Transformers Infiltration 02 Review

Transformers Infiltration  02

Synopsis :

Confronted  with Runamuck and Runabout, Ratchet deals with them,  (  in a non lethal  way  )  before  going on the run again with Jimmy, Hunter and Verity.

The escape goes badly though, because the Decepticons  open break cover  either because they don't care any more  or because  something  major has happened. 

Possibly both. 

In the mean time Epsilon holdings and Starscream scheme.

After a narrow escape that waylaid Runabout and Runamuck  involving  two  trucks, Verity has a meltdown  and demand Ratchet to stop, before getting  out.

Jimmy  proceeds to  try and calm her down, while Hunter  briefly talks with Ratchet. Before Skywarp  appears out of nowhere, as he is wont to do. 

Ratchet attempts to shake Skywarp off, with a rocket booster no less.  But Skywarp is finally waylaid  as  Prowl, Ironhide and Sunstreaker lie in waiting summoned by Ratchet in the garage. 

Before  turning their weapons on Ratchet as Prowl throws the book at him. 

Ratchet responds  with  "siege mode."  

Credits :Writer : Simon Furman, 

Artist:  E J Su,

Colors by : John Rauch,

Letters by :  Tom B Long and Robbie Robins.

Editor  : Chris Ryall.  

First appearances 

Ratchet,  (  robot form  ) 

Prowl, 

Sunstreaker, 

Ironhide, 

Notes  :

All transformers  have  weapons in their  vehicle form. 

Verity might be religious.  ( She recites a part of the hail mary at least.  )

Ratchet has a rocket booster in his ambulance mode.

Review  :

As slow as  IDW comics Transformers  stories  are accused to be and believe me they do have a slow burn.  ( The  2009 series comes to mind now.  ) 

And as slow  as  Infiltration is often  accused of being this isn't  entirely true, 

as  issue 2 will  attest. 

While its true that the story is a bit  slow  in  getting  going and will spin its wheels a few times,  issues 3 and 4 come to mind now. 

It's clear that the story line is  a bit overlong with 7 issues. 

4 would have been enough. 

But issue 2 opens with a bang. 

Literally.  

Not only  do we  finally get to  see Tranformers in robot form, but in action as well. 

Ratchet  finally transforms and takes immediate action, to  dispatch Runabout and Runamuck, albeit it temporary. 

And after  2 issues of  skulking around and running away, this is  quite satisfying to see, 

before  running  away again. 

Well it had to happen anyway, Ratchet is a doctor after all. 

Ratchet's somewhat purple prose narration also  hits on  a  old comic cliché,  "nothing will ever be the same again. "

I'm not sure if this is Furman winking at us, the readers telling us that  these Transformers are not like the ones we have  grown accustomed too.  (  G1 in other words ) 

Or if its just  some purple prose thrown in there. 

But the line will prove to be  proficient because,  for them the  characters and the readers, things wont be the same ever again in regards to Transformers.

Certainly when you take in account the  shake ups and soft reboots, (  at least four of them )  along the way. 

And  Jimmy's poor garage gets thrashed in the process,  probably not much of a call back to  G1  where Sparkplug's  garage suffered the same fate, more then once.  And more likely,  what will  happen when huge alien robots  come trashing about.  

The sales man mystery is touched up on a  single page and well,  other then finding out that he is  dead and some shadowy organisation  either was looking for him  or had him on the payroll we dont get to  find out anything else.  Either way,  we will see  a lot more  of these people  but not  quite yet. considering we wil see variations on  this  theme a few times it  quickly becomes tiresome.  

The  second chase scene is  as usual kinetic and the mystery is peeled back a bit more, but only a bit.

We learn that Decepticons usually operate under a strict blanket of secrecy  and to break  cover in such a brazen way is unusual.  

This is one of the points where Infiltration breaks away  with  the  tradition of  Transformers  and  takes the tagline  "Robots In Disguise" to heart. 

The previous series right back to G1, (  comic  and  cartoon  )  were never in disguise  much, their  presence on earth was never give much thought beyond collateral damage. 

But here in Infiltration,  the stakes are different,  they are higher.  It's more cold war and  cloak and dagger, while skulking in the shadows, which even a decade later is a wholly fresh take on  Transformers. 

Pity the cold war set up couldn't last, because its an intriguing concept. 

Even more a shame is that we only see it on two other planets. 

Speaking  of planets, we also  learn  partially  what  is going  on here and why the Decepticons apparently don't care about protocol anymore. 

Namely the ore, I will touch upon this  later, but I am afraid that despite its initial importance in the first arcs, it's a bit of a red herring  and a deus ex machina to boot.  

And then comes  probably the worst scene in the whole arc so far. 

After a  particularly intense and narrow escape from the Decepticons,  (  involving two trucks  )  Verity has a  meltdown and demands Ratchet to stop. 

....And he does. 

.....And she gets  out. 

While this affords us some insight in to Verity and Jimmy's  characters,  (  with some forced  humor.  ) 

And some more  exposure  from Ratchet, (  things we the readers already know  )  it is wholly incongruous with  the  escape it self. 

Ratchet himself even lampshades it, its just  there to  devour pages and  extend the story. 

But all  good things  come to and end and so does this thankfully, with a  rocketbooster no less. 

And finally, finally we meet  more Autobots, at the end of  this issue. 

Where we  see  that the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Prowl throws the book at Ratchet and we have the first glimpses of Prowl's pricklish  personality  in the IDW Transformers series.  

Issue 2 is a great  issue.  It picks up  from the slow burn of  issue  0 and  1,  finally shows us Transformers in robot mode. Introduces a host of new  concepts and ideas 

and shows us more  new Autobots to boot while giving Hunter, Verity and Jimmy some more characterisation.  (  Panic attacks and forced humor not withstanding.  )

EJ Su is firing on all cylinders again, from the kinetic energy  in the chase scenes  to  Hunter's body language  as  he collects himself  and then considers something, all with out  ponderous narration or thought balloons. 

Best issue so far.  

Transformers Infiltration 1

Transformers Infiltration 1

Synopsis :

This issue opens on a  laptop showing a conspiracy website, with the title Mechatopia, operated  by  Hunter, who  firmly believes that  there is alien  life out there.

Cut to the present, where he and Verity  are  stuck in a  odd  ambulance  with  a  driver who seems to have a  frozen smile, careening through the south Californian desert  at  190 miles an hours.

It doesn't take Hunter long to realise that he has found what he has been looking for, extra terrestrial life. 

Just after  his car  was blown up  by  an unmanned plane, and him and Verity nearly with it. 

The mystery cars  return with a vengeance however  and they  like to play rough. 

The ambulance manages to shake them with  some build in weaponry,  as the  jet  turns up again.

 It never rains but it pours as they say. The ambulance releases  a sticky smokelike substance, which deals with the plane  for a  moment. But  all that this does is buy them a few minutes, they need a  place to lie low. 

A place Verity  can  provide, after  logging on  the  ultra portable.

The garage of Jimmy Pink. 

Who  wastes no time getting under the ambulance  and  soon figures out that this is no  ordinary  ambulance,  you might even say one that out of  this world.  

The jet and the cars  are prowling around, waiting  for somebody to  activate the  ultra portable again so they can home in on it's signal. 

And lo and behold, somebody  does activate it.

Hunter is putting  his  suppositions together  and  just as Jimmy finishes repairs he throws around his theory.

That  the  ultra portable was stolen by Verity. That  it's the reason why they were targeted and that it contains images that  could get them killed.

And according to the  smiling driver, it's all true. 

Fed up Verity  leaves in a prickly  huff,  before she is back in an instant  babbling incoherently. 

Something or someone  tears the door out of the garage, and we see our first transformers in robot mode.

Runabout and Runamuck.  

Credits :Writer : Simon Furman, 

Artist:  E J Su,

Colors by : John Rauch and Josh Burcham,

Letters by :  Tom B Long and Robbie Robins.

Editor  : Chris Ryall.  

Notes : second  apperances of :  Ratchett

Runamuck, 

Runabout,

Skywarp, 

and Starscream.

This issue  had  4  variant  covers.

Hunter uses Internet explorer apparently. 

His page mechatopia  isn't just  there  to fill up his laptop's screen. It's a  reference to the upcoming Spotlight : Shockwave. 

First full issue of  the IDW Transformers series, which is still going  10  years later.

IDW  has overtaken Marvel Comics output, whom held the Transformers licence from 1984 till 1994. 

And released more Transformers  comics then any  of the other license holders, bar  Marvel UK with  it's 332  issues. Marvel UK had a weekly schedule though. 

Review  :

All action, all the time. 

Compared to the slowburn of  issue 0, issue 1  is  like greased lighting.

But when you put the brakes on  it, (  yeah I think that's enough speed metaphors  ) you realise that there isn't much to the issue,  beyond  a car chase. 

But what a stylish chase it is. 

I haven't mentioned  EJ Su's art  last time, but I would be remiss  to do  so now.  He brings a  kinetic  feverous energy to the  proceedings, which helps translate what  are basically snapshots, to a thrilling action pace.

Action is hard to convey  in comics, even more so  when  it's a car chase. 

But Su manages to do  it with  aplomb.  

Sadly  Su  left  the comic  book industry behind him, and he is now  head of  R&D  for  Trident Cases. 

But he is on fine form here, firing on all cylinders and makes what  could be a very boring issue, a riveting if very shortlived read. 

Because outside  the chase we don't  get to see much, beyond a few  flashbacks which issue 0 makes  superfluous. But then again we cant  really  expect  that everybody has read issue 0 now can we?

A reiteration  of  Hunter's  alien life form's are real attitude  and Verity's  ..prickliness. 

Hunter  also seems to  have some smarts, since he twigged out fairly  early  that Ratchet is not human. 

Course Ratchets avatar has a fixed smile, so it's not that hard  to figure out. 

Then again  hunter  is smart enough to put  1 and 1  together, in regards  to the  ultra portable. 

Ratchet is mostly  understated  with some snarkiness, but he is mostly in his G1 Marvel comics mould. An unwilling  soldier, who  cant and wont sit idly by  as long as he can help  them, even if that means risking everything. 

As for Jimmy Pink, beyond his silly last name he is obviously a throwback to Sparkplug Witwicky, who all the way back in 1984  (  damn  that  long ago already  ? )  had  Bumblebee in a similar spot in his garage and also immediately noticed, that this wasn't a normal car.  Especially the suspension  remark 

But the  comic is  light on  the Transformers  in robot mode,  while this sounds dull it isn't it just  builds up the suspense  and  heightens the  subterfuge feel of the  story so far. 

It's something to look back on, because it wont last. 

But right now  Autobots and Decepticons are still in full on cold war mode, with cloak and daggers being the name of the game. 

Humans don't know they are here and they want to keep it that way,  which is why the Decepticons are after the sm40  

And  because of all the skullduggery,  we only get out first  real look at  any  transformer in this  series and in the whole  IDW- verse,  on the very last  page

and its a pair of battlechargers no less.  

Infiltration 1 is an excellent issue, it might be a bit of a retread after issue 0  but that  doesn't hurt it at all

 The art is gorgeous, the action fluid  and kinetic and the slowburn isn't that much of detriment. The story isn't  stretched to it's breaking  point or  run unnaturally  long   just to fill 6 issues. 

Later storylines will suffer from this.   

But Infiltration  at the moment  manages to balance between intrigue, decompression and speedy storytelling. 

It's also reads as a breath of fresh air where the tagline "Robots In Disguise" is  actually  more then just a spiffy tagline, but an integral  part of the  storyline.

And all this intrigue  comes crashing down  because of a few  pictures on an ultra portable. 

As far as  IDW  Transformers goes, this  issue is ground zero. This is where it all began 10  years ago. 

And it's still a great  read  10  years on.  

Transformers Infiltration Issue 0

Transformer Infiltration issue 0

Synopsis :  At a bus station in  phoenix Arizona, Verity  Carlo  is picking her targets.  Including a  bus ticket to  Los Angeles  and  a palmtop  by a businessman.

When the  business man  is  taking a much needed siesta, she  lifts  his ultraportable  out of his backpack  and  feigning  motion sickness, Verity  gets of  the  bus  with her latest   loot  in hand. 

She is later picked up in a  VW van, by  a young man  with  the name of Hunter O'nion  ( That's Oh, nee, ohn. )  before  taking a detour to find that  the  bus  Verity  left  not so long ago  was  ram raided by two  sports cars and the business man, disappeared in the desert.

Hunter continues on after the bus driver assured him everything will be fine.

And after some prodding from  both sides,  Hunter  reveals that he believes that there are indeed aliens  on earth. 

Exactly at that  moment a  blue  plane  scans and opens  fire  blowing the  VW van  to smithereens. Before he  can  finish the job however, the  jet is routed  by  a  well armed ambulance, with a perpetually smiling  driver who informs them that if they want to life, they had better get in.  

To be continued. 

Credits :Writer : Simon Furman, 

Artist:  E J Su,

Colors by : John Rauch,

Letters by :  Tom B Long and Robbie Robins.

Editor  : Chris Ryall.  

First appearance  :  Hunter O'nion

Verity Carlo, 

Ratchet,  (  Car mode only. )

Skywarp,  (  Plane mode only. ) 

Runabout, (  Car mode only. )

Runamuck, ( Car mode only.)

Starscream , ( Mostly hidden in shadows. )

Notes  :

This  was  a  preview  issue, that retailed for  99 cents  in October 2005. 

Infiltration 1 wasn't released until Jan 2006. 

Review:

For such a  short  issue,  16 pages. Issue 0  is densely packed, a lot more denser then  later issues would be. 

Issue 0 is the first time long time  Transformers scribe, Simon Furman has had the opportunity to lay down the foundation and build up his storyline from day one. 

Usually  he is  brought in to end somebody else's work,  ( Beast Wars. Following up on  Budianksy on marvel  US  )  or midways  through,  ( The War Within miniseries for  Dreamwave,  the Armada series and the Marvel UK series. Where Furman  penned his first story for issue 13. ) 

Infiltration  is as such, the first  time Furman  was allowed to  build it all up himself. 

Which is rather odd, when you think how much if an influence he has had over the years on the mythology as a whole. 

What we get  for a first story, however is  a  very decompressed storyline with  little actual action and even less Transformers. 

The few we do actually see Ratchet Runabout, Runamuck and Skywarp,  do not even transform. 

The focus  is mostly on the two humans.  Hunter O'nion  ( That's Oh, nee, ohn )  and  hitchhiker Verity Carlo, as the  net  around them closes in.  

It 's one of the most human centric  stories  told so far in  Transformers, with most of it taking place from the  perspective of  humans, which will remain a staple for  most of the ation arcs.  

The slow burn is par de course for comics these days, but was still a bit of a novelty back in 2005, and it's hard to believe that this comic is 10 years old already. 

Previous Transformers comics  either got going right away, with  the Transformers bursting on the scene on earth ( Marvel  UK and US  ) or  just picked up  where a previous iteration left, off and assumed  you were familiar enough with the material, to puck it up as they went along. ( Dreamwave.  ) 

Infiltration  is a deliberate slowburn, with a focus on it's two human characters. 

Verity and Hunter's characterisations are both  a bit bare bones for the moment, but  they work well enough. 

Hunter is an alien conspiracy nut, while Verity  is a  hitchhiker loner with  sticky  fingers. Who doesn't really care much about, oh' say  pick pocketing  somebody on the bus.  

Those sticky fingers  are what get her and Hunter in deep  trouble, as this  issue continues. 

Issue  0  is an effective  teaser, as well as an introduction for the series  as a whole. 

It sets up plenty  of  questions  and intrigue and while you can read Infiltration without it. Issue 0  is still  an important piece of set up and characterisation for Verity and Hunter. 

Recommended reading.