“Your life is yours to shape.” These words form the backbone of the Transformers’ society. But Cybertronian police officers Chromia and Prowl learn there’s a dark underside as they investigate the murder that’s caught Bumblebee in a web of lies and secrets.

The previous long running Transformers run from IDW Publishing was a brilliant mix of robots that can transform and political and social commentary. Some of the best issues focused on the philosophical differences between Optimus/Orion and Megatron.

Two issues in to this new volume and the brilliance that was has mostly been replaced with a standard police procedural and travel guide.

Written by Brian Ruckley, Transformers #2 continues the murder mystery set up in the first issue as well as our tour to this “new” version of Cybertron.

Set in the past, before the civil war, the series also focuses on the ascension of Megatron with what seems like some twists to some of the character development from the previous run. Here he’s more of a politician instead of a manual laborer rising up.

Add in some of the newer additions to Transformer lore like Chromia and Windblade and you have a mishmash of a series so far that seems to pick and choose popular aspects while skipping the depth that makes it all stand out. What’s presented is Law & Order: Cybertron so far and even then, that’s pretty thin.

The art by Angel Hernandez and Cachét Whitman is good with an almost animation cell like quality at times. There’s still a level of detail and lack of real dynamic scenes that makes it all feel like a poor facsimile to the excellence we had for so long. The colors from Joana Lafuente and Josh Brucham though are great making what is on the page really pop in style.

Two issues in and there’s nothing particularly bad about the new series but it absolutely lacks the quality we came to expect from the previous epic run. There’s a political/social awareness that seems to be missing and things are watered down. When first announced, we were told we’d see a Cybertron we have seen before the civil war but in reality we have seen bits and pieces of this and it was done better before. As a fan of what came before due to its intelligence, it’s hard to not be disappointed so far with this run.

Story: Brian Ruckley Art: Angel Hernandez, Cachét Whitman
Color: Joana Lafuente, Josh Burcham Letterer: Tom B. Long
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.35 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review