Ricky Church reviews Optimus Prime #3…
An uneasy peace between Optimus Prime and the newly arrived Junkions is threatened by Soundwave’s discovery within their massive ship…
Optimus Prime #3 was another relatively quiet issue, but that still didn’t stop it from being a good one. It continued to build the tension between Optimus, Earth and Cybertron’s Council of Worlds as Starscream asked some serious questions about how much they can trust the recently introduced Junkions and brought another long-held G1 trope into the IDW universe.
One of the best aspects of this issue was the fact that instead of Optimus, it was Soundwave narrating the story. Soundwave has really come into his own the last couple of years in the IDW-verse and this continued that trend, giving a bit more nuance to the complicated Decepticon and his newfound respect and growing friendship with Optimus.
Barber makes an interesting contrast between Soundwave in the flashback to Cybertron’s pre-war days and his present self, showing how Soundwave is slowly reverting back to his idealistic personality before succumbing all the way to Megatron’s vision of tyranny. Even Starscream benefits from Barber’s portrayal in the past and present timeline; though he’s still up to his machinations to weaken Optimus’ power, it seems like he genuinely wants what is best for Cybertron, especially after the attack in the Till All Are One title.
Last issue I commented that Kai Zama’s art was a little spotty in places, but this issue is much improved. The human characters are each differentiated further this time around and the couple glimpses we get of Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj, two new characters who look fairly similar, give each of them a more distinctive look than the previous issue.
Soundwave, Optimus, Cosmos and Starscream in particular look very detailed with Optimus’ body language standing out. Josh Burchman’s colours help make these characters pop and has a good use of shadows in the flashbacks. His and Zama’s work blends well together to make the various transformers look good in Optimus Prime #3.
It may be another quiet issue, but another sign Barber is taking his time to properly build this world and examine the interactions between Optimus and the other characters. Zama improved on the art and, taken with Burchman’s colours, delivered a good looking issue. Optimus Prime is on the right track to becoming one of IDW’s best titles.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
Originally published January 26, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
