Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers (2010)

If More Than Meets the Eye is the long novel, this is the short, brutal war film that came first. Nick Roche and James Roberts send the Autobot commando squad known as the Wreckers into a prison held by a rogue Decepticon, and not everyone comes back. Five issues, one self-contained mission and a real sense that nobody is safe. It works as a test case for skeptics: it reads in an evening, the main cast is mostly obscure even to fans, and it treats the war as something that costs lives rather than a playground fight. Roche's art is expressive enough to make faceplates feel like faces. A good place to start if you want to know whether Transformers comics are for you before committing to a longer run.