Transformers #31 Preview
 

Transformers #31 preview has been posted @ Newsarama.

Issue is scheduled for December 7.

Wow, that's a bit lame. Seems we're back to big panels again. Hopefully it picks up.

Is it wrong to hope that Alpha Trion's storytelling session is going to be interrupted by him getting a punch in the chops?

Ironhide: -cracks knuckles-

I don't know, I think it's kinda cool. I mean, it's the first interesting idea I've seen in these previews and the artwork is real nice. Also, I've just had a big meal and am feeling very happy.

Fast pacing looks different, indeed.

Those three are generics, or did I not recognize them?

The badges: Interesting, given the context.

While I like the art I just find the big panels mean that what could take 3 pages takes 5-6. And IDW have abused Splash Pages far, far too much. Also found that bringing up the battle between Megs and Prime in escalation as a big point a little moot as Megs and prime describe far worse in chaos theory? Heck, I'd even rate the battle between them in AHM as being more of a dark moment.

If this is the starting point for the new books though it's a much bigger restart than I expected. Seems like a lot of time has passed. Seems like Cybertron is in a real golden age so maybe this issue is set some time after the new books as well.

PS - is it me or are the splash pages being drawn by the original artists - The one from Origin really looks like Milne and the action in the Prime/megs one is really like Su. Either that or Casey is doing a great job of making each splash represent the original books really well.

I think that's all Casey. He is good at this.

While I reckon that Costa in particular is a ridiculous hog when it comes to space, it serves this story quite well. It's set up to be a story for children so the storybook style is appropriate.

It seems that the new books will be set well before the framing sequence for #31.

Ah, so that's why Alpha Trion usually has a beard, to cover up the most smugly punchable face in all Transformerdom.

And if this is an extreme flashforward... Isn't that a bit of a risk considering IDW's "Oh crap, people don't like what we're doing, ABANDON ARC! ABANDON ARC! Who's the next writer on the list we can big up as the saviour we're fully behind?" tendencies? It stands more than a good chance of going the way of Furman's Fully Canon Mosaic.

Yeah, I don't doubt it for a second. Is it the nature of the human spirit to stand tall in the face of certain defeat or is something deeper, a property of life itself? It is in these cutesy framing sequences that chemistry staves off entropy. But to what end? Only to ultimately accelerate it.

So is Wheelie being the first to see the

SPOILER! (select to read) Great Destroyer a reference to Unicron?

And I wonder if that's going to tie in with the fact that he's apparently met up with the Quintessons, judging from his spotlight, the ship he had in the ongoing and his claim that he came to the planet Hot Rod was on "By trial"

After all the Quintessons were

SPOILER! (select to read) The servants of Unicron

in the movie (Even if that wound up making bugger all sense later in the cartoon) so maybe the comics are going to tie the two together as well?

And if I wanted to be a complete git I'd point out Prime didn't die in Escalation. Some other characters briefly thought he did, for about three minutes before almost instantly being proven wrong.

Nah, stuff like that only gets amplified over time. I once went missing at a party for about three minutes after a particularly interesting scuffle and the rumours of my death were thick in the air for the rest of the evening. People who weren't there still assume something tremendously dramatic and cinematic happened and will ask me about it from time to time. They get a bit disappointed when I say I just went into another room for a bit.

Those G2 chaps have probably made a hundred movies of that day in Brasnya, each one piling on the details.