TL;DR – Transformers: All Hail Megatron
Does your busy life keep you from picking up all the books you want? Do our (mostly) spoiler-free reviews leave you scratching your head at what you missed? Don’t worry; PoP! is here to fill in the blanks on the stories that were TL;DR
This is far from the first I’ve said on the topic of IDW’s All Hail Megatron, however – considering PoP!’s coverage only started with issue 8, and we tried to remain as spoiler-free as possible in the past – I’ve decided to give Trans-fans a rundown of exactly what it is they missed in this epic of epic… are we sick of that yet? Okay, let’s just get on with the show.
Transformers: All Hail Megatron
When
Issue #1 dropped on July 10th, 2008 and the series continued until June 24th, 2009. After this, 4 “Coda” issues came out, filling in gaps and preparing readers for the launch of the Transformers Ongoing title, currently being published by IDW. Continuity-wise, the story takes place one year after the events of IDW’s Decimation story-arc.
What
AHM was initially a 12, then later 16, issue reboot of a reboot. While IDW had started their own continuity when they took control of the Transformers license, it had very quickly become very muddled. This had sort of been the plan of Simon Furman, who’d sought to create an elaborate tapestry of interwoven plot points. In a time when accessibility is key to gaining new readership, however, IDW wanted a story that was a little less bogged down with continuity and one which offered a bit more instant gratification. While major reveals would have to be waited for, holy crap moments came fast and furious over the early issues of the series.
Where
The first few issues take place exclusively on Earth (and primarily in NYC), where the Decepticons go unanswered in their conquest of the planet. Eventually, we find ourselves on Cybertron alongside the defeated Autobot forces, and from that point we bounce back and forth, before finally reuniting both Cybertronian factions back on Earth for their final confrontation.
Why
… did it happen?
In the wake of the Dead Universe story that ran through Simon Furman’s IDW Transformer titles, the Autobots and Decepticons had a single, massive, final showdown. Betrayed by one of their own, the Autobots were defeated and banished to their dead home planet of Cybertron. Left to their own devices, the Decepticons convalesced before launching an all out bid for conquest against the natives of Earth.
… is it important?
While some of the Furman penned Transformers plot points have been gently retconned away or simply swept under a rug to be forgotten, the events of All Hail Megatron are the foundation of IDW’s Transformers Ongoing. This book established Megatron as a credible threat both to the Autobots as well as humanity as a whole; for the better part of the series, the Decepticon leader wages a war of terror against Earth, asserting his dominance while the Autobots licked their wounds light years away. To understand the psychology of fear and themes of change that Costa is playing with, one must look back to the landscape that McCarthy created – a world terrorized by giant metal monsters and a story that dictates all Cybertronians broaden their definition of transformation.
Who
… debuts?
Drift: Appearing alongside the Wreckers, this sword-wielding Autobot remains a bit of a mystery until appearing in his own Spotlight issue, and later (now) his own mini.- Spike: Absent from any prior IDW offerings, Spike makes his first appearance here as a soldier caught up in the Decepticons’ brutal invasion.
- The Swarm: A Decepticon experiment gone awry, the Swarm are a near-mindless subset of Frankensteinian Insecticons, driven only by their hunger for Cybertronian “flesh”
… is featured?
McCarthy plays with a huge cast, and little time is wasted on irrelevant characters. Still, the real stars are:
- Megatron: As if you couldn’t guess, the titular character is key to the story and how it unfolds. McCarthy picks up the character beats from Megatron: Origin, and creates an ideological rift between the Decepticon commander and his first mate that gives substance to the latter’s constant betrayals
- Starscream: You can’t have Megatron without Starscream, and over the course of this series, the sniveling second-in-command finds time to steal the spotlight – if only temporarily – by proving how terrible he is at bringing about a coup.
- Devastator, Astrotrain, Frenzy: If one of the most important effects this series had was establishing the Cybertronians as legitimate threats to mankind, then these three are in a tie for MVP. Devastator floods the Holland Tunnel after putting his fist through it (drowning the humans within), Astrotrain collapses a subway station on a cluster of humans who mistake him for a means of escape from the carnage, and Frenzy single-handedly dispatches military ground forces with his drill bit arms and hallucination-inducing sonic attacks
- Bombshell: Megatron’s chief scientist, Bombshell is not only integral to the Decepticon leader’s plans, he’s also among Starscream’s potential recruits
- Sunstreaker: Enraged at the humans’ treatment of him during Furman’s run, Sunstreaker betrayed the Autobots just so they wouldn’t be able to prevent the Decepticons’ destruction of the human race. On Cybertron, ashamed of his actions and the suffering he’s brought to his friends as a result, Sunstreaker sacrifices himself to save the Autobots from the Swarm.
- Optimus Prime: The spirit of the Autobots, it isn’t until Prime is revived (somewhat miraculously) that the Autobots rally and get their trunks in gear
- Hot Rod and Omega Supreme: Stranded on Cybertron and low on Energon, Hot Rod never gives up hope that his distress signal may bring help. And help it brings as Omega Supreme arrives to not only save the day, but transport the Autobots back to Earth for a final battle
- Thundercracker: One good turn deserves another, and as Megatron plans to unleash a nuclear strike on New York City, this Seeker – disenfranchised with the current state of the Decepticon “cause” – turns against his brothers in arms and saves the day
… dies?
- Rumble: Maybe.
- Sunstreaker: Sort of.
- The Swarm: Some of them.
- Humans: A lot of them. Some of them even have names.
- Hunter O’Nion: Sideswipe puts him out of his misery after discovering what Bombshell had done to him.
- Megatron: Just kidding. He still functions.
Now what?
The Transformers Ongoing has been ongoing strong for a little under a year now, with minis running concurrently to further flesh out the fates of the assorted characters. On Earth, humanity is terrified of Cybertronians and working against Autobots and Decepticons alike. Everyone except Spike, of course, who manages to form a tenuous partnership with the Autobots’ new leader. On Cybertron, Alpha Trion has resurrected Sunstreaker and – no, that would be telling – to send each on their own important missions, whatever they may be. And in the far reaches of space, Megatron is healing while Starscream is strutting about with the Autobot Matrix and no real plans for the Decepticons’ future. Oh, and Galvatron’s back. Well, “back” in our universe, but still off the collective radars of the other Cybertronians. Connections that have popped up between various otherwise unrelated issues indicate an over-arcing plan for the Transformers titles, though what that is still remains unclear. For now, at least.
Awesome article. I was wondering about some things since I started reading the Ongoing without reading AHM. This cleared up my questions. This helped a lot.
Side note of awesome: The Transformers theme (from the cartoon movie) started playing while I was reading the article. Unbeknown to me It was in the playlist I was listening to.
You, sir, had an Axel Foley Detour!
And I’m glad you liked this TL;DR. I thought of all the PoP!ulation, you’d enjoy it the most. But trust me, there’s still plenty of great little moments I didn’t cover, so if you get the chance, DEFINITELY read through the actual book.
I’ll definitely check it out at some point. I think it’d make a great Christmas gift.
Batman25JM: Get Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers TPB instead if you haven’t already. It is generally agreed to be the best thing IDW has ever done with Transformers.
Ironically, FFN, up until its last chapter, I HATED Last Stand. I’d argue that the first arc of the Ongoing has been the best TF work from IDW.
Well, judging from the response from Transformers forums, the ongoing series, has had a lukewarm reception at best. The main complaints I note are:
*Inconsistent characterisations: The entire kerfuffle in issue 1 involving Ironhide dying was due to Prowl uncharacteristically having a great emotional response to a… Decepticon possibly dying. Spotlight: Prowl was created largely to address this criticism, but failed to explain the events of issue 1. There has also been a heated response to the depiction of Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus in what some see as pandering to the casual fan’s perceptions of those two characters as being “the guy who was a bad leader” and “the guy who couldn’t deal with it now”, which contradicts their personalities in the Furman-penned books.
*Wildly inconsistent art since issue 7: Since Don Figueroa took a break, the art style and character models have changed in every issue with each artist. However, artist Guido Guidi commented that the hairstyle for Spike introduced in the much-derided issue 8 was official, meaning that every artist has to draw it this way from now on. This change is apparently considered to be more important to IDW than nailing down consistent designs for the Transformers characters.
*Poor use of page space: Whether it’s Mike Costa’s fault or the various artists, the issues of the Ongoing enjoys wasting what little pages IDW comic books have by having big giant panels of art where nothing of importance happens. For example, Page 5 of Issue 6, there’s FIVE panels of essentially reused art with text that could have been fitted into half as much space. Action sequences tend to be given too many pages that could be used for more story time, or better integrated into the story to provide more dialogue and characterisation (for example, in issue 5 when Spike goes for a joyride in Breakdown, or when the Combaticons attack South Korea in issue 9).
*Human versus Transformers story allocation: Humans have always been pivotal, important elements in Transformers fiction, providing the viewer or reader with a perspective. The live-action Micheal Bay Transformers movies makes the humans the main characters party due to the need to appeal beyond the fans and due to budgetary restrictions. This human focus has been greatly criticised, wrongly or rightly. However, Transformers comic books have a much, much smaller, fan-focused target market than movies and cartoons, so it is inconceivable as to why IDW (or Hasbro) decided that the Transformers ongoing comic would make Spike Witwicky the main character, have him essentially be the leader of the Movie-like human-Autobot force, and use the tired old fantasy/science fiction cliche of the big powerful/smart aliens considering the humans to be the greatest life forms/have the most potential in the universe. The extremely hostile reception the Spike-centric issue 8 received demonstrates this.
*The Prowl thing is a fine criticism, sure. Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus, however, are being given characters that stand out from the generic “Hi, I’m a heroic robot” archetype. Ultra Magnus, in particular, is playing the role of the duty-comes-first lawman, something that was NEVER played to in the movie, but that instead stems DIRECTLY from his portrayal in the IDW Furman books.
*Art inconsistencies are a fine criticism too. I can only assume IDW is letting each artist play to their strengths. And of COURSE Spike’s hair style is an important choice – moreso than a single sweeping artistic style for the robots. You will never, EVER, confuse Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Whether they’re being drawn exactly like the G1 cartoon or exactly like the movie, or somewhere in-between, they just look too different from each other. Spike, however, is a white male of average height and build with light brown hair. Standing next to Bobby Drake, or Boston Brand, or any other white male of average height and build with light brown hair, he’s virtually indistinguishable. ADD to that the fact that he’s military, and therefore prone to wearing some sort of generic uniform that doesn’t immediately identify him, and a distinct hairstyle is his only visually defining trait. Without that, you need characters to constantly address him by name to make sure he’s appropriately identified, and that’s stupid.
*To me, the page space issue is non-existent, but that all comes down to personal preferences. I’ve seen books where it’s bothered me. This isn’t one of them, but to each his or her own.
*Inconceivable why they’d focus on the humans so much? Really? INCONCEIVABLE? I don’t think that means what you think it does. The humans are front and center in the movies to make it more relatable and to save money on effects. The comics, even the non-movie ones – hell, probably ESPECIALLY the non-movie ones – suffer from the same thing the entire comic book industry does: sluggish sales. You eagerly assert that the comics have a “much smaller, fan-focused …market” You call it a target market. Target markets are rarely small. IDW – and Hasbro, who owns the property in its entirety – want as much cross-selling as possible. They want these comics, even the non-movie ones, to have as much appeal to the movie going public as possible. It’s not even REMOTELY inconceivable as to why there’d be a strong human presence; not in a capitalist society.
What fans such as you and I need to remember at all times when dealing with properties like Transformers is that we are the minority. Every company that is marketing a product is hoping to get the maximum return possible. Targeting these comics specifically towards longtime fans isn’t the way to do that. Mind you, these companies know, too, the importance of longtime fans. That’s why we get the little nods that we do, and we need to remember to appreciate those.
Transformers comics aren’t fan-fiction being written by a 40-year old in his garage just so that every fan out there will get online and give him virtual blowies for honoring what’s come before so perfectly. They are a money-making venture by a pair of corporate entities, and everything they do that pleases us – as in you and I – should be looked at as a gift and cherished as such. We are owed nothing, and given quite a surprising bit regardless.
I gotta disagree with you:
*Ultra Magnus is a lawman, yes. However, Costa took him to extremes of being completely obstinate, unfriendly and unsympathetic to his fellow Autobots. From what we saw of him in Furman’s run and Wreckers, he never quite had such a rod up his ass. In fact, the personality on display from Costa’s run is more in line with *Prowl* than Ultra Magnus, who yes, was a lawman, but would stop to help his fellow Autobots when they were in need, not say “No, your problems are not mine, I have a case to investigate even though the guy who gave me the case has defected for some reason.”
As for Hot Rod, Hot Rod was already given a bitter lesson in possibly poor command judgement (though it turned out not to be his fault) way back in Spotlight: Hot Rod, and since then, he hasn’t erred too terribly, and he still had some smarts to figure things out. However, Costa wrote him as not only an ineffective leader, but a huge chump. At least Dealer was a deep cover Decepticon posing as an Autobot. You could understand Hot Rod being fooled there, but no, he believes in Swindle, somebody whom even the Decepticons consider to be a criminal (hence Ultra Magnus going after him).
*Spike’s hair: While it is unlikely for even a very casual fan to confuse major characters, didn’t Spike already have a distinct look? In fact, the issues where this hair style was first seen, I wasn’t sure if he was Spike. I’d say not being able to identify him at a glance is a weakness of the various artists (who are better are robots than people) than the simple fact of humans being indistinguishable. Besides, they’d know who Spike is with or without identifying hairstyles – he’s the human guy the Earth-based stories of the book has so far focused upon
* When I talk about smaller markets, I am saying comics are a much more niche form of Transformers toy-selling, brand-awareness creation fiction than the movies or the cartoons, which usually have some sort of prominent human characters by necessity. Of course comics companies and in this case, the license holder want as many people as possible to buy this comic, but for Transformers, comics tend to be more “fan-focused” than their other wares and media sources.
Please do not assume I am one of those crackpot fans who thinks us adult nerds are in the majority and should be catered to exclusively. I consider adult fans to be the minority in what is largely a kid-targeted, toy sales-driven franchise of which I am just along for the ride.
Basically, what I was saying was with a product that tends to be sold towards an older demographic than the cartoons, and with a narrower demographic than the movies, I would have thought making the human main character front and center in this medium wouldn’t be a great idea. And let me reiterate: Humans are extremely important to Transformers, and to me Transformers feels a bit emptier without some sort of human involvement or perspective.
Well, good talk. I don’t entirely agree with you, but I do see your points. And I’ll concede that Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus were both somewhat extreme. I guess the difference is, I enjoyed that on some level. I was a little irked by Hot Rod taking off, but I felt the deception was part of the fun of the younger, less time-tested Autobot. Think about the character’s greatest successes and failures, from getting Prime shot to rescuing everyone in AHM. He’s the impulsive kid – he doesn’t really think things through, and sometimes his brashness pays off, while other times it gets him in deep. Personally, I really like that. And, personally, between Prowl and Magnus, I’d rather Magnus have the stick up his tailpipe. I’ve never had any great fondness for him, so pushing him into such a polarized role is fine with me.
In the end, I guess I don’t disagree with you at all as to what’s been done, just as to whether or not these are good things or bad.