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). |
"ATTACK!"
The Transformers: Robots in Disguise is an ongoing comic series begun by IDW Publishing in 2012. The series focuses on Bumblebee and the Autobots trying to organize peace among the NAILs and Decepticons and bring Cybertron to a new Golden Age.
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.
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Annual:
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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.
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 falls 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. It is while they are being searching for by the other Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs that something else is discovered instead: a Metrotitan 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. It turns out that 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, the Dinobots and the Aerialbots—now Superion—make a triumphant return to take Devastator down, 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.
Simultaneously with this opening sixteen-issue story arc, the adventures of Orion Pax are chronicled in a few side-story issues narrated by Pax himself. Alongside Hardhead and Wheelie, Pax 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.
Creative team
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 the "B" covers for the series, and stepped in to assist Griffith on the art for issue #5. Brendan Cahill and Guido Guidi were on art duties for the 2012 annual and one issue each of the series, while Joana Lafuente and Priscilla Tramontano have also contributed colors. Marcelo Matere regularly provides retailer incentive variant covers for the series.
Collections
- 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 15, 2013 ) ISBN 1613775415 / ISBN 978-1613775417
- Contains issues #6–9.
- Bonus material includes cover gallery.
- The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 3 (April 16, 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 (October 8, 2013) ISBN 1613777655 / ISBN 978-1613777657
- Contains issues #12-16.
- Bonus Material UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.
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Volume 1 cover -
Volume 2 cover -
Volume 3 cover
