Comic Review: Transformers #11

Transformers #11

IDW Publishing

Writer: Brian Ruckley

Artists: Angel Hernandez and Anna Malkova

While this Transformers reboot is finally starting to go somewhere, it’s still too little, too late. Megatron has lost control over his own movement. So now he’s decided to “fix” the situation the only way he knows how, with gratuitous violence. Meanwhile, the Autobots are still struggling to figure out what’s happening, even as they stumble upon some promising leads. The return of the hot-headed Sentinel Prime and his equally unreasonable entourage further complicates an already disastrous investigation. More’s happened in this issue than just about any other so far. And even then, Transformers is still just not that interesting.

To Transformers‘ credit, the art finally has a strong showing. Despite some awkward earlier issues, Anna Malkova’s art now looks almost as good as some of the better material this reboot displaced. Even the most dehumanized of bots exhibit a huge amount of emotion, which is especially important now that the crisis is reaching a boiling point. Even then, everyone still feels like a mechanical being. Joana Lafuente and Josh Burcham’s superb coloring definitely helps emphasize the best qualities of the art. The only real issue is that Malkova’s art sports occasional consistency problems and the bots still look a bit too blocky.

The few flaws of Malkova’s art are barely noticeable compared to Angel Hernandez’s contributions to this series. The only thing I can say in his art’s favor is that the level of quality is consistent. Of course, that would mean more if it was actually pleasant to look at. The washed-out colors, clumsy designs, and total lack of any dynamism drags down whatever Brian Ruckley’s writing manages to accomplish. Transformers depicts Cybertron at its peak, before tragedy strikes. But Hernandez’s art makes that a difficult premise to accept while also ensuring that this entire series has been a chore to read.

Even in an “eventful” issue, Transformers fails to retain the reader’s attention. All the art improvements in the world can’t make up for the plodding nature of Ruckley’s story. Despite the work he puts into building up plot developments, they still feel complete predictable even when they manage to yield some kind of impact. Transformers also struggles to keep track of what it’s introduced, despite having such a narrow view of Cybertron and its big players. A story can only “slow burn” for so long. Eventually, it’s just smoldering.