The Energon Pub

“Last Bot On Cybertron”(my title)

The part of Vincent Price, known as Dr. Richard Morgan, will now be played by Ironhide. Or if you prefer, Will Smith’s Dr. Richard Neville in “I am Legend...” is now being portrayed by Ironhide. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.


Up for a review is the second issue of IDW’s new miniseries, TRANSFORMERS: IRONHIDE. This issue is due to hit comic retailers tomorrow (Thursday) because of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday messing with shipping schedules.




Mike Costa spins a mysterious tale here, taking charge of the lovable, gruff Ironhide, and putting him through his paces mentally and physically. But did someone forget to tell Mr. Costa that Ironhide died in issue #1 of THE TRANSFORMERS ongoing series? You might remember it made the news in ‘USA Today’ even!

I suppose, one must have faith that Costa has a plan for this use of the newly dead, instead of a character that is known to still be in the world of the living, or at least not dead yet (“I feel fine!”). It does seem to have purpose as Ironhide is as Cybertron is: hard up/dead/lifeless, and yet, here he is on Cybertron, supposedly alive and this issue, facing the only other living thing on Cybertron that we know of...THE SWARM, previously left destroying Autobots, and ruling the planet in ‘All Hail Megatron’.

Dr. Robert Morgan wrote:“This is Robert Morgan. If somebody can hear me, answer me. For God's sake, ANSWER ME.”

Do you see a relationship?

Ironhide travels in and out of ‘reality’ as we get glimpses of his past. Last issue, we saw him as Prime’s bodyguard, this time, he’s working security for the Cybertronian Raceway races.



This issue, besides taking us deeper into Ironhide’s internal mental toils (Where is everyone? Why am I alone?), and struggles as the ‘Last bot on Cybertron’, delves deeper into what is going on on Cybertron right now...this issue lays a bit of a surprise on us at the end. Don’t want to give it away, but it certainly advances the story and pockets the two already known mysteries, and introduces another that as of yet, we have no idea as to how it relates to the others, but we assume it must.



The art is really well done. Colors and line work all support the story parts, whether they are the dark, broken, lifeless Cybertron, or the bright, shiny memories that play through Ironhide’s head as he attempts to keep from going insane. There’s plenty of eye candy in the flashback scenes, looking for Cybertron forms of well known, and obscure characters, and how these characters interacted with Ironhide.



This is certainly a new play for an Autobot that everyone probably looked at as a fairly one dimensional character--I know I did. Costa is doing amazing work writing a dead bot! What he is doing with this dead man (or is he?), and how it relates to Cybertron’s state, and our ‘other’ new plot point, well, there’s a few more issues to get those answers. And we want them.

Better than the TRANSFORMERS ongoing, and a lot better than the BUMBLEBEE mini, this series is definitely a must for those like myself, who like getting more TRANSFORMERS history to fill in our gaps, and characters are portrayed fairly classically.

This is probably the next best thing to Last Stand of the Wreckers. It can compete with that series in story. It’s not as action packed, but it is turning psychological in its treatment of a very strong character all of the sudden finding weakness in not knowing, and being alone...a fear that many people can relate to. The art is well done, and classic G1 Cybertronian designs, which is what many folks liked about LSOTW.

Richard Morgan wrote:“December 1965. Is that all it has been since I inherited the world? Only three years. Seems like 100 million.”

For some reason this movie quote seemed appropriate, but I could not come up with the words to relate it to Ironhide. Dr. Morgan (Neville), and Ironhide certainly have a lot in common...

You can view the multi-page preview here, and then drag yourself to your local store and strip one off the shelf! You won’t be sorry.

The only thing this issue really manages to accomplish is telling a story without actually telling a story. We still haven't figured out what the holy h-e hockey sticks is going on, with no real idea that Costa is every going to actually tell us.

Darth Bombshell wrote:The only thing this issue really manages to accomplish is telling a story without actually telling a story. We still haven't figured out what the holy h-e hockey sticks is going on, with no real idea that Costa is every going to actually tell us.

Of course Costa will tell us what is happening eventually. Its a mini series so we're not going to learn everything right away. We'll find out once Ironhide himself finds out through the course of the story.

Looks like it was Outback and not Fasttrack after all.

Sounds exciting, I can't wait to read this one Good to hear there will be some decent comic fodder now that I've lost interest in the ongoing. Now all I need is for Sunny to come back in all this

Darth Bombshell wrote:The only thing this issue really manages to accomplish is telling a story without actually telling a story. We still haven't figured out what the holy h-e hockey sticks is going on, with no real idea that Costa is every going to actually tell us.

Do yourself a favour and never read any crime books, fantasy, or mysterious TV shows such as Doctor Who, Lost, or Battlestar Galactica.

Darth Bombshell wrote:The only thing this issue really manages to accomplish is telling a story without actually telling a story. We still haven't figured out what the holy h-e hockey sticks is going on, with no real idea that Costa is every going to actually tell us.

Well, it is a middle issue...second in the series only. It still moves faster than ongoing, gives us more, and manages to keep us wanting more.

I'm going to have to talk to my comic book shop about getting this series. This looks good especially compared to the Ongoing series. I'm still hoping it's a slow build though.

AutobotOutlaw wrote:Of course Costa will tell us what is happening eventually.

Maybe, but not without making us sit through his self-obscured plot.

tigertracks 24 wrote:Well, it is a middle issue...second in the series only. It still moves faster than ongoing, gives us more, and manages to keep us wanting more.

It still suffers from the biggest problem that the ongoing has: deliberately holding back the plot for the sake of said plot and having characters do things that are out of character for them for no other reason than to serve the plot.

And for being "second in the series" it feels a whole lot like five pages of a severly undercut issue. I was able to burn through it in less than a minute.

Matrix. wrote:Do yourself a favour and never read any crime books, fantasy, or mysterious TV shows such as Doctor Who, Lost, or Battlestar Galactica.

Comparing this to those kind of shows is a great disservice to them.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Matrix. wrote:Do yourself a favour and never read any crime books, fantasy, or mysterious TV shows such as Doctor Who, Lost, or Battlestar Galactica.

Comparing this to those kind of shows is a great disservice to them.

No, it's not. It's true.

Cyberstrike wrote:No, it's not. It's true.

In what way?

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Cyberstrike wrote:No, it's not. It's true.

In what way?

If you don't want to see it, then I'm not going to explain it to you, because it would be a waste of my time.

A word of advice: if you don't like any of the IDW Transformers series then don't buy it. Because all you ever do is whine, whine, whine, and whine some more and quite frankly it's getting old.

You don't like it, I UNDERSTAND that, but all you ever do is simpely get mad at people who do enjoy it.

Is the "YOU-MUST-COME-NOW" 'bot Scamper, and he taking Ironhide to Metroplex?

Hairball178 wrote:Is the "YOU-MUST-COME-NOW" 'bot Scamper, and he taking Ironhide to Metroplex?

You know I had that thought myself.

Ya know, I never made the I Am Legend connection until reading this review.

Good catch.