The Energon Pub

I hate to beat the same old drum...So I'll try to approach it differently. If I had one wish, it would be that when I walk in my local comic shop on 12/27/17 (The Last Wednesday of the Year), that:

TF vs Visionaries #1
Transformers TAAO Annual
Optimus Prime #14 and
The Lost Light #13

will have been released, and all publications are current and no longer behind. I know this requires a month where 2 issues of OP & LL will have to be released, but its not entirely unprecedented. Otherwise IDW just needs to do like what they did with TAAO last year, and retroactively just state they are a month behind, and adjust any solicitations accordingly.

o.supreme wrote:I hate to beat the same old drum...So I'll try to approach it differently. If I had one wish, it would be that when I walk in my local comic shop on 12/27/17 (The Last Wednesday of the Year), that:

TF vs Visionaries #1
Transformers TAAO Annual
Optimus Prime #14 and
The Lost Light #13

will have been released, and all publications are current and no longer behind. I know this requires a month where 2 issues of OP & LL will have to be released, but its not entirely unprecedented. Otherwise IDW just needs to do like what they did with TAAO last year, and retroactively just state they are a month behind, and adjust any solicitations accordingly.

OP 13 is, as of now (could change), set for 11/22. This would have it caught up. I have no hope of Lost Light 13 showing up by year's end. We'll be lucky if 12 is out by then.

Working on figuring out a Hasbro U "phase 1" reading order, which is my own shorthand term for "Stuff published in 2016 and 2017 up to and including First Strike and the related tie ins." I don't think a purely linear representation works, there's a great deal going on in parallel.

I could use some help on Wrath of Karza's placement with respect to Optimus Prime. I have it after Revolutionaries 2 and the first Joe and MASK arcs, what's the consensus on if it's after OP 6 or in the time gap in between Revolution and OP 1?

Also, apparently the X-Files stuff is not part of the HoS/Infestation 2 retcon because it exists in a self-canceling time loop.

It's right before OP1. John said so on Reddit.

Nik Hero wrote:It's right before OP1. John said so on Reddit.

Thanks! I remembered him answering this but was looking on Twitter for it >< Sheesh. I was even the one that asked the question on Reddit!

So, ever since I discovered the "chronological" reading order for the single issues as maintained on Wikipedia's IDW Transformers page, I've noticed patterns...

I reported last year that the Titans Return one shot was (for lack of a better term) the 300th overall issue of the IDW Trasformers series (though because of retcons , and stories being told in TF history it now stands at #313)

Now it appears that the Optimus Prime Annual due out in February 2018 will be issue #400 (though this incorporates TF vs Visionaries in which issues 4 & 5 will not come until the next 2 months after the annual's supposed release date).

Still it's kind of cool for fans like myself who appreciate such milestone markers, even if the series itself overall is not my cup of tea, it's longevity is to be commended.

o.supreme wrote:So, ever since I discovered the "chronological" reading order for the single issues as maintained on Wikipedia's IDW Transformers page, I've noticed patterns...

I reported last year that the Titans Return one shot was (for lack of a better term) the 300th overall issue of the IDW Trasformers series (though because of retcons , and stories being told in TF history it now stands at #313)

Now it appears that the Optimus Prime Annual due out in February 2018 will be issue #400 (though this incorporates TF vs Visionaries in which issues 4 & 5 will not come until the next 2 months after the annual's supposed release date).

Still it's kind of cool for fans like myself who appreciate such milestone markers, even if the series itself overall is not my cup of tea, it's longevity is to be commended.

What's the URL of that list?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers_(IDW_Publishing)#Chronological_Comic_Order

@ScottyP, any updates for the 2017 continuity?

I'm really glad this thread exists, because my reading was all over the place and I was recently wondering in what order these should go, even though some are more obvious thsn others, it still gets confusing!! This'll be great to reference from now on.

I hope Scotty P responds soon!

I will loosely promise to have something done on Monday, it's a holiday so the time is there! Breath of the Wild plus ambitions to do something more "infographic" have waylaid me but I do need to get on it with just a dang list!

Will stop typing this and start typing that instead

ScottyP wrote:I will loosely promise to have something done on Monday, it's a holiday so the time is there! Breath of the Wild plus ambitions to do something more "infographic" have waylaid me but I do need to get on it with just a dang list!

Will stop typing this and start typing that instead

Great! I think it gets tricky around First Strike, so I really look forward to your explanations on why it is the way it is.

Thanks for everything, Scotty P!

Here's what I've got, no guarantees it's perfect but I think this is pretty good. This leaves out anything TF wise prior to TAAO, TF 50, and MTMTE 56, since those can be mostly just be said to be before most of this list.

Things do break down once the Hasbro Universe starts in earnest if you're looking for chronological linearity, but for good reason. There's a great deal of concurrency to deal with, which isn't a big deal but it makes a purely chronological order somewhat difficult. "Swim lanes" get appropriate post-Revolution, and maybe someday I'll jump into Photoshop and do that. Basically: YMMV, and have fun!

Scotty P's Attempt at a Hasbro U Reading Order
The "Old College Try"/January 2018 Edition

1 - Pre-Revolution - these occur prior to Infiltration #0 but after Shockwave has initiated Regenesis. Exactly where? That's - as of now - up to your imagination on the first couple entries.

1. Rom: Annual
2. Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor 1-5
3. Hearts of Steel mini-series (optional, in my opinion)
4. Infestation 2 mini-series (also optional, in my opinion. For this and the above, extra/back-matter in Revolutionaries will fill in the gaps!

2 - The Road To Revolution and Titans Return

1. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1 - "Roadies" opening short
2. Transformers 50 - 55 ("All Hail Optimus"/Volume 10 TPB)
3. Till All Are One 1-4 (Volume 1 TPB) - roughly concurrent with "All Hail Optimus"
4. Micronauts 1-6 (Volume 1 TPB) - could really go anywhere before Revolution, because Time is All Things. I think it gives a satisfying real-life-reading-time gap in between some of the TF stuff going on here, making the transitions less jarring. YMMV
5. Titans Return One-Shot
6. Transformers 56-57
7. More Than Meets The Eye 56-57
8. First Strike #0 (Not a typo! Not the most satisfying place to read this but if you're looking for chronology, well...)
9. Revolution #0
10. M.A.S.K. Revolution - Rough guess with this being ~ a year before Revolution, but it would need to be after Blitzwing's capture.
11. Rom #11-14 backup story "Tales of the Solstar Order"
12. Rom #0
13. Action Man #0-4
14. Rom #1-4

3 - Revolution

1. ROM Revolution
2. Revolution #1
3. Revolution #2
4. Micronauts: Revolution
5. Till All Are One: Revolution
6. Revolution #3
7. G.I. Joe: Revolution
8. Transformers: Revolution
9. Action Man: Revolution
10. Revolution #4
11. Revolution #5
12. More Than Meets The Eye: Revolution

4 - Reconstruction
A list isn't the best representation here as there are a great deal of things happening more-or-less concurrently. YMMV, this list is what I like and it purposely jumps around to different things just for the sake of it at times.

1. G.I. Joe #1-4
2. M.A.S.K. #1-5
3. Till All Are One #5-8 (Volume 2 TPB)
4. Micronauts #7-9
5. Micronauts Annual
6. Micronauts #10-11
7. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 - "Upgrades" opening short
8. Revolutionaries #1-3 (Issue 1 occurs before Rom #5, Wrath of Karza is after issues 2 and 3)
9. First Strike #1 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part One: Redcliffe Club" (Probably. It's all messed up so... this feels good enough. Different contextual clues put this in different places, but it seems to work pretty ok here and it will remind you of some folks existing amidst other things going on.)
10. M.A.S.K. Annual
11. First Strike #2 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Two: A Game of Chess"
12. M.A.S.K. #6-7
13. Till All Are One #9-12
14. Rom #5-14 - Not including the "Tales of the Solstar Order" story (This could be split up, but I'm not comfortable suggesting you have to for these purposes)
15. Wrath of Karza #1-5
16. First Strike #4 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Four: Hitting the Big Time"
17. Revolutionaries #4-6 (issue 4 takes place sometime after Wrath of Karza, issue 6 is sometime after MASK #6)
18. Optimus Prime #1-8 (Optimus Prime issue 7 is stated to occur roughly a year after the events of Transformers #50-55, "All Hail Optimus")
19. Transformers Annual (2017)
20. G.I. Joe #5-9 (I guess, nothing really jumps out as placing it here but it has to go somewhere)
21. M.A.S.K. #8-10 (It has to go somewhere and I like putting it in before Revolutionaries wraps up.)
22. Revolutionaries #7-8
23. Optimus Prime #9-10
24. First Strike #3 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Three: A Little Bit of Mayhem"
25. First Strike #5 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Five: One Unholy Machine"

5 - First Strike

1. First Strike #1
2. Optimus Prime First Strike (events occur concurrently with First Strike #1)
3. Optimus Prime #11 (events occur concurrently with Optimus Prime First Strike)
4. Micronauts First Strike
5. Rom First Strike (This and the Micronauts story basically stand alone with little else to do with the First Strike event, so may as well get them out of the way before the really interrelated stuff hits the forefront of the plot.)
6. First Strike #2
7. First Strike #3
8. Optimus Prime #12 (events occur concurrently with First Strike #2-3)
9. G.I. Joe First Strike
10. M.A.S.K. First Strike
11. First Strike #4
12. Transformers First Strike (events occur concurrently with First Strike #2-4)
13. First Strike #5
14. First Strike #6

6 - The Road to Unicron
Same disclaimer would apply here with respect to things that happen roughly at the same time as other things. Some of this is also very clearly speculative. This is the point where, outside of the Visionaries forced-feeding, the shared universe concept feels like it's just there and normal - right on time for it to get eaten...

1. Rom and the Micronauts 1-5 (Seems to be running parallel to other stories, but we'll see once it finishes up. This might get moved quite a bit later!)
2. Transformers: Salvation
3. Optimus Prime #13-14
4. Till All Are One Annual
5. Optimus Prime Annual (this starts before the TAAO annual, but ends after. Movies take awhile to make!)
6. Transformers vs Visionaries #1-5 (placement of 4-5 currently conjecture)
7. Optimus Prime #15-16
8. Scarlett's Strike Force #1-3 (#2 references the Ore 13 mine opened up in KY during OP #15)
9. Optimus Prime #17

7 - Our Darkest Yet Hypest Hour

1. Unicron: Darkest Hour #0

You Left a Piece Out!
No I didn't, we just have no idea where it's "supposed" to go and honestly? You can read these as a separate series, at least thus far. I think that's changing soon and when it does it will in a big, significant way, but now I'm speculating and you're not here for that!

1. Lost Light #1-15

Imma applaud.

Va'al wrote:Imma applaud.

Think I'll join you

Seriously, thank you for making these lists. I've just recently been getting into catching up with the comics but had no idea where to start. these lists have been invaluable for that! To everyone who had a hand in putting them together, I greatly appreciate the time and effort!

Awesome! Thank you Scotty!

One question and a comment, if I may?

Why don't you have OP #9-10 together? (I know you will have a good reason I missed)

Barber said OP #13-14 happen right after Salvation. I like where you put it, but placed mine where Barber said instead.

I had the hardest time with the First Strike tie-ins and issues because they all seemed to be continuous stories with no room for breaks, so I'm really grateful for your list.

I found the same issue with Revolutionaries and seeing other stories flow through the same time periods.

Again, thank you so much, ScottyP!

^ I had 9 and 10 together then found a handwritten note about where 10 went, so it may have been a mistake to also not move 9's placement along with it.

That's actually super helpful info on Salvation, didn't know he'd said precisely where it went so will make that update in a few minutes for sure! Thanks

Minor update - Scarlett's Strike Force Force has placed itself after OP 15, so this has been noted in the post from last month.

ScottyP wrote:Minor update - Scarlett's Strike Force Force has placed itself after OP 15, so this has been noted in the post from last month.

Thanks Scotty!

So this: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/ ... 3626906629

I'm thinking LL 1-13 directly after Revolution, before basically anything else? Any dissenting thoughts on that?

Probably happens simultaneously.

I'm just contended to report that over a year of delays with one title or another (not pointing blame since I know there are a lot of moving pieces between those involved with the comics, IDW, Diamond Distributors etc...) I picked up all my comics yesterday and now FINALLY we are up to date with where we should be .

The good thing is that there are only 3 titles each in March and April.

Have May solicitations been announced yet? I thought they were, but I know there are a lot of things happening soon, it will be curious to see if the Hasbroverse is able to survive, or if things completely change again.

Happy 400th Comic IDW! (Optimus Prime Annual)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trans ... Publishing)#Chronological_Comic_Order

o.supreme wrote:I picked up all my comics yesterday and now FINALLY we are up to date with where we should be .

Have May solicitations been announced yet?

Happy 400th Comic IDW! (Optimus Prime Annual)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trans ... Publishing)#Chronological_Comic_Order

Scarlett's Strike Force 3 will be late by a week, but yeah, after that hits Wednesday they'll be "caught up" for the first time in a very long time. Woohoo!

May solicits: https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ore/40749/

Also, if no solid news comes out in the next few days, check the end of the next Twincast when it goes up in a few days

Finally on OP Annual being #400: I joked about this but am so glad to see it can work. Excellent!

Thanks for the link to May. It's odd because the chronology I'm following considers Revolutionaries as part of the official IDW TF canon, but not Scarlett's Strike Force. Not sure what the reasoning is...but as a result I have not been reading that title.