Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

Cyberton is a war torn planet, dead and all but forsaken by its indigenous life.   Some Cybertronians left to escape the factions - Decepticons and Auotbots, while others left to search for another viable home, while some left searching for power or to right wrongs - or to prevent future wrongs from happening.   But they left. 

Until the planet gets revived.   If you were Cybertron, and sentient, I think you can imagine you'd lash out at the parties you saw as responsible for trashing you.   Or the ones who ran away, leaving you to be gutted.   And Cybertron has a will of its own, and does, indeed, lash out at those who try to re-inhabit the planet.   And this is the story of those Cybertronians who come back: Autobot, Decepticon, and neutral.   (The latter group are called NAILs, a derogatory term which I will no longer use.   But this is to show that there is anger against them, and they are seen as deserters.   Each party is angry, in fact, at the other two.)

The Autobots have won, and have put bombs in the Deceitpcons heads.   Bombs that are to ensure peace, and bombs that keep them from using their abilities - if they have them - as well as making sure that they can't transform.   Skywarp can neither transform, nor use transportation abilities.   Tensions are also running high, not only between factions - factions that don't matter on paper, mind you - but between friends who belong(ed) to the same factions.   Really, one problem is heaped upon another, and it's Bumblebee - Bee who, as Prowl points out doubts everything, even himself - who is supposed to sweep up this mess, to everyone's satisfaction.   Poor, sexy Bee!   (It should be noted that he's part of my favorite TF pairing - non-con Bee/Cade, and the first TF I fell in lust with after the 2007 movie.   He holds a special place in my heart.   And, y'know, loins.  I always feel bad when crappy shit happens to him.   And why I need to point out his sexiness factor.)

And then there's Ironhide who's come back from the dead, and might be mentally ill at the point.   Prowl, who's doing shady things for the greater good, and hiding it from Bee.   (Mostly hiring Arcee as his personal assassin, and screwing over Blurr, which makes Blurr leave Prowl's services.)   There's Starscream, who's playing nice, but clearly just trying to manipulate things to his own favor.   There is an enormous amount of political upheaval, social commentary, and just... complexity in this.   There are laugh out loud moments, there are horrific things that happen to everyone, and this is just amazing.   My second favorite comic series at the moment, a close second to More Than Meets the Eye.   (And why, yes, Beast Hunters is fourth.   Wolverine and the X-Men breaks in at third, though, so Transformers doesn't dominate the top three.)   And the characters?   Spot on!  I can see them, hear them, acting this way; I can feel their pain and frustration, and it bleeds onto every page.   It's just so true to this continuity, so clearly an homage to the original.   It's like G1 grew up, and I couldn't be happier.   G1 is far from my favorite continuity, but it did kick this whole thing off, and this series shows that so much more could have been made from that idea.   

Bravo to this whole team.   

Let me explain, as well, why this is four stars instead of five.   It's just it doesn't cram as much into each issue as it's sister series does, nor does it get as many laughs from me.   One half star off for that.   Don't get me wrong, Barber is brilliant, as are his plots, but...   I don't enjoy it quite as much as Roberts work, and I think that because there's just an extra oomph to MTMtE.   One half star off for the art.   It's good, it's really good, but it's far from the best Transformers art I've seen.   The faces in particular are very humanoid, and more so than I think a Cybertorian should be.   That being said, the Seekers - the ones you see in this volume - are super fucking sexy.   (Starscream and Dirge.)   Prowl, and his big guns are sexy.   (He has big guns.   On his shoulders.   They're just hot.)  Again, it's not so much that the art is bad, as it doesn't hold up to some of the Transformers art I've seen for me.   

Now to insert some GIFs - yes, they're all going to be Transformers - and we're good to go.   Onto two - with the Dynobots!