Product Description: Lock your seatbelts in place and get ready for the newest and wildest TRANSFORMERS ride date! "The DECEPTICONS, feeding off the energy of captured MINI-CONS, are about to begin a hostile takeover of the TRANSFORMER home planet: CYBERTRON. Do OPTIMUS PRIME and the heroic AUTOBOTS stand a chance of defending the planet against these super-powered villains? And will the MINI-CONS ever get their freedom back? The action is so explosive that the shock waves will shake not only CYBERTRON but even planet EArth right down to the core!" Written by Chris Sarracini (TRANSFORMERS G1: Prime Directive) and penciled by talented newcomer James Raiz, TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: "First Contact", collects issues one through five of the ongoing Dreamwave comics series. It also contains the hard to find eight-page preview, a complete cover gallery, and more... If you missed these issues the first time around, here's your second chance to catch all of the action and excitement that pushed this series to the top of the sales chart!
A new telling of the Transformers mythos This volume begins with a knock down, drag out fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. The action continues relatively unabated throughout. Telling a version of how the Autobots & Decepticons came to earth, it centers around Mini-Cons. Tons of fan favorites, including Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Sparkplug appear. The art is very typical of Dreamwave's techno/anime style and the scripting is pretty solid. The humor and action combine nicely, with neither out weighing each other. Personally, I could have done with less cute little kids, but I can see why they were included to broaden reader appeal.
This was the first Transformers comic I've read since Marvel's Transformers comic in the 80's, and I found it readable and sweetly nostalgic.
This volume reprints Transformers Armada #1-5, the 8 page preview, the mini-comic and it has a full cover gallery.
Since it is a new take on the Transformers it is highly suitable for a newcomer (like myself) or a seasoned fan.
Uneven....but sets things up. This volume collects the first storyline of Armada. Since the ongoing title changed its name, trade paperback enthusiasts will be happy to see that in TPB form, Armada will be collected as a triology.
This is the issue that sets things off. Not part of any previous TF continuity, this one shows up the start of the conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons, and their attempts to get a nuetral third party on their side.
As said, in TPB format this is a trilogy, an in many ways this could be like the Phantom Menace: a relatively weak installment that neverless sets up the storyline that the subsequent stronger chapters follow.
Acclaimed writer Simon Furman does not show up until the next volume, and the writer of this volume isn't quite up to his level. Though Furman would smartly downplay the role of those annoying Japanime kids that make the TV series intolerable, the writer of this volume unfortunatly doesn't, so we have to suffer their annoying banter for several pages.
But that said, it does set the stage for what's to come while standing on it's own. But, like most series pilots(be them comic or TV) the end result is ultimatly uneven.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
