Written by James Roberts
Illustrated by Alex MilneDISASTER IN SPACE! What’s the very worst thing you could find on board a four million year old spaceship? Clue: it’s ancient, it’s deadly, and it shouldn’t exist-but it’s killing the Transformers anyway! It’s AUTOBOTS versus boogieman in a Transformers story unlike any you’ve seen before, as the exciting new direction rolls out!
I like the Transformers. In fact, I like them a whole lot. Probably not as much as THIS GUY, but they’re in my personal top ten. And as someone who has dutifully followed their various iterations, incarnations, and ongoing adventures for most of my life, I am overjoyedto say that there’s finally a really great Transformers comic out there.
Calm down, TransFans and Simon Furman-ites. At least wait until after the jump before you start throwing rocks.
Last year, IDW ended their “Transformers” ongoing with an epic story arc entitled Chaos.Chronicling the final battle in the war for Cybertron, Chaos did the unthinkable andeffectively closed the book on the 6 million years-old conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons. With the very core of the entire Transformers saga at an end, Transformers fans like myself were left with the lingering question “What now?” It’s not like the Transformers go on patrol, and they certainly don’t have a Batman-sized rogues gallery to keep them occupied. Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of… the Decepticons. That’s the deal, and well… the battle’s been waged and won, so where do you go from here?
In January, IDW launched two brand new Transformers comics to answer that inescapable question. “Transformers: Robots in Disguise” takes place on Cybertron and stars fan-favorites Bumblebee, Prowl, and a handful of other Autobots working towards thereunification of their war torn homeworld. It’s something of a highly-charged politicaldrama, with more deception and subterfuge than you’d probably ever expect from a Transformers comic. It’s really good, and if you’re not reading it, you should give it a look.
The other title, “Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye” follows Rodimus (no Prime) and hismiss-matched crew of Transformers on a quest across the universe in search of the fabled Knights of Cybertron. Basically, guys, it’s JJ Abrams’ Star Trek with the Transformers and it’s absolutely awesome.
For months now, I’ve been trying to put my finger on exactly why this book felt so familiar, but it wasn’t until this issue that I figured it out. Check out this cast: Rodimus is captain of the Lost Light. He’s young, hasty, inexperienced, but he’s courageousas all get out, and is usually right when everybody else thinks he’s wrong. Ultra Magnus, his second in command, is cold and methodical, and has no time for BS like feelings or taking unnecessary risk. He’s tagging along mostly to make sure Rodimus doesn’t get himself and the others killed, and to be the voice of reason and logic. And with those two, I really should have seen it before. But it wasn’t until Ratchet, the Autobots’primary physician, got all crotchety in this issue that it really clicked.
Having said that, it’s obviously not an absolute one-to-one comparison. This isn’t just writer James Roberts substituting Rodimus, Magnus, and Ratchet for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The Lost Light is certainly not the Enterprise, and there’s a whole slew of Transformers and subplots working in this book that have nothing to do with anything Trek-related. In fact, MTME probably owes more to classic Transformers scribe Simon Furman’s Matrix Questthan it does Star Trek. Still, with the way things played out this issue, I think there’sdefinitely a little Trek inspiration floating around in there, and I for one am loving it!
Final Verdict: 8.5 — Buy it in disguise
