FBF - To The Death: Forged by Fire

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Martin Baines

Design: Amazing15

Plot

Following the birth of his son, Aleksy Dryagin decides to re-enlist for his second tour of duty as a Pacifier, to be able to provide money for his family, despite his wife, Lena, disapproving of the idea.

Aleksy and his team are soon formed, and are shipped out to the Borderlands to take on some violent alien species, whoa re giving their current troops problems. They arrive on the planet Asphodel, where they encounter weird creatures, and have a full battle with an army of Sentinels protecting their leaders, by literally forming themselves as a dome around them.

The battle eventually ends when  Aleksy tosses a belt of grenades into the lava surrounding the capitol island, and detonating them, destroying the bridge and most of the defending army, allowing them to slowly defeat the rest of them, and pacify the planet for the Tri-Corp.

After the battle, Aleksy and his team head towards another planet to conquer, when Aleksy thinks back to his wife's thoughts on his mission, she believes that the Tri-Corp reached out to him to take on another tour of duty, just so they can kill him off in battle, since no-one normally returns from even one tour alive, let alone two. 

One year later, on Earth, Deacon Snow and his team prepare for a simulated detonation of the "Asphodel Extinction Weapon", and comments on how beautiful it is to use an entire planet's molten heart and soul for this device, but that it is also terrifying too....

Characters

Pacifiers

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Diamond Bill

Jonas Huey

Dolan Rekt

Hash Flynn

Megan Umber

Leone

Bette Larssen

Josiah Kraken

The Echelon (Mentioned)

Other Pacifiers (Mentioned)

Other Human

Lena Dryagin

Leo Dryagin

Deacon Snow

Energy Corp Development Team

Alamo Staff Member

The Tri-Corp (Mentioned)

Other

Asphodel Denizens Wiped Out by Pacifiers

Borderland Combatants

Notes

• This is the special prequel issue of the series, which has only been released on the To The Death website and at conventions, such as TFNation, which is where I got mine.
• The cover doesn't normally feature the scribbles that are on mine, as I said before, I went to TFNation.
• This story takes place mostly five years before the events of To The Death, with the epilogue taking place one year after that.
• This issue shows that Aleksy left Earth shortly after Leo was born, not just before like I assumed in issue 2
• Aleksy mentions that he doesn't know if Diamond Bill's name is a codename or his actual one.
• We learn here that Aleksy personally recruited Leone, Larssen and Kraken to the team, we knew this about Leone already, and Kraken is shown in the issues to be dangerous, but Larssen hasn't shown any dangerous tendencies so far..
• We keep hearing about "Tri-Corp" this issue, but in the series proper we only hear about the Energy Corp, which appears to be just a branch of it. Unless this is just an abandoned plot line from this prequel that is.
• We learn that the pacifier teams are given their orders from a group called "The Echelon", who we haven't heard of in the main series so far.
• In his cryo-sleep, we see Aleksy dreams that his wife is taken from him by a three headed monster (ie his wife being seemingly killed by the Triumvirate) and Earth being burned and destroyed in the aftermath (this hasn't happened yet) we can probably assume this is some sort of prophetic dream.
• In the burning Earth scene, we see a human-looking guy seemingly floating in the flames...do we have a fire-bender or something on the way?
• Deacon Snow is revealed to be a member of the Energy Corp, developing a super-weapon...huh...I wonder why he left them to form the White Noise team?
• The old man next to Snow hasn't appeared in the main series yet (unless he's just changed his appearance since then) so he's likely either died in the interim, or has just not appears yet.
• So the Asphodel Extinction Weapon appears to be made from the spoils of the planet Asphodel, meaning that more than just Helium is being harvested after all...what are the Triumvirate up to?

IDW - Transformers (2019) #10

Title: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet, Part Four

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Angel Hernendez, Anna Malkova and Beth McGuire-Smith

Colours by: Joana LaFuente & Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte

Plot

Megatron meets with his guards, Elita-1 and Bumblebee, and they escort him towards the Senate meeting, on the way they come across a silent protest starting, in honour of the recent murder victims, which people are blaming on the extremist group, the Rise.

Meanwhile, Froid visits Cyclonus at a medical facility, where he brings up his dead friends, and asks if he ever talks with Paragon, who was killed by Pyra Magna. Upon hearing his name, Cyclonus snaps, and heads off alone again, to get away from society...

The Senators meeting begins, and the topic of discussion is, of course the recent murders and rising tensions and riots across the planet. Megatron dismisses the claims and tries to accuse the others of blaming his Ascenticons for the riots and recent troubles.

Orion points out to Megatron that there is no real discussion to be had, the Autobots hold the majority vote, and they will uphold Nominus' Edict, and they will not be removed from power until the next voting season, so Megatron will have to disband his private army, the Ascenticon Guard, and also join the rest of the Senate in publicly denouncing the Rise as an extremist group and even rename them.

Before Pax can give the new name to the Senate, Megatron starts to leave, dismissing the idea as Pax trying to deceive the population.

Outside, Megatron is met with his guards, but his is noticed by a member of the crowd, and a riot starts, with the population starting to equate the Ascenticons to the Rise and start attacking the Senator. Bee and Elita fend off the rioters, whilst Megatron gets to safety, but the two guards begin to question what they are doing, when they start injuring the rioters...

Megatron heads off into the wasteland outside the city, where he meets with his associate, the leader of the Rise, Shockwave, whom Megatron put in the position to cause chaos, but screams at him that he wasn't to kill anyone. he warns Shockwave to not cause the Ascenticons any more problems and to never let it be reveals that they have a connection...but Shockwave has other plans in mind....

Prowl heads towards Ascenticon HQ, where he asks Soundwave to hand Barricade over to them, as they need to speak to him about some recent actions he has made, but Soundwave simply refuses them entry...

Elsewhere, a large Cybertroninan lands on the planet, and deploys her precious cargo, of Sentinel Prime and his retinue, who is fairly pissed off at the recent events on his planet, and wants to head to the Senate offices immediately to start smashing some heads together! 

Characters

Autobot

Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle

Senator Orion Pax - Truck

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Security Forces

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Sideswipe - Car

Ironhide - Van

Windblade - VTOL Jet In Protective Stasis, Following Injuries

Security Cadets

Ascenticon

Senator Megatron - Treaded Vehicle

Senator Soundwave - Hover Craft

Elita-1 - Car

Bumblebee - Winged Hover Craft

Acid Storm - Tetra Jet

Skytread

Other Ascenticons

Barricade (Mentioned)

The Rise

Shockwave - Space Craft

Flamewar - Motorcycle (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Froid - Jet

Flatline

Senator Heretech

Senator Crisscross

Starscream - Tetrajet

Nautica

Hound - Jeep

Firestar - Car

Road Rage

"Giant Woman" - Senate Space Shuttle

Other Two Meeting Senators

Medical Facility Staff

"Silent" Protestors

Primus (Mentioned)

Cyclonus' Ghost Friends (Mentioned) Dead

Paragon (Mentioned) Death Caused  by Pyra Magna

Pyra Magna (Mentioned) Imprisoned

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead, Confirmed Killed by a Rise Member

Other

A Skitter Crushed by Megatron

Pterasaur Aliens

Notes

• This issue's cover and synopsis was switched with last issue's, explaining the mis-matched covers, though it doesn't appear that the issues themselves were swapped, since this issue directly references the previous one heavily.
• The art duties this issue are as such: Hernandez does the scenes Senate meeting scenes, and the protest outside, Malkova deals with the scenes in the medical facilty and Sentinel's return to the planet, and McGuire-Smith does the meeting between Megatron and Shockwave.
• Uh oh, Windblade is in a "protective stasis" tube now! Last time we saw that sort of thing was when Sideswipe, who sustained injuries from an explosion and being in a crashing ship, and subsequently stayed in one for a couple of years and then died...let's see where this goes....
• Paragon, mentioned by Froid as someone whom Cyclonus has to speak to earlier is revealed to be dead, and that Pyra Magna was responsible for his death, possibly explaining why she is imprisoned too?
• Sideswipe claims to not know Flamewar's name, but since she knows his name, does this mean that he's well-known or some sort of celebrity?
• One of the Senators in the meeting is using a holo-generator to appear....why doesn't Sentinel do the same if he needs to speak to Orion and the others so badly?
• Another of the Senators is Heretech, revealed to be the leader of the Reversionists, mentioned here as being affiliated with the Autobots. This is interesting since Heretech in IDW's old continuity was a Decepticon
• Orion Pax's plan to rebrand the Rise as something more appropriate (a word that begins with "Dece-" hmmm?) is reminiscent of the use of the term "Daesh" to de-legitimize the terrorist group ISIS.
• Elita-1 shows the first signs of her not fully agreeing with the Ascenticon ways, when she shows remorse for hurting others during the protest riot.
• I CALLED IT!!! I said early on in this series that The Rise would just be an off-shoot of the Ascenticons and would in fact be controlled by Megatron or one of his cabal secretly! (I believe I even suggested Shockwave was in charge!)
• It is revealed this issue that Nominus exiled some troublemakers offworld, though this was kept quiet, so many believe it to just be a conspiracy theory.
• Interestingly, Megatron attributes Brainstorm's death to a member of the Rise, but also to Rubble's death too....is Quake classed as a member of the Rise now due to his actions, despite his prominence in the Ascenticon Guard, or does Megatron not know that Quake was the killer?
• It's finally revealed what the Rise actually is now, it was an off-shoot of the Ascenticons created to cause trouble and force the hand of the senate to give control of Cybertron to the Ascenticons, as they are the only ones who can take them down, by repealing the Nominus Edict. However Megatron claims that he never planned for anyone to actually die by their actions, and is now blaming Shockwave for it.
• The large Cybertronian who turns into a spaceship for Sentinel and his crew MIGHT be a Titan, but she may just be a giant Cybertronian (like Leviathan was mentioned as being). Also, I believe it's a female Cybertronian, simply due to her general form and appearance, I could be wrong though!
• Sentinel's comments about smashing heads together may be a reference to the toy he is modelled after being a Titan Master (aka his head turns into a tiny robot)
• We don't see any insignias on any of Sentinel's crew, but since all of them (except Starscream) are traditionally Autobots, and are under his command, we can probably assume they are in the political party too.

IDW - Transformers vs Ghostbusters #3

Title: Ghost of Cybertron, Part 3

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Dan Schoening

Colours by: Luis Antonio Delgado

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Editor: Megan Brown

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

At the Ghostbuster's Firehouse, Janine isn't impressed with Ectronymous, but not because she's afraid, she's just annoyed because she thinks he's going to cause damage that they'll have to fix themselves afterwards. She also outright refuses to call Ectronymous Diamatron by his full name, so gives him the nickname "Ectotron", which he reluctantly accepts.

Starscream arrives at the firehouse, where he is greeted by Janine threatening him with a proton grenade until the Ghostbusters inform her that she's "sort of" with them. Screamer gets annoyed so he goes upstairs, utilizing his new size-changing abilities. Venkman follows him, and sees him trying, and failing to kill another captive ghost, Slimer, and Venkman outright tells him that he doesn't trust him, and knows he's up to something. Starscream warns the human not to taunt him, when Venkman activates a hidden ghost trap and locks Screamer inside.

Downstairs, Venkman tells the others what he did, and they agree that it might be for the best. Ray repairs Ectotron's communicator (which just had a loose wire) allowing him to contact the Ark.

Behind the Earth's Moon, the Ark is waiting when they get Ectotron's communication, Optimus talks to him (and is glad that he got a shorter name) and is intrigued by Ectotron's findings on the planet and decides to come to the planet himself.

Wheeljack and Grimlock try to talk Prime out of going to Earth himself, but he insists on doing it, as showing faith in his followers is what makes him a great leader.

Back on Earth, the Ghostbusters get a job at a warehouse, and they need Ectotron to drive them there, with the promise that they'll be back to meet Optimus when he arrives.

Soon, the team arrive at the warehouse in Brooklyn, where Egon detects a signal similar to the one from the Kremzeek they battled before. Ectrotron wants to help out, so he takes a trap and starts modifying it.

Optimus arrives on Earth and takes on a truck mode, he heads to the Firehouse, but doesn't see Ectotron, so he does into a rest cycle...unfortunately some punks arrive and decide to graffiti him up...

At the warehouse, Winston and Venkman investigate but can't find anything, until Venkman flips a switch, releasing the ghost, Killerwatt, a GIANT electrical spirit.

They run outside, leading the spirit towards the others, and they try holding it in place with their particle beams, but they realize that the ghost is feeding on the city's power grid, prompting Ectotron to smash the power lines, weakening the spirit. The team use the modified trap and capture the electrical being, without the trap exploding this time!

The team return to the Firehouse, where they find the "decorated" Optimus Prime waiting for them, Venkman leaves the group to recover the trap he placed Starscream in, so they can get to business, but when he returns he is shocked to find that the trap is empty! Starscream has somehow escaped!!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Ectronymous Diamatron/Ectotron - Ecto-1 Replica

Grimlock

Wheeljack - Hover Van

Decepticon

Starscream - Tetrajet (Ghost) Missing after being Trapped by Venkman

Ghostbuster

Peter Venkman

Egon Spengler

Ray Stantz

Winston Zeddemore

Janine Melnitz

Other Human

New York Punks

Mr Colchamiro (Mentioned)

Mr Avery (Mentioned)

Other

Killerwatt Captured by the Ghostbusters and Ectotron

Slimer Imprisoned by the Ghostbusters

Kremzeek (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• Just like the rest of the Ghostbusters, Janine is not bothered at all by the appearance of Ectotron, showing just how much they've been through in their own series.
• Janine is the one who renamed Ectronymous Diamatron into the "Ectotron" from the toy, as she refuses to say an eight syllable name. A decision that everyone is happy with, even (reluctantly) Ectronymous himself.
• The portrait of Vigo the Carpathian, the main villain and haunted item of Ghostbusters II is seen in the entry-hall of the Ghostbuster's Firehouse.
• Starscream reveals that as a ghost, he has the ability to change sizes.
• The ghost in the containment chamber is the original version of Slimer from the first two movies, and is not the "cute" sidekick from the animated series'
• The firehouse has various ghost traps rigged into the walls, and most likely other things. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it!
• The Ark is revealed to have just stayed behind the Moon since dropping off Ectotron...why couldn't more Autobots have gone with him, if they were just going to stay in the area anyway?!
• Egon still refuses to accept that Ectotron and the Cybertronians are aliens.....WHY?!?!?!
• In a possible error, Janine answers the phone to a "Mr Colchamiro" but the order form states that their contact is "Mr Avery". It's possible this is the same person somehow, or there were two phone calls for orders made, or some sort of ghostly manipulation. But most likely they just changed the name between the scripting and artwork being made for the comic.
• Ectotron doesn't want to talk about the experience of having the Ghostbusters ride around inside him.
• In the car park where Optimus scans his Earth-mode we see the orange truck that he scanned in the original cartoon, but also the what appears to be the five vehicles the Stunticons were created from in the series too. Now, whilst we didn't see the Stunticons die last issue, I don't think these are them either. These are most likely either doppelgangers or actually the original vehicles that would have been stolen and converted in the originally intended timeline.
• The ghost this issue is Killerwatt, from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, though I think it's safe to assume that this version is another minion of Mara-Al-Utha 
• The graffiti on Optimus includes a load of references to Transformers and Ghostbusters (I won't go into them all here, but some are shown in the picture above)
• Venkman starts to make the old "Pessimus Prime" joke when meeting Optimus, until Ectotron stops him.

FBF - To The Death #2

Title: Severance

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Martin Baines

Designer: Amazing15

Printer: Mixam

Plot

The Triumvirate hold a meeting to discuss a mini-revolution at a mining facility on the Moon, but due to most of their military forces being off-world, they need someone to deal with it...when they remember that a military team IS nearby...

At Mercy Spaceport, the crowds are excitedly waiting for the Pacifiers to return, when one of them, a disguised Juddh King receives a call from his associate, Deacon Snow, informing him of the sniper waiting to kill Dryagin upon arrival. King goes in disguise and heads to the sniper's location

On the Firedrake, Dryagin is working out, when he is interrupted by the holograms of the Triumvirate, who order him to lead his team to the Moon and liberate the facility from "terrorists", in exchange they will give his team some extra pay...

Back on Earth, the Triumvirate confirm their stay of execution for Dryagin, but decide to still kill his family, as that order has already been given.

Soon, at the Dryagin Ranch, Lena is furious that Aleksy is going to be late home due to this new mission, and the two argue over the holo-communicators , but Lupex, the family dog keeps barking at something, leading to the communication cutting out. Lena tries to find out what happened, but is unaware that a man is standing behind her...

On the Firedrake, Aleksy tries to re-establish communication, but there's nothing wrong with their equipment, so it must be Earth-side...

The jets fly towards the Ranch and detonate their payloads in the building, incinerating it, leading the skeletal remains of a woman holding her child....

At Mercy Spaceport, the sniper is approached, and shot by King. They originally planned to recover Aleksy and his team as well, but have now learned that they have been redirected to the Moon for a mission...complicating their plans.

The Firedrake arrives at the Moon, and prepare to raid the mining facility to liberate it from the "terrorists", all whilst being recorded and shown to the people of Earth too. Bill and Larssen remain on the Firedrake to run the ship, whilst the rest of the team land on the Moon and easily get inside the facility, where they quickly discover that the "terrorists" are just the miners, staff and families who were stationed there, simply protesting their treatment at the facility.

On Earth, some of the viewers are recruited to control some robotic soldiers and are encouraged to attack and kill the Pacifiers for a reward, which they happily try to do!

Elsewhere on Earth, Lena wakes up in a cell, where she is greeted by a man who refuses to show himself, he has abducted her, Leo and their dog to keep them safe from the Triumvirate as they want them dead for some reason...

On the Moon, the Pacifiers quickly realize that they have been lied to and set up by the Triumvirate, and learn that the ships that attacked them before they were sent on this mission are approaching them too...the team suit up and prepare to fight their way out of the facility....and get home to their families.....

Characters

Pacifiers

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Hash Flynn

Leone Shot in Arm by a Brood-Class

Jonas Huey

Josiah Kraken

Megan Umber

Dolan Rekt

Bette Lawson

Diamond Bill

Triumvirate

Veni

Vidi

Vici

Other Human

Juddh King

Deacon Snow

Lena Dryagin Abducted by Snow

Leo Dryagin Abducted by Snow

Lemuel Hemmingway

The Sniper Killed by King

Luna-9 Staff, Miners and Families

Brood-Class Cyber Warrior Operators

Hope Resettlement Camp Bar Patrons

Dryagin's Fans

Mercy Spaceport Security

Other

Lupex, the Doggo (Heard)

Varos (Mentioned)

Notes

• My biggest wish for a comic have been granted in this issue...IT COMES WITH A CAST LIST AT THE START!!! I don't need to keep character notes to remember names now!!! YAY!!!
• The moustached man I couldn't identify last issue is called Dolan Rekt by the way. Maybe this is more evidence of computer games being important in this future?
• This issue begins before the last couple of pages of the previous issue, before the missiles attack the Dryagin Ranch 
• According to the "advertisement" in this issue, the main resource that is used on Earth and is being harvested from other planets is Helium, which was exhausted as a natural resource on Earth decades ago in universe.
• Juddh King (and presumably others) use holograms to disguise themselves as others, seemingly by superimposing an image of someone else over themselves and moving in time with the hologram. When he kills the sniper, the sniper's face seems to vanish, so he most likely has the same device in effect.
• The Triumvirate  is revealed to be the heads of "The Energy Corp", a company that controls entertainment, energy and arms. We can assume that (from the name) it began as an energy company, but branched out over time
• Unless they are just unnaturally tall, we can assume that the Triumvirate enlarged their holograms when talking to Dryagin, in order to intimidate him
• We learn here that Aleksy has been on duty for Leo's entire life and hasn't really met his son before, he took the job with the Pacifiers to pay their bills.
• Adding to the theme of this future being de-sensitised to violence and being obsessed with computer games (which are being taught in schools now remember) we have people watching the team's missions and hoping to see death, and even volunteering to control remote soldiers to try and kill them as well.

Sig Pub - Transformers #46

Notes

• The screen cap comics this month are the episodes: "Siloed" and "King of the Dinobots"
• As you might be able to tell from the cover, this issue features a fairly big BotBots segment inside it! This is a welcome surprise!
• "The Story of Botbots" comic is a straight-up screen-cap comic of the BotBot's origin advert
• The poster this month is the BotBots advertisement leaflet/checklist given in packets of Wave One figures, just without the checkboxes included.
• For, I believe the first time ever, the Battle of the Bots profiles are ACTUALLY of characters who have a rivalry in the series! Well done Sig Pub!
• The free gifts this month are a packet of stickers to use on the cover poster, a projectile launcher, designed to look somewhat like Slipstream's blaster...AND A BOTBOTS WAVE TWO BLINDPACK!!! :O
• My Blindpack BotBot was Technotic Sonic (the speakers) by the way :)

Features

Cyberverse: The Story so Far... - Fill in the gaps to complete the "story so far"

Mega Megatron Colouring - Colour in a Megatron picture!

The Story of BotBots - A comic to show how the Botbots came into existence!

Lost Bots Match! - Match a BotBot to his alternate mode

Odd Bot Out!- Find the BotBot that is in the wrong group

BotBots Poster! - A pull-out poster of the BotBots

Spot the Bot!- Find a specific BotBot in a group shot

Crazy Colouring! - Colour in the Toilet Troop BotBots!

Battle of the Bots- Windblade vs Slipstream Profiles!

Transformers Competitions - Enter contests to win some BotBots/Cyberverse toys!

Transformers Post- Witness more horrifying images sent in by small human children!

Observation Test- Play spot the difference with two pictures!

Cover Poster - Tear off the front cover and place the provided stickers on them to complete the picture (over the next 3 issues though...)

IDW - Clue Candlestick #3

Story/Art/Letters by: Dash Shaw

Production Editor by: Neil Uyetake 

Assistant Edits by: Megan Brown

Edits by: David Hedgecock

Plot

When she was a little girl, Peacock would sneak her parent's magazines into her textbooks and read them at night. To stop her from straining her eyes, her father gives her an antique candlestick and tells her to only read until the candle itself goes out.

Over the following years, Peacock's parents die and she meets a man named Milburn, who had mob connections, they fell in love and eventually married, however she eventually started an affair with Mr Green, another mobster.

At some point, a job goes bad, and Milburn needs to be killed, so Green carries out the job by bludgeoning him with the candlestick and burning him in the fireplace.

Afterwards Green and Peacock get together officially, but Peacock is unaware of him killing her husband. he tries to get rid of the candlestick, but due to it being an antique and formerly belonging to her parents, so wont allow him to discard it.

Green claims that he wants to get rid of it because it reminds him of Milburn and upsets him, which she believes and agrees to trade it away. She gets in contact with her friend, Mr Boddy, who agrees to trade an old book with her for it, a book about building hidden passages...

Back in the present, Mrs White reveals that she knows that Peacock and Green arrived together and must know eachother, despite not disclosing this earlier, and due to her family antique business and recent loss of her wealthy husband, she must have wanted to take all the rare items in Boddy's collection for herself to fund her lifestyle.

The police arrive, and White and Plum tell them to arrest Peacock and Green for the three murders. They deny it, but are both arrested and sent away.

Later, at Boddy's funeral, White realizes that Plum was the one who appraised all of Boddy's treasured items, and must also realise their true value, so she bequeaths them all to him on Boddy's behalf, to Plum's apparent shock.

Elsewhere, Peacock and Green talk to eachother over the phone from their respective prisons, but both admit to not being the killer.

One night, Peacock's cellmate suggests to Peacock that they can dig a tunnel out of jail with a spoon, and asks if Peacock knows anything about tunnels, leading her to think about the book she got from Boddy...

She realizes from the doodles in the book that Boddy had tunnels in his house, one that led between the kitchen and study, where  Plum and Scarlett were hiding respectively, meaning he was the one who killed her, he was the closest to the gun that killed Mustard, and was also alone in the house when Boddy was killed, meaning HE was the killer!

At his house, Plum talks to the statue of Scarlett from Boddy's collection and admits that he killed them for the exhileration and just to "win the game". He lights the candlestick, leaves it in his windowsill, and drinks a glass of malted milk with honey to have a restless sleep.

Back at the prison, Peacock whistles through the bars and leads her breath to the candlestick, knocking it over and setting fire to the house, killing Plum as he slept.

Later, Peacock and her cellmate escape from prison and go into hiding.

After a while, Peacock, now in a disguise, goes to see Green and promises to get him free too, he asks her why she loves him, despite his evil ways, but she just says that she sees the goodness in him...and that's what she loves...

Characters

The Dinner Party

Mrs Peacock

Mr Green Imprisoned by Police

Professor Plum Killed by Peacock/Candlestick

Mrs White

Miss Scarlett Killed by Plum

Mr Boddy (Flashback Only) Killed by Plum

Colonel Mustard (Flashback Only) Killed by Plum

Other

Stanley White

Ollie, the Postman

Peacock's Cellmate

The Police

Boddy's Funeral Party

Delivery Men

Other Prisoners

St Peter (In Heaven)

Milburn Pennybags (Flashback Only) Killed by Green with Candlestick and Incinerated

Mr Peacock Sr (Flashback Only) Dead

Mrs Peacock Sr (Flashback Only) Dead

Auctioneer (Flashback Only)

Auction Goers (Flashback Only)

Vicar (Flashback Only)

John Keats (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue ends with an interview with Dash Shaw by Suzette Smith
• The back page of the comic features the last seven custom Clue game cards: The Lounge, Billiard Room, Hall, Library, Study, Ball Room and Dining Room...now we just need a custom game board too (maybe the TPB will give us that!)
• AHEM! About the mystery in this series....I CALLED THE RESULT LAST MONTH!! BWAAHAHAHAHHAHAH!! I'm a detective now I guess!
• As predicted by the title and it's constant references, the Candlestick was ultimately the one to kill the killer.
• The "Milburn" man whom Peacock marries in this issue's flashback is the Monopoly Man....is this series secretly the start of a Hasbro board game comic universe?
• Despite the claims that the Candlestick was never used in a murder, like the other items were, we learn here that Green used it to kill Peacock's husband
• As predicted last issue, we learn this time that the Boddy Mansion uses the hidden tunnels from the real board game
• We learn that the thing Peacock kept hidden from the group in issue one, is that she and Green are in a relationship.
• Mrs White is revealed to be the one who watched Plum arrive at the party in issue one. She also followed the red-herring clues and believed that Peacock, and by extension Green, were the killers due to their prior relationship (though since they were the only two with no prior contact with anyone but Boddy before this night, it makes no sense why no one else is a more likely suspect...)
• In case you missed the motive for the murders, plum wanted to kill off all the other party guests and frame it on Peacock and Green, so he could get all the items in Boddy's collection by default to make money from them. He knew Peacock would get blamed due to her family auction house, and knew people would believe she wanted to sell on the items for her own profit.
• The panels of Peacock and Green being sent to jail appear to be based on the same panels on a Monopoly board
• So...the Candlestick is sentient it seems....this is disturbing, because it also seems to have an attraction to Peacock!
• The prophetic dream from issue one is revealed to actually be a premonition of Plum's own death caused by Peacock whistling for her candlestick falling over at her command kill Plum...she has magic breath I guess!
• Despite his murders and Scarlett not getting there previously, Plum is shown at Heaven in the end (though St Peter does look annoyed at him, so maybe he's about to be plummeted to Hell?)
• Mrs Peacock's "disguise" after breaking out of jail is just a pair of sunglasses...good work!

IDW - Transformers vs Ghostbusters #2

Title: Ghosts of Cybertron, Part 2

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by:Dan Schoening

Colours by: Luis Antonio Delgado

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assisant Editor: Megan Brown

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Ectronymous Diamatron explains who he is to the Ghostbusters, but is somewhat surprised that they don't seem too shocked at his appearance, but they explain that they've seen too many weird things in the past for this to shock them. 

He explains that he is on Earth looking for a Cybertronian signal, but the Ghost Trap is blocking the signal, so he needs them to deactivate it. Ray tries to explain that they cannot do that, whilst Egon tries to figure out what Eck really is, not believing the alien story, but Eck has enough of this, and shorts out the trap, freeing Starscream, who immediately goes on the offensive against the Ghostbusters.

Eck is shocked, since he thought Starscream was just a hologram before, but now he can tell that Starscream IS the signal himself. The Ghostbusters use their proton packs to hold Starscream in place, but Starscream calls for a truce when he notices Eck's Autobot insignia.

Eck approaches Starscream, cautiously, as he knows of his traitorous reputation and agrees to the truce, with Venkman holding a Ghost Trap as insurance to stop him from attacking again.

Starscream recounts how Gozer attacked Cybertron and tore through most of the Decepticon combiners and other forces, whilst Megatron and his inner circle watch on in terror.

Megatron refuses to escape the doomed planet, despite everyone else suggesting to do so, when a cloaked figure, calling himself Kremzeek appears and offers them an escape, without running away.

Megatron agrees to his terms and "Kremzeek" kills the Decepticon leader, but rebirths him as a ghost immediately afterwards.

Starscream explains that the same thing happened to the other Decepticons, but when they became ghosts, they were placed under the thrall of "Kremzeek", until Starscream managed to escape and made his way to Earth, and now he wants Eck's help to use the Allspark to give him a new body.

The Ghostbusters and Eck are unsure about the story, but before they can do anything, another "ghost" appears, a small Kremzeek minion. Starscream freaks out on sight of the tiny "ghost" so the Ghostbusters try to trap him, but the minion detonates the trap instead.

The team work together to ensnare the minion with the Proton Packs and use Eck as a conduit to short out his electrical field, dispersing the energy-based creature.

Eck, seeing this, believes part of Starscream's story and decides to contact Optimus Prime to see about using the Allspark to give him a body, but he notices his communicator is damaged, he can use the one in his ship, but only if he can get replacement parts.

The Ghostbusters agree to help him fix his ship, so long as they can get a ride back to the Firehouse with him, since their real car is broken down.

Starscream, happy with his work, smirks and quietly calls the group fools....

Characters

Autobot

Ectronymous Diamatron - Ecto-1

Scrounge - Wheel (Flashback Only) Killed in Gozer Battle

Optimus Prime (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Starscream - Tetrajet Ghost

Megatron (Flashback Only) Killed by "Kremzeek", Turned into a Ghost

Soundwave - Lamp Post (Flashback Only)

Shockwave - Flying Gun (Flashback Only)

Bruticus - Combaticon Gestalt (Flashback Only)

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt (Flashback Only) Killed by Gozer

Predaking - Predacon Gestalt (Flashback Only) Critically Injured by Gozer 

Straxus (Flashback Only) Killed in Gozer Battle 

Hotlink - Tetrajet (Flashback Only)

Warrior Dropkicks - Cargo Disguise (Flashback Only) Multiple Killed by Gozer

Transport Dropkicks - Pick Up Trucks (Flashback Only) Multiple Killed by Gozer 

Dark Guardians (Flashback Only) Many Killed by Gozer

Other Decepticons (Flashback Only)

Ghostbuster

Peter Venkman

Ray Stantz

Winston Zeddemore

Egon Spengler

Other

Kremzeek Minion Dispersed by Ghostbusters and Ectotron

Gozer/Emperor Starscream (Flashback Only)

"Kremzeek"/Mara-Al-Utha (Flashback Only)

Notes

• The Ghostbusters aren't too shocked by Ectotron, due to them already having dealt with a lot of strange things, and interdimensional beings, so a talking robot made from their car isn't that shocking any more!
• Egon says he cannot accept that Ectotron is an alien...but we know he knows about aliens...the Mars Attacks crossover wher ethey encounter the ghosts of some Martians happened in-continuity to this series!
• It's revealed that the Decepticons were not all killed by Gozer, at least some of them were killed by "Kremzeek" and turned into ghosts.
• In my character notes, I'll only put down "deaths" if they are shown in the comic, despite being told last issue that all the Decepticons died in the battle, since we don't know if they died from Gozer or "Kremzeek" right now (unless we do know)
• Bruticus is seen amongst the Decepticons, in the original cartoon Bruticus was created by Starscream during his mutinee on Earth (he did use existing brain chips for the Combaticons, but they should be imprisoned still at this point in time)
• the creature calling himself "Kremzeek" is actually Mara-Al-Utha, a banished Quintesson from the G1 cartoon in his Red Wizard disguise (though he does have a tiny Kremzeek on his shoulder too)
• Originally, Kremzeek was created by the Decepticons on Earth to eat energy for some reason in the G1 Cartoon, ever since then he's just been a mascot character, usually for Cybertronian beverages.
• From the way he's posed and aiming his cannon at Starscream we can probably assume that Megatron was the one who killed him, turning him into a ghost.
• One of the "bodies" Starscream possessed at one point was an F-15 Jet, his alternate mode in the G1 cartoon and toyline
• So it should be obvious to anyone reading this, who knows anything about Starscream, knows he is lying about what happened to some extent, we jus don't know what he's lying about yet.
• Ectotron mentions the Allspark being able to give Starscream a new body. The Allspark is a concept from outside the G1 continuity...so....this is interesting!
• The Ghostbusters mention defeating Gozer in the past, this happened during the original Ghostbusters movie.