The Transformers: The IDW Collection, Vol. 5

Transformers: The IDW Collection #1.5

by Nick Roche

The re-presentation of IDW's TRANSFORMERS Universe continues in this fifth volume that contains all twelve issues of the All Hail Megatron storyline, plus the four CODA issues that followed.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Media Tie In

359 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2011

Reviews

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transformers: The IDW Collection, Volume 5 was superb. While I have enjoyed the previous 4 volumes, this 5th volume was one of the best I've run across.

This volume collects the superb "All Hail Megatron" arc, where the Decepticons take over New York. The artwork was stellar and the story was dark and grim. Here we see the Megatron that is feared by all. We also see the internal politics of the Decepticons on full display, in the feuding between Megatron and Starscream.

The situation on Earth has certainly gotten complicated. As the volume then continues, the art begins to decline in quality, though never falling to mediocre it never measures up to the quality of the Megatron story. Still "All Hail Megatron" will stand as one of the darkest and finest Transformers stories I've ever read. I can see the genesis of the original, and only decent one, movie plot somewhat. Still, ignore that crap and stick to this far better version.

The volume ends with some key stories being closed out. From Sunstreaker's surprise and the rather poignant Spotlight issue, to the story of Kup's return to active duty. It seems like the events on Earth have caused the humans to really start ramping up the Skywatch program and it looks like hard times ahead for the Autobots stuk on Earth.

The volume ends with the Galvatron and Cyclonus story. Overall this volume is buoyed by the strength and overall excellence of "All Hail Megatron" and that makes this volume a stand out. Highly recommended for Transformers fan and this might be an issue that even non fans might appreciate for the great story.

[Christopher Colton · Rating 3 out of 5]

All Hail Megatron is, regrettably, a bit of a mixed bag. It's essentially a soft reset of the IDW continuity to hew closer to the original cartoon, but in doing so it loses a lot of the unique aspects of what came before (and in several cases flat-out contradicts them, rarely in ways that improve the story). The pace of it also just feels a bit off when read straight through from beginning to end; the Decepticons' attack kind of meanders a bit, but also feels like it takes place over a matter of hours despite dialogue confirming that it happens across multiple days. Meanwhile the Autobots' arc on Cybertron jumps from one event to another, often without sufficient time to breathe in between or for connecting events to be well-established. And for a series that was supposed to be all about the Decepticons devastating Earth, the vast majority of that destruction is told rather than shown; this would be bad form in any work, but it's doubly bad in a visual medium.

There are cool things here. Perceptor retraining himself as a sniper is a great twist on his character, and Prowl's amoral schemer personality is probably the best thing that's ever happened to him. Unfortunately, not all the new things work. For all that a big deal was made of Drift as an incredible new character, he ultimately turns out to be kind of useless and just sort of... there (he was much better utilized in his mini-series and Spotlight from the previous volume). Megatron's big plan never really makes much sense and then just gets entirely abandoned, and Starscream flip-flops back and forth repeatedly between loyal and schemer. Some of the better aspects of All Hail Megatron, such as Thundercracker, aren't so much good for what happens here as for the directions later writers take them in other books.

All Hail Megatron received a lot of criticism when it first came out, and years later it's clear that while much of that was unwarranted, a fair bit wasn't. It's not bad by any stretch, but it's definitely not particularly good either.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be where Transformers finally starts to really improve, but it ends up falling short instead.

This is the darkest Transformers story I have read so far and I wasn't expecting it to be this dark and gritty at all even with the name: "All Hail Megatron". It has a few twists and turns I really wasn't expecting at all.

My main two issues with this collection is the inconsistent art and the pacing. The art skips around between good and mediocre and it takes a lot out of the story. There are parts of the story that the art makes practically unreadable. The pacing is also all over the place. One issue will be slow build up and then the next will be rushed at breakneck speed. It is annoying. Sometimes it even feels like as the story progresses it just literally fast-forwards. There is literally a part where you are told one character isn't doing too good and may die only for them to show up a "few pages later" and they are perfectly fine... I really don't know how they took a 16 issue storyline and rushed it.

This is also, sort of a soft reboot in a way since even though it is still a continuation of the story told in the previous collections it is/could also pretty much be it's own thing. It is weird since it feels like they could've just directly continued the story from those events and it would have been much better. Instead we got flashbacks to explain the events which I think was a huge miss.

Overall this definitely had the potential to be amazing, but instead it fell flat.

[Sean DeLauder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Autobots are terrible at planning and spend most of their time reacting to Decepticon machinations because villains always seem to have the best plans, which are invariably undone by some fluke of fortune or wild gambit. It's nice that the final story included in this collection acknowledges exactly this.

The Witwicky's are now arrogant military personnel and mens' men instead of trite blue-collar workers, which is useful for the storyline but lousy at creating empathy. Maybe there's a metamorphosis to come in the future.

Also, Optimus Prime is dead (almost) again. It seems obligatory at this point.

[Kavinay · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Hail Megatron got a bad rap.

Does it break dramatically from the Furman run? Yup.

Are there continuity errors? Yup.

Is it poor? Not at all.

In fact, it might still be the only IDW series with heavy use of human characters that's actually engrossing. The coda especially is simply lights out, especially the Kup story by Nick Roche.

It's been a long time since I first read All Hail Megatron and it just leaves me wondering: what if only Michael Bay had let the IDW braintrust write him a coherent script?

[Omnibuster · Rating 4 out of 5]

All Hail, Megatron!

I love how IDW has made the Transformers more than you commercials with stories that focus on the overall fight between the Autobots/Decepticons and one-offs about well and lesser known characters that tie into the main storyline.

In AHM, we see the Autobots at the brink of losing all hope with Prime out of commission which causes rifts between members and leads secondary leaders doing their damnedest to find a path to follow. The Decepticons have won Earth but seem to be aimless in their direction.

[Stas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to evaluate the volume fairly, definitely one of the better continuations of Transformers universe but heavily spoiled by humanistic perspective, on the other hand this volume is a bit of a turning point when we finally switch more focus to transformers themselves.

[Neurocomp · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a great storyline....though the CODAs (are they the same as music)
were abit confusing timeline wise ALot of jumping back and forth.

[Mr. Marz P · Rating 4 out of 5]

IDW solid series. Currently up to Phase 2 Vol. 9. Very happy all the way through.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story start to finish. Everything was fantastic.

[tammy (eskel's version)]

definitely my favorite volume so far. all hail megatron indeed (even though i am an autobot girlie through and through, optimus prime slays every time)

[Merlin’ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit this goes so hard

[Jess L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of all the Transformers comics I’ve read so far, this one is my favorite. It did an incredible job of showing how the war changed the Autobots and Decepticons, as well as how their ideals and methods differ. It’s really easy for that line between “good” and “evil” to blur in this series, and All Hail Megatron showed that. War had torn both sides apart, and neither continued to fight for the ideals they’d committed their lives to. I particularly liked the page of Sideswipe’s thoughts on this, as he phrased it quite eloquently. It was also interesting to see Starscream and Thundercracker’s differing, yet similar, thoughts on the matter. Starscream believed that Megatron had lost sight of what they were even fighting for, and that he had become directionless. Meanwhile, Thundercracker was highly
opposed to their use of violence against
helpless lifeforms. He believed that the way
of the Decepticons was through proven
combat, not slaughter, and their actions on
Earth were showing him that Megatron had
gone too far. Overall, lots of interesting takes
on morality. Ironhide and Mirage, as well as
Bumblebee and Drift, also showed the divide
amongst allies in a good way. Losing their
leader in such a way sowed seeds of doubt
within the Autobots, and the development
and eventual rupture of that was depicted
admirably. Of course, I also loved getting to
see so many of my favorite characters in one
place as well. Hot Rod, Mirage, Drift, Jazz…
that was quite exciting.

[Ann DVine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 5 of IDW's collection of their Transformers comics contains All Hail Megatron, a "soft reboot" series that acts as a jumping-on point for new readers, with only some elements from prior volumes retroactively replaced or shuffled out of the way.

If you are only passingly familiar with Transformers, the concept of All Hail Megatron is stupidly simple. Megatron, the leader of the villainous Decepticons, takes over the entire Earth. He takes it over. And we see him do it. It's tragic, and devious, and evil. Meanwhile, the Autobots - our heroes - are stranded on a powerless Cybertron, facing off hordes of ravenous and monstrous Insecticons.

I love this approach to Transformers storytelling. It cements the Decepticons as genuine threats, both to lives and humanity as a species, and the result is a totally serious alien invasion and conquest plot. I'm hardly a fan of Michael Bay's Transformers films, but there are moments in those films in which soldiers stationed abroad must fight enormous robots the size of planes and trucks with nothing but a handful of bullets and prayers that luck will be on their side - and that's what a lot of All Hail Megatron entails. It's tense, with gigantic metal monsters peeking down at cities of people and exterminating them with just enough of a smirk to imply that they enjoy it. And from the ashes of our cities, Megatron - envisioned here as a truly unstoppable, sadistically evil Titan - sits atop his iron throne and declares himself totally victorious.

We know, of course, that the Autobots will save the day. But there's a hopelessness to the proceedings, and I appreciate that the story will let itself go as far as it can go before pulling back. IDW has proved that they can take licenses based off of children's toys and render them wholly inappropriate for children, but in doing so they have created masterful sci-fi fiction. It allows itself to be silly, still - they are still giant, transforming robots, and there's enough humour and action to satiate classic Transformers junkies - but for those who look at the characters with nostalgia, they'll find the characters are fully-realized, three-dimensional beings, in a staggeringly convincing sci-fi world.

Backing up the stellar apocalyptic script is equally stellar artwork. It looks like an animated sequence from a motion picture come to life; crisp, cinematic lines and soft, muted colours create a tangible weight and scope. Humans and robots alike are rendered with aplomb, and the Decepticon interactions with the humans they're tasked with destroying have an almost horrific quality. Meanwhile, the heroics are presented as truly heroic - it presents both sides with a grandiose, spectacular pageantry, and it's gorgeous to look at.

All Hail Megatron is a fantastic place for new readers to come on, a worthy sci-fi invasion story, and a great interpretation of the Transformers universe. While far from IDW's greatest achievement in Transformers, I would say it is their most cohesive, finally uniting the various miniseries and one-shots and giving them a perfect place to start from: with a bang, and never lets up.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little long and meandering at times, but still a solid action-adventure with military overtones. Shane McCarthy does a solid job showing the Autobots at lowest ebb, although he misses a chance to add some nuance to the Decepticons and cops out on Optimus Prime's return. The action is tremendous and some solid plots twists keep the story engaging. The human drama is half-baked, however, and the characters ciphers. I'd give 3.5 stars if I had the option, but my nostalgic soft spot for the franchise allows for the extra half star.