Transformers Ongoing 31 Preview

G2, eh?

Like the G2 bot symbols and kinda relieved they dropped the "Chaos" artwork for this issue.

This actually looks awesome. I'm actually really anticipating these future IDW comics.

wait...that looks like a young Star Saber and Dai Atlas?!?! I'm in

Fascinating. Incredibly fascinating.

Revoltech Megatron? Not sure why that is on the cover....but, cool? lol I have no idea what has happened in the comics since shortly after IDW took over the license, but it's good to see that Cybertron sees a golden age.

The upcoming stuff in 2012, actually, is set in the tumultuous post-war era.

This appears to take place FAR later than that in the timeline, though.

Looking forward to it. Glad to see Casey Coller on art. I dig his work

what dierection is this story going in ? someone plz reply

I actually really like this. Im on board.

Seems like this issue will be both kind of cheesy and very fun - a storytelling/flashback session going back hundreds to possibly thousands of years in the past (and at least one bit going back millions of years, like that splash page of Megatron's original uprising). That artwork of Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente looks like the brightness of the Great War scene from Ironhide #1 - just gorgeous.

And unless the G2 Autobot insignia is seen on some of those Cybertronians who left the war (as will be seen in some future issues), then I guess Generation 2 might be a designation for post-war characters, and the symbol is a tribute to Optimus Prime.

Hmm. That's somewhat interesting, but more than a little self-indulgent. Also, kind of locks in the storyline to an extent, doesn't it?

Actually looks somewhat interesting, but

>Revoltech Megatron on cover

why.jpg

I think it's just to counter issue #30' s cover with G1 Optimus

I think that this will be an story, and I have my fingers crossed that they can keep this coherant and interesting at the same time. I am really looking foward to seeing how the remaining Decepticons fit in this new Cybertronian Order, and over the course of time how their fate is revealed.

I'm still curious, does this take the place of the "Death of Optimus Prime" one-shot that was changed from #125 or is that a separate book?

I thought that was coming out at the end of December?

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/comic-...1-preview.html

Front page credit? I posted this an hour previously. Le sigh

Got ya covered

I don't think this is the direction for their new stories comming up. It might be just a look at a distant future and you might see it dropped in on now and then or maybe they use characters who come back from that time line. Now that would be an eye opener for them to be in the heart of the wars that would become historic. That was alot of pages with little dialoge to set up the splash pages.

Maybe, this is also Costa's way of stamping it into cannon but I have not enjoyed chaos at all. I am looking forward to the relaunch because it needs a new direction.

grimlock never died. He's still out there

Doesnt Alpha look a lot like Ironhide?

Should be a good read. And it's not necessarily locked in that the Autobots win the war, at the loss of Optimus Prime. Changeing an event in the war on our current History will cause this future to split into an alternate universe. Its a branch and this future exists as one of the potential endings.

Its not irrelevent. Because it could be interesting to know some way for This peace to come about in our crazy toy property franchise drama, War seemingly is their purpose, and that strife has alienated cybertron from the rest of galaxy. At very least it provides one potential cap to the IDW universe if you want there to be one.

It feels like this has been done before. In some ways these young Autobots are having some very Transformers Fan reactions to characters like Grimlock and wheelie.

In the IDW universe anyway. Wheelie is pretty cool. Interesting to see revitalized Alpha Trion as a less grouchy version of Kup.

Too childish, too repetitive. Horrible dialogue.

It's their way of creating a division of stories I suppose.

Thank Primus.

I think the Red/Orange guy is Sonic Bomber?

Probably is. Alpha Trion probably merged with Ironhide at some point.

The fact that they are using toys for regular covers is mind-boggling. Are they strapped for cash they can't spend the money on artwork? So horrible.

This really looks terrible. It's like the same panel over and over again.

I think this is a good point for me to STOP reading the IDW-verse comics and just wait for Transformers G1 #81.

My sentiments exactly. This is absolutely ridiculous.

I love this. This may be the first Ongoing i buy in a while.

Certainly! I'm not quite sure if you want me to give you a rundown of the story so far, or if you want me to tell you what's coming in the next few months, so I'll do both. I've actually been meaning to do something like this, and I reason it'll be helpful to those who had a hard time figuring out what was going on.

As of #29 and #30, this is how the story stands. I've placed everything in spoiler tags, just in case.

- Galvatron, after blowing a massive crater into Cybertron with the Kimia Facility (which has been destroyed), takes Jhiaxus and heads for the core. Galvatron's plan is to feed the Heart of Darkness, his anti-Matrix, into the core of Cybertron, in order to stop the other-dimensional menace known as the D-Void from gaining a stable foothold in the non-Dead Universe. He is followed by Optimus, Rodimus, Ironhide, and Drift (the latter two don't go in all the way, as Drift is heavily damaged, and Ironhide brings him back to the surface).

- In space, Hardhead and Arcee pick up the survivors of the Kimia Facility, floating in an escape pod, and explain what's really going on: Galvatron believes himself to be working against the D-Void, yet it is actually pulling his strings through the Heart of Darkness. By infecting the core of Cybertron with the Heart of Darkness, the D-Void seeks to create a planet-sized portal for itself to enter the universe through.

- Hardhead and Arcee fly a ship down into the crater, ramming it into Galvatron as he's about to blast Prime and Rodimus.

- Cyclonus arrives on the scene and turns against Galvatron, out of loyalty to Cybertron, claiming that Galvatron had brainwashed him.

- After Galvatron feeds the Heart of Darkness into the core, his forces start to flake away into nothingness, and he has his moment of realization that he's been had.

- In order to stop Galvatron, Optimus Prime fed the Matrix into Cybertron's core. There's a big white flash, and Prime is shown kneeling on a desolate wasteland, with a broken Matrix in front of him.

-Whilst all this was going on, the D-Void attempted to create a physical body for itself by combining the Decepticons with Galvatron's forces, yet this "Deceptigod" was defeated by Megatron.

- On Earth, Swindle was revealed to have masterminded much of the Ongoing, and Spike has been purchasing anti-Transformer weapons from him.

- The above leads the Autobots still on Earth to conclude that their stay is over, and presumably pack up their stuff to leave.

Issue #31 appears to be set in the future, long after Chaos and the two new Ongoings, in a new Cybertronian Golden Age.

Come the end of December, new writers are taking over and collaborating on The Death of Optimus Prime oneshot (which is drawn by Nick Roche), and the Ongoing is splitting into two books in January. This is what we can expect, based on promo material (all of the following info is pulled from solicitations, covers, interviews, and the like):

- Whatever Prime did at the end of Chaos, it seems to have worked. The D-Void is defeated, and everybody seems to have lived, for the most part. The only major players in Chaos whose fates aren't definitively known at this stage are Megatron (who was heavily damaged when he took out the Deceptigod), Sunstreaker (who's probably still around, but no word has come through as to which ongoing he's in), Galvatron (last seen beginning to evaporate after realizing what he'd done), and Jhiaxus (who hasn't been seen since early in #30, but it'd be a huge waste of potential to just assume he died, especially since Cyclonus has been confirmed for one of the ongoings).

-Peace between the Autobots and Decepticons is apparently right around the corner. Presumably, how this came about will be featured in The Death of Optimus Prime, which will supposedly also detail the split between Bumblebee's group and Rodimus's group.

-Robots in Disguise, written by John Barber and drawn by Andrew Griffith, details the building of a new Cybertronian society, with Bumblebee at the helm. It will feature Bumblebee, Prowl, Wheeljack and Ironhide as the core cast, with Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, Bombshell, Cyclonus, Ratbat and Metalhawk all confirmed (or heavily hinted) to also be appearing. The Dinobots have also been hinted at.

- More Than Meets the Eye, written by John Barber and drawn by Nick Roche (for the first issue at least, and Alex Milne is credited for the second- as a result, I'm not sure if one of them is drawing the book, or if both are- either way it's cool, IMO, as they're both fantastic artists), features Rodimus leading a team into space to find the legendary Knights of Cybertron, who were mentioned in the two Chaos Theory issues that Roberts wrote earlier this year. The core cast is Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, and Drift, and will feature appearances by Gears, Hound, Blaster, Huffer, Brawn, Skids, and a cameo from some bot or another from Last Stand of the Wreckers #1. It will presumably also have appearances by one or more of the following: Arcee, Hardhead, Brainstorm, Chromedome, and Swerve (Roberts mentioned in a Q&A on the IDW forums that one of his big contributions to Chaos was to put dialogue in the mouths of characters he'd be writing in his ongoing- the characters listed here are the ones I'm speculating he meant).

-And, finally, by the looks of preview pages for The Death of Optimus Prime, Prime himself is probably not dead, at least in the conventional sense.

If I've missed anything or mis-interpreted anything, I apologize.

I enjoyed Chaos (somewhat ...) but I am definitely looking forward to this.

Wow. By any chance can you give me a run down of everythign that's happened since the first series IDW did? lol I'd seriously love to know. If not, is there a site that gives a synopsis of everything that has happened, in chronological order, from the comics?

IDW timeline - Transformers Wiki

This is pretty informative for just about the entire IDW G1 continuity. It ends at the Revenge of the Decepticons story arc, though, so the only story arcs that aren't detailed between the timeline page or DarthCrusher's notes about Chaos and the comic's future stories are Drift's mini-series (which has an unspecified placement in the timeline), Space Opera, and Chaos Theory - but you could look those issues up on their individual TF Wiki pages or something.

I hope this helps. : )

i think the Photo covers were just fun one-offs they did for Christmas ~ The TF ones were pretty lame (kind of funny they had to use Revoltech Megatron since there's never really been a truly great Megatron figure ~ even the best has pretty major issues from Classics wings and colors too Masterpiece's skinny legs)

The GIJoe ones they did were much cooler: IDW Publishing | The home of 30 Days of Night, Star Trek, Terminator, Transformers, G.I. Joe...

Wow, thanks for the link man. Sure does help.

Thanks for clearing THAT up.

Well against my better judgement I read the preview pages (I usually like to wait untill I've bought the book. It sucks getting half way though the issue with the feeling you've seen it already.)

And here are my thoughts/predictions.

It's gonna be a WHOLE book of these kids asking Alpha Trion to tell them a story, two pages of begging, and one splash page of art featuring that character. I guess since the last line is Grimlock, we'll get a spalsh page of Dinobots instead of Wheelie,,, but come to think of it, a Wheelie pin up would be pretty funny. They'll probably do all the majors; Rodimus, Magnus, Bumblebee, and maybe ONE surprise like Wingsaber. Also one more Decepticons. (Starscream?) Will I buy it? Probably, the art is delicious. But it's probably a pretty shameless filler issue.

Already dis-interested........

I like it.

Well looks like I was wrong.