The 1980s were a great time for cartoon lovers with such legendary series as Transformers, Thundercats, Battle of the Planets, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and He-Man being aired for the first time. It was also, undoubtedly, a great time for those involved in toy sales and merchandising. Transformers is often held up as being the first series where the cartoons actually served as a loss leader for the toys and related products marketed by series creators Hasbro. Such capitalist considerations did nothing, however, to lessen the popular appeal of the Transformers and, after a few years in the entertainment wilderness, the modern revival of the franchise in film form has been accompanied by a similarly large number of tie-ins. In my time I have been the proud owner of Transformers videos, toys, comics, clothing and even a window valance, but this is my first encounter with a full-length Transformers novel. Released to coincide with the launch of videogame Transformers: The War for Cybertron, Alex Irvine’s Transformers: Exodus is billed as the official history of the war for Cybertron and is intended to provide insight into the back-story to the game and to give further detail to key characters and events. Although the colossal battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron has remained constant throughout the various reboots of the Transformers, Exodus is the first attempt to explain the reasons behind the conflict, to present the saga of Optimus and Megatron before they were enemies, before they even knew each other.

Megatron alters the destiny of the caste-bound planet of Cybertron forever when he publically proclaims that “Freedom is every Cybertronian’s right!” In doing so Megatron, an undefeated gladiator, issues a battle cry to the oppressed masses and also opens the mind of an insignificant data clerk to possibilities that were previously unthinkable. Before becoming [transforming into?] the brave and honourable Optimus Prime, Orion Pax was a humble office underling [stay with me here] and an extremely unlikely candidate to become mixed up in a counter-revolution. However, after learning of Megatron’s plans, Orion is determined to fight the threat that the revolutionaries pose to everything Cybertron stands for, regardless of the consequences for himself.

Exodus promised a lot but delivered very little. For fans of the series, some of the details included in the synopsis are no doubt already giving cause for concern. Optimus Prime, the fearless warrior and leader, hero to generations, began life as a meek and nebbish minor bureaucrat? I couldn’t help but wonder whether the greatest Transformer of all time wore a pocket protector and had a poster saying “Hang in there kitty!” adorning the wall of his cube. The beginning pages of Exodus are very dull and loaded with tedious exposition as we encounter Orion Pax at his workstation and witness his inane plodding. Even if it was possible to ignore the damage done to a favourite character like Optimus Prime, this is no way to begin what is clearly intended to be an action-packed novel. The character of Megatron is better developed than that of Orion/Optimus but still has some major weaknesses. In the beginning Megatron’s ideas for reform were valid and, even though he was obviously going to take a turn for the evil at some point, this side of him should have been explored further. All too quickly he gets drugged up on Dark Energon and turns from a rational progressive to crazed villain.

The majority of the well-known Transformers also show up in Exodus in cameos and supporting roles, but the choices are often peculiar and/or forced. I’d like to know the reasoning behind introducing Armorhide before Ironhide and having Barricade and Blackout popping up so fleetingly. Even Alex Irvine doesn’t seem to know what is going on with these minor characters at some points in Exodus. Although Starscream is introduced as being a scientist, there is a later comment to the effect that neither Starscream nor Megatron were scientists. Some of the confusion may have arisen through Irvine’s attempts to meld together various Transformers continuities, but it’s still extremely annoying.

Even aside from the bonkers editing [for example, where exactly are Megatron and Orion Pax in chapter seven? Together or on opposite sides of the city?], the storyline of Exodus never had the potential to be great but there were some peculiar pacing and structural changes that occurred during the book that really didn’t help. Exodus began with short chapters and this served to quicken the pace of the story even when the chapters involved an obvious information dump, but a sudden lengthening of the chapters completely broke up this pace and made the story even more stilted. There was also an unhappy switch to the use of journal entries by Alpha Trion, who had previously only served as a mentor, to tell the reader about what was happening in the war on Cybertron. It would have been much more effective and emotive to describe events as they were happening.

The McGuffin that is the Covenant of Primus and the Quill that Alpha Trion wrote it with was also extremely unsatisfactory. The Covenant details the past, present and future of Cybertron and would have been incredibly useful if only Alpha Trion had been able to read it. Yes, he wrote the history and prophecies of the Covenant but couldn’t read them and also seemed rather sketchy about current events too. Neither the Covenant nor the magic pen it was written with have featured in the Transformers world before and they really have no place there now.

There were some elements of the story that I quite enjoyed although, admittedly, I would probably not have ploughed on with Exodus long enough to get to them if I had not been reviewing it. The budding friendship between Orion Pax and Megatron was nice and, even if it is something of a cliché to have archenemies who had once been great friends, I thought this could have been developed further. As it is, the relationship collapses all too quickly when the High Council name Orion Pax as Optimus Prime and, in placing him in charge, infuriates and alienates Megatron. Since they never had the opportunity to develop a fully fledged friendship, the animosity and betrayal that develops between them seems rather out of proportion.

So, ultimately, Transformers: Exodus is a mediocre story that is bound to disappoint.

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