Things like “prequels” and “adaptations” usually reek of cash-ins, adding dead weight to overburdened
bandwagons. Usually. Chris Ryall joins veteran scribe Simon Furman to turn in a fast-paced script with considered depth.

“First Contact”, the first five-issue storyline of Dreamwave’s Transformers Armada comic, introduces the reader not only to a host of new characters but an entirely new fictional universe. Many of the original Transformers concepts remain, but one major new facet of the Autobot/Decepticon war is added—a third faction known as Mini-Cons.

“First Contact”, the first five-issue storyline of Dreamwave’s Transformers Armada comic, introduces the reader not only to a host of new characters but an entirely new fictional universe. Many of the original Transformers concepts remain, but one major new facet of the Autobot/Decepticon war is added—a third faction known as Mini-Cons.

The burdens of leadership can take their toll all too often. Autobot Commander Optimus Prime, in under 40 issues, has lead a mission into deepest space to protect his own war-torn planet, deliberately crashed his ship into a primitive alien world to stop his enemies, had his mind probed and plundered in a search for the Creation Matrix, had a fake head connected to his body to decimate his own army, and, to top it all off, dressed as Father Christmas to cheer up a human child.

If ever a “golden age” of Transformers comics should be defined, then “The Wrath of Guardian/Grimlock” should be the story that starts it off. Thirty issues into the Transformers run, and this is the first story to really force the reader to sit up and pay attention.

It certainly seems like tapes of the Transformers cartoon have arrived at Marvel UK’s offices. Either that, or the staff are avid fans of Roland Rat on a Saturday morning. Transformers 29-30’s two-part “Decepticon Dam-Busters” borrows heavily from the Transformers cartoon in more ways than one.

“Raiders of the Last Ark” proceeds with Marvel UK’s mission to forge Transformers as Britain’s premier action/adventure comic. With much the same flavour of story as “The Enemy Within”, the pace here is just as energetic and explosive.

Simon Furman’s first-ever foray into the world of the Transformers yields an all-action script that roars unabashedly in stark contrast to last issue’s “Man of Iron” comic strip story. The alien nature of the Transformers is rolled over to make room for bolder, brasher heroes and villains.

“Man of Iron” is one for the history books as it is the first UK-original Transformers comic story ever published. It blithely spurns the All-American good vs evil Transformers story in favour of a decidedly slow-burning and altogether sinister foray into the world of the robots in disguise.

“Spotlight Ultra Magnus” provides two things: a glib exploration of Ultra Magnus’s reinvented character, and a generous feeding of writer Simon Furman’s sapling new Transformers universe. The story itself focuses its narrow spotlight beam on just three Transformers: Scorponok, Swindle and, of course, Ultra Magnus.