IDW - First Strike: Transformers

Title: Unification Day: Dusk

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Priscilla Tramontano

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Editor: David Mariotte

Editor: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The Revolutionaries, along with Arcee chase after Colditz, Centurion and Blackrock, who have gone into the wilderness of Cybertron.

In the wilderness, Blackrock wakes up inside Centurion, who asks him to trust him in this matter. Colditz and his Red Shadow ally are taking Centurion and their prisoner to meet with Kreiger in the wilderness and have laid some traps and left more Red Shadows in the wilderness to try and stop the Revolutionaries from following them.

The Revolutionaries follow Centurion's tracks and go after their captured friends when they are attacked by a pair of ninjas, Arcee is uneasy about attacking humans, but is convinced to just deal with them...so she slices one of them in half and watches as it crawls away, intestines trailing behind...disturbing her.

Colditz' group set up camp in the wilderness, and he begins to worry about where Kreiger is, whilst the Red Shadow leader reports about his team's failure to stop the others. Whilst their captors are distracted, Centurion and Blackrock talk, with Centurion revealing that he hasn't betrayed them, he just wants to get close to Kreiger so he can kill him for all that he did to both Centurion and Atomic Man over the years. The other Revolutionaries arrive at the site, but are hit by some explosives set by the villains. A fight begins, and during it Centurion reveals that he knows how dangerous the Talisman really is, and that it will kill all life on Cybertron if Kreiger uses it, also revealing that his body is infused with it's energies too, and begins to overload with the radiation. The remaining Red Shadows are caught by the energy and are killed, whilst Colditz tries to escape, but is ultimately captured by the Revolutionaries.

The Revolutionaries try to calm down Centurion so he doesn't end up destroying the planet himself, but Arcee decides to take the unilateral decision and flings her sword at him to kill the hybrid, but Blackrock stops it just in time. Blackrock reaches out to his friend, and he manages to calm down, but in the process goes into stasis lock, leaving him inert.

The team figure that Kreiger set things up so that Centurion would overload and hoped the Revolutionaries would be forced to kill him themselves, and that he had Colditz remove him from the city so he couldn't get involved in the events happening at the planet's core.

The team regroup and head back towards Iacon, still intending to remain a team, despite them sometimes getting on each other's nerves.

Characters

Autobot

Arcee - Sports Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Head

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Bumblebee - Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Mentioned)

Human

Mayday/Ayana Jones

Action Man/Ian Noble

1960's Action Man (Flashback)

Alanis Morissette (Mentioned)

Eukarian

Centurion/Atomic Man - Luxury Car In Stasis Lock due to Energy Overload

Domitius Major (Flashback)

"Ironhide" (Flashback)

"Prowl" (Flashback)

"Shockwave" (Flashback)

"Soundwave" (Flashback)

The Iron Ring

Colditz Arrested by Revolutionaries

Red Shadow Commander Killed by Centurion's Radiation

Red Shadow Ninja #1 Killed by Revolutionaries

Red Shadow Ninja #2 Vivisected by Arcee, Killed by Centurion's Radiation

Garrison Kreiger (Flashback)

Doctor X (Mentioned)

Other

Onyx Prime (Mentioned)

Smarts the Dog (Mentioned)

Notes

• Originally this issue was advertised as "First Strike: Revolutionaries" but was changed to be under the "Transformers" title instead as "Revolutionaries" has ended
• Not for nothing, but I wonder if Action Man would still be interested in Arcee if he knew that she was forged a male Transformer...
• Despite spending a long time amongst humans, Kup still thinks that they can just get their parts replaced if they are sliced off....you stay away from Ian!
• Also, Arcee's reluctance to use "lethal force" on humans is likely due to her not wanting to get on Optimus' bad side, or to prove herself better than Pyra, who has been shown to not have such hesitations.
• Kreiger having Colditz keep Centurion away from the city, and possible get him killed by the other Revolutionaries to stop him from going nuclear is explained in a way in First Strike #6, since he needs the Talisman to succeed for his own personal mission, and Centurion's Talisman-enriched body would hinder the plan.
• Despite how it looks like Centurion has been put in stasis lock to remove him from the storyline for a while, he winds up being back on his feet by Optimus Prime #13, set days after the end of First Strike
• This story begins and ends with "interviews" between the Revolutionaries, most likely as a sort of internal report between the team.
• The ending suggests that the Revolutionaries team is continuing on, despite their comic line having ended