Some thoughts about Transformers #1

The war has begun once again.

Jetfire has arrived to the Ark to revive one of his closest friends but he doesn't know that this will unleash a series of events that could cause the destruction of every being on Earth.

Ah IDW, if only you would have turned out better as a whole.

I must say that I'm a big fan of the first continuity that started in the company way back in 2005 by the hands of classic Transformers writer Simon Furman and then continued by people who followed his passion like Nick Roche and James Roberts, unfortunately such passion was not enough and the execution eventually started to become inconsistent as seen in Roberts' own later work. Then came the IDW reboot in 2019 by Brian Ruckley but sadly, aside from a few interesting moments and enjoyable characters, it ended-up being one of the slowest and dullest periods of the franchise due that Ruckley's own craft and because they had to follow the same plot-threads that the (also failed) Netflix show did which ultimately led to IDW losing the property.

Which end-up with around a couple of years without Transformers comics which is a damn shame since that's usually where some of the highest quality stories appeared but thank God for Skybound Entertainment who was able to get the license, rebooted both the Transformers and G.I. Joe universes in the Void Rivals event and started a brand new direction for the Robots in Disguise, although not as "new" as you would expect.

Daniel Warren Johnson is in charge of handling this story and immediately you feel a sense of familiarity here. The plot is heavily based on the events from the very first episode of the 1984 cartoon with the Transformers being awakened after the terrible battle that happened inside the Ark but just because its based on it, it doesn't mean that there are no surprises here because good Lord, they are.

First of all, Jetfire is the one who awakens the bots here and he starts with Starscream which makes sense since they historically were friends so it makes you realize that Johnson knows this franchise and pays a lot of respect to it but thankfully not enough to consider every character sacred since there are quite a few deaths here and there's one that you wouldn't ever think would happen considering how popular and "important" such character has become (sometimes to a detriment to everyone else) so I welcome this kind of change and I hope such direction continues.

Speaking of character, the personal moments are nicely executed, especially the ones focusing on Spike Witwicky and his family (Because this being a G1 cartoon story needed to have Spike) which creates a good motivation for the human protagonist, displays good drama and plants plot-points for the future. Although, Johnson realized that he obviously needed to give the spotlight to the Transformers and thankfully there are also enjoyable scenes where Optimus demonstrates the noble and heroic figure we all known him for, willing to save and even sacrifice himself for others.

Even with such personal scenes, the action scenes are very fast-paced and that's where Warren's own art shines the most. Warren has a purposely rough style that depicts every segment with a lot of detail while the fight scenes are drawn with a sort of energy that I haven't seen in the franchise in years (I mean, Optimus uses a frikking suplex on Starscream! I never thought I would see that). Warren also understands (same as Nick Roche) that he also needs to use every page in the best way possible and for that reason the issue itself has a lot of content and definitely makes your money worth.

Powerful moments, enjoyable cast and enough intriguing ideas to make you invested on what's coming next. Hopefully the future of the series is as solid as this beginning.