IDW - Revolutionaries #4

Title: The Iron Klaw

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Fico Ossio

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B Long

Assistant Edits by: David Mariotte

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The villains are based out in Mklavia in Kalistan, under the protection of Iron Klaw, who has somehow gained the Predacons as guards. Ironblood receives a message from Kreiger, saying that Tomax needs an emergency evac from his mission, which Ironblood is annoyed by, but he activates the MASS Device anyway...unaware that Snake Eyes is hiding in the rafters of the castle.

Outside, Kup, Action Man and Mayday are waiting for a signal, and Kup is shown an image of the Predacons, who he identifies, and explains that he trained them before the war, but after the war ended they wound up on Earth working for China, trying to develop combining technologies before the discovery of the Enigma of Combination.

Tomax arrives through the MASS Device, and is chewed out for losing his helmet and Centurion, but he is soon forgiven when he reveals that he has Garrison Blackrock as a prisoner, who they plan to dissect to figure out how he works...

On their way to the castle, Mayday explains her history with Mklavia, saying how she was on an observational team when she first worked for GI Joe, and so knows the area quite well. She then goes on to explain about how Tomax acted as though Cobra were the heroes, and the Joes, and the Western world in general were bad, until they ended up being destroyed when Snake Eyes infiltrated the group and caused an incident involving the death of another mole in the group.

Inside the castle, Blackrock is hooked up to a Talisman look-a-like, and Kreiger uses his mind to try and uncover more of the secrets of the device. Snake Eyes makes a noise, and is discovered, causing the Iron Grenadiers to attack him in response, meanwhile, the rest of the villains realise that Snake Eyes wouldn't be alone, so they deploy the Predacons too...

Outside, the team have lost contact with their team inside, so they decide to attack the castle. Kup breaks down a wall, but finds the Predacons combined into Predaking!

Inside the castle, Snake Eyes is dead, and Kreiger asks Tomax to report on Project: Ice Man, which he appears to be confused about. Ironblood examines the body of Snake Eyes, and discovers that he is a robot! "Tomax" rips off his face, and reveals that he is actually Snake Eyes, who has been using a voice modulator to allow Kup to impersonate Tomax for him (until he turns it off) and he attacks the Iron villains.

Back outside, Kup and Action Man fight Predaking, with Kup noticing that the combiner isn't right, since the Predacons would never work together like this, and determines that they are being controlled some how. Mayday leaves to go inside, and see if there's some way to break the control.

Inside again, Snake Eyes frees Blackrock from his harness, and he joins the battle, along with Mayday when she reaches them. She reveals about the presumed control on the Predacons, so Blackrock approaches the control harness and prepares to slowly release their control...until Snake Eyes just bludgeons the controls, freeing them instantly.

Outside, the Predacons, released from their control, de-combine and are left knocked out due to the shock. Razorcalw however quickly wakes up, and thrashes at Action Man and Kup. Razorclaw is soon concerned about how Kup got there, until Kup exploits his one weakness...he shoots off his head.

The Revolutionaries inside the castle make it to the MASS Device, and are teleported outside the castle, where Kup and Action Man recover them, and they speed away, having learned where the Talisman came from, and where Tomax and his mystery allies are going to be...

In the aftermath, the villains meet up, and decide to "burn" Centurion and Tomax, despite the cost that would cause, but Ironblood isn't worried, as they still have more "surprises".

Elsewhere, Doctor X and Stormshadow are at a facility, where a frozen alternate version of Optimus Prime is sitting.....

Characters

Autobot

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Titan Master Head

"Project Ice Man"/HOS Optimus Prime - Train Frozen

"Centurion"/HOS Bumblebee - Cabless Train Car (Mentioned)

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Predaking - Predacon Gestalt

Razorclaw - Lion Head Blown off by Kup

Tantrum - Bison

Rampage - Tiger

Divebomb - Hawk

Headstrong - Rhino

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

GI Joe/Action Man Program

Mayday

Action Man

Snake Eyes

Joe Colton (Flashback Only)

Duke (Flashback Only)

Big Ben (Flashback Only)

Roadblock (Flashback Only)

Doc (Flashback Only)

Hashtag (Flashback Only)

Zilong Qian (Mentioned)

Unnamed Villain Group/Cobra

Iron Klaw

Baron Ironblood

Garrison Kreiger

Doctor X

Storm Shadow

Iron Grenadiers Many killed by Snake Eyes

Tomax Paoli (Flashback and Disguise Only)

Destro (Flashback Only)

Cobra's P.R. Flack (Mentioned)

Other Human

Mklavian Residents

Isaac Craft (Flashback Only) Seemingly Killed by Snake Eyes

Earth Defense Command (Mentioned)

Skywatch (Mentioned)

Other

Snake Eyes Drone Killed by Iron Grenadiers

Onyx Prime (Flashback Only)

Octopus Aliens (Flashback Only) Killed by Predacons

Notes

• The narration boxes in this issue are actually a transmission being sent to Optimus Prime by Kup
• Iron Klaw, Baron Ironblood and the Iron Grenadiers? I think there's a theme going on here.
• Also of note, the Hearts of Steel characters are being used by them, Iron and Steel are very similar metals...another connection?
• Last time we saw some of the Predacons, they were amongst the attempted attack on Earth led by Galvatron at the end of the Transformers Ongoing. I guess they were abducted by the villains in this story after that fight?
• A large deal of this story is set in flashback form, showing some otherwise missing history from both Transformers and GI Joe, which includes the abandoned story lines from GI Joe's past volumes.
• "Tomax's" outfit is based on his outfit shown in the original GI Joe animated series.
• More of Mayday's back story is given here, she worked at Skywatch (likely the one before Spike took over) and then joined a Joe team with Big Ben and Duke, she left when the team was exposed by Cobra, and joined the EDC, and we know what's happened since then.
• Snake Eyes is revealed to have been under deep cover working at Cobra at the end of the previous GI Joe volume for the Joes, which led to it's disbanding before the current storyline.
• Kreiger is revealed to have made a replica of the Talisman which he has been experimenting on since he lost it to the Adventure Team
• Kreiger and Ironblood see Snake Eyes' disfigured face for a few moments this issue, but we don't get to...not sure if that's good or not yet....
• Blackrock reports that the Talisman comes from Onyx Prime, who was his master before taking on his human persona, and it seems to be able to unlock hidden memories from his past life too.
• Oh...Hearts of Steel Optimus is here too? And he is frozen, and referred to as "Ice Man" just like Megatron from the Live Action Movies.
• It seems like more Transformers from the Hearts of Steel universe have made it to the Hasbroverse, either through a multiversal portal of some sort, or the two universes getting merged due to one of the big universe destroying events from the past few years.
• A brief mention is made to a helmet being used by Tomax in relation to "Centurion" (HOS Bumblebee). This is likely what the Cobra Commander helmet from last issue is for.

IDW - Revolutionaries #2

Title: Enter the Shadow

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Fico Ossio

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Assistant Edits by: David Mariotte

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Action Man struggles to free himself from the metal flag pole he is chained to, but through brute force, he manages to free himself. Action Man follows the tracks left from the tractor that wrote the "Help Us" sign to Earth, and locates the long-abandoned Cobra base "Section Sabine" and manages to get inside, soon discovering that the base still has oxygen and power, so he starts to explore it, and finds piles of dead Cobra Troopers, and someone else...

On Earth, the Revolutionaries have located the Micronauts in the Pacific Science Center, where they are looking for one of the portals home. The Micronauts assume the Revolutionaries are trying to capture them, so they fight back, until they realize that they aren't actually trying to hurt them, and they soon make peace. Blackrock shows them a holographic image of the Talisman, assuming they might know something about it, due to both them and the device seeming to have Cybertronian origins.

The team soon reconvene at a locale Onyx building, where they discover that the Talisman seems to be designed for Micronauts to interact with, but they aren't sure where the actual device is at the present. Oz however, reasons that since the Revolutionaries were able to track down the Micronauts due to their technology, couldn't they track down the Talisman the same way...

Back on the Moon, Action Man is taken to see Doctor X, who is leading the operations in the abandoned base, and it told that whilst Doctor X doesn't want to kill him, she isn't going to let him go either, in case he ruins their plans.

Knowing that something is happened, Action Man runs to escape, reasoning that the MASS Device that Cobra used to use must be working again, since there's no way an Earth-built spacecraft could take him to the Moon this fast. He soon locates the transporter room, and finds it filled with Ore-13, but before he can use it, he is skewered by Storm Shadow, angry that he killed one of her troops.

Kup, now fitted with thrusters and wings, along with the Micronaut's ship, the Heliopolis, head to the Moon, where they smash through the walls, and raid the facility. The Revolutionaries go after the Talisman, whilst the Micronauts go to find and rescue Action Man.

During the battle, Larissa makes it to the Talisman, and manages to Enerchange with it, revealing that it basically acts like a small space shuttle, however upon activating it, the Ore-13 that was surrounding it starts to react to the energy, and prepares to detonate. Baron Ironbood orders an evacuation, much to the annoyance of Doctor X, who doesn't want to abandon Action Man to die.

Soon, Kup and Mayday locate Action Man, and remove the sword in his hand.

Outside the facility, Blackrock, Acroyear and Larissa, inside the Talisman watch as the base explodes from the Ore-13 reaction, and fear the worst for the rest of the team, however Kup emerges from the flames, along with the Heliopolis, and the humans in his chest cavity.

The two groups head back towards Earth, but are still confused as to the actual nature of the Talisman, and have no idea how to use it to cure their friends and the innocents that were turned into Dire Wraiths from it. Action Man however reveals that British Intelligence has files on the device when it was found...Mayday welcomes him to the team....

Characters

Autobot

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Sovereign/Garrison Blackrock - Head

Impactor (Mentioned)

Wreckers (Mentioned)

GI Joe

Mayday/Ayana Jones

Roadblock (Mentioned)

Snake Eyes (Mentioned)

Cobra/Doctor X

Doctor X/Mercy Gale

Storm Shadow

Baron Ironblood

Red Shadows

Section Sabine Cobra Troopers Dead

Section Sabine Astronauts Dead

Oktober Guard (Mentioned)

Micronaut

Oziron Rael

Phenolo-Phi

Larissa

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron

Time Casket (Mentioned) Dead

Other Human

Action Man/Ian Noble

Pacific Science Center Patrons

Adventure Team (Mentioned)

Matt Damon (Mentioned)

British Intelligence (Mentioned)

Arashikage Ninja Clan (Mentioned) Mostly Dead

Notes

• As mentioned last time, Action Man is stranded at the Cobra base "Section Sabine" at the start of the issue, one of the dangling threads of the GI Joe comics from before Revolution.
• Action Man's reference to Matt Damon is likely a reference to the film "The Martian" where Damon's character needs to survive on Mars.
• It's revealed that the Cobra base does still have life support systems in place on there, so it's most likely that the Cobra troops killed themselves due to them running out of food, rather than other more obvious Moon-related deaths.
• This issue spoils that the Micronauts are going to learn English in the upcoming issues of their own series. Also, the Time Mask is not present amongst them...I guess they ditched it somewhere.
• Kup recites the Universal Greeting from the animated Transformers Movie. The Micronauts are not impressed, seeing it as cringey, but do understand it. This is likely due to the relationship between the Micronauts and Cybertronians.
• As I theorized in my review of Micronauts #9, the obelisk/Talisman was one of the portals that the Time Casket showed the team.
• If neither Doctor X or Baron Ironblood actually wanted Action Man to die...then WHY DID THEY STRAND HIM OUTSIDE THE STATION!??!
• Oz mentions that the Talisman has ports on it that'll allow them to Enerchange with it....I did not realize they needed ports to do that...they haven't seemed to so far....remember when Karza used himself with all those Dire Wraiths?
• It's revealed that the Oktober Guard and Doctor X's team are working together, and have a working MASS Device at their base on Earth
• Why did Blackrock just happen to have a space-shuttle attachment fitted to Kup's specifics?
• Also, Blackrock appears to still have control of the Onyx company. Surely as an alien sleeper agent, he'd be disallowed from having that!
• Mayday mentions how neither GI Joe or Cobra could justify a rescue mission for the staff on the Moon due to budgetary concerns, Blackrock then mentions that he could have funded it. Two things: the Joes clearly didn't care enough to save them, and was Blackrock even on Earth at the time, or is this just another of his planted memories?
• How did the Ore-13 get to the Moon? Every time we've seen it in transporters it tended to explode, and X's troops don't appear to have a shuttle. Maybe some of the Ore ended up on the Moon when Shockwave sent it to Earth?
• So, the Talisman has a cockpit for Micronauts inside it? Cool! That would imply that it originated from Microspace, or another universe with tiny denizens.
• The Red Shadows were seen in the new GI Joe series (which alas, I am not reviewing here) and had their strange enhancements shown off there too, though they look a bit Dire Wraith-like here...