IDW - Beast Hunters #3

Story by: Mike Johnson & Mairghread Scott

Written by: Mike Johnson

Art by: Agustin Padilla

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

Long ago, Shockwave began to take an interest in Earth, and began watching it out of curiosity.

In the present day, Grimlock and Swoop are underground in some old tunnels, where Swoop annoys Grimlock by talking too much, and they encounter a group of the Forged's soldiers, whom the 2 Dinobots manage to take down fairly quickly. Grimlock figures out that the group couldn't have been down there just to guard some old rubble, so he removes it and reveals an old door, which opens into an abandoned lab of Shockwave's, filled with discarded bones and damaged equipment.

Meanwhile, at Last Spark Snarl and Sludge have returned to help them rebuild and repair after their fight with Airwave, the people of the city are wary of the two Dinobots, but are willing to believe they are there to help out.

Back at Shockwave's old lab, the two Dinobots have found some shattered tubes, but also see some still intact, until whatever's inside it smashes out, revealing a living Tyrannosaurus Rex! Swoop comments on how he looks like Grimlock, but Girmlock disagrees, transforming and taking on the real Dinosaur, meanwhile three more tubes begin to smash open, leaving Swoop to contend with a Pteranodon, Stegosaurus and Triceratops alone.

Characters

Autobot

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Swoop - Pteranodon

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Firestar - Hover Pick-Up Truck

Zoom

Last Spark Denizens

Airwave - Jet Dead

Slug - Triceratops (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Forged Warriors Killed by Grimlock and Swoop

Shockwave (Flashback)

Other

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Pteranodon

Stegosaurus

Triceratops

Notes

• This marks Swoop's first appearance since the end of Rage of the Dinobots
• It's not clear, but the thing Snarl is carrying at Last Spark looks a bit like Airwave's corpse...
• Zoom's love of talking, and name could be references to Blurr
• The dinosaurs shown here in Shockwave's lab are lacking feathers, and have glowing eyes, possibly hints that they aren't really dinosaurs after all, but robotic copies
• The lack of an Apatosaurus could be a reference to how Sludge was originally just a test subject
• The Pteranodon is coloured like G1 Swoop

IDW - Regeneration One #93

Title: Destiny Part 3

Writer: Simon Furman

INTRODUCING Penciler: Guido Guidi

Inker: Stephen Baskerville

Colorist: John-Paul Bove

Letterer: Chris Mowry

Editor: John Barber

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

Plot

Bludgeon is meditating, and has forseen his own brutal death in battle, and knows that despite him leading the Decepticons back home, he won't see it's ultimate fate for himself.

Meanwhile, on the Ark Galvatron is planning on using the Ark as a ploy for the Autobots to destroy, as he's sure Optimus has reported that he took the ship by now, and plans to attack Cybertron's leaders himself, with them being unaware of his arrival, and assumes that Ultra Magnus (not Hot Rod) is in charge of the planet.

On Cybertron Ultra Magnus is directing several teams of Autobots across the planet on missions. The Wreckers storm the Neo-Decepticon's base at Fort Scyk, only to find it empty and for it to explode, though luckily the Wreckers survive. Elsewhere Prowl and some other police bots have caught up to a speeding Runamuck and arrest him, and confers with Magnus, agreeing that something is wrong and calls back the Aerialbots from their mission.

Nearby to the Aerialbots, Soundwave watches them leave, disappointed as he was hoping to have them killed now, as they want all the Autobot's air support to be gone before the Warworld arrives. Soundwave has Wingthing report this setback to the others, whilst he plots away with the waiting Monstructor about the oncoming destruction.

Near Cybertron, the Ark is ready to proceed on it's mission, when Shockwave, still hooked into the ship, alerts Galvatron to a stowaway, which Galvatron goes off to investigate. Once alone, Starscream, who has been pretending to be lobotomized still has Shockwave give him control of the ship for their plan to continue.

In Hanger Nine of the ship Galvatron is attacked by a Guardian Drone and he realizes that the ship is somehow against him, and Starscream appears on the screen gloating. Galvatron easily destroy the drone, but Shockwave lowers a forcefield in the hanger, sucking him into space.

Starscream sets the ship's weapons on Galvatron, but has to give up the battle when they start to get close to Cybertron, as they aren't ready to face the Autobots yet, so they go off hiding again.

In the tunnels under Cybertron Hot Rod and the remaining Dinobots have found Primus' chamber and Hot Rod thinks he's somehow been there before, and has a vision of various alternate versions of himself as well. Before long the chamber is filled with Demons, who the Dinobots and Hot Rod fight off, they head into a chamber, that the Demons for some reason won't enter and find several long dead bodies, before they can properly explore them though the glowing figure of Grimlock appears, saying it's time that they spoke, Hot Rod realizes that this is Primus inside the Dinobot's body.

In Iacon, Magnus is in contact with Cosmos above Cybertron who is monitoring the situation, just in case, when he loses contact with the orbiter, with the poor little guy being destroyed by the Warworld. Before he can do anything else though, Ultra Magnus is attacked by the annoying sight of Galvatron flying towards him, planning to make his move right now!!

Characters

Autobot

Hot Rod - Sports Car

Ultra Magnus - Car Carrier

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex Body Possessed by Primus

Swoop - Pteranodon

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Slag - Triceratops

Prowl - Police Car

Streetwise - Police Car

Red Alert - Fire Response Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Roadbuster - Jeep

Rack 'N' Ruin

Sandstorm - Buggy/Helicopter

Topspin - Jet

Whirl - Helicopter Maybe Killed in Explosion?

Silverbolt - Concorde Jet

Air Raid - Fighter Jet

Fireflight - Fighter Jet

Slingshot - Fighter Jet

Skydive - Fighter Jet

Cosmos - Orbiter Killed by Warworld

Optimus Prime (Flashback)

Jetfire (Hologram)

Energon Rodimus - Truck Cab (Multiversal Vision)

Return of Convoy Battlestars Hot Rod - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

MTMTE Rodimus - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

TFA Rodimus Prime - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

Alternator Rodimus - Race Car (Multiversal Vision)

WFC Hot Shot - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

New Rodimus - Fire Truck (Multiversal Vision)

Wings of Honour Hot Rod - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

Armada Powerlinx Hot Shot - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

G2 Comic Hot Rod - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

Classics or Shattered Glass Rodimus - Sports Car (Multiversal Vision)

Other Rodimuses (Multiversal Vision)

Decepticon

Galvatron - Laser Cannon

Bludgeon - Tank

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Monstructor - Gestalt

Runamuck - Sports Car Arrested by Autobots

Wingthing

Runabout Killed by Demons (ages ago)

Shockwave Linked to Ark

Megatron (Mentioned) Dead

Other

Primus (Inside Grimlock's body)

Demons

Mark V Guardian Droid Destroyed by Galvatron

Demon Victims

Unicron (Mentioned)

Notes

• In Bludgeon's future death scene, he looks like he's been torn apart and blasted by a cannon, much like his G2 counterpart's ultimate fate as well
• The flashback scenes to the events in issue 80 (of the original run) are made to look more like the old-style artwork
• Should we be worried that Whirl is missing from the scenes just after the Neo-Decepticon base explodes?
• The Ark having asteroid destroying weapons is a call-back to it's original mission to destroy an asteroid field that was threatening Cybertron back in issue 1
• The vision Hot Rod sees is of various alternate reality versions of himself from across the franchise, some are mostly obscured, but most are recognizable, and of course including the Rodimus currently starring in More Than Meets the Eye.
• Interestingly one of the Rodimuses is an unreleased toy, and another is of Hot Shot (but in Hot Rod's colours)
• The Demons don't seem to be scared of the sword and covenant any more....
• Amongst the dead guys found in the Demon's lair are Runabout
• Grimlock is now yet another Transformer to be possessed by Primus

IDW - Monstrosity #2

Story by: Chris Metzen & Flint Dille

Art by: Livio Ramondelli

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Optimus Prime and his team, including the observing Dai Atlas exit Sky Lynx and start battling the Decepticons. Elsewhere, the Dynobots have escaped the fight, but end up being cornered by Scorponok and some of the Decepticons.

Meanwhile, on Junkion Megatron and Pentius and wandering around when they reach the Corroded Shore, Pentius cautions Megatron on his stepping, but Megatron ignores him, and is attacked by a Sharkticon, who pulls him under the water.

Back on Cybertron Grimlock battles Scorponok, and pummels him, getting angrier the whole time and starts to go feral, Swoop and Slag try to calm down Grimlock, but he only calms down when Optimus arrives and shoots him, telling him to stand down. Optimus tells him that despite him being an Autobot, he's a danger, and a criminal right now, so he has to be arrested, rather than be able to leave the planet like he originally planned. Grimlock gets angry and decides to blow up the Mega-Refinery by pushing the Fusion-Regulator, killing himself and everyone around him, Optimus however manages to talk him down.

Scorponok however has other ideas and pushes the button himself.

Hours later, the Mega-Refinery has been destroyed and rescue teams are picking up the wounded, of course with this facility's destruction, the planet's last major Energon source has been destroyed. Optimus holds a funeral for the people lost during the destruction, and later Dai Atlas speaks with him about leaving the planet, as there's no recovery for the planet now, but Optimus refuses to abandon their home. Meanwhile at Kolkular Scorponok presents the dead Decepticon bodies to his team and has them scavange the dead for spare parts.

On Junkion, Megatron manages to defeat the Sharkticons and leaves the Acid Sea and Pentius comments on how Megatron's own world will look like this one day, and explains about how the people of Junkion were once beautiful and narcissistic, and also wasteful eventually wasting all their natural resources, and causing their planet to create a gravimetric pull that attracted the space debris, creating the wasteland that's left.

Megatron denies this will happen to his world, as he has a drive for dominance that the Junkions lacked

Grimlock wanders around the blast site at Toraxxis and can't find anyone, and wonders if he's still alive or not. At the same time, the Exodus begins, and all those who wish to begin leaving the planet, with Dai Atlas blaming Optimus, as an inept Prime, who has led the planet to this.

Meanwhile within the irradiated Toraxxis crater Jetfire's team are investigating the area when they find a cavern, inside they find some cave drawings, seeming to warn about something, when suddenly the ground collapses and they land near a lake of extremely pure Energon.

In Metroplex Optimus has called for Kup to come see him, as he's wondering about the Dynobots, and is confused about their actions - They helped in the battle against Megatron, but shortly later began thieving Energon, despite being decorated heroes.

In the Energon Caverns the team are investigating the lake of Energon when Ratchet falls in and turns briefly feral, attacking Perceptor, but recovers quickly, Perceptor realizes that it was the Energon, but before they can analyse it they're attacked by some creatures.

At Metroplex again, Optimus analyzes the Dynobot's data and discovers that in their last known mission they were attacked in some Subterranean Terror Bases, where something happened, and they began showing their feral forms, and one of their team members (Skar) was killed. Kup suggests after seeing this that the Dynobots should be put down, but Optimus thinks they may be soldiers worth saving after all.

The science team manage to fight off the monsters underground, and escape into a cavern that the monsters seem to be scared of etering. Jetfire wonders why this is, so he transforms and gets a better look, coming face to face with a sleeping Trypticon.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Grimlock - Feral Beast

Swoop - Jet

Slag

Jetfire - Jet

Ratchet - Ambulance

Perceptor

Wheeljack

Metroplex - City/Ship

Kup - Pick-Up Truck

Sky Lynx 

Prowl - Car

Bumblebee - Car

Ironhide - Van

Ultra Magnus

Blaster

Dead Autobots (Holograms)

Sludge (Footage Only)

Snarl (Footage Only)

Zeta Prime (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Megatron Exiled to Junkion

Scorponok

Starscream - Jet

Thundercracker - Jet

Soundwave

Blitzwing - Jet/Tank

Tankor - Large Jet (Mentioned)

Dead Decepticons Corpses left to rot and scavenged

Other

Dai Atlas

Pentius

Tryptcicon Inert

Sharkticons Destroyed by Megatron

Cyber-Morphic Predators

People of Iacon

Skar Killed in Battle (Footage Only)

Pre-Junkions (Flashback)

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Primal Vanguard (Mentioned)

Adaptus (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the collection of issue 4-6 of the digital versions of this series
• Sharkticons are native to Junkion it seems
• Grimlock (and the other Dynobots) are revealed properly here to have feral alternate modes, before they take on their Dino-modes in Spotlight: Shockwave, which seems to alter their minds too (like in the Prime series). They have their vehicle mode kibble though, so their transformations seem more like mutations really.
• The funerals shown here are similar in style (though larger scale) to Bumper and Fastback's one in Megatron Origin
• Junkion used to be a Cybertron-like world (maybe a colony, or just a second world with Transformers) and presumably wasn't always called Junkion either. It died when the Energon run out and it started attracting the debris of space into itself
• The Great Exodus is shown here, and those who leave don't return until "The Death of Optimus Prime", set in the present day
• The Cyber-Morphic Predators seen towards the pure Energon sort of resemble the Trans-Organics from the G1 cartoon
• Trypticon being found inert far beneath Cybertron implies that he was built long ago, and perhaps is something akin to a Metrotitan (of course we've seen already that Trypticon joins the Decepticons later on, but then again, he hasn't been seen in recent stories, only those set around the Thunderhead Pass incident)
• Scoponok being stabbed in the chest with a sword is similar to his fate in the Energon comic (though he survives it here of course)
• How did Optimus and the others survive the Mega-Refinery explosion?

IDW - Robots in Disguise #19

Title: Homecoming

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Dheeraj Verma

Colours by: Joana Lafuente

Letters by: Chris Mowry

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

Waspinator is hanging out in a bar when he's asked to tell about his time as a Titan Hunter, such as how he used a weapon to kill a Metrotitan, and then managed to somehow pilot it's space bridge systems afterwards, something that Jhiaxus and Bludgeon (his audience) find very interesting, and asks if he can do it again.

Orion Pax and his team arrive on the now deserted Gorlam Prime (as it's inhabitants died during Heart of Darkness) and start exploring the place, during their exploration Garnak notices that some of the rocks underground have similarities to those found on Arduria and LV-117 (ie Ore infused planets) and Hardhead shows the team to the Catacombs, a Cybertronian looking city hidden underground, which he assumed Jhiaxus built after Ark-1 went missing (he lived there for a while remember)

Whilst exploring the Catacombs Wheelie touches a building, and his arm starts to rust away like what happened when someone was touched by a denizen of the Dead Universe, Hardhead blasts off the infected arm to stop the spreading.

Soon, Waspinator flies nearby screaming for help, as he's being chased by the Monstructor-Six, however he's rescued by Orion and the others. The six Decepticons combine into Monstructor, and destroy's the Autobot's ship (Ark-27). During the battle Orion figures that the Decepticons are after the city underneath, and he and Waspinator realize that it's a Metrotitan in disguise, Waspinator manipulates Orion into waking up the Titan, like he did with Metroplex in the past, and Orion figures this out too late that Waspinator's working with Monstructor and the others.

The Titan wakes up and Monstructor reports it to his bosses who appear in a de-cloaked ship above them, Monstructor rejoins the others, and Waspinator uses his weapon to hooks up to the Titan and pilots it, sending himself, the Titan and Bludgeon's ship to Cybertron, with Jhiaxus taunting Prime, wishing him "Pax Cybertronia"

In the aftermath, Gorlam Prime starts to rust away with the Titan gone, and the Ore-2 going off, Orion reveals that he knew something was happening, which is why he had his OWN ship, the Skyroller, cloaked as well, and has himself and his team board it, ready to return home to stop Jhiaxus and the others with their plots, and save everyone.

Characters

Autobot

Orion Pax/Optimus Prime - Truck

Hardhead - Personnel Carrier

Wheelie - Car

Metroplex - City/Ship (Flashback)

Decepticon

Waspinator - Wasp

Bludgeon - Tank

Birdbrain - Monster

Bristleback - Monster

Icepick - Monster

Scowl - Monster

Slog - Monster

Wildfly - Monster

Monstructor - Gestalt

Titan Hunters (Flashback)

Megatron (Mentioned)

Shockwave (Mentioned)

Other

Garnak

Jhiaxus - Jet

Gorlam Prime Titan - City/Ship Killed/Controlled by Waspinator

Flashback Titan - City/Ship Killed by Waspinator (Flashback)

Bar Aliens

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Gorlam Prime Civilians (Mentioned) Dead

Nova Prime (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• Waspinator was last seen amongst the Titan Hunters in Spotlight: Thundercracker
• The art in the issue is kind of....weird - Seriously what's up with Hardhead?
• All the Metrotitans shown here have Autobot insignias, which they shouldn't have since they went away before the factions were set up
• Why does Monstructor ride on top of Bludgeon's ship? Why not just de-combine and go INSIDE it?
• Gorlam Prime is shown here to possess Ore-2 (Death) which explains it's connection to the Dead Universe...wonder how Nova Prime and his crew reached the Dead Universe in the first place then, since they went missing BEFORE the Regenesis Project
• Due to him losing an arm, Wheelie has to use his mouth to fire his slingshot
• They seem to be hiding re-revealing that Gorlam Prime was renamed Cybertron by it's inhabitants here...wonder if this means something big for the future?
• Optimus' ship is called the Skyroller, perfect for him considering his past police partner and drone buddy, and toy-based gun pal.
• Most likely the bright light seen at the end of RID #18 is this same space bridge