I’m sadly not gonna explain terms here like I usually do because there’s so much interconnected information from various continuities and media required to properly understand what I’m talking about.

The worldbuilding in Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is genuinely brilliant.

You get such an indescribable sense of scale, of how much time has passed and how the war has shaped the people and places. Part of this is obviously that IDW comics (and Transformers in general obviously) started a long time before MTMTE did. Sure, it gets to build off of previous comics, but to bring a vision like this to fruition requires a whole lot of skill and I have nothing but admiration and praise so far.

The art of Alex Milne and Nick Roche (still unsure of who did what, but it's all great stuff) is gorgeous and the drawings manage to convey loads of emotion with even the most expressionless characters. The colours and designs are distinct and lively.

What strikes me about the characterisations in MTMTE is the sheer humanity of them, ironically. The bots we see feel like real people with real lived experiences.

It’s at times like this I remind myself of the value good writing has. As someone aspiring to be a better writer.

I may rant a lot here and my best work really isn’t to be found here, but it’s nice to get the words out either way instead of having them continue to ricochet inside my brain.

Seeing old Cybertron and the origins and such is something I haven’t done much before and the way it’s presented in MTMTE is genuinely captivating.

The politics are so well thought out and there’s so much nuance to be found. Some of the decepticons we meet act like normal people while others are the crazed zealots we usually think of. Even they have interesting character traits that make them feel dynamic. (Tarn being a super good example, in my opinion) Their evil rarely feels cartoonish, and when it does, it doesn't feel out of place or overpowering.

The autobots also vary in commitment to the cause, which feels very natural. It’s very intriguing to see how the autobots and decepticons originated and where their values and principles overlap or have previously overlapped. I have never before read a comic with fictional politics that feel this believable.

I have previously had fictional stories remind me of real-life issues, but not in the special way MTMTE makes me feel a large and interconnected picture with a rich history, if that makes sense. It’s clear from the start that the war didn’t happen overnight. People went about their lives as usual while the systems they lived in crumbled around them. Sure, there were turning points, monumental ones, but it’s handled really well.

I really appreciate that.

This is not just Transformers at its absolute best, it’s science-fiction at its absolute best.

If anyone's curious, below are the thoughts I jotted down when I started reading MTMTE for the very first time: (Specifically issues 1-7)