Transformers: Windblade Vol. 2

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:04 pm

Collects Transformers: Windblade #4-7 (#1-3 collected in Combiner Wars event).

- ziggy

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It's out and I've read it!

More later but I really enjoyed this. Now that all the Combiner Wars guff has been cleared away there is time to put together an actual story. It's a gloriously golden-age SF story with a planet full of racecars that live in racecar cities. Knock-Out was great, Moonracer was great, Blurr was great and Windblade got to act like a protagonist again.

Art by Howell was lovely too. Less flashy but more consistent than Scott. I particularly like how they draw Flamefeather (That is Flamefeather, right?) The colours by Thomas Deer really worked too. Have we seen Deer before?

Encouraging!

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:33 pm

I know Sparkstalker is in this. Could that be the Firecon you mean? Not read it beyond the preview though...

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:36 pm

Yeah, a quick check of TFWiki corrects me to Sparkstalker. Turns out he's been kicking around the background for a while, he's a proper secondary character in these books.

Nice that he's drinking with Slag, who he once burned a planet to try and kill.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 2:54 pm

Terome wrote:Yeah, a quick check of TFWiki corrects me to Sparkstalker. Turns out he's been kicking around the background for a while, he's a proper secondary character in these books.

Nice that he's drinking with Slag, who he once burned a planet to try and kill.

And yet I'd never drink with a colleague from our Sales team...

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 8:12 pm

I enjoyed this as well. It was back to doing what the first series did so well: A fairly sensible look at politics doused with a pleasing vein of silliness.

After it's been handled badly since the end of the first series, it was nice to see some subtlety added back to the Chromia and Windblade relationship. She doesn't trust Chromia to handle those Decepticons, but equally trusts her more than the badgeless so just makes a "No violence!" statement and then flies off so she doesn't have to see anything that follows. Very nicely done.

Plus, what a glorious bastard is Knock Out?

Whilst it made sense for RID (as it was dealing with the direct fall out of Prowl), I have no idea why this is branded as a Combiner Wars Epilogue. It's effectively Part 1 of a brand new story. It'll be a shame if that puts people off giving it a punt.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:02 pm

It has. What I've seen of CW (the fiction) has been shit, not to put too fine a point. And this is presumably going to be collected with it.

edit: Found, skimmed. Different kind of silly to MTMTE and the art doesn't help IMO.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:05 pm

Rack 'n Ruin wrote:And yet I'd never drink with a colleague from our Sales team...

They should stick to their own kind!

and then flies off so she doesn't have to see anything that follows.

Didn't spot that. Very dark.

Plus, what a glorious bastard is Knock Out?

I like that Starscream has become Prime Starscream and I love that Knock-Out has hopped over from the show totally intact. And the mention of (possibly) Breakdown is unexpectedly sweet.

It'll be a shame if that puts people off giving it a punt.

Yeah I was scratching my head at that too. I guess that the average reader is more excited by that sort of thing than I thought? Who knows?

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:25 pm

Started off a bit wobbily but by the end I found myself more than a little curious for whats coming next. The planet full of racers seemed far too simplistic but I guess I shouldnt make assumptions.

I'm not a fan of the art as such - its really not my bag. Its too cartoony and I find it odd writing that as I love Roche, Stone etc but the art here is a little too messy in its execution for me. Not terrible, and I can follow it fine so it wont put me off but I think I wont be a fan anytime soon.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:29 am

Red Dave Prime wrote:Started off a bit wobbily but by the end I found myself more than a little curious for whats coming next. The planet full of racers seemed far too simplistic but I guess I shouldnt make assumptions.

I'm not a fan of the art as such - its really not my bag. Its too cartoony and I find it odd writing that as I love Roche, Stone etc but the art here is a little too messy in its execution for me. Not terrible, and I can follow it fine so it wont put me off but I think I wont be a fan anytime soon.

The Velocitron concept seems to be lifted directly from the Cybertron cartoon series. I expect other colonies may also end up "inspired" by pre-existing concepts.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 7:39 pm

Denyer wrote:It has. What I've seen of CW (the fiction) has been shit, not to put too fine a point. And this is presumably going to be collected with it.

edit: Found, skimmed. Different kind of silly to MTMTE and the art doesn't help IMO.

so
Fair do. What did you make of the Player of Games lift? It's pretty blatant - planet-wide ring of fire and all - but I like Player of Games so why not?

Am I the only one who digs the art then? Because I am all over it.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:59 am

Terome wrote:so
Fair do. What did you make of the Player of Games lift? It's pretty blatant - planet-wide ring of fire and all - but I like Player of Games so why not?

Am I the only one who digs the art then? Because I am all over it.

I think my problem with the art is that its too far out from the general art that the IDW continuity uses. Odd as it probably is, I can see Roche, Milne, Livio and Stones art all somewhat connected but I found this went that little bit beyond. As standalone art, its absolutely fine and as a one shot or off continuity series I wouldn't have a problem. I'd have the same issue if Tom Scioli started drawing as part of the regular series - and I really like his stuff in TF vs GI Joe

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:13 pm

Yeah okay, I can see how it could be seen as a departure. To my eye it's got a lot in common with Stone and only really differs from Roche in terms of line width and ambition. Roche is very keen to show off his fancy compositions while this is quite pedestrian in a way that's nearly refreshing. I get the impression that Scott's TV background has put her in the habit of leaving most of the composition and framing to the artist.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 1:39 pm

Denyer wrote:It has. What I've seen of CW (the fiction) has been shit, not to put too fine a point. And this is presumably going to be collected with it.

Terome wrote: Yeah I was scratching my head at that too. I guess that the average reader is more excited by that sort of thing than I thought? Who knows?

I feel sorry for any big Combiner Wars fan who picked this up looking for the next exciting issue of everyone talking about how amazing combiners are whilst they fall over each other and characters who aren't Protectobots stand in the place of Protectobots (I'll let it go, one day...), they'll have met a massive let down.

The art didn't bother me at all. It did feel like for of the early MTMTE fill in art where the sub would try a bit too hard to be Milne. I've not encountered this artist before so maybe it was their normal style, but it felt "Stone-ish" to me. Still perfectly fine though.

As for the "Planet ruled by who wins the races" idea, it wasn't any sillier than the resolution to the plot in this week's other comic.

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 6:30 pm

Terome wrote:so
Fair do. What did you make of the Player of Games lift? It's pretty blatant - planet-wide ring of fire and all - but I like Player of Games so why not?

I like PoG (it's a good IMB primer for new readers before moving on to something like Excession) but it extensively sets up the conceits and contrast with the Culture -- even without detailing the game's mechanics -- right down to Marain, which barely gets mentioned elsewhere. It wouldn't work if not presented with some seriousness.

Whereas as a throwaway panel with cutesy art Velocitron could be a Titan or OTFCC comic.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:37 pm

I found this one pretty charming.

It's definitely from the pen of someone who knows their way around a kid's TV show though I thought the art / scripting on the race sequence didn't really sell it. The designs of the racers and the traps were bland. I can imagine a fairly sparse script and an overworked illustrator being to blame - I'd imagine that in TV you just write a thing and then an entire animation company brings it to life. With comics you have to be very specific or be blessed with a very proficient and fast artist with which to spin your straw into gold.

The Titan with dementia was a nice hook - again it seems like a cribbing of Banks but it works here.

I have no idea what is going on in the last panel. There's a dun-dun-daaa moment about the 'guests' but I haven't the foggiest what Starscream is talking about.

Selkadoom · Post by **Selkadoom** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:23 pm

I myself also enjoyed the issue. I also enjoyed even the natives of the planet finding that their system of rules was stupid as well as the dementia titan. As for the cliff hanger, the Wiki was indicating that its Eukaris, the beast planet.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:13 pm

I enjoyed that, fluffy and fun and lots of nice stuff for everyone, and with the main City being a Titan it actually makes sense of why they would live on the move like that.

But it does suffer from being the first issue after the cancellation. This book is suddenly (effectively as the first three issues are going to be in the Combiner Wars trade) a four issue mini-series and it's still being written as an ongoing. That I think will cause problems when it's read in book form.

Selkadoom · Post by **Selkadoom** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:48 am

(God can't believe i posted in the wrong thread)

A bit off topic but a thought occurs to me and led me to some speculation. Do we have any guesses who other inhabitants of the Animal planet are? We gonna see more Cybertron chars? More classic BW ones? Even Neo or II Chars?

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:47 pm

How about Dino Force? That'd be fun and pleasingly mental (and sigh, be made to tie in with the Combination thing).

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:05 pm

How about the Alligatorcon built out of old Optimus parts? Or Sharkticons

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Transformers: Windblade Vol. 2

Transformers: Windblade Vol. 2

Windblade #5