Review: The Transformers: Primacy by Chris Metzen, Flint Dille, and Livio Ramondelli

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2014)
Acquired November 2016
Read August 2018

The Transformers: Primacy

Story by Chris Metzen and Flint Dille
Art by Livio Ramondelli 
Lettering by Tom B. Long

I was surprised at how much I liked Monstrosity. Similarly, I was surprised at how much I did not like Primacy. I didn't dislike it; I just didn't find much particularly likeable about it. While the first two parts of this trilogy, Autocracy and Monstrosity, captured some of that prequel energy, making you excited to see those raw, early moments in Transformers history, Primacy feels too much like the kind of Transformers stories you've seen a million times. Megatron has an evil plan, Optimus Prime angsts about something but wins anyway, rinse, repeat. This is set millions of years before the majority of IDW's work, but would slot into it just fine, which is disappointing. A prequel should capture something different about an ongoing story, but Primacy is too much of the same old thing.

Here it was the interaction of naturally occurring gears, levers and pulleys that miraculously brought forth sentient beings.
from The Transformers: Primacy #1

Next Week: Until I start in on the final stretch of Lost Light, I'm all caught up on IDW's Transformers, so I'm rotating to a different reading project: tea time tales for time tots, the Time Lord Fairy Tales!

Review: The Transformers: Monstrosity by Chris Metzen, Flint Dille, and Livio Ramondelli

As always, a quick note. My journey through Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield stories continues apace, with the beginning of their most epic story, Resurrecting the Past!

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2013 (contents: 2013)
Acquired November 2016
Read August 2018

The Transformers: Monstrosity

Story by Chris Metzen and Flint Dille
Art by Livio Ramondelli 
Lettering by Tom B. Long

Autocracy, the book to which this is a sequel, was the very first IDW Transformers comic I ever read. Monstrosity picks up right where Autocracy ends, with the beginning of the millions-year-long Autobot/Decepticon war underway. I found Autocracy a little difficult to follow, but over two years later, I've read another fifty-one(!) volumes of IDW Transformers comics... so you might say I have a bit more understanding and context now.

I like that Young Prowl had nowhere near the confidence of his older self. He's so panicky!
from The Transformers: Monstrosity #8

Monstrosity might take place at the beginning of the continuity, but it actually is nice to read it later on, because I can see the seeds for much of what's followed. Monstrosity shows the great exodus of nonaligned Transformers from Cybetrons (those who would be called "NAILs" when they returned in More than Meets the Eye, Volume 1); one key character is Dai Atlas, leader of the Circle of Light (the group the Lost Light was seeking until More than Meets the Eye, Volume 5); and we see the beginning of Cyberton's ecological devastation (discussed in Infiltration and All Hail Megatron, among others).

The smug asshole Dai Atlas is portrayed as here kind of makes me glad Star Saber killed him.
from The Transformers: Monstrosity #4

The story deals with various kinds of monstrosity: the Dinobots (called "Dynobots" here because they aren't dinosaurs yet) have alt modes that threaten to overwhelm them, there's a monster buried under the surface of Cybertron, the people of Cybetron themselves begin to turn ugly, and Megatron continues his transformation from principled zealot to genocidal maniac.

What a guy!
from The Transformers: Monstrosity #2

When reading a synopsis ahead of time, I was skeptical of these parts all fitting together (particularly the Dinobots), but to my surprise, they did. I particularly liked the sense of tragedy to the whole thing. Optimus Prime might be Cybetron's greatest hero, and the first Prime to carry the Matrix in many centuries (millennia?), but that's not enough to save his planet or his people. With crushing inevitability, everything falls apart. In addition, Megatron is pretty badass here, tearing up Junkion (the Planet of Junk) to reclaim leadership of the Decepticons, and willing to do whatever it takes to depose the Autobots and lay claim to control of Cybertron.

Okay, he is kind of awesome.
from The Transformers: Monstrosity #7

Though sometimes his action scenes are hard to follow as they occasionally are, and the art's murkiness makes identifying characters difficult, Livio Ramondelli has really defined this period of Cybetronian history. His art is good at capturing the era's mythic nature and its violence. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, an appropriate story to finally experience as IDW's Transformers universe winds itself down.

Next Week: The final piece of backstory, in Primacy!

Review: The Transformers: Autocracy by Chris Metzen, Flint Dille, and Livio Ramondelli

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2012 (contents: 2012)
Acquired August 2014
Read June 2016

The Transformers: Autocracy

Story by Chris Metzen and Flint Dille
Art by Livio Ramondelli 
Letters by Robbie Robbins, Shawn Lee, and Chris Mowry

This is the chronologically earliest story in the IDW Transformers Humble Bundle, taking place millions of years in the past, before the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons took off-- because there had only just become such a thing as Autobots (Cybertronian cops) and Decepticons (resistance fighters). Orion Pax-- the future Optimus Prime-- is a young but passionate cop trying to defend a system that he knows isn't entirely pure, but does believe is the best hope for peace. But Megatron believes that the system can't be saved from within; only by burning it down, can something more just come into existence. But both have to contend with Zeta Prime, embodiment of the old order who will hold onto his power by any means necessary.

Megatron: "NO. JUSTICE!"
from The Transformers: Autocracy #7

It's the moments between these two characters, where they debate the right course of action, and where you see how they could have been colleagues in different circumstances, where this comic really shines. It's not sophisticated stuff, but it's brimming with potential. On the other hand, while Livio Ramondelli's art is good at light and gloom and drama, I found the action sequences incredibly difficult to follow much of the time, and most of the Autobots-- as is almost always the case in the comics-- blended together as interchangeable robots. I did really like the depiction of Hot Rod as a beleaguered leader of an oppressed community, on no side but that of his people's. This is possibly the first time Hot Rod has ever been interesting to me.

Occupy Cybertron.
from The Transformers: Autocracy #11

Of course, Megatron goes all tinpot dictator himself, and Orion discovers the long-lost Matrix and becomes Optimus Prime, and the story loses some of its nuance. But this is more interesting than I expected a Transformers comic to be, and hopefully future IDW stories build on its foundations.

Next Week: More backstory, in The Transformers Spotlight!