Transformers Generation One IDW Comics
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Transformers Generation One IDW comics |
| Abbreviation(s): | IDW, MTMTE, RID |
| Creator: | IDW Publishing |
| Date(s): | October 19, 2005 - November 14, 2018 |
| Medium: | Comic books |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
 | This article or section may be underexplained for general readers unfamiliar with the page's subject matter. |
The Transformers Generation One IDW comics were a collection of comic books within the Transformers franchise. They were set in the Generation One universe, although as with most other G1-universe stories, they shared relatively little with the original series.
The series was rebooted as IDW 2019 (sometimes called IDW2) with the release of The World In Your Eyes Part One in March 2019. IDW lost the Transformers license in 2022, discontinuing the reboot early. The reboot never made a big splash in fandom circles, though many fanworks exist for it. Skybound Entertainment picked up the license and their reboot debuted on October 4, 2023.
Fandom
The IDW comics have developed a relatively large online fandom, possibly because of their mature plots and themes - characters regularly die, often graphically and on-panel, and the series tends to be dark in tone. They were also one of two ongoing Transformers series for some time - between the October 2013 end of Transformers: Prime and the March 2015 beginning of Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), the only other was Transformers: Rescue Bots, which is aimed at preschoolers. More than Meets the Eye, which covers the Star Trek-esque adventures of a group of Cybertronians traveling through space searching for the Knights of Cybertron, seems to be more popular than Robots in Disguise (renamed simply The Transformers to avoid confusion with Robots in Disguise 2015), which is about Bumblebee's struggle to rebuild Cybertron's government after the war; while AO3's tagging system does not distinguish between the two series, the top eight pairings and top ten characters by popularity appear primarily or exclusively in MTMTE.
Characters and Pairings
The most popular character to write about by AO3's stats, with nearly two times the fics of the second-most-popular character, is Drift/Deadlock, a Decepticon-turned-Autobot who was extremely controversial when he first appeared (TFWiki describes him as "your horrible fancharacter"[1]) but has since gained widespread acceptance due to his characterization in MTMTE. The second-most-popular character is Ratchet, the Autobot medic; between them they make up the most popular pairing in the fandom. The second-most-popular pairing is Cyclonus/Tailgate, between the emotionally closed-off, quiet Cyclonus and the bubbly, happy Tailgate. The third-most-popular pairing is the first intentional gay pairing in the series, Chromedome/Rewind, which amazingly enough has not dropped in popularity even though one of the people involved died.
Drift/Ratchet was made into a canonical couple prior to the last issue of Lost Light, which takes place after a significant timeskip and Ratchet's death.
Other popular relationships with fans include Rodimus/Megatron.
Continuity
The IDW comics are set in a universe with passing similarities to the universe of the original cartoon, as with all series in the Generation One universe, but they are set after it and on Cybertron, and differ in many details of worldbuilding and characterization. They share this with the Dreamwave comics, as IDW was the company that bought the rights after Dreamwave lost them, although IDW and Dreamwave's comics are not set in the same universe.
Notable Transformers IDW Comics Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
- Swerve Week, a fanweek since 2022 dedicated to Swerve and ships with Swerve. It runs through September 25th to the 31st.
- LostLightFest, an annual challenge since 2017 where works are created throughout the month of October for the Transformers as a whole, though it started solely on the MTMTE series at first.
Fanfiction:
- Turn of a Switch by spaceliquid, a completed cross-continuity English MegOP fanfiction where IDW1's and Transformers: Prime's Optimus Prime switch places. There are several other adjacent works to it, as seen on Turn of a Switch.
- The Echo Garden by AltraViolet, a work-in-progress cross-continuity English fanfiction where Transformers: Prime's Soundwave is shipped with IDW1's Rodimus Prime and boards the Lost Light. As of September 2023, it is the most kudos'd fanwork in AO3's IDW1 tag. It is rated Explicit. Translations into 中文-普通话 國語 and русский are available.
- Nor Is He Early by ObliqueVion, a work-in-progress English fanfiction which delves into a canon-divergence AU where the Cybertron War is avoided. As of September 2023, it is the most commented-on fanwork in AO3's IDW1 tag. There are several other adjacent works to it, as seen on Nor is He Early and Adjacent Stories.
- Domestic Electronics by Bibliotecaria_D, an English one-shot where a handful of the cast aboard the Lost Light are toys come to life, ala Toy Story.
- Reforged by Heliopauseentertainments, a completed English fanfiction where Rodimus Prime is mistaken as the reincarnation of Solus Prime. Focuses on Rodimus/Megatron. There are several other adjacent works to it, as seen on Reforged & Companion Pieces.
- Banners from the Turrets by DesdemonaKaylose, neveralarch and towards_morning, a completed English fanfiction series focusing on the rarepair Megatron/Rung and the AU created if Rung was made CMO of the Decepticon army early in the Cybertron War. Several works in the series are rated Explicit and hidden from non-logged in users of AO3.
Resources
References
- ^ In one of the earlier image captions. Accessed February 16, 2015.