“Yesterday’s” Comic> Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1

I tried hard to get all the propaganda covers because they were the most interesting of the variants.

Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1

IDW Publishing (July, 2008)

WRITER: Shane McCarthy

ARTIST: Guido Guidi

COLORIST: Josh Burcham

SELECTED COVER ART: Trevor Hutchison

LETTERERS: Neil Uyetake & Chris Mowry

EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton

I need to correct something I’ve thought for years, that All Hail Megatron was intended to be a stand-alone story and not in the main IDW TF Universe. Instead it was intended to be the new direction as Furman’s sales were slipping. (If I were to hazard a guess it would be that I’m not the only one who wasn’t into 10 different plotlines going on simultaneously, but that’s just my opinion.) It’s just that McCarthy would be the first to ignore continuity he didn’t like in favor of his own ideas and in all the years IDW has played with the license (reported to be ending soon) he wouldn’t be the last. Now on to the review.

With the Autobots still gone (and Optimus Prime mysteriously clinging to life…mysterious to the readers since he was fine the last time we saw him) the Decepticons have full reign on Earth and drop their usual MO to begin an all-out assault, starting in New York. The Air Force is called in but ultimately fail to stop them. Short synopsis but that’s basically what happened.

What they got right: In all the years of Transformers stories only one other, the two-part episode “Megatron’s Master Plan”, featured the Decepticons winning. Then again I rage quit Age Of Extinction and haven’t bothered with the other Bay movies past then so I could be wrong. So I like the idea of a story of what would happen if there were no Autobots to protect the planet.

What they got wrong: There are continuity issues, like those characters that end up with Earth mode bodies even though they were never on Earth before, and some that were ending up with classic designs. Also, the last time we saw the Decepticons they had just openly engaged in battle with the Autobots and the Reapers. How are humans trying to wave this off as a movie stunt? That’s Bayverse levels of dumb humans. Or Megatron’s Master Plan levels.

Recommendation: Subsequent writers have played their own continuity games, giving the series a more favorable look. Personally I didn’t care for Furman’s run, although what came after this you can already see my reviews of and I wasn’t a fan of them either. I’m surprised I stayed on as long as I did and if it wasn’t Transformers I probably wouldn’t have. Keep that in mind as I recommend giving this story a look.