Marvel Unbound - New Avengers/Transformers

What do you get when you mix Marvel’s premiere super hero team with IDW’s cash cow franchise property? A fluffy little piece of fanboy cotton candy; an empty calorie sugar rush, and that’s pretty much what the in-continuity New Avengers/Transformers miniseries gives you.

The trade paperback collects the four issue story itself. No extras, no frills, just this fun little bit of pre-Marvel Civil War confectionary that takes place between the “Breakout” and “Sentry” story arcs early in the New Avengers canon.

Writer Stuart Moore’s story is a light but enjoyable one, taking Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Luke Cage to Latveria to help quell a looming war between that country and neighboring Symkaria. The heroes are later joined by Ms. Marvel, Falcon, and Iron Man to fight alongside Autobots Optimus Prime, Jazz, Bumblebee, Prowl, and Ratchet. They all work together to thwart the evil Decepticons’ plan to use Spider-Man’s mutated DNA to boost Energon beyond anything Megatron had previously known.

I think it’s cool that it’s Spider-Man blood that’s deemed the most powerful. Not Cap’s Super Soldier Serum enhanced blood. Not Ms. Marvel’s Kree enhanced blood. Not Wolverine’s mutant blood. Just irradiated, spider-bitten Peter Parker’s blood.

I also dug the duplicitous Doctor Doom’s role in all this. It was great to see him working both sides against the middle in his usual way, while showing off his one-of-the-smartest-brains-in-the-Marvel-Universe scientific side.

There are some great fanboy moments for followers of either franchise and a nice little inference thrown in on the last page, planting a seed that the presence of Transformers in the Marvel Universe might be a bit more well-integrated than originally thought. In all, New Avengers/Transformers is a pleasant diversionary read between heavier hitters, and it helps fill out New Avengers or Transformers completists’ libraries.