On the eve of Cybertron’s first free elections, everything has fallen apart.  Megatron has returned, inciting Decepticons across the capital of Iacon to riot.  The political jockeying of Bumblebee, Starscream, and Metalhawk has consequences, foreseen and otherwise.  And, Prowl’s notorious machinations have been building to this moment, and it all revolves around what’s contained in the Black Room.  (Not the Black Room where DC keeps all of its powerful magical artifacts, probably.  That would be crazy.)

This is a climactic issue in the series so far, and for that reason it is not a great time for new readers to jump on, continuity-wise.  Then again, it’s also the series doing a lot of what it does best and doing it better than ever: plotting and plot twists, musing on the function of politics, and throwing these characters into the deep end of trying to sustain the unsustainable.  As ever, there are a few twists, and I’d bet there’s at least one you won’t see coming.

A lot of books would buckle on the number of plots that need to be advanced as this comes to a head, but John Barber handles it all splendidly.  No less credit goes to the art team of Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez, who handle legions of minutely-detailed bots in action.

Robots in Disguise has been going for a year and has consistently been one of the most satisfying series that I read, issue to issue, licensed or otherwise.  It’s yet another demonstration that IDW knows how to handle its creators and its properties.  So, here’s to another year of Cybertronian politicking and chrome-plated conspiracy – this issue gets us going with a bang.