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.