Comic book review: Transformers Primacy #1- Blasting a hole of relevance through the heart of mainstream comic book culture

Writers: Chris Metzen and Flint Dille
Artist: Livio Ramondelli
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 13th August 2014

Forget about the awful new movies and don’t worry about not being familiar with the previous two editions of this story line. This book is instantly accessible and if you enjoy it as much as I think that you will, you can always purchase the previous two books (Autocracy and Monstrosity) later on.

Transformers Primacy #1 is a lesson in how to nod to long-term readers whilst being reader friendly to those completely new to the book. It achieves this by having the characters talk about the past, but in broad-brush strokes where it’s not confusing at all. Whilst doing this it re-establishes the personalities and motivations of the main protagonists, whilst moving the plot forward and preparing readers for the inevitable confrontation that is coming.

Grimlock is a psychologically damaged war veteran. Optimus Prime is a reluctant leader who would rather challenge himself physically than deal with the burdens of running a state, and Megatron is a power-crazed individual who wants power at any cost. Grimlock is sick of war, and is damaged by both what he has seen, and what he has done. Optimus Prime exists to serve the will of the people, and has no interest in power for power’s sake. Megatron embraces evil, but he is afraid of truth. He doesn’t want to hear any lessons about the futility of endless war. Power and control is all to him, and he will do anything to realise his goals.

The artwork and colouring by Livio Ramondelli is dark, atmospheric and perfectly in synch with the tone of the writing. The robots are instantly recognisable from the old cartoons I used to watch many years ago, but they are given an edge of legitimacy by being enveloped in shadow, with bright eyes gleaming through the gloom.

Some reviewers might complain that it’s too dark, that the characters are not distinct enough from the gloomy backgrounds, that there’s too much shadow, but I would strongly argue that the atmosphere it creates of a dark, murky menace is perfect for the book. This is Transformers for an adult audience, and the artwork further enhances the feeling that this is serious-stuff, and not just a silly, brightly coloured cartoon story about toy robots. It really is outstanding, and shows the benefit of having the same individual doing both the pencils and the colouring.

The book, as mentioned in my introduction, is very simple. The context is established whilst three main characters are re-introduced, two weapons are uncovered during this first issue, and the scene is then set for the upcoming war of good versus evil.

The underlying socio-political themes have also been established. Grimlock, the tired war veteran is fed up of going to war. This ties into our own world in 2014 where the people in western countries are getting increasingly war weary. We have had over a decade now of war and people are starting to question all of the death and destruction caused by their largely unaccountable leaders.

Optimus Prime is a reluctant leader (the best kind of leader incidentally, and just the kind of leader that we lack in the real world) who wants to do the will of the people, but is this even possible?

Megatron is a control freak Darwinian psychopath (sadly, this archetype is more in keeping with our actual real world leaders) who intends to destroy the world, and re-build it as a giant prison camp, with him as the unopposed dictator.

This last point is the biggest issue of our times with western leaders seeming determined to get WW3 started with their war baiting provocations against Russia, a country with an arsenal of nuclear weapons. A war with Russia means nuclear war, and once again that is now looking like a terrible possibility. After the nuclear devastation of WW3 will come the age of the New World Order, one world government, one world army, one world currency and the planet Earth will become even more of a giant prison camp, all controlled by a tiny group of dictatorial families. That is the Hell that is being planned on planet Earth in 2014 by our own power crazed Megatons. That is what they want, and they will see the world burn to achieve their objectives. These are the concerns that I see being addressed in this book, and that is why it’s an essential purchase for every thinking comic book fan.

The previous two editions of this arc (Autocracy and Monstrosity) were full of socio-political allusions to the present world situation, and this book will be no different. Writers Chris Metzen and Flint Dille are posing questions about the nature of freedom and democracy, media manipulation, endless wars for resources, freedoms being erroded in the name of security and many other New World Order issues of our time that far too many other comic book writers appear unwilling, or unable to address. This comic book looks great, it’s well structured, intelligently written and it’s easy to jump straight into. Yeah, I know it’s a book about giant toy robots, but trust me on this one, it’s a good one and you don’t want to be missing out on it.

Rating: 9/10