IDW Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #33 Review

Synopsis
REVELATIONS! The fate of an entire planet hangs in the balance as MEGATRON races to solve the dark riddle of Sector 113. As unseen forces move in for the kill and old friends reveal their true colors, the AUTOBOTS realize that everything—everything—is a lie. All this...and an open briefcase.



Story

Death death death death lunch death death afternoon tea death. Pretty much sums up issue 32, the beginning of the Slaughterhouse chapter in More than Meets the Eye, as the DJD are shown - or rather, their aftermath - to make their way through a slightly different Lost Light. With one single, tiny survivor.



Be ready for some explanations that, while making sense even in the non-text world, might take some time to get around in James Roberts' enjoyment of them and the sci-fi genre. At the same time, Nightbeat and, especially, Nautica are still the mouthpieces for exposition, with some nice chemistry between them and with the reader's projection in Getaway and Riptide.



What is also very good to see is a healthy dose of self-criticism, too, as Roberts appears to be aware of potential criticisms from the readership. Mostly humorous, but not only, and scattered throughout the book. And to top it all, we get one of possibly the biggest twists in this series' run so far - and it's pulled off twice!



So far, one of my favourite MTMTE resolutions, after the issues I had with the Overlord and Remain in Light sagas - though I still have some concern for the denouement reserved to the Rewind plotline, and I do hope it gets addressed again before we get lost in Elegant Chaos. As something else seems to be set in motion, very briefly, in the epilogues, too..

Art

Alex Milne's might alone was not enough for this issue, as two inkers join the lineart team to provide some delineation to different scenes - and both Brian Shearer and John Wycough work wonderfully with Milne's pencils, giving some particularly amusing facial expressions, some of which yet unseen in Milne's work alone. Especially Riptide.



What is definitely not unseen, however, is Joana Lafuente's (still) astonishingly good colouring work: from fading to quantum foam, to space, to interiors, different lights, flashbacks, mood settings, the colours really aid the reader in setting further the tone to the scene, if the lines and er.. lines were not enough already.



The letters are once more by Tom B. Long, in a style that I have really come to enjoy, and even though there isn't much in terms of sound effects this time round, the title page and the uses of translucency for certain scenes is just part of the trademark visual quality of this series. Something proven by the variant covers too, from Sarah Stone's to Casey Coller and JP Bove, via the main Milne and Josh Perez haunting Rewind and Nick Roche and Josh Burcham (thumbnail) doing justice to the DJD.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

This is a James Roberts Transformers comic script, no doubt about it. There is a lot of unpacking to be done once you read through (and even as you are reading, for that matter), and I'd be curious to see the wordcount for the script before and after the visual rendition - because there are a lot of words in this issue. A lot. And yet some of the better scenes can be completely silent. Especially the sweeter, and the more horrific ones. Be warned.



And that's where the art team come in, from Milne and Lafuente to Wycough and Shearer and cover artists, making everything flow so smoothly you almost forget about the atrocities, quantum mechanics, heart-wrenching tales of survival and general twistedness. Are we back on track, though, if the issue's conclusion is anything to go by? Or are we to face even more horrors on the Lost Light?