COMIC REVIEW: TRANSFORMERS: WINDBLADE / AUTHOR: MAIRGHREAD SCOTT / ARTIST: SARAH STONE / PUBLISHER: IDW / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 14TH
In the IDW version of the Transformer’s universe, the war between Autobot and Decepticon has ended. A new peace has swept through the galaxy and the Transformers are getting back to a civilian life. High pitched B-movie villain Starscream is now the mayor of the ancient city Metroplex; a city that is also a giant robot in its own right. Because Metroplex is so big, he needs a specialist who can communicate with him in a certain way. The transformer capable of this is the titular Windblade, a spunky young machine who’s trying to do her best despite the strangest of circumstances. Her biggest problem is that Metroplex is ill and she needs to find out why.
Despite the overly complicated set-up, Transformers: Windblade is a pretty straightforward story. The main character is essentially the only cop in a corrupt city, the mayor wants results and there’s a conspiracy that runs deep throughout the place. Strip away the robots and the space guns and we get a noir style story about a tough broad who doesn’t take no for an answer. It’s a lot of fun to see this done with Transformers, and though there’s plenty of robot on robot action, mostly it’s about the detective work.
Sarah Stone’s artwork is appropriately pretty. We get a real feel for a city made out of living steel and there’s a genuine thrill in seeing the main characters turn into their machine modes and beat each other up. Windblade is presented in a consistent and interesting way throughout, with Stone’s artwork complementing Scott’s dialogue very well.
Scott’s writing is strong and at times the story is reminiscent of the work of Transformer’s super-star writer Simon Furman. Windblade doesn’t quite do the action scenes as well as Furman, but there is a heck of a lot of potential here and it’ll be interesting to see where they go next.
Overall, Transformers: WindBlade brings the retro-robots kicking and screaming into the modern day and delivers a story different enough from the rest of the canon to be memorable. Whatever you do, however, don’t tell Michael Bay that they are three-dimensional and well thought out female transformers out there; the poor love’s head would probably explode. Or worse still, he might try and put Windblade into his next awful movie. 
