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So I just had a thought.

Ever since the Marvel Movieverse's success, everyone wants their stories now to have "expanded universes" and have continuity with other stories. It must be a living nightmare for Andy "If I could go back to the 70s and 80s and stop Marvel and DC from ingraining in comics fans[sic] brains that continuity is paramount, I would" Schmidt.

william-james88 wrote:Oh man, I found some other stuff I will post below and its amazing to read this in retrospect. It is ironic that the last line of that quote above ends with James Roberts stepping in, which has now changed the TF comics books into something Costas could have never dreamt. Here is what I was thinking when I was reading what I found here:

– “Transformers fans read Transformers comics, and only Transformers comics. They are isolated from the rest of the comic book world.”

Man that quote is literally one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Is it out of context or does he actually mean that?

Batfan007 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Oh man, I found some other stuff I will post below and its amazing to read this in retrospect. It is ironic that the last line of that quote above ends with James Roberts stepping in, which has now changed the TF comics books into something Costas could have never dreamt. Here is what I was thinking when I was reading what I found here:

– “Transformers fans read Transformers comics, and only Transformers comics. They are isolated from the rest of the comic book world.”

Man that quote is literally one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Is it out of context or does he actually mean that?

Its not out fo context, he really meant that.

Having recently binged through all of IDW barring six spotlights (which I'm desperately trying to find), I was really dreading getting to AHM. I'd heard so many bad things about it, how it's the worst thing ever, how it's utterly pathetic...
I just found it kind of eh. I mean it's easily the low point of IDW's G1 continuity (though honestly, I think Revolution contests it for that title), but maybe it was because I was led into it being told how bad it was that personally I just had an apathy for it rather than any utter disgust. I mean when Drift showed up out of nowhere and cut down that Insecticon that really struck me as obnoxious and annoying and I hated him for that, but... eh. For the most part it was just a really dull generic story that makes me glad McCarthy didn't get to really do anything after it and that's about it.

Kurona wrote:Having recently binged through all of IDW barring six spotlights (which I'm desperately trying to find), I was really dreading getting to AHM. I'd heard so many bad things about it, how it's the worst thing ever, how it's utterly pathetic...
I just found it kind of eh. I mean it's easily the low point of IDW's G1 continuity (though honestly, I think Revolution contests it for that title), but maybe it was because I was led into it being told how bad it was that personally I just had an apathy for it rather than any utter disgust. I mean when Drift showed up out of nowhere and cut down that Insecticon that really struck me as obnoxious and annoying and I hated him for that, but... eh. For the most part it was just a really dull generic story that makes me glad McCarthy didn't get to really do anything after it and that's about it.

I actually thought ALH was supposed to be good when I read it. I didnt know it was bad. And the article this discussion in linked from does make it seem like it was a much talked about event and an enjoyed event.

I just really didnt think much of it when I read it. I thought it was supposed to be a great story, but in the end it was just same old same old story with the autobots at a low point then coming back to kicking Megatron's ass. Apparently, there was a bigger casualty count here, but we never see it. What I hated was that it seemed at first they were trying to be different with the whole " but now its really bad, like worse than ever, we were able to pull through the past times, but this time its really bad, we are sure not coming out of this one, no way at all" to just bounce right back up and beat the bad guys. There wasnt even any in between. The autobots were down and then they were up. And the matrix was inconsequential. I was told that was always the case, but then there was no point really to linger on that and make it such a big deal.

Thats how I saw the series. People thinking they were doing something big and fresh and it just being instead just a modern retelling of any random G1 episode. The only thing I find truly bad about it, is how quick and random the situation changes for the autobots.

william-james88 wrote:

Kurona wrote:Having recently binged through all of IDW barring six spotlights (which I'm desperately trying to find), I was really dreading getting to AHM. I'd heard so many bad things about it, how it's the worst thing ever, how it's utterly pathetic...
I just found it kind of eh. I mean it's easily the low point of IDW's G1 continuity (though honestly, I think Revolution contests it for that title), but maybe it was because I was led into it being told how bad it was that personally I just had an apathy for it rather than any utter disgust. I mean when Drift showed up out of nowhere and cut down that Insecticon that really struck me as obnoxious and annoying and I hated him for that, but... eh. For the most part it was just a really dull generic story that makes me glad McCarthy didn't get to really do anything after it and that's about it.

I actually thought ALH was supposed to be good when I read it. I didnt know it was bad. And the article this discussion in linked from does make it seem like it was a much talked about event and an enjoyed event.

I just really didnt think much of it when I read it. I thought it was supposed to be a great story, but in the end it was just same old same old story with the autobots at a low point then coming back to kicking Megatron's ass. Apparently, there was a bigger casualty count here, but we never see it. What I hated was that it seemed at first they were trying to be different with the whole " but now its really bad, like worse than ever, we were able to pull through the past times, but this time its really bad, we are sure not coming out of this one, no way at all" to just bounce right back up and beat the bad guys. There wasnt even any in between. The autobots were down and then they were up. And the matrix was inconsequential. I was told that was always the case, but then there was no point really to linger on that and make it such a big deal.

Thats how I saw the series. People thinking they were doing something big and fresh and it just being instead just a modern retelling of any random G1 episode. The only thing I find truly bad about it, is how quick and random the situation changes for the autobots.

I can certainly agree with that on a whole.
I think one particular thing in the series that sort of... serves as a metaphor for that problem is Kup's little team arriving. It's treated as a big deal, some sort of gamechanger; getting the band back together yadda yadda whatever you want to call it. But if we're being completely honest, the story doesn't benefit from their being there at all - they're basically just some extra guns. The only one that really has any purpose is Kup, and even then that's just so Jazz has someone to tell some exposition too. It's only Omega Supreme's arrival that changes anything and you could easily have wrote something for that without having Hot Rod send out a message (though Omega responding to that was ridiculously contrived). Kup's group serves absolutely no purpose other than exposition.
Hell, being even MORE specific, Drift; in interviews and the like I'm pretty sure McCarthy was treating him as really big and new and different (because there totally haven't been con > bot turncoats before right), especially with all the media coverage and him getting a spotlight... and then in the series itself, even ignoring how contrived the character is; pretty much all he does is cut an insecticon down.
AHM is full of big pointless moments and turning points which achieve nothing and do nothing to meaningfully change or continue the story which is exactly what AHM is in itself. The only way AHM was different or fresh in some way is if you're viewing IDW in a vacuum since a full invasion of Earth hadn't been done before. But since this essentially just means it's dumping all of the infiltration stages that made IDW so interesting before AHM - I'm actually not the biggest fan of Furman's stuff, but that's still what was really different about the IDW comics to begin with and why people were a fan of it - in favour of something that's been done not just a billion times before in Transformers but in science fiction in general, it's so dull.

Kurona wrote: Kup's group serves absolutely no purpose other than exposition.

While I didnt catch it on the first read (and havent reread it) I was told that they had the energon needed to revive Optimus and thus serve a purpose that way too. It wasnt clear to me though and everything still felt random and overly important for no reason.

william-james88 wrote:

Kurona wrote: Kup's group serves absolutely no purpose other than exposition.

While I didnt catch it on the first read (and havent reread it) I was told that they had the energon needed to revive Optimus and thus serve a purpose that way too. It wasnt clear to me though and everything still felt random and overly important for no reason.

Fair enough, though Omega could've done that.
At the same time though, even if they did have importance; as you said, not very clear and it's not very well handled.

McCarthy's primary failing to me, besides just writing a G1 episode but with more violence, was his total lack of the grasp of pacing as a writing mechanic. As william-james88 described, there was all this hand-wringing about how the Autobots might not pull through, but there was a failure to actually make things feel dire, and it was all thrown down the toilet anyway by how suddenly they bounced back. Ratchet expressed concern that he might not be able to save Optimus, then like four pages later Optimus is standing whole and giving the troops a rousing speech. I remember that moment vividly because that is when my last scrap of goodwill towards McCarthy was burned away like a match in a tinder pile.

JazZeke wrote:McCarthy's primary failing to me, besides just writing a G1 episode but with more violence, was his total lack of the grasp of pacing as a writing mechanic. As william-james88 described, there was all this hand-wringing about how the Autobots might not pull through, but there was a failure to actually make things feel dire, and it was all thrown down the toilet anyway by how suddenly they bounced back. Ratchet expressed concern that he might not be able to save Optimus, then like four pages later Optimus is standing whole and giving the troops a rousing speech. I remember that moment vividly because that is when my last scrap of goodwill towards McCarthy was burned away like a match in a tinder pile.

That was the standout moment for me as well. There was all this concern for Optimus and the thing about Kup's group bringing energon or whatever wasn't made clear so when he recovered I was just like... "Oh. Okay. This is a thing now." I was so confused about how it happened or what caused it; one second he was dead, the next he's all pristine and shiny new ready to go and telling Sideswipe that them wiping out planets was fine because they're the good guys or something I can't remember because it was crap.

Yeah I remember that moment too. Because thats when I realized this had been a waste of time and that nothing was new. It really was just a violent G1 episode. And its not to say g1 is bad, its fun. It never tried to be anything else other than what it was. But this story had a feeling of supposed importance. Like "this is the one you have to read". This time Megatron really wins and the autobots are really defeated. But no. Megatron takes over a place and the Autobots come to the rescue, the end. And I am sure a G1 episode would have at least shown ratchet fixing prime and Prime thanking him. That pacing was the weirdest **** I ever read in a comic, and I read a bunch of comics in my day.

I think the saving grace to the time I spent reading the story was the art and Ironhide. I really like Ironhide in that story and he acted exactly like I always thought he was, but rarely saw (more stoic and wise than usual).

william-james88 wrote:Yeah I remember that moment too. Because thats when I realized this had been a waste of time and that nothing was new. It really was just a violent G1 episode. And its not to say g1 is bad, its fun. It never tried to be anything else other than what it was. But this story had a feeling of supposed importance. Like "this is the one you have to read". This time Megatron really wins and the autobots are really defeated. But no. Megatron takes over a place and the Autobots come to the rescue, the end. And I am sure a G1 episode would have at least shown ratchet fixing prime and Prime thanking him. That pacing was the weirdest **** I ever read in a comic, and I read a bunch of comics in my day.

I think the saving grace to the time I spent reading the story was the art and Ironhide. I really like Ironhide in that story and he acted exactly like I always thought he was, but rarely saw (more stoic and wise than usual).

The funny thing is, when Megatron did finally win in G1, Optimus didn't survive and the autobots had to go on the run before someone else had to take his place

... oh god, I wrote that as a joke but writing it out like that just made me realise that the original G1 cartoon had a better idea of how to handle this

Kurona wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Yeah I remember that moment too. Because thats when I realized this had been a waste of time and that nothing was new. It really was just a violent G1 episode. And its not to say g1 is bad, its fun. It never tried to be anything else other than what it was. But this story had a feeling of supposed importance. Like "this is the one you have to read". This time Megatron really wins and the autobots are really defeated. But no. Megatron takes over a place and the Autobots come to the rescue, the end. And I am sure a G1 episode would have at least shown ratchet fixing prime and Prime thanking him. That pacing was the weirdest **** I ever read in a comic, and I read a bunch of comics in my day.

I think the saving grace to the time I spent reading the story was the art and Ironhide. I really like Ironhide in that story and he acted exactly like I always thought he was, but rarely saw (more stoic and wise than usual).

The funny thing is, when Megatron did finally win in G1, Optimus didn't survive and the autobots had to go on the run before someone else had to take his place

... oh god, I wrote that as a joke but writing it out like that just made me realise that the original G1 cartoon had a better idea of how to handle this

Yep.

Kurona wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Yeah I remember that moment too. Because thats when I realized this had been a waste of time and that nothing was new. It really was just a violent G1 episode. And its not to say g1 is bad, its fun. It never tried to be anything else other than what it was. But this story had a feeling of supposed importance. Like "this is the one you have to read". This time Megatron really wins and the autobots are really defeated. But no. Megatron takes over a place and the Autobots come to the rescue, the end. And I am sure a G1 episode would have at least shown ratchet fixing prime and Prime thanking him. That pacing was the weirdest **** I ever read in a comic, and I read a bunch of comics in my day.

I think the saving grace to the time I spent reading the story was the art and Ironhide. I really like Ironhide in that story and he acted exactly like I always thought he was, but rarely saw (more stoic and wise than usual).

The funny thing is, when Megatron did finally win in G1, Optimus didn't survive and the autobots had to go on the run before someone else had to take his place

... oh god, I wrote that as a joke but writing it out like that just made me realise that the original G1 cartoon had a better idea of how to handle this

The G1 cartoon is better. It followed a smart formula. It gets repetitive, yes, but it never misses a beat. It entertains and does its job as a cartoon, and actually builds a mythology and history unlike other cartoons made to sell toys. Plus it explores interesting themes, like worship, how the real enemy is war, and escalation of war. So it actually does more than was asked of it, and I think that is why it has endured to this day. AHM couldnt even tell a simple story correctly.

Well, all this negativity to AHM, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and say I liked it.


We saw glimpses of other cities being destroyed. China, we saw Washington DC wrecked with a burning Air Force One, Megatron and Starscream had a discussion in the desert somewhere. They did go global, they were just using New York as their point of operations. And I believe McCarthy did want to show more global destruction but Hasbro limited him to just the one city mainly, and only allowing the odd shot of global.


In terms of the comment about them not being allowed to go anywhere, I viewed that as meaning he's not letting them get off Earth. They can clearly go around the planet wherever they want.


The Matrix being stolen served a purpose. It just wasn't the obvious power up mcguffin. It made Megatron realise he has pretty much won the war, it makes him reflect upon himself and (I may be wrong, but I believe he does state) that the Decepticons have turned into a raging monster. They may have won the war, but Decepticons can't be left in charge of the victory because they have become so much more violent and aggressive from when they first started out. He would have to destroy the Decepticons as well and rebuild their entire civilisation from the ground up. He has these conversations with Starscream, which in turns makes Starscream have his introspection. And it leads him to realise at the end that leadership is not given by chance. He can't just wait for Megatron to go down and then declare himself leader, he has to EARN that title. A lesson he's kept in mind during Ex-RID when he plotted his way to being Cybertro ruler.



I also remember reading an interview where McArthy said Drift was never meant to be this uber powerful badass that would save the franchise. He was just meant to be a new character, his own little mark on the G1 mythos, and just be there doing his thing. It was IDW that hyped him up so much. And personally, I like the Drift mini series too. I got a lot out of that story as well that many people seem surprised when I tell them.



Now, I'm not going to say it was a perfect piece. Omega being contrived? We know he's out there somewhere, why wouldn't he detect and respond to an Autobot distress call from Cybertron given the planet is meant to be abandoned and the Autobots have been decimated? Thundercracker turning against the Decepticon cause, but also turning away the Autobots. The Thundercracker we have today that everyone seems to love started out in this very series. Look at all the panels with Thundercracker, from issue 1. Through the entire book, you can see him being unhappy until we got him going off on his own. We never got that kind of character in the cartoon. Without AHM, there would be no Thundercracker and his pet dog.



Yes, it would be better if Prime doesn't come back and it gives us more story chances if he's gone. But I was ok with it.


Overall, I liked AHM. I felt satisfied with it.

So having read through it, there's one particular bit of criticism from the fans I really don't get.

Why the hate for Drift? I mean, the scene where he appears out of nowhere and cuts down an insecticon is obnoxious and makes me hate him for two seconds, but aside from that I don't really get it. He doesn't do anything warranting hatred, he doesn't do anything groan-worthy... in fact, and here's the thing, he doesn't do anything period. Like most of the characters in the book he's completely pointless and deadweight; the book wouldn't be any different had he been left out. Which is pretty damn annoying when his whole point is that he's a Decepticon turned Autobot, so surely in an event where Megatron won he'd have something interesting to say or offer! Like, why bother creating this character whose very concept has such a big tie to what going on but you literally do nothing with them?

So yeah, I don't get it. He's pointless, but I don't see why that was warranting of all the rage at him at the time. Hell, he didn't even do anything in the following ongoing.

You pointed out exactly why people dont like Drift, because he doesnt add anything. He gets almost nothing for a story, here, and is simply introduced as a guy who is good at sword fighting. Its a very one dimensional introduction of a character who was supposed to breath new life into a story (as most new characters should). I never saw it as hatred though, just disdain, and its the same disdain you just expressed.

So, how did you find the book overall. Did you understand why Optimus was fine all of a sudden?

Kurona wrote:So having read through it, there's one particular bit of criticism from the fans I really don't get.

Why the hate for Drift? I mean, the scene where he appears out of nowhere and cuts down an insecticon is obnoxious and makes me hate him for two seconds, but aside from that I don't really get it. He doesn't do anything warranting hatred, he doesn't do anything groan-worthy... in fact, and here's the thing, he doesn't do anything period. Like most of the characters in the book he's completely pointless and deadweight; the book wouldn't be any different had he been left out. Which is pretty damn annoying when his whole point is that he's a Decepticon turned Autobot, so surely in an event where Megatron won he'd have something interesting to say or offer! Like, why bother creating this character whose very concept has such a big tie to what going on but you literally do nothing with them?

So yeah, I don't get it. He's pointless, but I don't see why that was warranting of all the rage at him at the time. Hell, he didn't even do anything in the following ongoing.

When he was introduced, IDW hyped the hell out of him. They literally said he was going to become "the Wolverine of Transformers," a statement which is in an of itself problematic. So it wasn't just that he didn't add anything to the story, but also that he was promised that he would be relevant in a big way. And he wasn't. Which made it feel all the more like McCarthy was just shoving his childish fancharacter down our throats.

JazZeke wrote:They literally said he was going to become "the Wolverine of Transformers," a statement which is in an of itself problematic.

I didnt know that. It fits though. No offense to Wolverine, but that character is very one note, like Drift. Looking at what Drift has become in the franchise as a whole, I think it fits. Not saying that makes him a great character in any way, but the monicker isnt wrong in the end.

william-james88 wrote:You pointed out exactly why people dont like Drift, because he doesnt add anything. He gets almost nothing for a story, here, and is simply introduced as a guy who is good at sword fighting. Its a very one dimensional introduction of a character who was supposed to breath new life into a story (as most new characters should). I never saw it as hatred though, just disdain, and its the same disdain you just expressed.

So, how did you find the book overall. Did you understand why Optimus was fine all of a sudden?

Overall I didn't like it. I didn't dislike it quite as much as I thought I would; much like Drift the terrible quality of this book was overhyped to the extent I was expecting something like, I dunno, Revenge of the Fallen; and instead got something that was awful and terrible in parts but was mostly just boring and generic. It's still easily one of the worst stories in IDW's Generation One continuity, but I must say I dislike Revolution more.

Kurona wrote:

william-james88 wrote:You pointed out exactly why people dont like Drift, because he doesnt add anything. He gets almost nothing for a story, here, and is simply introduced as a guy who is good at sword fighting. Its a very one dimensional introduction of a character who was supposed to breath new life into a story (as most new characters should). I never saw it as hatred though, just disdain, and its the same disdain you just expressed.

So, how did you find the book overall. Did you understand why Optimus was fine all of a sudden?

Overall I didn't like it. I didn't dislike it quite as much as I thought I would; much like Drift the terrible quality of this book was overhyped to the extent I was expecting something like, I dunno, Revenge of the Fallen; and instead got something that was awful and terrible in parts but was mostly just boring and generic. It's still easily one of the worst stories in IDW's Generation One continuity, but I must say I dislike Revolution more.

Its because both opinions (yours and the community's) are basing their feelings on anticipations. I remember when this was anounced,it was a big deal in comic book stores. I didnt even read TF comics and i knew this was out. This was marketed as the big thing, the one where Megatron actually won. But it turned out to be no different than any other TF story where the bad guys seemingly won and then the good guys end up beating them like always. Its not a bad story, but its the same story as always, with some serious flaws, like the bad pacing and typical deux ex machina crap, so just typical stuff. So this being so much uner the expectations hyped up, the dislike was great.

And that dislike primed you for this book. It brough your expectations down. But its just a typical TF story, so you didnt see anything that bad about it, so you found it much better than what people said it was. Its all relative.

At least we got some great insight into Megatron's mind in it. And the other good stuff I mentioned in my last post. It's not all rubbish.


Even though I still enjoyed it.

william-james88 wrote:

Kurona wrote:

william-james88 wrote:You pointed out exactly why people dont like Drift, because he doesnt add anything. He gets almost nothing for a story, here, and is simply introduced as a guy who is good at sword fighting. Its a very one dimensional introduction of a character who was supposed to breath new life into a story (as most new characters should). I never saw it as hatred though, just disdain, and its the same disdain you just expressed.

So, how did you find the book overall. Did you understand why Optimus was fine all of a sudden?

Overall I didn't like it. I didn't dislike it quite as much as I thought I would; much like Drift the terrible quality of this book was overhyped to the extent I was expecting something like, I dunno, Revenge of the Fallen; and instead got something that was awful and terrible in parts but was mostly just boring and generic. It's still easily one of the worst stories in IDW's Generation One continuity, but I must say I dislike Revolution more.

Its because both opinions (yours and the community's) are basing their feelings on anticipations. I remember when this was anounced,it was a big deal in comic book stores. I didnt even read TF comics and i knew this was out. This was marketed as the big thing, the one where Megatron actually won. But it turned out to be no different than any other TF story where the bad guys seemingly won and then the good guys end up beating them like always. Its not a bad story, but its the same story as always, with some serious flaws, like the bad pacing and typical deux ex machina crap, so just typical stuff. So this being so much uner the expectations hyped up, the dislike was great.

And that dislike primed you for this book. It brough your expectations down. But its just a typical TF story, so you didnt see anything that bad about it, so you found it much better than what people said it was. Its all relative.

Generally that kind of happens with all fiction, especially big built franchises like Transformers. It's very rare that you can go into something with a completely neutral standpoint with no expectations whatsoever - especially in this day and age where advertising and trailers are everywhere and in your face. If you're trying to avoid not having a neutral standpoint on something going in, you're gonna hard time.

Regardless... even from a neutral standpoint, it's a bit worse than most generic pieces of Transformers fiction due to its bad pacing and writing, its predictability and its huge cast of mostly irrelevant characters. Say what you want or will about IDW's Transformers comics, but they're really the one area where this franchise is really able to be a bit more sophisticated and have adult ideas. All the cartoons are, of course, aimed primarily at children and have the job of selling toys. And while being a cartoon doesn't mean you can't handle sophisticated ideas - Avatar: The Last Airbender and Steven Universe are two fantastic examples of cartoons that handle big ideas intelligently and communicate them easily for children and older audiences alike without patronising either - being aimed at a younger audience does naturally limit you. And then the live-action movies... um... well, let's not kid ourselves, the only time they ever want to focus on something remotely intelligent is in reference to a very specific law to say why it's okay for this male lead to be dating this younger female lead. It's junk food for the brain.
So I digress, the IDW comics are (currently) the only place where both sophisticated ideas can be handled and where the main demographic is primarily older audiences, teenagers at the youngest. The Funpub/Timelines comics and prose are the only possible competition in this area, though as far as I can tell they only got quite as intelligent and adult in recent years and weren't around at the time of AHM. And yet, AHM is somehow much less original and much less predictable than 1986's The Transformers: The Movie, a movie which - while admittedly very fun and enjoyable - is so incredibly cynical and naive it kills off characters kids and grown to love over the past two years and expected those same kids to fall in love with these new characters they'd never seen before. I loved the movie, but at the end of the day it is a huge, glorified toy advert that has no idea what it's doing and takes the skeleton of its story and character archetypes from Star Wars. Arcee even has Leia's buns for god's sake.
That's my point of contention. If a comic aimed largely at older audiences that has few if any limitations in needing to advertise something can't do better than a Star Wars pastiche made for the sole purpose of selling toys, then I can't just let it off easy with a "well it's just a generic Transformers story". It should be trying harder than that. It should be aiming higher than that. It should be taking advantage of what it has to create a narrative that's both thought-provoking and entertaining. Because if all it can do is create this, I'd rather not waste my money or time and instead put on the 1986 movie. At the very least I can enjoy that one.

Let us take you back to 2008, when the -ation storylines (including Stormbringer) came to a sudden end, finding a conclusion of sorts in Maximum Dinobots, to make way for the first big IDW Transformers 'event': All Hail Megatron.

Almost ten years later, we find ourselves looking at the opening pages of what is still seen as a divisive piece of work in the IDWverse (mostly for the reasons pointed out above, and others to do with pacing and character writing) - one that has made its way to Japanese audiences not that long ago, as seen here - in a new paperback collected edition, the same as the Complete All Hail Megatron hardback we have seen before. For those of you wishing to read the story but not willing to own the hardback copy, this week's release may be the book for you!

Transformers: The Complete All Hail Megatron TP
Rejoice, Decepticon brethren! The pretender, Optimus, and his treacherous Autobots are defeated, Earth is all but defenseless, and the time for conquest is at hand!

After at last succeeding in defeating the Autobots, the Decepticons set about ruling our planet with an iron fist. Their forces invade and control New York and, before long, they manage to cripple the United States. It's a war between the U.S. armed forces and a giant species of technologically advanced killing machines--a war that suddenly becomes incredibly one-sided! Meanwhile, the battered and broken Autobots struggle to survive a forced exile on their dead homeworld of Cybertron. Defeated by to an unknown traitor in their midst, the Autobots sturggle to maintain their trust and unity... and nothing short of a miracle will save them from utter extinction!

Collects All Hail Megatron #1-16, as well as Transformers Spotlight: Blurr, Transformers Spotlight: Jazz, Transformers Spotlight: Cliffjumper, Transformers Spotlight: Drift, and Transformers Spotlight: Metroplex.