Transformers #31 // Review
Megatron is having problems. It’s entierly possible that at least some of the problems he’s facing would be solved by simply giving-up and giving-in. Of course...this IS Megatron we’re talking about here...there’s no way in Hell that he’s going to give-up on anything. And so he continues to work his way through many, many trials. He hasn’t learned what he has to learn in order to advance beyond the trials. He’s going to get there, though. It’s just going to take some time in Transformers #31. Writer Robert Kirkman continues an interesting re-imagining of the classic pop sci-fi action property with artist Ludo Lullabi and colorist Mike Spicer.
It is the six-thousand, three-hundred and fifty-third trial and Megatron is commanding that he be released. He’s done what they’ve asked and they’re still attacking him. He’s done all that they’ve asked. What more could they possibly expect from him? Well...they’re expecting him to submit to them. He refuses to serve them. The matter-of-factly inform him that if he does not submit, he will be forced to die a trillion deaths. As it stands...he’s the tiniest fraction of the way there having only been through 6,000+ trials. He refuses to quit. He refuses to quit while he’s a head. (Literally Somewhere before the Six-thousand, three-hundred and fifty-fourth trial, he’s a particularly defiant disembodied head.) He’s going to have to learn what he needs to learn in order to survive...but it might take a few thousand more trials...
Kirkman clearly has a deep respect for Megatron. It makes the journey of the arch-villain that much more appealing to see him put through hell over the course of the issue knowing that Kirkman is essentially dedicating an entire issue to him for the sake of delivering an epic tale of defiance in the face of ridiculously overwhelmnig odds. The character never really came across as being all that formidable in the original series. (He barely registered as much of a serious villain in the first animated movie when he became Galvatron.) Kirkman makes him seem all the more interesting than nearly any other character in the series in one of the more memorable entries in the entire history of the franchise.
There’s a delightfully exaggerated sketchiness about Lullabi’s art that fits more or less perfectly with the epic tall tale of the villain going through hell. There’s a sharp sense of intensity about it that really feels like a tutorial version of a kind of punitive afterlife. The fact that Megatron is able to look badass even while simply resting on the ground as a severed head? That’s quite an accomplishment for any artist. The ridiculously over-the-top intensity of the story is cleverly and wittily bound to the page with cleverly moody work by SPicer’s colors.
It remains to be seen exactly where Kirkman’s taking Megatron with this particular storyline. Given how interesting and original the 31st chapter feels, it would seem pretty strange to go through all of the trouble he’s gone through to simply make Megatron reemerge as Galvatron again. Kirkman seems to be pushing it a bit in that direction. Hopefully he can deliver Megatron in a more novel direction after all of the punishment...
