The Transformers (IDW)
| This article is about the 2009-2011 ongoing series. For the IDW comic known simply as "The Transformers" from issue 35 onward, see The Transformers: Robots in Disguise. For a list of other meanings, see Transformers (disambiguation). |
The Transformers was an ongoing comic book series published by IDW Publishing. Set two years after the conclusion of the All Hail Megatron miniseries, it served as another jumping-on point for new readers, and forms the third major "act" of IDW's ongoing Generation 1 continuity.
Published monthly from November 2009, it went bi-weekly from July 2011 until December 2011, alternating between two stories as part of the series-ending "Chaos" event. After that wrapped up in issue #31, a one-shot (initially solicited as issue #125[1]) entitled Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime was published, and then the title was replaced by two new monthly ongoings, Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye.
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Overview
Two years after the defeat of the Decepticons, the Autobots remain stranded on Earth low on energon and hounded by Skywatch. After a rescue raid led by Hot Rod results in Ironhide's death, Optimus Prime gives up his position as leader and surrenders to Skywatch, causing a schism between the Autobots, who split into two groups: one led by Hot Rod, who, taking the name "Rodimus", joins forces with a group of Decepticons fronted by Swindle in an effort to build a ship and leave the planet, and a second who elect Bumblebee as their new leader, and are soon joined by Ultra Magnus, who determines to arrest Rodimus for treason. In the battle that follows, Swindle betrays Rodimus and reveals his new creation, Menasor, but the day is saved thanks to Skywatch, with whom Optimus Prime has brokered an alliance, and some timely side-switching from the disillusioned Thundercracker. The disgraced Rodimus flees Earth alone, and the Autobots rally under Bumblebee.
Working with Skywatch, the Autobots begin helping them deal with Transformer-related crises around Earth, finding themselves caught between the Combaticons, allied with North Korea, and the Predacons, working for China. Disenchanted Skywatch operative Sandra broadcasts footage of this battle to the world, exposing Skywatch's secret alliance with the Autobots; when Bumblebee tries to hold a press conference in response, he is grievously injured by a human agent of anti-Transformer movement Earth's Children, wielding Cybertronian weaponry surreptitiously supplied by the Decepticons. This heralds the return of the rebuilt Megatron, who launches a devastating attack on Skywatch and the Autobots but is eventually defeated by Optimus Prime and surrenders to his custody.
Meanwhile, on his sojourn in space, Rodimus manages to recover the Matrix of Leadership from Starscream. Gathering allies Wheelie and Garnak on the planet LV-118 and then heading to Cybertron itself, where he adds Sunstreaker and a resurrected Ironhide to his team, Rodimus discovers that Galvatron has returned with an army and is planning something on the Transformers' homeworld. Rodimus returns to Earth to pass on this news, and most of the Autobots then join Optimus Prime in taking off for Cybertron aboard Omega Supreme, with Megatron as their prisoner, to stop Galvatron's scheme.
A small contingent of Autobots remains behind on Earth to investigate allegations that Skywatch head Spike Witwicky illegally executed Scrapper, discovering that his crimes go far deeper, and that he has been trading weapons technology with Swindle. Spike goes on the run, and Jazz, already compromised after killing a human in the heat of battle, dissolves the Autobots' alliance with Skywatch.
Prime's Autobots arrive on Cybertron and engage both Galvatron's forces and the Decepticons who have followed them there, but when they are merged into the monstrous "Deceptigod" by the power of Galvatron's dark master, the D-Void, Megatron joins the fight and triumphs over the hellish avatar. Galvatron, meanwhile, ventures into the planet's depths, intending to use the Heart of Darkness with Vector Sigma to open a portal to the Dead Universe and release the D-Void, but is stopped by Optimus Prime, who opens the Matrix and drains its energies to stop the creature's entry into the living universe. The interaction of the Matrix and Vector Sigma, however, prompts an incredible transformation for Cybertron itself...
Companion mini-series
The launch of the ongoing series was accompanied by two concurrently-published mini-series: Bumblebee and Last Stand of the Wreckers. Bumblebee occurs simultaneously with issues #3-5 of the ongoing, exploring the earliest phase of Bumblebee's newly inherited leadership of the Autobots and gaining him a body upgrade that is reflected in the main series, while Wreckers chronicles a mission of the fan-favourite Autobot commando group in a story almost entirely disconnected from the ongoing, save for its moving of Ultra Magnus into position for his appearance in the ongoing's third issue. What Wreckers did do, however, was reiterate the exceptionally popular scheming, Machiavellian personality of IDW's incarnation of Prowl, introduced in All Hail Megatron #15. As such, when the first issue of the ongoing contradicted this by portraying Prowl as an altruist willing to save Decepticon lives, fandom reaction was immediately negative. The change in personality was not accidental, and was intended to be explored in a later issue of the ongoing, but this negative reaction prompted the story to be moved up the schedule, leading to it being published not in the ongoing itself, but in the one-shot Spotlight: Prowl.
About half a year into the ongoing's run, the Ironhide mini-series covered the character's return to life, which would then be reflected in the ongoing during the "Space Opera" storyline. "Space Opera" was also part of the build-up to the "Chaos" event, which was also foreshadowed across separate mini-series, starting with the two-issue tie-in to IDW's company-wide Infestation crossover, belatedly following up on Galvatron's revival in All Hail Megatron #14 eighteen months prior. The following month, the mini-series Heart of Darkness greatly expanded on Galvatron's activities between All Hail and Infestation, dovetailing its final issue with his appearance in the ongoing, both published in the same month. Heart of Darkness was considered relevant enough that it was collected as "Volume 4" of the ongoing's series of trade paperbacks (see Collections, below).
Creative team
The series was predominantly written by Mike Costa, who also wrote two "prequel" stories for it in issues #13 and #16 of All Hail Megatron. Newcomer James Roberts, having quickly established a popular reputation as co-writer of Last Stand of the Wreckers, wrote the two-part "Chaos Theory" across issues #22 and #23, mostly serving to plant seeds that would later be of major import during his time as writer of More than Meets the Eye, and co-wrote "Chaos" (#24, #26, #28 and #30) with Costa. Both "Chaos" and "Chaos Theory" were intended to be separately-published mini-series which wound up being folded into the ongoing series; when this occurred, the ongoing began shipping twice a month until its conclusion.
The series was launched with particular hype surrounding the return to art duties of fan-favourite Don Figueroa, who had taken a hiatus from working on the brand two years prior. Figueroa provided artwork for the first six-issue story arc, "For All Mankind"; this was followed by two one-shot stories illustrated by E. J. Su in #7 and Javier Saltares in #8, after which Guido Guidi took up art duties for the four-part "International Incident". After a single-issue stint from Nick Roche on #13, Figueroa returned with intent to illustrate the entire "Revenge of the Decepticons" storyline, only to wind up leaving after #15, leading to Alex Milne taking over the rest of the story.
Colours for these first eighteen issues were provided by James Brown and Andrew Dalhouse. Every issue featured multiple covers, with almost every one including a cover drawn by the interior artist; in cases where the interior artist was not Figueroa, he would then provide an alternate cover up until he departed the series. Notable alternate covers for issues that featured Figueroa interiors included a run by Transformers veteran Andrew Wildman on issues #2-7, and Nick Roche on issues #14-18.
Marcelo Matere provided alternate covers for the returning Guido Guidi's work on the "Space Opera" storyline from issues #19 to #21 with new regular colorist Joana Lafuente, who proceeded to color Alex Milne's work on "Chaos Theory" in issues #22 and 23. Brendan Cahill joined the series to illustrate "Police Action", beginning with a prologue in #21 and continuing in #25 and #27, with an inking assist from Brian Shearer on #29; Lafuente continued to provide colours and Matere, alternate covers. Livio Ramondelli handled all the art duties for "Chaos" in issues #24, 26, 28 and 30, and the series was brought to an end by Casey Coller and Lafuente with issue #31.
Artistic styles and editorial policies
With his return to Transformers, Figueroa brought with him an entirely new art style which he debuted in All Hail Megatron #13, redesigning the cast with a more skeletal, technically-complex style that was both evocative of the live-action film series and immediately very unpopular with the fandom. However, IDW did not require its other artists to adhere to this new look, and so the assorted companion mini-series, along with later issues of the ongoing itself that were drawn by other artists featured a bevy of styles and designs that played fast and loose with any kind of consistency regarding character appearance and alternate mode. When Milne took over the book, he introduced some consistency by drawing the characters in streamlined versions of their Figueroa designs, though Ramondelli would wind up mixing and matching various designs for "Chaos", a story that saw Figueroa's skeletal designs sharing panel space with traditional Transformer aesthetics in a particularly jarring visual jumble.
This constant visual fluctuation proved almost as unpopular with fans as Figueroa's new look, and became one of the most infamous hallmarks of IDW's artistic output during the time it was occurring. One of the main culprits commonly blamed was then-editor Andy Schmidt, whose idea of editorial oversight was in stark contrast to what readers were expecting from him, based on past experience with both Transformers and other comics: On several occasions, Schmidt openly decried the fandom's fixation on things such as "continuity" and "canon", even though his predecessor had previously shared similar notions. A particularly bizarre discrepancy even had Bluestreak, under the name "Silverstreak" his toys sported at the time due to trademark reasons, join Hot Rod's group in the main title, while a very Bluestreak-y-colored version of him appeared in the Bumblebee limited series that occurred at the same time. Then again, similar blunders had happened under previous editors.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, Prowl was concurrently portrayed as a morally questionable schemer in Last Stand of the Wreckers and as a morally upright team player in Spotlight: Prowl and the ongoing title. By the time of Infestation, Prowl was consistently characterized as a cunning schemer, after that version had proven to be more popular with fans.
In any case, once John Barber replaced Schmidt as Transformers editor, he brought with him a vastly different approach to his job, which also saw the visual fluctuation being actively addressed with the inception of 2012's More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise, in which characters once again adhere to consistent designs (on the whole) and personalities.
Collections
All thirty-one issues of the series were collected in a series of seven trade paperbacks; volumes 1–3 and 5–7 collect the series itself, while the fourth volume instead collects the four-issue tie-in mini-series, Heart of Darkness.
- The Transformers, Volume 1: For All Mankind (June 9, 2010) ISBN 1600106846 / ISBN 978-1600106842
- Collects issues #1–6
- Bonus material includes: art from all covers, including design sketches from Don Figueroa.
- The Transformers, Volume 2: International Incident (December 8, 2010) ISBN 1600108040 / ISBN 978-1600108044
- Collects issues #7–12
- Bonus material includes: art from all covers, including design sketches from Don Figueroa.
- The Transformers, Volume 3: Revenge of the Decepticons (July 27, 2011) ISBN 1600109810 / ISBN 978-1600109812
- Collects issues #13–18
- Bonus material includes art from all covers, including design sketches from Don Figueroa and Marcelo Matere.
- The Transformers, Volume 4: Heart of Darkness (September 14, 2011) ISBN 1613770510 / ISBN 978-1613770511
- The Transformers, Volume 5: Chaos Theory (November 2, 2011) ISBN 1613770901 / ISBN 978-1613770900
- Collects issues #19–23
- Included extras are unknown at this time.
- The Transformers, Volume 6: Police Action (February 15, 2012) ISBN 1613771649 / ISBN 978-1613771648
- Collects issues #25, 27, 29 and Spotlight: Prowl
- Bonus material includes art from most covers, plus a B&W art page from "Police Action: Part 1".
- The Transformers, Volume 7: Chaos (March 14, 2012) ISBN 1613771401 / ISBN 978-1613771402
- Collects issues #24, 26, 28, 30 and 31
- Bonus material includes art from most covers, plus B&W art sketches from Livio Ramondelli.
- The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Six (May 9, 2012) ISBN 1613771835 / ISBN 978-1613771839
- Collects The Transformers #1–6, along with The Transformers: Bumblebee, The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers and The Transformers Spotlight: Prowl.
- The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Seven (October 17, 2012) ISBN 1613774060 / ISBN 978-1613774069
- Collects The Transformers #7–18, along with The Transformers: Ironhide and The Transformers: Infestation Volume 1: The Transformers #1–2
- The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Eight (May 7, 2013) ISBN 1613776276 / ISBN 978-1613776278
- Collects The Transformers #19–31 and Heart of Darkness
Japanese Reprints
Covers
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Vol. 1: For All Mankind cover by Don Figueroa and James Brown -
Vol. 2: International Incident cover by Guido Guidi and James Brown -
Vol. 3: Revenge of the Decepticons cover by Marcelo Matere and Andrew Dalhouse -
Vol. 4: Heart of Darkness cover by Ulises Farinas and Andrew Crossley -
Vol. 5: Chaos Theory cover by Nick Roche -
Vol. 6: Police Action cover by Brendan Cahill and Priscilla Tramontano -
Vol. 7: Chaos cover by Livio Ramondelli -
The IDW Collection, Vol. 6 cover by E. J. Su -
The IDW Collection, Vol. 7 cover by E. J. Su -
The IDW Collection, Vol. 8 cover by E. J. Su
References
- ↑ 125 issues was the sum total of all the The Transformers series and Spotlights published by IDW to that point except crossovers New Avengers/Transformers and Infestation
