Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #37 Review

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #37 might just be everything there is to love about this series. While the plot is far from simple, the title does a fantastic job thrilling, entertaining and intertwining around itself, all while offering enough laughs and action to keep things moving along. The series has been going from strength to strength lately and, yet again, there’s little sign of slowing down.

The official description from IDW:

DESPERATE MEASURES! Four million years ago, as CYBERTRON teetered on the brink of all-out war, a group of Autobots decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. Everyone concerned would subsequently agree that this was a very, very bad move…

This issue is in the middle of a time-travel story, so new readers aren’t exactly going to fit right in. However, this issue rewards fans of the series in more than a few ways. Whether it’s character development, quirky plots, decent laughs or just enough well-placed easter eggs, it’s clear a lot of time and care has gone into this issue. This storyline has been crafted by people who either care about IDW’s Transformers universe a lot, or have done a hell of a lot of homework.

The writing, for instance, keeps the action hot and quick yet takes pauses in all the right moments. James Roberts shows his flair for understanding characters, even if the coupling of Cyclonus and Tailgate seems a little unnessary alongside Chromedome and Rewind. Despite minor faults, the dialogue is quick, witty and efficient. Roberts even manages to flawlessly slide in a scene from an older issue, with minor time-travel changes, surprisingly smoothly.

That said, this does highlight an issue with the art. The art team are so on-form with this issue – especially the wide-shot background vistas that unfortuantely get blocked by other panels and speech baloons – that the older art style is a little too flat and the stark difference does stand out. That said, the rest of the issue is hard to ignore and Alex Milne’s pencils add detail in all the right places, with Joana Lafuente providing smooth colors and gradients where possible.

In other words, I’m quite impressed. It’s not perfect, but no time travel story ever really is. What it does do, however, is ensure there’s something worth reading and looking at on every single page.