IDW - Revolutionaries #6

Title: Power and Glory

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Agnes Garbowska, Ron Joseph & Fico Ossio

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B Long

Assistant Edits by: David Mariotte

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Decades ago, Mikey Power is a child detective, who along with his loyal dog Smarts, solved local problems and help defeat the evil forces of the local bullies, Pidge and Finney.

One day. Mikey is approached by Pidge, who tells him that Finney is trapped in a haunted house, and he needs help rescuing him. At the haunted house, the two of them break in and find a ghost, but Mikey soon determines that the "ghost" is being created by a strange hologram projector on a bookcase, unaware that some shadowy figures are approaching him...

Mikey is saved when the Action Man of the era attacks the men, a pair of smugglers, and manages to capture them. Mikey rescues Finney and leaves, keeping the projector to study it...

Mikey, now going by Mike, takes the item home, where he analyses it, and manages to create new limbs for himself to replace his primitive ones. In the process, he grew more reclusive and ended up with Smarts running away, and him being left alone and friendless...

After some time, Mike has perfected his mechanical limbs and joins the Adventure Team with Joe Colton and the others.

During one of their missions, Atomic Man fails to reach Dr. Emil Burkhart from an explosion in front of his daughter, and causes the hero to realize that his current strength isn't enough.

Some time later, Atomic Man meets with Kreiger, who explains that he has made many replicas of the Talisman, and now understands it more...offering to make Mike stronger, by having him connect to one....

In the modern day Mayday meets with former Adventure Team member, Stalker, and wants more information about Project: Ice Man and his time on the Adventure Team, but he has no new information for her. He also confirms that Scarlett is unwilling to spare forces to help her investigate the assumed "final resting place" of Mike Power, however he does re-introduce her to Matt Trakker and Gloria Baker of MASK, who share pleasantries, having not seen each other since the Revolution at Monument Valley.

In Brasnya, the rest of the Revolutionaries are heading to the crater where the Axalon once vanished, and they use codes given by Tomax Paoli to enter the base undetected. Once inside, the two Cybertronians are knocked out by a strange light, which leaves Action Man alone....

However, he is not really alone, he turns around to find a fair of figures, whom he assumed to be Shockwave and Optimus Prime, in actuality their Eukarian copies, and the two giants attack him, leading to Action Man blasting a hole in the ceiling, causing the ocean above it to quickly fill the tunnel.

Kreiger orders Atomic Man, whom is now connected to the base, controlling all of it's functions, to drain the tunnel and have his controlled Eukarians return to him, and make sure Action Man is dead from the salt water. Before much can happen though, MASK arrive and attack the facility. Gloria rescues Action Man from  the water, forcing Kreiger to use all his stored power to over-power the Eukarians.

The humans arrive at the command centre of the secret outpost, where Kreiger has Atomic Man, a shock to see by everyone there, engage them in battle, having utilized the full power of the Talisman copy that is in the facility.

MASK fight the Eukarians, since their technology was designed to fight Cybertronians, so Mayday goes after Kreiger himself. Action Man approaches Atomic Man, and appeals to his human nature, and relates how he understands what it's like to be thrust into a new role and with all this responsibility, and yet also feel weak. Atomic Man agrees with this, and thanks his old dog, Smarts, once more and hopes to get it right the next time...and lets himself die from the energies of the Talisman.

Atomic Man's death cause sthe Eukarians to collapse and the Iron Troopers inside them to also die. Nearby Mayday has defeated Kreiger as the facility begins to shut down. Action Man mourns for the death of a legend, but is soon in greater shock when the long missing Sgt Savage appears from a burst of energy, spurting slang from the 90's...just as Blackrock and Kup wake up from their direct attacks!

Characters

Autobot

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Blackrock/Sovereign - Head

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Mentioned) Dead

Eukarian

"Shockwave's" Corpse - Steel Warship Deactivated by Atomic Man's Death

Domitius Major's Corpse - Train Deactivated by Atomic Man's Death

Centurion - Luxury Car (Mentioned)

Human

Mike Power/Atomic Man Suicide via Talisman Energies

Ian Noble/Action Man

Ayana Jones/Mayday

Matt Trakker

Gloria Baker

Lonzo Wilkinson/Stalker

Garrison Kreiger/ Blitz Defeated by Mayday

Sgt Robert Savage

Joe Colton/GI Joe (Flashback)

Miles Manheim/ Mayhem (Flashback)

Brasnyan Spies (Flashback) Defeated by Older Action Man

Older Action Man (Flashback)

Annie (Flashback)

Police Officer (Flashback)

Pidge (Flashback)

Finney (Flashback)

Dr Emil Burkhart (Flashback) Killed in Explosion

Adele Burkhart (Flashback)

MASK Team (Mentioned)

Scarlett (Mentioned)

Tomax Paoli (Mentioned) In Revolutionaries Custody

Mike Brogan/Action Man (Mentioned) Dead

Mr and Mrs Power (Mentioned)

Other

Iron Troopers Deactivated by Atomic Man's Death

Smarts, the Dog (Flashback) Ran Away from Mike Power Decades ago

Notes

• This issue features a few different art styles. Atomic Man's childhood adventures are shown in a child-like traditional comic strip form, his two page story book excerpt shows his early experimentation with the Iron Trooper technology, and gives a big chunk of back story for him, and his meeting with Joe Colton is a direct pull of his early advertisement, with all the other scenes being done in the regular style of this series.
• Mike Power is shown to have had bionic limbs from childhood. We also learn that he used the Iron Troopers to create his own more advanced limbs, which would later be supercharged by his contact with the Talisman, as seen in an earlier issue.
• He also had a doggo names "Smarts" as a kid, whom is based on the Pound Puppies character "Lucky Smarts"
• Mayday reveals that her work with the Revolutionaries has been authorized by Scarlett, but she isn't keeping her in the loop regarding some of the missions, such as the attack on Kalistan and the arrest of Tomax.
• MASK were under the radar for a while, whilst VENOM was tarnishing their name for a bit, but were cleared of any crimes etc by the end of their first story-arc.
• The Iron Trooper heads are shown to be able to project holograms from them. Since they are based on a piece of Eukarian, and thereby Cybertronian, technology, it is likely associated with holo-avatar technology.
• So the reason for the Eukarian bodies being kept is shown! They are being used as remote controlled guards by Atomic Man on Kreiger's orders!
• Action Man mentions that Shockwave is meant to be dead, this is now a debateable detail, since Bumblebee has been confirmed as still being alive inside the Crystal City Singularity.
• Mayday's comment about Action Man using the "Magic of Friendship" to save the day seems like a direct reference to My Little Pony, which is still one of the only main series IDW Hasbro comics to not be in the Hasbroverse