“No! Not my best china!”
Transformers Energon #19
Dreamwave (January, 2004)
“This Evil Reborn” WRITER: Simon Furman PENCILER: Guido Guidi INKER: Elaine To COLORIST: David Cheung LETTERER: Ben Lee
10 years have passed since Armada and Cybertron is finally rebuilt. Optimus is worried that Unicron may still come back, which the council doesn’t want to hear about. Going to see Over-Run and meeting his new creations, the Omnicons Sky Blast and Signal Flare, Optimus learns that there is a certain communication node that will allow him to talk to the planet itself. Using it he sees visions of Unicron and his new servants, a group of disgruntled former Decepticons calling themselves Terrorcons, led by Scorponok. Starscream interferes with one of their destruction raids and Scorponok blasts him. Tidal Wave tries to get rid of him and is damaged for his troubles. However, Unicron makes him more powerful (and into his pre-Mirage Energon form) through his servant, Alpha-Quintesson. In the vision, Optimus sees Scorponok lead the Terrorcons through a portal before being interrupted by Megatron, whose spark is trapped within Unicron demanding to be set free. He does tell Optimus where the Terrorcons are heading…a supply of Energon on Earth! Meanwhile, Alpha-Quintesson sends the four Transmetal molds from the Armada line captured last issue, now brainwashed into being Unicron’s heralds, to attack Cybertron to keep them out of the fight.
What they got right: While I prefer the forced looney from the Energon cartoon (don’t get used to me saying I preferred anything from the cartoon, because it seldom happens) this take on Alpha-Quintesson is interesting. I like how the letter not only uses a different font for him but (and this may not be intentional) instead of bold some words are lighter than the regular text, making me thing he’s whispering that word or at least in a lower tone, while bold usually means a louder tone or emphasis. There is the peeking of some interesting mythos here as well. The art is also good as it shows the newly reborn Cybertron.
What they got wrong: Starscream was also better in the Armada show but nothing in the Energon show. I do wonder why Hot Shot has his Energon toy form already while Optimus is still in his Armada “upgraded” color form? And why Over-Run is now some Transformer guru making his own Transformers?
Recommendation: A good start/continuation of the series. It’s worth picking up.
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