Transformers #24 —published by IDW Publishing, written by Brian Ruckley, with art by Beth McGuire-Smith, and letters and colors by Jake M. Wood—takes a step back from the politics and revolution on Cybertron and focuses on a new group of Transformers as they try to stop the destruction of the moon.
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A few issues back, the Ascenticons destroyed the tether that normally keeps the inner moon in orbit around Cybertron. Now the moon is on a trajectory to collide with the nearby sun. With the majority of Transformers evacuating the soon-to-be destroyed moon, Wheeljack and his team race against the clock to stop the inevitable.
This issue is a breath of fresh air. Taking a step back from the muddy politics and violence occurring down on Cybertron, and instead focusing on a new bunch of robots is a good call to keep the storyline diverse and interesting even 24 issues in. The ‘bots this issue focuses on are also a pleasant surprise: Wheeljack, Huffer, Lancer, Cosmos, and Gears. All of them, besides Gears, are smart and have engineering skills that make them extremely useful on this moon rescue mission. And although they’re all the science-types, they have a diverse range of personalities that mish-mash for some quirky sections of dialogue and art. Ruckley has yet to let me down on the personification of all the diverse characters included in this series. The dialogue is on point, from Termagex’s extensive vocabulary to Wheeljack’s dramatic nature to Cosmos’ sad pining.
Speaking of Termagex, her inclusion in this issue, specifically in the handful of flashbacks, is a nice addition to place this issue within the context of the rest of the series. Termagex and Wheeljack have a history and we learn more specifics about Termagex’s involvement with the Ascenticons and how she ended up handing the movement over to Megatron. Through this background, we also begin to understand Wheeljack’s stance on the changes occurring on Cybertron and likely how he’ll react to the events at the end of this issue and possibly the next.
In typical fashion, McGuire-Smith’s art is wonderfully crafted. The characters are emotive, including those characters without mouths. The character designs harken to older designs but manage to avoid looking clunky like some of the original G1 designs. Long-time fans will easily be able to identify these characters without much context.
As much as I really enjoy the variety of colors used in this issue, the lack of deep shadows and highlights in some of the panels makes the backgrounds and characters look very flat. The excellent lines and interesting palette surmount this slight mishap, but it was distracting regardless. Wood’s lettering wraps the creative team up with speech bubbles that are easy to follow and never overshadow the characters. The use of different colors and shapes of speech bubbles is always appreciated when you have a mixture of speech from inner monologue to conversation over comms.
Transformers #24 is a breath of fresh air, momentarily moving away from the mayhem on Cybertron to focus on a fun gaggle of scientists trying to save the moon. Although the coloring had a few missteps, the art, dialogue, and story are excellent and the cliffhanger at the end insinuates that the next issue is going to be a fun one.
Transformers #24 is available now wherever comics are sold.
Transformers #24
TL;DR
Transformers #24 is a breath of fresh air, momentarily moving away from the mayhem on Cybertron to focus on a fun gaggle of scientists trying to save the moon. Although the coloring had a few missteps, the art, dialogue, and story are excellent and the cliffhanger at the end insinuates that the next issue is going to be a fun one.
