Just read LSOTW... Forgive my ignorance but what was the continuity before last stand? What was the prequel comic? Is more than meets the eye a sequel? Or is sins of the wreckers?
There was no prequel, officially. LSotW happened, and some years later, after the rest of the continuity of the series went along, SotW took place while keeping with the continuity. There's no direct prequel outside of a few years of issues in RiD and MtMtE. The closest thing to a direct follow-up Last Stand got was in early MtMtE, where they deal with some of the fallout with what happened to some of the characters involved, and Overlord.
Small correction to your post, both TF RID (now just TF) and MTMTE were released and take place after LSOTW. It's All Hail Megatron which LSOTW kinda follows up on the events of.
Thanks! So what do you recommend? Reading all hail megaton or MtMte? Or transformers? Where was Optimus during LSOTW?
Well, as Spartan Prime said, you're not gonna find a comic that strongly ties into LSOTW, as that comic was sort of a side adventure. If you want to read one anyway, it should definitely be MTMTE (which is an ongoing, BTW). It's largely considered the best TF comic there's ever been, due to it being set after the war's already ended, and being driven by it's characters and their personal dilemmas. It's very different to most other TF fictions, and often feels like a sitcom. Most people recommend starting with the one-shot entitled the Death of Optimus Prime, which sets up both MTMTE and RID, which were, and still are, being released simultaneously (though with RID now just being Transformers). The one-shot is included in MTMTE volume 1, if you want to buy MTMTE that way. You could read all three, but most people don't like AHM as much as I do, plus you'd then have to read through Mike Costa's ongoing (also just called TF) to get to MTMTE and most don't like that either, including myself. Reading John Barber's TF ongoing simultaneously to MTMTE, like it was/is released, wouldn't be a bad idea (my personal dislike of the comic aside). While MTMTE focuses on goofy, mostly pointless adventures in space, Barber's ongoing focuses on Autobots attempting to adjust to post-war life, while attempting to rebuild their society on Cybertron. Most people like the comic, although it isn't as praised as MTMTE often is. Edit: As for where Optimus was during LSOTW, he was dealing with the remaining Decepticons on Earth.
I'd vote for reading MTMTE. All Hail Megatron is okay but easily skippable. The ongoing Robots in Disguise book is good but also skippable. It's not bad, it's just not great. MTMTE is fantastic and well worth your time.
MtMtE. AHM is not great, and honestly, the stuff in now 50+ issues of MtMtE and Transformers (ex "Robots in Disguise") doesn't hinge upon it much at all.
LSOTW had no official prequel story but it fell in line with IDW's series of events from the first "-ation" stories that didn't involve the Dead Universe. Verity Carlo was introduced in "Infiltration" and went into space during "Devastation" where she was with Ultra Magnus (who were both absent) during "All Hail Megatron," which set the groundwork for the fall of Garrus 9 and also placing Perceptor and Kup as members of the current iteration of the Wreckers. "Spotlight Kup" was the reader's starting point for the drama between Prowl/Springer and source of Guzzle's animosity towards Kup. Everyone involved in Last Stand were for the most part the childhood favorite characters of James Roberts and Nick Roche from the UK.
Spotlight Drift, Spotlight Kup followed by All Hail Megatron 15, those issues talk about Kup and Perceptor and why they are as they are. All Hail Megatron issue 15 - Transformers Wiki You could follow that by reading the All Hail Megatron story from issue 1 if you like. The Coda issues (13 through 16 act as epilogue and background information to the main AHM series) but 15 is the one to read for sure.
Not really? There aren't any G2 characters in MTMTE unless you want to count Thunderclash. Also none of the plots in MTMTE correlate to the story elements in G2. They're both a kind of G1, reinterpreted while still using it as the initial bedrock of which to tell these stories.
all of the mentioned books here are part of the same continuity. If you want to have a full background, start from the beggining This post will tell you what's the right order
IDW G1 is a complete reboot. It has no continuity ties to the 80s cartoon or comics. The universe was launched in 2005 and its first writer was Simon Furman. He continued on through 2009. Rather than an ongoing title, his stuff was published as a string of interconnected mini-series: Infiltration, Stormbringer, Spotlight v1, Escalation, Spotlight v2, Devastation, Spotlight v3, Spotlight: Revelation, and Maximum Dinobots. (Well, okay, a few of those Spotlight issues had guest writers, but other than that Furman wrote it all). During that period a couple other IDW G1 mini-series also came out: Megatron Origin (written by Eric Holmes), and the completely inconsequential Marvel crossover New Avengers/Transformers (written by Stuart Moore). In 2008 the execs at IDW (for whatever reason) decided to take things in a different direction. They brought Shane McCarthy on board to write the 12-issue maxi-series All Hail Megatron. It is set at some point after Furman's story and both intentionally and unintentionally contradicts elements of his work; as such, it's a bit of a soft reboot. The first 12 issues are the story proper and were collected in All Hail Megatron v1/v2. Another series of Spotlights came out alongside those and were collected in All Hail Megatron v3. All Hail Megatron #13-16 was an anthology of 8 short half-issue comics with various writers. They were collected in All Hail Megatron v4. At the end of 2009 All Hail Megatron was followed by The Transformers, a series written by Mike Costa. It ran for 31 issues. The Transformers #22/23 (the "Chaos Theory" story) were written by James Roberts. Several mini-series came out alongside Costa's series: Bumblebee (written by Zander Canon), Last Stand of the Wreckers (co-written by Nick Roche and James Roberts), Ironhide (written by Mike Costa), Drift (written by Shane McCarthy), Infestation (co-written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning), and Heart of Darkness (also co-written by Abnett & Lanning). Spotlight: Prowl (written by Costa) also came out at this time. That whole preceding period dominated by Furman/McCarthy/Costa is called "Phase One". "Phase Two" remains in continuity with it (and in fact fixes or jokingly references many of the continuity problems previously created by the differing writers and lax editors). At the end of 2011 a one-shot (The Death of Optimus Prime) co-written by James Roberts and John Barber set up the two "Phase Two" series: More than Meets the Eye (written by Roberts) and Robots in Disguise (written by Barber). Those books are published side by side and are currently at issue #52. Another group of Spotlights came out in 2013 and were collected as Dark Prelude. The issues were written by Roberts, Barber, and Roche. MTMTE and RID tell mostly separate stories. The big exception was the Dark Cybertron crossover, where you have to read them both in the correct order to follow what is going on at all. With issue #35 RID dropped the "Robots in Disguise" subtitle and became simply "The Transformers". Everyone calls it "exRID" now. Do not confuse it with Costa's older series. Following Dark Cybertron in 2014, MTMTE and RID entered their current long term arcs (currently ending, actually) which Roberts calls "Season 2". Several mini-series have come out over Season 2: Windblade (written by Mairghread Scott), Drift: Empire of Stone (written by McCarthy), Windblade: Distant Stars (again written by Scott), and Sins of the Wreckers (written by Roche). RID also got two special one-shots: Punishment and Redemption. And there was a Holiday Special with MTMTE, RID, and WB stories. exRID and WB crossed over during the Combiner Wars event which, like Dark Cybertron, has to be read in the right order to make sense. Next month a new ongoing series (Till All Are One, written by Mairghread Scott and following the Windblade story) is joing MTMTE and exRID. A few months after that the Titans Return crossover starts, which might be bringing some other Hasbro/IDW comics into the IDW G1 univese. Who knows? Also, over 2012-2014 a trilogy of IDW G1 prequels (co-written by Chris Metzen & Flint Dille) came out: Autocracy, Monstrosity, and Primacy. They don't have a whole lot to do with the rest of the series. I made a chart showing the publication order of the series, which is IMO the correct and best way to read it. Personally I don't much care for the bulk of Phase One at all and agree with everyone who recommended reading Spotlight: Kup, AHM #15, and MTMTE (and also the two-part "Chaos Theory").
Id just try and get the IDW collections.... theres 8 volumes (pencil drawn covers) for 'phase1' - and 3 so far released for 'phase2' (flakey paint covers). Phase 2 collects everything from death of optimus onwards, including both ongoings, and all side stories.. Phase 1 is kinda optional, but has a bunch of great stories and a lot of background. Thougj id say get phase 2 onwards.. its the cheapest snaziest way.
The ordering of the IDW collections vexes me a great deal, to the point that I would prefer the older trade paperbacks (but in actuality I read the Phase 1 stuff digitally).
Its more than a bit wonky for the first 4 volumes, but after that it seems to get more or less on track, Phase 2 has the ordering pretty much spot on. They're certainly the most economical way of getting a physical copy, plus look great on the shelf, and theyre oversized too, which is always nice.
