Transformers: Infiltration # 0
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by EJ Su

"Prelude to Infiltration"

Summary:

An average bus stop in Phoenix, Arizona.  An average businessman patiently waits for his bus.  What this man does not realize is that he is being targeted.  Teenage runaway Verity Carlo is looking for some things to pinch.  She's settled on the businessman's palm computer, bus tickets to Los Angeles, and his bagel for good measure.  What Verity doesn't realize is that she is not alone in targeting this man.  Unknown, alien eyes seek out and scan the businessman, determining that this human has what they are looking for.  A bus leaves the stop, with Verity and the businessman aboard.  On the road, the businessman soon falls asleep and Verity uses the opportunity to cut the gent's travel bag open to smoothly snatch his stuff.  Then she has the bus let her off on a desert road, faking an upset stomach.  As soon as the bus is out of view, Verity examines her catch, not noticing a passing pair of cars heading in the same direction as the bus just went.  Pleased that the palm computer she lifted is top of the line, Verity begins looking for a car willing to let her hitchhike.  Meanwhile in an unknown location, voices report to an unknown mechanoid that they were unable to locate the "cache".  The unknown mechanoid insists they find it immediately.  When we return to Verity, she's hitched a ride in a van, driven by one Hunter O'Nion.  He's a bit sensitive about the pronunciation of his last name, as he was apparently mocked in school as "the Onion".  Hunter lets Verity know that he can only take her as far as the Desert Center.  Verity inquires why he's headed to such a "middle of nowhere"-type place.  While Hunter is reluctant to tell her, Verity deduces from his clothes and the décor in his van that he's looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life in the desert.  Hunter is going to refute this when he suddenly hits the brakes and stops short.  Verity immediately assumes the worst and is fishing in her bag for her cans of mace, but Hunter points out a plume of smoke rising in the distance.  Although Verity protests, Hunter takes a quick detour to check the origin of the smoke.  They find the bus that Verity had previously disembarked from further back, only it has been wrecked and the passengers are slowly exiting.  Hunter drives up and inquires about what happened, to which a passenger informs him that two cars hit the bus and forced it off the road.  Then the passengers all experienced a painful flashing sensation in their eyes, and then just found themselves unharmed.  The passenger also mentions that one of them is now missing, and Verity realizes that the businessman she lifted the stuff off of is the one who isn't present.  The bus driver tells Hunter that they'll be alright, and the guy who is missing probably just wandered off.  Hunter notices some more smoke rising in the distance and then decides to leave.  Back on the road, Hunter explains to Verity that he runs a website that supports a theory that the Earth was invaded by alien robots a few years back, and these mechanoids have been masking their appearance from humans ever since.  Verity's first response is laughter, but suddenly a red light illuminates the van's interior.  Seconds later, a hostile aircraft flies right over Hunter's van, causing him to briefly lose control of the vehicle and finally skid to a halt.  Verity immediately believes that Hunter has unwittingly driven them onto a military testing range, but Hunter's fairly certain that is not the case.  He speculates that the red light that flashed was some sort of scan, and when he sees the jet turning to make another attack run, Hunter believes that the jet is definitely targeting them for some reason.  Back to the mysterious unknown location; a voice reports that the "cache" has been located!  The shadowy mechanoid commands "contain and purge", with a hint of impatience.  In the desert, Hunter yanks Verity out of the van and both dive to safety as the hostile jet destroys the van with a missile.  Hunter urges Verity to get up and run, because he's positive that the jet won't stop until it finishes them off.  Verity wants them to indicate to the jet that they surrender, but Hunter's certain that it isn't an option; especially since this jet apparently has no pilot in its cockpit!  The jet makes another pass and Verity and Hunter run their hearts out, but it's clear they are not going to survive this time.  Just then, an ambulance rolls up in front of the terrified duo.  A cannon pops up from the roof of the ambulance and blasts the attacking jet away.  When Hunter and Verity reach the driver's side of the ambulance, a strange, seemingly transparent man within it tells them; "If you want to live, come with me!"  To be continued.

Extra stuff:  A word from Chris Ryall, sorry; "Chrischarger", an interview with Furman, and a word from EJ Su.


Slagged!:

-Hunter's van gets fragged by a missile.  Poor Hunter's van.

-Thundercracker gets nailed by a blast from Ratchet, but that's about the extent of the visible ass-whuppery this issue.


Sightings:

-Okee-dokey.  If it wasn't blatantly obvious from the "role call" chart on the inside cover, the two cars that followed the bus and ran it off the road were the "Battlechargers" Runabout and Runamuck.  The jet that attacked Verity and Hunter was Thundercracker, and the ambulance that saved them was Ratchet.  And of course, the shadowy mechanoid issuing the orders was Starscream.  Also, did you spot Ratchet and the Battlechargers on the first page in the parking lot?  Nice keeping with the "hidden in plain sight" motif that the press for this series seems to be pushing.

-Speaking of the role call chart, let's see if we can't ID those characters in shadow;  On the Autobot side going down, we have Ratchet, Prowl, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, Jazz, Wheeljack, and Optimus Prime.  And on the Decepticon side we have Runabout, Runamuck, Starscream, Thundercracker, Blitzwing, Skywarp, Astrotrain, and Megatron.  I THINK that's fairly accurate; Skywarp's the sketchiest one, but I guessed it was him because it looks like a silhouette of another Seeker-style Decepticon.

-All the Transformers in this issue, and likely this whole series have updated alt-modes, and likely slightly different robot modes to match.  This was an attempt to make the saga of the Transformers more "modern" by giving them vehicle modes that are still in use today (Those 1984 models ain't cutting anymore as far as disguises go).

-The sketchy "sighting" picture that Hunter has on the flyer he hands to Verity is likely of Blitzwing, given the design elements consistent with previous appearances of him in other Transformers fiction.

-The shimmering, transparent guy is clearly a hologram to better facilitate Ratchet's fitting in on Earth.  Nice to see they aren't using those goofy old mannequins from the original Marvel comic.


Hearings:

-Although Verity says in her internalized dialogue that her last name is "Carlo", she gives it to Hunter as "Carter".  Of course, this is probably more Verity being cautious with strangers than an error.

-Verity seen some X-Files; she refers to Hunter's clothing as "sub-Mulder apparel".  Ratchet may have soaked in some Earth movies too, he's channeling Schwarzenegger  with that last line.

-When Verity asks Hunter why no one's noticed these supposed invading extraterrestrials, he responds "They're.in disguise!"  Hmm, catchy.  Could be the tagline of some popular toy line or something.


Wreck and RULE!:

-Transformers comics are back, YAY!  Wait, we have to wait for January for another issue?  DAMMIT!  Downgrade that "YAY!" to a "yay".

-Furman's clearly starting slow, and I can appreciate that.  Not much really happens in this issue in terms of action or even in terms of the actual Transformers.  The focus here is mostly on Verity and Hunter, with the presence of the Transformers clearly felt, but not in the forefront until the end.  On the subject of Verity and Hunter, they are pretty different in terms of what we've had in the past for human "sidekicks" which is pretty refreshing.  We get two social outcasts now, compared to the average joes or innocent children of the past.  A nice change of pace, and I'm actually interested to see how they will factor into this storyline.

-Okay, Su's art doesn't exactly have the in-your-face WOW factor that a lot of Dreamwave artists pushed, but it's still solid work and he's certainly a good visual storyteller.  Plus, he can draw humans pretty well, a stumbling block for many of the Dreamwave artists.  The subtlety of the Transformers in the background is pretty cool too; Su's really helping the "in disguise" routine.

-The cast of characters we'll be dealing with is pretty well-chosen.  The Autobots are all classics, but the Decepticons have a few lesser-knowns like the Battlechargers with them.  Personally, I like the variety they add to the team; not all Decepticons should be jets.

-Ratchet was a character that got a lot of mileage in the old Marvel comic, and according to the interview, Simon Furman is going in a slightly different direction with our conflicted medic this time.  I welcome this change and hope that Furman can show us a different side of a character we've seen a lot of in the past, but still keep him fundamentally who he is.

-99 cents for sixteen pages and a few extras.  What are you, stupid?  If you have any remote interest in Transformers, and don't need the buck for some equally important goal, go buy it.

Wreck and ROT!:

-A common complaint I've heard is that this issue is kind of dull.  Well, in terms of action, yeah, it is.  And I know this different direction IDW is taking Transformers in is to maybe loop some new readers into the concept.  Some longtime fans of Transformers might be turned off by yet another continuity reboot, might feel this issue moves too slowly or holds no surprises.  I guess what I want to say is that this issue is more a little burning match than a firecracker in terms of relaunching the Transformers back into the comic world.  Sorry, that's honestly the best metaphor I can come up with.  I'll write better ones next review, I swear.

-One panel's kinda confusing in terms of what it is portraying.  When the Battlechargers report back to Starscream, there's a panel of some mechanical bits with a Decepticon symbol screen.  I don't honestly know what that is supposed to be.  Someone getting rebuilt?  Disassembled?  Just generic tech stuff?  What the heck.?

-What kinda crazy bus driver lets a teenage girl off in the middle of the desert?  Jerk.

-It's an impressive splash page, but Thundercracker's kinda big compared to Hunter's van.  A little too big, if you ask me.

-In addition to his other geeky talents, Hunter also possesses superhuman vision.  He must have, in order to get a clear glimpse into the cockpit of a jet that's passing roughly ten to twenty feet over his head at what must be an impressive speed.  I guess it's not impossible; it just seems highly unlikely.

Final Judgment:

The start of a (sorta) bold new era of Transformers comics; let's hope this one sticks around for awhile!  Lots of people are still bitter about the Dreamwave fiasco, so let's hope IDW can assuage that bitterness and fear and keep us in Transformers comic stories for a good long while.  Honestly, we need a good, serious Transformers fiction that can appeal to younger and older audiences alike, and these comics are it.  The cartoons are geared towards younger age groups (And I'm sorry to say, possess a fair share of quality problems all their own), and I think it'll stay that way for some time (Don't stop wishing for another Beast Wars, though).  Not everybody is a fan of Simon Furman, but even if you don't like his work, at the very least he knows the property and treats it with the level of respect you'd want.  And honestly, I really get the feeling he's trying something different with this issue, which is definitely a good thing as Furman gets a bit redundant sometimes.  EJ Su does professional, solid work, even if some think it lacks the visual "umph" that some of Dreamwave's art had.  For 99 cents, I'd give this issue a shot if you haven't gotten it yet.  It didn't super-wow me, but it does have me really intrigued for the series starting in January.  Until then, peace.

A Thunderwing review