Following the events of "CHAOS" and "
THE DEATH OF OPTIMUS PRIME",
TF: MTMTE #1 is one of two titles that splits our favorite Autobots and Decepticons into two different directions.
The Great Autobot/Decepticon Conflict is finally over. Cybertron has regressed to an early, primal state and has sent out a call through the universe for its' people to return home. So it makes perfect sense, that
Rodimus, using a map found in the empty MATRIX OF LEADERSHIP, along with 200+ Transformers would choose to pack into a ship called "
THE LOST LIGHT" in search of legendary Cybertronian Knights and leave. Many flock to his cause, including longtime favorites such as Ultra Magnus, Ratchet and Cyclonus.
While IDW calls this a great jumping on point for new fans, I disagree. Here's 2 big reasons:
The GREAT WAR is over.
Optimus Prime is gone.Since I was a kid,
TRANSFORMERS has been a mythology based on CONFLICT. Sure, you can stop the fighting for an issue or two, but there's only so much political intrigue, back-stabbing drama that I can handle in real life...much less a comic book that costs $3.99 with 5 different variant covers.
THE DEATH OF OPTIMUS PRIME was a superb bit of writing and I expected alot after reading it. After this first issue, it seems like the Transformers themselves have no direction, no leaders and nothing to look forward to. Not only that, but did we have any doubt that Rodimus and his crew would be flung out to the middle of Primus-Knows-Where flying a ship called "The Lost Light"? PUH-LEESE.
The covers might look good, but you know what they say about a book and its' cover. I'm sorry to say that this book feels like nothing more than
STAR TREK: VOYAGER meets
JERICHO meets
TRANSFORMERS and with tragic artistic results. Nick Roche's artwork looks like a robotic form of ADVENTURE TIME simply bad. Also, I've read almost everything IDW has published since they acquired the TF license, and this comic stands alone as the worst coloring job I've seen to date in my opinion. The colors often look faded and or "lit up" and combined with Nick's artwork, I often had to read many panels several times to see what was happening. Somebody put
Dan Khanna on this title PLEEEEEEASE???
In short, I bought all 5 variant covers to TF: MTMTE #1 and this book
DID NOT live up to my $20+ dollars I spent. If you've been looking for a comic book you want to download to save the money, this would be it. I'm locked in because I'm a TF fan, but if this series doesn't grab me soon, I'm going to be a bitter humanoid reader.