I know Ramondelli's art isn't to everyone's tastes. But I was surprised on reread to get deep into the first story without being explicitly aware this was his work. His art's come a long way to the point where he's able to convey a lot of dynamics and emotion via his style and it's hard to imagine a brooding Sandstorm, Bludgeon or Trypticon having the same effect under someone else's brush. ( )

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Given the plot of the book formerly known as Robots in Disguise seems to have permanently moved to Earth, I guess I'm grateful that IDW continues to update us on life on Cybetron, first with Windblade, then with the Cybertron-set single issue in First Strike, and now with Punishment: they definitely feel like their own sub-series, with the focus on Windblade and Starscream and the denizens of Drift's bar. In First Strike, Optimus Prime left Earth partway through to take care of something on Cybertron; in Punishment we see what that was, as he comes home to celebrate the anniversary of receiving the Matrix of Leadership, but ends up investigating mysterious murders in the Decepticon ghettos.

It's okay. I like the continued exploration of an integrating postwar Transformer society on Cybertron, but the murder mystery is incredibly obvious. Like, could it be the never-before-seen* old friend of Optimus who's in the right place at the right time? What a surprise! Still, there are some nice moments between Optimus and Windblade, as she tries to come to grips with a planet emerging from a millions-year war, and Optimus tries to adjust to this brave new world. I particularly like the pair of moments where Optimus makes it seem like he suspects the Dinobots of being behind the murders. First he tells Slug, "You and the Dinobots are everything wrong with Cybertronians. All you ever were was a gun... and you have no ambition to be more." He's being deliberately misleading to draw the real culprit out (ah, that old chestnut), but as we find out, he's not exactly lying; he tells Windblade, "You don't know me very well. I never lie. [...] Slug's refusal to change is the greater threat to our future." I like how this takes a heroic trait of Optimus that you could think of as naïve, and portrays it as more of a curse than a blessing, but also something Optimus can manipulate-- you don't get to lead an interstellar war for millions of years and not be as good as manipulation as Starscream or Prowl.

The art is also an above-average effort for Livio Ramondelli, with sharper linework than he usually uses and less muddy colors, well-suited to the story's vaguely noirish tone.

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