IDW - Revolution #4

Title: The New Colossus

Written by: John Barber & Cullen Bunn

Art by: Fico Ossio

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B Long

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Chief Creative Officer: Chris Ryall

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Snake Eyes manages to infiltrate Autobot City, but encounters a tiny space ship named the Heliopolis manned by the Micronauts. He tries attacking the ship, but is unable to hit them. Acroyear leaves the ship to attack the "giant" alien, only to be horrified when an even larger, pink alien appears behind him.

Arcee attacks the two sets of intruders, but all of them are soon knocked out when Soundwave lets off a sonic strike against them. Arcee easily recovers, and Windblade and Rom examine the Heliopolis and Acroyear, determining them to be inhabitants of Micronus' universe, and believe them to have "invaded" in retaliation for Rom's attack on their universe. Snake Eyes meanwhile sets off a beacon to alert GI Joe to his location for backup.

Miles Manheim picks up the signal, but ignores it in favour of talking to his ally, the Dire Wraith Caleb Awan, and both are getting impatient of the other, and the recent attacks on Bikini Atoll and the White House, however they decide to enter the final stages of their plans, just as Matt Trakker enters the room. Miles ends the communication, and tells Matt it's time to head to Autobot City.

Meanwhile, in a cavern somewhere, Caleb and several other Dire Wraiths use their last scraps of Ore-13 to power themselves up, and head out to attack Autobot City too...

At Autobot City, Rom tries to apologize to the Micronauts for attacking their universe, but they cannot understand his alien language, but seem to get his intentions, so they appear to ally with him. Snake Eyes "wakes up" when the Autobots tell him to stop pretending to be knocked out. Optimus asks if they can talk like civilized beings now, prompting Snake Eyes to show his beacon watch, informing Optimus that he's already called for his superiors to arrive, making Optimus glad.

Scarlett and Roadblock return to Governor's Island, following the battle at Bikini Atoll, only to find that the base was attacked in their absence by Action Man, and the MASK team is gone, along with all their hi-tech machinery, leaving the Joes with nothing to fight the aliens any more.

The MASK team arrive at Autobot City, where they are soon joined by the Dire Wraiths, much to Matt's shock, and they plough through Victorion, and tear through the walls of the city. Inside, the Transformers, Micronauts, Snake Eyes and Rom all confront the MASK team and Dire Wraiths, in a messy battle, with the Dire Wraiths being powered up from the Ore-13 under the city, making them much stronger.

During the battle, Miles reveals his motives to be the ruler of Earth, which horrifies Matt and the others, only for the Dire Wraiths to turn on MASK taking out Matt and Miles' vehicles. Despite his apparent loss, Miles begins the last phase of his plan, and triggers the space bridge, allowing Baron Karza to enter from Microspace.

Caleb is unimpressed by the tiny enemy, until he initiates an Enerchange, and forces a fusion between himself, Caleb and some of the other Dire Wraiths, creating a giant monstrous version of himself, ready to crush everything. Everyone there looks on in horror.

The Joes finally pick up on Snake Eyes' signal, but aren't able to help without the MASK vehicles to counteract the Transformer's ability to disable their high tech machinery, until Mainframe uncovers several old-school GI Joe vehicles, that don't use sophisticated computers, allowing them to join in on the final battle too...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Arcee - Sports Car

Victorion - Torchbearer Gestalt

Jazz - Sports Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier

Other Cybertronian

Metrotitan - Autobot City

Micronus Prime (Mentioned)

GI Joe

Scarlett

Snake Eyes

Mainframe

Agent Helix

Roadblock

MASK

Miles Manheim

Matt Trakker

Brad Turner

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfied

Gloria Baker

Julio Lopez

Bruno Sheppard

Other Human

Action Man (Mentioned)

Microspace Denizens

Baron Karza

Oziron Rael

Acroyear

Phenolo-Phi

Larissa

Microtron

Biotron

Dire Wraith

Caleb Awan Enerchanged into Karza's Body

Axiom

Dire Wraith Army Enerchanged into Karza's Body

Joe Colton (Mentioned) Dead

Other

Rom, the Space Knight

Notes

• Jazz is still missing his arm...what the hell Optimus?!
• It's shown here that the Microspace denizens speak a different language to English. I would assume in future issues that an auto-translator will be introduced.
• When Rom holds Acroyear it looks like he's holding a doll....could this be a hint of a future Micronauts toyline?! :D
• Miles Manheim is revealed to be Baron Karza's ally on Earth, and he is also revealed to be allied to the Dire Wraiths, in exchange of him ruling Earth following their invasion...this is of no shock to anyone of course.
• Caleb Awan from the Rom Revolution one shot is shown to be a higher ranked Dire Wraith here, in his introduction he didn't seem to have much authority.
• Axiom is revealed to have been also augmented by Microverse technology as well as Cybertronian, Dire Wraith and Human, making it a melding of all the main players in this series.
• The two page spread of the Transformers and their allies vs MASK and the Dire Wraiths is reminiscent of the promo images for the Revolution event.
• Karza is shown to be able to combine himself with other things for his Enerchange, implying that his previous centaur mode was also him fusing with an actual horse-alien rather than just being an attachment of his.
• Also of note, Acroyear's sword was previously noted as being summoned from subspace...apparently subspace is available in another universe as well!