Transformers Volume 7: Chaos

Transformers (IDW) Collected Series

by Mike Costa, James Roberts, Livio Ramondelli (Illustrator)

CHAOS IS HERE! The long-awaited event that will have Transformers fans talking for years and have lasting repercussions on the lives of our heroes and villains! The Autobots land on Cybertron to discover Galvatron's plan is already in effect - but what is it he seeks in the heart of Cybertron? What could he possibly want on a dead planet? Optimus Prime must face off against Galvatron, in a battle where the fate of the whole planet rests on the outcome!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Science Fiction, 21st Century

124 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2012

About the author

Mike Costa is an American comic book and television writer.

Reviews

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is a key pre-cursor to the events that eventually led to my favorite current Transformers series, More Than Meets The Eye. Indeed, familiar characters appear here and a few events are seeded that will pay off in the future.

I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought it would. I felt that it was all over the place and its because I didn't read the preceding chapters. Even if I could afford the rest of the books, I didn't care much for the tone of the series. Still, there were cool moments that may make this a candidate for a reread in the near future.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good conclusion to the saga.

Ramondelli's art was off-scale, Megatron's last stand against the "Decepti-God" was awesome, but the ending was too rushed and in need of a few issues more for me.
Not as good as "Autocracy" volume, but this was just one of best Transformers series ever.

[Kavinay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this is a bit of a ham-fisted wrap-up to the post-Furman era of IDW's Transformers. D-void is a bit dumb and underwhelming as a climax to this series.

That being said, the execution of this storyline is better than could be expected. Ramondelli's art has its drawbacks in terms of character expression (i.e. the complete oppositie of Milne or Roche), but for an epic scale battle for Cybertron, it works quite well.

The intro and focus on characters that would go on to populate MTMTE as well does quite a bit to reinvigorate Costa's script even if the majority of battle itself is plodding.

[Alex Sarll]

So I read the volume 1 of a different Transformers series people were raving about, Lost Light, and really enjoyed it. Except apparently that's a bad place to start, so I should read a different series first, More Than Meets The Eye, which in turn spins out of this series, only this one isn't quite as good but you can get the key bits by reading volume 7. Obvious, really. Clearly I was missing a lot of background (how are Megatron and Galvatron both here, I ask, despite having read more than one comic addressing the Kang/Immortus situation, so you'd think I'd know better), and the notion of aliens called the Chomskians is horrific. But it was a lot easier to pick up the situations, characters and stakes at this point than it would be for most Big Two superhero events; the art had a pleasingly nineties 2000AD feel (I'm thinking one of the opaque but pretty John Smith stories); and, crucially, there were lots of big robots smacking each other to fuck. Plus, it ends with a flash-forward to a utopian far future, a device I find more moving the further it looks from our own trajectory.

Turns out now the story I was meant to read is actually in volume 5. Comics, eh?

[Ximena]

Top tier art — every panel a painting

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conclusion of the second IDW Transformers era. The main plot, while it has moments, is kind of a mess, picking up the already off-beat plotline from Transformers Volume 4: Heart of Darkness and extending it with an increasingly random series of further twists. (The authors even seemed aware of what they were doing, based on a scene where the characters admit things have become pretty complicated.) Then the crisis abruptly ends with a sacrifice... followed by an intriguing distant finale, set well after the end of the Autobot-Decepticon war. This all makes it feel like this was written as the end of IDW Transformers altogether (but fortunately, we did get more). If not for that distant finale, this would all be rated lower... (B)

[Martin Lund · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure what I just read here, to be honest. The narrative was a shambles and the art too dark and busy to make out a lot of what was going on.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conclusion to this particular run of IDW's Transformers series.
Optimus Prime and the Autobots return to Cybertron to confront Galvatron, who has gathered an army and seized control of the planet. However, a far greater threat arises as the D-Void emerges from the Dead Universe intent on devouring all robotic life and only the combined might of the Autobots and Decepticons united have a hope of stopping it.

This book definitely feels like it's trying to hit the same tone and gravitas of the confrontation with Unicron from Simon Furman's original run of Marvel Comics, in which the entire Cybertronian race has to unite to fight a foe unimaginable vast and beyond them. Unfortunately it falls short of capturing that same feel and instead comes across as something of a pale imitation.
At no point does the D-Void really feel like a genuine threat, and instead feels like a bit of a sideshow for all of the smaller stories going on around it. It doesn't helped that the defeat of this terrible enemy is actually pretty easy and something of an anti-climax in the end.

There are some really good things here, including Ramondelli's gorgeous artwork, seeing Megatron unleash his full power in an attempt to save Cybertron and a brilliant coda which shows the world of the Transformers millions of years in the future, after their great victory. But despite those good elements, the book as a whole definitely feels lesser than the stories to which it is supposed to be the climax.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Clint the Cool Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic and Awesome!

It's the end of one series, and the end of an era. It's amazing how the war ends, even though this still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The art is amazing. I wish it wasn't so dark at times. That makes it a bit hard to understand sometimes. But overall, this is a great conclusion. Highly recommended!

[Andy Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coda to IDW's TF Phase 1, and probably the coolest blockbuster comic I've read since Lost Light wrapped up two years ago. Mostly, it's big robots hitting each other, but it's done very well. Costa and co-plotter James Roberts are economic with the dialogue which is perfect for artist Livio Ramondelli whose digital paints always have an expansive cosmic quality to them.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was IDWs massive event that was supposed to tie everything together. The lead up was great, but the actual finale itself was only pretty good. Not exactly what I was expecting but it was a good story. The ending leads into the next phase of the transformers perfectly.

My only complaint was the artwork. It was dark and blurry. You could barely tell what was happening in the cells.

[Joshua Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

phase 1, and this series, in particular, had a very up and down pace, but this was by far the best. the art was beautiful and the story was on the epic scale that transformers deserve.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a fan of Livio Raymondeli's art, at all. But this is probably his best work.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing art!