While out to avenge their comrade, The Autobot team consisting of Optimus Prime, Arcee, Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee discover a clandestine Decepticon plot involving the mysterious 'Dark energon' and the return of the dreaded Decepticon leader, Megatron. Years of peace are suddenly shattered when the Autobot Cliffjumper is abducted and killed. The premise is simple though: The Autobots arrive on Earth in the eternal search for Energon with the Decepticons following behind. How dark is dark? Well how about having a hero gruesomely murdered within the first five minutes of the show. But free from Michael Bay's creative control, the pair turn in what is easily one of the darker and more coherent story lines in Transformers animation history. At first sight, they might bear some resemblance to their live action counterparts and having Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman as writer sure does perpetuate that perception. Transformers returns to the CGI world with TRANSFORMERS: PRIME, the first completely computer animated series since Beast Machines.
