IDW - Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor #4

Written by: John Barber & Christos Gage

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Ultra Magnus takes on the Dire Wraiths alone, and is doing well until they simply overpower him, and hold him still. Vekktral approaches him and explains that he knows how to perfect the process of merging with a Cybertronian, and proceeds to touch his forehead, as Magnus hopes that he doesn't wind up "disgracing the uniform".

Approaching the Orchid Crossing crash site, Sata starts complaining to Bumblebee about leaving Magnus to die, leading to the Autobot lashing out at the Space Knight, saying that he knew the risks when he offered to stay behind so they can help the others defeat the Decepticons, but Sata thinks this is pointless as the planet needs to be razed due to the Wraith infestation anyway.

At Orchid Crossing, Rom defends the Xetaxxan scavengers from the Decepticons, whilst Starscream and Stardrive continue their bartering. Starscream agrees to leave the planet with the Wraiths and the Energon Synthesizer but also suggests that Stardrive join him too. She declines as she has no desire to work with someone who would ally with the Dire Wraiths, but Starscream counters that he had no idea how dangerous the Wraiths were before he allied with them, but after seeing what happened to Sky Blast, he is scared. Before she can respond, the other Knights enter the crashed station, having flung a knocked out Dirge inside, and proceed to attack Starscream. Starscream escape, after using Dirge as a make-shift shield, leaving the Knights behind.

Livia thinks about things, and figures that the Energon Synthesizer would explode if it's capacitors were blown, and would wipe out half the planet too, thus taking out the Wraith infection and removing the device from the Decepticon's hands. Stardrive is disgusted by the plan to destroy half the planet as well as the attempt to destroy her life-giving device, and tries to leave with it, renouncing her Knight-hood in the process. Livia attacks her to stop her from leaving, leading the Cybertronian Knight to retaliate against her. Rom tries to calm the situation down, but Stardrive isn't having it.

Bumblebee and Sata arrive, and assume that she has been possessed by a Wraith, so they try to subdue her, however they soon stop when Bee reveals that Magnus let himself probably die to allow them to recover the Synthesizer. Stardrive agrees to work with the Autobots, and the other Knights so they can protect the Synthesizer defeat the Wraiths together.

Soon, Ultra Magnus approaches the group, but it's soon apparent that it's not actually not just Magnus, but him fused with Vekktral into a horrifying hybrid like Sky Blast was before.

The Knights and Bumblebee are attacked by the Magnus-Wraith and the other Wraiths, who were disguised as the Xetaxxan scavengers. Soon the Decepticons join their allies, intending to take the Synthesizer. Unfortunately, the Wraiths betray their "allies" and intend to use their bodies to create more hybrids, before moving onto the rest of the Cybertronians, in turn destroying both the Solstar Order and the Galactic Council!

Characters

Autobot

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport Merged with Vekktral

Bumblebee - Two Wheeled Car

Optimus Prime - Truck (Mentioned)

Sky Blast - Space Ship (Mentioned) Dead

Previous Ultra Magnus' (Mentioned) All Dead

Decepticon

Starscream - Jet

Dirge - Jet

Ramjet - Jet

Thrust - Jet

Astrotrain - Galactic Council Shuttle/Trackless Train

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet

Solstar Order

Stardrive - Car/Jet

Rom

Livia

Sata

Auxin (Mentioned) Dead

Orchid Crossing Solstar Agents (Mentioned) Dead

Dire Wraith

Vekktral Merged with Ultra Magnus

"Xetaxxan Scavengers"

Dire Wraith Soldiers

Sky Blast-Wraith (Flashback) Dead

Other

Primus (Mentioned)

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Notes

• As if it needed any further proving, this issue reminds us that Magnus is a title and an armour rather than a single individual, almost guaranteeing that this IS a previous incarnation of the lawman and not Minimus Ambus.
• This does beg the question as to whether this series will end with Bumblebee learning about the armour, or just assuming that Magnus "got better" from being merged with a Dire Wraith.
• It could be said that Starscream is just lying to Stardrive about being concerned about the Wraiths, just to get her on his side, but it actually seems like he does somewhat fear their potential power in the future.
• Starscream misremembers Sky Blast's name as "Blast Off" the same mistake as what was made by the Cast Roll Call in the past two issues....I hope this was a purposeful in-joke :)
• Considering the rest of the scavengers at the Orchid Crossing crash site ended up being Wraiths, it's quite likely that the ones who died whilst Stardrive was protecting them were also Wraiths in disguise.
• I'm going to call shenanigans here, how did Vekktral manage to figure out how to merge with a Cybertronian without going insane when he's only had experience by watching ONE FAILED experiment just hours earlier? If there was previous experiments or conflicts between Cybertronians and Wraiths it would likely have been mentioned before now.