Preview: Transformers: Dark Cybertron #1

For nearly two years now, IDW's central Transformers books have come in two flavors – More Than Meets The Eye, which follows a motley crew aboard a ship called the Lost Light on a quest for the fabled Knights of Cybertron, and Robots In Disguise, focused on the fledgling post-war civilization on the new, primordial Cybertron. They've been separated for the whole time, ever since The Death of Optimus Prime (in name only) sent the Autobot leader out into the wild black yonder on a path of his own choosing as his prior identity, Orion Pax.

Now, the stage is set for their first ever crossover in an event called Dark Cybertron. Throughout the history of IDW's TF continuity, Shockwave has been planning something big. We're talking millions of years, and the revelation that the cold, emotionless and monochrome Decepticon was once a capricious, crusading and colorful senator and friend of Pax only made his current state more tragic. Of course, Shockwave doesn't view it that way. He's concerned with his own past aside from the elements that he's seeded throughout the eons in order for his grand plan to come to fruition – which it does in this brand new event.

Check out this 10 page preview of Transformers: Dark Cybertron #1, written by John Barber & James Roberts, with art from Phil Jimenez and Andrew Griffith. It bears noting that Roberts' MTMTE is the best fiction in the history of the franchise, bar none. Excitement is high for Dark Cybertron.