Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #11 Review

The latest issue concludes the ‘Shadowplay’ story arc, whilst slowly returning the focus to the present events. Its been a fun ride, and a nice break from the current story line, but its a welcome return to the present as well.

The official description from IDW:

SHADOWLAND CONCLUDES! And it’s the end of an era when, on pre-war CYBERTRON, enemies close in on all sides and Orion Pax—the future OPTIMUS PRIME—selects a team of AUTOBOTS to help him pull off the ultimate heist—with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance!

In terms of the ‘Shadowplay’ story arc, its a fairly satisfying conclusion. Previous issues opened this up as a Transformers take on the detective and noir genres, using Cybertron as a grim and fitting backdrop. This issue blends somewhat into the crime or bank heist genre, which has very close themes to the previous ones anyway, which makes for excellent reading. It captures the montage and other generic conventions perfectly, without breaking away from Transformers imagery or lore.

Yet the story itself also has some disturbing connotations for long time transformers fans, which are only fully revealed near the end. Its not expected, but it certainly comes as a shock; partially because it makes sense, rather than feeling like something that’s been written in for the sake of it.

Moving away from this story told entirely in flashbacks, there is a greater focus on the present here; slowly bringing the reader back into the current story lines. This issue focuses on Rodimus’s reactions to Red Alert’s current fate. The Transformers isn’t a franchise that focuses on emotional impact much, in favor of giant awesome robots smashing each other to pieces, but a subtle use here and there certainly helps.

As for anything else, this is a typical Transformers issue. The art work works with the storyline, providing plenty of detail. The simple colors belay any sense of realism, but this was never going to work anyway given the setting. Yet its well written, smoothly jumping between points where it can, and ending on the revelation mentioned previously; whether its important in later issues remains to be seen.