Reign of Starscream reviews (issue 1-3)

Money, violence, sex, computer graphics, scatalogical humor, racism, robots designed to be rednecks but given European accents, and maybe another sequel to the saga... what's not to love? TF m1, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and now Age of Extinction.
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Dominic
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Reign of Starscream reviews (issue 1-3)

Post by Dominic »

Reign of Starscream 2: Mowry, Ryall and Milne are all relatively new to the franchise. And, going by the comic, they may well be new to the comics field in general. I would be lying if I said there were not rough spots in this series, largely the form of sentences that could have been polished more, and too much "assumed" knowledge on the part of readers. But, they also seem to have something to say. For all of the mistakes made with this comic, it delivers what it promises, a story based on, but not adhering strictly to the movie. (Ryall has explained the thinking behind this, and it does make sense.) The comic is thus far avoiding the worst excesses of the franchise, and delivering a sound character study of a character that is often portrayed as nothing more than a cackling madman. Mowry and Ryall's Starscream is rational, and really not a completely bad guy. If they are going where I think they are with this, I get the feeling the Autobots really are going to be bad guys on this one. For his part, Milne is experimenting a bit with established character models, which is fine so long as the writers manage to gracefully integrate character names into the script.

It has been a bit more than 4 years since I have enjoyed an actual "Transforformers series this much. (Aside from a few of the one-shots, most of IDW's run has been little more than filler, or even a bad habit.) Grade: A/B Not perfect, but worth reading.


Reign of Starscream 3 - I get the feeling this title was planned and written well in advance. It is coming out more quickly than other comics, and is actually reading better every issue. The story progresses nicely, with Starscream being a bit more arrogant and megalomaniacal than in the last 2 issues. The inner-monologes are solid, and are progressing. Art-wise, Milne seems to be settling in nicely, even incorporating sublte touches onto the still relatively unfamiliar movie aesthetic.

There are a couple of deviations to note in this issue. Arcee, Cliffjumper, Camshaft, Airraid and Smokescreen all appear and die, contradicting their character notes on the toy packages. The sector 7 scenes have a few deviations as well, with some characters being shuffled about. And, I am pretty sure this will eventually contradict the UK story where Starscream uses the dead/damaged Decepticons as his own "brigade". Grade: A Buy this series. Easily the best IDW "Transformers" book to date.


Dom
-should probably look for that review of issue 1.
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