The Transformers: Infiltration #1
IDW Publishing (January, 2006)
WRITER: Simon Furman
ARTIST: E.J. Su (also selected cover art)
COLORISTS: John Rauch & Josh Burcham
LETTERER: Tom B. Long & Robbie Robbins
EDITORS: Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Continuing from Transformers #0, Hunter and Verity have escaped with the ambulance, but are being chased by the Decepticon Battlechargers. (They aren’t named this on-panel. That’s for the benefit of you the review readers.) The ambulance manages to stop them and escape…I think it’s supposed to be Thundercracker…but takes on a lot of damage. Luckily Verity has a friend in a nearby town, Jimmy Pink, who is a mechanic. Hunter is curious how a teenage drifter got her hands on a palmtop, and correctly guesses she stole it. And when it’s turned on the Decepticons can track them down!
What they got right: Although the conceit of “pretend we don’t know they’re transforming robots” is ruined by some of the covers, I still like the idea in-story. It’s kind of reintroducing people who aren’t longtime fans who followed the Dreamwave run or kept following the franchise since their childhoods to the world of the original Transformers line. And we get the conspiracy theorist who believes that Transformers exist even though they’ve kept in hiding for three years (or 3 million in some theories…a million years low but the nod is appreciated) only to be proven right. Both are done much better here than in the first two Michael Bay movies.
What they got wrong: Based on what we know later, how are the Decepticons able to track the palmtop when there is nothing special about it besides the pictures stored on it?
Recommendation: So far the story is still pretty good but Furman’s luck at the Spotlight can’t hold out forever. Still, it seems to be worth looking into.