Due out Wednesday July 16, 2008

Not too bad. Arcee's cannon-fodder team at least got some nice licks in before being forcefully expired.

Movie Starscream is very easy to like too, even when he's being a merciless scumbag.

I was waiting for Arcee to star going:
"I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't AWAY!"

this series is just getting better. i loved seeing all the name drops (Trypticon), previously toy only characters (Stockade) and cameos (Kremzeek).

The robots were drawn surprisingly well for Milne standards, and I didn't actually have to look twice to understand what was happening in any of the panels, so thus far "Reign of Starscream" is a huge improvement over "Megatron: Origin" in terms of art for Milne... but DEAR GOOD SOMEONE PLEASE TEACH ALEX MILNE HOW TO DRAW HUMAN FACES. Seriously.

That Sector Seven leader guy on page 15 looks like some clone creature straight out of a Pat Lee comic after a hairdryer exploded in his face. Also, I originally thought his moustache was is mouth in the second panel. And then that anime reject chick next to him. And that soldier guy with his unnatural body posture and facial expressions. He looks is if he were bluescreened into that scene. Really, those humans loook HORRIBLE.

Story's surprisingly good. Starscream's character is nicely fleshed out, better than the Generation 1 cartoon stereotype we got in "All Lame Megatron".

Same for Arcee. This is a good characterization, unlike Furman's crazy psychopathic emo killer chick from the Spotlights.

Yeah, I'm really digging this Starscream. This series is surprisingly good.

Though, it's also reminding me how much I hate the movie designs. Milne's art is probably the best we've gotten from him, but no one can save these terrible movie designs. No one. They just don't work, except arguably in the movie itself. No saving them...

Yeah the Movie designs seem to work better in 3D rather then 2D.

Well, I'm pretty in love with the movie designs (To the point that I'm already psyched for the Movie 2 line, despite it being a year away, and find it hard to adjust to the Animated aesthetic (Although it's good...). Anyhoo, I think Alex Milne has found his niche with these designs; he really has a knack for depicting them, and they suit his highly detailed art style better, I think, than some of the more traditional-looking Transformers did. Glad to read out of SDCC that the Mowry/Milne team is being retained for the next Movie miniseries, a five-part lead-in to Transformers 2 (And that time, they'll have access to the TF2 script, the report said, so it can REALLY tie in extra-nicely.)


Since we're being snide, let's at least be creative, like, say..."All Fail Megatron"? (I liked it, so I'm part of the opposition, I guess ya'd consider me, but even I'm up for some wordplay.)

I really think Milne's artwork and the movie designs work for each other. I mean in the movie, one of my complaints is how frequently the robots looks like indistinguishable messes of technology, while Milne's robots often loon like indistinguishable messes of... lines.
But what I think is really making a difference on this series is that Milne has the toys and film as reference material, so he doesn't need to improvise as much.

Still not as good as it could be, but better than it could have been to. I'm going to say.... 2.5/5.
I wouldn't reccomend it to anybody but a Transformer fan.

Does using a Terran Vehicle as your reconfigured altmode really give that much more power to you?

I personally adore this miniseries. I agree that Milne really needs to work on his people characters, but his robot stuff has really improved. Unlike the movie adaptation and Megatron Origin, I can actually tell who's who. I also prefer Mowry's writing to Furman's; to me it's got more character and that's what I really wanted from the live action universe.