Windblade #1 - Combiner Wars, pt 1

[skemono]

When last we left our unfortunate heroine, her home planet Caminus was being invaded by the combiner Menasor.


We open with Swindle griping that he hasn't found anything to steal, despite Starscream's promise that he could get filthy rich by robbing the Camiens.




So, yeah. With Blackjack's anger issues helping form Menasor's personality, the combiner goes on a rampage. With the spacebridge still open, Transformers from Cybertron go in to help.




The Aerialbots fly in and form Superion, who offers Menasor a chance to surrender.



And they fight, and they fight, and they fight, and they fight! After Superion puts down Menasor, we get down to exactly what you want out of a series of warring giant robots with laser cannons: politics and religion!







Optimus opens his chest to reveal the Matrix, at which point the Camiens (except for Windblade) bow to him, while in the background Starscream has a rage stroke.


Writer: Mairghread Scott
Story by: Mairghread Scott & John Barber
Artist: Sarah Stone
Cover artist: Casey W. Coller

Comments

[grumman]

It could be worse - at least Megatron isn't there to see Starscream getting upstaged by Optimus Prime.

[skemono]

Yeah, but Megatron would probably be just as furious at people worshipping Primes.

[q99]

Megatron is *so glad* he's on the Lost Light and doesn't have to put up with this ^^

Because he respects Optimus more, but also hates Prime worship, and...

[janegray]

That would be one of the few times Megs and Screamer would completely see eye to eye. Pity we didn't get to see that :P

[ozaline]

Okay I tried to get into the new Transformers comics with Dark Cybertron, but wasn't able to pick all those up... and I've started following MTME as of late, but I gotta pick up this whole storyline...

[skemono]

Fortunately, I think this will be shorter than "Dark Cybertron" and contained in these two series--no one-shots to get also. Hopefully I'm not mistaken about that.

[janegray]

I could never get into Dark Cybertron because, while the character moments were fantastic, the story as a whole really weirded me out. The stuff with the magic orbs made my eyes glaze over, and the epic arrival of the ammonites was made considerably less epic for me by the fact that I kept wondering "who the eff are these guys again?"

But I'm really enjoying Combiner Wars (SO FAR. Hope I'm not junxing it >_>). It's much more self contained, the big players are either long-term main characters or have been recently introduced so they are still fresh in the mind, and I find giant(er) robots punching the crap out of each other and the tool that lets any bunch of guys turn into a combiner far more interesting a macguffin than mystical orbs. So far the character moments aren't nearly as impressive as in DC, but it's still early and there is potential.

[cynic79]

Dark Cybertron was building on A LOT of backstory, going all the way back to the first IDW mini. It was very continuity heavy, and not particularly new reader friendly.

Combiner Wars is much easier to just pick up and read without any backstory, but it feels too rushed to me. The most recent issue in particular was riddled with errors, and characters are getting shoe-horned in for no other reason than the fact that they have toys on the shelves (or don't; the toyline for this event has been pretty popular).

I'm really enjoying the non-combiner aspects of this story. The leadership struggles between Starscream, Windblade, and Optimus are fascinating, and a nice throwback to the earlier struggles between Starscream, Metalhawk, and Bumblebee in the early RID issues. I like the fact that Optimus is still struggling with his role in a post-war Cybertron. The war he spent four million years fighting is over, and he hasn't been the leader of the Autobots since the Mike Costa days, but he's still acting like a military leader. He wants to keep Starscream in check, but it is not his place to do so, certainly not by threatening him. His status as a Prime has granted him high standing among the Camiens, but Optimus is agnostic at best, and their worship of him should be quite unsettling, as well as being completely against his newfound belief in democracy.

In sum, I feel like there is a really great story in Combiner Wars that is suffering because Hasbro needs every page of the comic to have MOAR COMBINERS!

[janegray]

I mostly agree with you, but... I feel sorta hypocritical, because the comic's status as a tool to sell toys is THE reason they gave Starscream a new G1 body, and I'm damn glad for that because I much prefer the G1 looks over the Armada looks.

[cynic79]

It seems the reason he got the Armada body in the first place was due to the toyline, which had an Armada Starscream on the shelves just as Starscream was changing bodies during Dark Cybertron.

I don't mind synergy between the comics and the toyline, but I wish the comic drove the toyline more, rather than the other way around.

[deh_tommy]

Will Megatron be given his form from Transformers: Armada, then?

[cynic79]

I imagine he'll be keeping his current G1-esque body, as he also has a G1-esque toy out right now (complete with Autobot symbol!).

Thinking back, it seems that the only time recently that the toys have really intruded on the comic has been during big events. We got new bodies for Bumblebee, Starscream, and Dreadwing that just happened to be based on toys then available, and the rather awkward introduction of Crosscut, who also had a toy on shelves. Now we've got the new combiner members being somewhat awkwardly introduced.

Outside of events, it seems the comic creators are generally left alone. It doesn't look like Cyclonus is getting a new look anytime soon (and I'm a bit disappointed that his new toy doesn't have a head sculpt to match his MTMTE design). Tailgate has been portrayed consistently despite having a toy that doesn't quite match his design (and in fact draws heavily from his MTMTE look).

[q99]

I kinda liked the Armada one- 'new role, new body, and access to all the Autobot tech to really max it out,' fit, but changing around so soon does show the toyness.

[q99]

-
and characters are getting shoe-horned in for no other reason than the fact that they have toys on the shelves (or don't; the toyline for this event has been pretty popular).
-

And Rook was there too!

[cynic79]

Starscream: "You five..."

Rook: "And me! Rook! I'm in the back! See my head!"

[q99]

I wonder if they're going to go into that, at some point where they have enough warning to *actually* work him into the script ^^

[cynic79]

They haven't really gotten Alpha Bravo into the script much, so I don't have a lot of hope.

[q99]

Alpha Bravo got lines in his first appearance a number of issues ago, and just pre-combination in this issue. Superion's been superion too much for him to have much, but he's there.

Rook has yet to be verbally acknowledged by *anyone* ^^ Heck, he seems like he was drawn into the art late even.

[matrix_dragon]

Rook magically appearing is the least of the Protectobots problems. I mean, Hot Spot has shown up on the wrong planet as the wrong person, First Aid's been called Fixit, and two of them have spent their entire time in the event drawn as two other people that don't even have the same alt-modes as them. (Hell, Mainframe can't even transform.)

Ramondelli is not exactly covering himself in glory this event.

[skemono]

...as someone whose last encounter with Transformers prior to picking up these comics was the '86 movie, I have no idea what you're talking about.

[q99]

Two of a team of bots had the wrong robot modes due to the artist being given the wrong ref, and there's also been the odd caption or name in the wrong place.

Basically, there's a number of errors that, while not significantly impacting the story, give signs of things being rushed.

[q99]

The wrong bodies isn't Ramondelli's fault, he was handed bad references.

Signs are that these comics were made in less time than normal.


Hot Spot, though, is no problem, at least not on the art part. The previous appearance was a throwaway, and multiple bots having the same bodytype isn't unknown.

[q99]

And people were worried *Starscream* was too trusting of Swindle ^^

Ah, poor Swindle, thinking he'd gotten in on the ground floor of a great Swindle when really, he was the Swindle....

---

Also: Tall Flame-bot is tall!

[skemono]

But is she tall *enough*?

[q99]

She should be, like, five Optimuses tall!

[janegray]

I love this art SO MUCH. I wish Sarah Stone drew all the facial expression forever!

[dustbunny105]

I love the look on Swindle's face when it hits him that he's running on Starscream's word.

[q99]

And not only did Starscream set him on a fool's errand (not that Starscream would know for sure it was low on stuff to steal, but he's closer to Windblade so he might), but he sabotaged the combiner by introducing the right new teammember! Make *sure* that there's a rampage!

[deh_tommy]

Thanks for posting this issue. I really like Mairghread Scott's work on Transformers (so much so that her mini-series is why I bought the Windblade action figure).

Fun fact: she's now writing for Transformers: Robots in Disguise (the new series on Cartoon Network, not the comic).

[skemono]

She's also working on the Swords of Sorrow book from Dynamite, as well as Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.