Clean cover art for Optimus Prime #11 by Andrew Griffith

Ooh, that looks very nice. That said, it looks more like the new Cyberverse busy book Optimus than how the IDW character currently looks. Then again, artistic liberties and one G1 Prime tends to look like another.

I like the blue on his hands, looks like MMA gloves.

It's so beautiful! I want that framed on my wall this instant!

Looks very cartoon looking knee pads stick out alot

definitely looks like robot dressed with truck like designs rather than a robot who actually turns into a truck.

Synopsis
THE RETURN OF GALVATRON THE BARBARIAN! Optimus Prime meets with Alpha Trion, the ancient sage, who reveals a tale of Cybertron's earliest days, when the original Thirteen Primes united the world. But even then, the warrior known as Galvatron was a wild card... shaping the future in unexpected ways.



Story

It's been a while since Galvatron died, pretty much for good, in this IDW continuity - so it only makes sense that we'd be going into a flashback involving him to gather some more information about the shape of the universe as we currently know it, before stories became lore, and before lore became fully-fledged belief. So here we are.



The Primes from the Aligned continuity have been making their way into this side of Transformers fiction, between Till All Are One and references to them in previous xRID and The Transformers series - but this issue brings them all back together for the first time - before they're even considered to be what we know them to be, and in a way that John Barber finds that is actually really delicious.



The framing of the story - told by Alpha Trion to the current three Prime or, let's face it, equivalents (Starscream and Pyra Magna) - also may look like nothing major in terms of plot, but we do get some follow-up to last issue's emotional resolve, and finally the lead-in to First Strike (see our review here and here!). And it also allows for some extra sassy Alpha Trion and Starscream.



Galvatron, in fact, is not the most prominent of the characters in the book, thought clearly at the centre of most of the action here - if you take it as a way in to what is happening around both him and his brother seen in the preview - but trust me, there is a lot to be enjoyed in barbarian style if that's what you're going for in the issue.


Art

The art duties are split between current day setting - in which regular Kei Zama and Josh Burcham team take the lead, and doing some really nice work on characters we haven't seen in a while, but also giving us a very nice Starscream in the mix. The staging of the frame does everything it needs too, especially in tone.



Whereas the olden days of pre-Thirteen Primes Cybertron are entirely in the hands of recurring artist Livio Ramondelli, whose grainier style of colouring on his own lineart is actually extremely fitting to the landscapes that surround the cast of the 'flashback'. His takes on the Primes are also very intriguing visually, though I'm still not utterly convinced on all the designs.



Tom B. Long is on letters for both the sections, though the most fun is had in the central part of the book, between battles and the now trademark wider scope for him to use lettering within Ramondelli's art almost as part of the art layer itself. As for the various covers for the issue, most of which we have already seen, they can be found here - and enjoy the Andrew Griffith / Josh Perez used in the thumbnail of this story, too.

Thoughts
may contain minor spoilers

As someone who works with stories and has taught writing and has had a fascination with myth-to-fact/fact-to-myth narratives, Barber's approach to this issue is really intriguing to see play out - and using the still not entirely trustworthy Alpha Trion as the vessel for it all is probably the best choice that could've been made - along with having specifically Optimus, Pyra Magna and Starscream as his audience.



For the readers, on the other hand, that may be more interested in the Galvatron style of stories we've seen in previous sections with the purple maniac so far, there is also plenty of that (visually and narratively): action, beheadings, struggle, precarious balances and long-reaching plans are not being shied away for the sake of story. A shame, perhaps, that it ends directly into First Strike.

But with an intriguing nod to a character that has pretty much always been present.

Great review Va'al! Really didn't like this issue! Lol

This is a first for me because I have always been more of a fan of John and RID/TF/OP than the other books but man I really didnt't like this one. It felt like it could have been a 2 parter or even an arc like Shadow Play and instead it felt like an recap of a story arc that was already told. Just wasn't a fan.i liked the Beast Wars Megatron and Optimus primal cameos though.

It can definitely feel compressed, I'll agree with you on that - but I felt that having Trion being basically in the dark about everything Onyx was doing was a nice, different way of addressing his character in general (reversal of roles if you will).

But the compression also leans on Trion's characterisation so far, as well as perhaps being a bit too fast due to First Strike arriving. So all in all, they really did the best they could create for this story with this timeframe, I think!



(As a sidenote, I got some interesting Rat Queens: Braga echoes in the story too, with Arcee.)

If anything, I'm glad this cemented (sort-of) the lineage of some of these figures. Do I have this right? Going off the top of my head, may not.

1. Primus and Unicron at the beginning
2. Primus splits off parts of himself that become The Guiding Hand
3. The first Titans, being Meteoplex, Chela, and Metrotitan, serve TGH in Primus' fight against Unicron (departure from Aligned alert!) Knights of Cybertron may or may not be around at this point.
4. KoC leave with the Titans.
5. The Thirteen come later, with currently unknown origins. Eventually they have their War of the Primes.
6. Galvatron kills Nexus Prime, and the other surviving Primes flee (except for A3), eventually starting collonies somehow.
7. Galvatron and Nova usher in the Golden Age.
8. Ark 1 departs, Crystal City disappears,
   Nominus comes to power.
9. Clampdown and Sentinel and Towards Peace and Megatron stuff, Zeta Prime eventually,
   then Autobot/Decepticon war.

ScottyP wrote:If anything, I'm glad this cemented (sort-of) the lineage of some of these figures. Do I have this right? Going off the top of my head, may not.

1. Primus and Unicron at the beginning
2. Primus splits off parts of himself that become The Guiding Hand
3. The first Titans, being Meteoplex, Chela, and Metrotitan, serve TGH in Primus' fight against Unicron (departure from Aligned alert!) Knights of Cybertron may or may not be around at this point.
4. KoC leave with the Titans.
5. The Thirteen come later, with currently unknown origins. Eventually they have their War of the Primes.
6. Galvatron kills Nexus Prime, and the other surviving Primes flee (except for A3), eventually starting collonies somehow.
7. Galvatron and Nova usher in the Golden Age.
8. Ark 1 departs, Crystal City disappears,
   Nominus comes to power.
9. Clampdown and Sentinel and Towards Peace and Megatron stuff, Zeta Prime eventually,
   then Autobot/Decepticon war.

That does look fairly right, but I'm now wondering what A3 is up to at the end of the flashback in this issue, what he goes do with Metrotitan or Metroplex, or heck, even Chela, and if that's all that happens.

Vigilem should also appear at some point in there!

First thing I said while this when Onyx showed up was "yeah that looks nothing like the cover"

I said earlier I think Josh just colored him how he wanted or may have thought Onyx on the cover was Deathsaurus because that's happened before. Plenty of people started saying "what's the connection?!" Here's the connection. nothing.

People even asked Josh and he said he colored it like how Livio did in the book. Umm...no? onyx is colored dead greenish grey with bronz highlights. Where is he colored like that that cover anywhere? That being said Onyx's body is comepey wrong in the book. Lol

There's gotta be more to Galvatron right? I know it's Alpha trion is telling the story but in the actual flashbacks in RID when Galvatron kills the headmasters he threatens to kill Alpha Trion for not knowing him and they were in the first war and were in the same room by the end in this issue! There's gotta be a story about how Galvatron lost some memories or something because he didn't know Alpha Trion when they met up later on and I'm saying now he didn't know Arcee was his sibling. He felt something of a kinship with her but they never obviously had a "oh my god this is my other half from birth!"

Galvatron is a continuity freak's nightmare. His personality has changed with every writer. Furman wrote him as this noble warrior who felt he was destined for bigger greater things and felt bad about killing. He regretted killing leadfoot when he stole thunderwing and left sideswipe and his team alive. Abbot Lanning and Costa wrote him as this very proud character that knew it was up to him to save the universe and even tried to ally with Optimus to do it. Even cared about humans when zombies attacked in infestation. Then Barber turned him into this blood thirsty barbarian who would kill you for just looking at him. He's nuts! He gives sunbow Galvatron a run for his money in the nut job department.

Galvatron is literally a bipolar schizophrenic

ScottyP wrote:If anything, I'm glad this cemented (sort-of) the lineage of some of these figures. Do I have this right? Going off the top of my head, may not.

1. Primus and Unicron at the beginning
2. Primus splits off parts of himself that become The Guiding Hand
3. The first Titans, being Meteoplex, Chela, and Metrotitan, serve TGH in Primus' fight against Unicron (departure from Aligned alert!) Knights of Cybertron may or may not be around at this point.
4. KoC leave with the Titans.
5. The Thirteen come later, with currently unknown origins. Eventually they have their War of the Primes.
6. Galvatron kills Nexus Prime, and the other surviving Primes flee (except for A3), eventually starting collonies somehow.
7. Galvatron and Nova usher in the Golden Age.
8. Ark 1 departs, Crystal City disappears,
   Nominus comes to power.
9. Clampdown and Sentinel and Towards Peace and Megatron stuff, Zeta Prime eventually,
   then Autobot/Decepticon war.

There's nothing in IDW that says the Guiding Hand fought against Unicron. The guiding hand fought Mortilous and that's how they all became what they were. Primus into Vector sigma, solomus the matrix and so on. They never battled unicron so don't count that.

Honestly i wouldn't even include some of the primus stuff in your timeline. There's different versions and religions in IDW.


That's like making our own timeline and putting

Dinosaurs roamed the earth
dinosaurs then died
Apes started using tools and evolved into man
Man creates wheel
Jesus died for our sins
Columbus finds America

One of those raises an eyebrow lol

Really liked this issue and enjoyed the idea that while the Thirteen are confirmed as real in this verse, the reality about them seemingly doesn't match the myth -- they're almost as clueless about Primus, Guiding Hand, Titans etc. as your average Cybertronian and if they do have anything particularly mythical or special about them, it's not apparent to them themselves.

I enjoyed the Seasaur and Skysaur cameos too. Onyx is the Beast Wars champion collector in us all.

Randomhero wrote:There's nothing in IDW that says the Guiding Hand fought against Unicron.

You're right, my bad. Page 14 of Optimus Prime #10 only notes the Titans serving Primus in that war, not The Guiding Hand.

Via the official IDW Publishing website, we have an art reveal for the main Kei Zama / Josh Burcham cover for the next issue of ongoing Transformers series Optimus Prime - featuring the cast of Cybertronians not involved in the current First Strike even, led by Aileron! Check it out below, and keep an eye on our feed for more comics news shortly.

With 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!

I want a toy of Aileron so bad. She's great

Thanks to iTunes, we have a three-page preview of the upcoming eleventh issue of the Optimus Prime ongoing series. While this issue is arriving just a bit late (it leads into First Strike, just within this preview), there's still plenty of Aileron, the colonists, Thundercracker, and Buster(!) to keep you entertained, just in case you're not following First Strike. Due out on October 11th, let us know if you'll be picking this up, and come back to discuss it once it's released and reviewed!

With 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!

From Kei Zama, some GI Joe character designs, used and unused: https://twitter.com/Golby_mkII/status/9 ... 7414355968

Courtesy of artist Andrew Griffith's Twitter account, we have a look at his variant cover (Artist Edition) for IDW Publishing's Optimus Prime #14 - which will take place after the events of First Strike, and is due in December 2017- and featuring Trypticon and the Dinobots in their current looks since Maximum Dinobots. Check it out below!

OPTIMUS PRIME #14 CVR C ARTIST ED GRIFFITH

On Cybertron, Optimus Prime battles the Dinobots over the first new Cybertronian life to emerge in four million years! But does he stand a chance when the Dinobots’ newest member is two miles tall and eats cities?

• Part of IDW’s Artist’s Edition Cover Month!
• Optimus Prime deals with the fallout of the First Strike event!

Trypticon as a Dinobot? Can we please get a TR Trypticon in dinobot colors?

Stormshot_Prime wrote:Trypticon as a Dinobot? Can we please get a TR Trypticon in dinobot colors?

I’m more baffled by Slag on the cover since he’s dead

Slag? I just see Sludge, Snarl, Strafe and Swoop.

TBH i hope they used the advent of the power of the primes line to redesign the dinobots.

nicks designs for em just dont work with other artists IMO.

Particularly swoop who always looks god awfull.

its the dinobots for gods sake, they should look awesome charging into battle. instead im always left feeling a bit "meh" . thats a bad sign considering theyre my favorite sub group.

I agree, the look the Dinobots have had since RiD/ex-RiD/OP started haven't really worked for me. I want them to get some redesigning

Via both IDW Publishing and Previews World, we have variant covers for upcoming issues of the ongoing Transformers series Optimus Prime, namely issue #12 and #13! The talent seen in the art belongs to Andrew Griffith and Joana Lafuente for the former, with Thundercracker and Buster on one and the other sporting a general classics line-up plus Windblade (using those Authentics/evergreen designs, in fact); we find Kei Zama and Josh Burcham on the main cover for #13, with Andrew Griffith taking on a close-up of the Dinobots (as Ramondelli works on interiors, which looks like a continuation of the Dinobot Trilogy story). Check them out below!

With Optimus Prime trapped on Cybertron, the Autobots track down their missing friend, Jazz-and find themselves under fire from humans armed with Cybertronian weapons.

Bullet points:
* While First Strike blows up Cybertron, the Autobots must keep the peace on Earth!

As the consequences of the First Strike event reverberate, Optimus Prime ventures into the wilderness of Cybertron to search for the first new Cybertronian life to emerge in four million years!

Who's the Autobot on the cover with Optimus and Arcee?

Bounti76 wrote:Who's the Autobot on the cover with Optimus and Arcee?

I believe that's Sovereign, Alpha Trion's temporary Headmaster/Titan Master in the IDW continuity.

Relic Dinobot wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:Who's the Autobot on the cover with Optimus and Arcee?

I believe that's Sovereign, Alpha Trion's temporary Headmaster/Titan Master in the IDW continuity.

Sovereign is technically Blackrock, not Alpha Trion's head, but that is also my guess!

Blackrock! Looks like he’ll be staying on Cybertron after First Strike. Will the rest of the Revolutionaries be joining him?

THUNDERCRACKER!!!!!!!

Daniel Adkins wrote:Blackrock! Looks like he’ll be staying on Cybertron after First Strike. Will the rest of the Revolutionaries be joining him?

It'd make sense to drop them off in Barber's hands. Of course, I can also imagine a scenario where they sideline some of those characters for a while.

They can't sideline The Greatest Hero of Them All.

this intrigues me. I see the Evergreen designs for Prime, Bee, Megs, Screamer, and Soundwave, but the 3 Autobots(and Windblade)in the background are new designs for Wheeljack, Hot Rod, and I think Ironhide. I hope we'll see more of those designs in the future, because I like them.

I like the inks of the Artist Formerly Known As Slag cover, but the colouring looks like it was done in a speed challenge

In new news from IDW Publishing, we have the clean art (instead of the logo and details version) of another cover from the ongoing Transformers series Optimus Prime's 14th issue (due in December), by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham. And if you're a spoopy lover, you will probably appreciate this take on Bludgeon and his synthoplasmic outer shell face. Check it out below!

On Cybertron, Optimus Prime battles the Dinobots over the first new Cybertronian life to emerge in four million years! But does he stand a chance when the Dinobots’ newest member is two miles tall and eats cities?

Man, that is gorgeous!

Daniel Adkins wrote:They can't sideline The Greatest Hero of Them All.

Springer's already been sidelined for a year+

That is an awesome cover!! I've been waiting to see what they would do with Bludgeon and Slag after the Dinobot trilogy

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:That is an awesome cover!! I've been waiting to see what they would do with Bludgeon and Slag after the Dinobot trilogy

I've been waiting to see what they'll do with Bludgeon since Stormbringer :rimshot:

And finally, the last preview from IDW Publishing sees the latest Optimus Prime issue, which actually takes place during the First Strike event in the Hasbro Universe - check it out below and head back here after Wednesday for the Seibertron.com review!

Optimus Prime #11
John Barber (w) • Sara Pitre Durocher, Fico Ossio, Paolo Villanelli, Kei Zama (a & c)
With 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!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
While First Strike blows up Cybertron, the Autobots must keep the peace on Earth!
Variant cover by Marcelo Matere!

Am I the only one super confused by the art credits? This first couple pages look like Alex Milne(the humans especially) and later it looks like Zama’s stile of humans.

Randomhero wrote:Am I the only one super confused by the art credits? This first couple pages look like Alex Milne(the humans especially) and later it looks like Zama’s stile of humans.

God damn it I did not notice this until you said it now it's bugging the hell outta me.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Am I the only one super confused by the art credits? This first couple pages look like Alex Milne(the humans especially) and later it looks like Zama’s style of humans.

God damn it I did not notice this until you said it now it's bugging the hell outta me.

Maybe it’s just the inks and colors but it doesn’t look like Sara’s art at all. Those faces just scream Alex Milne especially the noses and eyes. Even the proportions don’t look like her style.

It’s just throwing me off so much. I’m not saying it’s not her but it’s apples and oranges compared to Till All Are one. I know she hasn’t drawn humans in IDW but those also look like Alex and like Zama’s styles

Gotta be the inks and coloring. Especially unlike TAAO transformers who are all pretty much one color. Sorry but I don’t understand why everyone is pretty much one color except Starscream and Windblade. For the love of god make Elita, chroma, circuit and obsidian more than just one blob of color.

These inconsistencies are a part of why I consider comics to be inferior to shows animated or live action.

I prefer an actual book as well since the constant art shifts are annoying it's like if a cartoon changed styles every few episodes.

Deadput wrote:These inconsistencies are a part of why I consider comics to be inferior to shows animated or live action.

I prefer an actual book as well since the constant art shifts are annoying it's like if a cartoon changed styles every few episodes.

Well that’s actually most cartoons. For transformers G1 had three different studios drawing episodes. 2001 RID and animated and Armada did as well.

There are a great deal of line artists on this one. I'd presume something unplanned happened and they had to pivot and get pages done through various last minute arrangements. This will be the first issue of OP to not come out during its scheduled release month and that could be why as well. Just speculating though. The book has been leaning on the style Zama and Burcham put together, but it seems to be getting harder for them to schedule Zama far enough in advance.

Again, just noting some complete, probably nonsense speculation. I'd prefer a little more consistency as well.

Synposis

With 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!

Story

Arriving 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.



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.



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.



Art

Now 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.



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.



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 Thoughts



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.

I love how they established a living descendant to John Henry from Hearts of Steel. Hope he isn't just a one-off character.

Daniel Adkins wrote:I love how they established a living descendant to John Henry from Hearts of Steel. Hope he isn't just a one-off character.

i liked that too. Had to throw that in there after Hearts of Steel became canon