The First Issue: The Transformers # 35!

This of course is technically just the continuation of IDW Publishing’s “The Transformers: Robots in Disguise” series under the new, streamlined title “The Transformers,” but it also heralds what amounts to a fresh start for the series particularly its creative team of writer John Barber and artist Andrew Griffith. After spinning its transformed wheels with some flashback and cutaway stories for the last two issues, “The Transformers” # 35 bring readers back to the main dramatic issue: the tricky relationship between humans and Cybertronians. To dot this, it reintroduces some people we’ve known for a while, as well as tying in what has emerged from the memories of the rescued Alpha Trion. The issue begins in Tokyo, where the IDW’s version of the industrialist G.B. Blackrock is introducing to the world his new operating system Onyx. “See, living in post-Cybertronian world… it’s not all bad,” he tells his audience. At the same time, we see a robot being hunted down by armed men. Then the transmission is hijacked by Spike Witwicky, who is leading the group that has captured the aforementioned robot. He reveals that Blackrock’s company has been supplying Cybertronian weapons to the Earth Defense Command, before executing the robot.