Just yesterday we were introduced to some samples of the new artists work that are involved in the series, and now we get some background, and behind-the-scenes knowledge of what we'll be reading and why that will be of interest to us as TRANSFORMERS ONGOING goes bi-monthly this summer to tell the story that is... 'CHAOS'.
"Q: So, what is the current state of the Transformers Universe right now in the IDW-verse? Are we on Earth, Cybertron, in space?
Actually, we're on both. In the TRANSFORMERS ongoing series, we've kept the focus on Earth for the most part of the last two years. There, the Autobots have teamed up with the human-forces called SKYWATCH. The Autobots are led by Bumblebee, who replaced Optimus Prime after he stepped down and SKYWATCH is led by Spike. As it turns out, the humans and Transformers may not be completely honest with each other--and that growing distrust is about to come to an explosive head during CHAOS.
Meanwhile, off of Earth, GALVATRON has been gathering soldiers on a strange mission. That's being explored in the HEART OF DARKNESS mini-series currently coming out. And Rodimus has found the Matrix of Leadership on yet another world. All of these storylines are also going to come to a head during the CHAOS event.
Q: What would you say have been the top 2 events to occur in the continuity since the end of All Hail Megatron?
That's tough. Optimus Prime stepping down was big. His time on Earth made him realize that Transformers as a race have been stuck--stagnant. And the only way to get out of it, was to force change. I think that was pretty big--and as it turned out, controversial as well. Same with Bumblebee being elected leader, which has been really interesting because, as a character, that's not really where he should be, so that's been a big stuggle.
Off in space, Rodimus has retrieved the Matrix, so that's going to lead to some interesting things. We all know where that led in 1986, but it'll be fun to see how that plays out here.
And Megatron has been rebuilt and is remarkably more powerful than he was before--and has a cool new look, too. His mission is really to prove that Optimus Prime has wrongfully put his trust in humanity. That conflict, too, is coming to a head very soon.
I'd say all three of those are pretty big.
Q: Have we been introduced to any new characters in recent series that will play a role in upcoming storylines?
We've had some folks return, but we haven't put any major new player in place. Megatron, as I said, has recently returned. Galvatron has returned over in INFESTATION: TRANSFORMERS and in HEART OF DARKNESS. That's big. We're going to see an old character appear again in TRANSFORMERS #19 that I think is going to get people talking. So we're pulling some characters from pre-All Hail Megatron back into play.
Q: Has anyone died since ongoing started?
Ironhide died in issue #1, but we've seen him since then in his own mini-series. He's back, but he does not have memories from the last millennium or so. And Scrapper, one of the Constructicons who forms Devastator was killed by Spike. And that DEFINITELY has major repercussions coming up.
Q: Anything else we should know before jumping into CHAOS?
Man, I think that about covers it. The fun thing about putting the CHAOS event together was that it's very much what many of us--myself and Carlos on editorial, Mike Costa, James Roberts, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning on the writing side--have been building to since the first issue of the ongoing series. That said, we've also made sure to construct it in such a way that a new reader or a returning reader shouldn't have any trouble jumping in."
'Chaos' launches in July with 'A Prelude to Chaos'(Ongoing #21) and 'Chaos Theory' (Ongoing #22 and #23). More updates sure to come!