The Transformers Continuum

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

The Transformers Continuum
If IDW won't even read their own material when they're getting paid for it, why should we give them money to read it?
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 11, 2009
Written by	Andy Schmidt
Illustrated by	Please see individual issues for credits.
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity...ish
Page count	32

The Transformers Continuum is a one-shot comic book set in the 2005 IDW continuity chronicling the history of the Transformers. In theory.

I think a lot of people wanted the book to do something it was never intended to do and a lot of people read the book not realizing for whom it was intended.IDW writer/editor Andy Schmidt does not want your money, TFormers interview with Andy Schmidt

Synopsis

Take the 2005 IDW timeline, put it in a blender, add some spelling errors, and you've got Transformers Continuum. New descriptive prose accompanying reused art from appropriate moments leaps wildly between truncated generalization of long arcs with many important plot points left out and over-detailed recollections of irrelevant minutiae. At the very end is what is intended to be a chronological listing of IDW's Transformers comic books and promotion for their Transformers trade paperbacks.

Reading Chronology

Despite being billed as a "reading chronology", the chronological ordering given in the back of this book isn't really reader-friendly, pushing a bunch of Spotlight stories and an entire prequel miniseries ahead of Infiltration, the intended slow-burn introduction to the characters and setting. Confusingly, the chronological ordering given here differs from that used by The Transformers: The IDW Collection hardcovers—which was also Schmidt's work!

• The Transformers: Megatron Origin #1-4
• Spotlight: Blurr
• Spotlight: Shockwave
• Spotlight: Jazz
• Spotlight: Cliffjumper
• Spotlight: Wheelie
• Spotlight: Sixshot
• Spotlight: Hot Rod
• Spotlight: Soundwave
• Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
• Spotlight: Nightbeat
• The Transformers: Infiltration #0-6
• The Transformers: Stormbringer #1-4
• Spotlight: Kup
• The Transformers: Escalation #1-6
• Spotlight: Ramjet
• Spotlight: Galvatron
• Spotlight: Optimus Prime
• Spotlight: Blaster
• Spotlight: Arcee
• The Transformers: Devastation #1-6
• Spotlight: Mirage
• Spotlight: Grimlock
• Spotlight: Cyclonus
• Spotlight: Hardhead
• Spotlight: Doubledealer
• Spotlight: Sideswipe
• The Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #1-5
• The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #15: Story A
• Spotlight: Drift
• The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #15: Story B
• Spotlight: Metroplex
• The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1-12
• The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #13
• The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #14
• The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #16
• The Transformers #1

Errors

Unfortunately, instead of correcting errors, Continuum presents the reader with new ones, such as:

• Pre-Decepticon Megatron is said to be a slave, when in actuality, he was a paid energon crystal miner who lost his job. Apparently, Megatron objected to being freed. (This was later redeemed by James Roberts, who said that miners were oppressed to the point of near-slaves.)
• The Autobots' stand against Thunderwing is said to be on Nebulos, when it was actually on Cybertron.
• It's implied that Thunderwing was still alive (rather than a reanimated corpse), and no mention is made that he was a puppet under Bludgeon's control.
• Bludgeon is misspelled on page 7. Also, it seems to imply that he learned Pretender technology from Shockwave, when it was actually Thunderwing who discovered it. It's also said that Bludgeon acquired the technology during the events in Stormbringer, when it was actually before it.
• The Autobots befriended "two young humans". Jimmy Pink no longer exists, even though we see him show up on the page detailing the end of Maximum Dinobots.
• It is said that the "Autobots believed Sunstreaker and Hunter were dead, and thus did not search for them", despite the immediate discovery that Sunstreaker's "body" was a decoy and the subsequent rescue attempt being half the plot of Escalation.
• The Machination and Skywatch are treated as the same group. In fact, the Machination itself is never mentioned; instead, everything that either organization did is credited to Skywatch.
• Scorponok's fight with Ultra Magnus on Nebulos (Continuum remains vague on the actual location of this encounter) in Spotlight: Ultra Magnus is placed chronologically after the beginning of Scorponok's involvement with "Skywatch" (in actuality, the Machination), even though a caption points out that "The ensuing carnage led Scorponok to Earth", despite the previous page having already placed him there. (The Reading Chronology in the back orders this correctly.) Worse, the same caption claims that "Ultra Magnus, ever fearless, was not far behind", even though the events of Spotlight: Ultra Magnus occurred about 20 years before the events of Infiltration etc., and Magnus wouldn't arrive on Earth until picking up a distress call from Hot Rod in Maximum Dinobots #4.
• The entirety of Spotlight: Wheelie seems to take place before All Hail Megatron, even though Viewfinder dies in it (he's fine in All Hail Megatron) and the events of the issue take place over a very long period of time. (The Viewfinder problem was later solved in Robots in Disguise #9.)
• There's even chronology problems within the issue itself: Page 14 highlights the discovery of Grimlock and the other Dynobots by Skywatch, when they were already revealed to be in Skywatch's custody three pages earlier!
• Megatron is said to have died when Spike Witwicky shot him at the end of All Hail Megatron, despite this never being the case and him being shown to be on life support in All Hail Megatron #13.
• Skywarp "fired into [Thundercracker's] back", yet Thundercracker was shot in the face.
• On page 23, there should be a space between "every" and "day" ("everyday" is an adjective, "every day" an adverb).

Notes

• The cover depicts various classic 1985-style Autobots and Decepticons (though with some mild heavier tech detailing) surrounding Spike Witwicky, by Ken Christiansen.
• Events in the past are said to be "legend" and "unknown" when almost everyone who experienced those events are still alive and on active duty to this day. Even though writer James Roberts would later introduce the concept of "information creep", it doesn't come close to explaining this.
• Unfathomably, despite covering Spotlight: Wheelie—one of the most stand-alone Spotlight stories, almost entirely unconnected to anything else going on in the IDW universe until several years after the publication of Continuum—no coverage is given to highly important, relevant, tied-in Spotlight stories like Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot, Kup, Soundwave, Optimus Prime...
• Nova Prime's matrix-like "Darkness" is now the "Heart of Darkness".
• Any reference to New Avengers/Transformers is omitted from the issue, but then, that's because of Marvel's hand in it. Crossovers are complicated like that!
• One of IDW's forum (fan) moderators quit over the reaction to this issue, calling parts of the board a "festering cesspool" and giving the two-finger salute: Soon after, the more argumentative posts (including the moderator's outburst and the subsequent replies) were deleted.
• In an interview with TFormers, Andy Schmidt revealed that all of these changes were intentional, in order to simplify things, because he hopes to attract new, younger readers who can relate to the concept of slavery more easily than blue-collar workers being laid off, and who would be confused by the presence of two different organizations with mostly human members. Uh.
• To his credit, Andy Schmidt formally admitted to the poor quality of this book, albeit five months after it was released. He also stated that Denton J. Tipton and Carlos Guzman made fun of him at the office for it.

See also

• What Is the Story of Transformers?, a similarly poorly-researched guidebook

External links

• Critical review at Tformers.com
• Another review pointing out each error (dead link)
• Five-part video review/rant: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (46 minutes)
• David Willis making fun of The Half-Assed Definitive Chronology.