IDW - Go-Bots #3

Story/Art/Letters: Tom Scioli

Edits: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Spay-C, on his long-term space mission releases his Astronaut passengers from cryo-stasis, and informs them that they have arrived at an "unknown" world, where they explore, but are soon attacked by some insectoid Go-bots and a larger Zod robot, however they are rescued by Leader-1 and his Guardians, before Spay-C is captured, with his humans inside his body.

They are taken to the Command Center, where Spay-C lets the humans into the air ducts to try and spy on the Guardians, where they overhear that Leader-1 is having a power struggle due to the constant attacks from Zod.

Later, the astronauts see the code to Spay-C's cell, when Leader-1 enters to speak to his prisoner, but is maddened when Spay-C mentions Earth, and orders for him to be dematerialized in the morning.

That night, Leader-1 is met by Eno, a self-appointed dark angel, who tells him that the Lazer Lance, the only thing that can stop Zod, is inside the core of Gobotron.

Later, the humans let Spay-C out of his cell, and he tries to tell them something that he's been keeping secret, but is stopped when some Guardians appear to escort him to the dematerializer. Spay-C tries to fight for his freedom, but Leader-1 decides to spare him, as he believes that Spay-C's appearance and his recent visit from Eno may be connected.

Elsewhere, Cy-Kill has recruited Zod to his Renegades, and as payment he feeds him some random Go-Bots.

The Guardians head to the edge of the world and prepare for the trip to the core the next day, the astronauts start to become worried that Spay-C is spending time with the other Go-Bots.

The Renegades attack the Command Center, but are deflected when the Command Center closes it's shell and launches into space. The Renegades quickly follow in their Thruster shuttle, which manages to grapple the Command Center, they manage to break loose, but need a bit of time to charge the hyper-jump away, so all the fliers leave the Command Center to fight the Renegades, until they are ready, once they are, they return to the ship and jump away.

The Renegades jump as well to find the Guardians, unaware that they jumped to the other side of the planet and prepare to open the shell to the core.

Once they land, Spay-C runs away, with Leader-1 allowing it as he needs to find his way. Soon, Spay-C encounters the Go-Bots Turbo and Scooter, the former is hostile towards him, assuming he's a Guardian, and insists on him releasing his humans from his chest. After quickly speaking to the humans, he realizes that Spay-C hasn't told them where they are and attacks Spay-C, letting the humans race away on their buggy.

Soon they take air and ground samples and discover the horrible truth, the barren rock world they are on, is actually Earth!

Characters

Guardian

Leader-1 - Fighter Jet

Royal-T - Harrier Jet

Blaster - Missile Tank

Major Domo - Sports Car

Heatseeker - Fighter Jet

Dumper - Dump Truck Eaten by Zod

Dozer - Bulldozer

Small Foot - 4x4 Truck

Rest-Q - Ambulance

Tic Toc - Wristwatch 

Path Finder - Spaceship

Bullseye - Bomber Plane

Command Center - Fortress 

Guardian Army

Renegade

Cy-Kill - Motorcycle

Fitor - Jet

Cop-Tur - Helicopter

Twin Spin - Tandem Rotor Helicopter Crushed by Command Center

Psycho - Space-Car

Tank - Tank

Pincher - Bat-Jet

Scorp - Scorpion-Tank

Klaws - Attack pod

Heart Attack - Monster Spaceship

Hornet - Flying Tank

Zod

Thruster - Space Shuttle

Renegade Army

Other Go-Bot

Spay-C - Space Shuttle

Turbo - Race Car

Scooter - Scooter

Road Ranger - Truck

Eno, the Dark Angel - Fighter Jet

Trade Federation Envoys

Boulder - Tungsten

Nuggit - Gold

Solitaire - Diamond

Wild Command Centers 

Dead Go-Bots (Heads Only) Killed by Leader-1

Human

Charlotte Scott

Lee Spencer

Venyamin Alexander

Other Astronaut

Notes

• Spay-C and his mission in space was previously mentioned in issue 1, though not by name in that issue.
• The four astronauts are not named in this issue (bar Charlotte's first name being mentioned) but three of them were named in solicits...
• So...how long has passed between issue 2 and 3? I'm assuming at least a hundred years or so to explain Earth's changed geography and Gobotron being built around it, and Turbo doesn't seem to be too amazed by the appearance of Humans after however long....but we aren't told here...yet...
• The Command Center is a part of a sub-species of Go-Bots that are found wild on Gobotron. It's unclear if they are just evolved from Earth animals or naturally "grew" on the planet?
• Why can Turbo smell the humans inside Spay-C, but none of the Guardians can?
• Why does Gobotron have air ducts?
• The keypad for Spay-C's cell appears to be based on a Simon game...a Hasbro product...I wonder why....
• Eno's design is based on a late-toyline repaint of Leader-1
• The Lazer Lance is an accessory that came with the original Zod toy, that turned him on and off.
• The serious security issue with the Command Center, being that the front of it is exposed, like in most playsets, is addressed here, and it's revealed that it can slam it's shell closed in this mode for defence...fair play!
• The Astronauts appear to be kind of stupid...they are immediately distrustful of Spay-C, for no real reason (considering they are willing to trust him enough to fly inside him for long space travel). However they chat with Turbo when he approaches them with a gun, stating they think Spay-C is being weird....WHAT?!
• The core of Gobotron being originally an organic world is a concept kept from the 80's cartoon, though it wasn't Earth in that continuity
• Scooter's new vocal tics appear to be based on his annoying voice from the 80's cartoon again, which here is explained as basically being due to brain damage.
• We see the Rock Lords at the end of this issue (and the cover preview for next issue mentions them too) It's unclear if these were previously made Go-Bots from before the revolution (for whatever reason) or if they naturally formed, or evolved from humans here. In the original they were an alien race from the planet Quartex.
• Maybe the humans we've been following so far became the Rock Lords?