Transformers More Than Meets the Eye #13

SHORE LEAVE! The AUTOBOTS visit the planet Hedonia—and get a chance to put recent events behind them, ingest some energon, and relax. Everyone, that is, except SWERVE, who faces the toughest challenge of his life: in just six hours, he has to teach ULTRA MAGNUS how to have fun.

Just when you thought you’ve seen everything, More Than Meets the Eye #13 goes all buddy comedy on us. Whereas previous issues have featured more than fair share of comedy, this episode is primarily devoted to six of our favorite crew members out for a night on the town. Just like many buddy comedies, the main characters have flaws/issues, their plan falls apart, and the group solves the problem with doses of hilarity.

In the last issue, the crew of the Lost Light faced a brutal battle with a remote group of Decepticons on Temptoria. Several characters featured in that issue were either severely injured or faced extreme danger. In More Than Meets the Eye #13, Rodimus orders a little R&R/shore leave on the nearby planet of Hedonia for Ultra Magnus and several recently injured (both physically and mentally) crew members of the Lost Light. Conditions on Hedonia warrant that the crew uses certain disguises, given that Transformers are barred from parts of the planet.

More Than Meets the Eye writer James Roberts nails it again. The issue contains essentially no action and includes primarily just conversation between the crew on either the Lost Light or Hedonia, but still manages the keep the reader’s attention. Several characters have one-on-one conversations, in which we see one Transformers let down his guard while another reveals the lie he’s been living. While the crew of Hedonia each has their own internal problems and issues that they face, the conclusion of the story actually takes a more serious turn. In the end we see that many of the characters while completely different on the outside and from their past deeds, share many other traits that create touching bonds. Especially poignant is the resolution between two supposed crew members of Nova Prime’s original Ark journey. On a lighter side, the holographic representations of the Transformers on Hedonia are downright funny, and quite touching the case of Ultra Magnus.

Guido Guidi takes over pencil duty in this issue. While there are slight differences from those of typical More Than Meets the Eye artist Alex Milne, Guido makes the transition very easy. Josh Burcham does great with colors once again, assisted by Joana Lafuente in this issue.

More Than Meets the Eye, as a series, has coverd it all...or so we thought. We thought we’ve seen it all, until this issue turns into a robotic buddy comedy. The levity featured in this issue is a nice relief, given the eight-letter description of Issue #14 featured in the last panel of this issue.

Overall Rating: 4.5