Having only barely escaped the deadly Proximus with their lives, Solila is badly injured, and Darak needs supplies for Handroid to save her. Help potentially manifests in the form of another Transformer (hardly a spoiler as to who it is, considering Springer is on the cover), but it seems that Proximus isn’t done yet.

After such a strong and focused issue, this one’s a bit of a disappointment. It once more feels as if the Transformers-related characters and goings-on are being forced into the narrative; they don’t seamlessly slot into the story at all. What’s worse is that we cut away from the main action in this issue to scenes that only the most hardcore of Transformers fans are likely to care about, and to add insult to injury, the supposedly dramatic cliffhanger falls flat because it’s related to the outer fringes of the Transformers universe.

Lorenzo De Felici’s art is once again superb, and Patricio Delpeche’s very vaporwave-style colours are gorgeously unconventional, but it just feels like Kirkman keeps on fumbling the ball in an attempt to make the story fit the universe, in a way that doesn’t quite work for me, as much of a Transformers fan as I am.

We also know that we’re only going to be given the dregs of the Transformers universe (sorry Springer), given that most of the main cast are tied up in the mainline Transformers series.

Once more, this is uneven stuff and a big letdown; let’s hope that Kirkman manages to refocus on our protagonists again, or at least finds a way to make the Transformers elements feel relevant to the main story.