Today’s Comic> Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #19

Sorry to disappoint Star Sabre fans. This is the coolest he will ever look in this comic.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #19

IDW Publishing (July, 2013)

The jailed Autobots learn the history of Ultra Magnus as a “legacy hero”, but Tyrest has decided to start a new legacy, Star Sabre. Tyrest has a portal he believes will lead to the Knights of Cybertron, but considers himself unworthy to meet them until he has undone what he considers a mistake, every Transformer born through the Matrix. Skids and Swerve end up in the cell while Pharma continues his sick games with Ratchet, First Aid, and Ambulon and Tyrest crushes not-Ultra Magnus’ head.

OK, forget the format because this is all anger from me both as a reviewer/reader and as a Transformers fan. I think I figured out what bugs me most about this series besides the robo-gore. (Seriously, how depraved are you going to treat these robots?) It’s the backstory on top of backstory on top of backstory…they should just call this comic Transformers: Backstory. Roberts sees determined to create every facet of the history of the Transformers possible that Simon Furman must reading this and saying “you’re overdoing it, James”. And it just gets more bizarre and more ugly every time. It’s like Roberts is on a mission to make the Autobots look just as bad as the Decepticons, which is the source of my fan complaints.

As a writer and fan of storytelling I just want Roberts to stop telling us Transformers history and give us some characters that aren’t a psychological mess. Pharma is a raving lunatic now, and Tyrest is so hateful of himself he’s taken to the Transformers equivalent of cutting. Can we just get a Trailbreaker solo series. Thus far he’s the only character that doesn’t make me hate this comic. The masochistic way Roberts kills off characters, which he feels he can get away with because they’re robots, makes me sick and if these were humans I would have dropped this comic long ago and the fact that I may end up dropping this comic BEFORE Rengeration One speaks volumes to the level of depravity and the never-ending backstories of the most psychologically disturbed beings in any comic series I’ve ever picked up.

Recommendation: Run, don’t walk, from this series. It’s just a total mess and I suspect finding the Knights is becoming a plot device if not a full-on MacGuffin. Don’t be surprised to see this out of my list by the end of the arc, no matter how much that hurts me as a fan. Dropping Voltron and the current Masters Of The Universe comic for disappointing me as a nostalgic fan is bad enough, but this is bothering me as my #1 favorite fiction and as someone who doesn’t like to spend his breakfast being disturbed by the images in the comic. The endless adding to Transformers history in this universe just annoys me as a reader and makes me think Roberts is determined to be the driving influence in IDW’s G1 Transformers lore, which just saddens me as a critic. So I pretty much dislike this comic at all angles.

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• Today’s Comic> Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #17
• Tonight’s Comic> Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #18