Transformers #32 // Review
Ultra Magnus, Elita and their allies ave made it behind enemy lines. Cliffjumper was able to get into the area with te rest completely undetected. Getting in was easy. Getting out is going to be a much different matter altogether. Times are desperate and survival is in question. If they’re going to be able to survive, they’re going to have to remain undetected in Transformers #32. Writer Robert Kirkman plays with a few toys from the 1980s with artist Jason Howard and colorist Mike Spicer. Kirkman is working on premises that have been floating around theTransformers property for a long time.
Shockwave appears leading an opposing force of Decepticons. It comes as something of a shock that he’s still standing. He claims to be held together with hatred and spite. There’s no way anyone is going to be able to crush that. Still...since she went Prime, Elita has a power literally within her that could crush practically ANYTHING. The Decepticons are going to have their hands full in trying to crush the Autobots even it they ARE behind enemy lines.
Kirkman’s not really adding anything new. And the problems of anything set on the Cybertron always end up overcoming anything that might actually be entertaining about action. That's actually set there. There's a tremendous amount of potential in exploring war on a planet entirely populated by cybernetic organisms that can change form. Kirkman only handles it on the most rudimentary Saturday morning animated level. And that's perfectly fine because that's exactly where this particular franchise started. But there's so much more room for so much more potential in the way of sci-fi action that would go well beyond the humble beginnings of a franchise like this. Kirkman totally failed to do anything more than an echo what's been done before.
The art seems to defuse so many different aspects of the franchise and interesting ways. On the one hand, it's hard not to see these characters and see them rendered in a way that seems true to the original toys. At the same time, there's a kind of photorealism about some of the line work that really feels like it's drawn directly from the vehicles that these toys were based on. The visual conception of an alien planet isn't really all that present on the page, though. So much of it is just focused on the conflict between these robots.
Voice Actor Corey Burton did a hell of a job on the original animated series. He voiced Shockwave on that original series. It's hard to read the character’s dialogue some 40 years later and not hear his voice. So much of the series has evolved in so many different ways over the years. There was something about aspects of that original animated series that continues to resonate to this day. It really might be a major factor as to why the franchise has persisted for so long. The talent involved in that original animated series was just so good.
