Review: ‘Transformers Beast Wars’ #17 Closes Things Out
by Benjamin Hall
Summary
The Beast Wars conclude their time at IDW with this issue. Optimus Primal has to trust Megatron to keep the truce while they fight the Vok. Yet, even if they succeed will the Beast Wars end for these robots in disguise? For that matter what will become of the Vok?
Overall
7/10Artist John Yurcaba provides the art of cover A. It features an interesting use of negative space in order to have Vok breaking up Megatron’s shadow. This arguably causes a sinister feeling to overshadow an imposing villain. Unfortunately Megatron’s color palette is too solid, and this results in Megatron’s scales lacking believable texture. In other words the texture on Megatron looks extremely minimalistic.
The visuals of cover B are by artist Andrea Bell. When it comes to the colors Bell does a good job the darker greens and the pinks. Also the red glowing eye along with the chip in the robot form are nice details. For those familiar with any of her past works Bell shows improvement with her straight lines (Transformers Beast Wars 2022 Annual). This is most obvious when one looks at the head of the transformer. Arguably the central Vok’s coloring makes it look like a vastly different light source is on it. Yet, this is more of a nitpick than a real flaw.
Cover RI is by artist Kelly Deng. It features some great line work, and an impressive display of Cheetor transforming. The color palette has some nice reds for the background. As for as far as the design of the background goes it is just a sort of crimson mist. This background and its respective colors really assists in drawing the eye to Cheetor.
Writer Erik Burnham, artist Josh Burcham, and letterer Jake M. Wood are responsible for the interior narrative. Burnham’s script has moments for each character to standout. While Burcham shows improvement over his past work on this series. In particular his line work feels more confident and consistent. Also Burcham really does well at creating depth and enhancing it with the color palette. An example of this is the last page. Lastly, Wood successfully makes even the debatable bits of dialogue feel somewhat natural via sizing and positioning.
Transformers Beast Wars #17 (2022) is out now from IDW.