Writer: John Barber
Artists: Andrew Griffith, Livio Ramondelli

After what seems like an endless series of preludes, the wheels are finally gradually starting to move on IDW’s eagerly-anticipated ‘Dark Cybertron’ Transformers crossover.  Sadly though, we’re not quite there yet, although some of the preludes – this one included – have offered up some truly interesting content.

This issue focuses on the relationship and history between (personal favourite of mine) Soundwave and Dark Cybertron’s main catalyst, Shockwave.  And despite a somewhat fractured narrative as we hop backwards and forwards between the past and the present, there’s a lot of great stuff here.

The book uses two completely separate artist/colourist teams, one for the past and one for the future, and while having two completely distinctive visual styles in the same comic would usually be quite jarring, it actually works rather well here to help differentiate between the scenes.

I found the sections in the past are far more interesting, made all the more intriguing by Soundwave’s narration of events, and while there isn’t a huge amount of storyline advancement (or any at all, actually), this issue is still a cracking read (not to mention a visual treat) and provides a deeper insight into the relationship between the two characters, a relationship that I would assume is going to play out further once Dark Cybertron gets rolling.

Not an essential read by any means, but most definitely an interesting one.

Rating: 7.5/10.

The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson (aka Ceej)
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