IDW - Stormbringer

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Jetfire - Jet

Nosecone - Drill Tank

Afterburner - Speedbike

Lightspeed - Car

Strafe - Jet

Scattershot - Jet

Springer - Helicopter/Rocket Car

Roadbuster - Gun Mounted Vehicle

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Twin Twist - Drill Tank

Topspin - Jet

Broadside - Jet

Sandstorm - Jet

Scoop - Front End Loader

Searchlight - Speeder

Dogfight - Jet

Bluster - Acoustic Tank

Smokescreen - Speeder

Siren - Car

Pincher

Crosshairs - Car

Groundbreaker

Overdrive - Car

Downshift - Car

Gunrunner - Jet

Kick-Off

Sureshot - Car

Pointblank - Car

Override - Speedbike

Backstreet - Car

Bluestreak - Speeder

Perceptor (Hologram Only)

Swerve (Hologram Only)

Omega Supreme - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Decepticon

Thunderwing - Space Shuttle Comatose

Bludgeon - Tank

Iguanus - Speedbike

Skullgrin - Tank

Finback - Hovercraft

Bomb-Burst - VTOL Jet

Megatron - Tank

Darkwing - Jet

Dreadwind - Jet

Ruckus - Buggy Killed by Thunderwing

Skullcruncher Killed by Thunderwing

Thrust - Jet

Crankcase - Van Killed by Thunderwing

Roadgrabber - Jet Killed by Thunderwing

Razorclaw - Drill Tank

Rampage - Armoured Vehicle

Tantrum - Armoured Vehicle

Headstrong - Armoured Vehicle

Divebomb - Jet

Windsweeper - Jet

Carnivac

Blast Off - Space Shuttle

Triggerhappy - Jet

Spinister - Helicopter

Barrage

Quake - Tank

Soundwave - Acoustic Tank (Hologram Only)

Mixmaster - Mixing Truck (Hologram Only)

Trypticon - Battle Platform (Flashback Only)

Other

Nebulans Killed by Thunderwing

Storyline

Whilst orbiting Cybertron, Jetfire and the Technobots detect a potent energy signature on the dead world and examine it from orbit, determining that it's a hybrid Energon (Ore-13) and think that it's a natural occurrence after the planet's been bombarded with debris for years since it was abandoned. They decide to take a look on the planet to make sure, despite it being an off-limits area now, they arrive in the Thunderhead Pass, where Thunderwing started his rampage and caused Cybertron to accelerate its death, and they commented that they never found his body. Optimus remembers the final battle with Thunderwing, and how he worked with Megatron to stop Thunderwing. Back in the present, Searchlight gives Optimus a message from Ironhide about the situation of Earth, and tells him to keep a monitor on the situation, whilst Optimus is still preoccupied with the Thunderhead Pass Incident. Back on Cybertron the team begin their scans for the Energon, when Jetfire remembers how Thunderwing had warned everyone about the planet's imminent destruction, but no one would listen to him. The team launches a probe into the orbit to take scans, when suddenly they are attacked by a group of cloaked Decepticons, who knock out the team and take them to their base. Nosecone and Afterburner, who are still on the Calabi-Yau (their ship) suddenly detect some missiles from the planet and launch a distress buoy, just as the missiles hit. Back on the planet, Jetfire wakes up underground and sees Bludgeon and his crew worshipping the inert form of Thunderwing.

Jetfire calls his captors insane for having anything to do with Thunderwing after what he did to the planet before, whilst Bludgeon counters that they destroyed Cybertron with the war, Thunderwing just accelerated it. Bludgeon then reveals that they are continuing his work by creating the Pretender shells, and Bludgeon brags that the Calabi-Yau was destroyed in orbit, unaware that Nosecone and Afterburner survived by riding part of the ship down to Cybertron. Back at the Hub, Searchlight tells Optimus that they've received a distress signal from the Calabi-Yau, and can't pick them up any more. Optimus tells Searchlight to tell the Wreckers to go to Cybertron to help him deal with it.

On Varas Centralus in the Kol System, the Wreckers are fighting the Decepticons of the planet, but aren't doing so well, when Springer is given Optimus' message and pulls out his team to head back home. On Cybertron, Bludgeon begins the awakening process for Thunderwing, but Jetfire fights back, trying to stop them but fails. Springer contacts Optimus on route to Cybertron, and says that he wants to destroy the planet if it will destroy Thunderwing once and for all (it's been assumed that the energy signature from Thunderhead Pass was Thunderwing). Optimus says that he'll take it under advisement. Optimus remembers when Megatron said basically the same thing in the past, and how he was unsure about his decision even then. On Cybertron, Nosecone and Afterburner watch as Thunderwing takes off and heads off into space, but start to fail due to a lack of forcefields, and are then approached by some of the old Centurion robots that Bludgeon reactivated. On Nebulos the Decepticon Infiltration team pick up on a signal approaching the planet, and witness Thunderwing's arrival on the poor unsuspecting planet.

Thunderwing begins to destroy Nebulos on Bludgeon's orders, as Bludgeon comments on his plans to use him to destroy all other planets and to rebuild Cybertron under their control, and how he plans to use the Pretender Process to give him and his team new protective shells. Elsewhere on Cybertron Nosecone and Afterburner are rescued from the Centurions by the newly arrived Wreckers and Optimus' team. The Autobots all head down into Bludgeon's base, which is revealed to be an old border fortification from the war days. Back on Nebulos the Decepticons decide to join in the fight against Thunderwing, as if the planet they are charged with is totally destroyed then Megatron would be angered. The Autobots break into the base and start killing the Decepticons. Iguanus goes to warn Bludgeon, but finds him inside his Pretender Shell, and acting out of character. Back on Nebulos, Thunderwing easily defeats the Decepticons, and proceeds to Ionize the atmosphere (doing what it did to Cybertron), Darkwing, Dreadwind and Thrust escape through the atmosphere before it's too late. Back on Cybertron again the Autobots go into the lab and find Bludgeon literally tearing his face off out of madness, proving that the Pretender Process is still a failure, and find Iguanus dead next to him, having been sliced up. Jetfire tells them that the Axis Cradle is what Bludgeon used to control Thunderwing, so Springer destroys it, just before Jetfire says that that was the only way to stop the Decepticon.

Razorclaw reports what happened to Nebulos to Megatron on Earth, who tells Razorclaw to destroy any world that Thunderwing goes to in order to destroy the beast, even if it's Cybertron itself. Back on the planet Broadside picks up on Thunderwing's signature, heading to Cybertron.

Thunderwing heads back home to Cybertron on an basic instinct and the Autobots prepare for his arrival. Elsewhere, Razorbeast orders his crew on the Thanatos to track down Thunderwing, and find him heading back to Cybertron. Razorclaw is hesitant to destroy the planet however. Once back on the planet Thunderwing starts to remember the events around the incident in the past and how Megatron disregarded his plans etc, leaving him to rage in the present day, and starts a rampage on the planet once again. The Autobots begin to attack the Decepticon, but are no match. Razorclaw watches from his ship and sends down some teams to help the Autobots in fighting the crazed Decepticon, but still keeping the orbital barrage active, just in case. The battle is going badly, until the Decepticons arrive and help out, and during the battle Thunderwing switches to his Ultra Mode, Razorclaw has his troops pull out of the planet and Optimus does a continuous blast on the Decepticon to stop him and manages to stop him in his tracks and knocks him out with just one second left on the Decepticon's timer. Optimus has Jetfire examine the Ultra Energon/Ore-13 and find out where it came from, and says that he's worried that things could get worse from here on out. Later Jetfire reports to Optimus that Bludgeon was put in charge of looking into Shockwave's Regenesis project, which was what created the Ultra Energon,a nd that he found it on Earth and transported it back to Cybertron off the radar. Upon learning this, Optimus decides to head to Earth to meet with Prowl's team and investigate the Ultra Energon himself as well.

Notes

• All of the alternate modes in this comic are Cybertronian/Alien.
• Jetfire's character model is based on/was the basis for his Classics toy, otherwise all the characters here have new character models, like in Infiltration.
• The Autobot Orbital Command Hub is above Planet Opulus.
• Due to Blaster being currently lost in space, the guy in the Hub is his cousin "Bluster"
• The Transformers are only able to walk on Cybertron thanks to specially made forcefields due to the storms caused by the planet losing it's atmosphere.
• The Pretender process is called the Polydermal Abrasion Grafting Process here...it sounds gross, but is does protect them from radiation etc!
• There's a brief scene where a light that looks like the Matrix is found in Optimus' chest, but this is impossible since Nova Prime still has the Matrix. So the light must have been Optimus' Spark or something showing instead.
• Bludgeon's team's character models are based on a combination of their inner robot modes and Pretender Shells from the G1 line.
• The Wreckers are introduced into the IDW continuity here, and would reappear multiple times over the years.
• Nebulos has been destroyed, or at least mostly destroyed in this comic by Thunderwing...that can't be good for Cybertronian relations with the rest of the galaxy!
• Despite Optimus having Ark-27 take him to Earth to help Prowl and the others, he doesn't have any of it's crew go down to the planet with him, DESPITE him sending for Nightbeat, Hot Rod and Hardhead as reinforcements in the next story!
• The Autobot Battlecruiser used by the Wreckers, the Xantium looks like it could transform into a large robot (akin to Fortress Maximus) but this has never been shown, and it's been heavily implied that the ship was destroyed during Megatron's big push in All Hail Megatron, so we'll never know.

My Thoughts

Art

This story has fantastic artwork, it shows a lot of characters in their pre-earth modes, and of course, since parts of it were set on ships and space stations there are a lot of cameos of characters, who even now haven't made a full appearance yet.

Story

The story was quite strong as well, it works well to show that there's more to the Civil War than what was happening on Earth, and also explains that happened to Cybertron, and sets up a couple of future plot points, such as Thunderwing's involvement in the Expansion conflict, and helping to explain the Ore-13 found on Earth.

Continuity

This story is set at the same time as Infiltration, as can be seen from a few crossover points, like Optimus getting Ironhide's message and Razorclaw talking to Megatron. This comic leads directly into the last page of Infiltration.

Other

The character designs in this comic are different to the ones seen in Megatron: Origin, but honestly I don't care about that, it's a great book and a little visual continuity error is hardly uncommon for a comic series!