Originally published July 8, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
Ricky Church reviews Transformers: Till All Are One #11…
With Elita One’s influence closing in around Starscream, he’s desperate to make any alliances he can. Turns out, a powerful ally might already be within his grasp. But is he willing to risk his own sanity to reach them?
Transformers: Till All Are One #11 may not move the overall story along in a meaningful way, but is an introspective issue that focuses on examining Starscream and Windblade’s development, especially the former. In fact, it’s the first issue in a long time that has really taken a deep look at Starscream’s position as Cybertron’s ruler.
Mairghread Scott writes a very compelling Starscream as he navigates his position. It’s interesting how she displays the battle within himself as he genuinely seems to be trying to change, but can’t help his scheming nature take control. His admission that he sees little point in changing because every time he tried to do so life, or more often Megatron, would remind him its pointless is a look at how much of a damaged character he really is.
Windblade, meanwhile, remains in a coma but is shown to be fighting the influence of the Titan Vigilem from taking control of her body. We get a look at how much she’s changed over the course of her life as Vigilem tries convincing her she’s not nearly as optimistic or ideal as she believes. Its an interesting look at her, though at times feels a bit too much like a expositional recap of her history rather than a truly insightful look into her character. It’s still nice to see, though, and Scott makes some intriguing parallels between her and Starscream.
Sara Pitre-Durocher’s artwork once again stands out. Her depiction of Starscream, particularly his variety of facial expressions, is well done. The fight between Windblade and Vigilem is also quite animated with a lot of fluid movement that is easy to follow. What was also a nice touch during this sequence was how Vigilem was slowly changing forms to look closer to Windblade’s appearance, subtly showing how much control he was gaining over her without the dialogue drawing attention to it. Joana Lafuente also does a good job with the colours, creating a vibrant looking issue. She makes a clear distinction in the colours between the real world and Windblade’s mind, playing with bright and dark atmosphere’s to separate them.
It may be a relatively quiet issue, but Transformers: Till All Are One #11 gives a nice introspective look at the minds of the series’ leading two characters. Scott writes them well and both Pitre-Durocher and Lafuente excel with the artwork, delivering a really good Transformers book.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
