Customer Reviews

The Reign of Starscream (Transformers Movie Sequel)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, I confess: I am a total Transformers geek. My 'Optimus Prime says stay in school' t-shirt is legendary on campus. I teach rhet comp using quotes from G1 (So, when Megatron says, "You're either lying or your stupid," that's a false dilemma... ('I'm stupid! I'm stupiiid!!') Tolja I'm a nerd!) So, I'm a little biased, which could seem like a bad thing, until you realize that a blasphemy in my world is to desecrate my glorious robots, and more specifically, my personal badboy, and my generation's own version of Iago: Starscream. So....maybe I'm fit to weigh in on this one.

This is a collection/reprint of the five comic series, in library bound form, with a few goodies--a sketchbook, a sort of 'easter-egg' commentary, etc to fill out the folios. The paper quality is good, the color and inking top-notch, and the binding is still solid.

But that's just window dressing. What about the *story*?! Well, it picks up a few bars from the 2007 Michael Bay release, to include my boy's two measly lines, and to bring Brawl into the picture (he's the 'bot whut gets the snot whipped outta him in Mission City that isn't Blackout), and stretches to bridge the time afterward, with Megatron down (at least temporarily). Starscream's found the humans' files on the allspark, and hurries back to Cybertron to try to recreate it--that's the basic plot.

The fun, of course, is in Starscream, and this is where Chris deserves top marks. He's a fan, who even includes such geek-happy-making comments like the leading "conquest is made of..." (the ashes of one's enemies). The artist Milne has tweaked the rather unappealing 'Monkeyscream' form of the movie to something a little more samurai-helmet-esque, and best of all, has our boy being his adorably devious, arrogant, backstabby, sarcastic self.

My heart will always be with G1, and while I love Simon Furman's G1 universe, I have to say it's nice to see the franchise in another continuity, and in new hands. IDW is trying to balance the line between totally new (as the alas-defunct Dreamwave series) and being movie-tie-in relevant. Unknown how well this will hold when Fallen comes out, but even as a standalone, it's worth your time. And it gives me hope that Starscream will, just possibly, get to be cool in the next movie.

I love Starscream, the little ambitious schemer. He is very egotistical, but at least he has a clear goal--to become supreme leader of Cybertron, regardless of faction (Autobot, Decepticon, etc). He will stop at nothing to reach his goal.

*May contain spoilers?*
This comic supposedly takes place right after the 2007 Transformers movie. In the first issue, it is mostly flashback--showing the some of the events from the movie and the Movie Prequel comic. In the following issues shows how Starscream searches for other surviving Deceptions and to find Frenzy's remains which have very important information. The humans also had some very important information as well. Starscream is determined to use this information in order to make a new AllSpark cube. However, he encounters some obstacles, namely Autobots and even on his own side....

The pacing of the story is a little rushed, but is more nicely fleshed out (compared to the movie prequel comic anyway). The book is about 113 long for the story alone. Added to this are several pages of some artwork (mostly by Alex Milne and James Raiz in particular) and then about 4-5 pages of brief bios of the various Transformers that appeared in the comic (in case you are confused who is who), and a few rough draft sketches and finally, a couple of pages of "Easter eggs" info.

Alex Milne's artwork is amazing! The robots are very detailed and have a rough and tough look to them. I am still not liking the movie designs of the robots, though, especially on the females Arcee and Elita-One, so UGLY. Regardless, the artwork is beautiful.

The colors, though, are a little dark and muted, and it was sometimes hard to differentiate who is who (which is probably why the bios are in the book). At least, it was hard for me who is new to the Transformers franchise, so perhaps hardcore fans can recognize who is who better than I can. The good thing is it is better than the Movie Prequel comics in terms of art, details, and even some of the coloring.

The story also feels short and I wanted some more character development and events, but I understand that there is a page limit for each issue.

All in all, I was quite pleased with this book. I would recommend it to Starscream lovers in particular. =3

This book is great I can't say enough, if you love Transformers this is a book for you let's make it short it's good.


thanks for reading

i have been a huge transformers fan since the G1 toys and collected every issue of the first comic series from marvel. i loved the dreamwave comics and the movie but i was a little disappointed with this book. the artwork is a little above average, the added covers and sketches are great but i couldn't get into the story, which is set mostly on cybertron. casual fans of the new movie could easily get lost.

Thanks for the prompt service. My son was very happy to receive the book so quickly.