IDW MTMTE and Dark Cybertron covers

A quick pictorial tonight looking at all of the IDW Transformers More Than Meets The Eye cover variants, and all the covers from the crossover "Dark Cybertron" that took place between seasons 1 and 2 of More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise. What was not quick was the setting up of these photographs and the number of times I nearly fell off the chair and flat on my face trying to get some elevation for the camera!

Dark Cybertron

First up we have all the cover variants for Dark Cybertron chapters 1 through 12, including the Dark Cybertron #1 Deluxe Edition featuring creator commentary and the Rob Liefeld convention exclusive #1 cover, which was done in the style of New Mutants #87, the first appearance of Cable. Dark Cybertron chronicled the story of Shockwave's attempt to bring the prophecy of the same name to pass, combining the power of the ores he planted over millions of years along with plenty of Dead Universe nastiness to "solve" Cybertron's energy crisis. The only cover I am missing is the #1 sketch cover variant, to be drawn by Andrew Griffith himself, and distributed in an appallingly rare 1:100 ratio. My favourite cover from the series has to be Alex Milne's Chapter 8 retailer incentive featuring Windblade, Nautica and Chromia. Coller's Chapter 12 regular cover is astounding too. There are many strong covers in the series, all from the IDW TF regulars.

The series crossed over between a one-shot opening, to Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye. Writers John Barber and James Roberts joined forces with a number of artists including Phil Jimenez, Atillio Rojo, James Raiz, Livio Ramondelli, Brendan Cahill, Casey Coller, Nick Roche as well as series regulars Andrew Griffith and Alex Milne. Crossovers don't always get the best reception by industry critics and readers, and it was an enormous undertaking for IDW which has seemingly boosted sales of the ongoing series since its inception. While I stayed committed to it throughout, I am now incredibly pleased to see the individual ongoing go back to their regular programming. I think my favourite line from the whole crossover has to be "He's not even the first bot called Tankor to have a go at me today", or something close to it. Perceptor and Brainstorm's conversation about the Lost Light's underwater capabilities was also superb in chapter 4.

More Than Meets The Eye

The reason I collect comics again is More Than Meets The Eye, introduced to it in August 2013, I quickly understood what all the fuss was about. What started out as a collection of Rodimus-only covers evolved/deteriorated into full-on cover completism. Every time I question this barmy accumulation of paper, I just read an issue again - or even start the whole series from the beginning - and I remember where my inspiration for this shrine and tribute originated. I just dream of one day wall-mounting the entire series alongside some of the original MTMTE artwork I have purchased. This is not only the best Transformers comic ever produced, it's currently one of the best titles on the rack. Being nominated for awards is no small deal, they're even driving 3rd party companies to produce the crew of the Lost Light to meet significant and vociferous collector demand.

My collection above includes sketch covers, second printings, convention exclusives, trade paperback exclusive covers, #17 Comicfolio, the first 3 covers of season 2 (MTMTE #28) and even the painfully rare MTMTE #19 and #12 incentive covers by Nick Roche and Casey Coller respectively. There's every chance things could get tricky again if IDW decide to go down the 1:25 ratio route for another incentive as they did for #19, and matters aren't helped by the upcoming MTMTE #29 printing error that has seen the sub cover for #29 produced in 1:10 ratio instead of the incentive, which has been printed in mass numbers. It doesn't matter though, I've been happy to jump through all necessary hoops to complete this collection and knowing I just have to reserve all covers in advance at Orbital Comics gives me peace of mind. I'm pretty rubbish at completing collections, or choosing achievable goals in collecting, so this has been a wonderful diversion from my usual agonising toy pursuits.

I do wonder how long it will be before I crack and go full-metal-completist on R.I.D.

All the best

Maz