Just when you think they can’t possibly ratchet the tension up any higher… they somehow manage it.
Transformers #15 somehow continues to pour heat onto the pressure cooker that is Cybertron. Megatron takes steps to put his house in order and deal with some subordinates who seem to be not quite on board with things. Bumblebee’s allegiances continue to vacillate as he learns more about the actions of the Ascenticons, and Sentinel Prime not only pours fuel on the fire, he hoses it down with napalm when he instructs his security services to take the gloves off when dealing with the Ascenticons. Not just The Rise, oh no, he sees them all as part of the same problem.
Meanwhile we get some further back story for Megatron and it is broadly similar to that established in Megatron: Origin. A former miner, then an arena fighter. We get a bit more lore here with an introduction to something called “The Threefold Spark”. This would seem to be something different to “The Abomination” so feared by Wheeljack in sister series Transformers Galaxies. Unlike Origin, where Megatron’s decisions and purpose are shaped by the brutal conditions he endures, here this meeting with this strange bot, this Exarchon, is the defining moment that shows him that all it takes is one. One voice, one will, one purpose. With that, you can change an entire world.
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Also, remember how I said in my issue #13 review that we wouldn’t see Frenzy till #15/16? Yep, still no sign of him, but with an arrest warrant issued for Soundwave maybe he’ll FINALLY put an appearance in. No sign of Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Rumble or even Ratbat. Shame. The cassettes don’t get enough love in a lot of story arcs, other than Ravage, and does anyone even remember the names of Blaster’s cassettes? Bet some of you are going “Wait, he had some?”. He did, yep, but they got almost no screentime and in the comics they’re entirely forgotten (Ramhorn, Steeljaw, Rewind and Eject are the ones seen in 1986’s Transformers: The Movie).
The difficulty with a review like this is there’s so much that can’t be said for fear of spoiling the story – one which definitely deserves your money by the way. There’s a lot of moving parts in this issue, character development, still more lore being added, occasional acts of violence, lots of plot threads being continued and even a joke or two tossed in for good measure. The stakes are so high now that the payoff for this is going to take a lot of living up to. My only concern at this point is that with all this buildup… is the climax going to be worth the wait? I certainly hope so.
Transformers #15 is out now from IDW Publishing.
