Comic Review: Windblade (ongoing)

[i_amtrunks]

So with Combiner Wars heating up, the next ongoing is begun: Windblade.

The series is a collaboration between Mairghread Scott (Windblade) and John Baber (Transformers (formally known as Robots in Disguise), Art duties for the Windblade issues are to be handled by Sarah Stone

Most of the action happens on Caminus or on Cybertron discussing Caminus and follows directly after the events of Transformers 39.

Nice to see Starscream has grand plans that he thinks so clever and infallible, but he is almost immediately put on the back foot by the religious aspect of Camian life. The Hasbro sanctioned toy part of the issues is neatly skirted around and the only weird error in the issue is where Prime reveals the Matrix as a shiny bauble again, something I thought impossible considering earlier events...

[FruitBuyer]

Story was pretty solid. Nothing super special, I think Scott is starting to grow on me.

Stand-out is the art. I absolutely love seeing Stone's divine lines again

[prjkt]

Well on the matrix side of things, he's got back Bumbleebee's half, and you can see that it's only half a sphere glowing in his chest.... So that makes sense there.

Really liking the way this is building up, Starscream's plot to make himself out a hero by solving a problem he created, Swindle realising he's been swindled, and Optimus playing the "God" card... This could get really interesting once Prowlestator gets involved too.

[tinyJazz]

I wish Stone could do environments, or get another layout artist. The style is gorgeous and messy, but it's still talking heads stuff. Everyone just seems to be floating and not placed in an actual setting.

The full page shot of Menasor under attack that had him breaking out of the panel lines was pretty impressive though, very nicely done.

Dialogue was a bit meh. Got pretty cringeworthy at the last few pages.

[GoktimusPrime]

I wish Stone could do environments, or get another layout artist. The style is gorgeous and messy, but it's still talking heads stuff. Everyone just seems to be floating and not placed in an actual setting.

I may be wrong, but I think it's intentional as Stone is creating a "Shojo manga" style of Transformers art, and Shojo manga can be more scant on detailed environments and feature more "floating heads", as opposed to Shonen manga; and mecha manga is typically Shonen. Shojo is comparatively more visually abstract than Shonen.

I really liked how the issue ended with Optimus Prime being faced with a moral dilemma and acting on it in a way that doesn't directly contradict his core persona. On one hand, if he stood by and did nothing, he would risk Caminus being manipulated by Starscream to their detriment... or he could go to Caminus and allow himself to manipulate the Camini's religious blind faith in defence of their freedom. He's not actively deceiving the Camini by claiming to be a living deity, but he is arguably passively deceiving them by playing along with their beliefs and not at all refuting his godhood. He needs the Camini to believe and worship him as a god if he is to stand a chance to challenge Starscream's influence over Caminus. So he was forced to choose what he believed to be the lesser of two evils -- abuse an entire people's religious faith for the sake of defending those people and their liberty... and in doing so, safeguarding his core belief that freedom is the right of all sentient beings. It was an informed decision and I liked how Windblade didn't want to force Optimus' hand either, even saying that being Starscream's colony wouldn't necessarily be a terrible thing (although clearly not preferable).

Watching the Camini kneeling at Optimus' feet was an incredibly emotional moving and provocative moment. Fan-bloody-tastic!

[prjkt]

Agreed - I love how different the culture of Caminus is, and the way Windblade honestly and matter-of-factory laid out the choices Optimus had, without (much) bias.

Am I alone in thinking a Roberts/Shadowplay style flashback to early Camien history would be awesome? Possibly tyeing in with MTMTE's quest for the Knights of Cybertron and other creation myths?

[philby]

I really liked how the issue ended with Optimus Prime being faced with a moral dilemma and acting on it in a way that doesn't directly contradict his core persona. On one hand, if he stood by and did nothing, he would risk Caminus being manipulated by Starscream to their detriment... or he could go to Caminus and allow himself to manipulate the Camini's religious blind faith in defence of their freedom. He's not actively deceiving the Camini by claiming to be a living deity, but he is arguably passively deceiving them by playing along with their beliefs and not at all refuting his godhood. He needs the Camini to believe and worship him as a god if he is to stand a chance to challenge Starscream's influence over Caminus. So he was forced to choose what he believed to be the lesser of two evils -- abuse an entire people's religious faith for the sake of defending those people and their liberty... and in doing so, safeguarding his core belief that freedom is the right of all sentient beings. It was an informed decision and I liked how Windblade didn't want to force Optimus' hand either, even saying that being Starscream's colony wouldn't necessarily be a terrible thing (although clearly not preferable).

so it was kind of like luke using threepio to scare the ewoks in return of the jedi?

[Bidoofdude]

I'm looking to read this on an IDW read through. Is it worth it?

My current list (in order)
-Megatron Origin
-Spotlights
-Drift
-All Hail Megatron
-LSOTW
-TF Ongoing
-Heart of Darkness
-Death of Optimus
-RID Ongoing
-MTMTE Ongoing
-Dark Cybertron
-Windblade

Is there anything else on there I should skip or is not worth reading? I'm wanting to skip the -ation books because they don't seem to be my style.

[prjkt]

The original Windblade series is great, shows an interesting side to Starscream and those left on Cybertron.

I chose to read everything, from the start, as I like to know what's happening. There are hints in the original -ation series to events even as late as Dark Cybertron. Don't forget to read the Maximum Dinobots miniseries as well, that closes off a few loose ends from the -ation series and finishes what Spotlight: Shockwave and Spotlight: Grimlock started.

[Paulbot]

I'm looking to read this on an IDW read through. Is it worth it?

My current list (in order)
-Megatron Origin
-Spotlights
-Drift
-All Hail Megatron
-LSOTW
-TF Ongoing
-Heart of Darkness
-Death of Optimus
-RID Ongoing
-MTMTE Ongoing
-Dark Cybertron
-Windblade

Is there anything else on there I should skip or is not worth reading? I'm wanting to skip the -ation books because they don't seem to be my style.

If you skipped Drift and Heart of Darkness you wouldn't be missing much. Heart of Darkness is so ugly. If you skip the -ation books it'd be a shame, they are great story, although rushed to a climax. Four of the Spotlight comics are the end of the -ation series in fact.

If you do skip the -ation books, you can have my copy of the Transformers Continuum (fairly sure it's still lying about my comic pile somewhere). As TFwiki points out, it's a not a great book and has errors, but it is a summary of everything up to the start of the TF Ongoing.

As for this series, you'll want to read at least the first few issues as they are parts of the Combiner Wars crossover. It's expected that these issues will turn up with wave 3 or wave 4 Combiner War deluxes.