Transformers - Autocracy

Autocracy was IDW's first attempt at a digital series, being made up of a dozen 8-page chapters. To avoid queering the pitch of the main physical books the decision was taken to set the series in the early days of the war, a period which overall is getting some nice fleshing out from IDW.

This series starts its' storyline not long after the conclusion of Megatron Origin; the Decepticons are beginning to consolidate and the general populace of Cybertron is caught between these revolutionaries and the corrupt senate. Caught between are the Autobots, notably valiant, principled cop Orion Pax (i.e. Optimus Prime when he was Op Rod). 

As ever the feeling of everything being a foregone conclusion does inevitably take a little drama out of proceedings but generally the writers - new-to-Transformers Chris Mentzen and prehistoric Sunbow hack Flint Dille - seem aware of this and side with telling the story straight rather than getting bogged down with cheap empty jeopardy. 

There are some nice character interactions between some of the big names in the early days of both factions, even if some again play merry Hell with IDW's equivalent of continuity. Pax/Prime and Megatron both come out of it well and are largely the focus of the script; Zeta Prime is a bit of a non-event, making you wonder why he was slotted in after Sentinel Prime when the latter could quite believably have developed in this fashion. Most of the rest are given an odd line or two here or there but sound authentic enough, though it's perhaps a bit jarring that Hot Rod would a) make the mature choice to sacrifice Nyon while b) still being an immature hot-head many years in the future.

The script gets a bit repetitive towards the end, complete with a telegraphed and overlong Transformers the Movie homage that just sucks anyone reading right out of the thing, but the format actually works and it's one of the faster IDW efforts. However, it's more solid entertainment than a crucial installment.

2/5