Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Transformers: Drift: Empire of Stone


Writer: Shane McCarthy
Artist: Guido Guidi (pencils), Marcelo Ferreira (additional pencils, issue four), Stephen Baskerville (inks)
Format: TPB (collection of mini-series)
Price: 19.99 USD/24.99 CAD
Available: Now (Fall 2015)


Cover by Sarah Stone
Summary:  DRIFT RETURNS! After leaving the Autobots in disgrace, he’s now alone on a mission to clean up the darkest depths of the galaxy—until RATCHET shows up to try to bring him home! Also contains bonus content including creator interviews, behind-the-scenes info, an art gallery, and more!


Comments:  I read the Trade of Drift: Empire of Stone. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it (I'm just not a fan of the current crop of TF comics IDW is putting out). The art is reminiscent of Regeneration One (same art team) and features more traditional Transformers artwork (as opposed to the neo-G1 style employed in the MTMTE series).
  The story is fairly straight forward--Drift is on his own and still doesn't quite understand where he fits in it all. When Ratchet shows up, they get pulled in to a battle against Gigatron and his forces, a group bent on controlling an ancient weapon Deadlock (Drift) and Turmoil discovered centuries before on a forgotten world.
  The story introduces us to Gigatron in this continuity (although, sadly, he's mostly represented as a brute with little real character beyond what the story requires). We also meet the Decepticon Grit (an obscure Micromaster Combiner character!) who gets a bit more to do.
  Drift still feels like a Gary Stu in this story. He's unbeatable physically and his only real dilemma is a crisis of conscience. I didn't mind it too much though since it worked for the story being told. It also didn't really feel like Ratchet got much to do in this story other then be a sidekick (but again, this worked in context of the tale being told).
  The story's simplicity is what makes it work. It's a good versus evil morality tale and it doesn't try to aspire to some more complicated end. It knows what it wants to accomplish and takes us there with no real deviation. This can be a bad thing if the story isn't told well, but this one works very well for what it is so I enjoyed it.


Verdict: Very Good. Check it out!


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