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The Transformers (IDW Publishing)

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The Transformers
Composite of Stormbringer covers drawn by Don Figueroa
Publication information
PublisherIDW Publishing
ScheduleMonthly
Publication dateOctober 2005 onwards
Creative team
Created byHasbro
Written bySimon Furman

Eric Holmes (Megatron Origin)

Shane McCarthy (All Hail Megatron)
Artist(s)E. J. Su

Don Figueroa (Stormbringer)
Alex Milne (Megatron Origin)
Guido Guidi (All Hail Megatron)

Nick Roche (Maximum Dinobots)

The Transformers is a comic book series by IDW Publishing, based upon Hasbro's Transformers characters and toy line.

Following Dreamwave Productions' bankruptcy in 2005, IDW picked up the rights and hired long-time Transformers writer Simon Furman to craft a rebooted Generation 1-based continuity, similar to Ultimate Marvel.[1] An issue #0 was published in October 2005, and the ongoing series began in January 2006.

The series is marketed as various limited series for each story,[2] in published order as The Transformers: Infiltration, Stormbringer, Escalation, Megatron Origin, Devastation, Revelation, All Hail Megatron and Maximum Dinobots. The series also has a sister title of ongoing one-shots entitled The Transformers: Spotlight which began in September 2006, each focusing on a particular character and impacting the storyline of the main title.

Publication

Dreamwave Productions shut down on January 4, 2005, and announced they would cease publication of all their comics, leaving Transformers: Generation One and its prequel series, Transformers: The War Within incomplete.[3] Chris Ryall, editor-in-chief of IDW Publishing, leaped at the chance to bid on the property.[4] On May 19, 2005, Hasbro announced they had awarded the licensing rights to IDW Publishing, with plans for an issue #0 in October 2005 and an ongoing title entitled The Transformers: Infiltration to begin in January 2006.[5] Beforehand, Ryall met up with long-time writer Simon Furman.[4] Furman aimed for a contemporary version of the Generation 1 incarnation to appeal to new and old fans alike. They both cited a focus on the "Robots in Disguise" element of the characters, aiming to bring back their "myth and majesty".[6] Overall, Furman described it as, "This was, at last (after 20-plus years) MY take on Transformers."[1] Furman also aimed for a real time approach,[7] using maps to help guide his stories.[8] Infiltration's issue #0 sold a 100,000 copies in pre-orders, a record for the company.[9] Furman focused the story on Autobot medic Ratchet and broke new ground for G1 based storylines by excluding the Ark crash storyline, to give proper intent to the Transformers being on Earth,[6] thus separating the fictional universe from the Beast Wars one.[1] E. J. Su was hired as the artist, and was given free rein to re-design characters slightly.[10]

Infiltration received mixed reviews. Furman's decision to put leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron on the sidelines divided fans,[7] as did the slow pace[1] and the use of human characters. Furman and Ryall responded positively, promising to make both fans and critics happy after reading various message board comments.[11] The Transformers: Stormbringer followed in July, set around the same time frame as Infiltration, and had art by Don Figueroa.[12] The four issue tale was intended to be a weekly event, but Diamond Comic Distributors' resistance meant it became monthly.[13] Furman had planned to visit Cybertron later on, but the fans demanded a human-less story, and Stormbringer was written. Most importantly, the story revealed Cybertron to be dead, giving the saga a darker feel and explaining the status quo of Autobots and Decepticons spread out and fighting pocket wars.[14] Furman intentionally wanted a larger scale and "took Cybertron out of the equation" to shape the overall arc.[1] The story also allowed him to reinvent Thunderwing and the Pretenders, which he felt was one of the sillier concepts.[14]

In September, the companion series, The Transformers: Spotlight was launched, set to last for five issues.[15] Furman drew upon classic stories for Shockwave,[7] re-created the personalities of Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus, and wrote Sixshot for the first time.[1] Nightbeat's story laid a vital seed for future stories,[16] as well as allowing him to re-invent the Micromasters.[1] In November The Transformers: Escalation began, a direct sequel to Infiltration. It put Optimus and Megatron center stage, and bought in characters from the Spotlights.[7] The Spotlights expanded as IDW accepted Furman's willingness to write for any character. This has even included Wheelie,[13] a character he has personally voiced criticism of in the past.

Furman took a break from the main storyline in June to allow Eric Holmes to write the prequel, The Transformers: Megatron Origin over four months. Holmes conceived the tale for his favorite character, Megatron, and to explore the beginnings of the Autobot-Decepticon war,[17][18] collaborating with Furman to further tie-in the story into the existing continuity and taking historical inspiration from the decline of the Roman Empire.[19] In addition, Furman allowed Nick Roche to write and draw a Spotlight for Kup, and Roche also wishes to create another one for Rumble.[20] Furman returned for The Transformers: Devastation, which will be affected by Galvatron's Spotlight (itself spinning out of Nightbeat's), before leading into The Transformers: Revelation.[16] Galvatron was re-invented as a separate character from Megatron, and Optimus Prime himself received a Spotlight, with both one-shots including major revelations that will affect storylines beyond Revelation.[20] Devastation had a faster pace and explored rebellion in the Decepticon ranks, similar to the early Marvel stories.[21] With the conclusion of Devastation, Revelation began in June. However, this series had a different format to that seen previously, and consisted of four interrelated Spotlight issues that brought several of the elements of the storyline thus far, most notably the Dead Universe storyline, to a conclusion.[22][23] The arc following Revelation will be a twelve-issue limited series titled All Hail Megatron which began in July 2008, taking place a year after the end of Devastation and focusing on an Earth conquered by the Decepticons without the Autobots around to stop them.[24] A planned storyline, Expansion, has now been canceled, although some of the themes the series would have dealt with may still appear.[25] A new series by Furman, Maximum Dinobots, would spin out of Spotlight: Grimlock and featured the Dinobots, Sunstreaker, and the Machination, beginning in December after the conclusion of Revelation,[26] with art by Spotlight artist Nick Roche.[27]

For the future, Furman has completely ruled out Unicron,[28] the Quintessons,[1] (this may no longer be accurate, as the Quintessons appeared in a wall painting in Spotlight: Wheelie), and the Liege Maximo.[13] Furman has also expressed interest in re-inventing Japanese-exclusive characters[13] and female Transformers, exploring the challenge of rationalizing gender in giant robots.[1] Furman addressed the issue of gender in Transformers in a Spotlight issue on Arcee, rationalizing them as a failed attempt to introduce gender into the Transformer race by Jhiaxus.[29] Elita-One and a few other female Transformers later appeared in the Megatron Origin mini-series.

Plot

Civil War

During the Golden Age of Cybertron, Nova Prime wishes to expand the influence of Cybertronians throughout the galaxy. His Chief Theoretical Strategist Jhiaxus experiments with six volunteers to combine them into a superior being, but the experiment fails, resulting in Monstructor. At some point he also experiments with gender in Transformers, creating Arcee, who grows deranged with hatred for her creator due to this.[30] Sometime later, the Ark-1 is launched into space under the auspice of exploration, but in reality an attempt to expand Cybertron's influence. The crew includes Nova Prime and Galvatron.[31] When passing through a black hole, the ship enters a "Dead Universe", altering the crew, and is presumed lost.[28] With Nova Prime and Jhiaxus gone, Omega Supreme imprisons Monstructor.[31]

Later, hard times follow, with the Autobots becoming a corrupt galactic police force. While shutting down an Energon-mining operation, they incite a riot by beating an outspoken miner to death. The riot is extinguished, resulting in the miners either dead or imprisoned. A surviving miner, Megatron, manages to take over a prison shuttle and hide it in Kaon, the seediest city on Cybertron.[32] Megatron makes a name for himself in the underground gladiatorial matches, learning to enjoy the kill.[33] He recruits the Seekers, Soundwave, and the future Cassetticons to perform acts of terrorism throughout Cybertron. Megatron rallies a large group of gladiators and proposes for them to unite under the same badge, but they are caught and arrested by Sentinel Prime's police force.[34] However, this is part of Megatron's plan, as Starscream kills the Autobot Senate. Megatron kills Sentinel Prime, and the newly forged Decepticons take over the city-state of Kaon, heralding the beginning of the war.[35] The populace at large is distracted by mass sports race games, with racers like the arrogant but talented Blurr becoming celebrities.[36] Early on during the war, both Autobot and Decepticon try to recruit Blurr to their cause, with a young Optimus talking Blurr into saving the life of Zeta Prime from Starscream's assassination squad.[37]

The war devastates the planet, and a Decepticon scientist named Thunderwing suggests to graft Transformers with protective organic shells, which Megatron rejects. Thunderwing experiments on himself, becoming a beast who devastates Cybertron.[38] The Decepticons recover more quickly and stage a new offensive against the Autobots, who suffer the loss of the charismatic Blaster, the voice of the Autobot resistance: he is shot and set adrift in space by a traitor.[39]

With their home world dead, the Transformers continue their war on other planets.[40] The Decepticons escalate tensions on planets by replacing important people with loyal clones called facsimiles, allowing the worlds to destroy themselves before they move in for the energy resources,[41] and send Sixshot to finish off the planets.[42] Nonetheless, the two sides agree to the Tyrest Accord, in which they will not supply weapons to less advanced cultures. Scorponok violates this treaty on Nebulos, creating "transformable men" with the help of Mo Zarak's corporation, but an attack by Ultra Magnus forces him to flee.[43] Badly damaged with only his decapitated head remaining, he arrives on Earth at some point and establishes the Machination, an organization dedicated to acquiring Transformer technology for their own ends.[44]

Ore-13/Super Energon

The Decepticon scientist Shockwave begins the secretive Operation: Regenesis — seeding Energon on various planets, including Earth. While stabilizing Earth's seeding, the Dynobots attack Shockwave, and they are all buried in molten lava for thousands of years.[45] Bludgeon is assigned by Megatron to investigate Operation: Regenesis and Soundwave is told to spy on him. In 1984, Soundwave learns to his horror that Bludgeon intends to use the Ultra-Energon on Earth to re-animate Thunderwing, but is silenced and put into stasis-lock in his cassette player mode. The following year, an organization named Skywatch find Laserbeak[46] and Ravage's bodies.[47] Starscream and his unit later come to Earth, discover Shockwave's Energon and mine it in Nebraska. When they exhaust this supply in 2006, they move to Oregon, entering siege mode to protect their discovery.[48] As part of their plan to acquire a Transformer, an agent working for the Machination takes a photo of a Decepticon transforming and locates the original Decepticon base.[49] As a response he is targeted and killed by Thundercracker, Runabout and Runamuck. Before his death, his laptop with the photo is stolen by a girl named Verity Carlo and she is taken to the Autobots - inadvertently leading the Machination straight to them via a homing device in the laptop.[50]

In the meantime, Bludgeon returns to Cybertron and reawakens Thunderwing, believing that Thunderwing's destruction of planets will appease and revitalize the spirit of Cybertron.[40] After Nebulos is razed,[51] Bludgeon is driven insane by a failed bonding attempt and Thunderwing is taken down by Optimus Prime. Thunderwing's corpse is placed under guard. Prime sets a course for Earth as he learns vague details of Regenesis, heavily suspicious due to Ironhide's call regarding Starscream breaking into siege mode.[38] Megatron already takes action, exploring the Nebraska base.[52] Having anticipated Megatron's course of action,[49] Starscream imbues himself with "ore-13 resin"[48] and battles him. His super-powered body is still no match for Megatron, and he is severely wounded. Optimus arrives on Earth to join Prowl's unit, aware that Megatron's presence on Earth has caused it to become the main battle front. The Machination also observes the Autobots entering their Lake Michigan base.[53]

War on Earth

Prime decides to send Verity and her two friends Hunter and Jimmy home. Ironhide and Sunstreaker are given this task, but the Machination strikes and seemingly destroy Sunstreaker and Hunter.[54] Ratchet realizes that Sunstreaker's corpse is a fake and that he and Hunter have simply been kidnapped.[41] Megatron uses the Ore-13 to give him the rare ability of mass-displacement to transform into an earthen pistol,[55] and decides to stay on Earth to escalate tensions, using a human facsimile to stir up a war between the United States and El Jira.[41] The Autobots, with newly-arrived allies, battle the Decepticons in the Russian breakaway state of Brasnya[55] where the super-powered Megatron beats Prime to near death. Prime manages to recover and puts Megatron to flight.[47] However, the facsimile Georgi Koska[56] arrives dead at the Autobot base.[47]

The Machination performs a successful surgery on Hunter,[57][56] and Ironhide is seemingly killed in an explosion set up by them. They now begin to manufacture their own army of Sunstreaker bodies.[47] Shockwave and the Dynobots are excavated up by archaeologists in Eureka, Nevada[45] and Skywatch takes over the area.[56] In Oregon, two young humans wonder whether to buy Soundwave, still trapped in cassette player mode.[46] Megatron calls Sixshot to come and speed up Earth's destruction, and the Reapers follow,[47] eager to have Sixshot join their attempt to rid the universe of war-like species.[42] Elsewhere on Earth, Ramjet's grandiose plans for a coup against Megatron fail when the Decepticon leader kills him in one-on-one combat.[58]

Elsewhere, Galvatron emerges from the Dead Universe, destroys an alien observatory and crushes Hound's unit on Cybertron to retrieve the body of Thunderwing.[28] While unconscious during his battle with Megatron, Prime encountered the presence of Nova Prime, and he meets with Nova's once-associate, Omega Supreme. Monstructor escapes his prison and seeks revenge against Omega. He finds Omega along with Prime, and after battling him, Prime leaves Monstructor to be tended by Jetfire.[31] Elsewhere, Blaster's body is recovered from space. After more assassination attempts he discovers the traitor is an unwilling Beachcomber, controlled by Soundwave and Bombshell's cerebro shell. Angry, he vows to hunt down Soundwave.[39]

Back on Earth Nightbeat puzzles out the links between the Machination's various actions. The returned Prime attempts to get proactive by moving the location of the Ark-19, but it is shot down by Sixshot, though the crew survive.[59]. The subsequent battle between Prime and Sixshot exposes the Transformers to the world at large and forces the military to call in a carpet bombing strike. The Autobots escape, but Hunter and Jimmy are seemingly killed.[60] Elsewhere, Hot Rod and Wheeljack set out to recover Ironhide's body, but are confronted by the Machination's Headmaster army, only escaping due to Wheeljack's gadgets. Hunter escapes his captors and discovers the decapitated but still living head of Sunstreaker.[61] Sunstreaker reveals his mind is being used as the hub for the Machination's army, and Hunter opts to fight back, becoming a Headmaster himself. The Reapers arrive at Earth, attacking the Decepticon base and forcing Megatron to recall Sixshot[60], while Nova Prime (now known as Nemesis Prime), concerned at the pace of events, dispatches Galvatron to Earth.[62]

Elsewhere, the Autobot penal facility on Garrus-9 is attacked by the Combaticons, who escape with the Monstructor component Transformers, forcing a reluctant Fortress Maximus to dispatch Arcee to track them down.[30] Learning of this, Prime pulls Prowl's detachment away from Earth to help contain the problem[63], though Hot Rod elects to stay to learn Sunstreaker's fate. Nightbeat also suspects someone has tampered with his memory.[44] Elsewhere, Sixshot, having encountered and felt a kinship with the Reapers before[42], defects to their side, but is taken out by a returned Starscream (revived by the other Decepticons to stand up to Megatron), leading to a full scale battle between the Decepticons and Reapers. The Decepticons win, with aid from Galvatron, who escapes with Sixshot's body as the US military locate the Decepticon base. Scorponok merges with the human Dante into a new body, but is unable to prevent Hunter, now merged with Sunstreaker's mind in a copy of his body, from escaping. In the Dead Universe Nemesis Prime, Jhiaxus, and Galvatron agree the endgame is about to begin.[44]

Expansion

On Cybertron Cyclonus, dispatched from the Dead Universe on a mission to activate the Nega-Core, inadvertently alerts the Autobots to his presence, but is still able to activate the Core, as well as its lethal guardian Thunderwing. On Garrus-9 Prime calls in the Wreckers to deal with the escalating situation as Nemesis Prime leads the forces of the Dead Universe from the Benzuli expanse.[64] Meanwhile, Hardhead accompanies Nightbeat to Gorlam Prime in an attempt to find his missing memories. Attacked by Micromasters, Nightbeat is taken control of by Jhiaxus and Hardhead reluctantly eliminates him, before disappearing into the dimensional portal. A furious Nemesis Prime realizes he must do Nightbeat's job of eliminating Optimus Prime personally. The Wrecker's assault on Thunderwing proves futile, while Arcee teams up with Banzai-Tron to track down the escaped Monstructor, and Jetfire prepares to use Thunderwing's technology to enable other Autobots to survive the effects of the Benzuli expanse.[65] Dealer's attempt to retrieve the Magnificence for himself backfires when a suspicious Hot Rod uses it to confirm his doubts about Dealer, who is promptly killed. Hot Rod then uses the Magnificence to locate the other Nega-Cores and their guardians, (Sixshot and Monstructor), and passes the information on. Jetfire then formulates a plan to override Jhiaxus' control of them via taking over their mental link.[66] Nemesis Prime attacks Optimus on Garrus-9 personally, but is betrayed and killed by Galvatron, who is then tossed into a solar pool by Prime. Jetfire's plan works, as Cloudburst's team, now equipped with Thunderwing's technology, is able to dispose of the Nega-Cores in the Dead Universe, closing it off completely. Jhiaxus is hunted down on Gorlam Prime by Arcee and Hardhead (now undead like the Dead Universe's inhabitants), where his immortality means Arcee can kill him over and over. On Earth, Sideswipe, having beaten Straxus and Grindcore, decides he has proven himself and leaves without Sunstreaker. Over the following years, Gorlam Prime evolves into a new Cybertron, and its inhabitants evolve into beings like Transformers. But on Garrus-9, Galvatron still lives within the solar pool.[67]

Machination Empire

Skywatch, having lost control of Ravage and Laserbeak[60] due to interference from Soundwave, reactivate Grimlock to use against the increasing Transformer activity.[63] Due to Machination sabotage Grimlock escapes and is approached by Scorponok, who proposes an alliance. Grimlock refuses and is out gunned in the battle, but teleports to the Dynobot ship before Scorponok terminates him, still buried after the battle with Shockwave, vowing to bring the Machination down. Skywatch reactivate the other Dynobots, unaware the Machination are manipulating them into killing Grimlock.[68] Finding the Skyfire, the Headmasters attack and manage to teleport Grimlock to Fallon, Nevada, in the midst of a pitched battle. Skywatch respond by moving in the other Dynobots as both Hot Rod and the combined form of Hunter and Sunstreaker locate the Machination. [69]

Invasion

One year after the initial battles on Earth, the Decepticons launch a full scale assault on New York City, randomly annihilating buildings and causing mayhem as part of a simultaneous galaxy-wide assault. The initial human aerial counterattack fails, while the Autobots on Cybertron, including a comatose Optimus Prime, receive word of the attack.[70] Even opposed by Colonel Daniel Witwicky, the Decepticons decimate all further military assaults and destroy all bridges and tunnels leading into the city.[71] The Decepticon assault moves to other cities in the country, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as the Constructicons begin to build in what was once Manhattan.[72] On Cybertron, the dispirited and beaten Autobots begin to fall apart as Ironhide clashes with Prowl over a suspected traitor in their midst. Another group of Autobots under Kup's command crashed on the planet after the traitor gave the Decepticons the access codes,[73] where it is revealed that the situation is grave: Megatron has taken the Matrix. The humans attempt to send in a small commando team to assassinate Megatron, but the party is killed by Ratbat before even making across the river - all save their commander Spike.[74]

Chronological comic order

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