Transformers: Historia

This article is about the well-researched IDW recap comic. For the poorly-researched IDW recap comic, see The Transformers Continuum.

Transformers: Historia
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 9, 2019 (UK) January 16, 2019 (US)
Written by	Chris McFeely
Illustrated by	various.
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Page count	59

Transformers: Historia is a double-sized one-shot book that documents the 2005 IDW continuity. A "capstone" released after the finale of said continuity, Historia serves as a retrospective guide to the universe, documenting its chronological history from beginning to end.

The year was 2005. The treacherous Decepticons and their heroic Autobot counterparts descended upon the Earth and unleashed a new era of Transformers comics through IDW Publishing. Thirteen years and hundreds of issues later, that universe has come to a close. Join Transformers historian Chris McFeely on a guide distilling the past 13 years of publishing history and remember the masterful storytelling of the first IDW Transformers run.Solicitation blurb

Synopsis

Historia is a prose guide to IDW Publishing's first Transformers continuity in advance of the 2019 reboot. In rough chronological order, the book describes:

• The origins of the Guiding Hand and the rise of the Cybertronian species, as documented in Lost Light #23
• The age of the Thirteen, the First Cybertronian Civil War and the ascension of Nova Prime, from Robots in Disguise and Optimus Prime
• Megatron's early life and the foundation of the Decepticons, as seen in the "Chaos Theory" two-parter and Megatron Origin
• The outbreak of the Great War, from the Autocracy, Monstrosity, and Primacy trilogy
• The galaxy-spanning wartime events of Revolutionaries #5, Spotlight: Shockwave, Drift, Rom vs. Transformers, Spotlight: Soundwave, and Revolutionaries #3
• The adventures of the Autobots on Earth and beyond, from Infiltration, Escalation, Devastation, Maximum Dinobots, and Revelation
• The Decepticon Surge and Megatron's all-out attack on Earth, from All Hail Megatron, and the Wreckers' doomed mission to Garrus-9 in Last Stand of the Wreckers
• The Autobot-Skywatch conflict, Hot Rod's adventures in space, and D-Void's attack on Cybertron, from The Transformers vol. 1
• The launch of the Lost Light and political turmoil on Cybertron in The Death of Optimus Prime, The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, and The Transformers: Robots in Disguise
• Shockwave's attack on the universe, in Dark Cybertron
• Megatron's trial and co-captaincy of the Lost Light, as seen in "season 2" of More than Meets the Eye, and Optimus Prime's new mission to Earth, in The Transformers vol. 2
• Windblade's arrival on Cybertron and the formation of the Council of Worlds, from Windblade vol. 1 and 2 and Combiner Wars
• The events of Sins of the Wreckers
• The mutiny that sees "Team Rodimus" stranded in the Functionist Universe and their quest to find Getaway, from "The Dying of the Light" and Lost Light
• Windblade vs. Bruticus and Vigilem, from Till All Are One
• Optimus Prime's annexation of Earth, the revenge of Sentinel Prime and the battle against Baron Karza for Earth's Ore-13, as seen in "All Hail Optimus", Titans Return, and Revolution
• The Junkion refugee crisis, from "New Cybertron"
• Trypticon and the next generation of Cybertronian life, from Salvation and "The Dead Come Home" and the final battle of the Wreckers from Requiem of the Wreckers
• Joe Colton's attack on Cybertron in First Strike, and the events of "The Falling" and Transformers vs. Visionaries
• The grand finale: the Lost Light crew's battle against Getaway, Adaptus, and the Functionist Council, and, finally, the world-shattering events of Unicron

Notes

Continuity notes

As the final sendoff for the original 2005-2018 IDW continuity, Historia takes the opportunity to engage in some last-minute smoothing of continuity, plugging in some lingering discrepancies and unanswered questions.

• Lost Light never stated how Epistemus's head wound up in the care of the Omega Guardians and became the Magnificence; Historia reveals that, following the God War, Epistemus joined up with the Knights of Cybertron and voluntarily stayed behind with the Omega Guardians during the early days of the Knights' quest across the galaxy, eventually giving up his body in pursuit of knowledge. Shockwave was noted to have theorized a similar sequence of events in Lost Light #14.
• The concept of the "thirteen colonies" formed an integral part of the IDW mythos in the final years of the continuity; however, thanks to some loose-end tying by John Barber, the concept was folded in with Shockwave's thirteen Regenesis planets in Unicron. As a result, only a handful of these thirteen planets could truly be called "colonies" that had been inhabited by Cybertronian settlers: Caminus, Devisiun, Eukaris, Velocitron, and (possibly) Arduria. Historia smooths over this discrepancy by noting that this idea of "thirteen colonies" was merely a legend, one that conflated the existence of these five planets with the seven other worlds that had been touched by the dark legacy of the Primes.
• Seemingly corroborating Centurion's profile in Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1, the narration notes that the Maximals came to Earth in search of the Enigma of Combination... though it's as vague as ever if that was truly why "Onyx Prime" sent the crew of the Axalon into space, or if it was simply a pretext so that they could be shot down over Earth and fulfill the ontological paradox posed by Shockwave's younger self.
• Why exactly Merklynn came to Earth, of all planets, was never expounded on; here, it's established that he came in search of sufficient magical energy in order to restore his lost homeworld of Prysmos, finding such an artifact in the Talisman.
• According to the Historia, the reason why the Senate had their men break into the Rodion police station in Chaos Theory #2 was to eliminate Whirl, not rescue him.
• Following on from revelations in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook and First Strike #5, Historia explicitly confirms that the Decepticon Insecticons and the "swarm" of failed clones that preceded their creation were the product of genetic experimentation on a naturally-occurring subterranean subspecies.
• The two non-Hasbro Universe crossover stories, New Avengers/Transformers and Infestation, are ignored entirely, presumably for reasons of space and them not really having much to do with the main IDW storyline.
• The discrepancy between the timeframes of Lost Light versus Till All Are One and Optimus Prime—the former playing out over a matter of weeks, the latter two over a much longer timeframe—is not addressed, though (as we humbly propose elsewhere on this wiki) travel through the Warren might go a ways towards no-prizing this error.
• The exact correlation between the "real" Unicron—the transformed Antilla—and the mythical Unicron, the dreaded "uncreator" of Cybertronian legend, had not previously been made clear in the IDW continuity; Historia posits that the Talisman's energy burst in Transformers vs. Visionaries #5, revealed in Unicron #0 to have transmitted the word "Unicron", bestowed that legendary name upon the monster planet.
• The book ends with the events of Unicron #6, with the Lunarians of Luna One receiving a mention, but otherwise omitting Lost Light #25's quantum duplication of the Lost Light and that issue's glimpse into the far-distant future.

Transformers references

• The origins of the Enigma of Combination had never been stated in any actual issue; Historia confirms that it was forged by Solus Prime, hearkening to her incarnation in the Aligned continuity family, who was explicitly responsible for the creation of all of the Artifacts of the Primes.
• Unicron and Functionist Cybertron are described as "monster planet[s]", a description used by Bumblebee in The Transformers: The Movie and prominently featured in the Star Wars-style "opening crawl" of the film's United Kingdom and Australian releases.

Hasbro franchise references

• G.I. Joe is introduced as a "daring, highly-trained special mission force", the description of the team given in the opening sequence of the original 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon.

Errors

• Writers Chuck Dixon (Hearts of Steel) and Eric Holmes (Megatron Origin) are both missing from the list of writers on whose work the book is based.
• Kris Carter, who colored the panel from Spotlight: Cyclonus on page 18, is uncredited.
• Vivian Grannell, who acted as a sensitivity reader in regards to Arcee's origins, goes uncredited.
• In the first paragraph of page 15, the phrase "the Maximals true memories" is missing a possessive apostrophe.
• Though Arcee's Sourcebook profile has been edited to note her sibling relation to Galvatron, her profile also claims that she has no known relatives.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for December 19, this issue was delayed by nearly a month, releasing halfway through January.
• This project started life as a fan-project by Chris McFeely, which at one point was sent to editor John Barber. Some time later, subsequent editor David Mariotte (who apparently was a big fan of sourcebooks, which is what resulted in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook series) got in touch with Chris out of the blue to see about releasing Historia as a capstone to the IDW continuity.
• The cover pitch originally would have seen all the IDW characters springing not from the Matrix, but from Brainstorm's briefcase!
• The Dead Universe "anti-Matrix", originally known simply as the Darkness, is consistently referred to as the Heart of Darkness, the replacement name for it first used in Infestation.
• Backmatter includes reprinted profiles from the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook series: print copies include just Optimus Prime and Windblade, while digital copies feature Arcee, Megatron and Starscream as well. Arcee's profile is tweaked to note her sibling relation to Galvatron, which had not been revealed at the time of the Sourcebook's publication.
• The book also includes a reading guide to the continuity for the benefit of new Transformers fans looking to catch up.

Cover

• A smattering of characters and concepts from across the continuity within photonic crystals, spewing from the Matrix, by Sara Pitre-Durocher. The list of characters include Ironfist, Aileron, Windblade, Devastator, Arcee, Drift, Springer, Minimus Ambus and Ultra Magnus, Tailgate's vial of Cyclonus' innermost energon, Rodimus, one of Mortilus's spark-flowers, Optimus Prime, Thundercracker and Buster, Pyra Magna, Chromedome's hand on Rewind's shoulder, Galvatron, Megatron as both an Autobot and Decepticon, Nova Prime, Bludgeon, Soundwave and Laserbeak, Bumblebee, Overlord, Shockwave, Starscream, Superion, Anode, Verity Carlo and Ratchet, and last but not least, Rung.

Reprints

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 86: The Everlasting Voices (July 1, 2020)

Contains The Transformers: Lost Light issues #13 to #18.

Bonus material includes the first half of Transformers: Historia (up to Last Stand of the Wreckers), including the Windblade profile, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 87: Crucible (July 29, 2020)

Contains Lost Light issues #19 to #24.

Bonus material includes the second half of Transformers: Historia, including the Optimus Prime profile, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.

• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 86: The Everlasting Voices cover by Dreamwave Productions and Jack Lawrence
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 87: Crucible cover by Dreamwave Productions, Casey Coller and Tom B. Long

See also

• 2005 IDW timeline

External links

• Preview