Written by Chris Sarracini, drawn by Pat Lee.
Published by Dreamwave, collecting the preview, issues one to six and the volume two preview.

Back in 2002 the once almighty Transformers Generation One franchise returned with a bang. Dreamwave, under Pat Lee, began their ambitious plans to reintroduce the comics market to Transformers, be they old (Generation One), current (Armada, now Energon) or new (War Within). Back in the 80s the US Transformers comic trundled along in typical, kid-orientated fashion. Not much substance but plenty of fun and appearances by all your favourite toys. Over in the UK Simon Furman and a talented group of artists supplemented the US material with darker stories. They realised that actually us kids could handle a bit of proper meat to our comics (and my childhood was all the more entertaining for it). Not only were they darker stories but they were *proper* stories, with characterisation, ongoing plot points, loss, victory, conflict and turmoil. These weren't comic works to rival that of Alan Moore and Frank Miller but they were a step above what was expected of licensed comics. Eventually Furman went on to finish off the US comic in a similar style and level of quality. Dreamwave, obviously realising their target audience lay in my age group (early twenties), adopted a dark Furmanesque take on the world of our favourite eighties toys.

Volume one of Generation One (you and I will soon learn to loathe the length of these titles) is a tale of darkness and despair. There is little hope to be found in the majority of this book, which is luckily just the way I like my fiction. The history (mainly related through a two page newspaper article) is an intriguing take on the Earthbound conflict between Autobots and Decipticons. Eventually the humans got (understandably) fed up with it all and sided with the Autobots in a huge "world war" to defeat the Decepticons Once victorious, the Autobots and seven humans (original TV and comic series familiar Sparkplug Witwicky, father of Spike and Buster, amongst them) set off to Cybertron. It all goes horribly wrong, thankfully, and man and machine are torn to pieces in an explosion over the Atlantic back in 1999.

The book therefore starts off with various sinister human factions having found and taken control of the Transformers, with no separation between Autobot and Decepticon. The tables are soon turned and the conflict resumes between Optimus Prime and Megatron against a backdrop of nuclear retaliation from renegade parts of the US military and the possible devastation of the planet at the hands of a technoforming virus released by Megatron. Transformers "die", as do humans. Prime is awash with doubts and despair as the humans reject them and retaliate in horrifying fashion. Even by the end of the book when, as you'd expect, the Autobots manage to save the day, nobody is particularly happy and nothing is quite the same.

Chris Sarracini is a writer I don't think I'd encountered before this but he does a good job with my favourite giant robots. As I've already indicated, his plotting is suitably dark and he successfully switches between multiple threats and disasters without reducing the impact of any. His Megatron is particularly well written, as he is less the insane villain you may remember and more a being of twisted reason and cunning. He's much more believable as a threat when he's able to talk sense to the point where you could understand Prime doubting the righteousness of his cause. Prime is equally well written. At best he's the epitome of power and confidence that he should be, but as the story shakes him with each new disaster he becomes weary and doubtful. His blind devotion to protecting humans is questioned in a neat sequence in the increasingly ruined San Francisco. Ultimately Megatron's attempts to undermine Prime's confidence push him too far and the Autobots become rather brutal towards the end of the book. Considering there are only six issues of material here, the characterisation of the two lead robots is excellent, Unfortunately focussing on them means the other Transformers are left as rather one dimensional characters, perhaps relying too heavily on our memories of them from the 80s to flesh them out. The humans are an adequate supporting cast, being better written than the secondary Transformers. Spike's cynicism about the Autobots is a nice touch and plays a big part in painting the contrasting picture of the Transformers situation.

Art comes courtesy of Dreamwave head honcho Pat Lee. His Transformers (and in fact all Dreamwave Transformers) have a very satisfying weight to them. They look like huge, devastating machines. He draws a very much idealised version of each one, taking the best elements from the original toys, animation and comic versions and distilling a version that captures the Transformer very well indeed. His splash pages are very cheesily impressive, as you'd want from any comic featuring giant robots. The action sequences he draws are competent stuff, again they have a good feeling of weight and scale to them - it is giant robots hitting, kicking and shooting other, not humans in robot form. He keeps the panels simple, sticking with two antagonists at a time for the most part. He's got enough room to play with though, so he doesn't have to sacrifice one scene for another. There are problems with Pat Lee's Transformers though. Consistency and proportions. The quality of his work can really vary page to page. Some are very detailed, well thought out pieces of an almost cover page level of quality. Others are much less detailed and often suffer from sudden changes in proportions or odd side effects of the lack of detailing (this particularly affects the heads of his mecha). His humans are also less than excellent, occupying a mock Japanese style that really doesn't work. I don't know if this is the style he usually uses for normal comics work or if it has been adopted for Transformers (due to the Japanese origins and influences I'd guess). Irrespective, most of the pages featuring human cast members are unsatisfying.

It's time to tie up this rambling review then. Transformers Generation One: Volume One is a very interesting modern take on the toys that lit up the childhood of my age group. I cannot separate my fondness for the franchise from this interpretation (which is perhaps a plus point for Dreamwave's work) so I'm unable to tell you if someone experiencing their first Transformers tale would enjoy this as much as I did. The writing is focused and has some particularly good characterisation for the two mechanical leads. The art is generally good, if inconsistent. A purchase that has entertained me through several reads, I think there's something here that anyone degree of Transformers fan should enjoy, and there's no reason why it shouldn't appeal (perhaps less strongly) to the general mecha lovers.