Variant Covers for IDW Optimus Prime #12 & #13 by Zama, Griffith, Lafuente

Who's the Autobot on the cover with Optimus and Arcee?

Bounti76 wrote:Who's the Autobot on the cover with Optimus and Arcee?

I believe that's Sovereign, Alpha Trion's temporary Headmaster/Titan Master in the IDW continuity.

Relic Dinobot wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:Who's the Autobot on the cover with Optimus and Arcee?

I believe that's Sovereign, Alpha Trion's temporary Headmaster/Titan Master in the IDW continuity.

Sovereign is technically Blackrock, not Alpha Trion's head, but that is also my guess!

Blackrock! Looks like he’ll be staying on Cybertron after First Strike. Will the rest of the Revolutionaries be joining him?

THUNDERCRACKER!!!!!!!

Daniel Adkins wrote:Blackrock! Looks like he’ll be staying on Cybertron after First Strike. Will the rest of the Revolutionaries be joining him?

It'd make sense to drop them off in Barber's hands. Of course, I can also imagine a scenario where they sideline some of those characters for a while.

They can't sideline The Greatest Hero of Them All.

this intrigues me. I see the Evergreen designs for Prime, Bee, Megs, Screamer, and Soundwave, but the 3 Autobots(and Windblade)in the background are new designs for Wheeljack, Hot Rod, and I think Ironhide. I hope we'll see more of those designs in the future, because I like them.

I like the inks of the Artist Formerly Known As Slag cover, but the colouring looks like it was done in a speed challenge

In new news from IDW Publishing, we have the clean art (instead of the logo and details version) of another cover from the ongoing Transformers series Optimus Prime's 14th issue (due in December), by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham. And if you're a spoopy lover, you will probably appreciate this take on Bludgeon and his synthoplasmic outer shell face. Check it out below!

On Cybertron, Optimus Prime battles the Dinobots over the first new Cybertronian life to emerge in four million years! But does he stand a chance when the Dinobots’ newest member is two miles tall and eats cities?

Man, that is gorgeous!

Daniel Adkins wrote:They can't sideline The Greatest Hero of Them All.

Springer's already been sidelined for a year+

That is an awesome cover!! I've been waiting to see what they would do with Bludgeon and Slag after the Dinobot trilogy

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:That is an awesome cover!! I've been waiting to see what they would do with Bludgeon and Slag after the Dinobot trilogy

I've been waiting to see what they'll do with Bludgeon since Stormbringer :rimshot:

And finally, the last preview from IDW Publishing sees the latest Optimus Prime issue, which actually takes place during the First Strike event in the Hasbro Universe - check it out below and head back here after Wednesday for the Seibertron.com review!

Optimus Prime #11
John Barber (w) • Sara Pitre Durocher, Fico Ossio, Paolo Villanelli, Kei Zama (a & c)
With Optimus Prime embroiled in the FIRST STRIKE event, the Autobots on Earth set off on a mission to find one of their own—before anti-Cybertronian humans get to him first!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
While First Strike blows up Cybertron, the Autobots must keep the peace on Earth!
Variant cover by Marcelo Matere!

Am I the only one super confused by the art credits? This first couple pages look like Alex Milne(the humans especially) and later it looks like Zama’s stile of humans.

Randomhero wrote:Am I the only one super confused by the art credits? This first couple pages look like Alex Milne(the humans especially) and later it looks like Zama’s stile of humans.

God damn it I did not notice this until you said it now it's bugging the hell outta me.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Am I the only one super confused by the art credits? This first couple pages look like Alex Milne(the humans especially) and later it looks like Zama’s style of humans.

God damn it I did not notice this until you said it now it's bugging the hell outta me.

Maybe it’s just the inks and colors but it doesn’t look like Sara’s art at all. Those faces just scream Alex Milne especially the noses and eyes. Even the proportions don’t look like her style.

It’s just throwing me off so much. I’m not saying it’s not her but it’s apples and oranges compared to Till All Are one. I know she hasn’t drawn humans in IDW but those also look like Alex and like Zama’s styles

Gotta be the inks and coloring. Especially unlike TAAO transformers who are all pretty much one color. Sorry but I don’t understand why everyone is pretty much one color except Starscream and Windblade. For the love of god make Elita, chroma, circuit and obsidian more than just one blob of color.

These inconsistencies are a part of why I consider comics to be inferior to shows animated or live action.

I prefer an actual book as well since the constant art shifts are annoying it's like if a cartoon changed styles every few episodes.

Deadput wrote:These inconsistencies are a part of why I consider comics to be inferior to shows animated or live action.

I prefer an actual book as well since the constant art shifts are annoying it's like if a cartoon changed styles every few episodes.

Well that’s actually most cartoons. For transformers G1 had three different studios drawing episodes. 2001 RID and animated and Armada did as well.

There are a great deal of line artists on this one. I'd presume something unplanned happened and they had to pivot and get pages done through various last minute arrangements. This will be the first issue of OP to not come out during its scheduled release month and that could be why as well. Just speculating though. The book has been leaning on the style Zama and Burcham put together, but it seems to be getting harder for them to schedule Zama far enough in advance.

Again, just noting some complete, probably nonsense speculation. I'd prefer a little more consistency as well.

Synposis

With Optimus Prime embroiled in the FIRST STRIKE event, the Autobots on Earth set off on a mission to find one of their own—before anti-Cybertronian humans get to him first!

Story

Arriving a smidgen late, we finally catch back up with the Optimus Prime cast who are on Earth, while the title character has been involved with the First Strike event, which is shown to kick off this issue to our characters.



And overall, we definitely had some good content to the issue. I appreciated the way things were handled leading up to the first explosion on Cybertron and then the loss of communications, with appropriate reactions from everyone present on Earth. I also liked the way we got the small colonists team to assemble and head off, and this group provides us with some great insights into the current Optimus Prime and how he is perceived.

The in-fighting of the group has some interesting moments that I appreciated, with Slide still holding a massive grudge, Aileron showing the signs that she no longer believes in the Prime, and the other colonists starting to question themselves and everything happening as well. Considering everything that has happened in this book so far, and with the IDW world concerning Earth as a whole, I feel everything here is real, believable, and overall provides some great tension to the book, enough so to keep interest in the book and to keep a good pace going. A lot happened in the book, with First Strike, Earth and Cybertron reactions, the C team, and the Jazz and Cybertronian weapons storylines. There was a lot of material tied together with appropriate character tension and a very good pace.



One final note to the story: the cameos are brilliant in this story. I loved that we got both positive, negative, and neutral perspectives from so many characters in this story. And the character choices were pretty great too. Dirge finally showing back up, Serena Bharwaney after all this time, some more Jimmy Pink (wonder when he and Verity will meet again? No reason why they shouldn't), the Action Man program, and many others. 3 pages were dedicated to interviews/cameos, and they contributed to the story without holding it down and while still provided us with some great catch up moments for some of these characters.



Art

Now while the story side of the issue was pretty great, the art is where this issue gets some points deducted. The story made things fairly good to follow, but the art was hard to follow. There were 4 artists who worked on this issue, with Sara Pitre-Durocher handling the majority, covering the first 8 pages. Fico Ossio, the artist of Revolution, covered 5 pages, while regular series artist Kei Zama covered 3 pages and artist Paolo Villanelli covered 4 pages.



While all 4 are very capable artists, the differences in styles were really jarring for the issue, and at times confusing. The first 8 pages under Pitre-Durocher were really well handled, with everything fitting in right, well drawn characters, and good expressions. the 3 pages featuring the interviews were done by Zama, and those 3 pages were covered very well too. I enjoy Zama's art, especially with Burcham doing the coloring, and those pages really shined. And those 8 pages of continuity and the 3 pages of interviews were the only real smooth part of the art, and it didn't help that the interview pages were all separated by several pages.

Ossio did his best, but I am still not a fan of his art with the Transformers style, especially with the faces. Slide especially seems to suffer in this department, which is unfortunate considering her major role in the story. It also did not help that Ossio's art was broken up by a Zama page. Villanelli did his level best, and he got off a little better considering his art was for the last 4 pages, but his style was a good bit different from Ossio's, who immediately preceded him. His art also felt a bit plain, with very sort of flat and featureless expressions and styles for his Autobots.



Throughout the whole issue, Josh Burcham provided colors, and he did his level best to keep things running smoothly. I've always been a fan of Burcham's work, and the fact that his colors work with 4 quite different artistic styles and still look good are a testament to his abilities.

Tom B. Long once more tackles the lettering, and once again we are not disappointed. He does a great job with the different speech tones and speech positioning, making sure never to block any potentially important part of the art and letting us really enjoy it while keeping the speech space to a minimum.

Final Thoughts



This issue of Optimus Prime was overall a good experience. While it wasn't the best issue to write home about, it set the groundwork for the First Strike crossover (already underway), it set up a good story about the colonists and their relation with Prime, and it got a lot accomplished making sure everything First Strike related was ready. There was a lot happening, yet the issue was not overcrowded or rushed. Pacing was perfect. The real thing holding the issue back was the combination of artists and the differing styles making visuals a bit harder to follow, but coloring managed to mitigate that as best it could.

In conclusion: pretty good story with some interesting character directions set and some great interactions between characters of all races and factions. I am excited to see how this arc continues with Jazz, the colonists, and Prime.

I love how they established a living descendant to John Henry from Hearts of Steel. Hope he isn't just a one-off character.

Daniel Adkins wrote:I love how they established a living descendant to John Henry from Hearts of Steel. Hope he isn't just a one-off character.

i liked that too. Had to throw that in there after Hearts of Steel became canon

I’m getting really burned about with slide. It’s just becoming a broken record. Just leave. Go back to your colony and just start over. Instead it’s “I don’t believe in the Prime anymore and I just want to walk around and complain and remind everyone I can’t transform even though I have complete ability to change modes or even have my spark and brain transferred to another body that can give me my own mode. Megatron is on his 4th body in this universe. Same as starscream What? I’m not suppose to talk about the ability to change forms or even convert bodies at any point to car or tank or jet or boat or even a memeory stick because it conflicts with the ridiculous functionism back story James Roberts created? Okay... I’ll jusy keep complaining in every issue until there’s some resolution...”

I actually feel some similar thoughts. Slide is a great big sore thumb in the story, she's getting on level with Anode for characters the just piss me off

I've seen complaining here and elsewhere about the characterization of the colonists so far in this book, and I think some impatience is happening. They've barely been around until this issue and this is the surface of breaking them out of their one dimensional starting point as religious zealots. Give it time!

As for Aileron, I need to go find an image. Bbl.

ScottyP wrote:I've seen complaining here and elsewhere about the characterization of the colonists so far in this book, and I think some impatience is happening. They've barely been around until this issue and this is the surface of breaking them out of their one dimensional starting point as religious zealots. Give it time!

As for Aileron, I need to go find an image. Bbl.

Slide has been complaining and singing the same song since issue 6. It just comes down to "if you don't believe in why you're here anymore than why are you here?" That's the question to ask. This isn't like pyra manga who shares the same ideas toward Optimus, she's there because she wants the matrix.


She gets ticked they they bury Oiler on New Cybertron but doesn't stop them. Sideswipe was taken back to Cybertron to be buried or whatever they do with their dead and yet Oiler is buried on earth and she just complains about it

But Slide has every right about feeling torn apart by her disillusion.

As Scotty says, this is the beginning of their actual development since that disillusion happened, and I feel that the complaints (from Slide, not about him) were the bookmark from Barber to come back to the point once he had the space to write more about them without involving the entire Hasbro Universe.

Va'al wrote:But Slide has every right about feeling torn apart by her disillusion.

As Scotty says, this is the beginning of their actual development since that disillusion happened, and I feel that the complaints (from Slide, not about him) were the bookmark from Barber to come back to the point once he had the space to write more about them without involving the entire Hasbro Universe.

True but this also isn't the first time in johns book where people stand around and complain about someone's views and leadership -COUGH METALHAWK-COUGH BUMBLEBEE-COUGH-

For me it's just the first year of RID again withthe nails standing around complaining.

For a better way of handling people doubting Optimus would have been Slide actually leaving and breaking up the colonist autobots. She Yoko Onos the group and seeing one of their own lose complete faith and abandon their cause. For me that's more compelling because like i said I don't know why she is still there other than to be a negative Nancy

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:[center]

Gimlet & Bump??

RacerCheetor wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:[center]

Gimlet & Bump??

Yup! They're part of the little rag-tag group of characters that make up the colonists; being fairly obscure characters from all corners of the franchise. You've got Gimlet and Bump - like you said - from Japanese BW, Rail Racer from RiD, Slide (and previously Oiler) from the G1 Micromaster Combiners, and Roulette from 2003's OTFCC (essentially the Botcon of back then).

We now have a short preview of IDW Optimus Prime via iTunes. We have posted the preview below so that you can read it too. A quick thanks to our very own Soundwave902 for pointing this out to us. It is currently up for pre-orders with an expected release on November 1, 2017.

Description
With Optimus Prime trapped on Cybertron, the Autobots track down their missing friend, Jazz—and find themselves under fire from humans armed with Cybertronian weapons!

If you are a fan of TF comics and live in the UK, James Roberts and Jack Lawrence will be doing an autograph signing!

I love Kai's art but it's good see Andrew back drawing these characters again. You can really tell taking some time off has improved his art. He's an artist that gets better and better over one.

It's funny to see slugslingers little titan master arms on the side of his head. He's not a Titan master obviously but it's funny to see

"i hope Cybertron is ok"
d'awwwwwwww Buzzsaw.

I really have no need for those pretender shall. Why bring them back. Didn't sell late eighties, won't sell now. The bra/front backpack looks stupid. Why would I even display my toys like that. I normally don't care. But think this design choice was poor. I remembered back in 2003, some guy brought in all the prentenders in perfect conditions to sell to me. Remembered didn't even want to shell out $100 for all of them. No scratches no discoloration. Blah!

Sorry I think I pressed the wrong thread

Good to see the running gag of Laserbeak and Buzzsaw's commentary is back.

"Master of Targets". Hah! Cute.

I honestly think this is my favourite TF book now. Though I might be biased since we're back to the Decepticon Colony; one of my favourite parts of the OP side of things -- and especially that we're there with Thundercracker and Cosmos, who I love with all my heart

Kurona wrote:"Master of Targets". Hah! Cute.

I honestly think this is my favourite TF book now. Though I might be biased since we're back to the Decepticon Colony; one of my favourite parts of the OP side of things -- and especially that we're there with Thundercracker and Cosmos, who I love with all my heart

I very much agree. I enjoy the situations in OP but even I'm starting to feel it's getting stale and while I don't want the war to return I want to see more Decepticons than Soundwave especially if we're not gonna get a scene of Optimus apologizing for full blown blackmailing him. THAT NEEDS YO HAPPEN! They're friends now and Soundwave is without announcing it his second in command.

Plus I'm still waiting for Galvatrons return. His head is still somewhere and I still don't believe he was ever alive. He came out of the Dead Universe and could always survive out of it and theres never been any indications that he came back fully alive so I think he'll be back.

Courtesy of Amazon.com, we have a date and an idea of what will be contained in the third volume of the ongoing Transformers comic book series Optimus Prime, from IDW Publishing! Not only will it run during issues 11 to 14, but will also include the First Strike tie-ins to do with the Transformers themselves, i.e. the two-parter in Optimus Prime and Transformers. Check out more info on this book release next July, and the Lafuente cover below!

New threats emerge, both on Cybertron and Earth, as the saga of Optimus Prime and the Autobots continues. What new future will the Transformers face?

With Optimus Prime trapped on Cybertron, embroiled in the First Strike event, the Autobots on Earth set off on a mission to find their missing friend, Jazz. But anti-Cybertronian humans are after him as well, and they're armed with Cybertronian weapons!

Then, in the wake of First Strike, Optimus ventures into the wilderness of Cybertron to search for the first new Cybertronian life to emerge in four million years! And, as if that's not enough to deal with, he soon finds himself facing off with the Dinobots, whose newest member is two miles tall and eats cities!

Collects Transformers: Optimus Prime issues #11-14 and the Optimus Prime: First Strike and Transformers: First Strike one-shots.

I'm wondering why they used that cover for the TPB. It doesn't really look connected to the IDW-verse

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I'm wondering why they used that cover for the TPB. It doesn't really look connected to the IDW-verse

Looks good on a shelf though!

Va'al wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I'm wondering why they used that cover for the TPB. It doesn't really look connected to the IDW-verse

Looks good on a shelf though!

Eh, true. But a cover with the throttlebots or dino/trypticons would have looked good too!

Courtesy once more of comics news website Multiversity comics, we have a full preview of the next issue of the ongoing Transformers comic book series from IDW Publishing: Optimus Prime #12. Taking place during the events of the recently concluded First Strike Hasbro franchise crossover, the issue continues to look at the characters left around Optimus himself as he's busy off-planet, as Aileron and the Prime-followers continue their search for Jazz. Check it out below!

Written by John Barber
Illustrated by Andrew Griffith
Colored by Josh Burcham
Lettered by Tom B. Long

With Optimus Prime trapped on Cybertron, the Autobots track down their missing friend, Jazz-and find themselves under fire from humans armed with Cybertronian weapons.

Bullet points:
* While First Strike blows up Cybertron, the Autobots must keep the peace on Earth!

God I love everything about that Thundercracker cover.

Synopsis
With Optimus Prime trapped on Cybertron, the Autobots track down their missing friend, Jazz—and find themselves under fire from humans armed with Cybertronian weapons!



Story

This 12th issue brings us to the second part of a shorter arc dealing with everyone but Optimus Prime himself, too busy being patronised by Windblade and Scarlett over in First Strike (rather than Aileron and Pyra Magna on Earth, so same difference really. He deserves it). And so we return to the Prime fanclub that might be, and the search for Jazz.



I'll say it: Jazz is one of the better written characters in John Barber's arsenal. He's determined if conflicted, has been present in this universe since the very beginning, and has a long history with pretty much all sides of the war. Even in Aileron's narration, a newcomer to it all, Jazz truly takes the spotlight in the issue.



The colonists part of the central story are extremely fun to follow, but there is some criticism that I'd move against their still fairly by the numbers characterisation, with only spikes of added layers to their individuality. Still, Aileron's control over them and their clashing/collaboration work, and lead to a bigger question about the whole set-up..



..did Optimus really need to include Earth in the Council after all? This is still the bigger question floating above the rest, even when trying to avoid it. But if Jazz, Aileron, and a random assortment can manage the 'defense', there was no real need for the theatrical political move of war general Optimus - something Barber asks subtly, and appropriately.

Art

Seeing Andrew Griffith back at work with John Barber is a nice feeling indeed, and brings a sense of familiarity even in this post-Cybertronian war, post-AHO Earthern setting. The designs and work that he brings back to the scenes, including some nifty action sequences, reminds us of how much he set the tone for exRID and Transformers, and it's good to have some of it drop back in here.



The highlight of the visual side of this issue, and confirming it as the series overall, is Josh Burcham's colourwork - his ability to maintain a visual consistency and coherence even across several artists (four and counting so far) is impressive and inspiring, and does wonders with keeping the book in line with its own newly found aesthetic.



Tom B. Long is easily another element of continuity for the series, and I'm so very glad that lettering is recognised as being an integral part of the book production - the reason for, e.g. the Buzzsaw and Laserbeak moments is making the jokes land by actual, accurate dialogue placement, among everything else. The cover used for the thumbnail is also by Andrew Griffith, with Josh Perez on colours, after all the others have been spotlighted across news stories - you can find them all Database entry for the issue of course, right here.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

On staff, one of the comments was that Barber's script for the issue has been able to veer enough away from the current events to bring us back to an Earth we might all recognise from pre-AHM times, and it is perhaps a needed anchor for the cast and readership alike, even with all the recent additions. Plus, it adds the whole wave of human reactions to the fray, which may help readers see what the legacy of Transformers actually is on the planet.



If some of the beats might appear heavy handed for real-life parallels, the script still allows for subtlety in its dealing with Prime's absence - metaphorically and literally - and how the various characters orbiting his system (Aileron above all, but Jazz and the rest of the crew too) relate to each other and the issues at hand. The story may appear 'uneventful' even in its busyness, but it keeps saying a lot about the new, universal status quo.

Using the same narrative device (talking heads in mockumentary style) twice just confirms how firmly average OP First Strike was compared to this one. I need to go review that, still.

Too bad no one ordered a Royale with cheese.

My real thoughts got assimilated into the review already so I don't have much else to say here.

So after reading this issue, I'm not sure how much I actually like the direction they are going with Prime. I've followed it, and it was already a little questionable, but after this issue I'm much less confident in this Optimus.

And it basically dates back to Combiner Wars and the immediate aftermath. I really wish they would revisit the whole "what does combining do to the individuals" considering there were a few notable instances and some that showed no effect of the experience, and Prime is the big one to show it. He's more ruthless and much more of a prick. Hell, he told Cosmos he wanted Soundwave to bow to him. He punched Prowl down, killed Galvatron brutally and when he was defeated, the whole line in issue 4 or 5 where he said he is using the people who believe him to be divine, the fact that Cosmos is only listed as an ally of the Autobots instead of being an Autobot, Jazz and Windblade among others no longer want to know him, it all feels a bit much. And I don't really like it too much.

Mopey Prime from RG1 was better in that regard because he wasn't really a prick and there was understanding and he sort of redeemed all that (I've been reading the series lately again, really enjoyed it and still do), but this one... He's a Prime/Prowl thing now that I don't like. And it's not like Sunstreaker, Mirage, or Ironhide show symptoms of having combined, it's only Prime from that experience and Prowl, but only because he did it for longer with different teams. Hell, the only thing that happened to the OP Max guys, Sky Reigns, or Galvas were Sunstreaker and TC are now friends.

Long story short: I don't like the direction Optimus as a character is going at the moment, and things like the titan raising keep him looking like a good guy.

On a different note, when do we think we'll get to Springer, Impactor, and Mayhem again. Springer is loose on Earth with Verity, happily at peace, and Impactor and Mayhem were planning to do some stuff. Considering throttlebots, Trypticon, and Unicron are all on the horizon, do we think Wreckers and Mayhem may get involved again?

And has everyone in this book forgotten about Prowl? I want to hear from him again at some point