User talk:Jackpot/Sandbox/IDW-G1 recommended reading order

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The method behind

[edit]

So my initial thought was to arrange the books in story-chronological order, as it is currently presented elsewhere. But a counterpoint immediately presents itself in the form of Megatron Origin, which would be the logical first mini, but would be a TERRIBLE introduction. It's way too dense and far-removed and ultimately irrelevant; Infiltration is MEANT to guide the reader into this particular universe through audience-surrogate characters and slow reveals.

So the other natural thought is publication order. It's the most objective criterion and the best guide we have to how IDW "meant" for us to experience their universe:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 3 }}

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3

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  1. 2005/10/19 - 2006/07/12 Infiltration #0-6
  2. 2006/07/19 - 2006/09/06 Stormbringer #1-3
  3. 2006/09/13 Spotlight: Shockwave
  4. 2006/10/18 Stormbringer #4
  5. 2006/10/18 Spotlight: Nightbeat
  6. 2006/11/15 Spotlight: Hot Rod
  7. 2006/11/29 - 2006/12/20 Escalation #1-2
  8. 2006/12/20 Spotlight: Sixshot
  9. 2007/01/17 Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
  10. 2007/01/24 - 2007/02/28 Escalation #3-4
  11. 2007/03/21 Spotlight: Soundwave
  12. 2007/03/28 Escalation #5
  13. 2007/04/25 Spotlight: Kup
  14. 2007/05/02 Escalation #6
  15. 2007/06/20 Megatron Origin #1
  16. 2007/07/05 Spotlight: Galvatron
  17. 2007/07/05 New Avengers / Transformers #1
  18. 2007/07/25 Megatron Origin #2
  19. 2007/08/08 New Avengers / Transformers #2
  20. 2007/08/29 Spotlight: Optimus Prime
  21. 2007/09/06 Megatron Origin #3
  22. 2007/09/12 New Avengers / Transformers #3
  23. 2007/10/03 Devastation #1
  24. 2007/10/10 New Avengers / Transformers #4
  25. 2007/10/24 Megatron Origin #4
  26. 2007/10/24 Devastation #2
  27. 2007/11/07 Spotlight: Ramjet
  28. 2007/11/28 - 2008/01/16 Devastation #3-4
  29. 2008/01/23 Spotlight: Blaster
  30. 2008/02/06 Devastation #5
  31. 2008/02/20 Spotlight: Arcee
  32. 2008/02/27 Devastation #6
  33. 2008/03/05 Spotlight: Mirage
  34. 2008/04/23 Spotlight: Grimlock
  35. 2008/06/18 Spotlight: Wheelie
  36. 2008/06/18 Revelation #1
  37. 2008/07/10 All Hail Megatron #1
  38. 2008/07/16 - 08/20 Revelation #1-3
  39. 2008/08/20 - 09/17 All Hail Megatron #2-3
  40. 2008/10/08 Revelation #4
  41. 2008/10/22 All Hail Megatron #4
  42. 2008/11/05 Spotlight: Blurr
  43. 2008/11/26 All Hail Megatron #5
  44. 2008/12/10 Maximum Dinobots #1
  45. 2009/01/02 All Hail Megatron #6
  46. 2009/01/07 Maximum Dinobots #2
  47. 2009/02/04 All Hail Megatron #7
  48. 2009/02/18 Maximum Dinobots #3
  49. 2009/03/11 - 03/25 All Hail Megatron #8-9
  50. 2009/04/01 Maximum Dinobots #4
  51. 2009/04/01 Spotlight: Jazz
  52. 2009/04/08 Spotlight: Drift
  53. 2009/04/15 All Hail Megatron #10
  54. 2009/04/15 Maximum Dinobots #5
  55. 2009/05/20 All Hail Megatron #11
  56. 2009/06/17 Spotlight: Cliffjumper
  57. 2009/06/24 All Hail Megatron #12
  58. 2009/07/01 Spotlight: Metroplex
  59. 2009/07/22 - ??/?? All Hail Megatron #13-16

}}

This order starts out all right, but beginning around the time of Escalation and ramping up quickly afterwards, we see all narrative flow go out the window in the name of pumping out minis as rapidly as possible. I think we can do much better in terms of a "recommended" order, and the first step is condensing the minis, since each one is a discrete chunk of story. Using the last issue of each as its anchor point, that gives us:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 3 }}

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3

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  1. Infiltration
  2. Spotlight: Shockwave
  3. Stormbringer
  4. Spotlight: Nightbeat
  5. Spotlight: Hot Rod
  6. Spotlight: Sixshot
  7. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
  8. Spotlight: Soundwave
  9. Spotlight: Kup
  10. Escalation
  11. Spotlight: Galvatron
  12. Spotlight: Optimus Prime
  13. New Avengers / Transformers
  14. Megatron Origin
  15. Spotlight: Ramjet
  16. Spotlight: Blaster
  17. Spotlight: Arcee
  18. Devastation
  19. Spotlight: Mirage
  20. Spotlight: Grimlock
  21. Spotlight: Wheelie
  22. Revelation
  23. Spotlight: Blurr
  24. Spotlight: Jazz
  25. Spotlight: Drift
  26. Maximum Dinobots
  27. Spotlight: Cliffjumper
  28. Spotlight: Metroplex
  29. All Hail Megatron

}}

This is better, but it could still be improved. Going down the list, I think the initial batch is fine. SL: Shockwave is an odd outlier, but it's narratively sound - it resolves the Ore-13 mystery from Infiltration and lays the groundwork for the revelation at the end of Stormbringer of how Bludgeon got the Ultra-Energon to reactivate Thunderwing. I think it's better that it be read here and not interrupt the flow of Stormbringer as it did in publication order. The slew of Spotlights after Stormbringer are a heavy dose, but everything in them sets up stuff in Escalation (except SL: Kup, which should be presented as early as possible anyway so a palatable amount of time passes before he shows up again perfectly sane).

Really, everything reads fine until we get to New Avengers / Transformers. As much as I would like to ignore it entirely, it's pretty aggressively part of this continuity. SL: Ramjet establishes it as happening before the majority of Escalation, a fact that's hinted at within NA/TF itself when Megatron tells Prime that they haven't had a fight to the death yet, but it's coming. Megatron has his gun-body and has repaired and reintegrated his little band of soldiers, which puts it after Escalation #2.... and probably by sheer coincidence, #2 does not end on a cliffhanger; there's actually time between it and #3 for a Latverian escapade. Moreover, in #2 Megatron declares that he's going to start igniting wars around the globe, but he doesn't say where. The Latverian incident fits perfectly after that and before the climactic Brasnyan battle. The one discrepancy in it all is a very brief flashback in SL: Ramjet that puts NA/TF before Megatron had even changed bodies. But dismissing it does no damage to the plot of SL: Ramjet, so I choose to dismiss it indeed and insert NA/TF into Escalation. The beginning of the list, then, now looks like this:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 1 }}

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1

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  1. Infiltration
  2. Spotlight: Shockwave
  3. Stormbringer
  4. Spotlight: Nightbeat
  5. Spotlight: Hot Rod
  6. Spotlight: Sixshot
  7. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
  8. Spotlight: Soundwave
  9. Spotlight: Kup
  10. Escalation #1-2
  11. New Avengers / Transformers
  12. Escalation #3-6
  13. Spotlight: Galvatron
  14. Spotlight: Optimus Prime

}}

Great. But then we get to Megatron Origin, which I had already declared unsuitable in its in-fiction chronological spot. It's really not particularly suitable here, either, since just as SL: Galvatron and SL: Optimus are building up steam for the cosmic storyline to come, the reader is hit with this overstuffed wad of ancient Cybertronian politics that has no bearing on any of the other distant-past stuff that's also being explored (nor on the present-day stuff, for that matter). It's a very free-floating unit of story, so my choice is to punt it to the end of Furman's run, where it can signal the guard-changing and the onset of Megatron-centric-ness. We'll come to that later.

So next comes SL: Ramjet, which I'm tempted to move right after Escalation, but I don't want to do too much jerrymandering for no reason. Nothing really demands that it be shifted, so I'll leave it where it is. SL: Blaster is perfectly fine, but SL: Arcee doesn't feel right being before all of Devastation, since within the fiction, Arcee's actions really do interrupt the events of that miniseries. The publication order puts SL: Arcee between Devastation #5 and #6, but this is after Prime has already reacted to the emergency. Moving the Spotlight one issue back is chronologically sound, but it means interfering with the cliffhanger at the end of #4 (the Reapers attacking the Decepticon base). The thing is, #5 ends with a cliffhanger of its own (the Decepticons launching a counterassault), so the options are equal in that regard. I think in-fiction chronology wins out. So now we have:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 2 }}

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2

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  1. Infiltration
  2. Spotlight: Shockwave
  3. Stormbringer
  4. Spotlight: Nightbeat
  5. Spotlight: Hot Rod
  6. Spotlight: Sixshot
  7. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
  8. Spotlight: Soundwave
  9. Spotlight: Kup
  10. Escalation #1-2
  11. New Avengers / Transformers
  12. Escalation #3-6
  13. Spotlight: Galvatron
  14. Spotlight: Optimus Prime
  15. Spotlight: Ramjet
  16. Spotlight: Blaster
  17. Devastation #1-4
  18. Spotlight: Arcee
  19. Devastation #5-6

}}

Aaand then we hit SL: Mirage. Didn't take long to find another conflict! Despite the fact that the bulk of SL: Mirage takes place in an alternate dimension, the few glimpses of the mainstream universe show Mirage and Hound with Prime's crew in Earth-adapted bodies, Soundwave having been reactivated, and Mirage himself apparently on Earth at the very end, despite the Autobots' departure from Earth being a huge plot-point at the end of Devastation. Soundwave's presence puts the story after Maximum Dinobots, the Decepticons are in pre-All Hail Megatron bodies, and Hound and Mirage are actually SUPPOSED to be on Earth before AHM, so I'll bump this Spotlight into the same post-Furman limbo as Megatron Origin. It only causes narrative confusion in its current spot.

Next we have SL: Grimlock, which follows directly from events in Devastation, so that's good. After that, though, we get SL: Wheelie, which seems all right at first glance, but since Reflector will still be alive in AHM, this one is actually out of place too. I'm a little torn on whether to actually bump it, since the chronological hiccup is a fairly minor problem... but, ehhh, the main narrative is moving so fast at this point, I think it's best to clear the way for that. Bump!

So. Let's take a look at the whole list again:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 3 }}

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3

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  1. Infiltration
  2. Spotlight: Shockwave
  3. Stormbringer
  4. Spotlight: Nightbeat
  5. Spotlight: Hot Rod
  6. Spotlight: Sixshot
  7. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
  8. Spotlight: Soundwave
  9. Spotlight: Kup
  10. Escalation #1-2
  11. New Avengers / Transformers
  12. Escalation #3-6
  13. Spotlight: Galvatron
  14. Spotlight: Optimus Prime
  15. Spotlight: Ramjet
  16. Spotlight: Blaster
  17. Devastation #1-4
  18. Spotlight: Arcee
  19. Devastation #5-6
  20. Spotlight: Grimlock
  21. Revelation
  22. Spotlight: Blurr
  23. Spotlight: Jazz
  24. Spotlight: Drift
  25. Maximum Dinobots
  26. (?) Megatron Origin
  27. (?) Spotlight: Mirage
  28. Spotlight: Cliffjumper
  29. Spotlight: Metroplex
  30. All Hail Megatron
  31. Spotlight: Wheelie

}}

I think we're almost there, but the issues between Revelation and AHM are still narratively jumbled. Revelation should really lead straight into Maximum Dinobots and finish the Furman run; none of the Spotlights in-between do any good there, and in fact SL: Jazz makes no sense at all unless it's inserted into AHM somewhere. While its framing events could occur before AHM#1, the reader would be clueless as to what's going on. It has to be before #4, since it features a distinct lack of Kup & co., but I think waiting until after #3 is good, since that gives time for the full extent of Megatron's victory to sink in. So bumping those three Spotlights up, the end of the list now looks like:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 1 }}

|

1

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  1. Revelation
  2. Maximum Dinobots
  3. (?) Megatron Origin
  4. (?) Spotlight: Mirage
  5. Spotlight: Blurr
  6. Spotlight: Drift
  7. Spotlight: Cliffjumper
  8. Spotlight: Metroplex
  9. All Hail Megatron #1-3
  10. Spotlight: Jazz
  11. All Hail Megatron #4-16
  12. Spotlight: Wheelie

}}

I still really like Megatron Origin as a marker denoting the end of the Furman era. SL: Mirage wasn't actually a Furman story, and I think it works really well as a precursor to All Hail (what with Mirage's potential traitorhood and all), so I'm happy moving it into the pre-AHM Spotlight batch. In fact, look what happens if we swap SL: Drift and SL: Cliffjumper and put SL: Mirage in-between:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 1 }}

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1

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  1. Megatron Origin
  2. Spotlight: Blurr
  3. Spotlight: Cliffjumper
  4. Spotlight: Mirage
  5. Spotlight: Drift
  6. Spotlight: Metroplex

}}

Megatron Origin takes the reader back to the start of the war, SL: Blurr shows a time period very soon afterwards, when the choosing of sides is becoming everyone's concern, and SL: Cliffjumper shows a much later stage of the war when it has spread to other planets and the Autobots have become uncomfortably similar to their enemies. SL: Mirage continues the theme of blurring the 'Bot/'Con line as it brings the storyline back to the present, laying the seeds for AHM with Mirage's ambiguity. SL: Drift shows the Decepticon side of the same degradation-through-eons-of-war, and putting it after SL: Mirage signals to the reader that it's also a present-day story. So Kup has in fact gotten better, and the other Autobots' reactions in AHM to Drift (skeptical) and Perceptor (shocked at his chest-wound-induced change in personality) will make sense because there's been no time for either one to gain acceptance. And then finally, SL: Metroplex specifically identifies itself as taking place right before AHM#1 in its indicia, and as a bonus it also establishes how Megatron got spacebridge tech and drops ominous hints about how the war may have been already lost. This is admittedly my most subjective call, and I don't really like rearranging the sequence of the Spotlights so much, but the end result just works too well.

Whew! So that's my take on it all. Here's the final list:

{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 3 }}

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3

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  1. Infiltration
  2. Spotlight: Shockwave
  3. Stormbringer
  4. Spotlight: Nightbeat
  5. Spotlight: Hot Rod
  6. Spotlight: Sixshot
  7. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
  8. Spotlight: Soundwave
  9. Spotlight: Kup
  10. Escalation #1-2
  11. New Avengers / Transformers
  12. Escalation #3-6
  13. Spotlight: Galvatron
  14. Spotlight: Optimus Prime
  15. Spotlight: Ramjet
  16. Spotlight: Blaster
  17. Devastation #1-4
  18. Spotlight: Arcee
  19. Devastation #5-6
  20. Spotlight: Grimlock
  21. Revelation
  22. Maximum Dinobots
  23. Megatron Origin
  24. Spotlight: Blurr
  25. Spotlight: Cliffjumper
  26. Spotlight: Mirage
  27. Spotlight: Drift
  28. Spotlight: Metroplex
  29. All Hail Megatron #1-3
  30. Spotlight: Jazz
  31. All Hail Megatron #4-16
  32. Spotlight: Wheelie

}}

I'm pretty sure I got everything, and I think my reasoning is tight, but if anyone has any thoughts, feel free to comment or critique. - Jackpot 02:28, 27 July 2009 (EDT)

Personally I'd love for a clear cut between the "Furman" era and the stuff that comes after it, which would mean putting Spotlight: Wheelie after Maximum Dinobots. That'd mean the Furman era ends with SL: Wheelie, which wouldn't be bad at all! Megatron: Origin and Spotlight: Mirage are collateral damage, but then again, I didn't really like either.--Nevermore 06:24, 21 September 2009 (EDT)
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