Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, Volume 9

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #9

by James Roberts, Alex Milne (Illustrations), Brendan Cahill (Illustrations)

The Scavengers are back as the adventures of the Lost Light continue! TAILGATE has a choice to make—and if he had any idea what was at stake, he'd think twice before making it. Plus, the crew are caught off guard when a dead friend appears out of the blue. Collects issues #45–49.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Queer

132 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2016

About the author

James Roberts is a British comic book writer best known for his contributions to the Transformers franchise.

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost Light is nowhere it should be on its quest for Cybertopia and the Knights of Cybertron, but these interruptions allow the reader to pick on some of the main cast and several background characters. Main supporting cast members like ship psychiatrist Rung gets to play and the fan-favorite band of Decepticon misfits, the Scavengers, get their own two-part story. Save for the Scavengers whose stories are not yet done, the sudden spotlight on these characters bode ill for their potential survival, but at least we got some character development before saying good bye. To summarize these welcome developments:
- A Scavengers two-part story that spotlight the fan-favorite deserters. It also gives the reader an update on the current status of a couple former Lost Lighters who deplaned at Luna, Fortress Maximus and Red Alert.
- Thunderclash joins the crew and he immediately folds into himself. This reader doesn't get what so special about this one-time Matrix bearer.
- Tailgate and Cyclonus bring their unspoken relationship to new heights and the little bot gets some serious superpowers.
- Skids gets flashback story that explains a lot of the mental trauma Chromedome discovered suppressed several volumes ago,
- Rung gets to star in his own "Silence of Lambs" moment when an old friend visits him.

The overall story is building up to a momentous climax in the tenth volume and the reader gets to enjoy the story of Lost Light as it is before the big change.

[Marta Duda-Gryc · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite band of Generation Kill... er, Decepticon Scavengers misfits! Love triangle story (Getaway, Tailgate, and Cyclonus) (or is it?) gets an unexpected denoument. Whirl becomes more and more my favorite and Rung gets his "Silence of the Lambs" moment. A very solid story, but I can easily see it's another step to something huge in the tenth volume (come to mama!).

[Wikszy · Rating 5 out of 5]

what...

[2Due · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this volume will give me nightmares...
Some of the topics were quite heavy and dark (even more than usual for this series) and I loved everything about it.
These issues pack quite a lot of things, pretty well too, though the pages with Sunder felt a bit unpolished, a bit rushed.
Megatron despite not being much present still steals the show for me, I love seeing his development.
I absolutely adored Cyclonus and Tailgate here for the writing, the art, the emotions... the page where Cyclonus is shielding the smaller bot is gorgeous to look at.
Also the raw interaction between Cyclonus and Whirl, that brutal honesty hurt and seeing Whirl of all bots having second thoughts was fascinating to watch.

Somebody give Skids a goddamn hug...

(Edit: how the hell did I forget to talk about the Scavengers, what's wrong with me...)
The Scavengers are such a bunch of adorable broken dudes babysitting a huge mentally-broken t-rex... what's not to love about them?
I so need to get my hands on their sidecomics, I want to know more about their weird adventures

[brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

brought the horrors back a little in this one

[Bjorn Buer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than it has any right to be

I don't know how it is... but there is more humanity and emotion in comics about giant sentient toy commercials than there is in 95 percent of other comics... any... other media of all types. These comics are beyond stellar... they are transcendent of the media. Funny... thoughtfully... exciting... they have it all. Without a doubt some of the smartest books I have ever read.

[Lynn E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough one to review - it contains issue 47, one of my absolute favorites of the series, but also two arcs that didn't really work for me.

The scavengers arc is well written and fun and brings back Fort Max! It's definitely good - I'm just not the biggest fan of the Scavengers and spend most of their screentime wishing the story was about the main cast. (I know, I know)

Issue 47 is amazing. It hurts so much but feels so real; the pacing and the art and the point of view all sing in this one. Finally, a mere 47 issues into the series, I realized how much I loved Cyclonus.

The Rung arc is too short. It's trying to do a lot of things - introduce more characters, give both Rung and Skids emotional arcs, do some monster horror...but it doesn't have nearly enough time to do all of those things and most of them felt flat to me because of it. The Skid's flashback elements were the strongest part of the story for me.

Regardless, taken as part of the whole, all the things in this volume are building to more things, some of which I definitely never would have expected. Not my favorite volume but still my favorite series!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, Volume 9 carries on from the previous book with the humour continuing to flow but along the way it also has some impacts for the characters as they continue to grow and adjust into the post war environment! :D This gives the book it's chops and makes for a page turner that will keep you up and is full of revelations! :D As ever the changes with Cyclonus, Rodimus, Megatron and co are all the page and show this real development at every chance! :D

The art style is brilliant as ever really giving the script full sway with the panels really flowing showing the scripts humour and action off brilliantly! :D The characters are displayed brilliantly in action showing the script off to perfection making for a cinematic feel to the book! :D

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, Volume 9 is clever, humorous, fun and action packed! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D

[Clint the Cool Guy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay

So here we have more robot romance. Yay! Plus an extremely unsubtle public service announcement about mental health. For example, did you know that people with mental health issues should still be treated nicely? I know, right? Who would have thought! It also features a super cool scene of Megatron renouncing violence, which I'm sure you'll agree is totally in keeping with his character. Yes, this one contains some very thought-provoking and important social commentary. Hey, at least the art is really good.

[Stephen Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Roberts knows how to make monsters. What makes this series great though, and what keeps it feeling fresh after almost fifty issues, is where the monsters come from. We've had four million years of warfare between sentient robots who can form their bodies into vehicles and weapons, so there's a lot of history to draw on, and Roberts mines it deep. But he doesn't pull his monsters into his storyline from where you would expect: treacherous Deceptions against heroic Autobots. His monsters come from all sides, from every angle, keeping you constantly guessing. And many of them are genuinely frightening, also in ways you don't expect.

If you've been following this series for a while (or even my blog, where I've reviewed each volume so far), it shouldn't be a surprise that Roberts revels in switching things up and making battle lines grey and messy. In this volume though, it seems to come through even stronger. Of course, re-branding (literally) Megatron as an Autobot several issues back, and following through with what this meant internally for the former murderous dictator, was a very big thing. But this volume asks the question, apart from the titans like Megatron, what do swaps like this and the weirdness of a new peace after millions of years of hatred mean for the little guys?

In this volume we get two sides of the coin: we get the return of our favorite Decepticons misfits being heroic and even empathic, and we get Autobots plotting treachery to do what they think needs to be done to bring Megatron to justice. Let's take the Decepticons first: along with the Decepticon Justice Division (the series' primary true "bad guys") early on we got teased with the Scavengers, a crew of pathetic soldiers made up of the rejects from the bottom of your toy drawer. Early on they met up with a damaged Grimlock and were introduced to a ship full of creepy mysteries.

Since then these characters have been shelved for much of the series. Their return in this issue gives a look at what the peace has meant for the average Decepticon soldier. Roberts uses his characteristic skill to bring this group together, making them work as a team, even as they tackle issues like human (okay, sentient robotic) trafficking and the psychological wounds of war with a (usually) light touch that doesn't trivialize the fact that Roberts is tackling big issues with giant battling robots. The first two issues in this volume give us a self-contained episode that returns us to these characters and sets them on a new trajectory, while simultaneously opening up an old mystery that Roberts has been dropping clues about for a while.

On the other side of the sigil, we get conspiracy and manipulation by Autobots who want Megatron to get his due. Roberts thrives creating heroes out of assumed villains and vice versa, and the work of portraying rotten Autobots is believable and chilling. In addition to this though, we get another genuine monster, and here it's simply wonderful to see the sort of creatures Roberts can fashion to haunt the universe he's created and the mechs-physiology he's devised for the Transformers. (At the same time though, the precedents set here are going to make certain things pretty easy: now that we know its possible to access memories by sight and transmit thoughts and data directly from brain to brain, this opens up a host of shortcuts for a deus ex machina any time a plot point needs to be resolved.)

I'm the worst kind of fan though: one who takes the content and the characters quite seriously. The kind of guy who is the first to maintain that comic books can be literature but has to keep reminding himself that they're also magazines. That is, More Than Meets the Eye, as much as I'd like it to be, is not a self-contained graphic novel. It's a serialized comic, which means in some ways it still functions as a magazine, selling advertising (though I don't see those in the trade volumes I get) and keeping readers pulled along. It means its constantly raveling, winding on, with additional twists, turns, and scope of characters that are sometimes not resolved.

For the most part this is fine, especially when it has to do with the plot. It starts to feel like a soap opera though when these additional tangles and coils have to do with relationships between characters. They are giant fighting robots. Yes, they have pathos and depth now and time for exploring what peace means. Four million years of warfare probably didn't leave much time for love, but I really don't want it now.

I'm also pretty spoiled by Alex Milne's artwork, enough that I tend to throw a fit if he doesn't do the majority of the issues in a volume. In this one he does only the first two, but the artists who do the other issues actually do a pretty fantastic job, with the exception of a few awkward panels here and there. They're not Milne, and they don't bring his depth and detail, but the artwork here does not detract from the story as it did in a few early issues when Milne stepped away.

In all, this series is still going places and doing incredible things with my favorite characters. The next volume (volume 10!) will include the fiftieth issue of the series, and Amazon has the drop date listed as right around my birthday.

They know me, guys . . .

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although still lacking in a sense of forward progress, like Volume 8, the stories here - including a two-parter with the Decepticon "Scavengers" - feel much more substantive and meaningful overall. That makes for a fairly satisfying collection. (A-)

[Martin Lund · Rating 2 out of 5]

At this point I can conclusively say that my biggest problem with this iteration of Transformers is that it wants to do too much with too many characters (which is not to say that G1 didn't have similar issues).

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the worst volume of the series but largely because it's of little consequence. Still very consistent and enjoyable, but could use a bit more oomph, especially as the series leads towards its conclusion.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good stuff in there.

[Woowott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feeling all the feels. Forgot how precious the Scavengers are.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Scavengers storyline was amazing, and I will never get tired of Cyclonus puzzling together his emotions.

4/5

[Isiiii · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muchas cosas que pensar y otras se aclaran. Desarrollo de personaje

[Dairarara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gei

[B.J. Fantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standout issues: #45, #46, #47, #48, #49

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been awhile since I'd read volume 8 so I had fill in spaces on things that I'd forgotten about the characters. Regardless this has been my favorite of all the Transformers comics I've read. The characters are well fleshed out and sometimes you forget they're even robots.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still waiting for the DJD to actually show up but this is easily my favorite of the two Transformers ongoing comics. What they've done with Megatron as a character is kind of amazing. They took the textbook 80s cartoon villain and added layers to him, made him an autobot and somehow managed to have him still feel like the same guy. It is crazy.

[Andy Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories inter-layered, deeply seeded, funny and fear-inducing: just another MTMTE and of course much better than a Transformers from Hasbro comic has any right to be. In a good collection like this, James Roberts can give Moore and Morrison a run for their money.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues to be such a phenomenal series.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another phenomenally entertaining entry into the best Transformers series ever.

[Woowott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need more now. I nearly had a heart attack when I thought Cyclonus was gonna bite it. I can't decide if my OTP is Driftamus or Cy-gate.