THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

CURRENT TRANSFORMERS COMICS FROM IDW PUBLISHING

Transformers: All Hail Megatron #9
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

Like this war needed another clown with a gun.

Suddenly after several issues where McCarthy clearly had no clue what to do with them we return to the human characters. Every line uttered by Spike, Sarah, Bridge and random new guy is so utterly terrible it will have you gritting your teeth. Their ease of movement around New York and the fact Rumble gets taken out with a normal gun undoes any attempt to make the Decepticons seem more “bad ass”.

Structurally it’s a mess as well. Spike’s phone reunion with his Dad and his learning about the nukes should be the heart of that storyline, instead it happens off camera whilst pages are wasted on introducing Charles and his need for revenge on Rumble, which gets dealt with almost as soon as it’s introduced.

Back on Cybertron, we still have no plot progression bar Optimus now being up and about. That’s 9 issues of the Autobots not contributing anything to the story despite far too many pages being wasted on their plight.

Whilst I’ve not been hugely excited by Guido’s work on this title the substitutes actually manages to do worse. The pages on Earth seem to have escaped from a kids colouring book.

Boring, bland and ugly, All Hail Megatron continues to excel at banality.


The first issue with no art by Guido Guidi, though he also had help on the last two issues. No explanations have as yet been offered, but most likely it was to keep the release date on track.

Optimus Prime makes his first present day functional appearance. This comes very soon after Ratchet says there’s no quick cure for him. No explanation for this rather drastic change in prognosis is given here, but may be dealt with in one of the remaining issues.

All the Autobots take advantage of the CR chambers from the Trion to fix themselves up, with Hound even going for a slight redesign based on his Universe toy.

This is the first time since issue 5 any of the regular human cast has appeared. A new character, Charles, seems to be a main player and Bridge formally hands leadership of the group to Sarah. The threatened nuclear destruction of New York is followed up on for the first time since issue 6.

The super weapon in hidden is a secure room in a disguised painting and decorating centre. It’s based on Shockwave’s gun arm, which was captured (along with the rest of Shockwave) back in Escalation.

Rumble is taken out with a shot to the face. It’s unclear if he’s dead or not, but Soundwave seems very upset.

Sideswipe’s speech about how the Autobot’s way of fighting the war up until now has been wrong could be seen as a criticism of previous plot lines. Equally, Ratchet’s comment about wanting the old Perceptor back is likely a nod at complaints there are too many gun wielding macho men in the comic.

Bumblebee has a line implying Drift has a dark past. This is explored in more depth within his Spotlight.

The store seen in the opening is called Gloomingdales, a pun on the real shop Bloomingdales. Bridge seems to think the weather has gotten worse since the Decepticons arrived, but this may be just paranoia on his part.


Once again the centre of New York seems relatively unaffected by the massive rebuilding the Decepticons are supposed to be in the middle of.

If Spike hates button flies that much why not pick up a pair with a zipper?

Spike is tipped off that the jamming has stopped when all the TV’s in the area come back on and phones begin ringing. Are the phone and power lines really still connected this long after the city has been cut off? And who’s ringing those phones?

Soundwave being visibly upset at Rumble’s “death” seems somewhat out of character for the Sat Nav Vulcan we’ve seen in this title. And how does he not detect the phone call Spike makes?

Within what seems to be five minutes, Prime goes from being beyond Ratchet’s ability to repair to being back on his feet and giving morale boosting speeches.]


Spike: Do you know what I hate? Button flies. I swear I could sew a whole pair of pants in the time it takes me to do these up.

Ironhide: Mirage, I uh- can we talk? I’ve been trying to get a chance but between me bein’ fixed and you in the CR chamber-it’s been difficult. I was wrong. More than wrong. I just-I wanted you to know… I’m sorry.

Mirage: [On his badge] I don’t want it fixed. I don’t deserve to wear it, remember? Don’t ever talk to me.