Transformers #15 // Review
Tacoma, Washington is burning. There are giant robots assaulting the city. The city is in ruins. People are but an afterthought in the ruins of building and vehicles. One among them suggests that it feels wrong. There’s something wrong with the whole situation. He and his allies are about to find out just how right they are in Transformers #15. Writer Daniel Warren Johnson continues another look at a beloved franchise with artist Jorge Corona and colorist Sarah Stern. The Transformers end of the emerging G.I. Joe / Transformers “Energon Universe” titles continues to take a long, slow march forward in another interesting issue.
Soundwave agrees with the Decepticon in question. There IS something wrong with the whole situation. The home planet of themselves AND the Decepticons is gone. A large chnk of Cybertron has fallen into the ocean. Everything seems more or less in disarray, but there is very little that they can do about it. The strategy involves leaving a trail of death. City by city. Human by human. The Decepticons’ enemies will be drawn-out to defend the humans. It’s only a matter of time before they are completely open to an ambush. It makes cold and logical sense.
It could be very difficult to modulate an ensemble size that the Transformers had managed over the years. Daniel Warren Johnson spends some time with a few favorites while managing some very clever bits of sophisticated interaction between tradition and expectation. Old characters get interesting new looks that still manage to keep with those elements that made them appealing all those decades ago when they first appeared in toy stores, comic book and on TV for the first time. Any franchise thats been around for as long as The Transformers is going to have difficulty overcoming the inertia of all of the story that’s come before it, but Daniel Warren Johnson’s Transformers seems to be doing a good job of finding the right formula.
Corona’s art is extremely textured. This normally wouldn’t seem to fit too terribly well with sleek Transformers. The appeal is that of a very clean line and elegant kind of futuristic bulkiness. It’s what’s always been so difficult to bring to the comics [page but always looked so very, very cool on a toy box. Corona’s textured art gives the Transformers a grittiness that feels quite appealing. Stern’s colors at to the grit with a grimy luminosity that serves the visual of the comic book quite well.
The overall feel of the series doesn't quite live-up to the enduring appeal of the original animation and accompanying comic book series. Nevertheless...it all seems to fit together in intriguingly novel and interesting ways that add more than a bit of thematic depth around the edges of the franchise. It’s a fun exploration of some of the elements that have made the series such an appealing work that has continued to find appeal over and over again in so many different iterations over the years.
