Until the release of Skybound's Transformers issue 1, I had stopped collecting comics for almost a year. What was out there just wasn't for me and, to be frank, a lot of it just looked like crap. So, I emptied my pull folder and cancelled all my subscriptions. I'd pop into the shop once in a while to buy a collectable here and there, but there was nothing on the shelves that really grabbed me.
That was until I watched Thinking Critical's video on the new release, written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson, someone I had not heard of before. What the video showed, great art and a story to match, was enough to prompt me to visit my store and buy the issue. I even went one step further and bought the Orlando Arocena variant cover, something I don't often do.
Now, I'm an old-school Transformers geek and have been all my life. I had been buying the series IDW produced before this, but thinking back on the story, I can't remember anything about it. Nothing of real note happened. Upon opening this comic, I was treated to the story of the Transformers coming to Earth, crash-landing in their ship, but told with more menace on the part of the Decepticons, and utter bad-ass moments from the Autobots. Hell, one of the best moments is Optimus Prime suplexing Starscream during a fight, one in which he takes quite a few hits himself.
And then, saving the human characters who helped him, and getting the hell out of there when he knows he's outnumbered, in a moment which looks amazingly cool.
The first story arc ends with, not only one hell of a fight, but two moments of tragedy, and left me wanting more. Sadly, Daniel Warren Johnson has only drawn the first six issues and is only writing the first twelve. The artist that has taken over from him, Jorge Corona, has done a great job, but I can't help but worry about who will take over writing duties. It's been documented that certain comic writers have a habit of writing poor stories, and putting in self-insert characters, breaking the immersion. The
video by comic shop owner Glenn O'Leary talked about this, leading to many in the industry attacking him.
So, I will wait with caution to see who takes over the writing duties from Johnson, but I will give Skybound their dues. They started this series off strong and I hope it continues this way.
But, this series provided something else for me. Something I consider to be my holy grail. A collector had Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen, sign a copy of the Arocena variant cover back in April of this year, and had it graded via CGC. I purchased that comic from eBay and it now sits proudly on my desk, something I smile at whenever I look at it.
A thing of beauty, I'm sure you agree?
