Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #38
IDW Comics
Roberts & Milne
Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #38 is the finale to the time traveling arc, Elegant Chaos. Armed with the knowledge that Brainstorm is really trying to kill Megatron, the group led by Rodimus finds a new focus. The comic book answers a ton of questions as the group confronts Brainstorm as he's about to kill the newly born Megatron. The comic book is a fantastic read, but does stop short of the lofty heights this comic book has set for itself. This is a great comic nonetheless.
Without spoiling too much, Rodimus and friends find Brainstorm holding a gun on Megatron. Megatron's existence has already been wiped by Brainstorm from the log so all he has to do is pull the trigger. However, the debate then begins as to whether or not killing Megatron at his birth would make this better or worse and which parties stand to gain from a universe without Megatron. The group reveals an awful lot about themselves during this discussion.
As much of this arc has done, this issue reveals a ton of material that ties back to earlier issues. None more important than the ominous message that was seen on the last page of the very first issue in this series. Roberts proves that he's had this entire run mapped out and it is chilling when you think about the details he's known years ahead of issues even getting created.
The time travel aspect of the comic book is definitely difficult to wrap your head around. With so many pieces of interactions that have occurred with the time jumping, it's hard to believe they were all supposed to happen and that's why they didn't change anything in the future. It makes one of the items in this book that occurs towards the end a real mystery as to whether or not it will carry weight later on.
The book doesn't pull the rug from under the readers though. If you are expected duplicate characters, dead ones returning or things to end sort of in chaos then you will be a touch disappointed. I suppose my disappointment was that the Brainstorm story sort of wrapped up in the middle of the book and the rest seemed to be postscript material. Though, one of the characters does manage to mess up the past on the way out the door, but was it "supposed" to happen?
Milne delivers well again on art. The book is so dialogue heavy that the artwork really is literally in the back seat but those details that can be seen are done extremely well. The book does struggle during the Megatron-Magnus tussle (which is also one of the funnier scenes) but beyond that the book looks clean and sharp.
Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye may be the best and most comprehensive read month in and month out. Each issue seems to provide a new wrinkle in the larger story and provide a nice cliffhanger to bring the reader back for more next month while telling a dense and entertaining read. This specific issue ends a major arc and provides payoffs from the very first issue. However, this type of comic is a victim of its own success as it had me wondering, "that's it?" A great comic book that seems a little too straight-forward for what's come before in this series. Still, this is a can't miss comic book in a can't miss series.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
