Review: Transformers - Robots in Disguise #2

Transformers: Robots in Disguise came out this week. Yay???? I guess? Don’t get me wrong, as a young little bastard I loved Transformers; I was all about Optimus Prime, Wheel Jack, Grimlock, and good old Ironhide. I saw the animated movie when I was older and I saw all three abominations of the live action Transformer movies. (Dustin may not believe it but I still say the first movie was good*), but for some reason the comics have not been good in a long time. I am hoping that this series does it some justice.

*editors note: This is not true at all - Dustin

In Transformer: Robots in Disguise the issue starts out with… get this… Bumblebee as the leader of the Autobots. You may be asking yourself… Where is Optimus, or where is Rodimus? Yeah, in the book both of these bots are dead or gone and Bumblebee is in charge. He is holding a memorial for all the fallen Autobots and he also hoping to unify both the Autobots and the Decepticons with this funeral memorial. The Decepticons being led by Ratbat is planning the assassination of Bumblee hoping that it will start another war between the Autobots and the Decepticons.

This issue was not a very good read. The minute I read the first page and it shows that Bumblebee was the leader of the Autobots, and that he wanted to unify the Autobots and the Decepticons I completely checked out of this book. I couldn’t get over the fact that there isn’t anybody else in the Transformer universe that is more deserving of the leadership. It would be more believable if Prowl or Ironhide would have been chosen as leader of the Autobots, but Bumblebee… really? The best part of the story was Starscream being his sneaky self and trying to get power within the Decepticon ranks. Other than Starscream the story was not very good in my opinion.
The bright spot on the book as always in any Transformer book is the art. The art looks bright, colorful and it reminds me always of the TV series in some ways. If IDW had a book of just Transformer art I would buy in a heartbeat because the art is always great in the comics no matter how bad the story might get in the series.

The average Transformer fan might enjoy this book, but the hardcore fan of Transformer might have a problem with the issue.

Score: 1/5

Written: John Barber
Art: Andrew Griffith
Publisher: IDW Publishing

Price: $3.99

Release Date: 2/22/2012