Upcoming Creators and Covers for IDW's Transformers Galaxies #NYCC2019

Thanks to iTunes we have a three page preview for the highly anticipated upcoming IDW Transformers Galaxies Issue #2 written by Tyler Bleszinski with art by Livio Ramondelli. This issue features the cover Insecticon fans have been buzzing over for weeks, the three original Insecticons feeding on...bits. Yikes! From the look of the preview pages we're getting to see even more detailed aspects of the jade giant's gestalt personality resonating through the individual Constructicons. Here's the publisher description:

"Transformers Galaxies #2
Tyler Bleszinski & Livio Ramondelli

Pre-Order
Expected Oct 30, 2019
$3.99
“CONSTRUCTICONS RISING,” PART 2! The Constructicons are training—they know their time is coming. They’re almost ready to stand at their once glorious height. They just need a sign and some energon. When a mysterious benefactor arrives promising to provide both, how can the Constructicons resist?"

Enjoy the view and share your thoughts in the forum. As always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Bonecrusher's into some kinky stuff. Properly villainous, dig it.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I'm liking Bonecrusher right now

So you have a Bonecrusher crush?

Given the early look we were given of Transformers: Galaxies #1, it feels like ages ago that the first issue hit. Not much has hit in between for Transformers fans other than issue 13 of Transformers and a couple issues of a Hulkling & Wiccan book with "Death's Head" as the title but we aren't really even covering that here.

Transformers: Galaxies #2 is a very good issue that shows this four issue story might end up being something truly great. Read on for some elaboration, but if you want the shortest version of this review possible here it is: this is a fantastic follow-up to the first issue with plenty of depth and none of the typical second issue let-down you might have expected. Transformers fans would do well to pick this up today!


Picking off where things left off after issue 1, we find the Constructicons still on the mysterious planet of Malayx where they've just completed an energon processing facility. Thinking their duty is complete, the group is getting restless wondering when they'll be able to return home. Construction bots wanting to go home after a construction job is a simple setup but one that's quite welcome because it lets the subtler details of the characters - or not so subtle in Bonecrusher's case - shine through via plenty of dialogue that never got itself bogged down. Tyler Bleszinski puts a lot of words on some pages and panels but I found that everything flowed smoothly and kept me engaged through to the end. Put another way, larger word count in a comic is never a bad thing when you want to read those words and see what they're adding to the pictures they're accompanying.


While Scrapper, Hook and the other Constructicons are still no doubt the stars of the show, for this issue some others may have stolen it: the Insecticons, whose presence on the issue's cover hopefully make this firmly not a spoiler. There's so much that they bring to this new Transformers universe and some of its wider historical context that it felt like one of the best issues of the old Spotlight books. Finer details and intriguing moments of potential foreshadowing help make the conflict beginning to boil over in the current Transformers ongoing simultaneously clearer and muddier. Throw in some genuinely gruesome panels just in time for Halloween and it's a recipe for a great introduction to this version of Kup's doormats.


Livio Ramondelli handles the art duties once again and, once again, does so expertly. The continued use of blacks around panels adds to the feeling of isolation conveyed throughout which is a very welcome additive on a book set on an alien world. I could go for a little less red in the color temperature from time to time, but given my TV settings this is almost undoubtedly personal taste more than actual critique. The panel sequencing works in a way that prevents the pace from stalling and turning the book into a 20 page exercise in exposition. Editors David Mariotte and Tom Waltz surely deserve praise for the pacing as well, because this definitely felt like a serial to me and not like a purposefully decompressed chapter out of a bigger book coming out later.

Tom B. Long masterfully handles both the volume of dialogue sometimes present and creates some fantastic onomatopoeia graphic text for sounds I never thought I'd hear in a Transformers book. I'm not sure if this is his last work for IDW yet or not, but if it is, a special salute is in order for the years of phenomenal contributions he's made to our favorite robots in disguise.

On covers, the Livio Ramondelli "A" cover is appropriately spooky for the issue and season, with this cover being the one used in this review's news story's thumbnail image. A "B" cover featuring an intimidating group shot from Alex Milne and Josh Perez will also be available at most shops, with Andrew Griffith and Priscilla Tramontano also delivering a ten-copy retailer incentive option also featuring the Constructicons as they prepare to drop the season's hottest tracks. As always, you can also find all the cover images, full credits for the issue and a list of all the characters that appear in the book through our Vector Sigma Database page for Transformers: Galaxies #2.


Transformers: Galaxies #2 is a comic I found to be pretty great and I'm not going to get too picky about making the verdict here complicated. If that sounds inconsistent, well, let's just say I'm no Ultra Magnus. The point here is that while reading panel after panel and page after page, two things were true. First, I didn't press on out of any obligation to this review or Brand Loyalty or anything else, it was because I genuinely wanted to keep reading. Second and finally, reading this made me feel like the magic is back in Transformers comics, at least for this one issue.



Look out for this issue today, October 30th, where you can pick it up at the Seibertron.com eBay store or at your local shop, check here to find the closest shop to you.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:This was a good issue 2! I like the insecticon backstory, and the insecticons themselves are pretty dang cool (and creepy). First time I've given more than a thought about them, it was well written!

Definitely the most "human" Insecticons I've ever read, or as much as they can be. They still eat metal and turn it into Energon. Kickback might be the exception, he still felt one sandwich short of a picnic.

Looking forward to it! Eager to read more about Wheeljack and the Constructicons and Insecticons

Another day before a holiday with another issue of Transformers: Galaxies has arrived, this time bringing "Constructicons Rising, Part 3" to Transformers comic readers. Due to said holiday this review is a little late and needs to remain a little truncated, so pardon the haste as we go straight into thoughts on this latest installment.


Issue three bridges the gap in narrative between the first two issues - recall that issue one was primarily a back and forth affair between present and past - which can be a dangerous place to go after ending the previous issue with fantastic momentum and a really juicy cliffhanger. The jump back actually helps here as Bombshell's words from issue #2 now carry more weight. While they sounded cool the first time, now there's a very clear reason for them as well. The same thematic elements remain in play as well with fear driving the actions of many of the issue's characters.


This doesn't mean that this is just an "origin story" type of issue where nothing happens. The relationship between Termagax and a debuting character only previously mentioned in passing has some depth provided, while Wheeljack gets some meaningful time as well. The Constructicons are still the star of course, with Devastator's history being the focal point of the narrative. If you were a fan of what Mairgread Scott did with Bruticus back in Till All Are One, you're also really going to like what writer Tyler Bleszinski has cooked up here. This is not your father's gestalt, but it could be your mother's if you like your mecha stories to give you that nice "I'm a little disturbed but also can't look away" kind of mood.


Livio Ramondelli continues to devastate the line art and colors on this book. Pictured above is what's maybe my favorite panel from the entire three issue run so far. It takes the context of the issue's events to truly appreciate what it does for the visual storytelling and it's just one example of several where that shines through. There are probably a couple panels Livio wouldn't mind another pass at without a deadline, but they're few and far between and easily something a deadline can cause. Additionally noteworthy is his approach towards the aforementioned debuting character, who was originally an Alex Milne design (if I recall correctly, please don't shoot me if that's wrong!) and here keeps a look that's surprisingly faithful to that incarnation but subtly departs from it in a very good way. Tom B. Long navigates some lengthy speech bubble terrain with ease, while the editorial team of David Mariotte and Tom Waltz deserve credit for their role in placing this issue here as it easily could have served as this arc's second installment and not have worked as well.

On covers, the Livio Ramondelli "A" cover is probably the most appropriate to the book's contents and thankfully the (likely) easiest to acquire option. Ramondelli's cover is pictured in the thumbnail for this review's front page post. Winston Chan provides a "B" cover that fans of Termagax will want to track down, with the ongoing's regular artist Angel Hernandez in tandem with colorist Josh Burcham providing the ten-copy retailer incentive option if your shop has those available. As always, you can also find all the cover images, full credits for the issue and a list of all the characters that appear in the book through our Vector Sigma Database page for Transformers: Galaxies #3.


This was a tough one to score because it's doing things that the larger story requires, but this also means it takes a step back on briskly moving everything along. I had to ask myself how much I enjoyed reading it and how much was I still thinking about it days later, with both of those questions proving to have highly satisfactory answers for me. Questions about the story and characters I didn't even know I had yet were answered, making this a worthy use of an entire issue for more flashback storytelling. This moment of slight decompression plus a couple of stray panels keep me from putting this one in "perfect score" land like issue 2, but all in all that might still be nitpicking because Galaxies #3 is a highly recommended piece of Transformers reading that you're sure to be thankful for.



Look out for this issue today, November 27th, where you can pick it up at the Seibertron.com eBay store or at your local shop, check here to find the closest shop to you.

Thanks to artist Alex Milne on Twitter, we have the new cover for Transformers Galaxies #5 to show off to you today. The new cover features Cliffjumper surrounded by the star-struck masses who all believe he is Bumblebee, which will be the central plot point to his 2 issue arc that will run from issues 5 to 6. His issues of Galaxies will feature both him and Deathsaurus, and we can only hope that this Cliffjumper doesn't follow the past few new Cliffjumper's trends for survival.

Milne didn't only just show us the cover either. He was cool enough to share with us the process of creating the cover, which includes his rough lines all the way to the completed cover.

The colors for this cover were done by Josh Perez.

Check it out below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

So @IDWPublishing has been kind enough to allow me to show off the cover to Transformers Galaxies issue 5 which is part 1 of the Cliffjumper story.
Shown is the process from pencils to inks to colors and finally with the trade dress on it
Awesome colors by @dyemooch

I'm excited for these 2 issues solely because of the amount of CJ/BB jokes about to be made

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Did IDWverse ever do anything significant with Cliffjumper, following DoOP? I'm not quite sure where they were going with the set up given in his Spotlight, so I was curious if Roberts or Barber made use of him?

No, he made a cameo in RiD/TF 51 getting shot by Galvatron, and then when he died in Unicron/OP. that was literally about all the significant stuff he did outside of a bit in the 2009 ongoing, All hail, and his spotlight