Considering the fact that Transformers stories have basically been toy commercials since the beginning, it’s remarkable that the bar is often set so high, across various forms of media. That’s not to say that there haven’t been weak points, or entire sagas that haven’t quite worked for one reason or another, but the highs have far outweighed the lows, in the four-plus decades since the franchise arrived in the West.

I had been really looking forward to reading the now out-of-print Shattered Glass, the concept of which is a mirror universe-style story in which Autobots are the bad guys and Decepticons the heroes. Many characters get interesting new paint jobs to reflect their reversal in nature, and of course this means re-coloured toys too!

Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing across the entirety of this volume. Weirdly, it seems that the story is simultaneously under- and over-written; there’s an awful lot of waffle which goes nowhere, while vital world-building elements are almost entirely absent.

Post-war Cybertron is divided into different realms, with Autobot warlords running each one, but the story is too zoomed in on its characters to get a real sense of the difference this makes, and the side-switching of the factions doesn’t feel as defined as it could, or should be.

It’s interesting to have Starscream and Megatron as the main protagonists, but with little sense of how the world ended up at the current status quo a lot of it just falls flat.

Despite only being five years old, the art feels like a real throwback to the early 00s Transformers reboot, which isn’t a bad thing per se; however, this grim and gritty story could have done with a more contemporary aesthetic, in my opinion.

It’s a big disappointment, though it was popular enough to have received an (also out-of-print) sequel in 2022. Did things improve? I will be sure to let you know, if I do manage to get my hands on Shattered Glass II!

Hi! I’m Jason, and I write for midlifegamergeek.com, every single day. If you’re interested in supporting original, regularly published, human created content (which has never been plagiarised or otherwise copied from the hard work of other writers), you can donate and help me to keep this site running.

Not only do I earn no income from my writing here (though I may earn small fees from affiliate links posted on my pages; as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from these links), but it seems that my work has, at times, been stolen and re-used by lazy, morally bankrupt idiots.

There’s no pressure of course, but I’d be truly grateful for any support that you could offer – and it’s easy to do so at either of these links: Ko-Fi.com/geekmid or PayPal.

Any donations are truly appreciated – and I also appreciate you taking the time to read my articles. Remember: this whole article was by Jason Brown, and appeared on midlifegamergeek.com. Take that, Skynet!