Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Transformers: Devastation 1
IDW Comics
Furman, Su, Atkinson & Roche

The first installment of Devastation is by far the best lead-in issue of all the Transformer phases thus far. All along we've heard that IDW's take on the robots-in-disguise would be a slow burn. And it has been so far. Too slow for me.

This issue shows the art in storytelling very nicely. It has a quick pace, switching between storylines and entertaining all the way through. And it does so without one fight scene. I could actually feel the plot advancing in this issue. And on multiple fronts. The previous series lacked this. Especially in the opening issue of the series.

Devastation also broadens the scope of players significantly. This issue ties-in some of the one-shots we saw from last year, such as Nightbeat and Six-Shot. It also, finally, involves some of the Soundwave underlings. Can we call them cassettes anymore seeing as how no one under 25 years old knows what a cassette is?

Here are some of the plotlines we see advance: Nightbeat unravels the mystery of how the Autobot base was discovered; Hot Rod and Wheeljack are in pursuit of finding the missing Sunstreaker; Megatron sends Six-Shot to clean house; Prime calls in Hound for reinforcements.

Not bad?

There is more. The humans have not only captured, but re-programmed Ravage and are using him to track the others down. Prime moves the Autobot base and is attacked in the process. Oh and we find out what happened to Starscream.

That's a lot of stuff. When you compare this issue to the openers for Infiltration, Escalation, Stormbinger or even the one-shots there is no comparison. Devastation is great.

Complaints? What's a review without complaints? How about a roster run down on the inside of the cover? I can't tell all the Decepticons apart that are in on the coup to bring back Starscream. You know what they say: "all robots look alike".

All in all this is a great issue for those that have been following along from the start and for those that are new, maybe who saw the movie and want more of the big fuzzy robots. I can't give a full 5 geek goggles, but it comes close. The bar is set high now.

4.5 out of 5 geek goggles.


Transformers Devastation #1

Transformers Devastation #2

Transformers Devastation #3