IDW - Go-bots #1

Story/Art/Letters: Tom Scioli

Edits: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Greg Goldstein 

Plot

Go-bots are a commodity in this world, with some like Leader-1 working in the military with Nick Burns, Scooter as transport for a student named A.J. and Turbo as Matt Hunter's racing car. The robotic species are all over the world and are integrated amongst the human population to make their lives easier.

One night, after winning a Gobot race, Matt and Turbo are invited to a secret event by T. Coriander Banks, where they witness a Go-bot gladiator match and are forced into a fight with Cy-Kill. Turbo manages to save Matt and escape, but not before Turbo makes Cy-Kill question his actions by fighting for the amusement of humans.

Later, Matt and Turbo return with the police to find the humans at the gladiator match all killed, leading the duo to believe that Cy-Kill killed them and has now gone rogue.

Leader-1 and Nick head to the Go-bot Command Centre in the Pentagon where they are tasked with locating Cy-Kill and other Renegade Go-bots that have been popping up recently. They are taken to see a gas station attendant who was badly beaten by Crasher before being robbed for all the station's weapons, gas and money.

Soon, the duo find a caravan of Go-bots without their human masters, led by Cy-Kill. Leader-1 attacks the group and winds up in combat with Cy-kill. During the battle, Nick gets injured from inside Leader-1's chassis, and Leader-1 is knocked down and restrained whilst the Renegades get some military codes from Leader-1 and escape, leaving him behind to die.

Elsewhere, A.J. has been invited to dinner with her college professor, Braxis after asking her to be his assistant. He also asks her to go into her basement, so she can meet his personal Go-bot, Vamp, but when down there Vamp appears to try and attack her. Scooter breaks into the basement to let A.J. out and Braxis insists that he was just playing a joke on her and they leave.

Outside, A.J. sees the Go-bots attacking ther masters and Scooter explains that the Asimov codes that the Go-bots have to obey have been reversed and now the Go-bots are having a revolution.

A.J. asks her Go-bot if he's going to hurt her, as he clenches his fist....

Characters

Renegade Go-bots

Cy-kill - Motorcycle

Crasher - Race Car

Cop-Tur - Helicopter

Stretch - Limousine 

Tank - Tank

Fitor - Jet

Spoons - Forklift Truck

Screw Head - Drill Tank

Geeper Creeper - Jeep

Loco - Train

Vamp - Monster

Bug Bite - VW Beetle

Water Walk - Seaplane
Other Renegades

Other Go-bots

Leader-1 - Fighter Jet

Turbo - Race Car

Scooter - Scooter

Hans-Cuff - Police Car

Glad-iator Killed by Cy-kill

Other Gladiators Dead

Go-bot Racers - Race Cars

Rest-Q - Ambulance (Footage Only)

Zeemon - Sports Car (Footage Only)

Spay-C - Space Shuttle (Footage Only)

Human

Matt Hunter

Nick Burns

A.J.

Professor Braxis

T. Coriander Banks

Gas Station Attendant Injured by Crasher

Pentagon Staff

Police Officers

Enemy Fighters Most Killed by Nick and Leader-1

Hostages Rescued by Nick and Leader-1

Race Drivers

Race Track Pit Girls

Post-race Party Goers

Gladiator Patrons Killed by Cy-Kill

Random Pedestrians

Condor (Voice Only)

Beaky (Voice Only) Killed by Enemy Fighters

Notes

• This series is not (seemingly) in continuity with the Challenge of the Go-bots cartoon, but it's own series. In this continuity the Go-bots are man-made machines rather than alien cyborgs.
• From what we've seen of the series so far, it appears to follow the basic premise of a machine revolution, like in "I, Robot" or the backstories for the Terminator and Transmorphers franchises
• The Guardians are not a named faction in this continuity so far, so I'll just be referring to them as Go-bots in the character list
• Scioli really missed out on a nice reference in this issue. In the gladiator pit, Cy-Kill's opponent should have been Megatron to mirror the times he's appeared in Transformers fiction.
• Several of the characters are shown in either new colour schemes or ones based on alternate toy colour schemes
• There is a Go-bot Command Center inside the Pentagon. It is currently unknown whether it resembles the toy and cartoon counterpart, or is just a name re-use yet.
• The Asimov laws mentioned at the end of this issue appear to be the same ones that fiction states that robots need to follow, ie no killing humans or allowing them to die by inaction.

IDW - Optimus Prime #25

Title: Post

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Kei Zama

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Optimus is heading into the afterspark, following his sacrifice to defeat Unicron, and on his way, he looks back on his life...

Upon being born as Orion Pax, he is greeted by Alpha Trion, one of the Thirteen Primes, and is told that he will be the topic of stories in the future and will do great things, and the first thing he witnesses is a disposable class Transformer being abused by his master...

After a while, Orion Pax joins the police force and is taught to fight by Kup, eventually he starts to see how the world is violent and corrupt in places, such as Ravage being beaten down by Outback for scratching graffiti in a wall of the Decepticon insignia.

Over time, Orion loses his way and starts to become violent too, and sees the Decepticons as just a problem that needs stamping out, however he soon starts to change his mind, and agrees to meet with Megatron so they can combat Zeta Prime's rising zealotry. 

A while later, Orion has taken on the Matrix and is now Optimus Prime, Megatron has been captured, but his Decepticons have broken him free. Prowl wants to hunt them down, but Optimus hopes that Megatron can grow to see the error of his ways, and grow to accept a peaceful approach.

Over time, Optimus discovers that Megatron will not change his ways, and their war moves off world, resulting in deaths and compromises, such as Optimus not wanting to know what the Dynobots do in order to win battles, so long as they win...

After the war ended with the Chaos event, Optimus renounces the Prime title, and returns to life as Orion Pax and starts travelling space, hoping to find himself once again...

Later, after Orion regains his Prime name, and becomes convinced by the Mistress of Flame to use his Primehood to recruit colonists to aid his rebuilding of Cybertron and their integration into Earth. Aileron becomes worried that Optimus is manipulating people with their beliefs, but Optimus is beginning to believe he really is the The Arisen, the final Prime.

Much later, Unicron has destroyed Cybertron and all the colonies, bar Earth, Optimus prepares to confront Unicron with Arcee, and removes his mask to face him as himself, and gives it to Arcee for safe-keeping....

In the living world, the survivors of the battle are rebuilding on Earth and preparing for Optimus' funeral at Little Cybertron. The Cybertronians are starting to be accepted by their new hosts and everyone works together.

Tracks and Needlenose are unsure about restarting their Chic Chips business on Earth, so they come to get advice from Pyra Magna, the new Mistress of Flame, who is still getting used to her new role and is trying to repurpose the Way of Flame away from being about the Primes. Eventually she gets tired of their noise and asks them to leave, as she has to get ready for the funeral.

At Little Cybertron, the Junkions are preparing a burial plot for Optimus, whilst Rum-Maj and Wreck-Gar contemplate all the deaths that occurred during Unicron's attack.

In Africa, some hunters are going after a herd of elephants, but are stopped by Buzzsaw, who is disgusted that just after being saved from certain death by Unicron, they start trying to kill their fellow Earthlings, so he considers killing them in return...

Bumblebee prepares to leave Earth to start his new job as delegate to the Galactic Council, but is also now being haunted by Starscream, who died during the Unicron battle.

Thundercracker attends an awards ceremony with Buster, and hopes to win an award for his new movie "The Last Laugh: The Life and Death of Chuckles", which is also being awarded by his favourite actress, Karen Fishhook 

Aileron, Jetfire, Bob, D.O.C. and the Colonist soldiers, have been sent on a deep space mission following the battles with Unicron. Jetfire detects an anomaly so Aileron agrees to investigate it.

Prowl visits Shockwave in his jail cell inside the Lemuria, where Shockwave looks back on his own life and how he took on many faces and always wanted to save the universe, and wonders which was the real him. Prowl tells him that all of his faces were him, the good and the evil.

Windblade and Pyra Magna preside over Optimus' funeral, as he left no body, they are burying the idea of him on Earth, the world that he adopted as his own. Windblade remembers that despite his many issues, he always questioned himself, which made him a good person, and now due to his actions, they have a new home on Earth.

Optimus finally enters the afterspark, happy and at peace, and leaves his friends and loved ones behind...

Arcee concludes the story of Optimus' sacrifice to her new students, and G2 Sideswipe questions how Arcee could know what Optimus thought when he was already dead. She explains that she knew him in life, so she knew how he thought, and how he changed over his life.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax - Truck Cab Dead

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Pyra Magna, Mistress of Flame - Fire Truck

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Bumblebee - Hatchback Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Chromia - Speedbike

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Titan Master Head

Jazz - Sports Car

Tracks - Muscle Car

Roulette - Muscle Car

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Bump - Armadillo

Skyburst - Helicopter

Slide - Part of Oil Tanker

Dust Up - Sports Car

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Swoop - Pteranodon, formerly Jet

Kup - Pick Up Truck (Flashback Only)

Ironhide - Van (Flashback Only)

Outback - Van (Flashback Only)

Hound - Jeep (Flashback Only)

Tumbler - Car (Flashback Only)

Grimlock - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Slug - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Snarl - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Sludge - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Sunstreaker - Sports Car (Plushie Only)

Decepticon

Shockwave/Onyx Prime - Flying Artillery In Lemuria Jail

Buzzsaw - Motorcycle

Sparkstalker - Insect Monster

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Starscream - Fighter Jet (Ghost)

Ravage - Cassette (Flashback Only)

Swindle - Van (Flashback Only)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Soundwave - Cassette Player (Mentioned) Dead

Junkion

Wreck-Gar (Head Only)

Rum-Maj

Sharkticons - Sharks

Other Junkions

Other Cybertronian

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Lightbright

Swift - Helicopter

Centurion - Vintage Car

Strafe - Car/Two Headed Dragon

Bob

D.O.C.

G2 Sideswipe - Sports Car

"Slicer" - Race Car

"Turbofire" - Pick Up Truck

"Sideways" - Motorcycle

"Orange Cat" - Big Cat

"Pink, White-Masked Cat"

"Green-Brown Guy"

"Scuba Mask Girl"

"Long-Neck"

Alpha Trion - Tumbler (Flashback Only)

Scrounge - Magifying Device (Flashback Only)

Iaconian Blacksmith (Flashback Only)

Oiler - Part of Oil Tanker (Flashback Only)

Devisen Civilians (Flashback Only) 

The Thirteen Primes (Mentioned)

Jhiaxus - Jet (Mentioned)

Anode - BI-Plane (Mentioned)

Shadowhawk (Mentioned)

Marauder (Mentioned)

The Old Senate (Mentioned) Killed by the Decepticons

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Elonian Child

GI Joe

Scarlett

Matt Trakker

Mayday

Talon

Chuckles (Mentioned) Dead

Other Human

Madame President

Marissa Faireborn

Ian Noble, Action Man

Sgt. Savage

Karen Fishhook

Brad Emory

Sofia Orozco

Sofia Orozco's News Crew

Human Workers

Elephant Hunters Possibly Killed by Buzzsaw

Human Children

Awards Ceremony Attendees

Chuckles Actor (Picture)

J.J. Hackensack (Mentioned)

Michael Costa (Mentioned)

Other

Buster, the Dog

Herd of Elephants

Unicron (Flashback Only) Destroyed

Unnamed Alien Species (Flashback Only) Killed in Dynobot/Decepticon battle

The Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the final issue of the current IDW Hasbroverse, however Lost Light #25 is actually partially set some time after these events.
• Scrounge's alternate mode is revealed to be a magnifying glass of some sort, he is also older than Optimus Prime!
• Whether Optimus is or is not "The Arisen" or at least his reincarnation is never revealed in this series, however Alpha Trion was present at his creation, and he is notable for being very big at birth.
• Orion Pax's appearance at birth is similar to his body from the G1 cartoon, but with some resemblance to his later short-term adopted body during Zeta Prime's early years.
• It is retconned here that Arcee agreed to be experimented on by Jhiaxus and he abandoned her, leaving her to go unstable due to a lack of support.
• Arcee mentions that Anode once agreed to help her with her transition, but she vanished. Anode is of course the character from Lost Light, and she likely vanished just after making this arrangement when she was abducted by the Necrobot.
• Jazz appears to have forgiven Sofia for her setting him up for capture from earlier in the series.
• Orion Pax mentions that with his alternate mode, he could be a police officer, scientist, librarian or a dockworker. This is a reference to pretty much all the previous verisons of his character, he's a police officer in IDW, scientist in the Movies, Librarian in Aligned and Dreamwave and a dockworker in the G1 cartoon.
• Pyra has updated her look to be a lot more ornate than usual following her promotion to Mistress of Flame. She has also changed her hammer to a green/red colour scheme to match her team's colours.
• The Torchbearers' line-up has been updated. Skyburst is now the leader, and Slide and Swift have joined the team, both taking on the green and red uniformed colours.
• Buzzsaw is shown defending a herd of elephants from some hunters. Soundwave once stated that elephants are his favourite animal on Earth.
• It is revealed that Megatron was broken out of jail by the Decepticons, after his capture at the end of Primacy. This was a bit of a continuity bump before now, so thanks Barber!
• Bumblebee is now haunted by the ghost of Starscream, an inversion of their relationship since Bumblebee's death at the end of Dark Cybertron. This likely means that Starscream is stuck in Infraspace due to him being killed by the Talisman.
• Bumblebee is mentioned as being the Cybertronian delegate to the Galactic Council, implying that they were accepted into the Council after Prowl mentioning their application in Lost Light #25
• One of the writers nominated against Thundercracker's film is Michael Costa, a reference to Mike Costa, the writer of Transformers between All Hail Megatron and The Death of Optimus Prime, who was the writer who gave Thundercracker his interest in Earth television in the first place.
• The anomaly detected by Aileron and her crew is never elaborated upon...could this be a left-over storyline that needs concluding later on, or a hint to the future series?
• Bob has a plushie of Sunstreaker, whilst D.O.C. has one of Buster...this is adorable!
• Optimus Prime removes his face mask before confronting Unicron, we saw that he was mask-less during the final battle, but didn't know why until now. He wanted to face Unicron without any masks, literal or metaphorical.
• The start of Optimus' funeral features the same lines that Sentinel prime gave to Bumper and Fastback in Megatron: Origin
• Just a weird note here...the only mourner at Optimus' funeral who is actually smiling is Action Man...no idea why...it's just weird...
• Arcee is shown to be a teacher in the post-war era, this is a reference to her Animated counterpart.
• The new Cybertronians, from the stash inside Trypticon, are mostly made of generics and repaints, much like G2 Sideswipe, so I may just give them nick-names where appropriate in my character lists :)

Sig Pub - Cyberverse #38

Notes

• This month's screen-cap comic is for the episode "Allspark", unlike last month there is only one comic, so maybe they were just making up for the first issue of the rebrand not having a comic last month by giving them two. I dunno!
• The comic ends with a caption saying it will be continued in issue 40. This is either a mistake, or next month will feature something else (more than likely a Bumblebee Movie tie-in or something)
• The Shadow Striker puzzle features her on Earth, but in her original body, rather than her mis-matched body. I know they use stock images in this thing, but they could have tried to keep continuity going!
• The free gifts this month were a projectile gun, some targets and a Bumblebee Movie sticker reel 

Features

Assorted Adverts

Bumblebee Memory Boost - Do some puzzles to help Bee regain his memories!

Shadow Strike Attack! - Find the path that leads Shadow Striker to her alternate mode

Battle of the Bots - Windblade vs Stracsream profiles

Bumblebee Mission Book- Six pages of Bumblebee Movie themed puzzles

Draw Grimlock- Take a wild guess what you do here....

Memory Test - Answer questions about this month's comic

Decepticon Detection! - Find all the Decepticons in the picture

Mission: Autobot! - Do some Autobot themed puzzles

Power Up Blurr - Colour in a picture of Blurr

Transformers Competitions - Enter some contests, maybe win some toys!

Cyberverse Inspection Test - Identify a character from some clues given

Transformers Post- Look at the scary pictures that the small humans have drawn!

Solve the Quest! - Colour in a picture of Thundercracker, then find a hidden message about him throughout the magazine

IDW - Unicron #6

Title: Ceremony

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Andrew Griffith and Kei Zama

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz and Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Whilst the bulk of the Cybertronian forces are in orbit battling with Unicron and his forces, Soundwave and Marissa are waiting at Mount Rushmore with the second generation Cybertronian sparks, and have called Windblade, Jetfire and the Aerialbots to their location for another part of the plan. Marissa is also comforting Buster, who was left with her by Thundercracker when he joined the battle too.

On their way to Unicron's surface, Thundercracker is shot by a Maximal and forced to stop. Skywarp is forced by Arcee to go and rescue him, since he's carrying the Talisman, much to Skywarp's dismay.

Elsewhere, Slide is refusing to fight as she doesn't want to risk her life just for Optimus to take over after Unicron is dead, and, as if to prove her point, Trypticon is brutally killed by Unicron behind her.

On Earth's surface, the heroes and villains of the planet are working together to take down the invading Maximals all across the world.

In Toronto, the ninjas kill Optimus Primal, leaving Shockwave to realize that his plans may have failed, so he calls for Bludgeon to come and pick him up, but Bludgeon refuses, revealing his loyalty to Unicron and wanting to see chaos destroy everything. This confuses Shockwave as it makes no sense, only for him to get further shocked when Rhinox jumps him from behind too.

In orbit, Thundercracker defends the Talisman from the Maximals, but is saved from death by Skywarp teleporting in front of him and taking a blade for him. He tells the other Seeker to leave him there, but Thundercracker refuses, throwing the Talisman to Starscream on Unicron's surface, whilst he fights the Maximals with Skywarp.

On Unicron's surface, Arcee realizes that they are doomed now, since they needed Skywarp's teleportation to get inside Unicron, but Starscream, who knows what he has to do now, activates the Talisman, killing himself, but causing the Talisman to dig a tunnel into Unicron's body for Optimus and Arcee to follow into.

A little above that, Jazz and Aileron are shocked that Starscream just killed himself to save the day, but Bumblebee knew he had it in him. Ironhide tells them to worry about what Starscream did AFTER they win this battle, but he is soon torn apart by a Maximal, and dies in Jazz's arms, now understanding the meaning of "Til All Are One".

Nearby, Slide and the Colonist soldiers are met by the Dinobots, and Slide starts an argument with Slug again, but their fight quickly ends when Swoop points out Bludegon heading to Earth with his Worldsweeper, causing more havoc. They join forces to take him down...

In Toronto, Shockwave knocks Rhinox off of him, but finds that his cannon doesn't work against the Maximal. Rhinox reveals that he designed it to never be able to fire on Maximals, and rips it off his arm and points it towards his former "Master", only to be shot in the back of the head by Prowl, who captures Shockwave for his part of their master plan.

Optimus and Arcee follow the Talisman through Unicron's body, fighting and evading the anti-bodies and Maximals along the way. Eventually they arrive in a large chamber where the Black Hole that Antilla once orbited sits and the Talisman is drawn into it. Optimus jumps in after it, despite Arcee asking for her to do it instead, since she was involved in the original battle with Antilla, and Arcee is left with the Maximals to fight in his stead.

Optimus winds up back in Infraspace, having lost his body again, and inside he finds the Antillan scientist who created Unicron. Optimus tries to reason with him to stop his creation, but the scientist punches him instead.

Back in Toronto, Prowl brings Shockwave to Stardrive, who uses her Dire Wraith powers to connect with Shockwave's mind and relays those thoughts to Mount Rushmore...

At Mount Rushmore, Soundwave connects the Enigma of Combination to a device, that Jetfire has set up, receiving the data on Shockwave's mind. Soundwave has the Aerialbots combine, so they can access the Earth's Enigma code too, and merges those signals together, giving Soundwave a connection to everything on Earth.

Before much more can happen however, Bludgeon's Worldsweeper appears above them and Monstructor is dropped down to attack Superion. Sky Lynx arrives and deploys the Dinobots to attack the Worldsweeper, but Slide still refuses to fight for Optimus, but soon changes her mind when she sees the Torchbearers alive and willing to help the Dinobots as well.

Slide, now feeling different about things, seeing a miracle like the seemingly dead Torchbearers returning, and the Enigma affecting her partial combiner physiology, she merges with the Torchbearers, replacing the dead Stormclash as Victorion's left leg. The two Autobot combiners team up against Monstructor and kill him.

Bludgeon, seeing his strongest ally fall, decides to end the Earth's counter attack, and aims the Worldsweeper towards the White House to kill the President and cause chaos. The Dinobots invade the bridge of the ship and battle Bludgeon and his crew.

Inside Infraspace, Optimus is being overwhelmed by the hatred and destruction of the Antillan scientist, and looks like he's going to lose the battle, but Soundwave's plan comes together as he uses the Enigmas, Shockwave's mind and the Talisman to connect with the sparks and souls of the dead and sends those thoughts and feelings to Optimus, killing himself in the process.

The Worldsweeper ends up smashing into the White House, killing most of the crew of the ship in the process and blowing out most of the White House too. The Oval Office however, was reinforced after the previous alien invasion and the President was safe along with her guards. They all take up arms against the few surviving Maximals crawling from the ship, but are safe when the Junkions arrive and defend their human allies.

At Mount Rushmore, the Autobots mourn Soundwave's death and the destruction of the Enigma, and Windblade calls for everyone to return to Earth and to retrieve the wounded. If Soundwave's plan failed then they're going to be all dead soon anyway.

Aileron and Bumblebee head towards Unicron, so they can try and rescue Arcee and Optimus before Unicron potentially dies, whilst everyone else heads back home.

Inside Infraspace, Optimus uses his new energies to show the scientist that things can change and they are sorry for what happened to his world in the time of the Primes. The scientist reveals that through his rage and the passing time, he has forgotten his own name, but still remembers his daughter who died in the Cybertronian's attack, so they use that name as their bond. Optimus embraces the scientist in a hug and the light shines from them both.

Outside, Unicron collapses into his own Black Hole, but Bumblebee and Aileron manage to rescue Arcee before she can be sucked in too.

Metroplex teleports everyone back to Earth, where they watch as Unicron is destroyed. Marissa starts to mourn Thundercracker, when Buster starts barking and leaps from her arms, for them both to see Thundercracker arriving from the skies, carrying the still alive Skywarp. Thundercracker cuddles his little doggie and Marissa hugs her Cybertronian friend too, leaving Skywarp to admit that Thundercracker truly is a Seeker after all!

On the Moon, Arcee and Aileron embrace, and Bumblebee finds Buzzsaw, who just arrived from the Jupiter Station attack.

In Toronto, Shockwave, who is now demoralized for his plan's failure, is taken into custody for his crimes by Prowl and Stardrive. Elsewhere, an Elonian child has been orphaned during the battle, but Rom and Livia approach him and take him to safety.

All across the world the defenders of the planet celebrate, and the President starts making arrangements for their shared futures. Swift recovers Swoop and Strafe from the Worldsweeper, with them being the only two survivors, and Windblade believes it is best for them all to share the Earth now.

Pyra Magna retrieves the Mistress of Flame's staff from Metroplex's shoulder, where she jammed it after her death and realizes that the Mistress wanted her to take on the mantle for her, to lead the future in a new way, she accepts this, and offers a place on the team to Slide, who accepts, having realized that she was feeling lonely all this time. They all look out upon the celebrating people below Metroplex and look to the future.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab Sacrificed Self to Destroy Unicron

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Bumblebee - Hatchback

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Ironhide - Van Killed by Icebird

Metroplex - Cybertronian City

Slug - Triceratops Killed in Worldsweeper Crash

Snarl - Stegosaurus Killed by Maximal

Sludge - Apatosaurus Killed by Maximal

Swoop - Pteranodon

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle

Slide - Part of Oil Tanker

Bump - Armadillo

Roulette - Muscle Car

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Silverbolt - Concorde Jet

Skydive - Fighter Jet

Air Raid - Fighter Jet

Fireflight - Fighter Jet

Alpha Bravo - Helicopter

Superion - Aerilabot Gestalt

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Skyburst - Helicopter

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Dustup - Sports Car

Victorion - Torchbearer Gestalt

Jazz - Sports Car

Strongarm - Police SUV

Tracks - Muscle Car

Sunstreaker - Sports Car

Chromia - Speedbike

Sandstorm - Dune Buggy/Helicopter

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Titan Master Head

Wheelie - Car

Goldbug - Car

Rung/Primus - Matrix Forge (Spirit Only)

Omega Supreme - Rocket Base (Spirit Only)

Ambulon - Leg (Spirit Only)

Alpha Trion - Shuttle (Spirit Only)

Skids - Van (Spirit Only)

Trailcutter (Spirit Only)

Kup - Pick Up Truck (Spirit Only)

Blurr - Race Car (Spirit Only)

Sideswipe - Sports Car (Spirit Only)

Scattershot - Gun-ship (Spirit Only)

Cloudraker - Jet (Spirit Only)

Fastlane - Car (Spirit Only)

Wheeljack - Race Car (Spirit Only)

Cliffjumper - Car (Spirit Only)

Pipes - Truck (Spirit Only)

Cosmos - Orbiter (Spirit Only)

Gimlet - Lobster (Spirit Only)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Ratchet - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Oiler - Part of Oil Tanker (Mentioned) Dead

Stormclash - Helicopter (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Shockwave/Onyx Prime - Flying Artillery Captured by Prowl

Bludgeon - Tank Killed in Worldsweeper Crash

Monstructor - Original Gestalt Killed by Victorion and Superion

Broadside - Tank Killed by Strafe

Soundwave - Cassette Player Destroyed by the Enigma of Combination

Starscream - Fighter Jet Destroyed by the Talisman

Buzzsaw - Motorcycle

Rumble - Motorcycle

Frenzy - Motorcycle

Fat Tankor - Tank

Tall Tankor - Oil Tanker/Cargo Plane

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Predaking - Predacon Gestalt

Decepticon Vengeance Division Soldiers

Dirge - Fighter Jet(Spirit Only)

Horri-Bull - Bull (Spirit Only)

Sky-Byte - Shark (Spirit Only)

Laserbeak - Motorcycle (Spirit Only)

Ravage - Cassette (Spirit Only)

Tarn - Tank (In Infraspace)

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned) Dead

Jhiaxus - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Junkion

Rum-Maj

Wreck-Gar (Head Only)

Vajra - Shark

Sharkticons - Sharks

Maximal

Rhinox - Rhino Killed by Prowl

Optimus Primal - Gorilla Killed by the Ninjas

Icebird - Owl/Polar Bear Killed by Bumblebee

Coelagon - Coelacanth Killed by Rum-Maj

Rampage - Crab

Archadis - Archaeopteryx

Apache - Mandrill

TMII Megatron - Dragon

Inferno - Ant

Tasmania Kid - Tasmanian Devil

Soundwave - Bat/Crocodile

Transquito - Mosquito

Maximal Army

Other Cybertronian

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Stardrive - Car/Jet

Trypticon - Earth Embassy Killed by Unicron

Centurion - Luxury Car

Swift - Helicopter

Strafe - Car/Two Headed Dragon

Bob, the Insecticon

D.O.C.

G2 Sideswipe - Car

Other Second Generation New-borns

Unborn Second Generation Sparks Inert

Cybertronian Army

Mistress of Flame (Spirit Only)

Elita One (Spirit Only)

Metalhawk - Jet (Spirit Only)

Thirteen Primes (Mentioned)

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphaned Child

Orphaned Child's Pet

Maur (Spirit Only)

Prim (Spirit Only)

Dire Wraith

Countdown

Other Wraiths

GI Joe

Scarlett

Flint

Chameleon

Matt Trakker

Spike

Talon

Cover Girl

Mayday

Agent Helix

Snake-Eyes

Mainframe (Spirit Only)

Action Man Programme

Action Man, Ian Noble

Action Man, Terrence Salmons

Cobra

Storm Shadow

Red Shadow Ninjas

Venom

Miles Mayhem

Sly Rax

The Iron Ring

Iron Klaw

Doctor X, Mercy Gale

Joe Colton (Mentioned)

Other Human

Madame President

Marissa Faireborn

Oval Office Staff

Earth's Leaders (Mentioned)

Other

Unicron Collapsed into Black Hole

Unicron's Antibodies

Unicron's Creator (In Infraspace)

Buster, the Dog

Garnak

The Dead in Infraspace

Unicron's Creator's Daughter (Mentioned) Killed by Cybertronians

Notes

• So luckily, the next generation of Cybertronian sparks were removed from Trypticon before he went into orbit to fight Unicron.
• For some reason, Powerglide isn't amongst the Aerialbots this issue, despite him being part of the combiner when they absorbed the Enigma of Combination's code.
• We don't see Joe Colton this issue. So I guess he was just let out for the big Heroes of Erath meeting, and then put back in jail afterwards?
• Terrence Salmons is shown to be in the Action Man uniform, and has it as a subtitle too, meaning the UK have broken tradition and now have two Action Men on duty at once.
• So it looks like the throat-shot from helix last issue DID kill Beast Megatron after all! That was easy I guess!
• It's revealed here that Rhinox was not aware that Onyx Prime was just a disguise used by Shockwave before his big reveal, and also implies that he, and the other Maximals seemingly under Shockwave's command in this series have always been planning to betray him to Unicron.
• Hey look! Predaking is alive! I thought he was done for when Razorclaw was seemingly killed by Kup in Revolutionaries.
• So, Tempest has taken on the Storm Shadow name again after all? Did she kill the other one?
• Soundwave was shown collecting the Enigma of Combination in issue 3 of this series. This ladies and gentlemen is what we call a "Chekov's Gun" an item shown in act one, that is used in the final act of a story.
• Most of the faces seen in Infraspace are pretty much impossible to name, due to block colouring and lack of details, but Tarn's face is clearly seen amongst them.
• I am genuinely shocked that they didn't use the Enigma to combine the Dinobots (with Strafe replacing Grimlock as the torso) into Volcanicus.
• Despite Pyra Magna losing her leg, so can still combine with Slide to create a new leg for Victorion...despite the combination port being on that leg...
• I'm guessing here that the Enigma allowed Slide to reform into a leg, since she's never been shown to be able to alter her alternate mode in the past (a combiner's limb is still technically an alternate mode)
• We don't see it happening, but we can assume that Strafe also melted the other Decepticons in Broadside's crew who were corrupted by Bludgeon.
• Right in the centre of the dead characters in the afterlife who greet Soundwave is Rung, with both arms outstretched, unlike everyone else who only have one arm reached at the most. This is likely due to Rung actually being Primus, the God of transformers.
• The image of Bludgeon's worldsweeper crashing into the White House was foretold in Optimus' vision when he annexed Earth.
• The President mentions the last time the White House was attacked, which was during the Dire Wraith attack in Revolution
• Buzzsaw is revealed to have actually survived the attack on Jupiter's Sanctuary Station...the rest of the team was seen in the afterlife though, so they're all dead!
• The small child we've seen on-and-off from Elonia with the pig-dog creature is now shown to have lost his parents on Earth during the battle with Unicron (likely some debris or Maximals killed them). He ends up being adopted by Rom and Livia, who are also finally together once again
• Pyra Magna is shown to be the new Mistress of Flame. This goes against the visions of the future from Optimus, which showed that Aileron was the new Mistress of Flame. Maybe she takes over when Pyra gets deposed or something?
• Slide becomes a Torchbearer, which makes her the first (known) non-Camien member of the team
• Despite Skywarp's serious looking injuries, Thundercracker only has a few scratches on him following the battle with the Maximals...he really is a badass!!
• So.....is no one worried about the black hole sitting in Earth's orbit at the end of this story?
• The backmatter for this story includes an article on the colonies of Cybertron, and there's a couple of things I wanted to talk about here. First, Gorlam Prime's Titan is revealed to be originally called "Quintessa", and would eventually become the Necrotitan from Dark Cybertron. If you remember The Last Knight movie, the main villain was also called Quintessa. Could that character have been the Titan and just claimed to be a god? Interesting thought!
• Secondly, Carcer/Vigilem is mentioned as having an Ore upon it, implying that when Shockwave shot the Regenesis Ores into space, that one landed onto the ship I guess? Maybe they landed on a planet to refuel and found the Ore instead. I dunno!
• FINALLY. It is revealed that Metroplex was MEGATRONUS' Titan and that he was designated to Tsiehshi, but evidently left to return to Cybertron before being found by Optimus.