The Transformers: Robots in Disguise

The name or term "Robots in Disguise" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Robots in Disguise (disambiguation).

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise is an ongoing comic series begun by IDW Publishing in 2012. The series initially focused on Bumblebee and the Autobots trying to organize peace among the NAILs and Decepticons and bring Cybertron to a new Golden Age. Later issues follow the adventures of Optimus Prime as he reassumes command, the further exploits of the Transformers on Earth, and the resurgence of combination technology.

The series picks off from "The Death of Optimus Prime", the final issue of the previous ongoing, and intertwines with events from the first new series for 2012, More than Meets the Eye, forming with it the fourth major "act" of IDW's ongoing Generation 1 continuity.

The series was retitled simply The Transformers starting with issue #35^[1] to avoid confusion with the 2015 Robots in Disguise franchise. The series is set to conclude with issue #57 and will relaunch as Optimus Prime in November 2016.

«	The Transformers: Robots in Disguise issues:
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 Annual 2012 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34

	The Transformers vol. 2 issues:	»
#35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51 #52 #53 #54 #55 #56 #57

Overview

Based on Cybertron, the series focuses on Bumblebee's new government, and their attempts to lead and rebuild the primordial planet. They must deal with new arrivals daily —NAILs, ex-Autobots and ex-Decepticons, along with the Decepticons left around after Megatron's disappearance— and attempt to unify them all. The series employs consistent use of first-person narrative captions, with each issue being narrated by one of the central characters of the series: Bumblebee himself, ineffective in his leadership role and struggling to do anything about it; sanctimonious NAIL representative Metalhawk; Starscream, trying his hand at legitimately gaining power through political manipulations; security chief Prowl, slowly turning to the dark side as his past weighs down on him; under-appreciated but perennially upbeat Wheeljack; and Ironhide, who has seen a vision of the future and is trying to balance its meaning with present-day reality. Major supporting cast members include Arcee, now employed as a secret assassin by Prowl with plans of her own; Dirge and Swindle, the former hoping that the war may be truly over and he can have a life of his own, the latter there to temper his optimism; and a retired Blurr, now running Maccadam's Old Oil House. A small circle of Autobots, Decepticons and NAILS make up a recurring group of tertiary characters that includes Needlenose, Sky-Byte, Zetca, and others.

"Optimus, Kiss-Players ahead!"
"ATTACK!"

Season 1

Tensions run high following the apparent destruction of the Lost Light, and Ratbat plots to have Skywarp assassinate Bumblebee during a memorial for the ship. Prowl and Arcee foil the attempted murder thanks to Starscream, who sees no benefit to restarting the war, and begins to work with Bumblebee and Metalhawk to form a new united government for Cybertron. Though many Decepticons are provided with jobs and fall into line, Bombshell continues with mysterious experiments that result in Prowl, at the end of his tether and increasingly emotionally closed-off, executing him. Fortunately, Ironhide is able to prevent events snowballing into chaos by successfully petitioning to have the I/D chips installed in the Decepticons turned off, restoring a sense of equality to the Transformer race. Ironhide then recruits the Dinobots to join him in venturing into the wilderness to searching for the missing Aerialbots, only to go missing themselves. The other Autobots, Decepticons, and NAILs search for them, but discover a Titan has returned to Cybertron, and it dubs Starscream the destined leader of the Transformer race. Before Starscream can exploit this new standing to any great extent, Megatron makes a surprising return and is taken into custody, causing the Decepticons to riot in the streets. Megatron has secretly been working with a small team of Decepticons in Iacon to perfect the combination process, and he creates a new, more-powerful Devastator out of the Constructicons and Prowl, who has been under the mind-control of the still-living Bombshell. Ironhide and the Dinobots return with the Aerialbots— now a combiner named Superion— and battle Devastator, while Megatron himself is neutralized by a failsafe created by Wheeljack. In the chaos, however, Starscream kills Metalhawk and uses his death to secure his position as sole ruler of Iacon, casting the Autobots and Decepticons out into the wilderness.

Simultaneously with this story arc, the adventures of Orion Pax are chronicled in a few side-story issues narrated by Orion himself. Alongside Hardhead and Wheelie, Orion discovers that Jhiaxus, Bludgeon, and Monstructor are carrying out a plan of Shockwave's that involves using the different ores of the Regenesis program to alter the future. With Megatron's defeat on Cybertron, Shockwave turns all his attention to his part of this plan, paving the way for the "Dark Cybertron" crossover event.

Season 2

The setting shifts from Cybertron to Earth, Orion reclaims the name Optimus Prime and resumes leadership of the Autobots following Bumblebee's death, while Galvatron becomes the new Decepticon leader. New additions to the main cast of Autobots include Kup, Jetfire, Jazz, Sideswipe, Sky Lynx, and Cosmos, while the Constructicons start working for Prowl. More of Galvatron's backstory is explored, harkening back to his role in the First Cybertronian Civil War against the Headmasters. The opening story of "Earthfall" chronicles Optimus and Galvatron's attempts to find the missing Alpha Trion, who was absent after Metroplex returned to Cybertron.

Entering Earth's orbit, the crew of Ark-7 is attacked by human-built missiles derived from Cybertronian technology. Unwilling to risk the ship, Optimus takes Arcee, Jazz, Sideswipe, Kup, and Prowl down to Earth in Sky Lynx, while Jetfire steers the ship into the Moon's orbit. When they arrive, Optimus, Kup, and Jazz meet the ex-Seeker Thundercracker, who has been living a quiet life on Earth since before Cybertron's resoration. Once in the open, the three Autobots are placed under arrest by the Earth Defense Command, who allied with the Decepticons shortly after "Dark Cybertron". The Autobots escape the EDC's custody and return to their ship, where they manage to track the signal of the "Mind Bomb" —a device which scrambles a Cybertronian's brainwaves— to an EDC base on Bikini Atoll. Optimus leads an assault on the facility, and the Autobots rescue Alpha Trion, whom the EDC was holding captive. Trion explains that he was on Earth looking for the Enigma of Combination, the artefact of Nexus Prime, which allows for the creation of combiners. The Autobots, Decepticons, and humans fight over the Enigma, which is in the possession of Garrison Blackrock, the CEO of the Onyx Corporation. The Decepticons finally acquire it, but Starscream's spy Scoop steals it. Optimus returns to Cybertron, leading into the Combiner Wars crossover event.

"Starscream, nervous breakdown ahead!"
"ATTACK!"

Cybertron prepares to make formal first contact with Caminus —one of the thirteen colony planets— via Metroplex's space bridge. Once he acquires the Enigma of Combination, Starscream uses Combiners, including the repaired Superion, the reformed Menasor, and the newly-created Defensor, as pawns in a plot to manipulate the Camiens into forming an alliance with Cybertron. Caminus' Forgefire Parliament see Optimus as a living god, and he soon convinces them to unite with Cybertron. Receiving word of this alliance through his double agent Rattrap, Prowl returns to Cybertron with the Constructicons via the space bridge stolen from Onyx. Determined to prevent Starscream from forming an empire, Prowl forms Devastator and goes on a destructive rampage. Superion and Defensor stop Devastator and Prowl is arrested, but Starscream later uses the Enigma to integrate Scoop into the Constructicon Combiner. Rattrap betrays Starscream, frees the imprisoned Menasor and brings the Enigma of Combination to Prowl, who uses it to merge himself, Optimus, Ironhide, Sunstreaker and Mirage into another Combiner: Optimus Maximus. After Optimus Maximus emerges victorious in a final battle with the other four Combiners, Prowl is re-arrested, but he soon escapes custody and goes on the run.

Creative team

Series writer John Barber (left) and artist Andrew Griffith (right).

The series is written by John Barber, bringing to the book the eye for intricate continuity-handling and first-person-narrative flow that he implemented during his time on IDW's Dark of the Moon comics. Barber's Foundation co-creator Andrew Griffith is the regular artist, basing his depictions of many characters on the designs used for their Aligned continuity family counterparts in the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron video games, with Josh Perez on colors.

Livio Ramondelli is the regular artist for the Orion Pax side-story issues, drawing and coloring in his unique painterly style. Casey Coller provides "B" covers for the series, and has stepped in to provide occasional interior pages throughout the series, as have Brendan Cahill and Guido Guidi, who also illustrated the 2012 annual. Joana Lafuente and Priscilla Tramontano have also contributed colors. Marcelo Matere regularly provides retailer incentive variant covers for the series.

Collections

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (July 25, 2012) ISBN 1613772912 / ISBN 978-1613772911

Contains issues #1–5.
Bonus material includes art from most covers and notes on issue #3 by the author/artists.

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 2 (January 2, 2013 ) ISBN 1613775415 / ISBN 978-1613775417

Contains issues #6–9.
Bonus material: cover gallery.

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 3 (April 17, 2013) ISBN 1613776268 / ISBN 978-1613776261

Contains Annual 2012 and issues #10–11.
Bonus material includes cover gallery, and Barber's script notes and Guidi's sketches for the Annual.

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 4 (September 18, 2013) ISBN 1613777655 / ISBN 978-1613777657

Contains issues #12–16.
Bonus material: cover gallery.

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 5 (December 4, 2013) ISBN 1613778368 / ISBN 978-1613778364

Contains issues #17–22.
Bonus material: cover gallery.

The Transformers: Dark Cybertron Volume 1 (April 16, 2014) ISBN 1613778910 / ISBN 978-1613778913

Contains issues #23–24, as well as "Dark Cybertron" issue #1 and More than Meets the Eye issues #23–25.
Bonus content includes covers of each issue.

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (reissue) (May 21, 2014) ISBN 161377964X / ISBN 978-1613779644

Contains issues #1–5.
New cover by Livio Ramondelli.
Bonus material: cover gallery and notes on issue 3 by Barber, Griffith, and Josh Perez

The Transformers: Dark Cybertron Volume 2 (June 11, 2014) ISBN 1613779984 / ISBN 978-1613779989

Contains issues #25–#27, More than Meets the Eye issues #26–#27, and Dark Cybertron: Finale.
Bonus content includes covers of each issue.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 1 (September 3, 2014) ISBN 1631400401 / ISBN 978-1631400407

Includes "The Death of Optimus Prime", More than Meets the Eye #1–5, and Robots in Disguise #1–6.

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 6 (November 19, 2014) ISBN 1631401645 / ISBN 978-1631401640

Contains issues #28 to #32
Bonus content includes covers of each issue.

The Transformers: Dark Cybertron (February 11, 2015) ISBN 163140072X / ISBN 978-1631400728

Contains issues #23 to #27, as well as Dark Cybertron issue #1 Robots in Disguise issues #23–#27 and "Dark Cybertron: Finale".
Bonus content UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.

The Transformers Volume 7: Combiner Wars First Strike (April 8, 2015) ISBN 1631402854 / ISBN 978-1631402852

Contains issues #33 to #38
Bonus content includes covers of each issue.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 (August 4, 2015) ISBN 1631403648 / ISBN 978-1631403644

Includes Autocracy, Spotlight: Trailcutter, Spotlight: Hoist, More than Meets the Eye #6–8, Robots in Disguise #7–9, and Spotlight: Orion Pax
Bonus content UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.

The Transformers: Combiner Wars (August 12, 2015) ISBN 1631403869 / ISBN 978-1631403866

Contains issues #39 to #41, as well as the issues #1-#3 of The Transformers: Windblade Volume 2.
Bonus content includes covers of each issue.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404261 / ISBN 978-1631404269

Includes The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volumes 1 to 5
Bonus content UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 3 (February 24, 2016) ISBN 1631405403 / ISBN 978-1631405402

Includes More than Meets the Eye Annual 2012 and #9–13, Robots in Disguise Annual 2012 and #10–11, "Spotlight: Thundercracker", "Spotlight: Bumblebee", "Spotlight: Megatron" and "Signal to Noise"
Bonus content UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.