Ben Stenbeck
COLORS  Dave Stewart

It is somewhat ironic that today, on this most holy of days, it is with great pleasure and irony that I present a comic from the creators of the greatest paranormal horror title in comic history. This is Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #3, a miniseries spinning out of the Hellboy universe, going under Fanbot's reviewing microscope. Let us begin ...

The Good: Oh yeah. This series is really getting interesting now. Mike Mignola and NZer Ben Stenbeck have done an awesome job on this issue as always. Mike delivers a good expository towards the end, in which we finally discover the origins of the blood-sucking monster that has been terrorizing 1879 London for the last two issues. Ben Stenbeck's artwork cranks up a notch - we finally get a horrendous dose of good ol' Hellboy-esque GORE. The first four pages have so much red in them, 8.5 on the gore scale. This is good. This is very good indeed. I love a bit of gore (well actually a lot) in my comics - Transformers G2 a prime example. Dave Stewart, Eisner-award-winning colorist extraordinaire, how could I forget. His colors are just amazing, they complement the artwork perfectly. He is the king of flat coloring. I love him (in an admiring way).

The Bad: OK ... well, I actually am pretty satisfied with Witchfinder #3. But then again I'm easily pleased. The only gripe I have is that the story, although greatly done, isn't seeming to be going anywhere fast. Dark Horse said that Mike would be really slow with the pay off for this series, but how slow? This by the way is a very minor thing. I still love the comic, don't get me wrong.

The Ugly: one solitary typo in this comic. On page 14 (in context at least), "sun" seems to be misspelled "nun". And another thing, not so much an error as an inconsistency; in the first four pages, the monster is bright red. In all its other sightings it has been a dark greyish green color. This may be because it's one of those animals that changes its skin color according to mood - and the monster was mightily pissed off at the humans. Or it may not. Who knows?

Verdict: Very very satisfying to read. The consistent creative team have done extremely well. I applaud them. Rated 9.5 out of 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 12:43 pm, SUNDAY 6 September

IDW Transformers releases for Sep. 2009

It's September everybody! And that means more Transformers for all of us fans. So here's IDW's Transformer releases for this month:

TRANSFORMERS: All Hail Megatron #15 (w: Nick Roche,Denton Tipton/a: Roche,Casey Coller)

TRANSFORMERS: Tales of the Fallen #2 (w: Simon Furman/a: Carlos Magno)

TRANSFORMERS: Best of the UK: Prey #2 (w: Simon Furman/a: Geoff Senior, Jeff Anderson)

TRANSFORMERS: All Hail Megatron vol 2 (w: Shane McCarthy/a: Guido Guidi,Emiliano Santalucia, Robert Deas

TRANSFORMERS: Animated vol 11 (w: Marty Isenberg/a: various)

Enjoy! Have a great month, see you soon!

Posted by Fanbot at 4:21 pm, SATURDAY 5 September

Fanbot's Reflections: more TF ongoing covers

Sorry this is a bit late. But as with all my late posts, this is a very important piece of news. Yesterday, RyallTime was updated with covers for the second issue of IDW's ongoing Transformers series (original article here). This has been highly anticipated by many TF fans, me included, and I am just blown away from the biblical flood of comments that have flooded into this topic - 33 comments on Ryall's article last count). Many people have been complaining about Don's new style. Frankly, you are all a bunch of GEEWUNNers. By the Matrix, stop complaining. In the words of David W who commented on RyallTime, "...please, grow a set." Well said. But anyway, here's my thoughts on the new covers...

First up is CVR A, art by Don Figueroa with colors by James Brown:

Don, you are awesome man. This cover is great. Simple colors that nevertheless complement Don's lines well. But speaking of lines ... his movieverse style. This cover is a prime example of him overdoing the movieverse styling. Still cool, but it is quite annoying to look at. Also, Red Alert (first appearance in the IDWverse) looks like he's wearing a space helmet with the targeting sight. And last of all; WTF is up with Rodimus' design. In the first cover he has his old IDW Dodge design, but now it seems he's reverted back to his old AHM/Sunbow altmode. WTF?

Verdict: Awesome. No idea why Rodimus keeps changing altmodes though. But job well done all round, good lines + good colors = 8.5 out of 10.

Next up is the variant cover (one of six done for the first ongoing arc), art and colors by Andrew Wildman:

I have never really seen Wildman's artwork for a G1 issue - only his movieverse prequel stuff. But hell is he a good drawer when it comes to G1 (I know that he did work on the Marvel US comic in its final days). Art style is very cool and rough-looking, and his colors are very good - although his non-yellows are a bit too blue for my taste. Very well done Andrew.

Verdict: Amazing job done. Really want to get this one, but I can only get the A where I come from. Damn. Ah well. Rated 9 out of 10.

Looking forward to seeing these awesome covers hit the stores in December. Happy reading TF fans!

Posted by Fanbot at 3:49 pm, SATURDAY 5 September

Title tryout - G.I Joe #4 review

Creative team:

STORY Chuck Dixon
ART Robert Atkins
COLORS Andrew Crossley

Having seen the GI Joe movie a couple weeks ago, I thought I'd try out the comics to see if it was  a franchise worth getting into. But my tardiness of coming in came at a price of being presently unable to acquire the first three issues of GI Joe. So for the time being, I'll have to make do with issue 4. Here's what IDW says about events prior to this one; "The Pit [GI Joe HQ] is under attack! An unknown enemy has infiltrated the super secret facility with half a dozen killer machines and an epic battle erupts. Command and Control are down and the Joes are hurting. Though Duke and the rest have gained the upper hand, one of the machines is trying to reach the surface, to transmit the Pit's location to Destro!" But anyway, onto the review ...

The Good: Firstly, the art for this issue is absolutely stunning. Robert Atkins, you rock. Clean, realistic lines with very adequate colors from Andrew Crossley combine into a smooth, controled (this is a good thing) look to the artwork. Awesome. And Dave Johnson's cover (pictured) is very cool. Love the symbolism, love it all. The story is simple yet quite satisfying, with good pace and a killer cliffhanger at the end with Duke and co. driving through their own minefield. Scarlett looks great (I'm single, what're you gonna do) and everything seems in order. All in all a well-done issue. Good job.

The Bad: OK, so it's only the fourth issue, so I ain't seen enough to discern what the quality of this stuff is. But there doesn't seem to be much to the plot. Very simple as I said in the previous section ... maybe a bit too simple. But I only got this one so I can't talk about it until I read everything else. Also, Scarlett looks a bit weird in glasses. She shouldn't be wearing glasses, makes her look like a total nerd! That is all.

The Ugly: N/A.

Verdict: Cool comic! Definitely investing in this series. Atkins' great artwork is the highlight of the issue. Rated 8 out of 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 12:43 pm, SUNDAY 30 August

Going Backwards - Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #3 review

Welcome back to Going Backwards - your one stop review shop for all things that have been and gone. This week, Fanbot presents to you webreaders out there his views on Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #3! Loved this issue to bits when I originally purchased it - slept with it by my pillow that night (dodgy much?). This issue, things heat up for all involved in this story; Grimlock's deceit divides the Dinobots, Hot Rod threatens to be terminated, and Scorponok looks to be top bot in the whole fiasco. Once again, Simon Furman and Nick Roche deliver on quality - good quality that is. But anyway ... let's dive right into this comic, and see what lies beneath ...

Synopsis: Agent Red has overseen the reactivation and rearming of Shockwave, including planting a bomb with a 24 hour timer within him. Shockwave agrees to hunt down and deal with the various escaped Transformers, but Red is left with the uneasy feeling they might come to regret this.
In the wreckage of Fallon the Dynobots are still upset with Grimlock and though they won’t fight him any more they are disinclined to help him, Swoop is even so disgusted he flies off. Though as the Headmasters arrive and start attacking Grimlock they soon decide that it’s better to die as a team than alone, with even Swoop returning. Surrounded and out-gunned it seems that this is indeed the end…
Outside Machination Headquarters in Dallas, Sunstreaker has arrived. Though Sunstreaker wants to go in, guns blazing, Hunter remembers how narrow their escape from Scorponok was last time and decides it's better to wait and watch for the right time to act. He takes control of Sunstreaker and removes himself (Sunstreaker's head) from Sunstreaker.
As the Headmasters prepare to deliver the killing blow to the Dynobots they are suddenly attacked from behind by an Autobot shuttle, from which the Monsterbots disembark to join in the fight.
On the monitors in Dallas, Hot Rod watches this with much hilarity, annoying Scorponok to the point he orders a couple of Headmasters to take him outside and shoot him. They don’t take him very far, though, before Hot Rod channels all his energy into his exterior and fries them. Damaged and low on power he struggles to the exit as Hunter watches from outside.
Meanwhile, Shockwave has ignored his orders to deal with the active Transformers and has instead tracked down Soundwave in Portland…

The Good: Things start to kick up a notch in this issue - though I said that about the last one as well. Furman always has some great simple ideas for all us TF fans to read (even if he is a little repetitive/ predictable), and he pretty much always delivers he plot well. Nick Roche's art is great to look at as well - always had a soft spot for the Irishman's line style. The sequence where Hot Rod uses "Flame Out" to frag the Sunstreaker clones is wicked. Totally awesome. So overall the comic is well-set out, the plot believable enough.

The Bad: This issue delivers amazing quality in all quadrants as usual for the series, but it is in this one that the creative team starts to go downhill. First, Josh Burcham's awesome colors go out the window, to be replaced by a poor imitation courtesy of Joana Lafuente. Nothing against her personally, just that she fails majorly at copying Burcham. Next up, Robbie Robbins takes over as letterer; this guy's tails are fat and look amateurish - I could do better tails myself in the sub-par program Comic Life!

The Ugly: Only one conitinuity error. Monsterbot Repugnus is alive and well, yet the last (and first, in the IDWverse) time we saw him his spark was imprisoned in the spark containment facility on Garrus-9. This is very far way. WTF is going on IDW? Must you make so many continuity errors that you enter the same category of continuity-screwing publishers as DC? Please, stop it now before it is too late.

Verdict: Satisfying. Love the issue as always. The break up of the creative team mars the experience though. Rated 8.5 out of 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 11: 27 am, SATURDAY 29 August

Going Backwards - Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #2 review

Wow, I'm really eating my words now. Turns out IDW's got a motherload of TF comics heading our way (see previous post). But anyway, onto ancient history - Fanbot Productions proudly present Going Backwards review #2 (the sequel!): Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #2. By the way, Nick Roche's cover for this issue (shown left) is awesome. Great composition and the slogan at the bottom reminds us of those old Marvel issues with their slogans slapped on the cover (exclamation marks omnipresent). But on to the review (+ synopsis)...

Synopsis: A badly battered Hot Rod is hurled against a wall by Scorponok, who gloats that he is merely playing with the young warrior as he wants him alive to witness his plan unfold. After crippling Hot Rod, Scorponok has his clones take him to an observation room showing him the situation in Fallon. The police have opened fire on Grimlock but all they've done is enrage him. After demolishing the immediate area, Grimlock calls out to Scorponok, letting him know he's fully aware of exactly what's going on. Transforming he tells Scorponok to bring it! Scorponok muses, reminding himself of the mind lurking beneath Grimlock's bestial nature. After a brief bit of explanation to Hot Rod, Scorponok sits back to enjoy the show as the Dynobots are released onto the field.

Near Nashville, Sunstreaker is flooring it, heading for Dallas. Hunter thinks they should head for Fallon instead, but Sunstreaker points out that by retrieving his head, they disable the Headmasters, which makes everything else just collateral damage.
Grimlock is ready for a fight. What he isn't ready for is the Dynobots bursting through some nearby buildings. Scorponok loosens his hold on them slightly to let a bit of their savage nature shine through, as Grimlock realizes they are no longer in control of their own actions. Meanwhile, police are prevented from calling in help thanks to Skywatch's blockade. Agent Red is updated on the fight, including the drop in the efficiency of the neural net. Understanding that something more is going on, he boards a chopper, ready to do something he should have done the moment they lost Grimlock.
Back in Fallon, Grimlock is trying to get through to his team as they slam him into a nearby building. Breaking free, he quickly takes out Snarl, Sludge and Swoop, but when he tries to get to Slag, he is blasted straight into a petrol station, which promptly explodes, knocking all five Dynobots flying. As the police check to make sure everyone is evacuated, Scorponok revels in the destruction, to Hot Rod's disappointment. Scorponok however, thinks it is a ploy to get him to tell all, a wasted one as he meant to anyway. He plans to place the blame on Skywatch, while using the Dynobots to take out Grimlock, and then using the Headmasters to take out the Dynobots. His team will be regarded as heroes, he will get government contracts in order to protect against aliens, and from there on, there's no stopping him.
In New Zealand, a ship touches down near the Skyfire. The occupants are looking for Grimlock, and intend to track him down.
Scorponok is intrigued by Grimlock's admittance of guilt and reduces his hold on the Dynobots enough for their personalities to surface. Meanwhile, Grimlock has recovered from the blast and detects a human caught in the fire. Transforming, he grudgingly goes to help, when Slag and company, now transformed, reappear and demand the truth. Grimlock tells them of his endgame move, but says it was something any of them would have done—Dynobots may be down, but never out. Slag agrees but says that by going behind their backs, Grimlock assured they ceased to be a team. Grimlock points out that Slag usually went out of his way to stress they were never a real team, that they followed no one's rules or conventions but their own, and that what Grimlock had done had been "them", all over. He proceeds to rip the rail car diner with the human trapped inside from the ground and takes it to safety. Amused, Scorponok sends in his Headmasters.
At Salt Lake City, Agent Red decides to have a heart to heart with the last of the Eureka Six: Shockwave!

The Good: Once again, Simon and Nick have done an excellent job. I believe the whole point of this miniseries (aside from getting a big dose of Dinobot mayhem) was to tie up all the little plot points, plots and subplots that came before so newcomer Shane McCarthy could do his thing with AHM. And this is why I am immensely satisfied with it - "I love it when a plan comes together." Everything slides into place, while a few other things start to snowball. And the art, as is usual with Nick Roche, leaves me stunned and satisfied with my purchase. Very good, Mr Furman, very good.

The Bad: Poor Hot Rod. But it had to happen eventually. According to Furman, Roddy was supposed to metaphorically go through the wringer, but not in this way (as a result of his acquiring the MacGuffin plot device The Magnificence). I am kinda against this, because of his somewhat disturbing injuries if nothing else. But anyway. And also, while the overall story serves well, Scorponok's behavior and ambitions are very typical of the cartoon evil guy - revealing his master plan to a captured goodie, and aiming to take over the world. But this is something you have to take with Furman's writing. He uses cliches; get over it quick you'll and enjoy the story anyway.

Verdict: Mmm-hmm. Very good, awesome job in all quadrants as always. Bit of a hollow plot in some points, but overall nicely done. Rated 9 out of 10.

Posted by  Fanbot at 1:01 pm, MONDAY 24 August

IDW Transformers solicits for Nov. 2009 (Warning: may contain awesomeness)

Hello all you Transformers fans out there. This post is a bit late, but it's very important nonetheless. On August 22, Seibertron.com updated us with IDW's November solicits for Transformers. It's a jam-packed month for the bots, so here's the scoop...

TRANSFORMERS #1: 

Written by Mike Costa, art and covers by Don Figueroa. It's been three years since the devastating events of All Hail Megatron. The Earth has been rebuilt, the AUTOBOTS are in hiding, and the next great era in the Transformers saga is about to begin! This is IDW's biggest book of the year - the launch of the first ongoing Transformers title in five years!

TRANSFORMERS CONTINUUM: Written by Andy Schmidt, art by Ken Christensen. Brush up on current Transformers events with the Continuum, a special 32-page, ad-free book that runs through all the key players and important events in the Transformers universe so far! From their debut story in Infiltration all the way up through the end of All Hail Megatron -- the Continuum is an essential guide for every Transformers fan!

TRANSFORMERS: TALES OF THE FALLEN #4: 

Written by Simon Furman, art by Carlos Magno, covers by Magno, Alex Milne. 

Who is/was The Fallen? Why did he turn away from the fraternity of Primes to embrace all-conquering evil? The answers are revealed in this searing, mind-scouring trip to the very heart of darkness, as The Fallen rises, and, perhaps, entire universes fall! 



TRANSFORMERS BEST OF THE UK: PREY #4: 

Written by Simon Furman, art by Will Simpson, Jeff Anderson, cover by Andrew Griffith. Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus team to take down Megatron, but what role does Straxus play in this massive confrontation? Continuing the fan-favorite collection of classic tales from across the pond, written by Transformers mainstay Simon Furman with an all-new cover by Andrew Griffith! 


Fanbot can not wait for these awesome comics to hit stores. Roll on November (original article from Comic Book Resources)!

Posted by Fanbot at 11:34 pm, MONDAY 24 August

Review - Transformers: All Hail Megatron #14

I've been waiting for All Hail Megatron #14 all month - I build up a lot of anticipation for these comics. Finally got it, and love it. Am getting Trev Hutchison's awesome RI covers for the whole series - totally worth the extra money. So on to the review, where I'll see if IDW's latest offering is up to scratch. Here we goes.

The Good: This issue is very well done. I'm very satisfied with it. First off, the cover alone makes it worth the purchase - when is IDW going to make these as pin-ups? Trev does an excellent job of portraying Sunstreaker. The two stories inside ("Replay" and "Rebirth") are very well constructed, perfectly suited to their oneshot format. Rebirth was the best of the two, actually setting up future plot points as opposed to Replay, which was just, well, a replay of past events. The ending of it was very effective though. and the art for these was absolutely top-notch. The lines of Emiliano Santalucia and Andrew Griffith combined with colorist legend Josh Burcham (who according to himself hurriedly finished Rebirth in less than a week) to form a beautiful 22 pages to look at. I love it. Good job all youse who did work on this issue.

The Bad: OK, so there ain't a whole lot bad about this one. They did an amazing job. But there's a few things. The RI cover has a lot less color brightness than previously advertised. It is a dirty greenish-yellow when we originally saw it as a bright yellow panel. A bit off-putting. And ... well, that's all.

The Ugly: Only a couple screw-ups here this time. Firstly, in Rebirth "Ark" is misspelled "Arc". Secondly, Galvatron remarks that Cyclonus was able to survive longest outside of the Dead Universe while in Spotlight Cyclonus it was Galvatron who survived the longest. Lastly, there is a female Autobot in Sunstreaker's flashback. Whatever happened to Arcee being the only fembot in the IDWverse, how Jhiaxus altered her CNA and all that? This completely contradicts previous canon - if IDW continues on this path, they'll end up as canonically screwed up as DC. Very sad.

Verdict: Beautiful. Just fricking beautiful. Expertly crafted, well-set out. I'm very satisfied. Keep up the good work and no more continuity errors IDW! Rated 9.5 out of 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 6:45 pm, SUNDAY 23 August

Movie review - G.I. Joe: Rise of COBRA!

Saw GI Joe movie on Thursday. Couldn't get on the net cause of difficulties. Finally I can blog about it. This based on another of Transformers creator company Hasbro's extremely successful toylines from the 80's - one that, like TF, has carried its success through to the 21st century (it came out just before the launch of the Transformers TV show). I've built up a lot of anticipation for this movie. Let's see how it shapes up to Fanbot's expectations...

The Good: Wow. I absolutely loved this movie. It is in every way a MILLION TIMES cooler that Transformers 2 (for six ways GI Joe beats the crap out of ROTF, click here). Bloody hell. Where do I start? Well, firstly, the story is fricking visceral. I was gripped, amused, shocked and surprised at every turn. The story was unexpected; I thought it would be all "origin of GI Joe, team gets together", but no. The fully formed team shows up less than half an hour into the film, and bloody hell have they done it well. Film shots very very cool, and all those explosions just made me giddy with pyromaniacal joy. Although I never read a GI Joe comic in my life, I know enough about the basic story to know when the film is doing allusions to the comic (published currently by IDW, who coincidentally do TF as well), and when those allusions came I just thought, "You clever clever bastards. Nice work." Oh, and Rachel Nichols (plays Scarlett) is way hotter than Megan Fox. No contest (That's saying saying a lot).

The Bad: None of the bads listed within this section ruin my GI Joe movie experience at all, but they are there nonetheless. One, it is so fricking LOUD! In every action sequence, I'm bombarded by a wall of explosive sound. Holy crap, I think. Am I gonna go deaf or what? (seriously, I actually considered this at one point). But in some ways this sound was a good thing. So bad that it has crossed the barrier into negative badness and become totally awesome. So, the sound for me is annoying and awesome at the same time. Go figure. Oh, and one more thing - why the hell does Snake Eyes have a mouth. It kinda ruins his costume. I mean, a suit with moulded face? No no no! The whole point of his costume is to dehumanize him isn't it - make him seem more like a cold killer machine. But anyway, no biggie.

The Ugly: What do you mean, "The Ugly"? There are no mistakes in this movie. GI Joe has perfect record. ROTF, on the other hand, is riddled with errors - see here for TF Wiki's full list of Bay screw-ups.

Verdict: Best movie of the year by a long long shot. I just know that they're gonna make a sequel to this one - or at least I hope so. Steve Sommers, Fanbot demands you start filming GI Joe 2 at once! Pretty please. But anyways ... great job, loved it. Rated 9.5 out of 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 11:41 am, SATURDAY 22 August

Going Backwards - Maximum Dinobots #1 review

Since IDW's totally awesome looking Transformers ongoing title doesn't come out until November, and there's bugger-all G1 stuff coming out each month, I thought that you TF fans might like a little history lesson to brush up on events past. So, every week, there'll be a review of all the main TF comics that came after Revelation - Maximum Dinobots, All Hail Megatron, and maybe some Spotlights. So, starting off the Going Backwards sequence is Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #1! Here we go.

Synopsis: Grimlock surveys the wreck of his ship Skyfire as he remembers the good times he had with his fellow Dynobots back on Cybertron. A quick review of events past is given - his outlaw status among the Autobots, Scorponok wanting revenge, and Megatron poised to take over Earth. "How much worse can it get?" Grimlock asks himself.

Elsewhere, Agent Red of Skywatch oversees the test run of the neurally controlled Dinobots, in which they prove extremely efficient at destruction. Agent Red is still suspicious that it is too good to be true (after Grimlock was inexplicably freed from remote control back in Spotlight: Grimlock). Sure enough, at Machination HQ, Abraham Dante is informed by Skywatch double agent Kloss that he's implanted a virus capable of destroying the Dinobots' neural nets. He surveys his army of Sunstreaker clones, exhibiting typical villain behavior.

Meanwhile, Sunstreaker destroys Machination warehouse in Massacheusetts, angry he hasn't found his real head. Hunter, as his driver avatar, reminds him of the data they picked up from the destroyed warehouse, which leads them to discover a clue to something called "Dinobots" in Dallas, Texas.

Back on the Skyfire, Grimlock uses his last reserves of power to send a message requesting help from some "unsavory types". He is alerted to a unit of Dante's Headmasters, who have teleported into the area and are attacking his ship. he sneaks behind them, transforms to T-Rex mode and tears through the Headmasters. However, one of them manages to place a device on Grimlock which orbital bounces him back to Fallon, Nevada. A public panic there alerts Skywatch, who dispatch the Dinobots to contain Grimlock.

Meanwhile, Hot Rod arrives at the Machination HQ gates. Scorponok s not concerned; he announces he'll truncate Hot Rod's existence after he's done with the Dinobots.

The Good: Simon Furman. Nick Roche. Possibly the best creative team in TF history. The story is amazingly good quality, and Nick's art has always made me go all gooey-eyed whenever I look at it. He is a fricking awesome artist, second best in my book (after E J Su). Colorist Josh Burcham, how could I forget him. I always liked his coloring style - semi-painted look, goes great with Nick's art. All in all a well-put-together, visually dazzling, gripping issue. Woohoo!

The Bad: For once, I am totally at loss as to what to put into this section. Virtually nothing makes me angry or annoyed when I read this one. Only thing - why'd they make the "Transformers" title on the cover big and on two lines like in earlier TF comics, rather than just use the small one-line title they've used for the last 5 or so issues? That is all.

Verdict: A truly amazing comic. All areas are exquisite, and the story is solid with multiple subplots intertwining and coming together. You go guys, keep up the good work. Rated 10 out of 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 5:09 pm, WEDNESDAY 19 August