Our friends at IDW Publishing have shared with us a required reading guide of their Transformers comics to date, in order to get fans ready for the upcoming Unicron miniseries, which starts in July. Unicron promises to bring the current IDW Transformers continuity to an end, so this guide serves as a handy tool for those who want to hop on at the very beginning or maybe even a specific point before it all comes crashing down. Check it out after the jump!
Johnny1378
Completely agree. In fact, I’ve read quite a bit further than that but still feel like it would be incredibly expensive to get caught up. I thought about going the TPB route because they present everything in the correct order, but you’re absolutely right that that would cost a mint.
Magnum Dongus
I'll probably read it all in the future, but I will probably focus on the upcoming reboot for the time being.
Shmoptimus Prime
There is a decade of stories before they ever did a crossover event. Of COURSE you should read IDW.
Magnum Dongus
I'm still debating whether or not to even read IDW's comics, as there is a new universe starting. The current universe seems to be a mess of crossovers, but even if I were to buy everything, I would go bankrupt due to how fucking expensive trade paperbacks are. And just to give you a clue to how behind I am, I so far have read Transformers: The IDW Collection volumes 1 and 2. I might need to take out a loan in order to get the rest of phase 1 and also 2.
Bumblebee2000
This is longer than intended, but short version, if you are any deeper in crossovers than ROM v Transformers, Revolutionaries (while entirely optional with only small impact) should be your next step. Transformers bias, Transformers author John Barber, Kup is in every issue, some issues are heavier on Transformers than others.
The only thing I'll add, which is optional because the only thing it builds up to is First Strike which isn't Unicron related, is Revolutionaries (not Revolution, they are different books). Each issue has focus on a different franchise but with a core cast of
If humans count, you might notice a bit of a franchise bias there. Plus it is written by Robots in Disguise author John Barber. I personally love the series, but if you already dislike Blackrock and Jones, you aren't going to lose much skipping it.
If you are buying single issues and just want to pick and choose, which at two paperbacks long I wouldn't recommend if you are reading it at all, but again isn't important for what you want, then
Black Convoy
Great news for international readers since we don't have access to Unicron #0. Thanks.
Shmoptimus Prime
Thanks for the advice! I’ll proceed that way.
Johnny1378
I was thinking the same thing. Couldn’t they have put everything in a single column with oldest to newest, from top to bottom? I can’t make heads or tails of that thing, the way it winds around.
Omegashark18
The list order goes like this, follow the descriptions from top left to bottom left, top right to bottom right.
Bumblebee2000
I think you'll manage without. First Strike has one page at the end about Unicron, same for Visionaries (apparently). Nothing in Revolution. Think knowledge of the other character's existence should be enough but read Rom vs Transformers anyway just on account of it being good. Plus you are more familiar with at least one side-franchise.
Johnny1378
I know what you mean. That’s always been my biggest issue with IDW Transformers. The writing is excellent and usually the art is also great, but there are too many books.
In the beginning, I followed all of it. I had Infiltration, Escalation, Stormbringer, All Hail Megatron, all the Spotlight issues, and I’m sure more that I can’t remember the names of, right now. Then when I felt like they were making my favorite Transformers artist draw the characters to look more like the Bayformers, I got frustrated and gave up on IDW for a while.
I noticed a couple years later though that the character designs didn’t really stay that way and there was some really great art in the various IDW Transformers titles again, but by the time I was interested in trying to get back into reading it, there were so many various issues of IDW Transformers that I was completely lost.
Coffee
So they made it less clear? The fuck?
kmc
Through which order am I suppose to follow this guide? There are no numbering, no arrows. Autocracy is next to AHM? MTMTE not side by side with RID?
ruru
So glad they released this I am so behind on IDW.
Pichomp
They left out the ever important “Heart of Darkness” and “Bumblebee” mini series.
Chris McFeely
It's not a "what you need to read for Unicron" guide, it's just a guide to the IDW library in general.
thewiredknight
Same; I've avoided the crossovers competely ever since Revolution which I thought was so ham fisted and I really just didn't care about any of these other licenses. As a result I wasn't even aware that Unicron already appeared once in one of those issues or where a bunch of these random revelations about origins or dead parts of Cybertron keep coming from.
I wouldn't mind the toy promotions as much because it happened all the time prior to the crossovers with introducing new figures who would only be in an issue or two (i.e. when the Generations toy line was running comics with the figures). But yes, they are so poorly written with calling out character names, backgrounds abruptly and them constantly being shoehorned together. On top of this it completley jeapordizes the story most of the time as we keep side-tracking to introduce all these other characters and universes.
Honestly I'm not sure I even want to read what comes after this at all because I don't feel like I can trust IDW with the license anymore (albeit largely in part due to Hasbro but the point still stands).
M Alex
I like this universe, but the reliance on cross-overs is ridiculous. It really dampens a lot of my enjoyment. As does the stuff intended to promote Hasbro's toys. It's not that its supposed to do that, it's that it's often poorly written, like the random combiners in the last volumes of Robots in Disguise. They literally read like bad commercials at time.
ScientistMan
The Spotlights and the Ironhide mini-series should probably be there, too…
Shmoptimus Prime
Dammit so I have to read all that crossover stuff to get the setup for Unicron? It was a major reason why I didn’t get back into the IDW-verse after I stopped reading. I think I’m somewhere around when lost light started and I’d love to read everything EXCEPT the crossover stuff if possible.