Due out Wednesday, June 4th, 2008.

Definitely better than the almost-all-recap first issue, and some nice toy/character debuts.

They really need to work on their colors, though - way too much of the book is blue-grey robots on blue-grey backgrounds, and nothing really pops into view. The cover with Landmine has the same problem of dark, detailed 'bots in a dark, detailed location. Don't make us have to squint, guys!

Very well-written. Very entertaining. We could do a lot worse than Chris Mowry writing something for the main IDW-verse.

But yeah, the colors are still too dark. Arcee's team was Camshaft, Cosmos, Air Raid, and Cliffjumper, I think...

I almost didn't buy this after the bore-fest that was the first issue, but I gave it a chance and was glad I did. It was much, much better. Starscream is shaping up as an interesting character, Wreckage is seemingly still alive and in S7 custody, there remain questions to be answered about Landmine's origin and why he didn't transform to fight Starscream as ordered, and we've got Arcee's team of Autobots added to the mix. Good stuff, and I'm definitely looking forward to see where it's all going.

Hmm, this was great and I like how the Decepticons are being portrayed as not so much villainous but just think very differently from the Autobots. They feel more like a beleivable race or empire of alien beings here.

Oh and I have to disagree with the first issue being a borefest but only because it explains why Starscream started to hate Megatron in this universe. He actually has fair reasons in this one I think.

Heck Starscream's arrogant claim to leadership is even more rightful in this continuity than in others. You can fully understand why he thinks of both Prime and Megatron as inept leaders.

Wonder how this will effect Megatron's return if there is one. I'm thinking the destruction of the allspark, would force him to focus on the only source of power he has left. His troops. Making him suddenly an effective leader again and putting Starscream in the background.

Man, given how much I liked the first one, if this is so much better, it must be one of the best comics ever.

And Smokescreen (the Fast Action Battlers Jazz recolor) confirmed by Chris Mowry here. He's the guy on the right edge of the panel when Cosmos reports in, and that's presumably him in Cybertronic vehicle mode behind Arcee's hand in the last panel.

Ah, was wondering why there was a sorta Jazz looking guy. Explains a lot. thanks.

this was a really great issue, i am a little confused about about the N.B.E. numberings though, if Megatron is N.B.E. 1, then who is N.B.E. 2? Wreckage seems to be N.B.E. 3, as he is supposedly the one who told Salazar Screamer's name, there just isn't a whole lot of explanation there. On the Subject of Weckage, REBUILT EARTH MODE WRECKAGE YAY! so he's not exactly dead after all. also, i'm waiting to see the rest of the mars decepticons, we only saw cracker and hardtop.

If I recall correctly, Bumblebee is identified by S7 in the prequel comics as N.B.E. 2. Man, I love seeing toys from previous lines that were integrated into the movie toy line being drawn in movie style, Hardtop for example. That was something I'd been hoping would be done at some point, either through this series or a profile book, as I bought one of pretty much each movieverse character I could find, with the exception of a few of the Real Gears.

Great to see Starscream thinking tactically, and showing interest in interacting with the humans rather than simply blowing everything away and asking questions later (Not that he didn't inflict a suitable amount of carnage...heheh...). That was a neat moment when he revealed that he could understand everything they were saying.

He clearly has a multi-part plan going, and although he displays ego, it doesn't overwhelm him like it did with Megs.

Interesting as well to bring in some internal politics within S7 (Notice that Salazar waited until the bigwigs like Simmons and Keller were well out of the picture before bringing out their own Transformer, Landmine.) Makes me wonder if Simmons is even aware of everything going on in the organization; he does seem a bit out of it, so I wouldn't be surprised if other parts of S7 were hiding things like Wreckage from him.

Is it just me or Thundercracker is a little too fascinated with humans?

Or at very least their vehicles for alt modes.

Boo~ Landmine didn't transform.

From his toy bio he was just a new born TF.

The Decepticons intergalactic space bridge reminds me of SGA's gate bridge.

ok, so BB is N.B.E. 2, Wreckage is 3, i wonder if they will classify the rest of the bots and cons anywhere, i'd be really interested in a full list of Earth bound cybertronians and their codenames.

I liked it, overall. Not much else to say that hasn't been said.

Though, one thing, I'm not sure I like this Salazar guy...seems to be undermining all the other S7 guys...leading to a split? Seems like they're trying to shoehorn in the existence of a "new" S7 after the old one was specifically mentioned as shut down in the Movie.

In terms of timing, keep in mind that the events of this issue and the end of last issue take place JUST after the final battle of the movie, so the old S7 hasn't been shut down yet. Starscream went straight from Megatron's death scene to checking up on Barricade to the dam.

When they say Simmons, Keller and co. are en-route to Mission City...it means not long before that (An hour or so at most), they were fighting Frenzy in the computer room.

So it's not shoehorned in, I don't think, as much as the author revealing that there was factionalism within the existing S7 from the movie, with things going on behind the backs of the guys we saw in the film. (I can see it: there's a LOT we don't know about the group, and considering Simmons was somewhat of a goofball, I can see him not having been on top of it all. Was he even really in charge of the whole organization? I'm not exactly clear on his position.)

I could very well seeing them split if this incident with Wreckage came out, though, or that could give even more incentive to the idea of shutting down the organization. I actually have to laugh, since I'd already explained the presence of Jungle Bonecrusher and Deep Desert Brawl in my movieverse as the humans secretly holding onto their remains (Since they weren't pictured being dumped in the movie), repairing them and attempting to use them as anti-terrorism weapons, only for them to go haywire and disappear into the wilderness. Neat to see something vaguely similar going on with S7 having Wreckage.

According to the topic on this issue in the IDW forum, the author wants the final issue of the series to depict, at its end, Starscream leaving Earth's atmosphere as seen in the movie. I assumed that was what happened in this issue, with him going to Mars, but maybe they want to capture the movie image more accurately and have it symbolize Starscream's final defeat (Until the sequel).

In any case, for anyone who didn't like Salazar, he did go pop in Starscream's cockpit, so...

Hardtop, neat.
The art is really amazing in this book, Milne is really on his game when it comes to the movie style. The colors are clear and beautiful, so much so that I stopped to go back and admire them when the only time I find myself dwelling on them is when they bother me. So, nice work.

I like where it's going, I have little else to add except to say that Cosmos is freakin' awesome and I must have more of him.

Wow, I actually enjoyed this issue and for the most part haven't liked much of ANYTHING that was movie related in the IDWverse.


Keep up the good work folks!

I saw this yesterday and flipped through it; probably should have picked it up from the comments left here. Protoform TC was an interesting cameo.

The guy had 12 boxes of dialogue, is that really a "cameo"?

What surprised me is that Salazar suffered so harshly from fatal decompression. Did Starscream leave the atmosphere fast enough for POP to happen?

Cosmos? I'm seeing Air Raid.

Air Raid is part of Arcee's team on the surface. Cosmos is the one in orbit.

I liked the story well enough, but what was up with the black areas?

First off - my cover was very 'faded'. The parts at the top and bottom of the comic, the kinda "frame" of the comic, were very bright and vivid, but the actual artwork was very faded and dull.

Then throughout the comic, whenever there was a black area, like on the first page under Starscream, his shadow on the bridge, instead of it being solid black, you see the series of pencil shadings. I saw this same thing throughout the book at any point there was a black area.