IDW Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #21 Review

Synopsis

ENDGAME! A handful of heroes stand in the way of a tyrant with the power to destroy AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS alike. But what if stopping him carries an even higher price? Get ready to say goodbye to some old friends as More Than Meets The Eye delivers on two years’ worth of promises.



Story
The highly awaited fifth part of the Remain in Light arc is here. Will Tyrest win and his mad plan kill everyone? Will Tailgate die? Will there be death death and more death aboard the Lost Light and Luna-1? Quite probably. Or maybe not. I mean, the death thing is certain, but not the victims. Will we get answers to all the questions so far? Read on!



This is a heavily packed issue, with a lot of plotlines being tied up crossing paths, returning from previous collections and death. Of course. Tyrest's plan seems to be succeeding so far, inside Luna-1, while on the outside Whirl, Cyclonus and the Circle of Light fight against Star Saber and the Legislators. And I have to say, the fight scenes are well planned and thought out. Cyclonus in particular has some really good moments, and First Aid is getting better and better.



The rest of the story, however, did not satisfy me as much as I thought it would. It's good, but it doesn't give enough closure for MTMTE to now lurch into Dark Cybertron. There are some fairly emotional moments, and some anger-inducing ones. There are some '..really?' moments, and some smirk-provoking ones. But sadly, I can't help but feel that the issue has been overhyped.



It's good writing, but there are tone discordances, using humour in the wrong places, dragging in plots and more plots and resulting in a chaotic sequence of facts, which work a lot better in the prose extracts included at the end of the issue than the issue itself. A similar thing happened to the Overlord arc, it's a shame to see it here again.

Art

Artistically, Milne had a lot to do for this one. There are multiple characters in most panels, and Roberts did not go easy on the details! While the story may be very dense, the artwork makes it a lot easier to follow what is happening on the page. No inker is credited, either, so it must all be Milne's work.



Colours on the issue are done by both Josh Burcham and Joana Lafuente, and they look stunning. The Cyclonus parts have some excellent work on shading and lighting, and really set the tone of his story. Some amazing colours show up in Skids' panels, but I cannot show them here, for good reasons.



Same for the lettering, by personal favourite Tom B. Long. He shines best in all the scenes I can't show in the review, as the soundwords are mostly of characters killing, being killed or revealing the secrets of life the universe and everything. A shout goes to the cover artists, Nick Roche, Josh Perez and Andy Suriano, who did an amazing job, especially the latter's Samurai Jack Rodimus special variant!


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Overall, the end of Remain in Light is good. But there are so many nagging questions and unresolved issues and hand-waving resolutions that I'm left with the feeling that an extra issue would have made it a lot better. As I said, the prose extracts at the back are a lot more helpful and enjoyable to the overall understanding of the plot, and give a better sense of closure, after a fashion.



The artwork is good, as usual, but it's the colours that really stand out for me in this particular issue. Cyclonus and Tailgate get some great palettes in their personal storylines, and Skids has some excellent colour and sound stuff going on. So yes, pick this up, but be prepared to still feel hungry.