IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #53

Title: The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne &Hayato Sakamoto

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

With seven hours left before the DJD are due to attack the Fortress, Velocity comments about the death flowers outside going out. Ratchet  concludes that they're dying out because they're being used for the storm shield. Ratchet is patching up Megatron's wounds from his brief battle with Tarn, whilst doing so he's reading Velocity's notes on the crew's health since he left, and makes comments about how Tailgate's new powers affected the security crew who were near him at the time with signs of an artificial boost and subsequent crash.

Velocity worries that Tailgate is at risk, but Rodimus says he's fine, and breaking apart some interiors for Brainstorm to use for weapons and other things to help them against the DJD. Drift informs Velocity that Rewind is setting up the communications devices to send out their last wills and testaments to Cybertron, despite them not arriving for 3 weeks or so. Velocity looks despondent at this concept, but agrees that it's a good idea. Rodimus wants to speak to the captured Pet, to find out where their ship is, but Ratchet comments that he can't speak, Chromedome wakes up  from his energy drain from his previous injecting session and says he can help.

Elsewhere, Minimus Ambus is being measured by Brainstorm for a new suit of armour, when Nightbeat comes to him to get permission to investigate the hollow planet, as it's bothering him and thinks it could save them.

Nightbeat manages to convince Ambus to agree to his plan, and takes Rung along with him, as he's expendable for the group, though they promise to return before sunset and the battle.

On their way to the lowest points of the base, Nautica grabs them and has the duo join her, Brainstorm, Skids and Velocity in a room, where Nautica performs the ritual to become Amica Endurae with her, as she considers the five of them her closest friends in the crew. Afterwards, Nightbeat and Rung leave, whilst Skids has an awkward goodbye with Rung first...

With six hours left until the battle,  Chromedome begins to inject into the Pet's mind, but finds it all messed up, and finds it feeling wrong...

Elsewhere, Rewind has sent off the final messages from the crew, and starts going through the Necrobot's files, to try and learn where Dominus went again. Minimus comments that that's a waste of time given the circumstances, and through conversation actually reveals a secret about Dominus to Rewind, that he was a loadbearer too, and Rewind had never seen the real version of him.

Rewind pulls up the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy, an old database on alternate modes created by the Functionist Council, and had Minimus find Dominus' true appearance from there....where he finds entry 113, a Turbofox.....

Back at the medibay, Chromedome discovers that the Pet is a transformer, but was domesticated s torture at some point, he thinks he can reverse the process, but the surgery is killing him due to his weakened condition. Drift contacts Rewind to tell him about what Chromedome is doing, and both of them realize what is happening at the same time...the Pet IS Dominus Ambus!

Rewind rushes to the medibay where he quickly punches Rodimus for letting Chromedome inject again, and Chromedome says he'll get Dominus back for him, Ratchet however tells him to stop as he's dying, but Chromedome cannot...if he stops mid-operation, then Dominus will die instead.

Chromedome is willing to make this sacrifice to allow Rewind to be happy, but Rewind wants to be with Chromedome, he snatches Drift's short sword from his sheath and slices off Chromedome's arm, severing the connection, and killing Dominus.....

Later, with just 30 minutes left before the deadline, the DJD start marching towards the Fortress to begin their attack. outside, Whirl and Cyclonus are setting up a cannon turret whilst Whirl bothers Cyclonus about his and Tailgate's relationship, with Cyclonus basically saying that he doesn't deserve Tailgate's love, but he will protect him no matter the cost...then Whirl tries out the cannon....

10 minutes later the crew are assembled in the Fortress where Rodimus reveals Whirl's discovery...the storm shield around the base doesn't allow gunfire OUT either, meaning they'll be left waiting until the shield dies out. Rodimus says that he thinks they should simply drop the shields and meet their fates honourably.

Megatron comes back from the Medibay and disagrees with Rodimus' plan, Rodimus offers a newly rebuilt fusion cannon to Megatron, built by Brainstorm, but Megatron ignores him and says they should stay hiding for as long as possible. Swerve and Rodimus realize through his words that Megatron doesn't intend on fighting the DJD at all, and Megatron admits to being scared. Rodimus points out that all of them are scared, but they need to fight the DJD. Megatron leaves to hide with the organics in their hidden chamber, whilst Ravage, his eternally loyal friend shouts that he is ashamed of what he's become....

Despite Megatron's hiding, and Nightbeat and Rung not returning from their mission yet, the crew get ready for their final stand. Brainstorm escorts Ambus, now in his new "Maximus Ambus" armour to join them, and the DJD start shooting the shields.

Rodimus gathers his friends and crew together for a group hug, he thanks them for travelling with him and then leads the charge into battle  with the storm shield down....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank

Minimus/Maximus Ambus - Minesweeper/Tank(?)

Drift - Car

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Ratchet - Ambulance

Velocity - Race Car

Tailgate - Car

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Skids - Van

Swerve - Van

Brainstorm - Jet

Nightbeat - Car

Nautica - Submarine

Rung

Dominus Ambus/Agent 113/The Pet - Turbofox Allowed to die by Rewind

Getaway - Car (Mentioned)

Strafe - Jet (Mentioned)

Powerflash - Jet (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Ravage - Cassette

Deathsaurus

Overlord - Tank and Jet

Tarn - Tank

Tesarus - Mobile Metal Shredder

Vos - Rifle

Nickel

Leozack - Jet

Deathsaurus' Troops

Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Ten

Functionist Council (Mentioned)

Other

Organic Captives (Mentioned)

Notes

• So Megatron's fusion cannon blast hole was quite easily fixed wasn't it?
• This issue explains that the energy wave that Tailgate created when his Outlier powers activated also caused some power surges in the security crew around him at the time....I wonder if Cyclonus was affected in any way?
• Nautica shows here that Cybertronians are able to have multiple Anima Endurae at the same time.
• Rewind mentions that Minimus was sitting down all afternoon...he wasn't, he was standing on some boxes being measured.
• Considering his brother is an established point one percenter and a loadbearer, it shouldn't have been much of a shock about Dominus being one too
• The process of Domestication was previously shown in issues 45-46. Little did we know that was a precursor to this issue!
• Agent 113's discovery was hinted at earlier in the series...we didn't know he was still technically in the team, albeit lobotomized and handicapped badly though....
• So Agent 113 was actually Dominus Ambus all along (and later turned into Kaon's "Pet") Why didn't Minimus know about this job of his brother's?
• This also somewhat explains why the DJD never referred to the pet as any other name, it would have been a major spoiler
• It's been shown since pretty much the start of MTMTE that Chromedome "knows" that Rewind loved Dominus more than him, but this issue shows us that Rewind choses him over his old lover after all....n'awwww
• The panel showing Chromedome with Rewind after his arm being severed is a mirroring of the scene in issue 15 just after Chromedome destroyed the Slow Cell, killing his original Rewind.
• Dominus' history shown in the series so far makes more sense knowing what he really looks like. He's a beast-former, which has been seen as an undesirable form, along with Disposable classes like Rewind, explaining his desire to create equality between the different body-classes.
• Also, it was hinted earlier in the series that Prowl was the one to send Dominus on his mission as Agent 113, ultimately making it his fault that he was captured and domesticated, thus hurting Chromedome and Rewind even more....I swear one of them will kill Prowl before this series ends!
• Cyclonus confirms here that he and Tailgate are not in a relationship, because he doesn't think he deserves Tailgate's love. Regardless of this, Cyclonus is willingly shown holding Tailgate's hand for comfort later.
• I just noticed that the bolts on Whirl's claws look a bit like wrist watches. Considering his past as a watchmaker, this is a nice touch.
• Brainstorm turned the teleportation chamber into a new fusion cannon for Megatron...guess they really have given up on escape here?!
• The messages shown in issue 50 are revealed to have been recorded off screen at the start of this issue. This doesn't explain the comments of a gun in the background by the Luna-1 crew though....
• Ravage is ashamed of Megatron now for his hiding...N'AWWWWWW!!!!!
• The new Maximus Ambus body looks like it turns into a tank, if so then it is likely a reference to his originally planned body for the MTMTE series by Nick Roche.
• Rodimus has the team perform a group hug and gives a sincere sounding "thanks" to them all....N'AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IDW - Transformers #53

Title: All Hail Optimus Part 4: It's Beginning to and Back again

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Priscilla Tramontano

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Soundwave's Decepticons arrive at Optimus' camp at Monument Valley on Earth, where they team up (begrudgingly) and share information. Soundwave tell the Autobots where Galvatron's base is. Optimus begins to plan out an attack lead by him, Arcee interrupts and convinces him to stay behind with Alpha Trion and Aileron, as well as Soundwave who will coordinate the attack. Optimus leaves with Jetfire, and claims that there is SOMETHING hidden in the desert near them, despite Jetfire's scans showing nothing there. Optimus confides in Jetfire that he thinks that Arcee doesn't trust him anymore.

Inside the medical bay, Arcee visits Sideswipe in his repair bay, when Sunstreaker comes in, and tells her that Sideswipe would tell him that he liked Arcee, and offers her Sideswipe's jetpack, as he would have wanted her to have it. Arcee agrees that she deserves the jetpack, but also reminds him that Sideswipe isn't dead yet, then leaves.

Galvatron monitors the Autobots from his base, and bemoans how Arcee hasn't left Optimus for him yet. Galvatron sets off a plan to defeat the Autobots and Decepticons, despite being heavily outnumbered. First off, he sends a transmission to the EDC, showing them the Autobot's hidden base. Spike scatters the ships to attack them despite him and Faireborn not trusting this information too much.

The Autobots and Decepticons reach Galvatron's base, and they immediately start attacking the crashed ship, whist Galvatron's few loyalists fight back. Before the battle can really begin though, Blackrock takes control of some hidden Seeker clone combiners and has them attack the Autobots as well.

Back at Monument Valley, Optimus and the others are watching this battle, and Optimus decides to join them in the battle, however before they can leave, the space bridge activates and Circuit and Longtooth arrive to document Optimus' actions on Earth on Starscream's orders. Optimus tries to get them to leave, but they refuse.

A few moments later, the EDC ships appear and begin attacking the group, whilst Starscream cheers from his office on Cybertron, watching the live footage

Back underwater, the Autobot combiners are easily dealing with the Seeker clones, but Galvatron reveals to Blackrock that his work on Earth, creating the Onyx Interface was actually a plan by Onyx Prime to create a giant Enigma of Combination, which has succeeded. Galvatron activates his Earth-sized Enigma to combine five of his troops into a new Combiner whom he dubs "Galvatronus", who immediately attacks Victorion. Galvatron also reveals a new ability of the Earth Enigma, and DE-Combines Victorion into her componant parts. Skywarp is shocked at Galvatron's use of the Enigma to manipulate Cybertronians this way, considering his hatred of combiners etc. Galvatron simply comments that they are powerful.

At Monument Valley, Optimus refuses to attack the humans, since THEY are the alien force on this planet.

Starscream watches this on his news feed, and gloats about his upcoming victory to the ghost of Bumblebee, as if he doesn't fight the humans, then he'll die and Starscream can spin his death in his favour, but if Optimus attacks the humans, then he's going against his past morals and he will be made into the villain.

Back on Earth, Arcee tries to get the Torchbearers to combine again, but Pyra Magna tells Arcee to concentrate on her mission, and not worry about them. Arcee leaves, looking for Needlenose for his role in her mission.

Sunstreaker notices a strange feeling around him, and recognizes it as the Enigma and begins to worry. Galvatron reveals one last ability of the Earth Enigma, the ability to combine others without their consent! He combines Sunstreaker with Sky Lynx, Thundercracker, Cosmos and Slugslinger. The new Combiner approaches the surrounded Superion, and tells him to face him, introducing himself as Sky Reign.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Alpha Trion - Tumbler

Arcee - Sports Car

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Jazz - Sports Car

Tracks - Sports Car

Superion - Aerialbot Gestalt

Pyra Magna - Emergency Vehicle Injured from De-combination

Jumpstream - Sports Car Injured from De-combination

Dustup - Sports Car Injured from De-combination

Stormclash - Helicopter Injured from De-combination

Skyburst - Helicopter Injured from De-combination

Rust Dust - Motorcycle Injured from De-combination

Victorion - Torchbearer Gestalt Forced to De-combine by Galvatron

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle Forced to combine into Sky Reign

Cosmos - Orbiter Forced to combine into Sky Reign

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet Forced to combine into Sky Reign

Sunstreaker - Sports Car Forced to combine into Sky Reign

Sky Reign - Forced Autobot Gesalt

Sideswipe - Sports Car Undergoing repairs

Bumblebee - Cybertronian Car (Ghost)

Decepticon

Galvatron - Tank

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Sky-Byte - Shark

Squeezeplay - Crab Monster

Rumble - Motorcycle

Frenzy - Motorcycle

Skywarp - Cybertronian Jet Still out of phase

Slugslinger - Twin Nosed Jet Forced to combine into Sky Reign

Dreadwing - Stealth Bomber Forced to combine into Galvatronus

Astrotrain - Space Shuttle/Train Forced to combine into Galvatronus

Blitzwing - Tank/Fighter Jet Forced to combine into Galvatronus

Acid Storm - Fighter Jet Forced to combine into Galvatronus

Mindwipe - Bat Forced to combine into Galvatronus

Galvatronus - Forced Decepticon Gestalt

Thrust - Fighter Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Ramjet - Fighter Jet (Mentioned) Dead

United Cybertron

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Rattrap - Mole Rat

Circuit

Longtooth

Other Cybertronian

Blackrock

Bob the Insecticon

D.O.C.

Crystal City Metrotitan - City/Space Ship (Mentioned) Dead

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Onyx Prime (Mentioned)

Camien

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Swift - Helicopter

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Spike Witwicky

Sanjay Bharwaney

Zilong Qian

EDC Troops

Other

Buster the Dog

Seeker Clone Combiners

Notes

• Despite their constant in-fighting, Bob, D.O.C. and Buster appear to be friends now.
• Soundwave appears to have been unaware of Alpha Trion's life as a Prime, despite having been affiliated with Galvatron, who DEFINATELY knew about it.
• Optimus believes that Arcee doesn't trust him any more, likely due to the part of Prowl in his head....She's not exactly wrong there Prime!
• Arcee is revealed to have been "borrowing" Sideswipe's jet pack for a while...that explains how she can sometimes fly!
• From Sunstreaker's dialogue, it sounds like Sideswipe may have liked Arcee as more than an ally...n'awww
• Why is Blackrock still stripped down to his undies and with his face removed?
• Acid Storm is shown amongst Galvatron's troops here...I don't think he's been seen there before...
• Blackrock has control over the EDC  Seeker clones, this makes me think that he'll turn them against Galvatron at some point, explaining the vision Optimus had of Arcee and Galvatron teamed up against someone (rather than Arcee betraying the Autobots)
• Blackrock can apparently breath under water like all Cybertronians...how has he never come across that little trait before?!
• It's revealed that the Onyx Interface created by Blackrock has turned all the devices connected to it into tiny Enigmas of Combination, thus turning the entire Earth into a giant Enigma itself.
• Galvatronus here looks nothing like his toy. The limbs given here are not based on any existing/upcoming Combiner Wars toys, and the torso, normally Cyclonus, has been replaced by Dreadwing, due to Cyclonus being a regular in MTMTE, and opposed to Galvatron.
• Galvatronus here was of course named by Galvatron after himself, and possibly in homage to the former leader of his old tribe on Cybertron, Megatronus. His head is based on G2 Smokescreen, who was the partner figure of G2 Dreadwing.
• HOLY CRAP! Rust Dust finally appears in a comic again!!!
• Funny note: originally Bob the Insecticon would have been named Spike, as a random joke about him sharing the name with the human character, here Bob attacks Spike's ship...haha!
• Sky Reign looks enough like his toy, in terms of the torso anyway, but his assigned limbs are completely wrong. This is of course due to the availability of the characters here. Smokescreen and maybe Hound are on the Lost Light, Trailcutter/Trailbreaker was killed by Kaon, and Wheeljack is running the space bridge on Cybertron.
• Amongst the limb-characters used for Sky Reign, only Sunstreaker is actually an existing Combiner Wars limb toy. Thundercracker is a Leader class toy, Cosmos had a Scout-sized toy in Thrilling Thirty, and Slugslinger is loved by no one.
• I'm putting Sky Reign in the Autobot section of the character list here, as his toy is of that faction, and it's unclear who he's going to fight at the end of this issue.

Sig Pub - Robots in Disguise #8

Notes

• The comic is now just doing the screencap comics for the series....yyyyaaaaayyyyyy.....
• This issue gives us "As the Kospego Commands"
• This issue comes with a creepy and/or awesome "Bumblebee Hand Grabber" gift....I am slightly obsessed with it right now.....Seriosuly, this is probably worth the price of the magazine!
• To be honest, the free gifts in this comic series have been better than most of the ones from Titan's entire run.

Features

Race to Bumblebee - Follow the procession of Mini-Cons to find Bumblebee!

Battle of the Bots - Grimlock vs Thunderhoof

Colour on Bumblebee - You'll never guess what this activity is!

Prime Puzzles - Optimus has given us some "TRICKY" challenges....it's not difficult at all...

TFRID Poster - Optimus, Bumblebee and Grimlock pose in front of a logo!

Find the Decepticons - It's a word search of Decepticon names!

Sideswipe Posers - Decipher some Fixit glitches, then guide Sideswipe to the Mini-Con.

Fan Art page - Send in fan art to possibly win a Deployer figure!

Competition Time! - Answer an easy question to win some RID things.

Advert - Buy Volume 2 of the DVD series soon!!! DO IT!!!!!

RID - Autobot World Tour

Plot

The Autobot Away Team are chasing the bug-like Shocksprocket, but following being shocked by their target's electricity, Sideswipe realizes that Earth's trees don't conduct electricity and uses a branch to smack the Decepticon unconscious.

Optimus contacts the scrapyard and asks Fixit to send a stasis pod or them to capture Shocksprocket inside, but before they end the call, Fixit informs the team that their next Decepticon target is on Mount Everest.

Russell, along with Fixit explains that he saw a Decepticon, which was mistaken for a yeti on a film documentary on Everest, whilst the Autobots aren't convinced about the proof, but agree to go.

Fixit identifies the Decepticon as "Abominus". Windblade recognizes the name as a Decepticon that she captured in the past on Cybertron, and remarks that he's a hermit that protects his "property" with dangerous weaponry.

Elsewhere, Bumblebee's team of Autobots approach a newly detected stasis pod, near to the scrapyard. When they find it, they find the Decepticon seemingly deactivated, and are worried that he died in the crash, until he wakes up and uses his optical abilities to hypnotize the Autobots into not wanting to fight him, before they fall asleep....

Optimus' team arrive by Groound bridge at the base of Mount Everest in their artic camo to help with hiding from the film crew on the mountain. The team slowly climb the mountain, but don't find it too difficultm, until Drift is almost shot by a hidden blaster, he manages to avoid it and destroy the turret. Windblade recognizes it as Abominus' work, and theorizes that he's booby-trapped most of the weapon in the same way.

Back at the Scrapyard, Russell is watching the program, where he sees that the Autobots were caught on camera, but have also been mistaken for yetis, and the explosions from the booby-traps are mistaken for a yeti celebration.

Russell tells Fixit to contact Optimus' team to warn him about the humans being nearby, but Fixit tells him that he can't get a clear signal through the atmosphere in the area. Russell asks how the film crew are able to do so, and Fixit guesses that it's due to hi using relays on the mountain, but he cannot hack into them to use it for communication without being exposed

On the mountain, the film crew are concerned that they will lose their contract with their station if they don't get any good footage for the show, before heading up further.

Elsewhere on the mountain, the Autobots continue their trek, avoiding the turrets etc along the way, however, along the way they accidentally set off a small avalanche, the team manage to brave the avalanche, but Slipstream is separated from the rest of the group....

Bumblebee's team wake up from their "attack" from the Decepticon Brakepad, but feel different than usual, and feel "lazy", they return to the scrapyard, where the Humans and Fixit worry about their conditions. Fixit learns from them that the Decepticon's name was Brakepad, which worries him.

Fixit brings up Brakepad's dossier and reveals that he used his optical powers to render the security forces lazy and unwilling to stop him whilst he stole whatever he wanted. Russell comes up with a plan, knowing that Brakepad isn't too physically strong, and requires the targets to have eye contact with him for the powers to activate...

Back on the mountain, the team are worried about Slipstream, but Drift points out that he has been trained to figure out a situation like this himself,,.and would agree that the mission is more important that just his safety. The team don't like abandoning him, but agree wit Drift's decision nonetheless.

Elsewhere on the mountain, Slipstream wakes up and worries about being alone, but soon remembers his teachings and evaluates the situation. He deduces that the team must have continued with their mission, so if he keeps heading to the summit he'll eventually find them. Slipstream then finds the Human film crew and hides from them, deciding that hhis current mission is to make sure they don't find the Autobots, or get killed by the hidden booby-traps set by Abominus.

Back home, the Autobots have been forced by Russell and Denny to take them back to the stasis pod's location, where they assume Brakepad to be still (due to his notorious slowness). The Humans trick the Autobots into believing that Brakepad's powers will make the Autobots have to do some hard work.

Before Brakepad can use his powers on them, the Humans put some over-sized sunglasses on Bumblebee and Strongarm (Grimlock is meanwhile sleeping). By doing this, they stop the ability from affecting the Autobots, Grimlock is coerced into knocking the stasis pod into Brakepad, leading him to fall in, and get locked in.

Russell is glad, but wonders how he will convince the Autobots into bringing the stasis pod back to the scrapyard for them...

On the mountain, Slipstream leads ahead of the Humans, and takes out the weaponry, protecting the Humans in secret, he reaches a fork in the path, and causes a small landslide to block the path leading more directly up, allowing him to abandon the Humans and go towards his allies.

On the other side of the summit, the Autobotss find a door, which they assume is Abominus' lair, but are worried that they haven't found any more traps lately. When they enter the lair however they quickly trigger a spike trap, attacking them from the walls. They manage to evade them, but find Abominus at the end, who simply sends them into an electrified cage.

With them trapped, Abominus reveals his master plan to cause a massive avalanche with explosives to get rid of all the "intruders" on "his" mountain, so he can be aloe with himself and his weapons.

Soon, Slipstream finds his way to the lair whilst Abominus is out placing some more explosives. Slipstream reunites with his team and disables the cage. The Autobots make a plan...

Before long, Abominus returns to his lair where he sees some footage of Slipstream in the tunnel, so he goes to attack him in their, unfortunately for him though, this was just a looped video, and he has been lured into the tunnel for his own booby-traps to be used on him instead.

After he has been injured enough by the traps, Abominus is placed in a stasis pod, but the Autobots discover that the film crew have found the entrance to the lair. The Autobots are worried, but Sideswipe has a plan...

Back at the scrapyard, the Autobots are almost returned to normal from their battle with Brakepad. Russell is watching the film crew's live program again, where he hears some audio footage the crew got from the mountain of the "yeti" shouting at the crew to leave and never return. Russell recognizes the voice as Sideswipe's

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Drift - Race Car

Slipstream - Buzzsaw Deployer

Jetstorm - Buzzsaw Deployer

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Bumblebee - Muscle Car

Strongarm - Police Cruiser

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Fixit

Decepticon

Abominus Captured by Away Team

Shocksprocket Captured by Away Team

Brakepad Captured by Bee Team

Human

Russell Clay

Denny Clay

Loren Fortean, the Presenter

Ernie, the Cameraman

Brigadier Wilson, the Mountain Guide

Notes

• This story is the first to be set in Season Two, set some time after the team are forced to split apart in the series premiere.
• This story implies that the "Away Team" was a purposeful thing, and not just caused by a Ground bridge accident. Whilst this COULD be the reason for why the team took so long to return to the base, as they just took this as an opportunity for more captures....but it seems a bit of a stretch to me....
• The Away Team are shown to have their artic camo modes here, and we already know about their desert camo from the cartoon, so did they have a "jungle camo" for the opening scenes too?
• An electricity sparking Insecticon that isn't Shrapnel? I call shenanigans!
• I mean it's not like they're worried about possibly reusing names from other characters in the Aligned continuity, one of the other Decepticons in this issue is called Abominus!
• Russell's old favourite program, "My Miniature Mustang" is of course a riff on Hasbro's popular "My Little Pony" franchise. Whilst probably a coincidence, the name also evokes the IDW group "Triple M"...but I can't see a connection other than the acronym.
• I don't know how seasons and episodes of a program livestreamed in small segments works.....

IDW - Sins of the Wreckers #4

Written and Drawn by: Nick Roche

Colours by: Josh Burcham and Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The Wreckers, strapped up to the Impetus device, are forced to relive their darkest moments, and speak them out loud.

In Roadbuster's memories, he relives how he murdered his cadets because he was ordered to by the dark god, Mortilus, who he has been hearing in his head recently, before he can throw the dying cadets down a pit for his god however, he is stopped by Prowl and his security forces, who detain him, and work on saving the cadets, all whilst Mortilus suddenly goes silent, driving Roadbuster further mad.

Back in the present, Tarantulad turns off Impetus, having shown off how it works to Prowl. Roadbuster recognizes Tarantulas' voice as Mortilus' and Tarantulas reveals that he reduced himself to his tiniest size and whispered into his ears to use him for the raw materials from his cadets. At the same time, Hubcap reveals that he was one of his cadets, who happened to survive the incident.

Hubcap reveals that he joined Tarantulas following the discovery that Prowl released Roadbuster from jail after an insufficient amount of time, and Tarantulas used him and his Outlier skills to monitor all Autobot transmissions, and learned about Aequitas etc through this. He agreed to use the information to destroy Prowl in exchange for Chimeracon upgrades.

Hubcap begins to applaud himself and Verity for being brave enough to fight Prowl, but Verity reveals that she only tried to blackmail Prowl because she wanted him to come to Earth to give her a cure for her illness, which was caused when she was exposed to the Aequitas energies. Her threat was always empty.

Tarantulas attempts to force Prowl into Impetus, to force him to reveal all his undisclosed secrets, but Prowl stuns Tarantulas by suddenly claiming that he killed their creation, Osteros, rather than saving him in the past, causing Tarantulas to attack him.

During the attack, Kup contacts Prowl using their uplink, telling him that the other Wreckers are coming in using a back-door they have, but assure him that they are only saving him due to him being an asset to thee Autobots, and is not due to him being a good person who deserves to be saved.

Soon, the Wreckers activate their portal, and the space station, Debris, begins to punch through into the Noisemaze, beginning to destabilize it due to it's size.

Hubcap and Tarantulas go to his control room, to prepare to send out the Aequitas files to the universe, whilst Tarantulas sends the Chimeracons to attack the Wreckers, but Prowl manages to convince Hubcap that releasing the data would destroy the new found and fragile peace on Cybertron, much to Tarantulas' anger.

At the same time, Arcee and the others are freed from their restraints and led to their weapons by a mysterious party, they arm up and go after Tarantulas and Prowl.

Outside the base, the Chimeracons take on Impactor and the others, when Tidal Wave begins to try and break into the Noisemaze too, despite his size being too much for it to handle safely.

Carnivac contacts Tarantulas to report on Tidal Wave's actions, but before Tarantulas can advise him any further, the Wreckers enter the room and destroy his computers. Springer frees Prowl and orders him to get himself and Hubcap to safety in order to prove he was worth saving, whilst the team go up against Tarantulas.

Outside, Carnivac prepares to disable Tidal Wave, when Impactor attacks him, but before the fight goes too far, Tidal Wave has entered the Noisemaze, kicks Impactor, and sends him flying into a building.

Tarantulas is easily handling the Wreckers, but Roadbuster makes a unilateral decision, transforms and rams himself ans Tarantulas out the window, and plummet to their deaths. Springer and the others mourn his sacrifice, but they need to leave.

On their way to Debris, Hubcap talks to prowl, and says that he knows he has to go to prison after all he's done, but he's glad it's done...but Prowl has his gun pointed to Hubcap, intent on killing him to keep his secrets safe. Hubcap manages to convince Prowl that this isn't the way to solve this situation, and he needs to change his ways before all this happens again, and Prwl lowers his gun.

Impactor however decides that Hubcap IS  too much of a liability though, and shoots him, having followed them from his crash-point, and assures Prowl that no one changes, and he'll always be there to do the dirty work when Prowl chickens out.

At his crash site, Roadbuster wakes up, but hears Mortilus in his head again, he asks if he remembers this feeling, before expanding back to a full-sized Tarantulas, exploding Roadbuster's head in the process. Leaving Roadbuster's corpse, Tarantulas sees the chaos in the Noisemaze and decides to "close up shop".

The Wreckers reunite in the tunnels heading to Debris, but Prowl cconvinces the group to help him destroy Tarantulas' research and materials before they leave, as a way to atone for his sins. They agree, but only because it's a danger to everyone.

The Wreckers soon arrive at the fuel station, and plan to set explosives, they plan to have Prowl return to Debris with verity, to keep her safe, and begin treatments for her illness, but she suddenly realizes that she feels healthy now...she has a sudden realization that Tarantulas has done something "weird" to her when they were knocked out.

Tarantulas agrees, and promises to do something "weird" to the others as well, as he lowers himself towards the Wreckers.....

Characters

Autobot

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Arcee - Sports Car

Springer - Helicopter/Rocket Car

Impactor - Tank

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Guzzle - Tank

Roadbuster - Jeep Killed by Tarantulas

Hubcap - Car Killed by Impactor

Ironfist - Van (Flashback) Dead

Roadbuster's Cadets (Flashback) Dead

Security Force - Cars (Flashback)

Pharma - Jet (Flashback)

Ratchet - Ambulance (Flashback)

Stakeout - Police Car (Mentioned)

High Command (Mentioned)

Mayhem

Carnivac - Wolf

Tidal Wave - Whale

Overbite - Shark

Stampy - Rabbit

Generic Chimeracons

Other Cybertronian

Tarantulas - Spider

Ostaros (Mentioned) Dead

Primus (Mentioned)

Mortilus (Mentioned)

Human

Verity Carlo

Notes

• Wow, there's a new issue of this thing! (It was worth the wait <.<)
• The Roadbuster affair is finally revealed as being the time he thought Mortilus was telling him to "kill, kill, kill"
• In Roadbuster's flashback, Pharma comments on how bad "mode drilling" is, he will later cause a situation where transforming causes a virus to activate and slowly kill you.
• Hubcap's motives for joining Tarantulas are revealed as being due to him being a survivor of the "Roadbuster Affair" and then learning that Prowl released Roadbuster early on the request of Impactor. So I guess it had nothing to do with Pipes after all.... :(
• Verity's illness is confirmed as being caused by exposure to the Aequitas energies during Ironfist's download. Though she is seemingly cure of it at the end of the issue.
• Huh...turns out the shark Chimericon is Overbite, and not Cybershark after all...oh well!
• It's unclear who released the Wreckers from Impetus and opened the doors for them. If I had to guess though, I'd say it was Hubcap.
• As seen before, the portal to the Noisemaze is inside Tidal Wave, so it really is confusing as to how be managed to enter it.
• We get a full body view of Tidal Wave at last, and he is designed as the Armada character of the same name, just with organic whale bits showing in places.
• Verity's armour has inbuilt blasters on the forearms....this is cool/dangerous!
• Okay Taranulas...now I'm afraid of giant spiders exploding my head....THANKS!
• Now, due to this issue coming out a little later than originally planned, we know that Prowl survives these events, we also know that Kup and Arcee return to the main Autobot forces on Earth, as this is set before the concurrent stories from the Ongoing series. This means that the only major characters in this story that are currently unaccounted for are: Springer, Impactor, Guzzle, Verity, Tarantulas and the Chimeracons. I think it's safe to assume the villains are all killed/captured after this, and that at least one Wrecker will die next issue.

IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #52

Title: The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The newly arrived Drift and Ratchet protect the badly injured Ten from the DJD, but are greatly outnumbered. During the battle, Drift notices how attached Kaon is to The Pet, and takes it hostage, forcing Kaon to stop the attacks, as team leader. The crew are surrounded still, but are rescued by Ratchet's own shuttle hovering above them, and lowering a loading-platform. The team get onto the shuttle to find Ravage. Down below, Helex takes command from Kaon and orders the attack to begin again, hitting the ship's engines. Ravage still has control of the ship, and aims to towards the Necrobot's fortress.

Several miles away, at Megatron's statue, Megatron is surrendering to Tarn, under the condition that he lets the rest of his crew go free. Megatron apologizes to Tarn for turning him into a killer, and reveals that his new found pacifism is due in part to Brainstorm's recent attempt to kill him before his own creation, and found himself disappointed that he failed.

Tarn, sick of hearing his role-model talking like this, attacks him, and beats him down, but points out that he's doing this because he cares for him, but also hates what he's become.

Tarn says that he'll stop fighting him, if Megatron just fights back, but Megatron refuses, and tells Tarn that even though he thinks the Fool's Energon he has inside him is changing his mindset on life, he doesn't mind, as he feels happier now, and is better off this way. Tarn is furious at this, and shoots Megatron point-blank in his chest, declaring that he's be better off dead.

Tarn knows that Megatron isn't dead yet, since his statue is still visible, and would have gone out if he died, so he goes for the final blow. Except he is stopped...by.....OVERLORD!!!

The shuttle crashes outside the fortress, when inside Ten is taken for repairs by Magnus, and Swerve thanks his employee for leaving the message to use the flowers to power up the storm shield, and says that they think it'll work out.

Skids reunites with Ratchet, and learns that Ratchet is there because someone called him from this location and hung up. Velocity reveals that she called him, but thought it was First Aid she was reaching, and the DJD cut the call before it could go through. She then thoroughly embarrasses herself in front of Ratchet, leaving her embarrassed

Elsewhere, Rodimus reunites with Drift, and apologizes for not coming to find him after he left, out of fear that he's hate him. Drift forgives him, and Rodimus promises to protect him from the DJD, knowing he's on their list, but Drift doesn't believe it....

At the Megatrn statue, Tarn and Overlord are fighting over who gets to kill Megatron. During the fight, Overlord reveals that he was rescued from space by a mysterious group, who want him to kill Megatron as part of their plans. Tarn begins to suggest that they team up to kill Megatron together, but suddenly realize that he's escaped....

Unknown to either of them, he managed to drag himself to his space scooter and is now returning to the fortress.

At the memorial to the lost outside the fortress, Rewind is examining it to see if he can find any correlation between the names and when they disappeared, when Nautica appears and asks him about how the Conjunx Endura process works on Cybertron, as she wants to decide on something before it's too late...

Elsewhere on the planet, surrounded by mountains, Tarn and Overlord enter the Peaceful Tyranny, where immediately Overlord starts belittling the alliance between Tarn and Deathsaurus, despite their known hatred of each other.

During the encounter, Kaon returns and begs Tarn to help him rescue The Pet from the Autobots, making Overlord laugh louder at how domesticated he's become. Tarn embraces his friend, and comforts him...before he tears off his head. Tarn denounces emotions, as they caused Megatron to turn soft.

He goes to Overlord and crushes Kaon's head into his chest and tells him not to ridicule him on his ship any more, then decides to speed up the operation and has everyone begin their plans to attack the fortress now..

At the fortress, Rodimus and Ratchet bring a near-dead Megatron inside, watched by a worried Ravage, whilst Megatron still grasps his Autobot insignia (it broke off during the fight with Tarn)

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank Badly Damaged by Tarn

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Ratchet - Ambulance

Drift - Car

Skids - Van

Velocity - Race Car

Nautica - Submarine

Rewind - Data Slug

Optimus Prime - Truck (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned)

Chromedome - Car (Mentioned)

Tailgate - Car (Mentioned)

First Aid - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Dominus Ambus (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Tarn - Tank

Overlord - Tank and Jet

Deathsaurus

Nickel

Kaon - Variable Volt Harness Killed by Tarn

Helex - Smelting Chamber

Ravage - Cassette

Generic Deathsaurus Troops

Genericons (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Ten Badly Damaged by the DJD

The Pet Abducted by the Autobots

Other

Overlord's Benefactors (Mentioned)

Notes

• Since the end of Empire of Stone, Drift and Ratchet have been travelling around space, fighting "Genericons".
• Despite him being a fairly high-profile target, Drift isn't apparently identified by the DJD.
• Gee it's a good thing the DJD destroyed Ratchet's shuttle, else the Lost Lighters may have had a chance to leave the planet!
• Megatron hints that Tarn's true identity is someone who was important to someone else, further adding to the theory that he is actually Roller.
• Megatron claims that he's fine with having his mind altered to be "nicer", despite his long-standing fear of having his mind altered.
• Oh, Overlord is back.....OVERLORD!!!!??? HIDE THE MINI-BOTS!!!!
• So, turns out that First Aid gave Velocity the same phone that Ratchet gave him earlier, meaning that he never gave her a chance to contact him....or never programmed his number into it? I dunno.
• Rodimus reveals that the reason he never went after Drift following his revelation about his involvement in the Overlord scandal is because he was afraid that he would hate him. Turns out Drift is okay with it!
• Oh look! Overlord transforms to his tank mode...I think this is the first time we've seen that since Last Stand of the Wreckerss.
• Though unnamed here, it's very likely that Overlord's benefactors are related to the Mystery Gear faction.
• Amongst the memorial for the lost, it appears that Roller's name is shown, further fuelling that he may be Tarn.
• This issue confirms that on some colonies Transformers begin relationships as Amica Endura, then become Conjunx Endura, but on Cybertron you can only be one or the other.
• This also implies that Nautica wants to become Conjunx Endura with someone in the group. She has connections to so many of the group that it could be pretty much anyone there.
• Tarn appears to be under a lot of stress. When Kaon was dying from Tyrest's attack in season one, he was comforting towards him, but now that he's panicking over his pet being captured, he gets killed on sight. Maybe Overlord and Megatron have that effect on people?
• Tarn crushing Kaon's head on Overlord's chest somewhat mirrors how Kaon crushed Trailcutter's spark on his forcefield at the start of the season.
• Despite his love for The Pet, Kaon apparently never gave him a more affectionate name...maybe he just owed him money and that's why he wanted him saved?
• The Pet isn't seen with his captors after they return to the Fortress...maybe they killed him on the way?
• Nickel appears to be horrified by how Tarn just killed Kaon for his emotions.

Sig-Pub - Robots in Disguise #7

Notes

• This issue issue reprints issue 6 of the IDW RID comic, my post on that issue can be found here: Ta-da!
• Issue 6 has been given the subtitle of "Quarry Breakout!"
• Get hyped for the next comic, from the advert it looks like it'll be new content!

Features

Sideswipe Quiz - Answer the easy questions for fun!

Battle of the Bots - Fixit vs (one fifth of) Chop Shop

Bumblebee Puzzles - Yay "puzzles"!

Observation Test Time - Spot the difference!

Random "Awesome" Posters!

Prime Puzzles - More puzzles....

Minicon Wordsearch - Can you guess what it is?

Pictures page - Judge the young children for their attempts at art! BWAHAHAHAH!!!

Competition Time! - Win the Deployer figures! (Well Fracture and Drift anyway, if it was Overlord, Blizzard Strike Drift or Crazybolt I may have entered)

Strongarm Mask - Destroy the back page for a tiny mask of Strongarm....you'd think this comic was aimed at young kids or something!!