Surfeit of CoolA Review of
Optimus Prime #15Free of any explicit spoilers, but several implied ones made it in here.
Already very cool, but way cooler if you imagine it with the sound box. This week in Transformers comics, quality returns with the arrival of
Optimus Prime 15, "The Falling, Chapter 1:
Surfeit of Primes". Much more than a mere exercise in thematic brand synergy, this latest chapter of John Barber's
Optimus Prime starts an ominous new chapter for our heroes - not to mention the book's namesake character himself. Is this one you should pick up and read, and is it for only seasoned veteran readers or can newcomers easily follow along? Read on to find out more!
Mistress of 'Dem HipsSomewhat fitting to the book's title, there really are a surfeit of plot threads, but it still works. Most of these are also given context to help new readers along. For instance, Scoop reappears as something other than Devastator's leg for the first time in quite awhile, and at least this basic premise of who and what he is gets provided by the book's dialogue and other context. The results are decent at introducing the character for those unfamiliar while still making him somewhat relevant to the plot at hand, offering some great continuity with another
recently canceled series that is very refreshing to see. The Mistress of Flame, a somewhat enigmatic figure in the IDW Transformers universe, also gets some overdue attention. Her backstory and running commentary not only helps build her character, but it also helps frame the overall issue's narrative in a creative way that I quite enjoyed.
I haven't worked out if you're getting a toy or not, actually, but thanks?In a book like this one with a big cast, it can be easy and often is appropriate to put a character in the background and pick up their goings on down the road. That limited space for characterization is used well with Arcee and Aileron, in a similar but still different manner from the approaches taken with the Mistress of Flame and Scoop. Without giving too much away, the reader is left wondering what kind of influence a character like Arcee might have on Aileron, who is already surrounded on all sides by strong influences. However, the opposite happens with Slide, where what
feels like too much time is given to beats that have been heard many times before. While there is a definite, clear, and effective point to doing this again in this book at this time, I'm left wondering how many more issues Slide will spend as a victim character sorely in need of development. Hopefully, this is the issue where a tipping point is reached and she'll soon start saying new words.
"Ultra Mega Chicken? No. He is Legend."As seen in both the solicits and the preview, Onyx Prime arrives in the story in earnest at last. Sometimes the build doesn't deliver, but for this issue it truly does. Fellow staff member Va'al agreed, and points out something else worthy of note:
Va'al wrote:We've had too many charmy-scary villains in these books. Time to have a freaking terrifying one.
Onyx definitely gives an aura that business is about to pick up, with a fearsome, though a little bit
inspired look to go along with it. While I wish there were a bit more of him in this issue, it's probably for the best as the story would suffer from a pacing perspective were he already wreaking mass chaos. His presence here serves a purpose, one that is foreboding but also an exciting, effective hook for the issues to come.
Nature lies, they're robots in disguise!Speaking of what's to come, there are some really fun teasers for this in the book. While many fans might see the above and write it off as
Total Brand Awareness, they're probably also not careful longtime readers that would have seen this coming. Or is
it coming at all? You can let me and your fellow Transformers fans know by replying to this story on our
Energon Pub Forums!
Thoroughly analyzing the potential of Onyx/Liege to be bigger than Kylo/ReyThe visual work is stellar throughout, with Kei Zama returning on linework supported by colorist dynamo Josh Burcham to deliver another surfeit: a surfeit of
cool. The new character Magrada, seen above, is a treat to look at with the Camien aesthetic blending with a Junkion flair in a splashy, fun approach. This is a transitory character, yet great care was taken to the point where it almost feels like she's destined for a flashback spin-off at some point. If she's not, it's another credit to the artistic team that speculation like that would even occur. Her brief appearance oozes personality without a word spoken like a fascinating, magnetic rock star. Even Onyx's design takes the earlier mentioned inspiration and bends it in a way that feels fresh. Couple this with Tom B. Long deftly navigating the layouts to provide background narrative that never distracts and character names that feel right in place and you have an absolute visual feast of Transformers style. I haven't even mentioned the lighting effects that made some of this issue look like it was paper where a light was bouncing off, and while that actually holds true for many reading experiences, keep in mind our first experience as reviewers is on a digital copy.
The Zama/Burcham combo also handles the "A" cover for this issue, with Casey Coller's lines with John-Paul Bove's colors on the "B" cover seen in this news story's thumbnail. As always, you can find images of all of the covers and full credits for the issue in our
Vector Sigma Database page for Optimus Prime #15, but do note it does contain a character appearance list that may be considered as spoiler-laden!
Verdict
My newest toy is now two kinds of inaccurate This issue was very good, I'm very hooked and excited to see what's next, but it's a hair too busy. In the context of the overall story being told it's very likely great, but the serial format causes some of the panels and moments to feel truncated. While a little more focus may have served it well, this is still a superb read and genuinely feels like a great jumping on point if you've been off this ride for a while. After all, Optimus has his faceplace down at the start, so the action's clearly taking off soon. I can't wait to read more, be sure to do yourself a favor and get to your local comic shop or website of choice (that isn't one where you're reading scans you didn't pay for, that makes you a thief) to pick this one up!
Especially after the write up above and the gushing on the visuals, I feel like I have to explain the score above. Maybe I don't, regardless, please realize that I don't subscribe to scoring styles like the Net Promoter Score or IGN styled bloat and I don't write these because I want IDW to buy me things. On my personal scale for these reviews, a 4/5 is "very good", with 5/5 reserved for "all time great Transformers comic" and first issues of larger arcs almost never hit that in the monthly format, for me, given the nature of their content. I don't like scores, but maybe if we can make them more than "good" and "bad", we can be smarter about how we think about the media we consume.
tl;dr, this issue was really good and I recommend it, even if you've been trained by the internet to think a 4/5 is just 'ok' 
