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 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

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!"

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. It is while they are being searched 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, 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 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. 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.

After the crossover concludes, "Season 2" brings major changes. The setting shifts from Cybertron to Earth and the Autobots fall back under the command of Optimus Prime following Bumblebee's death. The Decepticons, equally undergo a command change and are now led by Galvatron. New additions to the main cast of Autobots include Kup, Jetfire, Jazz, Sideswipe, Sky Lynx, and Cosmos. In addition, the Construticons are now working for Prowl. Simultaneously, more of Galvatron's backstory is built, 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.

Upon arriving in Earth's orbit the crew of Ark-7 is attacked by human missiles that are based off Cybertronian technology. Unwilling to risk the ship, Optimus takes Arcee, Jazz, Sideswipe, Kup, and Prowl down to Earth in Sky Lynx while Jetfire falls back to the Moon. When they arrive, Optimus, Kup, and Jazz meet the ex-Seeker Thundercracker, who just wants to get on with life, and are ambushed by the Decepticons now led by Galvatron. 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". Escaping, using a plan of Prowl's, they meet up with Sideswipe and Arcee and wind up in a town called Poverty Flat where Prowl unleashes Devastator on the Decepticons. Mid-fight the Decepticons are knocked out and teleported away by Skywarp. Returning to their ship, the Autobots manage to track the signal of the "Mind Bomb" to an island called Bikini Atoll. Sending Jazz in they discover Trion's shuttle prompting Optimus to lead an assault on the facility. Simultaneously, having been tipped off by Scavenger to base's existence, the Decepticons arrive. Jazz discovers Trion but is stopped by Prowl from freeing him, claiming that the humans have another Cybertronian than Trion. Prowl is knocked out by the "Mind Bomb" but manages to upload himself to the EDC's server and destroy the base using their own arsenal. Taking Trion, the Autobots beat a hasty retreat with Prowl saying they need to speak to someone who knows what the EDC is hiding. At the same time, Galvatron kills General Witwicky and frames Prowl while the confused Thundercracker finds an EDC drone army based off Ramjet and Thrust.

Meanwhile, back on Cybertron, Wheeljack is finally repaired and is introduced to the new world order by Starscream, Windblade, and Ironhide. He is slowly swayed by Starscream to rebuild Superion to fight for Cybertron as the Autobots have Devastator, and Menasor and Monstructor are unaccounted for, putting the planet at risk if one of them were to attack.

Rescued, Alpha Trion explains to Optimus that he was on Earth to find the Enigma of Combination, the artifact of Nexus Prime which allows for the creation of combiners. Autobots, Decepticons, and humans clash for the Enigma, which is in the possession of human businessman Garrison Blackrock. Galvatron's Decepticons finally acquire it, but Starscream's spy Scoop steals it. Meanwhile, Optimus Prime returns to Cybertron to celebrate an anniversary but is waylaid by other events.

Finally, preparations are complete, and Starscream-led Cybertron is ready to make formal first contact with Caminus via Metroplex's space bridge. However, Starscream, plotting to create a Cybertronian empire as the "chosen one", uses the newly-recovered Enigma to have Swindle reform Menasor as a properly functioning combiner. Swindle and Menasor are secretly manipulated to travel to Caminus first and cause mayhem, necessitating the deployment of the newly repaired Superion to take down Menasor. Starscream then has to jockey with Windblade and Optimus Prime for influence over Caminus's Forgefire Parliament, which sees Prime as a living god. Receiving word of events on Cybertron through his double agent Rattrap, Prowl returns to Cybertron with the Constructicons via the space bridge stolen from Onyx. Hellbent on preventing Starscream from forming an empire, Prowl forms Devastator to forcibly sever contact between cybertron and Caminus. To save Metroplex's space bridge, Starscream drafts the newly-arrived Protectobots, forming them into the new combiner Defensor, who succesfully takes down Devastator and impresses the Camiens. Starscream then proceeds to integrate Scoop into Devastator, making the Constructicon combiner loyal to him. However, Rattrap betrays Starscream, sets Menasor loose, and brings the Enigma to Prowl. All four combiners and their supporters clash, accidentally space bridging themselves to an alien planet, but during the chaos, a new combiner emerges, Optimus Maximus!

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 (April 8, 2015) ISBN 1631402854 / ISBN 978-1631402852

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

The Transformers: Combiner Wars (August 25, 2015) SCHEDULED ISBN 1631403869 / ISBN 978-1631403866

Contains issues #39 to #41, as well as the issues #1-#3 of the Transformers: Windblade ongoing.
Bonus content UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.

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.