San Diego-based IDW Publishing has been at the front lines of “Transformers” tie-in, one-shot, and spinoff comic books starring those sentient robots in disguise since they first acquired the licensing rights from Hasbro back in 2005.
Since then, IDW has been the champion of more than 400 “Transformers”-centric issues representing the longest-running era of “Transformers” continuity since the toy line was introduced back in 1984.
Sadly, IDW will lose the publishing rights to both “G.I. Joe” and “Transformers” at the conclusion of 2022 after a respectful legacy of stewardship of the pop culture properties. But before they pass the torch they’re going out in high style with the first of multiple “Transformers” miniseries arriving throughout the year. To kick off the grand finale, “Transformers: War’s End” arrives this month as a dynamic companion to the publisher’s ongoing flagship “Transformers” series.
Written by Brian Ruckley, the creative force behind IDW’s monthly “Transformers” title, and illustrated by artist Jack Lawrence (“Transformers: Lost Light”), “Transformers: War’s End” is a four-issue limited series that exposes a terrifying ancient evil that links past, present, and future.
“War’s End is about unfinished business: for both the characters and for Cybertron as a whole,” Ruckley said in an official IDW press release. “It’s the return of Cybertron’s traumatic past to upend its present … and answers the question: If your planet has at its core the collective Spark of your entire civilization, just how vulnerable might that make you? I love the fact that we will get to act this out with some of my favorite characters: Cyclonus, Team Stream, Pyra Magna, Geomotus, and Exarchon. They all get to take center stage, play for the highest of high stakes, and discover their fates and their futures.”
The storyline reveals that notorious warlord Exarchon, the villain who drove Cybertron into a period of darkness ages ago, is back and teamed up with his old generals, Shockwave and Skywarp. Cyclonus, a noble gladiator still maimed by the trauma of that long-ago battle, searches for capable allies in the form of the Decepticon’s legendary leader, Megatron, who has his own divisive agenda that’s already shattered Cybertron society into disparate allegiances.
“Up to now, my Transformers work has been post- or pre-war, so with “War’s End,” I’m excited to contribute to the Cybertronian war itself,” added Lawrence in the statement. “This story is, understandably, darker and grittier than what I’ve worked on before, so I’m looking forward to going shadowy and ominous with it. Plus, I get to draw characters I haven’t worked with in a big way – characters I’ve loved for more than 35 years. There aren’t really words for how incredibly exciting that is!”
“Transformers: War’s End #1” enters Earth orbit on Feb. 23 with variant covers from Angel Hernandez, interior artist Jack Lawrence, and a special Retailer Incentive edition by E.J. Su.
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