REVIEW: Transformers: Beast Wars #1

Rating if the Book Were a Movie: PG

Writer: Erik Burnham
Artists: Josh Burcham
Letters: Jake M. Wood
Editor: David Mariotte
Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz
Publisher: IDW Publishing

Last week when I went to my local comic book store to pick up my pulls the staff had set aside a copy of Transformers: Beast Wars #1 for me. This one was not on my pull list, but they know I love all things Transformers so they held one out just in case. “Just in case”. Yeah right. Into the stack it went.

I’ll admit I’m not as up to speed on Beast Wars as I am the rest of the Transformers Universe. About the time Beast Wars originally came out I had discovered girls. Okay, I had discovered girls long before then. This was around the time girls had finally discovered me back! Thus began about a fifteen year break from comics while I wrapped up my schooling and figured out what I really wanted in my life.

During my hiatus I do remember a toy line for Beast Wars. I believe there was an animated series at one point, as well. I never acquired any of those figures or saw those episodes. Reading this book was the first step into a brave new world.

From what I can tell, Transformers: Beast Wars is a completely different universe from all other things “more than meets the eye”. At least I hope so. Otherwise I would have called myself hopelessly lost six pages in. We get to see Galavar’s rise to glory in this book. 

We also get a glimpse of how Optimus Primal and his completely outgunned ship and crew find themselves in the fight to end all fights which leaves them crash landing on a planet with a harsh jungle terrain. The terrain forces the ship’s computer to find new, compatible modes to deal with the dangers of this world. The Beast Wars are about to begin!

Artwork: .5 Stars

There were some adjustments that took some getting used to in this book. The characters we know and love were portrayed differently. Additionally the artwork was not as detailed as I had hoped.

Story: .75 Stars

I liked this story. The notion of a Transformers story that doesn’t begin with a civil war on Cybertron is very refreshing. I would have liked to see a touch more character development with some of the less commonly known characters in the mix.

Dialogue: .75 Stars

There is some useful information in the dialogue. I really liked how the dialogue gave us more depth to Galavar’s determination and character development.

Editing: .75 Stars

The lettering in this issue was spot on. From what I can tell the story seems to follow canon. There was a little bit of a narrative along the way. I would have appreciated a bit more of that or some editor’s notes to make things clearer, especially with regards to what the disk that was stolen does.

Mechanics: .75 Stars

The story moves at a crisp pace. As a reader I could see the conflict developing, but I never felt the sense of urgency that should have been there for what was taking place.

Overall I liked this story. I have to address the elephant in the room though. This book has a $6.00 cover price. That’s $2.00 more than almost everything else IDW is putting out. At that price I needed to be shouting from the rooftops about how much I love this book. All I could say is I liked it. 

As a geek on a budget If I come across future issues from this series in the ding and dent section of buck boxes I’ll be all over it. Without a significant price drop Transformers: Beast Wars will not be going on my pull list anytime soon.