Transformers #1 (Energon Universe) - Video Review by ComicBook.beer

Taking it way back to 2023 for Transformers issue number one, the first Transformers in the Energon Universe series from Image and Skybound. What is the Energon Universe, you ask? It's a mashup of Hasbro properties such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., the Void Rivals series. And it's been a bit of a mixed bag, but the Transformers series has been the best of the bunch and awesome from start to finish so far. It's not over yet. I guess as I'm recording this, I'm up to issue number 31. But it's been just great the whole way through. And if you're going to read it, I honestly, before you jump in, start at the beginning. Start with issue number one so you know what's going on. Because those of us who are familiar with Transformers, it's the same characters that you know and love, but it's a little bit different.

The storyline's a little bit different. Just the style's a little bit different. It's kind of like the Absolute Batman thing except the Transformers. It's like Batman. You don't love Batman, but he's different. He's a different Batman. Well, it's a slightly different Optimus Prime and a slightly different Transformers universe, but still familiar. This first issue, first 24 issues are written by Daniel Warren Johnson, who does the writing and the art on this one. Mike Spicer, great colorist.

I really enjoyed the color work on the series. It has been awesome the whole way through as well. I know this first page won't make a lot of sense until you've read a couple issues I don't think, but we meet the main human characters right away. Spike, that's his dad, he's drinking at the bar in the morning so things aren't good. That's Carly, his friend, who's got a sweet custom van and pay attention to this thing throughout the series.

Those of you who know, you know, you know what happens to it. It's pretty cool. So Spike and Carly, there's tension between him and his dad. So that just sort of sets the stage. There's a lot going on all at once here, but Spike and Carly go off into the mountains to go stargazing and actually, you know, real stargazing, not just up into the mountains to fool around, but they end up falling into this mineshaft or whatever. And when they come to, they're surrounded by a bunch of broken robots because they've just fallen into the Ark.

All these robots just did cosplay Transformers: The Movie I guess. No, that's not actually what happens. No. The first issue of Void Rivals is the first issue in the Energon Universe. And while you don't have to read it to know what's going on, Jetfire has been crashed on some sort of alien world for like a million years or something. So Jetfire has been unaware of the conflict raging on Cybertron between the Autobots and the Decepticons, all right? So he just doesn't know. Jetfire shows up on Earth and he wakes up Teletraan 1 or whatever and starts to activate and starts to rebuild all the Transformers starting with Starscream. Who's the biggest asshole of all of them? So that turns out to be a pretty bad idea because Starscream just...

First thing he does though is he shoots Bumblebee in the face. Bumblebee's already deactivated, Starscream finishes the job, and I've written some articles on this and stuff. Basically I think at this point we should just give Starscream a medal for getting rid of Bumblebee. If Starscream could have just shown up in the first 20 minutes of Episode One or whenever Jar Jar shows up and just get rid of him instantly, that would have made Episode One a much better movie.

Naboo, whatever, you know, icky icky goo, Starscream shows up, takes his head off, that would have been aw... Anyway, I'm getting distracted. Bumblebee's pretty much out of the picture for quite some time here, which is good. I'm trying to think if he even comes back into it. Basically they were done with Bumblebee. I think the writers said that they didn't really want to deal with Bumblebee again or for whatever reason, and then Cliffjumper kind of takes over Bumblebee's nice guy, goody goody two shoes, Autobot role in the series and Cliffjumper is better than Bumblebee because Bumblebee is like the Snarf of the Transformers. Sucks. Anyway, Starscream shoots Jetfire because of course he does. And then who shows up? Why of course it's Optimus Prime bringing wrestling moves with him.

The first issues drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson feature a lot of wrestling stuff. I guess he did a bunch of wrestling, but I know nothing about wrestling or wrestling comic books. So.

The action's pretty interesting because of it. Like, this isn't the kind of stuff that you would have seen, you know, in the old 1980s cartoon show or even the Marvel comics. But the fight immediately gets going, Air Ratchet shows up. So there's only a couple Transformers in the first issue, but this sets the stylistic tone for the entire series. And a number of other artists have taken it over since then. But it's always got this same look, which I think just works great for the Transformers.

I really like the look and the feel of these books and of this whole series, which is part of the reason I keep reading it. Also, the writing's good. And just the slightly different, unique take on the characters is just fascinating to me. I'm a big Transformers fan, and this just won me over. I just really like the way that they did this. Transformers make for a great comic book. They really do. So the fight, the battle's raging here.

Like I said in the last video, love the sound effect work they do in these issues. It's great. "Bop will be your dead." I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't be laughing. I'm happy to be rid of them personally, see. Thundercracker shows up. Got Soundwave. I love Soundwave. I had Soundwave. I mean, if you're playing with Transformers back in the day, you had to have Soundwave. And look at the art on this. It's just such a cool style.

The color work is really good. So it's a pretty quick read, this first issue, but worthy of rereading several times, especially when you get into the series later, because I think you just want to, you might want to go check out what's really going on, you know, to go back and see how this thing all started and just cool page layouts. The whole thing really sets this whole series in motion. So issue number two picks up and Starscream just continues to just be an awful robot from the beginning. Starscream is pretty terrible. Like you think it can't get much worse than Starscream until Megatron finally shows up. He's not in the first several issues. So this is really awesome if you like Transformers.

I just really love their approach. I just love the fit and finish of the entire series. Just the attention to detail, the care for the characters, the writing, the changes to the characters, the changes to the whole universe, and the plot and the concept. If you've watched some of my other videos, you might get some peeks at what happens later in the series. But I think it's definitely worth reading from the beginning. However you do that, do that. Start with Transformers issue number one.

Image and Skybound all one take again. I've still got it. Look at me go. I have not destroyed my human brain yet.

That's right Optimus, I'm looking at you.