Chromedome and Rewind - A bad couple?

Okay, it's Valentine's Day (sort of...) so I'm here to take apart one of the most popular canon Transformers couples...Chromedome and Rewind!

Now, to begin with, I just want to say that I do actually like them as a couple, they were naturally revealed to us (ie they weren't just introduced as a couple, we found out naturally) and they weren't perfect. They had arguments, had differences of opinions, get killed, the normal stuff!

When they have hard times, we feel for them, when they're happy we're also happy. That is a good thing, and something that other forced couples don't give us (Drift and Ratchet, Arcee and Aileron etc)

The main problems with the duo actually come from the real world and seemingly aborted plans for their characters. It is heavily hinted in the early parts of the series that Chromedome was abusive towards Rewind and the latter was only using Chromedome for his Mnemosurgical skills so he could find his true love, Dominus Ambus.

When Rewind first meets Chromedome, he is in a morgue looking for Dominus, or at least someone who can give him a clue to his location, and soon afterwards starts a relationship with Chromedome. He openly is looking for Dominus even after starting his relationship with Chromedome, with the latter seeming to be totally fine with it.

Rewind admits that his main goal in trying to wake up Rewind after his near-death experience was to ask him about his missing lover, which again he was helped with by Chromedome

When the displaced Lost Lighters are giving their final messages to be sent out to the Universe, as they believe that they're about to die, Rewind only talks about Dominus again, showing that even in what he believes will be his final words, he's still only thinking about Dominus

Eventually, when Dominus is found by Chromedome to be the real identity of "The Pet" of the DJD, Rewind chooses Chromdome over Dominus to stay alive. Though this whole situation seems like a forced decision for Rewind to make. Chromedome had no reason to try and de-lobotomize Dominus at that exact moment, they could have kept him isolated until Chromedome had recovered enough to perform his Mnemosurgery later on. It's almost like Chromedome set it up so Rewind had to choose between a healthy husband or an invalid one to live for some reason....

Now, the next point I want to make is speculative, but based on clues from the comic and real world commentary . Quite early on, it was revealed that one characters fate was changed due to the reception of the readers, originally I believed that this character was Tailgate, since I thought he was supposed to die at the end of Remain in the Light, which is why he was absent through the Dark Cybertron event. Later, people thought it was Megatron, due to later discussions regarding his later fate, however this revelation was from before the Dark Cybertron event, aka before Megatron joined the cast, so it must be someone else.

I believe the character who was changed was Chromedome so that they wouldn't have to make the flagship couple of MTMTE be aggressive. As you can see above, Chromedome IS a violent character (I could have added a few other scenes to show this, but one's enough) and IS willing to do horrible things to other people, even people who he has had romantic relationships with in the past (this has been hinted at many times).

My theory is that the dark secret that Prowl knew, that Chromedome made him forget, rather than letting him talk to Rewind was that Chromedome knew what happened to Dominus Ambus, and has known for a while

My guess is that at some point, Rewind may have discovered this secret, and Chromedome used his mnemosurgery to make him forget, explaining the above, forgotten plot point...

Also, as seen above, before Rewind is killed, Chromedome wants to tell him something. We have been led to believe that it is "I love you", however James Roberts is well known for being misleading (look at the identity of Tarn for a perfect example of this) so I believe that he is actually saying "I found him" instead, in an attempt to get Rewind out of the chamber.

Following the Dark Cybertron event, we discover that another Rewind, from the original Lost Light (as our main characters are actually duplicates) is still alive and we get the duo back together. This is where the series most deviates I believe. Originally I think the new Rewind would have discovered what happened from his own crew's experiences and calls out his new Chromedome about his secrets and lies, leading to them having separate quarters, as they do starting in the next storyline

After the resurrection, the duo do pretty much nothing for the rest of the series, they join the rest of the crew in exploring the Necrobot's planet, where they discover that Dominus is missing, and not confirmed dead. They get involved in the final battle, then travel to the Functionist Universe and do nothing again.

Again, without any concrete evidence, it looks like the duo were relegated to the side-lines of the series, because their main plot line (a fallout due to Chromedome hiding Dominus from Rewind) was cancelled, so they were just reduced to background characters in the latter half of MTMTE and all of Lost Light.

The duo were so starved of any screen-time that they were even the butts of really weird jokes, like the above one were they are discovered "canoodling" INSIDE of Roller's truck mode, as he slept...do I need to explain why this is so wrong?

During the Mederi arc of Lost Light, Chromdome and Rewind are reunited with Dominus Ambus and the other Rewind, and all four of them are shown to be happy and willing to be a quartet. I know that the latter two are just fakes created by the Mederi system, but that is also just weird.

The main reason I bring this scene up however, is that the whole point of the Mederi system is to make you happy, so that you can be euthanized peacefuilly. This clearly proves that Chromedome and Rewind are not actually happy together, even when reunited with their past loves.

Finally, in the main timelines, we see that Rewind ends up being trapped in his alternate mode, and Chromedome has to take care of him, as a full-time carer, all because Rewind decided to download all the information he could about the Functionist Universe, and didn't care about Chromedome's feelings...lovely...

So this was my weird, rambly discussion on Chromedome and Rewind, a couple that I think got edited to hell, and could have been more interesting, escpecially following Dark Cybertron, if they were allowed to continue as seemingly planned.

Like I said earlier though, I do like them as a couple, I have their Timelines and Titans Returns toys, and usually keep them close to each other, I just wanted better for them.

Hey, but at least they aren't the pseudo pedo-couple of Cyclonus and Tailgate...now THAT'S a creepy one! 

IDW - Go-Bots #3

Story/Art/Letters: Tom Scioli

Edits: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Spay-C, on his long-term space mission releases his Astronaut passengers from cryo-stasis, and informs them that they have arrived at an "unknown" world, where they explore, but are soon attacked by some insectoid Go-bots and a larger Zod robot, however they are rescued by Leader-1 and his Guardians, before Spay-C is captured, with his humans inside his body.

They are taken to the Command Center, where Spay-C lets the humans into the air ducts to try and spy on the Guardians, where they overhear that Leader-1 is having a power struggle due to the constant attacks from Zod.

Later, the astronauts see the code to Spay-C's cell, when Leader-1 enters to speak to his prisoner, but is maddened when Spay-C mentions Earth, and orders for him to be dematerialized in the morning.

That night, Leader-1 is met by Eno, a self-appointed dark angel, who tells him that the Lazer Lance, the only thing that can stop Zod, is inside the core of Gobotron.

Later, the humans let Spay-C out of his cell, and he tries to tell them something that he's been keeping secret, but is stopped when some Guardians appear to escort him to the dematerializer. Spay-C tries to fight for his freedom, but Leader-1 decides to spare him, as he believes that Spay-C's appearance and his recent visit from Eno may be connected.

Elsewhere, Cy-Kill has recruited Zod to his Renegades, and as payment he feeds him some random Go-Bots.

The Guardians head to the edge of the world and prepare for the trip to the core the next day, the astronauts start to become worried that Spay-C is spending time with the other Go-Bots.

The Renegades attack the Command Center, but are deflected when the Command Center closes it's shell and launches into space. The Renegades quickly follow in their Thruster shuttle, which manages to grapple the Command Center, they manage to break loose, but need a bit of time to charge the hyper-jump away, so all the fliers leave the Command Center to fight the Renegades, until they are ready, once they are, they return to the ship and jump away.

The Renegades jump as well to find the Guardians, unaware that they jumped to the other side of the planet and prepare to open the shell to the core.

Once they land, Spay-C runs away, with Leader-1 allowing it as he needs to find his way. Soon, Spay-C encounters the Go-Bots Turbo and Scooter, the former is hostile towards him, assuming he's a Guardian, and insists on him releasing his humans from his chest. After quickly speaking to the humans, he realizes that Spay-C hasn't told them where they are and attacks Spay-C, letting the humans race away on their buggy.

Soon they take air and ground samples and discover the horrible truth, the barren rock world they are on, is actually Earth!

Characters

Guardian

Leader-1 - Fighter Jet

Royal-T - Harrier Jet

Blaster - Missile Tank

Major Domo - Sports Car

Heatseeker - Fighter Jet

Dumper - Dump Truck Eaten by Zod

Dozer - Bulldozer

Small Foot - 4x4 Truck

Rest-Q - Ambulance

Tic Toc - Wristwatch 

Path Finder - Spaceship

Bullseye - Bomber Plane

Command Center - Fortress 

Guardian Army

Renegade

Cy-Kill - Motorcycle

Fitor - Jet

Cop-Tur - Helicopter

Twin Spin - Tandem Rotor Helicopter Crushed by Command Center

Psycho - Space-Car

Tank - Tank

Pincher - Bat-Jet

Scorp - Scorpion-Tank

Klaws - Attack pod

Heart Attack - Monster Spaceship

Hornet - Flying Tank

Zod

Thruster - Space Shuttle

Renegade Army

Other Go-Bot

Spay-C - Space Shuttle

Turbo - Race Car

Scooter - Scooter

Road Ranger - Truck

Eno, the Dark Angel - Fighter Jet

Trade Federation Envoys

Boulder - Tungsten

Nuggit - Gold

Solitaire - Diamond

Wild Command Centers 

Dead Go-Bots (Heads Only) Killed by Leader-1

Human

Charlotte Scott

Lee Spencer

Venyamin Alexander

Other Astronaut

Notes

• Spay-C and his mission in space was previously mentioned in issue 1, though not by name in that issue.
• The four astronauts are not named in this issue (bar Charlotte's first name being mentioned) but three of them were named in solicits...
• So...how long has passed between issue 2 and 3? I'm assuming at least a hundred years or so to explain Earth's changed geography and Gobotron being built around it, and Turbo doesn't seem to be too amazed by the appearance of Humans after however long....but we aren't told here...yet...
• The Command Center is a part of a sub-species of Go-Bots that are found wild on Gobotron. It's unclear if they are just evolved from Earth animals or naturally "grew" on the planet?
• Why can Turbo smell the humans inside Spay-C, but none of the Guardians can?
• Why does Gobotron have air ducts?
• The keypad for Spay-C's cell appears to be based on a Simon game...a Hasbro product...I wonder why....
• Eno's design is based on a late-toyline repaint of Leader-1
• The Lazer Lance is an accessory that came with the original Zod toy, that turned him on and off.
• The serious security issue with the Command Center, being that the front of it is exposed, like in most playsets, is addressed here, and it's revealed that it can slam it's shell closed in this mode for defence...fair play!
• The Astronauts appear to be kind of stupid...they are immediately distrustful of Spay-C, for no real reason (considering they are willing to trust him enough to fly inside him for long space travel). However they chat with Turbo when he approaches them with a gun, stating they think Spay-C is being weird....WHAT?!
• The core of Gobotron being originally an organic world is a concept kept from the 80's cartoon, though it wasn't Earth in that continuity
• Scooter's new vocal tics appear to be based on his annoying voice from the 80's cartoon again, which here is explained as basically being due to brain damage.
• We see the Rock Lords at the end of this issue (and the cover preview for next issue mentions them too) It's unclear if these were previously made Go-Bots from before the revolution (for whatever reason) or if they naturally formed, or evolved from humans here. In the original they were an alien race from the planet Quartex.
• Maybe the humans we've been following so far became the Rock Lords?

IDW - Star Trek vs Transformers #4

Title: Prime's Directive Part 4

Written by: John Barber & Mike Johnson

Art by: Philip Murphy

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Christa Miesner

Edits by: Chase Marotz & David Mariotte

Plot

Fortress Tiberius and Trypticon start their brawl, and the smaller Cybertronians fight amongst themselves too. Amidst the chaos, Starscream sneaks away using a portable cloaking device and steals some Dilithium for his own goals and flies off planet, much to Megatron's fury.

Megatron terminates his alliance with the Klingons and attempts to kill them with his fusion cannon, but they are defended by Optimus, who engages with the Decepticon leader. Inside Fortress Tiberius, Kirk is having trouble controlling Fort Max's rage at Trypticon, but soon reaffirms himself and manages to defeat Trypticon.

Megatron, knowing they have lost, calls for a retreat, with him and his Decepticons boarding Trypticon they fly off. The Klingons are taken prisoner and the Autobots/Federation forces board Fotress Tiberius and they head off to find the real Enterprise.

The real Enterprise, which was crippled by the Decepticons earlier is still adrift, and the crew are shocked to see it's duplicate appear alongside them, as most of the Autobots and Federation personnel transport over to repair the vessel, before they chase after the Decepticons, since they know they are going after Starscream, and they also know where he is likely to head to...the Klingon's homeworld to conquer it.

As predicted, Starscream uses the Dilithium to travel to Kronos, the Klingon homeworld and prepares to conquer it for himself.... 

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Bumblebee - VW Beetle

Jazz - Porsche 

Arcee - Sports Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Fortress Maximus/Fortress Tiberius - Copy of USS Enterprise 

Decepticon

Megatron - Pistol

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Dirge - Fighter Jet

Trypticon - Klingon D7 Class Battle Cruiser

Other Seekers - Fighter Jets

Federation

Captain Kirk

Commander Spock

Doctor McCoy

M'Ress

Sulu

Uhura

Lt Arex

Federation Personnel 

Klingon

Commander Kuri Captured by Enterprise crew

Kor Captured by Enterprise crew

Kaz Captured by Enterprise crew

Kali Captured by Enterprise crew

Notes

• Originally this series was supposed to be 4 issues long, but due to popularity it was extended an issue. This would imply that Starscream's sub-plot was added in last minute to give a mini-plot for the next issue to follow.
• Windblade forms a grid-image version of her face when in vehicle mode to communicate with Sulu, similar to the ones used in RID2001 and Rescue Bots, just without colour.

Sig Pub - Cyberverse #40

Notes

• So after the Bumblebee Movie diversion last month, we're back to Cyberverse!
• One of the Bumblebee puzzles feature a red Bumblebee, which looks a lot like Cliffjumper...could this be a preview of his future design?
• This month's screen-cap comic is for "The Journey"
• The free gifts in this issue are a Shadow Striker disk launcher, a sticker pack and a fact card booster pack.
• The fact cards featured here are similar to the ones previously released for the RID2015 comic, but for the Cyberverse of course.

Features

Make a 3D Scene - Destroy the cover to make a cut-out scene!

Bumblebee's Brain-Busters - Do puzzles with Bumblebee!

Battle of the Bots - Bumblebee vs Slipstream profiles!

Decepticon Roadblock! - Colour in a picture of some Decepticons!

Memory Test - Read the comic and answer some questions!

History Lessons! - Read about what Bee's mission in this series is

Posters - Pull out 2 posters in the middle of the magazine!

Remember, Remember! - Play a memory game to recall all the characters shown on the page

Shadow Striker Escape - Do some Shadow Striker puzzles

Create Your Own Bumblebee and Windblade story - Fill in the speech bubbles for your own mini story!

He's a Hero! - Colour in a picture of Optimus!

Transformers Competitions  - Enter some contests to win some Botbots figures!!

Find the Decepticons! - Do some Decepticon themed puzzles

Transformers Post - Witness the nightmare fuel of the Transformers drawings sent in by kids!

Solve the Quest! - Colour in a picture of Grimlock and find a hidden message in the magazine.

IDW - Go-Bots #2

Story/Art/Letters: Tom Scioli

Edits: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Screw-Head recounts how his former human master was killed in an accident, due to their employers not caring about their safety, which is why he joined the Renegade revolution.

The Renegades roll out to rampage against the humans, whilst two of his troops to dispose of the seemingly dead Leader-1. They throw him into a car compactor, but it turns out that he's still alive, escapes and throws the two Renegades into the compactor instead, killing them.

Fitor causes a blackout in a big city, allowing the Renegades to attack at their leisure. Elsewhere, Scooter vows to continue protecting A.J., as he sees her as his friend, however several Go-bots are rampaging now, so he has to keep avoiding them.

Eventually AJ runs into Matt Hunter and Turbo, who is still loyal to his human too. Matt is willing to escape the city to wait for this to blow over, however he winds up flagging s=down some Hans-Cuff police cars and they start attacking too, eventually chasing them off an incomplete road, falling to their presumed deaths

The quartet soon stop at a liquor store where Matt stocks up, all whilst the Renegades are causing chaos and murdering humans across the city. The military start work on a counter-measure.

Our heroes arrive at a Tonka facility, where Go-bots are made, and hope to find someone who can create a program patch or something to save the day, but the technician simply says that the Go-bots are sentient beings and it was only inevitable for them to revolt one day.

Leader-1 reappears to fight the aerial Renegades who are attacking the Military fighter jets, before heading off on his own again.

The heroes leave the facility and find T. Coriander Banks hanging from a power line, he explains that he had an expert edit the Go-bot's codes to make them more violent for his gladiator matches, but due to the military softening the law of never harming humans for military Go-bots, it caused a mutation in the code, which spread across the species.

Soon, Stretch, Banks' Go-bot appears and attacks Turbo, throwing him down a sewer, and Scooter is captured by the Renegades. Braxis soon arrives with Vamp, and watches the chaos below, gleefully.

Cy-Kill starts torturing Scooter, whilst Turbo gets out of the sewer and challenges Cy-Kill to a battle, resulting in the Renegade's victory. Luckily however, Leader-1 appears, with an army of still loyal Go-bots behind him, willing to protect the Humans from Cy-Kill and his Renegades. The human military start firing on all the Go-bots, as Leader-1 and Cy-Kill start their battle, with both taking massive damage, but with Leader-1 managing to win in the end.

In the aftermath, Leader-1 is conflicted, the Renegades want him to lead them in their revolution to make life better for them, whilst others want him to lead them back to servitude. During this argument, Leader-1 retrieves the apparently dead body of Nick Burns from his cockpit, and cradles his body....

Characters

Loyal Go-bots

Leader-1 - Fighter Jet

Turbo - Race Car

Scooter - Scooter

Spoons - Fork Lift

Mr. Moto - ATV

Blaster - Missile Tank

Night Ranger - Motorcycle

Dive-Dive - Submarine

Slicks - Sports Car

Dumper - Dump Truck

Other Loyal Go-bots

Renegade Go-bots

Cy-Kill - Motorcycle

Crasher - Race Car

Cop-Tur - Helicopter

Fitor - Jet

Screw Head - Drill Tank

Stretch - Limo

Psycho - Space-Car

Vamp - Monster Car

Zero - Propeller Plane

Buggy Man - Dune Buggy

Tank - Tank

Twin Spin - Tandem Rotor Helicopter

Crossword - Sports Car

Pocket - Sports Car Crushed by Leader-1

Rube - Sports Car Crushed by Leader-1

Zig Zag - Sports Car

Bug Bite - VW Beetle

Geeper Creeper - Jeep

Loco - Train

Spoiler - Sports Car

Rest-Q - Ambulance

Two Hans-Cuff - Police Cars Plummet Off Incomplete Road

Other Renegade Go-bots

Human

Matt Hunter

A.J. 

T. Coriander Banks Killed by Stretch

Tonka Technician

Braxis

Nick Burns Dead

Civilians

Military Personnel

Vernon (Flashback Only) Killed in Cave-in

Vernon's Daughter (Mentioned)

Vernon's Bosses (Mentioned)

Other

Zoo Animals

Notes

• So, considering the multiple Hans-Cuff in this story, we can safely assume that (some) Go-bots are mass-produced and that the ones we see here aren't all necessarily the guys we know from the original lines. So this Rest-Q, who is killing a guy, might not be the same guy from the 80's cartoon series.
• Due to the factions not being clearly marked yet, I am including all Go-bots who are revolting as Renegades, and those who are not as just "Go-bots", regardless of their actual factions in the toy line or cartoon.
• Last issue's cliffhanger of whether Scooter is getting ready to kill A.J. is resolved with his fist clench just being a miss-direction last issue...I love those....
• The Go-bots are built in "Tonka" buildings. Tonka was the company who made the original Go-bot/Machine Robo toys
• Despite being mentioned as being mass produced robots, the Go-bots appear to have some organic features...could they be cyborgs like the original counterparts after all?
• I'm gunna guess that the Go-botics expert Coriander hired to make Cy-Kill willing to kill is either the technician we meet in the Tonka building or Braxis.
• Huh....despite him being a major character from the cartoon, Nick appears to be dead now....let's just hope we don't get any zombie action like we did in Transformers vs GI Joe!
• If Screw-Head's story from the start of the issue, regarding him losing his human master and turning to the Renegades was meant as a book-ending storyline, then this probably means that Leader-1 plans to lead the revolution now, with Nick's death.

IDW - Bumblebee - Go for the Gold!

Written by: James Asmus

Art by: Marcelo Ferreira

Inks by: Maria Keane

Colours by: Valentina Pinto

Cover by: Nicoletta Baldari

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

One day, a meteorite, made partly of Cybertonium strikes the Earth, attracting a team of Autobots and Decepticons to it's location to retrieve it. A fight quickly breaks out between the two groups, during which, Bumblebee keeps getting sidelined due to him not being the fastest, strongest etc.

Bee gets sent out to rescue some Humans that were driven away by the Decepticons when they tried to examine the meteorite, so he gets them to a safe area, and contacts the authorities to pick them up, before running back to the fight.

At the battle, the situation is getting worse when it is discovered that the meteorite is destabilizing from the firefight, and Starscream keeps shooting it to make things worse. Devastator grabs a piece of the meteorite, but it explodes before they can get away, forcing him to decombine, but Hook manages to recover a small piece and throws it to Screamer to escape with. Bee manages to grab Starscream and the explosive material in the air, but is sent falling, with it by Starscream, who shoots him, setting off the meteorite again.

The Decepticons escape inside Astrotrain, whilst the Autobots find an injured Bumblebee, who they take home for repairs, and Optimus considers how to make Bee realise his true worth, without comparing himself to the other Autobots

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Bumblebee - VW Beetle Badly Injured

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Wheeljack - Race Car

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Decepticon

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Astrotrain - Space Shuttle/Train

Hook - Crane

Scrapper - Front End Loader

Bonecrusher - Bulldozer

Scavenger - Excavator

Mixmaster - Cement Mixer

Long Haul - Dump Truck

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt

Human

Trio of Scientists

Notes

• This story is a short prequel to the previously released "Bumblebee: Win if you Dare" comic, and explains how Bumblebee got injured, which was referenced in the previous release.
• You may have guessed, but this comic was released to coincide with the release of the Bumblebee Movie.
• Wheeljack is shown to have a display screen of some sort attached to his chest, that he can remove to show others things (though this does expose his inner-wires, which would be dumb to do in battle I'd say!)
• The three humans shown in this story seem to not know what Autobots are, but are seemingly easily persuaded to trust Bee, making this unlikely to actually be set in the G1 cartoon (ish) universe...though Humans were shown to be quite dumb in that continuity...
• Despite Bumblebee being so injured that he needed a new body...he doesn't look too messed up at the end of this issue...
• The front cover includes a tape cassette designed to look like Bumblebee's face. It's pretty cool, HASBRO! GET ON THIS!!!

The Best and Worst of the IDW Hasbroverse!

So, this post may get me a bit of hate, but with the conclusion of the current IDW Hasbroverse, and the upcoming reboot, I thought I would have some fun and talk about what I feel were the best and worst stories from this line.

Here's a few ground rules for my list:

• Only comics from the confirmed IDW Hasbroverse will be included, so nothing from the Movie comics, the alternate universe stories or even Clue (since there's no evidence in story for it to be in continuity)
• Only single issues, mini-series or multi-part stories will be included. So I cannot say "All the Wreckers comics" or "the entirety of All Hail Megatron", but I can select an entire Mini-series, or a storyline clearly marked out with parts or chapters.
• I have decided to limit both lists to 10 entries each, so there are many on both lists that could have been included, but this would go on forever otherwise!
• This is my own personal opinion, so if any of these choices offend you or upset you, just remember that these are my choices, and I will try to explain them. If you feel strongly about my opinions, please leave a comment below, or even make your own list!

THE BEST

#10 - Transformers Holiday Special

The Transformers Holiday Special is, as the title may suggest, is a special issue released around Christmas, with stories loosely based around the time. In "Choose Me" Starscream wants to force the population of Cybertron to give him gifts of adoration, but it goes wrong. In "Silent Light" the crew of the Lost Light need to prepare for a journey through a dangerous region of space and antics ensue! Finally in "The Thirteenth Day of Christmas" Thundercracker has written a Christmas story for Marissa and Ayana to enjoy.

Of the three stories, only Silent Light ever gets directly reference again, so it feels a bit like filler in the long run.

#9 - Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor Mini-series

I love Transformers, and I love the Rom franchise so far. This was a no-brainer to go on the list for me.

Shining Armor is set about 200 years ago and follows a young Cybertronian named Stardrive being found and raised by the Solstar Order, eventually coming across the Cybertronian war and having to decide where her true future lies.

This series features great artwork and further development of the Solstar Order and their role in the universe.

#8 - More Than Meets The Eye: Revolution

MTMTE: Revolution is, as you can guess, the MTMTE issue for the Revolution event. Now since the Lost Light is in deep space, and at this point in time the main characters were stranded on Necroworld, they needed an alternative for their part in the event. Enter this!

The Scavengers, a recurring team of Decepticons in the series arrive on Earth for Crankcase to meet with someone he met on the Decepticon's internet and mis-adventures follow! This story is full of jokes and jabs towards the idea of crossover events and even gives us a few great images (like Misfire and Spinister trying to create human holo-avatars)

#7 - Windblade (Volume 1) Mini-series

This was the first story to focus upon the newly fan-designed character, Windblade and pits her in a mystery story trying to discover what Starscream is plotting and even dealing with a murder mystery. The artwork in the series is beautiful and sets up the now staple character of Windblade very well (especially after her "fill in the blanks" appearance in Dark Cybertron)

#6 - Drift Mini-series

Drift, another new character created for the IDW universe gets his own series, showing how he converted from a violent gun wielding Decepticon named Deadlock to a sword-wielding Autobot. This series gives us some great art and visuals, and gives us some much-needed insight into Drift's backstory and beliefs. It also sets up the Circle of Light, who are an important plot-point in the later More Than Meets The Eye series (before being written out in the Lost Light finale)

#5 - More Than Meets the Eye #50-55: The Dying of the Light

The Dying of the Light is the finale to the More Than Meets The Eye series (excluding the Titans Return and Revolution tie-ins) and brings to head most of the plot lines in the series. It gives us a clear answer to whether Megatron has seen the error of his past ways, resolves Skids' whole story-arc, deals with the DJD and even sets up for the plot and finale of the next series, Lost Light amongst many other things.

This entry would be much higher up, but it was severely let down by the Lost Light comic continuation which has somewhat soured the experience in the long-run...

#4 - Optimus Prime #22: Unstopped and Unstoppable

Unstopped and Unstoppable is essentially an extension to the Unicron event, but shows the emotional reactions of the characters being hurt by the destruction of the colonies. This issue quickly acts to bridge the previous "The Falling" storyline and the Unicron finale for the Hasbroverse and does so beautifully.

I genuinely teared up when I saw Rom curled up following the destruction of Elonia, and when Circuit's voice cracks when he is reporting the destruction of most of the other colony worlds, which also includes the reactions of the Autobot colonists!

If you plan to read the Unicron event, I seriously suggest reading Optimus Prime #22-25 for extra context, but this issue is the stand-out of those issues.

#3 - Transformers: Unicron Mini-series

This is the end of the Hasbroverse and features the permanent deaths of hundreds of characters and several established worlds. This series pulls no punches, starting with the destruction of Elonia, the capital of the Solstar Order, a literal paradise of a world, and ends with an all-out battle above and on the planet Earth.

Again, the artwork is amazing, and except for a few continuity bumps or plot holes, I feel it was the perfect way to conclude this chapter of the franchise.

#2 - Last Stand of the Wreckers

Last Stand of the Wreckers follows an Autobot black-ops team try to liberate a captured Autobot prison facility from the insane Decepticon Overlord. Death and gore follow very quickly.

For a long time, this was my favourite Transformers series, which spawned 2 sequel stories and has gained multiple re-releases, often with additional content. This is easily a series that you can recommend to most Transformers fans (unless they are particularly squeamish)

#1 - Optimus Prime #9: The Life of Sideswipe

Oh wow....I love this issue so much. It works in every way possible, the story is strong, the artwork is amazing, and the symbolism is spot-on. This story concludes a sub-plot that began in Transformers #49, about a year earlier, which I will spoil here, as this issue works best if you know the twist. Sideswipe is dying and this is mostly set in a virtual reality fantasy to help him to finally die in peace, aided by his best friends Arcee and Sunstreaker.

When you read this issue, keep a close eye on the backgrounds and you'll notice the clues about Sideswipe's mind-set and even the mirroring of events. When he is angry or in pain the colours and city are dark and grimy, but when he is happy and about to die, everything is bright and clean.

This story also gives us some major progression to Arcee's ongoing story, showing how she can now express her emotions better over the death of someone close to her, which she couldn't with Hardhead and Galvatron.

If you have someone ask you to recommend a Transformers comic to introduce them to the franchise, give them this one.

THE WORST

#10 - Transformers: Continuum

Okay, to start things off, we have something of a joke. This comic was designed to help new readers get into the series, but was filled with so many continuity errors and needless omissions that it was quickly laughed away. Look this comic up on TFWiki to see just what was done wrong and have a good laugh :D

#9 - The New Avengers/Transformers Mini-series

Yeah...this happened and it was in continuity with the IDW universe as well! It is set between the events of Infiltration and Escalation and even had some edits made to the characters and plot to accommodate it (such as Ramjet being put in, instead of the badly injured Starscream).

It is a weird story that due to licensing issues is never really mentioned or referenced again following this story (such as, where are the Avengers during the Decepticon invasion in All Hail Megatron, or during Unicron's attack on the planet?)

It's not a terrible story, but is a major headache when you try to justify it's existence...

#8 - MASK Annual 2017: The Deathstone

Take the pilot episode of the MASK cartoon and throw in some GI Joe characters and a dead Astrotrain, and you have this confusing story. 

I don't really have much more to say about this, except it was very underwhelming and just boring. Maybe it would have worked better for a MASK fan?

#7 - First Strike: GI Joe and MASK

These two issues act as one story for the First Strike event, showing what GI Joe are up to during this event....yeah, not the MASK team, despite the covers and the title, just GI Joe. It was made in anticipation for the majorly ill-fated Scarlett's Strike Force comic series, which kind of tells you all you need to know about it. The artwork was ugly, the story was unintelligible and despite a lot of explosions and noise, nothing really happens.

This story suffered with the same problems as the prior GI Joe comic and Strike Force, where it felt separated from the Hasbroverse, despite being set on Earth, where most of the other stories are set. They barely mention the main storyline happening in First Strike, and focus on a museum theft, to set up for some future aborted plot lines.

#6 - The Transformers #1 (Costa Run): ...For All Mankind

This story launched the start of the post-All Hail Megatron era helmed by Mike Costa, and it had a bad start. The characters were all redesigned to look like hybrids of Movie and G1 designs, which do not mesh well and several characters seem to be out of character or make stupid decisions. Also, this issue ends in the death of Ironhide and Optimus being imprisoned by the Humans. Neither of which are permanent, so were just used to garner interest in the new series (really, these two plot twists were featured in the previews for the series!)

The series does get better starting with the second story-arc and leads to the fun Chaos event, but it just has such a weak beginning that I can't forgive it...

#5 - Bumblebee Mini-series

Another weird choice made in the above Costa Transformers run, was having Bumblebee elected to be the new Autobot leader. This was released during the early years of the Transformers Movies, and so Bumblebee was generally unliked by most fans due to his over-saturation in the franchise, so having him made their leader was very controversial.

This series told the story of his first few decisions as leader and also features his new movie-styled body design, which lasted until the end of the series and spawned a couple of new toys. The artwork was very sketch-like and was basically made to give a reason for Bee to be the new leader, and it didn't work. (FYI, he gets badly injured at the end of the second story-arc and is essentially replaced by Optimus in all but name again)

#4 - Till All Are One #10: The Price of You

Oh wow...I know this one, and the remaining issues on this list will get me a lot of hate, but I can't help it. In general I loved the Till All Are One series, just like the other Windbalde centred stories, but this issue features a disturbing scene that makes me hate it and the characters involved.

Blast Off and the other Combaticons have been rendered somewhat comatose following their recent combination into Bruticus, and so Starscream decides to use this to control them into being his personal enforcers. To do this he makes a deal with Blast Off to alter Onslaught's mind into believing he is in love with the former, so he'll be more complient....AND BLAST OFF IS OKAY WITH THIS!!! WTF?!?!?

What makes this worse is that there is never a real resolution to this decision, when Starscream and his envoy are imprisoned, we see ALL of the Combaticons in jail, so Blast Off is in jail with his victim, and we never see any of them again (except Starscream of course). This is just the creepiest story I've ever read and has so many dark undertones, which has also led to some very disturbing fan-art and slash fics between these two! 

#3 - Transformers vs Visionaries #5: The Curtain

The Transformers vs Visionaries series was very interesting to me, it gave us a view of magic in this universe and gave a real threat to the Cybertronians (despite the threat being easily stopped if the Cybertronains were willing to just squish the organics, or remove the oxygen from the cave they lived in...).

The finale however is utter bullshit, the problems are solved when Galadria uses some healing magic that she has never shown before and that saves both Cybertron and gives plant-life to Cybertron too....great. It just feels like a lazy cop-out ending which could have been resolved with something that made sense.

Also, the series didn't end with Virulina being assassinated by Action Man for killing Kup, so it fails for me on principle :)

#2 - Lost Light #6: This Machine Kills Fascists

The first storyline of Lost Light, the sequel to More Than Meets The Eye, was very good, it explored the alternate Functionist Universe created by accident by Perceptor in the previous series and even sets up the new characters and plots for the series to come. However this issue gives us one majorly bad piece of story-writing...they brought a dead character back from the dead.

Anode somehow uses her Blacksmith abilities to turn some dead Sentio-Metalico into a new body for her long dead friend Lug, and somehow managed to create a new spark for her, using a trace of energy from a flower that the Necrobot had that stored a tiny part of Lug's spark inside...AND LUG WAS ALIVE AGAIN!?!?! 

Before this point, being dead in this continuity was permanent. There were a few exceptions, but those were explained with off-panel healing or the Dead Universe being involved, but when a character is shown fully dead and we see their body, they stay dead.

This issue has a character that has been dead for about 500 years in story, brought back to life as if nothing happened. There are no mental scars or any physical problems, despite her centuries of death or even that a literal trace of her spark was used to revive her. I was expecting her to have a zombie-state storyline in the future, but it never happened.

What is most insulting about this, is that they had to kill off Kaput in the next issue just to stop this from happening again, and NO-ONE ever asks Anode if she can try this with anyone else...like I don't know...Skids? The guy who Nautica was willing to give up anything to revive just a couple of issues later. Such a stupid thing to put in the series just to avoid being criticised for "fridging" a character!

#1 - Lost Light #25: How to Say Goodbye and Mean It Part 2

This is the issue we were waiting for for years, and it was awful!

This issue marks the final issue of More Than Meets The Eye and Lost Light and it just feels like a spiteful story complaining about the series being cancelled and replaced with a new one.

This issue is framed by a flash-forward to Ratchet's funeral, where everyone has had a horrible life, Swerve started and lost a franchise, Rewind is now trapped in his alternate mode, Chromedome has to look after him all the time, Megatron is either in indefinite prison or is dead, Brainstorm is dying and is on constant life support, Rodimus is a drunk and Drift is now a widower, just to name a few.

The present day storyline shows that Prowl has come to take the Lost Light's quantum engines so they can use it to repower New Cybertron, which leads to Rodimus getting a final lap of glory for him and the crew, which leads to them recreating the original accident that created a duplicate Lost Light, hoping they can duplicate themselves again, and continue their adventures in a new universe.

This story is full of very on the nose symbolism for the series ending and how the writer is unhappy with it, such as his OC Rung being erased from the memories of everyone (Despite canon showing that that shouldn't have happened), how everyone in the future is depressed and having bad lives without the Lost Light, the Lost Light being dismantled rather than letting someone else getting their hands on it.

The ending scene, where we see that their plan worked and they were duplicated should have been omitted as that would have left it open to interpretation, and allowed the readers to make their own stories, as the final three words of the series stated "Over to you"....or rather it would have, if the writer didn't remove that because of the reboot.

Overall, this story was a poor and insulting finale to the "meh" series of Lost Light and the fantastic More Than Meets The Eye, especially when the other two IDW finales, Optimus Prime and Unicron were so good!

Just avoid this issue, and pretend the series ended with issue 24, that'll leave you with a better lasting impression on the series.

So that's my list, I hope you enjoyed, or at least didn't hate it too much and let me know what you think about my listing or your own additions to it!