ONE of the best things about manga and anime is the openness
to doing stories which run parallel to the main story. They even have a great
term for it: side stories. These in-continuity tales enable creators to fit in
characters and plotlines that would be obscured by the weight of the main
narrative.
And
that’s exactly what we’ve got with the new “Transformers: Punishment” one-shot.
This extra-sized one-shot is actually a print version of a comic book
originally created for the interactive Madefire platform. Reading it, it’s hard
to believe this wasn’t originally scheduled for a release from IDW Publishing
considering how good it is.
Fans
of writer John Barber and artist Livio Ramondelli will get a thrill because they
get an extra helping of the two this month. “Punishment” is the kind of side
story you get when the characters aren’t all trying to save planets.
That
being said, this is still Optimus Prime’s show. In “Transformers: More Than
Meets The Eye” and “The Transformers,” Prime bids the Autobots farewell
seemingly on a lark to go back to Cybertron. He doesn’t tell anyone why he’s
going back right now, only that he must and that he will be back.
“Punishment”
details what happens on his trip to Cybertron. The book begins with the death
of three Decepticons—Wilder, Treadshot and Brisko—at the hands of an unknown
assailant. This is apparently not
an isolated incident, and Cybertron’s supreme leader Starscream soon arrives on
the scene with Decepticon detective Barricade at his side. There’s someone
killing Decepticons in what is called a Decepticon ghetto.
