Comic Review: Windblade (ongoing)

[philby]

Issue 2 is out, and while I am usually either a fan of, or don't mind Livio's art, he has not done a very good job on this one.

He has character models all mixed up (although he was sent the wrong models to work from) and it is nigh impossible at times to tell what is going on.

Another quick fight, another combiner and Prowl looks like he may the centre point for this mini series. He has the best into on the who's who page.

yeah i was fairly disappointed in this issue surprisingly. i find hard to work out wtf is going with this art style more than others. also in terms of writing, i though that defensor's intro or appearance was really bad.

[prjkt]

yeah i was fairly disappointed in this issue surprisingly. i find hard to work out wtf is going with this art style more than others. also in terms of writing, i though that defensor's intro or appearance was really bad.

yeah that was seriously rushed. And Rook's intro? Just two frames where he's a head in the background. Hopefully he gets a better intro in the next issue.

[BigTransformerTrev]

yeah i was fairly disappointed in this issue surprisingly. i find hard to work out wtf is going with this art style more than others. also in terms of writing, i though that defensor's intro or appearance was really bad.

yeah that was seriously rushed. And Rook's intro? Just two frames where he's a head in the background. Hopefully he gets a better intro in the next issue.

Yeah I didn't even notice Rook until my second reading. Considering the massive backstory/buildup all the other combiners have gotten in IDW (Mons, Dev, Men & Sup) for Defensor to turn up as a matter of convenience felt too easy and rushed.

That said, it was an interesting last panel where you had Starascream looking pleased as punch with Defensor and Superion standing behind him, ready to do his bidding

[prjkt]

I wonder if Rook will get a flashback back story, similar to Blackjack's explaining, or try to, his presence at the space bridge when Defensor was formed.

[prjkt]

Well, that was interesting.

Pretty cool to see the joining of minds work, and the cameo's at the end are quite interesting. Elita 1's got an interesting throne.

EDIT: TAV Roadblock might end up as my CW version of Scoop for a while

[CHILENO20]

Well, that was interesting.

Pretty cool to see the joining of minds work, and the cameo's at the end are quite interesting. Elita 1's got an interesting throne.

EDIT: TAV Roadblock might end up as my CW version of Scoop for a while

Just read it, very cool mind meld

[i_amtrunks]

That was underwhelming to me.

Another IDW non-event event.

I quite like the art style but it does not gel with the previous art style. I am by no means suggesting that Livio would have done better or been a better fit (his work in the previous issues was disappointing) but when collected together, it will not mesh.

Story was dull and rushed. After all that Prowl gave up so easily, a very lacklustre finish to what Barber was building to in RiD. A shame as if there was no Hasbro interference I feel we would have been given something far more substantial for these combiners. As it stands, it more or less felt as if the whole event was made up of:
1. Aargh big messy fight.
2. Bots standing near each other got 'macguffined' together
3. big messy fight
4. Prowl Angst
5. Bots standing near each other got 'macguffined' together
6. Bigger messier fight
7. Optimus Maximus angst
8. All back on cybertron.

I'm sure that if this is the way the story was heading (and since RiD was more political thriller I feel it was already heading this way, but the combiners were utilised to make it happen far quicker) that it would have been better served by characters moving the plot forward, not messy fights and Prowl angst.

For now Windblade will be a trade only deal for me unless it picks up substantially in the first few issues. Its a shame as it had such potential and this "event" has done more harm than good to the brand to me.