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I'm real late on reading the IDW comics. Just started reading it now. Don't have the earlier IDW comics though. I'm sort of confused on the IDW time line. Is Robots In Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye time line set before they arrived on Earth?

the RID and MTMTE series are set in "the present day" but there are flashbacks now and then. The Shadowplay arc of MTMTE has a group of characters relating a tale of pre-war/pre-Earth Transformers on Cybertron.

If you've just started, are you reading from the first issues of MTMTE and RID, or the current issues of the Dark Cybertron story? Dark Cybertron is the culmination of a number of different events over the past few years (and longer) of IDW stories, so I can see where you'd be a little confused.

Also, all of the current stories are set after the Transformers were first on Earth, but has very little to do with the first Generation 1 stories. This is an entirely new continuity with some references to other sagas in the franchise here and there!

If you want the full list...

I. The Beginning…
1. Megatron Origin
2. Spotlight - Orion Pax
3. Spotlight – Blur (All Hail Megatron Vol. 3 p. 4)
4. Autocracy
5. Monstrosity
6. Primacy in 2014
7. Spotlight - Thundercracker

II. The Spotlights
8. Spotlight – Shockwave (Spotlight Vol. 1 p. 9)
9. Spotlight – Cliffjumper (All Hail Megatron Vol. 3 p. 52)
10. Spotlight – Soundwave (Spotlight Vol. 2 p. 9)
11. Spotlight – Wheelie (Spotlight Vol. 3 p. 100)
12. Spotlight - Hot Rod (Spotlight Vol. 1. p. 50)
13. Spotlight – Sixshot (Spotlight Vol. 1 p. 73)
14. Spotlight -- Ultra Magnus (Spotlight Vol. 1 p. 96)

III. Present Day Earth
15. Infiltration #0-3 (through p. 86)
16. Stormbringer #1-3
17. Infiltration #4-5 (p. 87-132)
18. Stormbringer #4 (Full page panel of Thunderwing in jet mode)
19. Infiltration #6 (p. 133 to end)
20. Spotlight – Kup (Spotlight Vol. 2 p. 28)
21. Escalation #1-2 (through p. 46)
22. Spotlight – Nightbeat (Spotlight Vol. 1 p. 27)
23. Escalation #3-6 (p. 47 to end)
24. Spotlight – Ramjet (Spotlight Vol. 2 p. 100)
25. Spotlight - Optimus Prime (Spotlight Vol. 2 p. 76)
26. Spotlight – Galvatron (Spotlight Vol. 2 p. 52)
27. Devastation #1-4 (pages unnumbered; Chapter 4 ends with close-up of Starscream talking to Astrotrain)
28. Spotlight – Blaster (Spotlight Vol. 3 p. 4)
29. Spotlight – Arcee (Spotlight Vol. 3 p. 28)
30. Devastation #5-6 (pages unnumbered; Chapter 5 begins with “Cybertron-The Past”)
31. Spotlight – Mirage (Spotlight Vol. 3 p. 76)
32. Spotlight – Grimlock (Spotlight Vol. 3 p. 52)
33. Spotlight Volume 4 – Revelation
34. Maximum Dinobots

IV. All Hail Megatron!
35. All Hail Megatron Vol. 2 Chapter 2 p. 1
36. All Hail Megatron Vol. 2 Chapter 1 p. 3-13, 17-19
37. All Hail Megatron Volume 4: “Everything In Its Right Place”
38. Spotlight – Drift (All Hail Megatron Vol. 3 p. 76)
39. Spotlight – Metroplex (All Hail Megatron Vol. 3 p. 100)
40. All Hail Megatron Volume 4: “Lost And Found”
41. Spotlight- Jazz (All Hail Megatron Vol. 3 p. 28)
42. All Hail Megatron Volume 1-2 in full
(Note: All Hail Megatron Volume 4 has #43-#48)
43. “Old Ways” Optimus/Ironhide
44. “Uneasy Lies The Head” Starscream
45. “Replay” Sunstreaker
46. “Rebirth” Galvatron/Cyclonus/Scourge
47. “The Man Of Steel” Spike
48. “Hidden” Bumblebee

V. Three Years Later (Note: #50-#58, #68-#72 are located in Last Stand Of The Wreckers Hardcover)
49. Spotlight- Prowl (Ongoing Vol. 6)
50. Autobot File: Rotorstorm p. 130
51. Autobot File: Pyro p. 131
52. Autobot File: Guzzle p. 132
53. Autobot File: Ironfist p. 133
54. Autobot File: Impactor p. 134
55. Decepticon File: Snare p. 135
56. Decepticon File: Overlord p. 136
57. Squadron X p. 161
58. BULLETS/OUT OF BULLETS: Deleted Scenes p. 116 - 128 except ‘Nine Months Later’
59. Last Stand Of The Wreckers #1
60. Ongoing Vol. 1 For All Mankind #1
61. Last Stand Of The Wreckers 2-3
62. Ongoing Vol. 1 #2
63. Last Stand Of The Wreckers 4
64. Ongoing Vol. 1 #3-4
65. Bumblebee paperback
66. Ongoing Vol. 1 #5-6
67. Last Stand Of The Wreckers 5
68. ESCAPE p. 162
69. ZERO POINT p. 170
70. IN WORD AND DEED p. 175
71. BULLETS: Nine Months Later p. 125
72. Wreckers Mosaic Dead Man’s Boots p. 129
73. Ironhide paperback
74. Drift paperback
75. Ongoing Vol. 2 International Incident (#7-#8)
76. Ongoing Vol. 4 Heart Of Darkness.“The Road To CHAOS”. Infestation occurs towards end of #4. End of #4 lines up with end of Ongoing #20 in Ongoing Vol. 5: Chaos Theory.
77. Infestation Transformers 1-2
80. Ongoing Vol. 2 #9 to #12
81. Ongoing Vol. 3 Revenge of the Decepticons #13
82. Spotlight - Megatron
83. Ongoing Vol. 3 remainder of Revenge Of The Decepticons
84. Ongoing Vol. 5 Chaos Theory through end of Police Action: Prolog
85. Spotlight - Bumblebee
86. Ongoing Vol. 6 Police Action
87. Ongoing Vol. 5 remainder of Chaos Theory
88. Ongoing Vol. 7 CHAOS
89. Death Of Optimus Prime (More Than Meets The Eye Vol. 1)

VI. The Autobots Divide
90. More Than Meets The Eye Ongoing #1 with Rodimus (Vol. 1)
91. Robots In Disguise Ongoing #1 with Bumblebee (Vol. 1)
92. MTMTE #2-3 (Vol. 1)
93. RID #2-3 (Vol. 1)
94. MTMTE #4-5 (Vol. 2)
95. RID #4-5 (Vol. 1)
96. Spotlight – Trailcutter(Trailbreaker renamed)
97. Spotlight – Hoist
98. More Than Meets the Eye #6 (Vol. 2)
99. More Than Meets the Eye Annual 2012 (Vol. 3)
100. More Than Meets the Eye #7-8 (Vol. 2)
101. Robots in Disguise #6-10 (Vol. 2, 3)
102. More Than Meets the Eye #9-13 (Vol. 3, 4) and text story “A Signal To Noise” (Vol. 4)
103. Robots in Disguise Annual 2012 (Vol. 3)
104. Robots in Disguise #11-16 (Vol. 3, 4)
105. More Than Meets the Eye #14-15 (Vol. 4)
106. Robots in Disguise #17-20 (Vol.5)
107. More Than Meets the Eye #16-21 (Vol. 4, 5) and text story “The Sound Of Breaking Glass” (Vol. 5)
108. Robots in Disguise #21-22 (Vol. 5)
109. More Than Meets the Eye #22 (Vol. 5)

VII. Dark Cybertron
110. Dark Cybertron (Voll. 1-2)

VIII. Dawn of the Autobots
111. Robots in Disguise #28
112. More Than Meets the Eye #28
113. Windblade #1

craggy wrote:the RID and MTMTE series are set in "the present day" but there are flashbacks now and then. The Shadowplay arc of MTMTE has a group of characters relating a tale of pre-war/pre-Earth Transformers on Cybertron.

If you've just started, are you reading from the first issues of MTMTE and RID, or the current issues of the Dark Cybertron story? Dark Cybertron is the culmination of a number of different events over the past few years (and longer) of IDW stories, so I can see where you'd be a little confused.

Thanks, fellas. I got my first IDW Transformers comics. It's MTMTE issues 2, 7, 10, 14 and 20. Got RID issues 1, 7, 10, 11, 12 13, 14 and 15. Transformers: Spotlight Orion Pax, Mirage, Cliffjumper and Doubledealer. Tranformers: Bumblebee issues 3 and 4. Transformers: Infestation 1 issue 2 and Infestation 2 issue 2. The Transformres issues, 10, 14, 15, 18, 22, 25 and 30. Transformers: Ironhide. Chaos: issue 30. Road To Chaos issues 19 and 20. And Heart of Darkness issue 3. I was reading some of The Transformers first.

What's the reason behind the scattered reading order, if I may ask?

Va'al wrote:What's the reason behind the scattered reading order, if I may ask?

I was trying to read from the beginning and try to find Infiltration and so on. But the comic shops at Frank & Son didn't have all the issues I wanted. I just bought the ones they had.

might be a better idea to pick up the collected editions of the stories that you find interesting. you've a wild mix of issues there, so maybe see what ones intrigue you the most.

when I was a kid I could only get random issues of comics as well, so if you read one of those you have and really want to know where it started off, or are keen to read what happens next, see which of the collected editions, or trade paperbacks (TPBs) it's in and either get a local shop to order it in, or get it from amazon or somewheres.

edit: there's also the newer Generations figures including comics in the packs (if you're in the US anyway) so you might be able to get some of the Spotlights or issues focussed on specific characters that way.