And the walls came crumbling down was the first thing that popped into my head upon finishing Ironhide issue three. Up until this point Mike Costa's slow burn, mysterious questions left unanswered, and amazing pace has worked well for the story of Ironhide.
But this issue something changed.
The momentum shifted and deflated with the reveal of a character who isn't quite what you expected. The weird has become, well, crazy. For the debute of this legendary character into IDW Transformers lore, it left something to be desired. He was everything and nothing you thought he would be. Costa gives you the character you suspected you'd get, but at a price of taking away what you thought he would be to the story. It makes you question everything placed before you since this miniseries began. And for the first time I fear for the ending of this comic. I fear we won't be getting the pay off we anticipate.
This is the first issue where we didn't see a flashback into Ironhide's past, but rather we see the present day and what his resurrection really means in terms of Cybertron and his purpose there. The dialogue did not flow like it has in previous issues, it seemed more to fill in the space rather than move the story forward.
The saving grace of the comic is the consistency of the art which strides beautifully through the pages. The color continues to glow and shimmer, the expressions genuine, I am 100% satisfied with what Coller and LaFuente have created. The visual efforts of the comic team deliver what they have been mastering since page one of issue one.
On the flip side, to off set the disappointment of this comic, is Ironhide himself who articulates exactly what the audience is feeling throughout this installment. If you came into this comic feeling and associating to what Ironhide is experiencing you won't be disappointed. He is spot on and it is easy to stand in his shoes and feel his bewilderment. And in that our writer doesn't miss a beat. But we still need a story that delivers some pay off and it shouldn't just be an exercise on how well we believe we can see ourselves in Ironhide.
Was it our own denial of what we wouldn't see or our expectations of what we would get causing the disappointment here? I'm not willing to write this comic off completely yet. We do have one more issue and I'd like to believe Costa will wrap this series up with another reveal bringing us full circle.
| Reviewer | ladywreck |
| Date | July 10th 2010 |
| Score |  (6 out of 10) |
| Reads | 7103 |
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