More Than Meets The Eye - 10 years on...

[Andy Turnbull]

There might have been a slew of covers, but clearly this one is the mission statement. Based on the cover for DC's Justice League relaunch in 1986, which was full of humnour and as much about the absurdity of the basic concept as the adventures that the characters had, relying on the interplay between the cast.

On the face of it the comic is the build up to the launch and they launch, but through the short small character vignettes the main cast (at least at this stage) are all set up and we see insights into why they want to go. Still lots of secrets and little sub-plots being built expertly at the ground up.

It's Nick's most cartoony art, the rendering is pared back on the characters letting the Cybertronian redesigns shine through.

Prowl being shady (before it was made ridiculous through overuse) and while you didn't really think he was responsible for the bomb, you knew he was up to something.

After enduring the turgid Costa run, this was a breath of fresh air, promising a wildly different Transformers series and I was very, very excited to see what James and Nick had to show us in the months ahead.

[Rich]

I've read the first issue several times over the last 10 years so there were few surprises in terms of story points I'd forgotten, but I still enjoyed reading it back. It's an issue with a lot to get done and a lot of characters to establish so it's hard for it to really hit its stride, but it has fun where it can, chucks in some memorable lines and finishes with a ... bang, all while trying to extract itself from the suckyness of the sister comic (walking stick old-man Bumblebee is painful). Characterwise, (and it's all about the characters, as the promotional art highlights - I'm reading the trade btw), Whirl steals the show but there are good moments for many of the others.

I don't know if it's the printing on the trade, but the colouring really lets down the art. The murky, as seen through cctv look, has not aged well. The multi-part cover set is also bad - I assume they were produced with limited time / knowledge of the direction of the series?