Transformers (Transformers (Idw)) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The Story:
Nothing new. Without giving too much away Optimus leaves the autobots to fend for themselves for a while.
Theres some tension between them, then there isn't. Its been told before.
Optimus seems to have loads of faith in the Autobots considering they completely go to pieces every time their left on their own.

In All Hail Megatron the world was at stake, here the only think at stake are a few badly drawn characters you'll find it hard to care about.

The Art:
Don Figueroa is a BRILLIANT artist, he's drawn some of the best new transformer art ever.
He decided to draw each Transformer to look more like the movie-inspired transformers. Hey he took a chance.

And they look awful.

These are transformers he's already drawn, looking great, and now, embarrasingly.......their parts are showing.
Vents for teeth, or nails for teeth
Multiple plates for faces.
Tiny beady (dead) eyes.
Hey they look like robots.....you wouldn't want to look at.

If this was a movie based book you could put up with it, many of them look like "art" people have put together in their yard.
But its a continuation of the "classic" transformers story.
On character model that have already been drawn that looked interesting and had a nostalgic feel.
These new models should look life-like and expressive, instead they look like plates and nails that appear to be trying to express something.

Its great to draw them as robots, they're not human after all, but drawing them as INHUMAN has possible makes the comic difficult to read and very hard to recommend.

But if you're like me you'll buy the book anyway.
It might be a dip in the overall story quality but the Transformers have a way of telling a great larger story that allows for dips like this.

But lets try to draw them like Transformers, not a bucket of parts that got kicked over and happen to look like a face.

So, how to start this out? I was somewhat excited about seeing this collected volume (I only buy collected works). But was a bit weary due to the steady decline that has been happening in IDW Transformer comics.

They started out very strong, but for some reason they rushed the ending of the first series to make way for "All Hail Megatron". The All Hail was pretty bad, and I was surprised it was already over (thought they may try to fix things). You had two collected volumes, and a 3rd that was still called "All Hail" but had nothing to do with any of the Decepticons. Wow.

I read most of this comic in the store, I have to admit it was so boring that I ended up skimming it at times.

Basically it has been another 3 years in the time line. The Autobots are hanging around on Earth "in case the Decepticons" try something. Which is kinda odd because in the previous comics the Autobots were all over the galaxy. And the only reason Optimus Prime came to Earth is because of the crazy Energon Megatron was using and the fact that they started invading sooner than usual.

The Decepticons are in total shambles and just run around the planet trying to get energy. Or something, it is really never explained why they can't get off the planet or that others don't help them.

Meanwhile the humans have perfected their lock-down technology and are capturing Transformers from both sides like it ain't no thing. No, really. The Transformers come off as being really helpless, on both sides. At one point a human in a suit is able to capture one. And I don't mean an armored suit, I mean like a tight spandex suit.

So Hot Rod wants to go rescue the Autobots that have been captured and Prime eventually agrees to it. Wheel Jack gives all the Autobots some special device so they won't be locked down anymore (however later on they are locked down again, go figure, humans are smarter than Transformers I guess). So the mission goes okay but one of the Autobots is killed during it. Yup, humans have a gun that can destroy an Autobot in one shot, and this Autobot I should mention is NOT KNOWN for being weak...

Optimus, I guess this being his first loss in his 10,000 year war, goes all emo and quits the Autobots, and doesn't even name a leader to follow. Maybe at this point Optimus is actually a representation for the writers? Just giving up.

You know what, this is boring just to write out, so let me sum it up as follows.

Hot Rod quits with some other Autobots, they team up with some Decepticons to build a ship to get off the planet, Ultra Magnus comes to investigate the death of the Autobot (remember, nobody has died in this war or so few that they actually have the time to do this). Prime has a heart to heart with "Spike" about what it means to lead. Ultra Magnus and Autobots fight Hot Rod and his new friends, Prime shows up to save the day, Hot Rod steals Ultra Magnus's ship and takes off.

Really, this story is utter crap. It is boring to read, it doesn't seem to follow ANY of the previous comics, and the Transformers themselves are these helpless creatures stuck on Earth (you know, despite the fact that in other comics they are shown to fly to and fro with great ease from planet to planet).
By the end of the comic I was wondering what the point of it was. I am not sure why IDW keeps messing up this series. It all started when they ended the first series in a "One Shot". They had such a great start.

And the writing, oh man. So bad. All everyone does in the comic is sit around and whine about everything. I guess the comic will put you in a mood similar to those of the characters. The art is good too.

In the end I didn't even buy this, nor will I. Whoever is in charge of this line IDW, get your act together. Go back to your original ideas! And to others who are thinking of buying this...

I highly recommend that you read it in the store first. Maybe you will like it, but for me it felt totally disconnected from the rest of the series.

So, as steady reader of the Transformers IDW-verse (and also fan of the now defunct Dreamwave Transformers universe), I picked this one up, since I was having so much trouble finding the individual issues in my local comic shops.
Anyway, about the book:
The story starts 3 years after the events of "All Hail Megatron". The humans consider all Transformers to be their enemies, while the Autobots and what's left of the scattered Decepticon army is in hiding.
Spike is now a field commander of Skywatch, hunting down the robots.
Due to events, Optimus Prime decides to... surrender to Skywatch, doubting his abilities to lead the Autobots while having faith they will be able to carry on in his absence.
Meanwhile the rest of the Transformers on earth try to handle the circumstances.
I'll admit, some of the story isn't that original, and taking Optimus and Megatron out of the picture is nothing new.
One thing that I'm glad this story at least touched upon is the condition waging a war for millions of years has on an individual, even a 30 ft transforming robot. It touches upon it, but it doesn't delve into it. Among Prime, the story also focus's on Bumblebee, Hot Rod (Rodimus Prime), Ultra Magnus, Thundercracker and Swindle.
The way the story is carrying, it almost seems to be trying to take the Bumblebee character and make him more like his Bay-esque movie version (including the fact that he's been upgraded by the end of the book, which is explained in the Bumblebee series that runs parallel to this book).
Hot Rod is impulsive and a little less likable than he was in the previous books (that is, if you liked him to begin with), and Ultra Magnus is a stiff blanket that I can't help but say "C'mon! are you kidding me???". I thought Thundercracker was a little more interesting than most of the characters here.
And then there's Optimus. I can't say I agree with the other posts saying he's a wuss, but I think he was done pretty well with the exception of the fact that he turns himself into Skywatch.

And then... there's the art. Don Figueroa is obviously attempting to make the characters look much more movie like. For the sake of the art itself, neglecting who the characters are, I'd say he did a pretty good job. But when you take it all it, for the most part, I don't think it completely works.
My biggest complaint are the faces. The vast majority of them anyway. Optimus Primes' face isn't bad, but that's because Optimus has a permanent (or semi-semi permanent) plate attached to the lower portion of it. But most of the rest of the characters don't. With most, we get craggly looking features, with sharp teeth. It just doesn't work. The characters are not humans, but they are based on humans; they should have faces able to convey human emotions. Not even Bumblebee's face is left unscathed by this effect though.
As for the rest of the bodies, well, I have mixed feelings. What the bodies look like in this book are what I think Bay's films should have shot a bit more for. Bay's characters are too complex. And for this book, these characters may be a little too complex too, but not terribly so for my taste.
But it is clear to the authors that we will have difficulty reconizing characters, since with each character being introduced, on the page there is a tag stating his name. I think you went a little overboard, Mr. Figueroa. SOme characters seem to deviate even more so than others: Optimus Prime's body is unnecessarily different even the cover of this book shows Prime looking different). Jetfore, Jazz and Omega Supreme have also needlessly been mangled (also I admit I find Omega Supremes' design interesting).
Anyway, if you follow the universe, this is a must read. Hopefully the story and art will improve by the next installment.