Transformers ’84 #0 (Transformers '84) Kindle & comiXology

Simon Furman is great as always with the writing (which calls back to the TF UK story 'Man of Iron'). The story and artwork are fantastic but what most fans are going to be talking about is the retcon this comic contains. I won't spoil it here, but suffice to say it puts the original Marvel run of the TF comic in a new light. Recommended!

This is the opening issue of a five-part series that is an intended prequel to the original Transformers comic from Marvel that began in the mid-eighties. As such, much of it is set prior to the arrival of the Ark upon Earth; much like the current ‘War for Cybertron’ Netflix series. Graphically the artwork looks like it is intended to emulate that of the comics of the eighties.In a way it almost re-writes the reason for the construction of the Ark and why it leaves Cybertron. It isn’t entirely different but assigns previously undisclosed motives behind it, mainly from Optimus Prime.The story seems to be told retrospectively from the perspective of Punch/Counterpunch, the infiltrator/spy who can transform into two robot modes, one Autobot and one Decepticon. As events reflect his memories relating to the Ark from different periods the story is set in a couple of different points in time. Primarily things take place before the Ark leaves Cybertron.Because both the Autobots and the Decepticons search for the lost Ark, there is a secondary plot involving two Autobots (clones Fastlane and Cloudraker) followed by a squad of pursuing Decepticons arriving on Earth around a thousand years before those dormant on the crashed Ark awaken. Primarily this links to the main storyline through the effective narrator Punch/Counterpunch.With, effectively, three time periods being covered and the comic being relatively short, the action can flip between time periods quite abruptly. It prevents the story flowing very smoothly and can be a little disruptive.It can seem a tad disjointed, but as this issue acts somewhat like a prequel to a prequel series it has quite a lot to establish in a short space.The issue also comes with several examples of covers from other IDW ranges and there is a brief sample from the opening of ‘The World in Your Eyes’.

Love love love it fantastic get reading fellow TF fans, you won’t be sorry, TF s as we remember them