IDW - Infiltration

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Prowl - Police Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Ironhide - Van

Bumblebee - VW Beetle

Jazz - Porsche

Wheeljack - Race Car

Sunstreaker - Sports Car

Decepticon

Megatron - Cybertronian Tank

Starscream - F-22 Jet

Thundercracker - F-22 Jet

Skywarp - F-22 Jet

Runamuck - Pontiac Solstice

Runabout - Pontiac Solstice

Blitzwing - Jet/Tank

Astrotrain - Train/Space Shuttle

Razorclaw - Drill Tank (Offscreen Only)

Human

Verity Carlo

Hunter O'Nion

Jimmy Pink

Stoker/Finklerock (Machination) Killed by Battlechargers

Lindy Simmons and her crew

Abraham Dante (Machination)

Mr Drake (Machination)

Miss Svenson (Machination)

Mr Jolly (Machination)

Storyline

Verity chooses her next target in Phoenix, Arizona and catches the same bus as him, stealing his palm computer once he falls asleep, and pretending to be sick to get off the bus once she stole it, unaware that her target, Stoker, is being followed by the Battlechargers, Runabout and Runamuck. The two Decepticons contact Starscream at the Oregon base, telling him that they have killed Stoker, but he doesn't have the palm computer on him. Starscream tells them to find it. Elsewhere, Verity hitches a ride with Hunter in his van, where he tells her that he believes that aliens are amongst them, when she mocks him he tries to explain what he means when he sees the bus Verity was on, now crashed up ahead. The driver tells them that everyone's okay, and the two humans continue their journey, whilst Hunter explains that he thinks the aliens on Earth are robots, Verity starts laughing, but stops when Thundercracker (in jet mode) appears above the van and causes a sonic boom. Starscream tells him to get the device and kill the humans. Thundercracker destroys Hunter's van, and the two humans run away from the attacking jet, when Ratchet appears in Ambulance mode and attacks the F-22. Ratchet tells the two humans to get inside the Ambulance if they want to live.

Ratchet and the humans are racing away from Thundercracker, when Hunter suddenly realises that Ratchet's one of the aliens, suddenly the Battlechargers appear alongside him and attacks the Ambulance in car mode, Ratchet fights back, and manages to chase off the Battlechargers and Thundercracker. Once the Decepticons are chased off, Verity tells Ratchet to take them to Riverside, where her friend Jimmy is located (as he's a mechanic and can help fix the Ambulance). Hunter finds the palm computer is Verity's bag, and turns it on, unknowingly alerting the Decepticons to their location. Hunter shows an image of Starscream transforming that's on the device and Ratchet says that this is bad news. Verity goes outside in a hissy fit for Hunter taking the device, but quickly comes back inside when the Battlechargers arrive, the two Decepticons tear open the wall and tell the humans to give up the device.

Ratchet, in his Holo-Avatar form pretends to give the device to Runabout, but ends up electrocuting him, being transforming himself and attacking Runamuck. Ratchet transforms again and tells the humans to get inside and he'll take them to safety (as Jimmy laments his now totally destroyed garage). Ratchet races away from the garage. Elsewhere, Stoker's dead body is found by the police, and a Machination spy informs his bosses about it. Thundercracker appears behind Ratchet and begins to attack him, whilst the Battlechargers arrive on the scene in their Siege Mode formation and begin ramming through the human's cars to get to Ratchet. Back at their Oregon base, Starscream is ready to start using the Ore-13 Energon substitute found on Earth for his Decepticons. Ratchet manages to escape the Decepticons, and Verity screams at him to stop, she gets out and freaks out, Jimmy goes to calm her down. Hunter starts talking to Ratchet alone, but Verity and Jimmy run back in and tells them to get driving again, as Thundercracker's on the scene again. Ratchet uses a Turbo Booster to get away at full speed, and he drives right towards 3 more Autobots, Ironhide, Prowl and Sunstreaker, who proceed to attack Thundercracker, and chases him off. Prowl tells Ratchet that he's in big trouble, but Ratchet quickly tells him that the Decepticons are in Siege Mode now, leaving Prowl speechless.

A little later, the Autobots have returned to Ark-19, where they have put the humans into a little holding area for their protection, and Verity starts annoying Sunstreaker. Prowl starts to reprimand Ratchet, whilst Ratchet explains everything that happened, from him finding Stoker dead to meeting with Verity and Hunter. Ratchet starts yelling at Prowl and asking why they're even on Earth if not to help the humans. Ironhide asks if Prowl's going to inform Prime or not, Prowl says no. In Arizona the police are looking for information on the dead man (known to them as his alias, Finklerock, when Skywarp and Blitzwing arrive on the scene and destroys his former mobile home. Back at Ark-19, Ratchet visits the humans in their cell, and he expands it to give them more room, Ratchet asks Verity for the computer and she gives it to him, and he starts downloading the data to analyse it. Elsewhere on the ship, Ironhide sends a message to Optimus Prime, defying Prowl's orders. From the device, Ratchet learns that there are two Decepticon bunkers on Earth, one in Oregon and an abandoned one in Nebraska, and that the device has images of both on it. Back in Roverside, Lindy Simmons is reporting on the destruction of the garage when suddenly a tank (Blitzwing) rolls in and blasts it into nothingness, then it transforms to jet mode and takes off with Skywarp, leaving the film crew and Lindy astonished.

The humans volunteer themselves to investigate the Nebraska bunker, but Ratchet is reluctant. Bumblebee sneaks up behind Ratchet and says he agrees with the humans, so they decide to take them there. Back in Phoenix, the bus that Stoker was on is destroyed by Skywarp and Blitzwing, and Starscream orders them to destroy the Nebraska Bunker next, whilst he's fueling himself up with Ore-13.

Verity and the other humans are lowered into the Nebraska Bunker and are communicating with Ratchet and Bumblebee via a radio each. Meanwhile in Dallas, Mr. Drake is introduce to Abraham Dante and the board members of the Machination and is given his mission to hunt down the Autobots and Decepticons. The humans are investigating the Bunker, when Verity finds the corpse of General Deacon inside one of the tubes. Outside, Skywarp and Blitzwing begin attacking the two Autobots, who tell the humans to get out of there. Verity ignores their orders and goes further into the base. The two Autobots transform and fight off the attacking Decepticons, with Ratchet getting badly injured in the process. Back in the bunker Verity walks in on Megatron, who is talking to Razorclaw over a communicator about destroying Cybertron if needed.

Bumblebee helps out Ratchet and tell the humans to leave again, but Hunter won't leave until he finds Verity. Verity is still glaring at Megatron, who just ignores her, more interested in what's happening on Earth in general, so Verity just, nervously films the Decepticon when the roof begins to cave in from the activity above. Verity runs to escape as Megatron is covered in the Earth from above. Jimmy escapes the bunker, but Hunter is still worried about Verity but ends up leaving as well. Back in the Oregon base Starscream gets ready to use the Ore-13. The Autobots rendezvous with the humans, and Verity reaches the exit just as the land starts caving in around it, together they manage to rescue Verity and drive off to safety. Skywarp and Blitzwing hover over the now destroyed base when Megatron punches his way out of the ground and immediately attacks the two traitors for attacking the base whilst he was in there. Ratchet and Bumblebee see this and stop to watch. Blitzwing goes to attack Megatron, but ends up getting beaten down as well. Megatron walks off, ignoring the Autobots, and sets out to find Starscream, to punish him for his actions, and they worry about what Starscream could have done to make Megatron so angry, and inform Prowl and the others.

At the Oregon Bunker, Starscream has taken in the Ore-13 whilst the other Decepticons are worried about Megatron coming here. Starscream just says that he'll take care of Megatron. The Autobots from the Ark and Ratchet travel to Oregon to see what's happening, as Bumblebee watches the Bunker from a distance. Megatron Orbital Jumps to the Bunker and calls out to Starscream to face him. The Battlechargers, Astrotrain and Thundercracker go out to attack Megatron, but put down their weapons out of fear. Starscream however speeds out of the base and attacks Megatron full on. The Autobots arrive and the other Decepticons start to attack them, but stop whilst Megatron and Starscream battle it out. Megatron grabs Starscream and blasts a hole through him, unimpressed by his new-found power. Megatron tells the Battlechargers to take Starscream inside and to attend to his injuries. Megatron looks at Prowl and just tells him that Phase Two has begun. The Autobots leave. Later, the Autobots arrive back at Lake Michigan and dive under the water, unaware that Drake and his team are spying on them for the Machination. Back in the base, Hunter tells Prowl that Optimus has arrived.

Notes

• This comic introduces the Holo-Avatars for the Autobots
• This comic establishes that Starscream's team arrived on Earth in about 2002, with this comic being set in 2005
• The Ark ships are a numbered fleet of identical ships which the Autobots use to travel with. They remain in the series until the events of All Hail Megatron
• Despite being important characters in this storyline, until their deaths, the Battlechargers aren't getting a new G1 toy until next year (2012) thanks to the Collector's Club.
• Transformers have weaponry hidden in their vehicle modes
• The dead guy from in the Facsimile Seed Pod is General Deacon, who later reappears, as a Facsimile in Escalation and Devastation, though his blue Navy uniform here was an error, it should have been green (unless he changed to a different Military branch)
• The Machination are introduced here, they remain as one of the bad guy groups until Maximum Dinobots
• Nicely, this comic hardly features Optimus Prime or Megatron until the end
• Ark-19 is located at the bottom of Lake Michigan
• Lindy Simmons later reappears in Devastation, and finally gets footage of a Transformer

My Thoughts

Art

The artwork in this comic is pretty good, it's not extremely detailed, but still looks good

Story

The story is strong, and does a good job of introducing the reader into the new IDW continuity

Continuity

This is the first comic made for the IDW continuity, but isn't the earliest set comic, with several issues, and parts of issues being set before this one. This comic happens at the same time as Stormbringer, this is shown where Razorclaw is shown talking to Megatron through a communicator, which is shown here, and Optimus receiving Ironhide's message and heading to Earth, again shown here as well.

Other

The character models in this comic have different designs to their traditional ones, and aren't based on any existing toys at the time. It also introduces the three main initial Humans in the series, Verity, Hunter and Jimmy, with Verity and Hunter playing major roles in later stories as well.