The Transformers Continuum

The Transformers Continuum: The Definitive Chronology
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	IDW Generation 1 continuity
Page count	32

The Transformers Continuum: The Definitive Chronology is a one-shot comic book set in the IDW Generation 1 continuity chronicling the history of the Transformers.

Summary

Take the IDW timeline, put it in a blender, add some spelling errors, and you've got Transformers Continuum. New descriptive prose accompanies reused art from appropriate moments. 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.

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.

• The Autobots' stand against Thunderwing is said to be on Nebulos, when it was actually on Cybertron.

• Bludgeon is misspelled on page 7.

• 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 discovery that Sunstreaker's "body" was a decoy and the subsequent rescue attempt being half the plot of Escalation.

• Scorponok's fight with Ultra Magnus on Nebulos in "Spotlight: Ultra Magnus" is placed chronologically after Maximum Dinobots, even though it was his run-in with Magnus that decapitated him and led to the events of Maximum Dinobots.

• 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.

• 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 alive in a later issue.

Notes

• 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.

• Unfathomably, despite covering "Spotlight: Wheelie"—one of the biggest stand-alone Spotlight stories, almost entirely unconnected to anything else going on in the IDW universe—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".

• Swear to god, it's like they're trying to screw with us.

Cover

• Various classic 1985-style Autobots and Decepticons (though with some mild heavier tech detailing) surrounding Spike Witwicky, by Ken Christiansen.

External links

• Critical review at Tformers.com