Cat vs Robots or Cody liveblogs TFs

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Reading order! I'm copying this right over from winkwonk's tf thread, and I thiiiink it's got hyperlinks for everything I could find for free online without needing downloads. It's got idw's phase one and phase two both in the mix, but if you jump down to where it starts talking about mtmte and exrid, you should be good to go! There's no need to read one before the other, I just listed mtmte first because I love it best (also, I don't know what your exact plans are, but you may want to backtrack and read mtmte 1-23 before starting DC, because then the crossover will make much more sense)

Spoiler: Reading order

First, the hardcover trade reading order, which was originally all I meant to do until I got distracted, and then oops I accidentally the entire reading order :V

Phase One:

• Volume 1: Megatron Origin #1–4(hard to follow if you're not familiar with a lot of the cast), Spotlights: Blurr, Cliffjumper, Shockwave,Nightbeat, Hotrod, and Infiltration #0–6
  
• Volume 2: Transformer seriesStormbringer and Escalation, as well as Spotlights: Sixshot, Ultra Magnus,Kup, and Soundwave
• Volume 3: Transformer seriesDevastation, as well as Spotlights:Galvatron, Ramjet, Wheelie, Blaster,Arcee (Unfortunate, for gender reasons mentioned before),Grimlock, and Mirage (weird story, may not even be properly canon, idk. I recommend reading the wiki page for clarification)
  
• Volume 4: Transformer seriesMaximum Dinobots and the four-part Drift story, as well as Spotlights:Cyclonus, Hardhead, Doubledealer,Sideswipe, Drift, Metroplex, and Jazz
• Volume 5: All Hail Megatron issues #1–12 and Coda #1–4
  
• Volume 6: Ongoing series issues #1-6 (drawn by Don Figueroa, so it's ugly and I'm not sure I actually read it), the four-issue Bumblebee series,Last Stand of the Wreckers (plus amazing text supplements), and Spotlight: Prowl (severely out of character and also boring)
  
• Volume 7: Ironhide four-issue series, Infestation Volume 1: Transformers #1–2 (I'm pretty sure this is the weird, bad zombie story), and ongoing issues #7–18
• Volume 8: Heart of Darkness (painfully ugly) and ongoing issues #19-31 (starts off with the "Chaos" storyline and leads into the final "Chaos Theory" arc of the ongoing series)

Here is the tfwiki link for this particular ongoing series that is being a problem child. Augh, I wish I knew where to find decent scans of this, because it's got the actual character development on earth and sets the stage for the big final conflict, and is some of the most interesting writing of phase one. I'm super frustrated I am striking out here :T

Phase Two:

• Volume 1: The one-shot Death of Optimus Prime (pretty boring prequel to the ongoing stuff), More Than Meets The Eye issues #1–5, andRobots in Disguise issues #1–6
  
• Volume 2: Autocracy mini-series(ramondelli art, but EXCELLENT backstory for hot rod/rodimus), Spotlights: Trailcutter and Hoist(won't make sense until you've read mtmte #1-5, but VERY good), Robots In Disguise issues #7–9, More Than Meets the Eye issues #6–8, and Spotlight: Orion Pax
• Volume 3: More Than Meets The Eye #9–13 and the 2012 Annual, Robots in Disguise #9–11 and the 2012 Annual, plus Spotlights: Thundercracker, Bumblebee, andMegatron (THIS ONE IS SO GOOD!!!! And it is RIGHT up your alley. It's placed right after exRiD #11 for maximum emotional impact, but you can read this anytime after you've finished the phase one ongoing issue #19)
  
• Volume 4: Monstrosity mini-series(have I... actually read this? I'm not sure I have. It's ramondelli art and I'm too tired to fight through that right now), Robots in Disguise #12–18, and More Than Meets the Eye #14–16
• That's where the hardcover trades are right now, but there's also another miniseries called Primacy(set in the past, ramondelli art, and kind of a confusing plot. but it has omega supreme!)

Okay, so! That reading order is not terribly important for phase two. Spotlight: Trailcutter and Spotlight: Hoist are the only ones where placement in relation to the main series really matters, but I'd read all of mtmte several times through before I actually read those at all. In terms of reading MTMTE, there is one crossover event with exRiD in the middle that makes things a little messy, but honestly, my first time through, I just skipped it entirely and didn't read it anything besides mtmte until months later. But if you're in need of a robot fix and can't start MTMTE yet, you can totally read exRiD up through #22 first! In general, here's what I recommend.

• MTMTE #1-5
• Spotlight: Trailcutter
• Spotlight: Hoist
• MTMTE #6-9
• MTMTE 2012 Annual (the only annual they've done, and also for some reason it isn't in the right order on viewcomic? very annoying. doesn't make too much sense unless you've read drift's miniseries)
• MTMTE #10-22 (this finishes with the MTMTE introduction to the Dark Cybertron crossover)

NOW. Backtrack alllll the way back to the beginning of exRiD. If MTMTE is the wacky space roadtrip, exRiD is corrupt politics, trying to rebuild society and their planet after a war, and everything is a mess. It's not as good as MTMTE, and it definitely starts off rough, but there is some Good Shit in there (especially Wheeljack, Arcee, Starscream, and Prowl)

• exRiD #1-10
• exRiD 2012 Annual (also not exactly in the right spot on viewcomic, but the default chapter order has it in a WRONG spot)
• exRiD #11
• Spotlight: Megatron
• exRid #12-22 (finishes with the exRiD introduction to Dark Cybertron)

Reading Dark Cybertron originally meant bouncing back and forth between issues of MTMTE and exRiD for a while, but fortunately, viewcomic has a compiled version of DC, in two chapters

• DC #1-2 (the writing and pacing and art can be erratic, but also there are some GEMS in there) (mostly about Shockwave's weird science shenanigans and also the dead universe)

Then, things get easier for MTMTE, more complicated for exRiD

• MTMTE #28-present (currently 54) (just shotgun the entire thing. Do it. It'll be GLORIOUS. You won't regret it)

exRiD kind of... well. The main series partly/mostly splits off to political/military shenanigans... on earth. On the one hand, ugh, boring, I have enough squishy humans in my life already, I want giant alien robot culture. But there is still some interesting stuff happening on Cybertron too, and also on earth you get to know THUNDERCRACKER! He played a minor role in phase one, but now he's a major player and he's the best, BEST thing, and he has a dog and her name is Buster and he loves her so much. Also Soundwave is a total babe, and Prowl is my shitty, precious son. But before you dig into that, you know what? You deserve something nice. You deserve some of the most gorgeous art in the entire IDW run. You deserve the Windblade miniseries

• Windblade miniseries #1-4(viewcomic lists issues after that, but for now, just stop at #4)
• exRiD #28-35
• Punishment (dark post-war societal stuff, with tragically ugly art) (fairly optional)
  
• exRiD #36-38

And then, unfortunately for ease of reading, we have... another crossover. This is the Combiner Wars event, which crosses over between the Windblade ongoingseries (not the miniseries) and exRiD, because why would we want to make reading order easy :P And sadly, this time, there is no compiled version uploaded, so the only way to read it is to bounce between the series.

• exRiD #39 (opening salvo)
• Windblade #1 (part 1)
• exRiD #40 (part 2)
• Windblade #2 (part 3)
• exRiD #41 (part 4)
• Windblade #3 (part 5)
• exRiD #42 (epilogue)
• Windblade #4 (epilogue 2: electric boogaloo)

After that, you can go ahead and wrap up Windblade's series! It only goes up through issue #7, and then they stopped, paused, and just last month started another ongoing series (Till All Are One) that I will link below. The exRiD books focus more heavily on what's happening on earth, while Windblade and TAAO are more about Cybertronian diplomacy and politics, but the two series are like... awareof each other, they aren't operating in total isolation. There's also a miniseries, Sins Of The Wreckers, that's a sequel to Last Stand of the Wreckers, and is placed between exRiD #44 and 45 (i think). Despite that placement, its last issue was only published, like... last month. But that's where it falls. It's dark and weird and I like it a lot.

• Combiner Hunters (one-shot with sooo many ladies, lovely art and interesting ideas)
  
• Windblade #5-7
• exRiD #43-44
  
• SOTW #1-5 (sequel to LSOTW, won't make much sense without that context, or without the previous exRiD issues)
• exRiD #45-49
• Redemption (optional reading but VERY SAD AND COOL and even with the Ramondelli art it gives me Emotions)
  
• exRiD HOLIDAY SPECIAL (oh my godddddddddd there are three parts to this (cybertron/the lost light/earth), and they're all AMAZING. This is THE BEST)
• exRiD #50-present (currently 54)
• TAAO #1-present (currently #2) (this is brand new and is all politics and intrigue with lovely writing and some of my FAVES, and it's really, really good so far)

There are also a few one-shots and miniseries scattered here and there where I either can't find them or don't know a good place to put them :P

• Autocracy (beginning of the war, ugly art, but gr8 emotional backstory for Rodimus and his Issues)
• Spotlight: Thundecracker (also a flashback to during the war, something something hunting for metroplex)
• Spotlight: Bumblebee (I don't even remember, but maybe it relates to Thundercracker's spotlight? They make a nice ship together)

 

And there are a couple of points (during his arrest, mostly), where the narrative calls attention to how other cybertronians find it an unusual name. One guard calls him Megaton, I think, and Megatron tries to correct him that there's an R and no1curr. I have to wonder where JRO could maybe be going with this, depending how the myth arcs play out across the three series.