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Transformers Prime Issue 5

School Is... Out!

Script: Robin Etherington.
Art: Horacio Domingues.
Inks: Ruby Gonzalez.
Colours: Nestor Pereya.
Lettering: Comicraft.

Synopsis:

Three high schools in Jasper have exploded due to separate gas leaks that the authorities were warned about in advance. Finding this suspicious, Jack encourages the Autobots to stake out the remaining schools.

On watch with Arcee outside Franklin High, Jack sees the kids leave early, just before MECH arrive. Overhearing Silas gloat he's going to keep blowing up schools until he finds Jack, the teen decides this is his responsibility and sneaks into the school alone to try and take care of it.

He's easily caught thanks to Silas using the buildings CCTV, and, planning to take Jack with him via helicopter, he sets off the explosives. Arcee storms the school, rescues Jack and the pair go to the roof to try and stop Silas. He still manages to escape, though several MECH troopers are lost in the fire. Jack apologies for going in alone, but Arcee points out she's done worse herself.

Characters Featured: Miko, Raf, Jack, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Arcee, MECH soldiers [several killed], Silas.

Notes:

Jack specifically refers to the event of the TV episode Crisscross, the first such reference in the comic. Indeed, this is the first issue that can't easily be read without having seen the show as there's no attempt to explain who Silas and MECH are.

Newscasters Sterling Spoon and Bliss Meadows are named for characters from the Marvel UK comic, Irwin Spoon and Joy Meadows respectfully.

In keeping with their red shirt status in the show at least four MECH soldiers are killed in the final blast. Though the Prime comic has had a darker edge than the majority of the previous Movieverse issues this is the first time humans have actually been killed, though it is carefully glossed over.

The MECH cars are in difference (Bumblebee) colours to those in the show, but this isn't going in goofs as there's no real reason they can't have a variety of pallets.

Considering his generally straight laced nature it's unlikely Optimus is intentionally quoting the Alice Cooper song when he says “School's out”, though the title probably is.

Goofs:

Ratchet is coloured like Bulkhead.

Apparently no one in authority hung round outside the schools long enough to notice Silas and company turning up right after the evacuations to plant explosives. And it takes Jack to notice that there's something a bit odd about school blowing up to a schedule.

Silas actually found out where Jack lives in Crisscross.

How does Arcee not notice Jack not go into the building? [She's nuts]

This months spelling mistakes: “Tailgait”, Nemisis”. The terms Space Bridge and Ground Bridge get mixed up in the Episode Guide as well.

Fantastic Free gift!:

A missile launcher. What, had Titan run out of discs?

Extras:

Arcee Profile;
Photo Mash-Up quiz;
Defuse the Bomb game;
Save Jack! Maze;
Episode Guide Volume 1: Darkness Rising Part 5;
A double poster of the Autobots;
Starscream's Stumpers;
A Walk on the Wicked Side wordsearch;
Mega-Mouth;
Competition for MechTech toys.

Review:

The attempt to tie in more closely to the cartoon is very welcome, and helps create the sense of a wider Prime Universe where all the stories are interconnected rather than just happening in their own little bubbles. Arcee is also a nice no-nonsense character, dealing with the MECH boys in a direct and forceful manner that makes a nice change from a lot of the hand-waving you often see in Autobots dealing with human villains.

The plot however, is deeply, deeply silly. With Silas coming over especially as completely mentally backwards idiot. This is so at odds with the proper human deaths alternate pages seem to come from completely different comics. It's hard to tell what sort of tone Etherington is aiming for here, the shifting back and forth in style makes for an ultimately unsatisfying read.

[Two Cubes].