IDW - Transformers: Salvation

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Livio Ramondelli

Letters by: Tom B Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Yesterday, Starscream sends Flatline and his team to investigate the new spark field in Alyon, and maintain them. Swift arrives and demands to know why the sparks have been kept a secret from the population, especially since Barricade died protecting them. Starscream points out that he is unwilling to allow new life to be born when the planet is still in a state of turmoil, citing that Swift ended up joining the Decepticons after exposure to them, pointing out that new life may be swayed either way, like she did. He also hides from her that someone has been to the field and taken some of the sparks...

That night, Starscream arrives at the secret prison, where he agrees to free Sandstorm from jail, in exchange for taking down the rogue elements outside of Iacon, namely the Dinobots and Bludgeon, which he agrees to...

The Dinobots arrive at Tyger Pax and locate another abandoned lab of Bludgeon's, inside they find a bunch of dead or dying Sweeps, along with some more of the mutated energon. Within moments however, Slug is fatally shot by a sniper, prompting the other Dinobots to go after the sniper. Not wanting to allow his death to be pointless, he sets fire to the mutated energon, and causes it to explode, finishing himself off, and leaving the Dinobots without a leader now!

Following this, the sniper, Sandstorm, arrives at Alyon, where he finds Bludgeon killing the team left by Starscream, and is soon knocked out too, but not killed. Bludgeon uses some of the sparks, along with those of his partially living Sweep troops and the now dead Badgeless officers to repower Trypticon, and reanimate the dormant giant.

Trypticon approaches Iacon, along with his flying monster minions. The Dinobots are tearing at him, but can't slow him down. Devastator is sent to fight him by Starscream, but even the powerful combiner can't stop the rampaging monster.

Starscream watches the oncoming chaos from the Spire, along with Swift, who suggests that the giant Decepticon is a distraction, and someone may be after the still secret new Hotspot in Alyon, but Starscream points out that his team is still there guarding it.

As if he's cursed, Starscream is proven wrong when Swoop arrives at the field, and finds all the sparks gone, and most of the team left by Starscream are dead, except for Flatline and a sniper, who blasts Swoop's wing off and goes in for the kill. Sandstorm asks Swoop what his team did with the spark field, but Swoop points out that they'd never harm the next generation of Cybertronians like that, and both of them agree that it must have been Bludgeon. They team up, and Sandstorm flies them both off towards Trypticon

Whilst Devastator goes for another strike outside, the Dinobots have made their way inside Trypticon, where Strafe locates his brain module, and recognizes it as a Titan's brain. She comments on this, and Bludgeon agrees that Trypticon seems to be a Titan, he reveals that he is using the Void Sceptre, a device supposedly created by Mortilus, to control Trypticon, and plans to use him to cause havoc, then make people believe he is dead by Spacebridging away, so he can use the sparks he has stolen to create a secret army to conquer the universe with. Outside, Devastator has been defeated, and crushed under Tyrpticon's foot.

Swoop and Sandstorm arrive at Trypticon and enter the giant Decepticon to look for Bludgeon and the sparks. Upon seeing him, and learning he was the one who killed Slug, the other Dinobots attack Sandstorm, until Swoop forces them to stop fighting and work together until after the sparks are safe.

Bludgeon looks at security footage and praises himself on his decision to let Sandstorm live, so he could either kill the Dinobots or at least distract them during his final plans. Bludgeon orders Trypticon to go in for the final strike on Iacon, thus forcing them to use their full force against him, allowing him to teleport away to begin his long term plans, and expand a Cybertronian Empire.

Luckily, the other Dinobots arrive at the control room, and manage to destroy the Void Sceptre, disabling Bludgeon's control on the Titan.

Before Bludgeon can do anything to retaliate, Trypticon accesses his Spacebridge and teleports Bludgeon just outside his house, and sets off a scorching flame, burning the Decepticon, and finally defeating him as revenge for his forced control.

Starscream is happy with this result, and has now convinced Swift that he was right to hide the sparks from the population, as the world is still a mess.

Inside Trypticon, the Dinobots prepare to get revenge for Slug by killing Sandstorm, but Strafe tries to get them to keep their peace. They are all shut up when Trypticon speaks up and announces that he is taking charge.

Trypticon marches down to the cavern where he was created by Mortilus, and curls up, allowing himself to be cannibalized by the new sparks, and allow them to be born from his body. Allowing the first war-free generation to be born, as the Dinobots and Sandstorm stand watch over them.

Elsewhere, Starscream has recovered the still barely alive Bludgeon, and strung him up in a lab, where he also has the dead body of Slug, and one of the surviving mutated sparks...wondering what would happen if he combined them.....

Characters

Autobot

Slug - Triceratops Killed by Sandstorm, Body stolen by Starscream

Swoop - Pteranodon

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Sandstorm - VTOL Helicopter/Buggy

Metroplex - Iacon City (Flashback)

Optimus Prime - Truck (Flashback)

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Mentioned)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Trypticon - Battle Platform Sacrificed body to allow new life

Bludgeon - Tank Scorched by Trypticon

Flatline - Van

Swift - Helicopter

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Mentioned)

The Firecons (Mentioned)

Barricade - Car (Mentioned) Dead

United Cybertron

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt Crushed by Trypticon

Badgeless Officers Many Killed by Bludgeon

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Strafe - Two Headed Dragon

Sweeps - Space Shuttles Killed by Bludgeon

Newborn Protoforms

Cyber-morphic Predators Presumably Killed with Trypticon

Mortilus (Flashback)

Primus (Mentioned)

Jhiaxus - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Council of Worlds (Mentioned)

Sandstorm's Victims (Mentioned) Dead

Titan Swarm (Mentioned) Dead

Cyclonus - Jet (Mentioned)

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Other

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Solstar Order (Mentioned)

Notes

• This one-off comic acts as the finale to the "Dinobot Trilogy" preceeded by Punishment and Redemption. Though saying that, the end of this comic does leave another follow-up possible.
• Speaking of the Trilogy, all three issues were released shortly after and referenced the events of the "big event" for that year. Punishment was set just after Dark Cybertron and included the new characters introduced, Redemption was set after Combiner Wars and showed us some glimpses of the Torchbearers, and this one is set after Titans Return, and references the Titan Swarm and Trypticon being one too.
• Swift was last seen heading back to the Jupiter Sanctuary in the former Transformers ongoing series. Guess she got bored there and returned to Cybertron after a while. She may have been part of the rebuilding effort following the attacks from Sentinel Prime and the Titans however.
• Trypticon was most likely used in this comic as a partial advertisement for his new Titans Return toy, even referring to him as a Titan...then he dies at the end...good job Trypticon!
• It's revealed finally where Trypticon has been for the past few years. He joined in on the exodus from Cybertron following Thunderwing's rampage, but returned just before the planet was reformatted by Vector Sigma. When the planet was reset to it's original form, Trypticon was caught up in the energy and was buried under the surface, where people never noticed and simply walked over him. We saw him in this state in Redemption.
• It is mentioned that Trypticon was created as a rival Titan by Mortilus, Primus' rival, explaining his darker abilities. It is implied that following his defeat in Primacy he was properly recruited into the Decepticons by Bludgeon.
• Bludgeon plans to either destroy the Galactic Council or the Solstar Order first with his new army of Cybertronians. The prior is obvious, since they have attacked Cybertronians before. The Solstar Order haven't done anything to them so far though, but that could change when the Rom vs Transformers prequel series comes out.
• Maybe Strafe should call a Blacksmith to come from Caminus to help them with the formation of the new Cybertronians? It wouldn't hurt would it? They'd be more helpful than a bunch of bruisers with flamethrowers for mouths!
• Why did Starscream recover Slug's body with the intent of fusing it with the mutated spark? Doesn't he already have a closet filled with bodies? (We haven't seen one, but knowing Screamer, he probably does!)
• Swoop mentions that if they collect enough Sweeps then they may trade them for a Cyclonus...the joke would make more sense if they were trading for Scourge, the only named Sweep...