IDW - The Transformers #45

Title: The Nothing Man

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

At the EDC HQ at Bikini Atoll, Thundercracker is moaning at Marissa to let him see Spike, as he thinks he can get him to talk, since they did "save the world" together during the Decepticon occupation of the planet. Marissa however, doesn't want to hear anything from Spike, it's Blackrock who wants to talk to him alone. During their conversation, Blackrock reveals to Spike that his Onyx interface uses a Cybertronian code that he found, and has essentially "infected" the planet's devices with it.

On the Ark-7, Jetfire is still analysing the Onyx source code, and discovers that whenever he tries to mirror the signal, it changes, as if it's alive in some way. He wants to track the source of the signal on Earth, which Arcee allows, along with a team.

On the Nemesis, Soundwave and Galvatron are preparing for the imminent arrivals of the Decepticons from Cybertron when they detect the Autobots heading to Earth, Soundwave asks if they should inform their allies on Earth, but Galvatron just says not to bother.

Near the South Pole on Earth, Jetfire, Jazz, Kup, Sky Lynx and D.O.C. arrive at a small station that is sending out a signal for the Onyx interface, however before they can do anything there, they are attacked by a group of gestalt monsters made from the Thrust and Ramjet drones, who instantly smash Jetfire into the ground, and quickly disable Kup and Jazz too.

Sky Lynx races off into orbit to try and get reinforcements from the Ark-7, but is chased by the gestalts, who are revealed to have the ability to transform into giant gets too.

Blackrock is watching this fight from Spike's cell, where he reveals that his studies of the Enigma of Combination revealed the power of creating gestalts a long time ago, but he hid it when they were attacked by Prowl, just so they could have an upper-hand later on.

Arcee and Sideswipe deploy the Ark-7's massive weapons supply, and prepare to fire on the gestalts chasing Sky Lynx, however when they open fire the shields are raised as well, and cause the weapons to back-fire and badly damage the shuttle. Sky Lynx also ends up smashing into the ship's shield, and knocks himself out of commission too.

On the ship, Arcee and Sideswipe try to repair the damage and get control of the ship back, but Alpha Trion reveals to them that the Onyx source code they brought onto the ship is in fact the source code for the Enigma of Combination itself, and with it Blackrock has taken control of their systems.

Back on Earth, Blackrock reveals to Spike that he is able to tap into the systems that have installed his Onyx Interface, and with it he can learn everything about anyone, he can even see their souls in the process, however he cannot see his own soul.

He reveals that his reason for imprisoning Spike is so that Spike can find out why he has no soul. Spike isn't sure how he expects him to do this, but Blackrock locks the door behind him anyway...

In the aftermath of this attack, the Autobots are crippled, and Galvatron immediately starts to plan to attack the Ark-7, so they can take control of the space bridge.

Cosmos is in orbit still, trying to reach the teams, and D.O.C. is left abandoned in the South Pole.On the Ark- Arcee and the others appear trapped inside the burning vessel, but Arcee plans to use the space bridge to escape....

Characters

Autobot

Arcee - Sports Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck Smashed by Ramjet/Thrust Combiner

Jetfire - Jet Smashed by Ramjet/Thrust Combiner

Jazz - Sports Car Torn Apart by Ramjet/Thrust Combiner

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle Crashed into Ark-7 shields

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Alpha Trion

Cosmos - Orbiter

Prowl - Police Vehicle (Mentioned)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Galvatron - Tank

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier

Laserbeak - Cassette

Rumble - Motorcycle

Skywarp - Cybertronian Jet Attached to Nemesis

Cybertronian

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

D.O.C.

Primus (Mentioned)

Nova Prime (Mentioned)

Nova Prime's C.A.D.R.E. (Mentioned)

Human

Garrison Blackrock

Spike Witwicky

Marissa Faireborn

Ayana Jones

Sanjay Bharwanay

Other

Thrust/Jetfire Drone Combiners - Giant Jets

Buster the Dog

Notes

• Despite his new-found distrust of them, Thundercracker seems happy to still hang around with the EDC base....you know despite the zombie army in the basement!
• Spike's prisoner uniform features a QR code on the back, though it is mostly obscured so it's unclear what it contains (most likely it'd be his criminal record in continuity)
• The ancient code used for the Onyx interface includes some Decepticon insignias, this is the first indication that the Decepticon insignia may have preceded it's use in the Decepticon's revolution. The Autobot insignia was previously revealed to have been used by a lost tribe in the past too.
• From the dialogue it seems that the previous issue has indeed already happened, judging from the lack of Astrotrain, it's likely he took the other Decepticons back to Cybertron, rather than using the Space Bridge like I'd previously assumed.
• Jetfire's colour scheme in his stealth paint job is based on his "Dark Skyfire" toy counterpart made from his Classics incarnation's toy.
• Jazz is torn apart by one of the Thrust/Ramjet combiners, much like how his movie counterpart was torn apart and killed by Movie Megatron.
• It's revealed that the modern Ark shuttles were designed by Nova Prime's team, previously it was believed the Arks were simply named after the original lost star ship, but this implies that they may have been planned to be a fleet of ships for Nova's expansion originally.
• Blackrock was mentioned as having no records of himself from more than 3 years ago in an earlier issue, this issue adds to the idea that he may not be human or natural with him not having a "soul"