Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

This is mindblowingly brilliant.   The setup is an issue called The Death of Optimus Prime - which is a bit of misleading title.   Without the Matrix of Leadership, true, he isn't Prime.   But it isn't until he exiles himself from Cybertron for the good of the neutrals - who see him as a symbol of a war which destroyed their planet, a war they were so uninterested in fighting they exiled themselves from their home for millions of years.  

It isn't until he sheds his responsibilities, and gains freedom through this choice that Optimus Prime is dead.   Long live Orion Pax.  Now, this issue is pivotal, in that it sets up Rodimus taking over as captain of the Lost Light, and the rift this causes.   (Bumblebee doesn't want him to leave.  Nor does he want Ratchet to leave.   Prowl doesn't want Chromedome to leave.)

It's also a nice break from RiD: James Roberts takes this group of bots and takes them off planet for a good ole quest.   It's all action and adventure.   As much as the political intrigue of RiD is, well, intriguing and makes you think about your own government, and what people want, and how they get it - and how far they'll go to get it - I think this would have been too much in this series as well.   The series, the things they want, and the way they go about that, are drastically different, and reading one series after another makes me realize just how one complements the other.   

Other than that, though?   Roberts is amazingly funny.   Each bot gets in his own scathing line, and each has their own sense of humor and sensibilities.   They're all hilarious in their own way.   They're all fully formed, and the bonds they create start right here.  Well, the ones that haven't already been formed, that is.   (Rodimus works well with his second and third in command - Ultra Magnus and Drift respectively - and while those relationships do continue to form, they're also clearly already in place well before this series starts.)

The plots are frightening at times - like the Sparkeaters, which are the Cybertronian boogeymen - and sometimes?   Sometimes it's bots beating the scrap out of each other to work out issues.   Sometimes it's them focusing on rescuing their own when horrible things happen.   It's all propelled by character interaction mixed in with that action, and it's complex and brilliant and... I can't say enough about this series.  I wish someone I knew in RL read it so I squee over it with them!