IDW - Revolutionaries #8

Title: Ghost in the Machine

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Ron Joseph and Fico Ossio

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz and Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Edits by: David Mariotte

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Decades ago, Joe Colton is watching a newsreel of Sgt Savage and the Screaming Eagles and becomes inspired by his actions to protect both America and the world from the dangers all around. 

Much later, following the Decepticon invasion of Earth, Joe Colton and Scarlett help in the recovery in New York and Colton becomes convinces that someone high-up must have known about the Transformers before this attack...

Just before the Revolution, Colton is ambushed by a bunch of Dire Wraiths who attempt to possess him, but Colton cuts off his own hand and leaps from the helicopter to evade them, however the Wraiths, assuming that he died upon leaping, use his severed hand to take his place anyway, and take control of GI Joe...

A while later Colton comes across some thugs who are watching the broadcast of Optimus annexing Earth into the Council of Worlds on their phone, he tries to see what is happening, but the thugs aren't impressed with the older, one handed man and attack him, assuming he's a hobo supposedly, to which Colton just kills them. He takes their phone and calls Garrison Kreiger, who agrees to meet with him in Paris...

Quite a while later, Colton and Kreiger have made a deal with Iron Klaw, who gives them a base of operations, but wonders what Colton's problem with the robots is...just as Doctor X contacts Colton regarding the attack on the Schletevan facility where the Talisman was being held at the time....

Today, in Buenes Aires, our heroes are fighting off Ironblood's alliance of villains and everyone is shocked that Ironblood is actually Colton in disguise. During the battle, Kreiger breaks free of his shackles and joins his allies.

Inside the building, Kup and Centurion fight it out, with Centurion repeating his mantra that his species are just machines of destruction, which s why he needs to kill them all. In the holding room, Doctor X shoots Bryce Chan with a stun gun so she can speak to Ian alone, and in the Talisman chamber the still skewered Blackrock leaps into the Talisman and stabs the crystal upon it with Storm Shadow's sword.

Back on the roof, Skywarp joins the fight, but is warmed upon by the Red Shadows using their Dire Wraith augmentations. Mayday faces off with one, but uses his extending tendril arm to lower herself down and swing through a window. She soon finds herself with Blackrock and Storm Shadow, the former of whom is currently partially inside the Talisman itself, and comes face-to-face with Onyx Prime, or some aspect of him at least.

Ian attacks Doctor X, not wanting to speak to her, but misses, making Doctor X laugh...that is until she is informed that he wasn't aiming for her, but rather the locks on the containment units, freeing the Wraith-Human hybrids. The monsters soon flood the entire building, chasing away Doctor X and even Centurion. On the roof, Savage and Colton fight one-to-one, with the latter trying to persuade the former of the evils of the Cybertronians, but Savage just admits that he loves the future, and looks forward to what it can bring them.

Inside the Talisman, which Onyx explains is inside Infraspace, the Prime attacks Blackrock, having seen that his use has been met already, but is stopped by a manifestation the dead Mike Power, who fights off the god-like figure, inspiring Blackrock to do something impossible too...summon a Titan...

Metrotitan, along with Optimus Prime, arrives at the Onyx building and join the battle, with the Titan having been summoned there by Blackrock. Skywarp identifies Colton to Optimus and tells him that he's in charge of the villains. Colton tries to escape through the building, but as soon as he opens the roof doors, the Wraiths funnel out. Optimus starts to fight the Wraiths, but is soon informed that they are civilians and not real Wraiths. Colton tries one last time to make Savage join him, but he is refused, which leads Kreiger to shoot him in the back.

Inside the building, Ian has met up with Mayday and the others, and is soon followed by Kup, who drives right into Storm Shadow, knocking her away.

The Wraith hybrids start swarming our heroes inside the building now, but Blackrock has an idea, he contacts Metrotitan and has him activate his spacebridge, accessing some Ore-13 deposits and sends out the radiation upon the building, curing the hybrids and returning them to their human states.

The heroes start to celebrate, but Doctor X reappears, carrying the injured Storm Shadow, she stands next to the Talisman and triggers the MASS device to transport them and it to their base. Upon the triggering the Talisman activates, and Ian is almost mutated. but is saved when Centurion, having switched sides now, realising that he wants to be a protector, steps in front of him and takes the energy in, killing him.

On the rood, Optimus goes after Colton, but he is transported away at the last second, along with the rest of his fellow villains. Optimus is worried, and Savage, who survived his gun shot, agrees.

Inside, the group now actually starts to celebrate their achievements, but wonder why Centurion switched sides, prompting the "dead" Transformer to wake up, and reveal that he isn't really Centurion, not completely, at some point Mike Power transported himself into the robot and melded his personality with him, creating a new hybrid mind. One of the former Wraith hybrids approaches the group and asks about her missing boyfriend, leading the group to remember that some of the Wraiths were killed  BEFORE they discovered the truth, and he must have been amongst them. The woman grieves, but the Revolutionaries agree that they still have things to learn and plan to do better "next time"...

Colton and his crew arrive in their destination, where they are met by Iron Klaw and Miles Mayhem, along with an army of other villains, who, now that the Talisman is in their possession, prepare to head to Cybertron for their attack on their greatest enemies....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Metrotitan - Autobot City

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Head

Decepticon

Razorclaw - Lion (Flashback Only)

Divebomb - Eagle (Flashback Only)

Tantrum - Bison (Flashback Only)

Rampage - Tiger (Flashback Only)

Headstrong - Rhino (Flashback Only)

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt (Footage Only) 

GI Joe

Mayday

Roadblock

Doc

Cover Girl

Rock 'n Roll

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Flash Returned to Normal

Quarrel Returned to Normal

Heavy Duty Returned to Normal

Scarlett (Flashback Only)

Action Man Programme

Action Man, Ian Noble

Agent Terrence Salmons

Agent Bryce Chan

Ironblood's Alliance

Joe Colton/Baron Ironblood

Garrison Kreiger

Centurion - Luxury Car Mind Merged with Mike Power, Defects from Team

Doctor X

Storm Shadow

The Iron Klaw

Major Bludd

Miles Mayhem

Horrorshow

Dragonsky

Gorky

Daina

Red Shadow Ninjas

Other Human

Sgt Savage

Mike Power Mind Merged with Centurion

Schletevan Civilians Returned to Normal

Marissa Faireborn (Flashback Only)

Joe Colton's Mother (Flashback Only)

New Yorkers (Flashback Only)

Thugs (Flashback Only) Killed by Joe Colton

The Screaming Eagles (Mentioned)

Other

Colton-Wraith (Flashback Only)

Dire Wraiths (Flashback Only)

Onyx Prime (Infraspace Vision Only)

The Council of Worlds (Mentioned)

Notes

• We've learned throughout the series that Sgt Savage was the inspiration for Joe Colton, we see here that his main "interaction" with him was through the TV
• The News Station "BNN" was used a few times in the past, most notably during the Costa Ongoing Transformers series.
• The hole in the Statue of Liberty was created when Omega Supreme shot Devastator point blank whilst holding him against the monument
• Whilst joined with the Talisman, Blackrock is able to access Infraspace, a sort of Cybertronian Limbo that Optimus accessed when he was near death during Escalation. Like then, Blackrock meets with the image of a Prime in Infraspace.
• Also inside the Talisman/Infraspace is Mike Power, who allowed himself to "die" whilst hooked up to it earlier in the series.
• Here's a weird bit of trivia, Blackrock summoning Metrotitan is the first time that a Titan Master has actually controlled a living Titan directly (the ones on Luna-1 were dead remember)
• Skywarp misnames Joe Colton as "Cotton or Coulson", whilst Cotton could just be a joke about it being a possible misspelling of his name, but the latter is clearly a reference to Agent Phil Coulson from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as it sounding like his actual name.
• Metrotitan uses Ore-13 to reverse the effects of the Talisman creating Dire Wraiths...what can the Ore NOT DO?! 
• Optimus refers to the MASS device as Orbital Bounce Technology, this was the method of long distance travel used by the Transformers in the early IDW G1 comics.
• The end of this comic both finishes the Revolutionaries line, and leads directly into the start of First Strike...seems quite fitting that the follow-up series for the previous event leads directly into the next one huh?
• Following this comic is a featurette showing all the major Easter Eggs for the series, most of which I already covered in my own coverage :)