Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: War and Peace Part 3: Cold War
Written by: Brad Mick
Penciled by: Pat Lee
Inked by: Rob Armstrong
Colored by: Alan Wang and Gary Yeung
Lettered by: Paul Villafuerte
Editor: NA
Publisher: Dreamwave Comics
Starscream continues plotting his coup, Optimus Prime and the Autobots escape and face the Sharkticons, Ultra Magnus prepares to fight the renegade Stunticons, and Grimlock and the Dinobots arrive on Cybertron to help Optimus Prime out.
A bad and slow issue, as Dreamwave continues to offer stuff we’ve seen before with minor alterations:
Shockwave betraying Megatron was done in the Marvel Comic numerous times. The “Sharkticons vs. the Autobots†was done to death in the third season of the cartoon. Starscream plotting, see Transformers Seasons 1 and 2. Hell, given the positive reaction Armada is getting with it’s fleshing out of the Armada Starscream (giving him a sense of honor and dignity in terms of his attitude and behavior) I’m extremely disappointed that Dreamwave isn’t fleshing out Starscream likewise.
Meanwhile we have Shockwave as the “Big Badâ€, which doesn’t work because no one takes him serious in the role of the “Big Badâ€. Scorponok and Thunderwing both would have made better “Big Bad†characters and would give the storyline a good sense of “What the F***†due to the fact that outside the anime Transformers cartoons and the Marvel Comic, the casual Transformer fan who only remembers the cartoon won’t see it coming. Shockwave doesn’t work because it’s been done before (and better) during Transformers #4-12 and the fact that the casual fan thinks of Shockwave as Megatron’s top flunky and yes-man, not an uppity underling who wants to run the show.
And what’s up with Scourge? Why is he in the book given that his past self Thundercracker is still alive and well? Unless this is somehow connected to the upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earth†style arc in the Transformers Armada comic, why is he here?
