Revisitation 138: More Than More Than Meets the Eye.

20/8/2023

It's another big beast of a piece this week, so no preamble other than to welcome you all to Phase 2 properly as I look at More Than Meets the Eye issue 1!

8 Comments

Post Mordor

20/8/2023 09:48:29 pm

We've finally reached a new milestone with this one! The beginning of perhaps the best Transformers series to date, and one of the finest sci-fi comics out there. I love how Roberts doesn't waste any time with his fresh start, immediately diving in and establishing a whole new cast of 'bots with unique personalities. He certainly knows how to cram as many character interactions and dialogue as possible within around 22 pages.

Save for a handful, most of these new crew members aren't that prominent or iconic in Transformers media. It's a refreshing shift for the franchise, when most other series would lean on old familiar faces. Even some of the more well-known bunch of the cast like Rodimus or Ultra Magnus were never really well-developed for a long period of time. Roberts gives them new personalities that'll end up becoming iconic.

And of course, it's never a complete discussion of a comic without mentioning the artists. Nick Roche and Josh Burcham are such an iconic duo at this point. I've already given my praise to them before, so I haven't much else to say other than they both equally deserve much praise here. I love the classic comicbook textures from these early issues. And even though Roche immediately leaves after this issue, his simplified designs getting carried over to Milne leaves these characters to still look consistent.

This is a great issue on its own and a fantastic start to arguably the best Transformers comic! This'll be my 2 re-read of this series, so my 3rd reading of it overall, but I'm sure I'll have new things to appreciate about it this time as well. It's gonna be a fun ride!

Llama God

21/8/2023 09:49:29 am

Well, I mean, it's alright, innit..?

Llama God

21/8/2023 10:42:39 am

Okay, I can't just leave it with that jokey comment, as anyone who knows how little I managed to write about some of the worst and least noteable Costa issues would probably guess.

But here we, here we, here we REALLY go, with the issue that changed EVERYTHING. And, really, everything. Now I know that this run of comics won't end up being perfect, but I am going to warn you that I'm likely going to be unrelentingly positive for the most of it, because at the very least, even at it's worst, it's still head and shoulders over most Transformers comics that we've had since the original Marvel run. And that can't ever be unappreciated.

Possibly the more important effect this series had was to reinvigorate the fandom in a big way, thanks to the themes and the characters that it will explore later (as well as being a generally bloody good story). Although new people had come into the fandom as a result of the Bay movies, that was nothing compared to the effect that this comic had. The range and diversity of people that this comic brough in can also never be underappreciated, and will hopefully continue to have repercussions on the future of the franchise.

And on a personal note (because of course I was always going to get there), More Than Meets The Eye is important to me because without it I wouldn't have the family that I do now. Sure, we always cite Roche as being the reason behind us, thanks to the Wreckers and everything. Despite that, though, at this time the Conjunx was mostly out of the fandom, thanks to a Costa's run and Revenge of the Fallen, and the fact that given she was living in Singapore at the time there wasn't a shortage of alternative robot mecha fiction to consume instead. It was only on finding out from a friend that MTMTE was actually good that she was drawn back in again. Had that not happened, my life would've been drastically different. But I'll try not to go on about that too much. (I probably will.)

But to get slightly back on track, the impact it had on me at the time was a lot more uncertain. Unquestionably, this was a good comic. A GREAT first issue. But I'd been promised stuff by IDW and let down before. I was on the point of giving up with IDW's Transformers when Sins... happened, and that got me to stay. But then there was nothing of the same quality as Sins again for a long time. This issue was good, for sure, but I had absolutely no confidence in IDW editorial at the time that they'd allow this to continue, and was absolutely expecting another reboot in the not-too-distant future. So although I really enjoyed the comic, for reasons not related to the comic itself I didn't become excited about the future of the comic until some time after this - probably not until Dark Cybertron (which was not in itself a great event, but showed the company's commitment to their ongoing titles).

As for this issue itself... well have I already said it's a bit good? I think I have. But it's a bit good, isn't it?

The sheer amount of ideas and characterisation on display here is in excess of anything seen in probably the entirety of Costa's run. All expertly done to get us on board with new characters or new versions of characters in a very economical way, whilst not making it dull or talky, either. Under another writer's hands we'd get scenes of characters just standing around introducing themselves and pontificating. Here, we get a stand-up fight (in some cases literally) running through all of that - and it's a fight that also in itself helps to introduce characterisation. It is never dull.

We get action, humour, conflict, and plenty of intrigue. Even without that ominous message from the future at the end, there's enough intrigue in what some of the characters might be up to that keeps the interest going. And it is the final couple of pages that really sink that hook in - the apparent destruction of the Lost Light nicely sets up a desire to read Barber's Robots in Disguise, and everything else leaves you wanting to read the next issue of MTMTE immediately. Even though that final panel of the final words of that ominous future message are seen going unheard by a distraught Bumblebee isn't necessarily a positive one, it's an EXCITING one, which sets the tone and leaves you wanting more. Which is a feeling we've not had on Transformers comics for a long time.

The choice of characters isn't a bad thing, either - and the fact that is mostly not big names really helps these characters establish themselves as their own beings. Tailgate was an immediate favourite with me, and I wanted to see more of Whirl and Cyclonus after this, too, after their initial meeting. There was just so much I wanted to see more of, and that really is a testament to Roberts' writing.

And I should, of course, not fail to mention Roche's art, which is, as ever, excellent. I was of course disappointed to hear that he wasn't going to be on the comic after this, and this did indeed fuel my init

Llama God

21/8/2023 10:48:20 am

Huh. So it turns out I might have hit an invisible character limit here. Or something just buggered up. So what I think I said was:

And I should, of course, not fail to mention Roche's art, which is, as ever, excellent. I was of course disappointed to hear that he wasn't going to be on the comic after this, and this did indeed fuel my initial uncertainty at the future of the comic - IDW had their track record of not maintaining the quality. Of course, I didn't know what was to come, but all the same, it took the edge off some of the excitement. Because his art is so fresh and dynamic, it really does become the cornerstone for this new age of Transformers. The franchise wouldn't have been the same without it.

So what I'm trying to say, I guess, is that this issue was alright, wasn't it? And now I'm looking forward to reading not only the next issue of this (and how long has it been since we've heard that), but also Robots in Disguise. Because, yes, I'm one of those people who's a big fan of that. But more on that next week if you want to, to coin a phrase, make something of it...

T-Wing link

22/8/2023 12:04:20 am

The only thing I'll disagree with here is that the future message has a satisfying payoff.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic, foreboding way to end the issue and launch the series, and did make for some fun speculation and checklisting for readers over the years, but the ultimate payoff for where the message originates kind of landed flat for me.

It basically turns out to be a gag, and the warnings themselves (as Cyclonus himself points out in that issue) may have actually been more detrimental in the long run if they had been heard at the time.

Jules

24/8/2023 07:10:50 pm

Loved your affectionately thorough review of this issue & looking forward to many more to come. I recall feeling quite visceral about Primacy at the time of its publication, especially given that it was supposed to be the riveting pre-war follow up to chaos theory… and failing so miserably at generating anywhere near that hype or the hype of its contemporaries MTMTE & RID. It’s a sobering reminder that Roberts only does 3 more stories set around this era (one being the forgettable Spotlight Orion Pax) for the remainder of 2005 IDW and aside from SOTW I think most of them are things that would’ve been more interesting as offhand references than the forgettable “fleshing out” we got.

Will113

28/8/2023 11:21:12 am

ah More Than Meets The Eyes, both the first comic I followed regularly and the first to disappoint me

Oreo

22/1/2024 09:24:28 pm

There is nothing wrong with physical media, especially now when streaming services are deleting their content left and right (when it's not profitable to keep it), and there's nowhere you can see it legally.

Revisitation 138: More Than More Than Meets the Eye.

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