[3] Chris Ryall, editor-in-chief of IDW Publishing, leaped at the chance to bid on the property.

[4] On May 19, 2005, Hasbro announced they had awarded the licensing rights to IDW Publishing, with plans for an issue #0 in October 2005 and an ongoing title entitled The Transformers: Infiltration to begin in January 2006.

[6] Furman aimed for a contemporary version of the Generation 1 incarnation to appeal to new and old fans alike.

They both cited a focus on the "Robots in Disguise" element of the characters, aiming to bring back their "myth and majesty".

"[8] Furman also aimed for a real time approach,[9] using maps to help guide his stories.

[11] Furman focused the story on Autobot medic Ratchet and broke new ground for G1-based storylines by excluding the Ark crash storyline and having them only just recently arrived deliberately, to give proper intent to the Transformers being on Earth,[7] thus separating the fictional universe from the Beast Wars one.

Furman's decision to put leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron on the sidelines divided fans,[9] as did the slow pace[8] and the use of human characters.

Furman and Ryall responded positively, promising to make both fans and critics happy after reading various message board comments.

[13] The Transformers: Stormbringer followed in July, set around the same time frame as Infiltration, and had art by Don Figueroa.

[14] The four issue tale was intended to be a weekly event, but Diamond Comic Distributors' resistance meant it became monthly.

[15] Furman had planned to visit Cybertron later on, but the fans demanded a human-less story, and Stormbringer was written.

Most importantly, the story revealed Cybertron to be dead, giving the saga a darker feel and explaining the status quo of Autobots and Decepticons spread out and fighting pocket wars.

[16] Furman intentionally wanted a larger scale and "took Cybertron out of the equation" to shape the overall arc.

[8] The story also allowed him to reinvent Thunderwing and the Pretenders, which he felt was one of the sillier concepts.

[16] In September, the companion series, The Transformers: Spotlight was launched, set to last for five issues.

[17] Furman drew upon classic stories for Shockwave,[9] re-created the personalities of Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus, and wrote Sixshot for the first time.

Furman took a break from the main storyline in June to allow Eric Holmes to write the prequel, The Transformers: Megatron Origin over four months.

Holmes conceived the tale for his favorite character, Megatron, and to explore the beginnings of the Autobot-Decepticon war,[19] collaborating with Furman to further tie-in the story into the existing continuity and taking historical inspiration from the decline of the Roman Empire.

[21] Devastation had a faster pace and explored rebellion in the Decepticon ranks, similar to the early Marvel stories.

[23][24] The arc following Revelation was a twelve-issue limited series, later expanded to sixteen issues, titled All Hail Megatron which began in July 2008, taking place a year after the end of Devastation and focusing on an Earth conquered by the Decepticons without the Autobots around to stop them, this time written by Shane McCarthy.

[23] A new mini-series by Furman, Maximum Dinobots, spun out of Spotlight: Grimlock and featured the Dinobots, Sunstreaker, and the Machination, beginning in December after the conclusion of Revelation,[26] with art by Spotlight artist Nick Roche.

[27] Starting in November 2009, an ongoing series of the Transformers was launched and ended in December 2011.

Concurrently, during this time, other mini-series were also published: Last Stand of the Wreckers, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Drift, Infestation and Heart of Darkness, the latter of which led into the story arc Chaos.

Following a one-shot titled The Death of Optimus Prime, two new ongoing series started in January 2012, Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye.

A digital Transformers comic also became available titled Autocracy, consisting of 12 eight-page issues.

[28][29] Two sequels to Autocracy titled Monstrosity and Primacy started publishing in March 2013 and August 2014, respectively.

[30][31] In April and November 2014, the Windblade and Drift – Empire of Stone mini-series were also published.

A second ongoing series of Windblade started in March 2015, and its sequel Till All Are One followed in June 2016.

After Revolution ended in November 2016, Transformers and More than Meets the Eye re-titled themselves to Optimus Prime and Lost Light, respectively.

The miniseries titled Transformers: Unicron (which is the finale of this continuity) started being published on May 5, 2018.