IDW - Robots in Disguise #5

Comic Staff

Title: A Better Tomorrow

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith with Casey Coller

Colour by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Storyline

Ironhide watches as another NAIL ship returns to Cybertron, and the Autobots are getting noticeably more agitated due to them being very out-numbered now, but Ironhide assures him that everything will be alright in the end. At the landing site, Starscream and Metalhawk greet the newly returned Sky-Byte, a former Decepticon and now a poet, who doesn't seem to like Starscream due to his reputation. Prowl and Arcee watch this from high up, and Arcee taunts Prowl about knowing one of his secrets. Arcee tells Prowl that she's not his assassin, and that she got out most of her pent up anger suring her 6 year "therapy" session with Jhiaxus on Gorlam Prime and leaves, with Prowl wondering what Arcee thinks she is now then.

Later, Metalhawk is showing Sky-Byte around the city and introduces him to some more NAIL's and he learns about the Autobot's having the Decepticons tagged to explode if they go out of line, which shocks him. Later still, Ironhide is on a patrol outside the city when he encounters Sky-Byte composing a poem whilst looking at some of the dead Sweeps, who still litter the wastelands. Ironhide tells Sky-Byte that he'd love to hear his poem some time, but he should return to the city before sundown, due to the planet going crazy at night. Ironhide suggests that Sky-Byte goes to talk to some of his old Decepticon friends to get the whole picture of the planet, as he's already spoken to the NAIL's and himself about it.

Back in the city, Ironhide and Blurr are out for a drive and Blurr is slowly recovering from his injuries from the last issue and comments on how he'd love to open a bar one day (like Swerve said in MTMTE). Ironhide says it's a good idea. Elsewhere, Metalhawk and Starscream meet with Bumblebee and try to convince him to remove the Decepticon's I/D Chips, but he refuses.

Sky-Byte meets with Swindle and Needlenose, who are helping Dirge hide from Prowl when they hear some Autobots entering their hideout, as they followed Sky-Byte. The Autobots open fire, and Swindle takes Dirge down an escape route. Sky-Byte and Needlenose get arrested by Prowl whilst Arcee goes off after Swindle and Dirge. Outside the Decepticons are taken out, and some of the NAIL's think Needlenose is Skywarp and want to hurt him for hurting Zetca before, and also mistake Sky-Byte for a Decepticon too, which erupts into a riot between the NAIL's, the Autobot guards and the two prisoners.

Ironhide, Bumblebee, Metalhawk and Starscream rush to the scene and Ironhide beats down the crowd to bring some calm to it. Ironhide defends Sky-Byte from Prowl and Prowl turns against his old friend. Ironhide begs Bumblebee to turn off the chips and allow the Decepticons to try and prove themselves, as well as ending all this madness.

The next day, Blurr has reopened Maccadam's Old Oil House as a neutral area to celebrate the turning off of the chips. Ironhide, Prowl and Sky-Byte share a booth, but Prowl's still angry. Ironhide reveals that when Cybertron went White after Vector Sigma was revived he saw the future, and that it was bright and beautiful because all the fighting and all the old Transformers, bar himself and Alpha Trion were dead and gone.

Characters

Autobot
Bumblebee - Car
Ironhide - Van
Prowl - Car
Arcee - Car
Blurr - Race Car
Sideswipe - Car
Streetwise - Car
Jazz - Car
Wheeljack - Car
Broadside
Sky Lynx
Cliffjumper
Bluestreak
Wheelie (Mentioned)
Alpha Trion (Mentioned)
Future Gorlam Prime Autobots (Mentioned)

Decepticon
Starscream - Tetrajet
Dirge - Tetrajet
Ratbat - Cassette (Mentioned) Dead
Swindle - Van
Needlenose - Jet
The Constructicons (Mentioned) Dead
Horri-Bull (Mentioned) Dead
Skywarp - Tetrajet (Mentioned)

NAIL
Metalhawk - Jet
Tappet - Car
Zetca
Hipotank - Tank
Sky-Byte - Flying Shark
2 Junkions - Motorcycles
"Cruellock"
"Skyblast"
NAIL Crowds
Other
Sweeps - Space Shuttles Dead
Galvatron (Mentioned)
Jhiaxus (Mentioned)
Primus (Mentioned)

Comic Notes

• Sky-Byte is clearly based on the character from Robots in Disguise (the TV series), however this one is a Neutral Transformer, who used to be a Decepticon, rather than a Predacon.
• Hipotank (the green tank NAIL) is finally named in this issue, after being unnamed all series
• Sky-Byte thinking the Sweep reminding him of someone he used to know is a possible reference to there being a Scourge (whom the Sweeps are modeled after) in Robots in Disguise as well. Or it could mean that Sky-Byte used to know Scourge before he went missing some time ago?
• Galvatron's army going from being a collection of many body types and characters to being a group of identical Sweeps is explained sort of here, as they just all slowly became the Sweeps via Galvatron's influence (which was actually shown in All Hail Megatron when Galvatron created the first Sweeps using the Heart of Darkness)
• Both Blurr and Swerve have now opened up a bar like they originally planned to, albeit separately to one-another
• Dirge is still on the run from Prowl after he saw him killing Bombshell in cold blood
• Sideswipe actually seems to push Streetwise into Needlenose's flamethrower
• Arcee stalking Swindle and Dirge is likely to be a plot-line in an upcoming issue
• One of the NAIL's near the end looks like the Raptor Terrorcon, Cruellock (even his colours) from Energon, and another even resembles Skyblast from the same series!
• To keep up the pretense that the I/D chips are still fully active Starscream flies by hanging onto Metalhawk in his jet mode
• Sky Lynx once again randomly appears in a background...this time inside Maccadam's....how did he fit inside there?
• I guess Blurr just loved Maccadam's when it used to be open as he named his bar after it (and since this couldn't be the old building either, since all the old structures were erased during the reformatting)...I guess one of the NAIL ships just happened to be the perfect shape to recreate the bar?
• The events of the flash forward at the end of the previous ongoing are revealed to have been a vision of Ironhide's