Nifty graphic novel tie-in to Revenge of the Fallen, which is not my favorite Transformers movie by far. In fact, the Bay-verse is not my favorite continuity by far. (That would be the actual IDW-verse, or the Aligned continuity, due to Transfomrers Prime and Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters.) Still, Furman and Chris Mowry do what they can with the universe they were given to play in, and this is what happens. A six issue mini-series that contains one separate story about the characters in the Bay-verse per issue.


Issue one is a super hot story about Sam being in danger, and Bee coming to his rescue. Bee and Cade beat the crap out of each other, and this is why it's hot. I love some good Bee/Cade action, and this story was fuel for my imagination. It also dealt with issues like Bee's loyalty to Sam, Barricade and Bumblebee's rivalry, and the Allspark shard.

Issue two is really quite lovely, mostly because it gives you a lot of insight into Sideswipe, a character who had a very short amount of on time screen and very little personality, or backstory. This is about him soon after he got to Earth, and he thinks very little of humans. This causes conflict between him and Optimus Prime, not to mention the problems this causes for the Aubotos when it comes to some of their human allies. It's understandable, but it also puts Ironhide between Sideswipe and Optimus Prime. Ironhide is convinced that he can talk Sideswipe into compliance, due to their previous relationship - that of mentor and student. It was a surprisingly emotional and touching story, given how little insight you're given into Sideswipe in the movie.

The third story tells of how Jetfire defected from the Decepticons, and I knew about this given that he said so in the movie. However, his connection to The Fallen is further explored here, as is the Fallen's, well, fall. Again, surprisingly touching, given Jetfire's loyalty, and how he tries to balance being obedient and doing what's right.

The fourth story revolves around the Fallen, and goes into more depth about how he came to try to save Cybertron, at any cost. Earth, the other Primes? All can be sacrificed. The Fallen says that the Allspark talks to him and tells him to do this, but I'm not convinced that he's not insane and an unreliable narrator. Nowhere else in the Bay-verse is there any indication that the Allspark is sentient, in fact. It's a power source, yes, but I didn't see any indication that it spoke to anyone. (Except Archibald Witwicky and Sam Witwicky, but that was merely a transfer of information, it 'speaking' to them by pouring data into their heads. And the second movie covers this: the Allspark can't be destroyed, merely all that information displaced. It never gave Sam or Archibald commandments, and certainly never told them to search for planets to take energy for, all other lifeforms be damned.) Still, having him be this unbalanced presents an interesting scenario - virus? Glitch in the system? Could he have been reprogrammed to function properly? Or was he really hearing the Allspark? What does mental illness/hearing voices mean for mechanical, yet autonomous, beings? How reliable is the Fallen's account?

The fifth story, about Ravage, was uninspired, and uninspiring, which confuses me - because it had Ravage, and a little Soundwave, and I love those two characters. Yes, it explains why Ravage was where he was in Revenge of the Fallen, but it just didn't add much to the story, or make me think like the fourth. It didn't have the smut of Bee/Cade fights, or the emotional intensity of Jetfire's or Sideswipe's story. Weak, incredibly weak. The scene where Soundwave asks if Ravage is operation and "who dares disturb your remains?" comes to the closest to any connect I felt with this story. Soundwave cares for his, well, not mini-cassette's in this verse, and not drones. Mini-bots, I guess. I liked to think that Soundwave cared about the cassette-cons in the original series, and I really like this one line that shows that he does care. (I'm choosing to take it that way, instead of it just being him galled about someone touching his stuff. Because I like him caring about the mini-bots, I guess in Bay-verse. In the original they're cassettes that turn into smaller robots...)

The sixth story shares the surprising reason for Arcee being three motorcycles. Decepticon style experimentation, and 'Con doctors are fucking scary. No, for real. *Shudder* You can't perform horrible experiments on unwilling subjects, and expect me to think of you as a doctor. It also gives a little bit of insight into Skids and Mudflap. It doesn't excuse them, but I feel a little more for them, and I understand why they are the way they are a little more. Also, horrible experiments on unwilling subjects is one of my fiction-kinks, so yay for Flatline. Arcee is so underused in Revenge of the Fallen, and given her backstory, they could have done so much with her! i really want more about her in this universe now, and I'm sad that I probably won't get more.

Overall, a good story, with only Ravage's story a disappointment. The art is okay, at least for the first four issues. Carlos Magno is a very good penciler, but Alex Milne does the last two issues, and he's one of my favorite Transformers artists. I wish he'd done all the issues, actually. The coloring is very lovely as well, the stories mostly darker, although the first story has some brighter colors.

Conclusion: five stars. Also, I'm going to reread the first story and try not to nerdgasm again. ( )