Transformers vs Visionaries #3 Review

Written by: Magdalene Visaggio

Art by: Fico Ossio

Colors by: David Garcia Cruz

Published by: IDW

Loyalty to oneself versus loyalty to your people seems to a predominant theme as this mini-series continues on, and you are starting to see this emerge as Virulina and Merklynn now have their plan fully in place for their takeover of Cybertron.

The first few pages of this issue are quite telling: Virulina makes her sales pitch to the remnants of Prysmos, from Darkling to Spectral Knight. Her pitch is simple: she does not want to live in subjugation to the Cybertronians - her point of view - and now that she knows that the Prysmosians (sp?) magic has a severe effect on them, she is ready to lead her people in the complete destruction of the Cybertronians.

This is where the theme of loyalty really comes into play: Virulina, for all intents and purposes, is the bad guy of this story. However, her charisma has begun to swing a lot of the Spectral Knights to her cause since they choose loyalty to their people, and by extension, their survival, over their loyalty to their principles. Visaggio may not explicitly state this in the issue, but that theme is clearly there.

From the Spectral Knights perspective, namely Leoric’s team, they also have a decision to make: stick to their ideals and principles and lose or change up their tactics, compromise a little of who they are, and potentially win. It’s an interesting dilemma and it adds a lot to the comic.

We don’t get to see a lot of Cybertronians in this issue, but that’s okay. For this issue, having the spotlight on the Visionaries helps to better establish these characters, who, for all intents and purposes, are still relatively new to this Hasbro universe.