Just bought Transformers Infiltration at a local comic book store today and I am enjoying it. The guy that owes the comic book store knows his stuff, told me that Transformers Infiltration is the first book of IDW, as the rest follows, Stormbringer, Escalations, Maximum Dinobots, Megatron's Origins...
Doesn't sound like he does, as there's many titles missing, and the ones listed aren't in proper order. Megatron Origins in a prequel to it all. Then after Escalation there's Devastation and Revelation. Hell, even the shitty Avengers crossover theoretically isn't contradicted and fits in after Escalation with Spotlight Ramjet. And of course it's all capped off with All Hail Megatron, which leads into IDWs ongoing.
Just get the collection volumes from IDW. They are supposed to be in chronological order set by IDW. And they look ACE, Love them over trade paperbacks.
It's pretty straightforward... there's nothing in Megatron Origin you need to know... the closest it's come to being relevant has been in the most recent issues of the main IDW series by James Roberts. Feel free to skip it or pick it up any time. It's kind of mediocre. Stormbringer feels self-contained, but it becomes relevant as you get close to the end of Furman's run. The rest is pretty straight forward... Infiltration, Escalation, Devastation and finally Revelations... with Maximum Dinobots being sort of a wrap-up before start up again with All Hail Megatron. The real pain in the ass is all the Spotlight issues, and figuring out what order to read them in (some of them are completely unrelated to pretty much anything). I like the idea of the Spotlight line, but the organization of the series is pretty random. zmog
Where is Stormbringer in this list?, and what comes after All Hail Megatron? And Infestation its in that list?
I believe Stormbringer was released around the same time as Infiltration, and it takes place either just before, or concurrently with it. The events in Stormbringer don't really have any bearing on the Infiltration storyline until later on... around Devastation, I think? All Hail Megatron is followed by the All Hail Megatron Coda series, which are basically a bunch of short stories by different IDW writers that fill some of the blanks and bridge some of the gaps that cropped up by then. After that it goes into the "ongoing" Transformers series, beginning at issue #1, written by Costa. The Bumblebee and Ironhide miniseries (and later the Heart of Darkness Galvatron miniseries) fit into this timeline somewhere, but it gets a little confusing. The Drift miniseries is a flashback, so you can really read it (or not read it) at any time. It doesn't really have anything to do with the main continuity... it's just Drift's origin story. Infestation was a brief crossover event that IDW did with all their licensed characters... so unless you reeeeeally want to have Transformers, Doctor Who, Star Trek and zombies all in one continuity clusterfluck, I'd just ignore the whole thing. zmog
I just finished reading Infiltration, what's the next issue that follows? cause at the end we see Optimus Prime coming out of the door inside the Ark. Wikipedia shows this: The series is marketed as various limited series for each story, in published order as The Transformers: Infiltration, Stormbringer, Escalation, Megatron Origin, Devastation, Revelation, All Hail Megatron, Maximum Dinobots, Last Stand of the Wreckers, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Drift, Infestation and Heart of Darkness. The series also has a sister title of ongoing one-shots entitled The Transformers: Spotlight which began in September 2006, each focusing on a particular character and affecting the storyline of the main title. Starting in November 2009, an ongoing series of the Transformers was launched and it will end in December 2011. After that, two new ongoing series will start in January 2012, Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye. A digital Transformers comic will also be available titled Autocracy.
Looks like that Wiki post has them in order of when they were published. Megatron Orgin would chronologically be before all of those listed. Drift would be early as well as certain spotlights like Blurr and shockwave. It does get confusing sometimes. Like previously stated there are some really nice hardcover collections that reprint the stories chronologically. The two problems with that is (1) the first volumes are already very expensive in the second hand market and (2) if IDW publishes any more stories that take place in the timelines they have covered in the hardcovers they will not be included.
If you want to directly continue the story that you were following in Infiltration and find out what happens next, then you should go on to Escalation. If you want to read a side story about what's been happening on Cybertron while all this Infiltration was going on, read Stormbringer. It also kind of explains a little bit about why nobody lives on Cybertron currently. It's more for background than anything else. If you want to go back in time and read about Megatron's origin, then go ahead, but it's really not important for the rest of the continuity... like, at all. If you really want to read the stories in internal chronological order, then there is a way to structure your reading. If you visit the entries for the hardcover IDW Transformers Collections on Amazon's site, it gives you the option of "looking inside". The contents page of each volume lays out the different series in strictly the order of events, so you can use those as your guides. zmog
Yeah, all it does is explain why they don't live on Cybertron anymore... and then there's a crisis that needs resolving. It doesn't directly affect anything in the Infiltration storyline... though some of that stuff is good to know by the end of the Furman run (Devastation/Revelations). zmog
Then where does it say when they came to Earth and why? I called the comic book store that I bought Infiltration, and told him to order Stormbringer and he goes no problem it will be available in 2-3 weeks, should I call him tomorrow and tell him to cancel the order and that I am going to get Escalation instead?
Give the following links a go, should answer any and all questions you have. IDW Publishing - Transformers Wiki IDW Generation 1 continuity - Transformers Wiki
Stormbringer should be read after infiltration as it actually sets up a fair amount of what happens in escalation concering ore-13. I actually recommend reading the books in publication order rather than chronologically. That way the reveals in the story will flow more naturally. Remember, its great to go back and RE-read them chronologically, but it would make for a very weird story if read that way for the first time.
This thread has inspired me to read all of the IDW Transformers comics. I've heard very mixed reviews about some of the books, but hell, I'll see for myself
