Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: E.J. Su
Company: IDW Publishing

I know, I know…the Transformers comics are usually synonymous with uninspired, licensed comics that are about as interesting as watching paint dry on a Sunday afternoon. I myself wouldn’t ever say that because I have always been a fan of the property and of the original Marvel comics run, even though a few of those story lines were a little less than…What’s the word? Perfect. Having said all that, and skipping over the Dreamwave stuff, we now come to the IDW imprint of the Transformers line, which has been nothing short of a pleasant surprise. IDW, Simon Furman, and E.J. Su seem to know what they are doing with this line, as the “Ultimization” of the characters has gone off without a hitch and has offered up some of the best takes of the Transformers Universe in general. With Furman, that sort of thing is to be expected since he’s been involved with the property for a number of years, but even so, he’s gone the extra yard and given us a story whose nail biting pace and structure has built up to the action packed event called Devastation.

And Devastation truly is the big event. It’s the climax of the story that was started way back in Infiltration and continued in Escalation. Even many of the smaller stories that were focused on in the Spotlights are referenced to. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on in these two twenty-three page installments. And that in a nutshell, if you haven’t read any of the other stories, may be the biggest problem that this series faces, as you need all of those things to make sense of all of the things that are happening. But, if you’ve already read those stories, the first two issues of Devastation keep the series chugging along as one of the most underrated books that you can find.

The gist of Furman’s story is this: Megatron has decided that Earth is ready to be cleansed of all life and calls in one of his biggest guns, Sixshot, to do the dirty work and get rid of those annoying little flies called the Autobots. Sounds fairly straight-forward and sort of redundant, as that’s the general plot for every Transformer adventure there’s ever been, but Furman doles out some nice detail work that makes the story shine and feel more complex. He’s got a military-like group that is vying for Transformer technology, a group of Decepticons who don’t see quite eye to eye with what Megatron is trying to do, and has a cadre of Autobots attempting to stay afloat in the chaos that surrounds them and keep the people of Earth safe from just about everything. The good thing about all of this is that even though there’s a lot going on, it’s not too complex or hard to follow, it’s simply a tight script that is moving at a break-neck pace.

With issue two of the series though, Furman introduces into the series something that can easily be viewed as a tiny misstep. If you don’t want to be spoiled, I’d suggest that you stop reading now. If you don’t care one way or the other, then on we go. The second issue brings forth the Headmasters, a sect of Transformer that I personally was never fond of, nor wanted to see made mention of in these books. Partly that’s because of my own inner-Transformer geek that loved the original G1 stuff, but mostly it’s because up until this point Furman’s story has been so close to being perfect that the inclusion of things like the Headmasters makes it seem as though he’s rushing to include everything he can into the current imprint. That said, the way that Furman does introduce the Headmasters is interesting in its own right. It’s different from the original origin story, less complicated, and does fit into the overall story.

But really though, at the end of the day, this is an action book. Handling the visuals for that action is the always talented E.J. Su. This man knows how to draw. His line work is strong and impeccable, the action is dynamic and well thought out, and his car chases, specifically the Hot Rod and Wheeljack one from the second issue, all have the distinct feel and intense energy of a big budget, widescreen movie. Also, something that really sets Su apart from many other Transformers artists is that each of his characters, whoever they might be, are all distinct and easily identifiable. With a licensed product such as this, that kind of talent is important and Su not only fits the bill but he’s also just an extremely talented artist.

All in all, it’s a great time to be a Transformers fan, and even if you’re not, there’s enough in this book to sate the action junkie that lives in all of us. Take a gander and enjoy.