IDW - Transformers #44

Title: The Transgressors 

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

Before the war, Tracks is admiring some of his new "Chic Chips" that his brother, Needlenose has designed for him, but they have an argument about Needlenose's friends, and interest in Megatron's rebellious writings. Needlenose leaves, and tells Tracks to not be on the wrong side of history...

On Cybertron, today, some Camiens are picketing their religion to the Cybertronians, but are interrupted by Needlenose and Brawl, who have just returned from Earth, along with Dreadwing. They denounce the words of the Primes, and destroy some of their pamphlets.

Nearby, Starscream is looking over the city from his office in Metroplex, claiming he has everything under control to someone unseen, whilst Arcee is sneaking around on the walls of the city.

Elsewhere, Optimus and Tracks (who is the spacceport manager now) say goodbye to Mirage and the Protectobots, who are returning to the Lost Light, and Tracks moans about how the Camiens don't use standard ship codes, since they haven't flown for centuries (due to a lack of fuel).

The two of them end up in an alley with Arcee, who reports to Prime that she's located Brawl and Needlenose on Cybertron, trying to recruit for Galvatron's forces on Earth. Prime says he'll tell Starscream. Tracks gets annoyed, and decides to deal with his brother himself, whilst also telling Arcee that she doesn't know what it's like to lose someone, like he has with Needlenose.

Arcee leaves, and heads to a point she used to like to watch the city on before she left for Earth, and thinks things over.

Elsewhere, one of the ships has been reformatted into a Decepticon bar, where Needlenose and the others are tallking about their plans to recruit Decepticons to the Jupiter Commune, Brawl gets annoyed with Needlenose when he realizes that this really just for a peaceful Commune, and not a secret army. An argument begins, and Needlenose sneaks away to get some more drinks from the bar.

At the bar though, Needlenose is confronted by Tracks, and starts telling him off, but Needlenose wont give in, resulting in Tracks punching his brother. Before he can do anything else though, all the Decepticons have their weapons trained on the Autobot.

Luckily though, one of the Badgeless comes through the door and threatens to arrest the entire bar for illegal gatherings, engex sales etc, unless they hand over Needlenose and the others to him for Starscream to deal with. Before the Decepticons have to make a decision though Arcee apepars behind him, and "disarms" the Badgeless Officer, and drags him away. Tracks goes with her, at her request. Needlenose asks Tracks to tell Optimus that they don't want to fight the Autobots anymore, they just don't want to be ruled by them either.

In Starscream's throne room, he's having an argument on his current political situation and power with the image of Bumblebee in his mind. Suddenly Arcee appears with the Badgeless Officer in tow, she kills the Badgeless and engages in a short fight with Starscream. She however stops fighting, and tells him that even though she doesn't like him, she knows the planet can't survive another war and divide, so she asks him to try and keep it all together for them.

Later, and elsewhere, Needlenose and the others get together and present their sales-pitch for the Decepticon Commune to a large crowd....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Tracks - Car

Arcee - Car

Metroplex - City/Space Ship

Mirage - Race Car

First Aid - Ambulance

Groove - Motorcycle

Streetwise - Emergency Car

Hot Spot - Fire Truck

Blades - Helicopter

Bumblebee - Car (Hallucination) Dead

Prowl - Police Vehicle (Wanted Poster)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Optimus Maximus - Autobot Gestalt (Mentioned)

Broadside - Battleship/Jet (Mentioned)

Hardhead - Personnel Carrier (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Brawl - Tank

Dreadwing - Stealth Bomber

Acid Storm - Fighter Jet

Submaruader - Submarine

Sinnertwin - Two Headed Dragon

Squeezeplay - Crab Monster

Onslaught - Anti Aircraft Truck

Cindersaur - Lizard Monster

Sparkstalker - Insect Monster

Dauros - Tank

Bartender - Motorcycle

Decepticon Populous 

Horri-Bull - Bull (Flashback) Killed by Bumblebee

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier (Mentioned)

Ratbat - Cassette (Mentioned) Killed by Arcee

United Cybertron

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Badgeless Officer - Car Killed by Arcee

Civilians

Camien

Lady Cohrada - Helicopter

Aileron - Hovercraft

Other Picketer

Other

Quark - Photon Microscope (Flashback)

Pre-War Civilians (Flashback)

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Council of Worlds (Mentioned)

Notes

• This story establishes that Tracks and Needlenose are "brothers"...I guess they do have a couple of similar features right?
• It is also established that Needlenose and Horri-Bull were involved with each other (it's unclear if they were actually in a relationship) so Bumblebee's murder of Horri-Bull in front of him is a bit more disturbing now...
• One of the Camien Picketers is designed after the Beast Wars Neo character Cohrada, but with helicopter parts, whilst Aileron seems to be based on Go-Bots Crasher, but a lot more stout that her counterpart.
• Seriously...where did Arcee get her large cleaver from?!
• Mirage and the Protectobots (having de-combined) head back to the Lost Light this issue.
• Dreadwing was abandoned by Galvatron and the others before they headed to Earth.
• A few of the Decepticons in the bar are generics, based on other characters such as G2 Ramjet, Action Master Thundercracker, an inverted Rung and Whirl and other comic homages.
• The inverted Decepticon Rung appears to have kibble from a motorcycle, despite Rung's lack of a real alternate mode.
• The Badgeless Officer's design looks a bit different to what we've seen in the past. He also appears to have car kibble, meaning there may be 2 different versions.
• Starscream is revealed to be seeing Bumblebee (in his pre-Dark Cybertron body) as a hallucination. He was earlier shown to be "talking to himself" when he was communicating with Scoop on Earth. Is this just a hallucination, or a ghostie made from the Shockwave Black Hole?
• It can be assumed that this issue is either set just before or after Combiner Hunters, due to Arcee's presence and appearance.
• The very last page is based on the scene in MTMTE where Rodimus recruits the Lost Light crew.