IDW - Synergy: A Hasbro Creators Showcase

Cover Art by: Sara Pitre-Durocher

Letters and Design by: Christa Miesner

Edits by: Megan Brown

An Arcee Sort of Day

Written by: Peri Mercer

Drawn by: Umi Miyao

Coloured by: Elaina Unger

Plot

Following the end of their long war, the Cybertronians are at peace, and their lives have become mundane.

Arcee, once a fierce warrior, has just been refused a loan for a house and heads back to her apartment, dealing with road rage and bar fights along the way, however when she gets home, she is greeted by her pet cat, and realizes that things aren't all that bad after all...

Characters

Arcee - Car

Loan Officer - Stealth Bomber

Road Rager - Van

Traffic Bots - Various Cars

Other Loan Applicants

Security Bots

Bar Patrons

Bartender

Damus

Unicron Cultists

Arcee's Pussy Cat

Unicron (Mentioned)

Ghost

Written and Drawn by: Emma Vieceli

Coloured by: Ronda Pattison

Plot

Dawn Moreno, the new Snake Eyes used to be afraid of ghosts as a kid, but since she has taken on the mantle from the dead original Snake Eyes, and has been communing with him, and learning about his life, she has gotten over this fear, and now feels she has a purpose to give a ghost a voice of his own...

Characters

Dawn Moreno/Snake Eyes II

Ghost movie Actress (Footage)

Snake Eyes I (Flashback/Ghost) Dead

Scarlett (Flashback)

Timber, the Wolf (Flashback)

Snake Eyes' Enemies (Flashback)

Recharge

Written, Drawn and Coloured by: Sarah Winifred Searle

Plot

A meme, comparing Misfits band member Stormer to a manatee has gone viral, and bandmate Pizzazz is pissed off about it, but Stormer doesn't let it get to her, as she's used to people judging her based on her looks, she leaves for a walk and bumps into her girlfriend, Kimber, who asks her to meet with her later.

Soon, Stormer stops by a café, where she sits outside reading a book, and decides to stay out there when it starts raining down on her...

Characters

Stormer/Mary Phillips

Pizzazz/Phyllis Gabor

Kimber Benton

Waitress

Shana Elmsford (Mentioned)

Misfits Fans (Mentioned)

Misfits Critics (Mentioned)

The Stage

Written by: Katie Cook

Drawn by: Agnes Garbowska

Coloured by: Heather Breckel

Plot

In the mid-eighties, Katie Cook was a weird kid who used to play with her My Little Pony toys, and loved to make stories about them, which included body horror and happy dance numbers.

When she grew up, and came to enjoy the newer cartoon, she was approached to create a comic series about her favourite toys, which she relished in, treating it like she did as a kid, having fun, and trying to entertain others.

Unfortunately, she is annoying to her own kids, who don't want to hear about how the comics and stories are made by their mother, but want to make their own stories with their own toys...again including body horror (but this time with glitter though!)

Characters

Real People

Katie Cook

Harper Cook

Grayson Cook

Andy Price

IDW Editor Bobby (Mentioned)

Benny Hill (Mentioned)

Fictional

G1 Locket

G1 Baby Half Note

G1 Sea Breeze

G1 Starflower

G1 Applejack

G1 Twilight

G1 Baby Cuddles

G4 Twilight Sparkle

G4 Pinkie Pie

G4 Fluttershy

G4 Leadwing

G4 Bittersweet

G4 Sunset Shimmer

G4 Applejack

G4 Rarity

G4 Princess Luna

G4 Princess Celestia

Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle

Equestria Girls Fluttershy

TOO MANY G1 PONIES TO NAME!!

G4 Discord (Mentioned)

Of Flying and Falling

Written by: Mairghread Scott

Drawn by: Sara Pitre-Durocher

Coloured by: Joana LaFuente

Plot

When she was young, Mairghread Scott and her sister used to love the Beast Wars cartoon, and used to act out their own battles and scenes between the characters in their back garden.

Despite her love for the cartoon though, Mairghread hated that there was only two female characters in the series, and was upset when her favourite, Airazor, was written out, but despite this, she kept a part of Airazor inside her, and wouldn't let it die.

Eventually she learns about the newly fan-poll created character Windblade, and allies to write for her new series.

Time passes, and Mairghread has published a few series focusing on Windblade, and even included a larger library of female characters than she had as a child, whilst setting up her booth at a convention, she is approached by a small girl, clutching a Windbalde toy, who says she's her favourite character, which Mairghread agrees to as well...

Characters

Real People

Mairghread Scott

Mairghread's Sister

Mairghread's Husband

Mairghread's Teacher

Random People

Convention Goers

Fictional

Airazor - Falcon

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Rhinox - Rhino

Tigatron - White Tiger

Tigerhawk - Winged Tiger

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Scorponok - Scorpion

Waspinator - Wasp

Inferno - Fire Ant

Terrorsaur - Pterodactyl 

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Chromia - Speedbike

Moonracer - Sports Car

Strika - Battle Tank

Elita One

Mistress of Flame

Greenlight

Lancer

Lightbright

Optimus Prime Plushie 

Generic Superheroes

Overall Notes

• Okay, first off, I want to thank Crunch Comics in Reading for helping me get my hands on this comic, I couldn't find any UK sellers anywhere other than them. Please give them a look if you need specific comics or are just in the Reading area :)
• I've decided to put ALL the notes for this comic in one section, rather than one for each individual story, where needed. I'll TRY to keep the notes in order, but no promises :D
• This anthology comic was made to celebrate international women's day/month and showcases several female members of IDW's creative team. The series is named after the female computer from Jem and the Holograms....now...when do we get Male Synergy or Teletraan-1? 
• The three franchise comics are each three pages long, and the two biopics are seven pages each, making the complete book just 23 pages long of new content (excluding the print/cover reprints and title pages) Making the double cover price a bit odd...
• Just for the record, I don't follow the GI Joe: Real American Hero, Jem and the Holograms or My Little Pony comics, so if I make any dumb errors in my analysis etc, please forgive me (a lot of these have either no or little fan wikis to help me out either)
• Of the three franchise comics, only the Transformers one is currently impossible to be in continuity with the IDW continuity, either the new one or previous, so maybe this is just set in another continuity, ala Deviations (ie, "In a world where Arcee got a cat instead of a girlfriend!"
• Arcee's redesign in this book is an amalgamation of her IDW design and the Power of the Primes/Siege female Autobot toy design, possibly hinting at a new toy perhaps?
• The loan officer appears to use Megatron's stealth bomber body, but with a new head and some slightly different kibble.
• They don't say where the mean comments about Stormer are being shared is, in the Jem story, but from the talk about followers, memes and rabid fanbases being set upon people, we can all assume it's Twitter.
• So....why does Stormer just sit out in the rain, with her book in hand? That's just going to ruin the book if nothing else!
• In the MLP biopic story, I've only bothered to identify the toys and characters shown that have either a noticeable role in the story, or are named themselves, there is literally a panel with at least three dozen ponies in it....I AM NOT INSANE!!!
• Just to prove that I did try however, I spent about an hour trying to identify a character on the TV in one panel, because I wanted to be thorough.
• In Katie's childhood bedroom , she has a Mr Potatohead figure....what a Hasbro shill!!
• In one panel it's mentioned that G1 Applejack is the toy being played with, but the figure shown is purple, not orange like the character herself...I PAY ATTENTION OKAY!!!
• During the Beast Wars biopic, Dinobot is mentioned as being a Predacon...this was only the case for episode one of the series when he flipped sides to a Maximal (which is also his faction in the toyline). Maybe Mairghread and her sister just liked him to be a Predacon over a Maximal?
• I don't know if the superheroes on the TV in Mairghread's childhood are actually supposed to be from something, but I don't recognise them....sorry if they're important!
• The final panel with Mairghread at a convention is, for those who do not attend Transformers conventions, very accurate to what you'd see there, from cosplayers to people carrying plushies of characters they like
• I'm not going to count the characters who appear on the comic covers on Mairghread's table in my character checklist by the way, since they're too small to count, but I just wanted to say that I did notice them!
• Due to the size, it's difficult to tell, but I believe the Windblade toy the little girl is holding is the Titans Return version...which if it's anything like my one....BE CAREFUL WITH THE HEAD!! IT JUST POPS RIGHT OFF!!!