The Transformers (IDW Publishing)
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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,[2] in chronological order as The Transformers: Infiltration, Stormbringer, Escalation, and the upcoming Megatron: Origin, Devastation and Revelation. 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.
[edit] Publication
Dreamwave Productions went bankrupt on January 4, 2005, announcing they would be ceasing publication of all their comics, including Transformers: Generation One and the prequel series Transformers: The War Within.[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] IDW have also acquired publishing rights to previous Transformers comics by Marvel comics and Dreamwave.[6] As of April 2007, Ryall remarked that the Dreamwave stories were still tied up in legal issues and that it was likely to stay that way.[7]
Beforhand, 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. He and Ryall cited a focus on the "Robots in Disguise" element of the characters, aiming to bring back their "myth and majesty".[8] 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,[9] using maps to help guide his stories.[10] Infiltration's issue #0 sold a 100,000 copies in pre-orders, a record for the company.[11] 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,[8] thus seperating the fictional universe from the Beast Wars one.[1] Furman also put leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron on the sidelines, dividing many fans.[9] The slow pace[1] and human characters also had a divided reception, although Furman and Ryall responded positively, promising to make both fans and critics happy after reading various message board comments.[12]
The Transformers: Stormbringer followed in July and lasted four issues, which was originally supposed to be a weekly event but Diamond Comic Distributors resisted.[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, as was the sequel The Transformers: Escalation in November.[9] Initially set to be five issues,[15] the Spotlights expanded as IDW accepted Furman's willingness to write for any character, bar Wheelie.[13] Furman re-created the personalities of Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus,[1] and drew upon previous stories for Shockwave in the Spotlights.[9]
Furman will take a break beginning in May, to allow Eric Holmes to write the prequel The Transformers: Megatron: Origin over four months. Holmes concieved the tale for his favourite character Megatron and to explore the beginnings of the Autobot-Decepticon war,[16][17] collaborating with Furman to further tie-in the story into his "IDW-verse" continuity and taking historical inspiration from the decline of the Roman Empire.[18] Furman will come back for The Transformers: Devastation, which will be impacted by Galvatron's Spotlight, which in turn spins out of Nightbeat's, before leading into The Transformers: Revelation. Galvatron will be re-invented as seperate from Megatron.[19]
For the future, Furman has completely ruled out Unicron,[19] as well as the Quintessons,[1] the Liege Maximo and his herald Jhiaxus.[13] Furman has also expressed interest in re-inventing Japanese-exclusive characters,[13] the return of Thunderwing,[20] the Micromasters, and "a tough one", female Transformers, which he finds difficult in terms of rationalizing gender in giant robots.[1]
[edit] Plot
As the war on Cybertron continues to devastate the planet, Decepticon scientist Shockwave begins the secretive Operation: Regenesis, firing energon missiles at various planets to seed them with energon (later known as Ultra Energon or Ore-13). Shockwave travels to planet Earth to stabilize the energon seems, but is followed and attacked by the Dynobots, and they all end up buried in molten lava for millions of years.[21] Another Decepticon scientist named Thunderwing suggests to graft Transformers with protective organic shells, which Megatron refuses to authorize. Thunderwing experiments on himself, becoming supremely powerful yet utterly insane and devastates Cybertron,[22] forcing Optimus Prime and Megatron team up to take him down.[23]
With their homeworld dead, the Transformers continue their war on other planets.[24] The Decepticons escalate tensions on planets by replacing important people with loyal clones named fascimiles, allowing the worlds to destroy themselves before they move in for the energy resources.[25] Nonetheless, the two sides agree to the Tyrest Agreement, in which they will not supply weapons to less advanced cultures. Scorponok violates this treaty on Nebulos, creating "transformable men" with Mo Zarak's corporation, but Ultra Magnus' attack forces him to flee and abandon his operation.[26]
Decepticon Bludgeon is assigned by Megatron to investigate Operation: Regenesis[21] and Soundwave is secretly dispatched to keep an eye on him. In 1984, Soundwave learns to his horror that Bludgeon intends to use the Ultra-Energon on Earth to re-animate Thunderwing. He loses a battle with Bludgeon's minions, and is silenced — put into stasis-lock in his cassette player mode. The following year, an organization named Skywatch find Lazerbeak's body.[27] 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.[28] An agent working for an organization called the Machination takes a photo of a Decepticon transforming,[29] and he is targeted by the Decepticons and killed. Before his death, his laptop with the photo is stolen by a young girl named Verity Carlo and she is picked up by the Autobot Ratchet.[30]
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.[24] After Nebulos is razed,[31] Bludgeon is driven insane by a failed bonding attempt and Thunderwing is taken down by Optimus Prime. Prime sets a course for Earth as he learns vague details of Regenesis, and Earth, heavily suspicious due to Ironhide's call regarding Starscream breaking into siege mode.[22] Megatron already takes action, exploring the Nebraska base.[32] Having anticipated Megatron's course of action,[29] Starscream imbues himself with "ore-13 resin"[28] and battles him. However, his superpowered body is no match for Megatron's brute strength, and he is blasted almost in half. Optimus arrives on Earth to join Prowl's unit, aware that with Megatron on Earth it has become the main battle front. The Machination also observes the Autobots entering their Lake Michigan base.[33]
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 destroys Sunstreaker and Hunter.[34] Ratchet learns that Sunstreaker's corpse is a fake and that he and Hunter have simply been kidnapped.[25] Megatron uses the Ore-13 to give him the rarity of a mass-displacement transformation,[35] and decides to stay on Earth to escalate tensions with a human facsimile stirring up a war between the United States and El Jira, using Skywarp and Thundercracker to bomb a power plant in the latter country.[25] The Autobots, with newly-arrived allies, battle the Decepticons in the Russian breakaway state of Brasnya[35] where the super-powered Megatron battles Prime, beating him nearly to death. Hot Rod and Prowl do manage to put aside their differences and capture the fascimile Georgi Koska.[36] The Machination performs a successful mysterious surgery on Hunter.[37][36] Shockwave and the Dinobots are discovered and excavated up by archaeologists in Eureka, Nevada,[21] and Skywatch takes over the area.[36] In Oregon, two young humans wonder whether to buy Soundwave, still trapped in cassette player mode.[27]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Iain Burnside. "Caught in the Nexus: Simon Furman", Comics Nexus, 2006-08-04. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Denyer. A Note on Numbering. The Transformers Archive. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.
- ^ "Immediate Press Release - Dreamwave will be ceasing operations!", Seibertron, 2005-01-04. Retrieved on January 31, 2007.
- ^ a b "IDW Talks Transformers Comic Book Line", Newsarama, 2005-05-20. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.
- ^ Matt Brady. "IDW LANDS TRANSFORMERS LICENSE", Newsarama, 2005-05-19. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.
- ^ Matt Brady. "DW, MARVEL TRANSFORMERS SEE PRINT VIA IDW IN 2006", Newsarama, 2005-08-01. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.
- ^ "CybPH scores an interview with IDW’s Chris Ryall", Cybertron Philippines, 2007-04-03. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ a b Matt Brady. "SIMON FURMAN: GUARDIAN of the TRANSFORMERS", Newsarama, 2005-05-27. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.
- ^ a b c d Arune Singh. "SIMON FURMAN KEEPS ROLLIN OUT WITH "TRANSFORMERS" AT IDW", Comic Book Resources, 2006-10-19. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ "Simon Furman creating history Q&A", TFormers, 2006-09-29. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Matt Brady. "TRANSFORMERS #0 SEES 100K COPIES", Newsarama, 2005-10-05. Retrieved on April 6, 2007.
- ^ "BotCon 2006 - Transformers Comics: Past, Present & Future", TFormers, 2006-09-30. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ a b c d "Simon Furman Panel #2 Notes", The Allspark, 2006-10-01. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ a b Benjamin Ong Pang Kean. "SIMON FURMAN ON TRANSFORMERS: STORMBRINGER", Newsarama, 2006-05-03. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Jay. "IDW's Plans For Transformers Revealed At The 2006 San Diego Comic Con", Comic News International, 2006-07-26. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ David Chapman. "Eric Holmes "transforms" from game developer to comic writer", Game Almighty, 2007-03-17. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Arune Singh. "ERIC HOLMES TURNS TO THE DARK SIDE IN "MEGATRON ORIGIN"", Comic Book Resources, 2007-04-07. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
- ^ "Eric Holmes", TransFans.net, 2007-02-20. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ a b Arune Singh. "WWLA: SIMON FURMAN TALKS "TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: GALVATRON"", Comic Book Resources, 2007-03-18. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Tobias May. "Simon Furman Talks Stormbringer", Comic News International, 2006-06-22. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ a b c Simon Furman (w), Nick Roche (p), The Transformers: Spotlight Shockwave September 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b Simon Furman (w), Don Figueroa (p), The Transformers: Stormbringer #4 October 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), Don Figueroa (p), The Transformers: Stormbringer #1 July 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b Simon Furman (w), Don Figueroa (p), The Transformers: Stormbringer #2 August 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b c Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Escalation #2 December 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), Robby Musso (p), The Transformers: Spotlight Ultra Magnus January 2007 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b Simon Furman (w), Marcelo Matero (p), The Transformers: Spotlight Soundwave March 2007 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Infiltration #5 May 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Infiltration #2 February 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Infiltration #0 October 2005 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), Don Figueroa (p), The Transformers: Stormbringer #3 September 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Infiltration #4 April 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Infiltration #6 June 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Escalation #1 November 2006 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Escalation #3 January 2007 IDW Publishing.
- ^ a b c Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Escalation #5 March 2007 IDW Publishing.
- ^ Simon Furman (w), E. J. Su (p), The Transformers: Escalation #4 February 2007 IDW Publishing.
