Rise of the C Team
A Seibertron.com review of IDW Optimus Prime #11
SynposisWith Optimus Prime embroiled in the FIRST STRIKE event, the Autobots on Earth set off on a mission to find one of their own—before anti-Cybertronian humans get to him first!
Me when Slide talks StoryArriving a smidgen late, we finally catch back up with the Optimus Prime cast who are on Earth, while the title character has been involved with the First Strike event, which is shown to kick off this issue to our characters.
Words of Wisdom And overall, we definitely had some good content to the issue. I appreciated the way things were handled leading up to the first explosion on Cybertron and then the loss of communications, with appropriate reactions from everyone present on Earth. I also liked the way we got the small colonists team to assemble and head off, and this group provides us with some great insights into the current Optimus Prime and how he is perceived.
The in-fighting of the group has some interesting moments that I appreciated, with Slide still holding a massive grudge, Aileron showing the signs that she no longer believes in the Prime, and the other colonists starting to question themselves and everything happening as well. Considering everything that has happened in this book so far, and with the IDW world concerning Earth as a whole, I feel everything here is real, believable, and overall provides some great tension to the book, enough so to keep interest in the book and to keep a good pace going. A lot happened in the book, with First Strike, Earth and Cybertron reactions, the C team, and the Jazz and Cybertronian weapons storylines. There was a lot of material tied together with appropriate character tension and a very good pace.
These gals, I tell ya One final note to the story: the cameos are brilliant in this story. I loved that we got both positive, negative, and neutral perspectives from so many characters in this story. And the character choices were pretty great too. Dirge finally showing back up, Serena Bharwaney after all this time, some more Jimmy Pink (wonder when he and Verity will meet again? No reason why they shouldn't), the Action Man program, and many others. 3 pages were dedicated to interviews/cameos, and they contributed to the story without holding it down and while still provided us with some great catch up moments for some of these characters.
Bumblebee mini-series, still impacting the world today ArtNow while the story side of the issue was pretty great, the art is where this issue gets some points deducted. The story made things fairly good to follow, but the art was hard to follow. There were 4 artists who worked on this issue, with Sara Pitre-Durocher handling the majority, covering the first 8 pages. Fico Ossio, the artist of Revolution, covered 5 pages, while regular series artist Kei Zama covered 3 pages and artist Paolo Villanelli covered 4 pages.
Musical Artists While all 4 are very capable artists, the differences in styles were really jarring for the issue, and at times confusing. The first 8 pages under Pitre-Durocher were really well handled, with everything fitting in right, well drawn characters, and good expressions. the 3 pages featuring the interviews were done by Zama, and those 3 pages were covered very well too. I enjoy Zama's art, especially with Burcham doing the coloring, and those pages really shined. And those 8 pages of continuity and the 3 pages of interviews were the only real smooth part of the art, and it didn't help that the interview pages were all separated by several pages.
Ossio did his best, but I am still not a fan of his art with the Transformers style, especially with the faces. Slide especially seems to suffer in this department, which is unfortunate considering her major role in the story. It also did not help that Ossio's art was broken up by a Zama page. Villanelli did his level best, and he got off a little better considering his art was for the last 4 pages, but his style was a good bit different from Ossio's, who immediately preceded him. His art also felt a bit plain, with very sort of flat and featureless expressions and styles for his Autobots.
A whole new kind of Rollout Throughout the whole issue, Josh Burcham provided colors, and he did his level best to keep things running smoothly. I've always been a fan of Burcham's work, and the fact that his colors work with 4 quite different artistic styles and still look good are a testament to his abilities.
Tom B. Long once more tackles the lettering, and once again we are not disappointed. He does a great job with the different speech tones and speech positioning, making sure never to block any potentially important part of the art and letting us really enjoy it while keeping the speech space to a minimum.
Final ThoughtsA common sight nowadays This issue of Optimus Prime was overall a good experience. While it wasn't the best issue to write home about, it set the groundwork for the First Strike crossover (already underway), it set up a good story about the colonists and their relation with Prime, and it got a lot accomplished making sure everything First Strike related was ready. There was a lot happening, yet the issue was not overcrowded or rushed. Pacing was perfect. The real thing holding the issue back was the combination of artists and the differing styles making visuals a bit harder to follow, but coloring managed to mitigate that as best it could.
In conclusion: pretty good story with some interesting character directions set and some great interactions between characters of all races and factions. I am excited to see how this arc continues with Jazz, the colonists, and Prime.