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THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

Marvel Comics
(1984-1994)
Japanese
Manga
Other Books
and Titles
Titan Books
(2001-2010)
Club/Con
(2001-2016)
Dreamwave
(2002-2004)
Devil's Due
(2003-2007)
IDW Publishing
(2005-now)

CURRENT TRANSFORMERS COMICS FROM IDW PUBLISHING

Infestation 2: The Transformers #1
Reviewed by Blackjack

Issue Review

”You’re a tool, all right!”
So, IDW attempts to do a crossover again. Only where the first Infestation crossover is a fun romp with zombies that doesn’t really take itself seriously that much until the end, this one takes itself far more seriously, having few to no comedic moments… and being set in the Hearts of Steel universe. A good chunk of the issue is spent on random people being surprised by the existence of Cthulhu, or random people (and Nikolas Tesla) being surprised by the Transformers’ existence. It’s a very slow read, and not much happens. It also takes place in the Hearts of Steel universe… which really should’ve given the author some free rein about what to do, yet all that happens is generic stuff that fails to capture the interest. Add that to a highly dull script (“GODFREY DANIEL!”) and panels wasted on unimportant characters who get killed by Cthulhu moments later, and this is simply boring. What we get is merely dull exposition. Really, can’t they revive Optimus at the end of this issue? Is there a reason for them to spend half the issue trekking through the snow and the humans being all surprised and stuff? Guidi’s art is pretty crisp and nice, I like the highly appropriate use of the Seacons and Submarauders (even though they don’t appear again ever) but otherwise it’s a very dull read, which will leave the audience generally confused. And no, Optimus doesn’t get to fight Cthulhu like the cover promised.

Notes

Infestation 2 (which makes writing down issue names awkward) takes place in the alternate universe of ‘Hearts of Steel’, where the Transformers wake up not in the modern times, but in the 19th Century. Tobias and Kitty Muldoon had allied themselves with the Autobots back in the ‘Hearts of Steel’ miniseries, and reappear here.

The backstory of Infestation 2 in a nutshell: the threat comes from IDW’s CVO comics (the ones who unleashed the zombies into the multiverse in the first Infestation event), where apparently the Elder Gods, based on Lovecraftian stories, are unleashed into the multiverse (and into nearly all of IDW's properties instead of only four). However, instead of attacking the mainstream G1 continuity, IDW decides to send Cthulhu to their neglected Hearts of Steel universe instead.

The fish people, only referred to as such in this story, are based on the Deep Ones from Lovecraftian literature, but their appearance very much resembles the shell of the G1 Pretender Submarauder.

Ironhide still has the same alternate mode as the first Heart of Steel mini, while Bumblebee has traded in his locomotive mode into a street tram. Ratchet, Hound and Trailbreaker are all train or train carriages, Wheeljack is a hybrid locomotive-snowplow thing. Dirge is based on Hearts of Steel’s redesign of Starscream.

Bonecrusher is the only enthralled Decepticon shown with tentacles. It is uncertain what he transforms into.

Goofs

The USS Miskatonic, named after the Miskatonic University, is mis-spelled ‘Mistkatonic’. It is fixed in the next issue.

Trailbreaker is mis-spelled as ‘Trailblazer’.

Despite not having woken up and scanned an alternate mode in the Hearts of Steel mini, Optimus Prime is shown here with complete train kibble and whatnot instead of being an Ice Age animal as he’s supposed to be.

 
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