War Within: The Dark Ages

Transformers: War Within #2

by Simon Furman (Editorial Consultant)

The Dreamwave era of TRANSFORMERS Generation 1 continues with the second chapter of The War Within, The Dark Ages… throwing further light on the original civil war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Into a chaotic war-torn cauldron of multiple factions and infighting comes The Fallen, a dark enigma from Cybertron’s earliest prehistory. With Optimus Prime and Megatron missing in action, can anyone prevent this malevolent angel of death from unleashing primal forces that will tear Cybertron apart? Plus, new background material created especially for The Definitive Collection, including a bumper-sized feature on the third (incomplete) War Within series, The Age of Wrath, and a gallery of incredible Don Figueroa concept art. Includes a new contextual introduction by series editorial consultant Simon Furman.

Collecting Transformers War Within: The Dark Ages #1-6

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comix

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Simon Christopher Francis Furman is a British comic book writer who is best known for his work on Hasbro/Tomy's Transformers franchise, starting with writing Marvel's initial comic book to promote the toyline worldwide, as well as foundations for both Dreamwave Production's and IDW Publishing's takes on the Generation 1 minifranchise.

Reviews

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem with the first War Within volume becomes too much to ignore here....the coloring. The coloring is so dark that it's often hard to figure out what's happening. Add to that a plot that's a little more convoluted, and it makes for a more challenging read.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

The key takeaway here is that the story is hard to follow.

I had to read this one twice to really understand what was going on. The Dreamwave comic books, I have noticed, suffer from difficult-to-follow editing. Some information you crucially need to contextualize what you are looking at is presented off-panel, in "what you missed" editorial notes. What I missed didn't happen in some other comic book that was a pre-requisite for this one. It happened in these editorial notes only. And the art does not always convey the motion it is going for, making action often ambiguous.

Generally, I am attracted to this story as a Transformers fan, and as a person nostalgic for the period in which it was written. This book is actually one of the hihglights of the Dreamwave Transformers project, in my opinion, because of the unique character introduction and exciting action. This is helping me get ready for the Halloween seeson.