IDW - First Strike #6

Main Story

Written by: Mairghread Scott & David A. Rodriguez

Art by: Max Dunbar

Colours: Ander Zarate

Coda Story

Title: The Signal

Written by: Mairghread Scott & David A. Rodriguez

Art by: James Raiz

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Editor: David Mariotte

Editor: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Ted Adams

Main Story Plot

Scarlett and her allies face off against Colton and his "Iron Ring", the battle seems pretty even between the two factions, but it is disrupted when Starscream, Elita One and Obsidian arrive, with the latter two intent on killing the invading humans.

Matt Trakker uses his compound made from Astrotrain's remains to attack Elita, allowing her to be controlled by Gloria, making her attack the others on her small team. The battles continue, and Colton accidentally stabs Scarett in her abdomen, and immediately feels bad, even revealing that he never intended for his team to return to Cybertron, as he always assumed that the activation of the Talisman would kill them all too. Scarlett manages to overpower Colton, but he reveals that it is too late...

Kreiger has set up the Talisman, and begins a strange chant that activates it. The heroes charge at him to try and stop it, but all their technology is disabled around him, and he reveals himself to be in fact an alien from the planet Prysmos named Merklynn. He announces that the Age of Magic is about to begin anew, as the Talisman activates and sends a surge of power throughout the planet tainting the Energon within the planet and the Transformers alike.

Merklynn reveals to everyone that this was always his plan, to use the Energon on Cybertron to activate the Talisman and recreate his long lost homeworld. Merklynn admits that not as much of his world has returned as he wanted, but this "city" in the planet's core will be a good start. He erects a barrier that prevents technology from entering his new "city" within the planet's core and teleports everyone away from him, promising that his "Visionaries" will soon arrive and they will end the Age of Technology across the galaxy...

On the planet's surface, Colton, feeling utterly defeated, surrenders to Starscream and the others, and his cohorts are forced to do the same

In the aftermath of the Iron Ring's invasion, the Ring are all placed into cells, whilst the Cybertronians try to figure out what exactly is happening in "New Prysmos" and how they can fix their now tainted Energon supplies. The heroic humans return to Earth through the Space Bridge, where Matt and Scarlett promise to work together in the future and hope that Colton one day sees the real error of his ways and can be redeemed one day...

Coda Plot

During Merklynn's energon surge, Windblade was inside Metroplex's brain chamber monitoring the situation on the planet. Suddenly the planet shoots almost half of it's energon supplies into space, destroying everything it passes. Eventually it reaches a dead planet, seemingly caught in the gravitational pull of a black hole, reactivating a monster within....Unicron....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Arcee - Sports Car

Ironhide - Van

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet (Coda Only)

Metroplex - Iacon City (Coda Only)

Wheelie - Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Astrotrain - Space Shuttle/Train (Mentioned) Dead

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Elita One 

Obsidian - Stealth Osprey Helicopter

Badgeless Officer

Cybertronian Civilians

GI Joe/MASK

Scarlett

Roadblock

Lady Jaye

Matt Trakker

Gloria Baker

Shipwreck (Mentioned)

The Iron Ring

Garrison Kreiger/Merklynn

Joe Colton Arrested and Detained on Cybertron

Miles Mayhem Arrested and Detained on Cybertron

Destro Arrested and Detained on Cybertron

Storm Shadow Arrested and Detained on Cybertron

Shazraella Arrested and Detained on Cybertron

Vanessa Warfield/Ice Queen (Mentioned)

Other Human

Marissa Faireborn

Other

Unicron - Planet Reawoken by Cybertron's Energy (Coda Only)

The Visionaries (Mentioned)

Notes

• Despite last issue saying he wanted the humans a "traitors" under Optimus' command arrested, Starscream seems quick to attack Optimus and do nothing to stop Elita from attacking the humans herself.
• The compound made from Astrotrain's remains is revealed to be able to allow a human to control a Cybertronian body remotely
• Kreiger's true identity was actually hinted at in his FIRST appearance! The hieroglyphs that appears next to him in the flashback to Egypt showed what a lot of fans pointed out seemed to be a panel of a Visionary's armour...my god! Also his escape from the Revolutionaries in issue 8 of their series can be explained as him using magic to escape his cuffs.
• If you look at his Hasbro Sourcebook profile you'll also notice that it never technically mentions where his homeland is, just that he is new to America at the time.
• Everyone knew that the Visionaries were coming to the IDW Hasbroverse, but I'm pretty sure that no-one saw Kreiger being the one to cause it ever!
• The spell that Kreiger/Merklynn uses to activate the Talisman is the one used by Leoric in the original toyline to activate his owl staff's power. The symbols that appear after it's activation are also the animal spirit symbols that appeared on the Visionaries chest plates.
• You can just see at the end that Shazraella is de-Enerchanged from her host. In Optimus Prime 13 it is implied that Antagony died, both confirming her host's name, and her fate...aww....
• Rather than follow this story with another issue of "The Origins of Evil" we get a short teaser comic for the upcoming and previously announced Unicron series...ooo-er
• Unicron in this universe is shown to have been encased in an unidentified planet, much like he is in both the Aligned and Live Action Movie universes, however in those universes he forms the core of Earth itself. It is likely that the planet that he was sealed inside was the original planet Prysmos, explaining why their "Age of Magic" died out. With Cybertron's core being replaced by a "New Prysmos" it would seem fitting that whatever was keeping Unicron dormant would be reactivated due to this (especially since the core of Cybertron is usually where Primus, Unicron's brother, resides too)
• Isn't it kind of amusing? Both characters in this continuity that have the name Garrison (Blackrock and Kreiger) have been revealed to be an alien in disguise!