

And dedicated fans might as well just pick up IDW's Transformers Classics volumes that cover that run (start at Vol.
TRANSFORMERS TURMOIL SERIES
IDW released several trade paperback collections for All Hail Megatron, as well as a comprehensive hardcover edition.Ģ The Matrix Quest As we've mentioned, Simon Furman's run on the original Marvel series is widely regarded as that book's greatest era. All Hail Megatron also boasts some of the stronger artwork found in IDW's comics, including some very striking, propaganda-style cover designs. The series offered a nice change of pace, injecting a new sense of desperation into the franchise and going a long way towards fleshing out the Transformers. Picking up from the events of Transformers: Devastation, the Autobots are left scattered and broken on Cybertron, while Megatron and his Decepticons rule Earth with a literal iron fist. That's what writer Shane McCarthy managed with this storyline. After several years of rotating mini-series and various spinoffs and character spotlights, the publisher really needed to give readers a proper jumping-on point. All Hail Megatron is a 16-issue maxi-series that served as a sort of soft reboot of IDW's Transformers publishing line. But All Hail Megatron succeeds where things like the Dreamwave comics and the Dark of the Moon film have failed in stacking the odds against the Autobots and presenting their struggle in a harsher light. And it's happened to the Transformers on more than one occasion. IDW has released an Omnibus collection of the first two volumes, but it doesn't look as though The Age of Wrath will ever be completed.ģ All Hail Megatron Any franchise that sticks around long enough tends to go through a "grim and gritty" phase. A second sequel, The War Within: The Age of Wrath, was begun, but Dreamwave's bankruptcy cut that book short. The first sequel, The War Within - Dark Ages, further fleshed out this era and introduced The Fallen (who would go on to serve as the main antagonist in the second live-action film). While not exactly the most new reader-friendly Transformers comic out there, The War Within serves as a great origin story for these characters. And the series also served as writer Simon Furman's big return to the Transformers franchise after his Marvel work ended. The series offered a much more in-depth and fascinating look at Transformers icons in this era. The War Within explores the political turmoil on ancient Cybertron and Optimus Prime's rise from humble origins to become a noble leader. This series flashes back to the early era of Dreamwave's G1 continuity, millions of years before the Autobot/Decepticon War shifted to Earth. But one Dreamwave project that is held in high regard is the prequel series Transformers: The War Within.
TRANSFORMERS TURMOIL LICENSE
Unfortunately, most of the company's output isn't that highly regarded, and their continuity and storylines weren't continued after the license passed to IDW. The series has since been collected in a series of four trade paperbacks.Ĥ The War Within Dreamwave held the Transformers license for a few years in between the Marvel and IDW eras. Furman was ultimately able to give this version of the Transformers mythos the satisfying conclusion it deserved when Regeneration One wrapped with issue #100. But the end of the first story arc was a definite attention-grabber, and the story only got better from there. Regeneration One did suffer through some growing pains as Furman settled back in and the book struggled with pacing issues. Joe: A Real American Hero, his run was certainly the highlight of that book during its later years. If Furman wasn't the driving creative force during the entirety of The Transformers as Larry Hama was for G.I. Luckily, IDW brought writer Simon Furman on board to continue his run where he had left off in 1991. Regeneration One is a nice dose of nostalgia for fans of the original Transformers comic, but nostalgia only carries a book so far. The series served as a self-contained sequel, not acknowledging the developments in Marvel's Generation 2 comics. Transformers: Regeneration One picks up 21 years after the conclusion of The Transformers #80, with the newly restored Cybertron falling under attack by Soundwave and other surviving Decepticons. Joe franchise, IDW eventually went back and dusted off the original Marvel Comics continuity. 5 Regeneration One When IDW took over the Transformers franchise, they followed their usual pattern of rebooting the universe and starting over with a streamlined, modernized take on the characters.
