Free Comic Book Day 2024

Free Comic Book Day! It’s officially been two years since I first started my comic collection, launched a comic website with a blog. I now have roughly 140 or so comics in my collection and it’s climbing, slowly but surely. This time I managed to scoop up a few comics for myself and my two boys got some comics for kids. I missed out on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle issue but I did manage to get the three I was going for which were Image Comics Energon Universe, DC’s Absolute Power and Marvel’s Blood Hunt. The most recent stack episode from the Comic Book Club podcast talked about Energon Universe and how G.I. Joe, Transformers and Void Rivals are all in one universe. I was definitely intrigued because if you recall, at the very end of the last Transformers movie, Rise of the Beasts, they alluded to a partnership between the Transformers and G.I. Joe sector. So I had to pick that one up being a Transformers fan, though I am not sure what Void Rivals is.

The other issue I will be reviewing besides Energon Universe is DC’s Absolute Power, I’ll cover the FCBD Blood Hunt along with the first issue review of Blood hunt. Now as I said, I am only two years into collecting comics, I am fairly new and don’t know much about existing story lines or important events, so I had no idea what to expect. Really I just saw Superman, Batman and another cool looking Batman on the cover and figured this should be good. Besides these few comics, I also bought another copy of X-Men ‘97 so I could use it for a crafts project and a Deadpool & Wolverine themed comic box. Remember gang, don’t just pick up the free comics but also purchase a couple things to help support your local comic shop.

A little different with this review since it’s two books. I’ll be reviewing the cover art, but I’ll just touch on the story instead of a full review:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover - Energon Universe

What I really like about this cover is its creativity. Megatron looks menacing even though we only see his red lit eyes. He’s got a smoking gun that he most likely just shot off and the ground below him is crumbling with electricity. The orange and yellow colors combine to make a very rich and bright background that illuminates Megatron from behind, with a tiny bit of a machinery/Cybertron peeping through at the top. The title is very creative with the stars in the dark black space, but to me this is the only part I wish was done a little differently. I like the idea but with the machine looking graphics behind it, it doesn’t stand out as much. I think that title treatment would stand out a bit more had the yellow and orange background been extended to the top.

Story - Energon Universe

Overall I like this one but I think if I had read some of the Void Rivals line, I’d understand this issue a bit more. They do a good job at the beginning showing the three titles, Transformers, Void Rivals and GI Joe but I wish there was just a snippet of text that explained each one. The book starts off with some AWESOME action sequences of none other than Optimus Prime and Megatron. Colors, action, text treatment, all of it looks epic at the start. 

This opening action spread is beautiful with its choice of colors

Optimus bests Megatron and as he’s holding onto the ship for dear life, Starscream comes by to “help.” Megatron calls out to Starscream and then BOOM! Starscream blasts Megatron off the ship. Next we get brought to a story of some odd looking creatures and an Autobot named Hotrod but honestly it didn’t make sense to me. Finally we get the GI Joe story which is some high powered action sequences just like the beginning. Pretty much we see Duk wanting to recruit someone named Anastasia Cisarovna, but Colonel Hawk is completely against it. In the end this was a fun little issue to just see the action panels, but I don’t think I can see myself picking up a Void Rivals issue, but definitely interested in knowing where the story is headed for Transformers and GI Joe. Overall 4/5

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Cover - Absolute Power

Having touched on this cover a bit already we know that there is Superman and two Batmans on it, but it also features a few more characters. Amanda Wallace, who I only remember from the Suicide Squad movies. Then Wonder Woman and one other character that I have no idea who it is but they look like some sort of android. I’m just now realizing that this cover has the same yellow and orange color background that the Energon Universe cover has, maybe that’s why I was so drawn to it. The treatment of the title, Absolute Power could have used a bit of love since it looks like word art but other than that it’s a pretty dope cover with how the characters are laid out.

Story - Absolute Power

Holy shit this issue. Again, I had no clue going into this and man I am so glad I got it. What I really appreciate from the book is in the back they have profile spreads on some of the characters. For instance the two that I didn’t know on the cover were Failsafe, the cool looking Batman but is really a cybernetic killer and genius-level tactician with near-indestructible frame. Oof. Then the other was in fact, the House of Braniac, a superintelligent alien hive mind, whose primary focus on the collection and storage of data, power and culture. Another big oof. 

Ok, definitely need to read up more on Failsafe cause he looks freakin awesome. Reminds me of Batman Beyond.

Essentially the story starts with Failsafe and Amanda Wallace trying to achieve something with the use of electro-metas but we don’t know what exactly they’re doing or why. They bring in a super named Haywire, or Dylan Moore, to a small observation room with a metal ball figure in the middle and ask him to shoot it with all the electric power he has. Well long story short, they drain him til he ‘pops.’ It’s pretty wild. We’re shown a vision of the future thru another super named Dreamer, but it’s not good; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League look to be in shackles. The final story in the back we see Superman approaching a robbery of some sort. The criminals get scared about going back to prison, so one of them shoots their gun at Superman. I’m expecting the bullets to bounce off and kill them or something, right? Absolutely Wrong is what this issue should be called, because I was so off. Superman gets hit by the bullets, sees blood and the final shot we see is Superman falling to what we can only presume will be his death. Phew. What an issue and it was free! Overall 

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Review: Transformers Primacy

Another TPB but this one of Transformers, a great cartoon and comic since before I was born. I can still remember the Hasbro Transformer of Rhinox as a kid. Quite possibly my favorite toy growing up and still hold a grudge with my sibling for breaking it. There have been some new movies that are trying to find the magic from the first movie, but can’t seem to hit the mark. The most recent Beast Wars was a bit of a miss. As a huge fan of that arc, I wish they focused more on the Transformers than the human characters.

Which is what I’m excited about for the new movie called Transformers One in which we are getting origin stories of Optimus Prime and Megatron. So because of this recent trailer release, I thought it would be a good time to revisit Transformers Primacy. My first TPB given to me from my friend, the first purchase I made was Saga Vol 1. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

Anytime you feature Optimus Prime on the cover of a comic I’m going to pick it up and read it. The artist of this book is Livio Ramondelli, who has a great portfolio of amazing Transformers illustrations. Check out an interview with him and Canvas Rebel in 2023 here. There are two other Autobots on the cover along with a third Transformer but no visible badge. We also get a glimpse of what I'm assuming is Cybertron. Their home planet and the one they are always trying to save from the civil war.

Here is an example of the action sequences and how the artwork is great but sometimes a bit hard to “see”

Story

I have collected some Transformers comics before, here and there some off issues as well as trying to collect the 2021 release of Beast Wars. With that being said, I have not read a full Transformers story from the first issue to the end. Which is really the entire reason why Trade Paperback books are the best because you get the entire release in one book and don’t need to go searching for individual issues. 

The story starts off with some indication that Cyberton was no longer going to be peaceful and an evil entity was going to emerge. I really like the opening scenes in which we see rival Autobots and Decepticons talking to each other and eventually arguing over who is being brainwashed by their leaders. 

We then are shown Optimus Prime and Ironhide on a wintery “vacation.” We see them climbing a mountain and upon getting to the top they spot some sort of figure in the distance, just standing still. After some careful reconnaissance, Optimus and Ironhide get closer and realize it’s an Omega Sentinel. 

This is my first time encountering something called an Omega Sentinel in the Transformers universe

Our story then takes us to Harmonex where we see Megatron trying to strike a deal with Trypticon to destroy the Autobots once and for all. I don’t want to give it all away but it’s a bit like good guys vs bad guys with a curveball here and there. Still a very good short and concise story. Now throughout the book the action scenes and fighting sequences are great, but the art itself is a bit “muddy.” In the sense that some things are hard to distinguish and find yourself squinting to really understand what you’re looking at.

One thing I REALLY liked about this trade paperback is that it included the variant covers that must have been released when the title was released by issue. It features the more clean type of illustrations and really gets you hyped up. 

This illustration by Sarah Stone is absolutely killer!

Overall 4 / 5

Now the main reason for the 4 out of 5 rating on this is simply because of the artwork. I really like the styling but for a comic it just made it a little hard to follow along. As I was reading I had to stop more often and for a longer time to digest what I’m looking at. But as I mentioned before, I like that it was short, concise and didn't leave me wondering what is what or if I need to read previous stories to understand the plot.

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