More than Meets the Eye: Transformers: Armada

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More than Meets the Eye: Transformers: Armada is a three-issue limited series profile book, published by Dreamwave Productions in 2004, that introduced readers to every character within the Armada franchise.

It profiled all the characters that appeared in the Armada product line between 2002 and 2004, as well as background essays on subjects like humanity's involvement in the Armada conflict and the Mini-Con Moonbase. The profiles follow the Dreamwave storyline in its Armada comic book series, but also take cues from the Armada cartoon in various places, sometimes to fill in the stories of characters who did not get a lot to do in the comics, or simply in order to cannibalize the most popular elements of the cartoon characterizations: Starscream's wavering loyalties and Sideways's role as a servant of Unicron are both alluded to, for instance, despite being completely absent from the comic, while the Armada episode "Puppet" is summarized in describing Nemesis Prime. Indeed, the series generates whole cloth some scenarios which are completely irreconcilable with the Armada comic book, referring to character transformations and a "second year" of the Earth conflict that never actually happened.

This series also possesses above-average strength and intelligence.

Issue #1

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Adventure Team through Hot Shot and Jolt. Also contains a three-page intro story with a grown Alexis recapping some of their earlier adventures but feeling useless due to lack of knowledge—knowledge she plans to get now so she won't feel that way again.
Originally published: March 10, 2004

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Issue #2

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Jetfire and Comettor through Sideways and Crosswise and Rook.
Originally published: April 7, 2004

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Issue #3

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Skywarp and Thunderclash through Wheeljack and Wind Sheer. Also contains encyclopedia-type entries (similar to issue 8 of the original series), as well as a 1-page follow-up strip of Over-Run observing Alexis using the machine he left for her to read the files.
Originally published: May 5, 2004

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Notes

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Continuity kerfuffle

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As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the series, despite supposedly being set in Dreamwave's comic continuity, also amalgamates elements from the cartoon, along with introducing scenarios which are incompatible with the series' continuity.

  • The Decepticons apparently tried to take Cybertron by force of arms before, but were stopped by Optimus Prime and went into hiding, only re-emerging after they discovered the power powerlinking could grant them. This is at odds with the comic depicting them as an utter unknown in the first two issues, and certainly not anyone Optimus is familiar with personally.
  • Galvatron's profile is a big one, stating that at some point Megatron turned in to Galvatron, becoming even more power mad and unpleasant than he already was. So apparently he did so, then turned back into Megatron, and then everyone involved just never mentioned the whole "Galvatron" thing ever again?
  • Overload is stated to be entirely non-sentient, with Rollout being the sole driving force, while Overload is just a fancy suit of armor. While that is not such a big deal, given the comic depiction of Overload has him (them?) as a single person, the part about being made in the "second year" of the conflict on Earth to be a power-up for Optimus Prime is, given Overload never goes to Earth or combnes with Optimus at all.
  • Scavenger's entry has Megatron ruminate on his apparent lack of loyalty to the Autobots, after his cartoon self's affiliation with the Decepticons... except comic Scavenger had no such conflict, being with the Autobots from the get-go.
  • Starscream's profile has mention of him having a rumoured soft spot for human children, where comic Starscream has no redeeming features of any kind.
  • Thrust is a scheming, duplicitous sort, rather than a hapless, Texan-accented chump.
  • Inferno's profile mentions he was selected by Thrust, as happened in "Tactician", whereas in the comics Inferno was part of the Moonbase contingent, then with the Autobots, and never partnered with Thrust.
  • Wheeljack has the angst-ridden abandonment backstory of his cartoon counterpart, though that's not a problem since he doesn't do anything in the comics. More difficult is Wind Sheer's profile stating he went over to the Decepticons out of camaraderie, given the only time Wind Sheer shows up in the comics it's with the various Earth-based Mini-Cons.

Profile notes

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  • Megatron's entry mentions Cybertron has (or had) governments in the plural, rather than the singular as is standard for most continuities.
  • Nemesis Prime's profile explains just why he looks like Optimus, something "Puppet" didn't; it had scanned the Autobots and Decepticons and chose the form of the being they most respected and feared. It also speculates whether Nemesis was created by Sideways and Unicron, or was a pre-existing entity they were manipulating. The Linkage comics showed that for the cartoon continuity at least, it was the former, but the writers of this series can be forgiven for not knowing about that.
  • Rook and Crosswise's profiles make explicit the comic's implication that they (but mostly Rook) were agents of Sideways working to undermine everyone.
  • Starscream and Tidal Wave's profiles both cite an incident before the Mini-Cons left Cybertron where they attacked an energon refinery, which went sour and ended with Starscream leaving Tidal Wave for dead. Ramjet supposedly saved the Decepticon by powerlinking with him, though his profile postulates he just lied about that to ingratiate himself with the Decepticon.
  • The entry on Cyber-City name-drops Levitacus, the leader of the High Council from the Energon comics.

Transformers references

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  • Megatron's profile says he can draw on an extra-dimensional source of anti-matter for his gun-barrel, the same as his Generation One counterpart.
  • Overload's entry says Rollout uses the Headmaster process to bond to the larger body.

Real-world references

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  • The profiles of the Space Mini-Con Team base their personalities on those of the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Fantastic Four|{{#if:||Fantastic Four}}]], with Astroscope as Mr. Fantastic, Payload as The Thing, and Sky Blast as the Human Torch.

Errors and critiques

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  • Some of the Photoshop editing in this series is less than satisfactory. In issue 2, for example, the tops of Mirage's tires and his foot have been cut off.
  • Blackout's alternate mode is mis-transformed in his profile. His arms are on the sides of the alt-mode instead of on top and the sonar dish is left folded down.
  • Perceptor's profile repeatedly uses the descriptor "it" for the combiner.

Collections

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A proper collection of the series has not been released. A TPB collecting all 3 volumes was planned (ISBN 1897105126, ISBN 978-1897105122) to be released in March 2005, but never saw the light of day due to Dreamwave's demise in January 2005. In November 2019, select material from each issue was released as part of:

  • Collects Transformers: Armada issues #8–13 and select material from Dreamwave's Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Armada
  • Includes a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Definitive G1 Collection Vol. 27: Worlds Collide Part 1
    Definitive G1 Collection Vol. 27: Worlds Collide Part 1

More Than Meets The Eye: Energon

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This was a planned three-issue guidebook following the format of the earlier G1 and Armada books. The series was left incomplete (in that no issues actually got released) due to the insolvency of Dreamwave Productions in late 2004.

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