Prereview Note: Sadly this Transformers run only lasted for 11 issues before ending abruptly because of Dreamwave's financial woes

Cover: Straightforward cover this, but visually stunning nonetheless. Here we see Megatron towering over a molten wasteland of a planet, behind him we see... The Moon, the planet must be Earth! This cover, by Pat Lee, is typical of this series, and in my opinion are some of the best in all the Transformers covers I've seen.

Story: We open on Unicron feeding on the planet Lithone (see the Transformers movie -- Future Proof Dan) the comic version of voice overs say that it's awakened and that while it's weak there's only a 0.007% chance of stopping it. The voices point out that it's moving faster than anticipated and that it appears to be en route to Earth, possibly seeking the same thing the voices are. They then go on to say that it will soon initiate a second wave of production, behind the voice overs we've seen Unicron eat and repower itself, then come inside to his central core, surrounded by pods of some sort. We focus in on one of the pods, something inside is moving, trying to get out, as the voice overs say that this second wave will be more efficient, more of a threat. The pod cracks open, it's Cyclonus! We switch as the voices ask about the first wave, we see Scourge and the Sweeps flying through space, with Scourge locating Cybertron and serveying it, we see deactivated Transformers everywhere before focusing on a deactive Shockwave! Scourge reactivates Shockwave and tracks him from afar but is forced to intervene when Shockwave comes under attack by an extermination unit of Sharkticons. But Shockwave's a Decepticon and quickly betrays Scourge, capturing him and examining him, experimenting, learning about the origin of Cybertron and it;s inhabitants. Switch again, reports, say the voice overs, suggest that a similar being to Scourge was witnessed on Earth, but they have no evidence. They have learnt that several incapacitated transforemrs were procured by Earth's dominant species. Behind this we see a Sweep, maybe Scourge, a disassembled Devastator and a transformer head with humans beside it. The voices ask if more Autobots remain on Earth. Another voice confirms it, that Optimus Prime left a substantial portion of his troops on Earth. The voices say that Prime is still on Cybertron and presumably in a weakened condition. Behind this we see Autobots inside the Ark looking at a monitor showing Prowl. The last frame shows a meeting area with large screens showing Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, around the table are Prowl, Springer, Kup and Ironhide. We now have a double page spread that centers on Unicron feeding but also shows glimpses of several evens including Superion being blown away, the Decepticon Triple Changers and Shockwave, Ultra Magnus shedding his blue and red armour and him aprehending Shockwave in the process of strangling Optimus Prime. Switch to Quintessa and the conclusion of the report. The voices note that there is one loose end, Megatron. They believe him to have been executed but have yet to locate a corpse. They say it doesn't matter tha they all must pay for their crimes. While this is happening we see shots of Quintessa, the Sharkticons in their feeding pools, the judgement arena and finally several maniacal Quintessons! Switch to the Planet of Junk and Wreck-Gar dragging some hunk of junk along while singing "Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It's off to work we go!" we see the junk has a robotic arm! After trying to get a non-existant everybody to join in the singing Wreck-Gar announces "Lucy, I'm home!" An evil voice tells him he was warned about calling the speaker that. Wreck-Gar tells the being that he brought him something, as he does he lifts a Decepticon jet above his head and throws it at someone's feet. That someone congratulates Wreck-Gar and says that now they can move on and rid the universe of their trechery once and for all ... The last shot of the issue reveals the someone that is with Wreck-Gar is none other than a damaged, but very operational Megatron! ... To Be Continued...

Graphics: Astounding, these graphics are amongst the best I've ever seen, and I'm including TV shows and movies in that too! The humans we can't tell how realistic they are as we really only see them from a distance, but the mechas are fantastic, you really feel like you're there with them.

Bonuses: A one page ad for the next issue bosting an all new ongoing series and the introduction of a brand new G1 character! Then we have WaveLengths which is basically the DW preview of the next month's releases. We also have a letter type arrangement from Penciler/Colorist Alan Wong and a checklist for December 2003 releases

Readers Letters: DW titled this letters column Prime Transmissions, which while sparce is a rather nice layout and includes a smal work of fan art.

Scores

Cover 10/10
Story 10/10
Graphics 10/10
Bonuses 7/10
Readers Letters 3/10

Average Score: 8/10
Overall Score: 10/10