G.I. Joe Vs. The Transformers Volume 2 [Paperback]

This story takes places two years after the events in G.I. Joe Vs. Transformers Volume one. The Transformers have returned to Cyberton where the Autobots are stunned to see that Shockwave has gained control of Cyberton and the Autobots are now on the run from his forces. Back on Earth, the Cobra Commander has a secret Cybertronian technology ace up his sleeve...namely Starscream who was still held on Earth. Cobra Commander approaches Destro with a plan to use the Cybertronian technology to open a wormhole to the Transformers world and take control of the supercomputer Teletran 3. With this they can control Cyberton and steal more technology and use it to create wormholes all throughout the Earth to deliver weapons without being caught. The G.I. Joe team learns of the plot due to a well-placed spy, and tries to stop Cobra but when a stray bullet causes a malfunction in Teletran 3, all Hell breaks loose.

Teletran 3 scatters numerous Transformers throughout Earth's timestream and uses it's camouflage mode to lock the robots into vehicle mode that is appropriate to whatever time period they landed in. Worse yet, the upheaval of the time stream will result in holocaust for the planet Earth unless the Transformers can be recovered and returned to Cybertron within 12 hours. While Ultra Magnus keeps Shockwave and his forces at bay with an energy field, the Cobra and G.I. Joe members must now form an uneasy alliance to travel into the timestream to return the missing Transformers before the world is destroyed.

The teams split into four groups with one group going to 1970's era California complete with pimp daddies and big cadillacs, while another group ends up in mobster infested Chicago of the mid 1930's. The most interesting scenario is the group that journeys to an Earth 15 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic where Shockwave has led a successful invasion of Earth and humans are enslaved. Duke, now severely battle-scarred leads a resistance that includes former Dreadnok members and they are aided by a champion Autobot who will come as a bit of a surprise. The fourth group? Well, telling you where they end up would be giving too much away but the payoff is well worth it once you read the story.

As Shockwave has always been my favorite Transformer I loved to see him front and center as the main antagonist. This cold, mechanical Decepticon was always far more appealing than the melodramatic Megatron. It was also interesting to see the Joes and Cobra forced to call a truce and work together. I especially liked the Baroness and Roadblock teaming together in the 1930's. Unfortunately these segments are relatively short and it would have been great to see more interplay between the two rival groups. If there is one minor complaint it's that the whole story is a bit contrived and things happen just to happen without much logic. That aside, this was a very strong sequel to the first book and I think it was even better due mainly to Shockwave's involvement as well as another group of Transformers who I will leave as a surprise. . The art by E.J. Su and Tim Seeley was fantastic and their vision of the future, Decepticon-controlled Earth was truly chilling. Well done!

Reviewed by Tim Janson