If any of IDW’s Transformers fiction had to be described as having the look and feel of a comic published by Dreamwave, it would have to be the “Megatron: Origin” mini-series. Written by Eric Holmes and drawn by Alex Milne, the story is visually dense, with a narrative consisting of what feel like vignettes in Megatron’s early life rather than a deliberately paced, flowing narrative. The series is crammed with visual cameos by familiar characters, and action sequences are not always drawn in a way that conveys the events depicted in a clear manner.
The plot takes an interesting tack right off the bat by portraying the government that rules Cybertron as a corrupt one. When a senator attempts to shut down an Energon mine, the miners resist, and one particularly vocal miner is attacked and killed by the Senator’s Autobot bodyguards. And here’s where Megatron enters the picture. He fights back during the ensuing riot, and kills a guard with his bare hands, causing him to freak out at the having taken a life. Shot down by the guards quelling the riot, he later awakens in the prison shuttle, captures it, and goes underground in the city of Kaon.
Personally, I find the very idea of a young, essentially innocent Megatron a fascinating depiction of the character, because it’s so different than the present-day Decepticon leader. The idea that he’s appalled at having killed someone is just so off the wall, and yet it makes sense. Most world tyrants don’t start out as killers, and some of them probably start out with good intentions. On the other hand, I’m not sure how I feel about portraying the Autobots as corrupt murderers. I despise the trend of tearing down fictional heroes and casting them as morally equivalent to the villains. Not that I want everything to be black and white morally, but the Autobots in this story are every bit as bad as the Decepticons will later be. So why would we root for them? What makes them any better than the Decepticons? I suppose it could be argued that not all Autobots are as bad as those in the Senate and the brutal guards who put down the prison riot, but still, the story paints them in a very bad light.
Moving on, Megatron begins to participate in the illegal underground gladiatorial games in Kaon. The story never specifies just why he makes this choice, and the reader is left to infer that it’s a matter of survival in the corrupt Kaon. Over time he becomes quite numb to taking lives, and eventually revels in it as he grows to be quite proficient in the ring. This is shown to be how he begins to recruit his army, particularly with Soundwave’s help. And this too makes sense, since the Decepticon army is largely composed of thugs and killers and psychopaths. Megatron draws from the criminal elements on Cybertron and rallies them to his cause as his reputation grows. It’s a believable route for the character to take.
Ultimately, by the time the Autobots move in to arrest Megatron and break up the gladiatorial movement, it’s too late to stop it. Picture a small group of police going up against a gang of heavily armed terrorists, and you’ve got the picture here. We finally get a good look at Sentinel Prime, and he’s beaten to within an inch of his life by Megatron.
Now, when summarized like this, the story makes good sense. However, the narrative of the four-issue mini-series jumps around in Megatron’s early life. Character choices are not always explained, and one event doesn’t always follow the previous event in step-by-step fashion. That’s not to say that the story doesn’t make sense, but we aren’t given all the thought behind Megatron’s choices, or his philosophy, and it’s a wasted opportunity to get inside the character’s head. We see what lead to his rebellion and rise to power, but only bits and pieces with no narrative or motive to connect them. We don’t really get to know Megatron. We get to know facts about his rise to power, but not him.
The art is very detailed and fairly good, all things considered. Characters look more or less on model and are recognizable. My problem with the art lies with the sequential and action storytelling. It’s necessary to read most issues two or three times to work out just what is going on in some scenes. The fight between Sentinel Prime and Megatron is a good example of this, as it is difficult to tell who is getting trashed at any given moment. Sometimes the colors are a bit too shadowy and muted to really make the characters distinct from one another. And then there’s “character cameo syndrome” where characters pop up in crowd scenes and the appearance conflicts with fiction set at a later time, or characters from another continuity turn up in crowd scenes. This makes for fun Easter eggs until whiny fanboys start complaining that so and so’s appearance in story x makes the story crap because said character was seen in a crowd in Megatron Origin.
So what’s the bottom line? I think overall the story has some good ideas and Megatron’s rise to power is sound enough in concept. In practice, the story feels like it rushes through some important moments, and it turns the Autobots into corrupt and ineffective police in order to give Megatron a sympathetic origin. With some clearer art and a couple more issues to allow the story to breathe and unfold a little more naturally, the series would have been considerably improved. This isn’t IDW’s best effort, but it’s not terrible. It’s not worth knocking yourself out to collect either.
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