Transformers vs G.I. Joe Volume 3

Transformers vs. GI Joe (Scioli) #3

by Tom Scioli, John Barber

The biggest space battle ever grows to universal proportions! Will the G.I. JOE team and the AUTOBOTS make peace―before COBRA and the DECEPTICONS end the war… the bad way?! Collects issues #10–13.

Genres: Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2016

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tom Scioli finishes his batshit crazy, stream of consciousness story. I think one of my biggest problems with the series is that most of the major events occur between the panels (and there's a ton on them). I'm constantly flipping back to see where I skipped over a page or missed a panel. If only I wasn't a completist I could have dropped this with the last volume.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice end to the mini series. Good read. Recommended

[Nicolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent and satisfying ending to one of the most inspired takes on a crossover. This series could have gone on indefinitely, because there are a lot of great ideas that could explored in future stories. It ends on a high note, sort of like the Narnia books ending on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It brought to close the character arcs of several characters, while leaving their own open-ended threads for future use, should the creative team return to this concept in the near future. It's the kind of story that one would wish would continue, but would be happy at how it ends.

This series also lends itself to a re-read in the future, because there was a lot of detail that a single take would miss out on. It is the kind of dense storytelling that would only give up its secrets with multiple re-reads.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished this thoroughly enjoyable series, which sticks the landing, in the sense that after spending a dozen issues with the volume turned up to 11 it manages to locate the 12 setting. And also in the sense that the most ludicrous possible developments feel like the only logical places the plot can go.

Even so, three volumes is enough I think. The formal innovations and hypercompression that made Vol 1 such an astonishing read are just beginning to lose their impact, though there are still pages which made me gasp and grin. And while I’ve still no real interest in either franchise and can still barely tell one Transformer from another, it’s also just plain fact that giant shape shifting robots are cooler than Action Man is, and that fundamental gap is starting to assert itself here: the sections which spend too much time with the Joes are really beginning to pall. (Though there’s a lovely tribute in here to Larry Hama, the single human being who’s worked harder than any other to reverse that core imbalance and make GI Joe interesting.)

[Alex Sarll]

I could have done without the extended bit about Duke and Falcon's fraternal issues - as a kid I always hated it when cool stories about shit exploding were interrupted by boring family stuff, and that hasn't changed since. But otherwise, this is a suitably bonkers conclusion. Too few works of art even have cities turning into giant robots and punching each other in the face; this one not only does that, but tops it with planets turning into gianter robots and punching each other in the face.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last volume. This book is not a bit less amazing or impressive than it was when it first came out. Scioli one-ups himself with every issue. There's nothing else like this book on the stands (if there is, somebody please tell me). Every issue is just bonkers, exploding with eye-popping imagination and visual derring-do. It's like somebody cut a 12-year-old loose. I'll reiterate from an earlier review that I'm no Transformers or G.I. Joe fan at all, but this is still some of the most fun I've had reading comics. David Sedaris once said about a Dave Eggers book, "The force and energy of this book could power a train." That's how I feel about this one, too.

[Andy Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly great conclusion to this arresting art epic: it's vis art of reflective musings on brothers, sisters, parents and lovers ; and its balls to the walls blockbuster entertainment. Great pacing, the maximum of clever ideas and a guaranteed fun spend of your hours. Scioli's arrangements aren't quite up there with volumes 2 and 3 but at this level of pioneering that hardly is a criticism. Reader, you'll not be disappointed.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a gonzo book that soon feels like an attempt to top the previous setpiece. At some point, it starts to feel like diminishing returns. But what combinations of scholarly reverence for the source material and insane imaginativeness for each.

[Kavinay · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only Michael Bay used this for his shooting script. The film would still be crazy, but a good and creative crazy.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have nothing but respect for this truly batshit series.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was crazy. The story came to a shocking but also very satisfying conclusion. Expect the unexpected as things get out of hand in the third act.

[Mark L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Inventive, epic, some real surprises and ends the saga brilliantly.

[PMoslice · Rating 1 out of 5]

A cacophony of characters and stories, an elongated commercial for toys and these respective franchises. I should have stopped while I was ahead. Such an amazing missed opportunity. They tried to squeeze too much into too small a space.

[David Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

No joke, that Larry Hama/General Flagg bit may be the most genuinely touching thing I’ve seen in a comic in years.

[Jacob Mendelsohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earth is a literal transformer, that is all.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty OK ending.

[Acton Northrop · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Italian peninsula steals the show. That's all I'll say.