IDW Transformers: Windblade #7 (of 7) Full Preview

In addition to the full preview for this week's release of Transformers: Windblade #7, artist Kei Zama (aka Golby) has also shared her variant cover for the issue - in collaboration with colourist Josh Burcham - featuring a very Dredd-esque Chromia with big guns. Check both the linework and coloured piece below!

This is shaping up to be an interesting finale...

MAN that cover looks nasty. Is that Elita-1?

SillySpringer wrote:MAN that cover looks nasty. Is that Elita-1?

Regular cover is elita-1, the bonus cover is Chromia

Man. I was really excited about this series but it seems to go downhill fast. There just seems to be too many contrivances. There's no depth. There's nothing built up and it seems to rely too much on tropes to tell the story. Tropes aren't bad but....

I mean wind blade being so upset about Starscream here seems very off base. He did something heroic and seemingly necessary. Wind blade seems like a wimpy character to blame him. I mean, he's a soldier or was. She wasn't and isn't. Her diplomacy failed and he reacted. Perhaps he acted wrongly, but it's like being mad at a shark for doing nothing but eat.

I mean if they established that Starscream purposely went to kill that Titan, like that was his real goal then ok, but That doesn't seem to be the case.

I don't know if it's bad plotting or a character showing a faulty thought process but I'm kinda with Starscream here.

If it weren't for how rushed this series seemed to be to end it, I think things would be better. As for Windblade and the titan: She does not believe killing is what is necessary. She also has great respect for titans and seeing one die is devastating to her.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:If it weren't for how rushed this series seemed to be to end it, I think things would be better. As for Windblade and the titan: She does not believe killing is what is necessary. She also has great respect for titans and seeing one die is devastating to her.

Yeah I get that about her, but I guess my point is that in this context and this situation a reasonable not would be a little more understanding. Of course, if it's in fact her zealous nature and not meant to be taken as a positive character trait then it's ok. Some people are like that. But if I, as the reader, am to think whatbstarscream did was wrong, then I don't. There is nothing in the pages to indicate that what he did was wrong.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:MAN that cover looks nasty. Is that Elita-1?

Regular cover is elita-1, the bonus cover is Chromia

Of course I was talking about the regular cover. XD Is she in the comic? Why's she so evil looking? Sorry I haven't gotten a chance to read this comic yet.

I wonder if Swindle is somehow alive since the combaticons are now together and ready to destroy Starscream and this council of worlds. I can see a Bruticus coming soon in the comics

SillySpringer wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:MAN that cover looks nasty. Is that Elita-1?

Regular cover is elita-1, the bonus cover is Chromia

Of course I was talking about the regular cover. XD Is she in the comic? Why's she so evil looking? Sorry I haven't gotten a chance to read this comic yet.

She looks like that on the cover because of artistic license. Her physically run-down appearance is explained in the story, and she actually seems to be a mostly noble leader of her people.

Synopsis
WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM race to claim the lost colony lead by the mysterious ELITA ONE! But who will recruit the brutal army so long removed from CYBERTRON—and can ELITA’s forces bring anything home... but war?



Story

This is, for a number of reasons and alignments, the last issue in the second run of Windblade. And it attempts to tie up the colonies, literally and story-wise, preparing the ground for what will come next in the wider Transformers IDWverse - as the same cast will return in Spring 2016 with Till All Are One. But how does the conclusion shape up?



Mairghread Scott has a good sense of character, and the concepts she puts in place are really quite excellent at times. Windblade and Chromia, Starscream and Windblade, Ironhide and Chromia in previous issues, now Elita One and both Windblade and Starscream - the characters' voices and interactions are played out really well, in terms of dialogue and comebacks.



We do also have a small addressing of Chromia's dirty secret, though it still remains unclear to me how much longer it'll remain so - surely someone will exploit it down the line in the next series. Another mystery is Rattrap, who steps back in the shadows for the majority of the issue, but also without any leads as to who he is working for.



There is enough intrigue, and darkness, and general sense of unease - a lot of which just plays along on the edge of something bigger promising to happen. But even until the very end, the gun barrel is just being loaded, with the final pages bringing in a potentially additional threat that has been prepared for a while now, too. More thoughts below.

Art

The art by Corin Howell brings the last motherload of Animated references, with the addition of some more cameos from previous Transformers fiction too, from Beast Machines, in the shape of Strika and Obsidian. But there are so many more showing up (Animated Sentinel Prime's, Prime Dreadwing's silhouettes), and it's really quite enjoyable to spot them all. Plus, the ship looks fierce, unwelcoming, and definitely strained - even in its discipline.



Thomas Teyowisonte Deer is joined for the issue by John-Paul Bove on colouring duties, and they work really quite well together, ad there is very little transitiom between the two - and very good shading, light sources and choices of colour for the grittiness of Elita One's Carcer and its crew.



Tom B. Long is still here, doing his multi-fonted thing. The scenes with Metroplex are, unsurprisingly, some of the best fonting overall, with multiple colours, symbols and voices being assigned to the Titan - and the same is true elsewhere. Cover-wise, Priscilla Tramontano's main Elita is triumphantly glorious, as Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente's variant (thumbnailed) has some excellent shadow/light play, and Kei Zama and Josh Burcham bring MegaCity One to Cybertron, as seen previously.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

As a final issue, there is an overall sense of cohesion and tying up some preliminary loose ends, with more than enough seeded for the next series to pick up on, and hopefully expand, now that the Council is established as A Thing. The visual team, with Howell, Deer and Bove will be a felt absence, and I will miss the structured/Animated look and references of the art, but am equally looking forward to the new team. The back matter is really worth a read, too, as Scott wraps up her thoughts on Windblade as series and character.



What is unfortunate, on the other hand, is just the general sense that here, this is an ending, have it, read it, see you in a couple of months. As much as I thought the issue felt much less rushed than the previous one, even in the new page format, it still felt as though a little something was missing. And a shame too, as the underlying stories and references were pointing to so much more possible explorations. I suppose, however, we will see all of that develop next year!

I hope this means I'm gonna be getting a Generations Strika soon. I want that. I want that a lot.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:I hope this means I'm gonna be getting a Generations Strika soon. I want that. I want that a lot.

YES. I would love a new Strika, in comic accurate colors. Voyager Class! It'd be cool to get a mainline release of Elita One, too, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thank god this is over and with it the title of Windblade too.

I like Windblade, I do and I support calling the first series Windblade but this shouldn't have been titled Windblade. Should've just been called "the council of worlds" in my opinion. While it's her point of view and she's important to it, it wasn't about her.

I'm excited to see where this goes. I have faith in till all are one but I'm hoping the story telling and pacing gets better and slows down because this series was just "and here's this! And this! And this!" It wasn't structured the best.

Lowest points in this was Chromia, I really don't like the way she's portrayed. The Chromia we got with her introduction, her cameo in MTMTE and in CH is not this Chromia. Scott just makes her an unlike able character.

Randomhero wrote:Lowest points in this was Chromia, I really don't like the way she's portrayed. The Chromia we got with her introduction, her cameo in MTMTE and in CH is not this Chromia. Scott just makes her an unlike able character.

I agree. After what was revealed in the first windblade series, I really was hoping to see less of an A-hole character to justify her not being locked up. Well I was disappoint.

Randomhero wrote:Thank god this is over and with it the title of Windblade too.

I like Windblade, I do and I support calling the first series Windblade but this shouldn't have been titled Windblade. Should've just been called "the council of worlds" in my opinion. While it's her point of view and she's important to it, it wasn't about her.

You know why they kept the Windblade name? She's perceived as new (despite being around a bit over a year and a half now) by more casual fans. My LCS owner isn't a long time TF fan but reads this book, because in his words "it's a new character and I don't feel lost reading it". This was good perspective to hear, and yeah, it's anecdotal evidence based on one guy, but I still thought that it probably rings true for many others.


The last paragraph of Va'als review summarizes my feelings on the issue. Last page reveal was fun though! Expected, sure, but still fun. That graffiti!

ScottyP wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Thank god this is over and with it the title of Windblade too.

I like Windblade, I do and I support calling the first series Windblade but this shouldn't have been titled Windblade. Should've just been called "the council of worlds" in my opinion. While it's her point of view and she's important to it, it wasn't about her.

You know why they kept the Windblade name? She's perceived as new (despite being around a bit over a year and a half now) by more casual fans. My LCS owner isn't a long time TF fan but reads this book, because in his words "it's a new character and I don't feel lost reading it". This was good perspective to hear, and yeah, it's anecdotal evidence based on one guy, but I still thought that it probably rings true for many others.


The last paragraph of Va'als review summarizes my feelings on the issue. Last page reveal was fun though! Expected, sure, but still fun. That graffiti!

Yes and no. it's a 'new' character that catches people who have recently jumped in or heard of her but i really don't feel it's a necessity anymore for her. i just don't feel it should have been a series centered around her. In my opinion, calling this series Windblade and making her the center of attention is exactly what the fandom interpreted with Drift when he was introduced. He wasn't the center of attention, he was introduced in the background, had two scenes to show him off and was on some covers but w lot of the fandom took his inclusion as, "here's this character, love him" yes we created Windblade and not drift but it honestly feels like it's just becoming what people misinterpreted with drift as what were legitimately getting with Windblafe. "Here's Windblade you should love her!l

I know it's probably just me and I feel she's not being written well enough or handled properly. Kinda feels like Hasbro and IDW has heard about the positive feedback regarding female transformers and are just pushing and pushing it

Bounti76 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:MAN that cover looks nasty. Is that Elita-1?

Regular cover is elita-1, the bonus cover is Chromia

Of course I was talking about the regular cover. XD Is she in the comic? Why's she so evil looking? Sorry I haven't gotten a chance to read this comic yet.

She looks like that on the cover because of artistic license. Her physically run-down appearance is explained in the story, and she actually seems to be a mostly noble leader of her people.

Yeah it's interesting how they make a good guy (girl) look so evil on the cover. But HEY! An evil Optimus Prime holding a couple heads would look BADASS.

[SPOILER ALERT]Mmm, that Combaticon reveal...

Man, what a disappointing series. Im sorry but this just didnt smack of stellar writing or art. It was rushed and lacked any kind of development. I know Scott had only a few issues to set this up but...man. Not a good series to go on your resume. Hopefully she will get a lot longer span to actually make stories. Because if this was her attempt at world-building, it was awful. Hopefully it's just a quirk and she can return to better writing.
Because this one was a disappointment.