The Transformers' home planet of Cybertron will once again be plunged into war in 2022 with the event series Transformers: War's End - with embers from a previous war catching fire once again, but in a time where Megatron and the Decepticons are slowly rising to power.
Scheduled to debut in February 2022 and run for four monthly issues, Transformers: War's End will run side-by-side and is set in the same era of continuity with the main ongoing Transformers comic book series, both written by IDW's longtime Transformers head writer Brian Ruckley. He'll be joined by frequent Transformers artist Jack Lawrence, fresh off the current Transformers: Wreckers - Tread & Circuits limited series.
"War's End is about unfinished business: for both the characters and for Cybertron as a whole," says Ruckley. "It's the return of Cybertron's traumatic past to upend its present... and answers the question: If your planet has at its core the collective Spark of your entire civilization, just how vulnerable might that make you?"
Transformers: War's End is in some ways a sequel or resumption of The War of the Threefold Spark, a part of Cybertron's history referred to in the past tense in the early days of Ruckley's Transformers run in 2019, which itself is set in the past.
The War of the Threefold Spark was instigated by a once peace-loving Transformer named Exarchon who returned from an outer space jaunt mysteriously changed with a thirst for war. He attempted to conquer and rule over Cybertron with an iron fist but was ultimately stopped by an army led by Ultra Magnus, a young Megatron, Cyclonus, Orion Pax, Arcee, and others. The war - and its aftermath - in some ways led to the formation of the Decepticon faction and later the Autobot faction in Transformers society.
Although Exarchon was defeated, he was not killed or even imprisoned - he simply disappeared. And now in Transformers: War's End beginning February 2022, he's back for revenge - and he's got help from his former generals Shockwave and Skywarp.
But one major thing has changed since the first war; whereas Megatron helped fight Exarchon then, in this story he's older and is on a path of his own evil machinations with the formation of the Decepticons.
"Up to now, my Transformers work has been post- or pre-war, so with War's End, I'm excited to contribute to the Cybertronian war itself," says Lawrence. "This story is, understandably, darker and grittier than what I've worked on before, so I'm looking forward to going shadowy and ominous with it."
Transformers: War's End is described by IDW editor David Mariotte as the weaving together of the Transformers' past, present, and future that he, Ruckley, and IDW have been building to since 2019.
Transformers: World's End #1 goes on sale in February 2022, with covers by Angel Hernandez, Lawrence, and EJ Su.
You'll find Transformers: World's End beginning in February 2022 on digital platforms as well as in your local comic shop.
