Characters
Autobot
Sentinel Prime - Truck Killed by Megatron
Prowl - Speeder
Bumper - Speeder Killed by Megatron
Fastback - Small Truck Killed by Megatron
Blades - Helicopter
Roadbuster - Gun Mounted Vehicle
Whirl - Helicopter
Springer - Helicopter/Rocket Car
Hound - Jeep Injured by Megatron
Jazz - Speeder
Red Alert - Speeder
Bumblebee - Speeder
Hubcap - Speeder
Cliffjumper - Speeder
Orion Pax - Truck
Ultra Magnus - Truck
Elita One - Car
Alpha Trion - Speeder
Gears - Speeder
Windcharger - Speeder
Ironhide - Van
Chromia - Car
Wheeljack - Race Car
Warpath - Tank
Ratchet - Medical Transport
Brawn - Small Truck
Air Raid - Jet
Scrounge
Blaster - Acoustic Tank
Bluestreak - Speeder
Mirage - Race Car
Jetfire - Jet
Broadside - Jet
Trailbreaker - Van Injured by Starscream
Autobot Guards - Tanks
Decepticon (by the end)
Megatron - Armoured Vehicle/Tank
Starscream - Tetrajet
Skywarp - Tetrajet
Thundercracker - Tetrajet
Soundwave - Acoustic Tank
Rumble - Cassette - former Armoured Vehicle
Frenzy - Cassette - former Armoured Vehicle
Ratbat - Cassette
Laserbeak - Cassette
Buzzsaw - Cassette
Ravage - Cassette
Squawkbox - Cassettes
Swindle - Jeep
Hook - Crane
Scrapper - Front End Loader
Bonecrusher - Bulldozer
Mixmaster - Mixing Truck
Long Haul - Dump Truck
Scavenger - Excavator
Hun-Grrr
Razorclaw - Drill Tank
Rampage - Armoured Vehicle
Headstrong - Armoured Vehicle
Tantrum - Armoured Vehicle
Divebomb - Jet
Motormaster - Truck Injured by Sentinel Prime
Dead End - Speeder
Wildrider - Speeder
Drag Strip - Race Car
Thrust - Jet
Onslaught - Anti Aircraft Truck
Runabout - Speeder
Runamuck - Speeder
Crasher - Speeder
Sixshot - Gun/Jet/Tank/Car/Winged Wolf
Kickback
Unaffiliated/Unknown/Other
Council Killed by Starscream/Soundwave
Senator Decimus Killed by Starscream
Senator Ratbat Killed and repurposed by Soundwave
"Worm" Killed by Ratbat
Clench - Truck Killed by Megatron
Cy-Kill - Motorcycle Killed by Megatron
Grimlock - Armoured Vehicle
Slag - Armoured Vehicle
Sunstreaker - Speeder
Sideswipe - Speeder
Grapple - Crane
Inferno - Truck
Betabear Killed in battle
Wheezel - Killed by Constructicons
Skyquake - Jet
Stalker - Armoured Vehicle
Overlord - Tank/Jet
Spinister - Helicopter
Seawing
Slugslinger - Jet
Full-Tilt - Car
Huffer - Truck Cab
Rotorstorm - Helicopter
Monstructor
Darkmount Possibly killed by Starscream/Soundwave
The Cybertronian Senate begin to shut down some of their Energon mines, and spark a riot on one of them, Outpost C-12, where Megatron attacks Senator Decimus, and ends up getting a lot of his fellow miner's killed and/or arrested. On the way to Penal Facility H-3 (The Rig) Megatron and the other prisoners stage a coup and take the ship, attacking Decimus' ship as a distraction and hide out in Kaon's underground. Sentinel Prime, who is based in the Security Services HQ in Kaon is told about this by Prowl, but doesn't care about such a small matter, so he ignores it.
Megatron has joined the Gladiator Circuit and makes his first kill against Cy-Kill. Nearby, Senator Ratbat goes about his business and looks at the declining culture of Cybertron, thanks to the mine shut downs etc, where he learns of Megatron and the Gladiators, and takes interest in it. Megatron continues his battles, and ends up killing Clench to take his place as Pit Boss. The Autobots begin to look into the Gladiator battles and decide to close in on them. Bumper and Fastback are sent to monitor on a location, when the Constructicons arrive and start building the next arena there. Megatron and his troops arrive on the scene where they are met by Soundwave who offers to supply them with weapons, thanks to his master Ratbat. The two Autobots monitor this situation, but are noticed by Megatron and the others, and are attacked, and apprehended by them. Megatron kills Fastback on the spot, and Soundwave interrogates Bumper, where they learn about the Autobots looking into them now. Now that's he's given up the information, Megatron kills Bumper for calling him a Psychopath before.
Soundwave continues his clandestine meetings with Megatron, whom is being fixed up after a very rough battle. Soundwave introduces him to Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker, who he welcomes into his new team, but not as Gladiators, but part of his army. Elsewhere, Bumper and Fastback are given a state funeral, where Sentinel declares his intentions for revenge for his fallen soldiers. Elsewhere again, Senator Decimus unveils a statue of himself, which is immediately attacked by Starscream and his troops, and they kidnap the Senator. Megatron's troops are continuing their attacks, and Ratbat starts to think that he made a mistake. Later again, Megatron holds a rally where he has the Gladiators all meet up, and unites them under his new Decepticon faction. Decimus is brought into the arena to be killed, when the Autobots raid the area, taking in all they can as prisoners and rescuing Decimus. Back at Kaon's Security Service HQ Soundwave is pardoned by Ratbat and allowed to go free. Starscream makes a deal with the Autobots to give over Megatron's secrets for his freedom.
Starscream is taken before the Council, where he proceeds to kill them all, along with Soundwave and his cassette army (now including Rumble and Frenzy). The freed Decepticons let out Megatron and the others and takes them to the weapons room, where they outfit their army, and proceed to launch attacks all over Kaon. Sentinel leaves the battlefield to recover his Apex Armour, whilst Soundwave returns to Ratbat's office, where he finds him getting ready to make a run for it. Soundwave proceeds to kill the Senator and places his Spark inside one of his spare cassettes. Sentinel returns to the battle, now donning his armour and turns the tide of the battle to the Autobot's favour. However despite the now over-powered Sentinel being in the battle, Megatron manages to tear through the armour and throws Hound at the Autobot leader, and then proceeds to pummel the leader, whilst the Decepticons look on.
Hubcap manages to get through to Iacon, when Skywarp drops off Sentinel's body to the Autobots, Prowl tells the rest of the Autobots that they're pulling out of Kaon, and returning to Iacon. Megatron looks out at Cybertron and states that he has a few ideas for the future, whilst sitting in a throne made of the Apex Armour.
Notes
- This story was most likely designed originally for the Dreamwave series, but was tweaked to fit in IDW instead. It wasn't clear if this story was in continuity with the IDW series until lately when it was heavily referenced in the Drift series and Chaos Theory.
- The Gladiator battles are made available on the black market video market.
- The war is shown to have been started here in this continuity as being because of a corrupt government, but in All Hail Megatron it's said that it was because of the Matrix.
- Megatron's Gladiator opponent in issue two is based on the Go-Bots character Cy-Kill
- There are A LOT of cameos in this series
- Rotorstorm has a VERY brief cameo in this comic on one of Ratbat's security videos, he later becomes a main character in Last Stand of the Wreckers.
- One of the dead gladiators in issue two bears a striking resemblance to Beast Machines Tankor
- Megatron becomes leader of the gladiator pits by killing Clench, his Aligned counterpart did the same thing in the Exodus novel, by killing his former bosses
- Fastback is clearly meant to be Outback, but was altered when Outback was shown as having died in Spotlight: Kup
- Despite Fastback and Bumper's memorial stones having Cybertronian writing on them, their names are actually written in English.
- Several of the character models used in this comic are different to what they're shown to have been in flashbacks in later comics (such as Ironhide's face shield)
- There's a lot of female Transformers in this comic, despite Arcee claiming to be the only one later...maybe Jhiaxus made more and Arcee just didn't know?
- Nova Prime is seen as a statue here, he is later shown as the main bad guy in the first story arc of the main series
- Soundwave forces Ratbat into serving him by killing him and transplanting his Spark into a spare cassette
- Sentinel Prime's Apex Armour is a reference to the Apex/God Bomber Armour from the Powermaster Optimus Prime mold
- The large Autobot guards seem to share Fortress Maximus' design
- Under Megatron's helmet is an ornate head dress...KEEP IT ON MEGS!!!
- Bumper and Fastback being killed by Megatron for looking into him was also used in Exodus as well.
- Sentinel can change his paint scheme to black for some reason (maybe as an explanation of Nova Prime's later colour change when he became Nemesis Prime?)
- Sunstreaker wants to join the Gladiator battles, but this is never seen again, and Sunstreaker is not seen again after this conversation with Sideswipe, so perhaps he made him change his mind?
- This is one of those rare instances where the Decepticons are the out-right winners by the end of a storyline, normally the Autobots win, or it's an ambiguous result.
- Soundwave has a rub-sign Decepticon insignia to hide his true allegiance
- Due to Straxus being off in the Dead Universe right now, I'm calling his doppelgänger Darkmount, after his recent toy's rename.
- I've included Kickback and Monstructor in the character lists as they were drawn there...but they can't actually be there, since Monstructor is in a different dimension right now, and Kickback isn't even alive yet!
My Thoughts
Art
The artwork is good, but the colouring is quite dark, and sometimes confusing, making it harder to see who people are or what is going on.
Story
This story works very well as a stand alone series, but as part of the main continuity it's a bit confusing, and in need of quite a lot of retconning.
Continuity
This is currently the earliest set IDW comic published. Because of this some characters seeming to be killed (Hound, Inferno, Trailbreaker) make it seem a bit wrong. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe seem quite pally in this comic, despite it later being shown that Sunstreaker was just Sideswipe's superior officer. Despite him saying at a later date that he didn't know who Alpha Trion is, both he and Ironhide are at the funeral scene, near to each other, even though that version of Ironhide was from a point AFTER this issue!
Other
This series uses a lot of the character models based on the ones from Dreamwave's War Within series, and also shows Megatron in an earlier form of an armoured vehicle, before gaining his cannon and becoming a tank.
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