The Transformers: All Hail Megatron

This didn't happen

I read everything that had been put out by IDW and there's no disrespect of what Simon's done coming from me. I grew up reading Simon Furman books and still have those big format TF comics in my back room. There's no way I'm going to spit on anything that man's done.Shane McCarthy

All Hail Megatron is a 16-issue maxi-series published by IDW Publishing which began being published in July 2008, and set in the primary IDW continuity. Intended as a "soft reboot" for IDW's ongoing storyline, it is meant to provide a convenient jumping-on point for new readers, requiring no familiarity with the increasingly complicated storylines that have preceded it. The story is meant to be a radical shift in tone, showing a victorious Decepticon army on Earth, with the Autobots absent and defeated.

The first advertisement for the series was simply a red Decepticon symbol on a black background with "Swear Allegiance 2008" written in red. Follow-up ads used the visual style of post-revolutionary Communist propaganda. The first details of the series were revealed on the trashy Australian tabloid current affairs programme Today Tonight on January 16, 2008.

All Hail Megaton was promoted by the standalone issue, "Focus on Decepticons".

Preceded by: Maximum Dinobots

Overview

This section covers fiction that is ongoing. It will be added to as the story progresses. If it isn't current, you can help by updating it.

A traitor in the Autobot ranks has given the Decepticons the means to conquer the Autobots, win the Great War, and do as they will on the unprotected planet Earth. As the Decepticons cause death and destruction in New York City, the United States Military proves unable to stop them. The Decepticons obliterate both ground and air forces in deliberately humiliating displays of power before cutting off every way out of the city, while broadcasting it to the world. Meanwhile, the Autobots are in a sorry state on Cybertron, with Optimus Prime in critical condition. The Decepticons continue their assault on the United States, crippling other major cities, including the capital, disabling the Navy, and killing the President of the United States. Megatron stands essentially victorious. On Cybertron, the Autobots are lashing out at each other in frustration and are trying to deal with the suspected traitor when Hot Rod arrives, after being shot down by the Decepticons over Cybertron and believing the others are here to rescue him. He reveals the Decepticons were informed of Autobot access codes, allowing mass Decepticon victory. Hot Rod's squad commander, Kup, takes charge of the two groups of Autobots on Cybertron, whilst Jazz reveals that the Matrix has been stolen by Megatron. When a group of monstrous, insect-like Transformers start appearing, the Autobots decide to move to another bunker. Meanwhile, the Decepticons are beginning to question their place now that the war is apparently over, finding their victory to be Pyrrhic. Starscream begins to doubt Megatron's goals and secretly teams up with some Decepticons in another bid to overthrow Megatron. While the Autobots are trying to avoid the Swarm, Sunstreaker reveals that he was the traitor and sacrifices himself to save the others. However, another probable reason for the betrayal is that Hunter O'Nion is now a captive of the Decepticons... Spike Witwicky meets Bridge and Sarah, who help him get back the weapon he'd been given to take out Megatron. They are attacked by Rumble, but one of Sarah's resistance fighters terminates him using Spike's weapon—this brings down the jamming of radio/phone signals in NY. Meanwhile, on Cybertron, things heat up among the Autobot ranks, but all seems saved at the timely resurrection of Optimus Prime. But back on Earth, Spike receives word from Sparkplug that the European Union is coming to drop their nuclear bombs.

Discrepancies

“	I knew from day one that this was going to piss some people off .	”
—Shane McCarthy on fan reaction to the changes in All Hail Megatron

All Hail Megatron (as published to date) has some odd discontinuities with the preceding storylines. These may or may not be resolved by the contemporaneous Maximum Dinobots series, various Spotlights or issues 13–16, which are an extension of the original 12-issue plan for the series; in the meantime, the following changes stand out as incongruous:

Unexplained redesigns

• The three Seekers have traded in their top-of-the-line F-22 jet modes for the much older and technically inferior F-15 jet modes. Shane McCarthy had promised that an explanation for this would be provided at some point, but to date, this hasn't happened. While it's possible they chose to emulate the older and more common F-15...
• ...Astrotrain has also traded in his previous Earth-based alternate mode. Instead of transforming to a very common American diesel freight locomotive as seen in Devastation, he now turns into a steam locomotive, the last of which were retired from common use circa 1965.
• Ratbat is also in on the backdating action, trading in his contemporary MP3 player alternate form for a cassette tape—a recording media which has virtually disappeared from the public eye.
• Hot Rod has traded his Dodge Viper mode for his G1 cartoon mode. This is explained at the end of Maximum Dinobots, when he got smashed by Scorponok. It's likely he got repaired and a new altmode was scanned for him.
• Various other Earth-based Autobots are in new bodies as well, such as Prowl, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, who are in forms based on their Universe toys. Guido Guidi has confirmed that the Universe models were because Hasbro asked in order to promote the line. Oddly enough, Ironhide and Ratchet retain their E. J. Su-designed bodies instead of their Universe toy designs, while Hound eventually takes on his Universe design. Sunstreaker's new body was at least explained by the end of Maximum Dinobots, but no in-story explanation has yet come for Prowl or Sideswipe.

Ignored technology

• The series does not yet mention the previous plot point of Ore-13/Ultra-Energon. Though it is the original reason for the Decepticons' unusually strong interest in Earth, and subsequently Megatron's only reason for staying on Earth after putting down Starscream's rebellion, it has yet to get any kind of closure.
• At the end of Revelation, the Autobots controlled both the all-knowing Magnificence and the powerful Pretender technology. Neither seems to be accounted for.

Unexplained continuity glitches

• The Decepticons have seemingly abandoned their usual carefully planned infiltration protocol where they attempted to manipulate humanity into wiping themselves out. This keeps in accordance with Escalation and Devastation where it is repeatedly said to have been thrown out of the window. Unlike before however, the Decepticons don't seem bothered that Megatron's thrown out their strategy this time.
• Previous robot encounters such as the publicly broadcast Transformers battle and Grimlock stomping through the countryside are briefly hand-waved away as the work of the now-defunct Machination. Yet Air Force representatives also state that they thought the giant robots were a hoax, which makes little sense considering that a news station filmed them and the Air Force has seen them fighting the Reapers. Worse, the people of New York react to the Constructicons by thinking they're part of a movie being filmed, rather than going "Oh no, the Machination is back!"...
• In Stormbringer, Jetfire said Cybertron was healing itself, but that it would take hundreds of years. Apparently what he meant was one year, since the Autobots (and a swarm of Insectithings) have been hanging out on Cybertron without special shielding, and haven't died yet. Much later in issue 7, the explanation given was that the storms coincidentally died down just as the Autobots arrived on Cybertron, and that living on the planet now merely causes them pain, but evidently not enough pain for them to complain about or even mention in the six previous issues. Okay then.
• The Great War is apparently about the Matrix of Leadership though it had no bearing on Megatron's rise to power in Megatron Origin, and nobody ever mentioned it as a motivation (or barely at all) until #6 of All Hail.
• Energon was once considered a rarity, believed to exist only on Cybertron, with Ore-13/Ultra Energon being the closest thing found, and Cybertronians instead had to resort to artificial derivatives or "foul local brews", yet now Kup is able to quickly acquire a ship full of the stuff.
• Bombshell was created a year ago, though featured as a plot point in Spotlight: Blaster's flashback sequences. Kickback also had a minor cameo in Megatron Origin. (Much like Blaster and Bluster, this must be... Sitback! Evidently his cousin.)
• Soundwave's speech patterns have returned to the cartoon-inspired pattern from Megatron Origin, after a stint of fluent internal monologue in his Spotlight, as well as in Maximum Dinobots.

In a rather flagrant admission of the glaringly broken continuity, the All Hail Megatron Coda series was planned specifically to bridge the gaps between this series and the continuity started by Simon Furman. IDW later decided to incorporate this series as part of the main title, making it issues 13–16. Each of the final 4 issues will contain two short stories. They will attempt to tie together the numerous discontinuities between All Hail Megatron and the preceding series, and set the stage for future stories.

In a slightly jarring move, issue 7 of All Hail began chucking in and mentioning parts of previous IDW continuity that the comic had not acknowledged for a full half of its run. This included the Sunstreaker plot from Maximum Dinobots (thus blowing part of the ending for that miniseries), which was brought up in issue 7 as a lead-in for him being revealed as the mysterious traitor in issue 8... after having no focus in the previous six issues of All Hail.

Items of note

• Originally, the series was said to be issues #35–46 in the IDW overarching "sub-numbering", picking up 12 issues after Devastation (a gap which to be filled by the four Revelation Spotlights, the 5-issue Maximum Dinobots miniseries and 3 unnamed issues). However, Simon Furman later reported that these 3 issues were "to be confirmed" and the sub-numbering may not still apply. Eventually, Chris Ryall said that IDW had decided to drop the sub-numbering entirely.
• A persistent rumor among fans is that the series was originally conceived as an Evolutions title—a parallel universe, and the decision to incorporate it into the existing IDW storyline came later. However, no statements from the creators have backed this up, and the writer himself has claimed that it was never meant to be a reboot.
• When July sales data came in, it turned out that issue #1, the heavily promoted, new-reader-friendly jump-on point to draw in new readers had sold one copy less than Devastation #6. (IDW and McCarthy have repeatedly said All Hail Megatron has sold extremely well and more than the Diamond figures suggest, but there has been no statement of what those sales are.
• Simon Furman confirmed that there is no collaboration or communication between himself and Shane McCarthy, and it was up to IDW editor Denton J. Tipton to sort out the continuity.
• Every issue has multiple covers, one of which is always drawn in Soviet-propaganda style. This is an interesting choice for a series written by someone named McCarthy.
• Like Infiltration and Escalation, the primary cast hails from 1984-86 with only the occasional wild card thrown in, such as the Generation 2 character Deluge and the entirely new Drift.

Creative team

• Issues 1–12:

Written by Shane McCarthy and drawn and colored by Guido Guidi and Josh Burcham respectively. Casey Coller, E. J. Su, Robert Deas & Emiliano Santalucia have provided back-up lines as well, while Deas also helped with coloring.

• Issues 13–16:

The stories will be penned by Mike Costa, Zander Cannon, Simon Furman, Shane McCarthy and Nick Roche.

Collections

• All Hail Megatron Volume 1 (March 4, 2009} ISBN 1600103715 / ISBN 978-1600103711

Collects issues 1–6

Bonus material includes a cover gallery (not including the sketch covers). Also included is an art gallery consisting of Drift in both Cybertronian modes, and sketches of Cliffjumper, Perceptor, Soundwave, Ratbat, Frenzy, the Constructicons and Devastator.

• Volume 2 TPB

Collects issues 7–12 (September 29, 2009 Scheduled} ISBN 1600105246 / ISBN 978-1600105241

Bonus material unknown (Likely a cover gallery).

• Volume 3 TPB

Collects issues 13–16

Bonus material unknown (Likely a cover gallery).