IDW - Transformers (2019) #5

Title: End: The World In Your Eyes

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Anna Malkova, Angel Hernandez & Sara Pitre-Durocher

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Megatron gives another livestreamed speech about how the Cybertronian race is being stunted, which Soundwave estimates is being reached by over a hundred thousand people by the end of the cycle.

Elsewhere, Chromia receives a report from Sideswipe telling her that nearly two hundred Cybertronians have gone missing since Brainstorm died.

Prowl, in his office talks to his pet and realizes that he shouldn't be trying to find the Voin himself, but the people it was dealing with, so he can find the scavenger...

Elsewhere still, Rubble finishes another day of work experience with Wheeljack, when he gets a message from Bumblebee saying that he can't take him to see the Moon that day, as they had planned, but promises to do so another day.

Wheeljack reassures him that Bee must be really busy to abandon him like this, which Rubble seems to accept, and so he starts to walk home by himself...

Rubble heads through the Xeno-quarter on his way home, where he tries to remember all the names of the alien species, however he soon comes across a Voin Scavenger, who refers to him as "Small Cybertronian", just like the one he met the night Brainstorm died. He realizes that it must be the same one, and chases after him.

He soon loses the Voin, and plans to give up his search, until he sees one of his enslaved organices running away screaming, he looks where he came from and finds Quake with the seemingly dead Voin in his hands....

Bee enters an Energon mine, where he was due to meet with Elita-1, but instead Senator Soundwave appears instead, and plants a device into the ground.

Soundwave reveals that he is there to determine if Bee is really telling the truth in his desire to join the Ascenticon Guard, and outright says that he doesn't trust him, due to his security force past, and friendship with Autobots. Bee explains that he wants to make the world better for himself and his new protégé and believes the Autobots won't be able to give them that.

Soundwave explains that the device is an electromagnetic suppressor, meant to drown out communications and allow their conversation to go unheard by anyone...

Quake notices Rubble and deems him a spy, and gives chase, Rubble tries to call Bee for help, but can't get through to him, he does accidentally get ahold of Prowl though, and says he found the Voin, but that someone has killed him, Rubble is soon, unfortunately found and pummeled by the much larger and blood-thirsty Ascenticon, as Prowl listened on....

As things go black, Rubble remembers his earlier thoughts about how Bumblebee was wrong about Cybertron being a peaceful world....

Characters

Autobot/Security Forces

Chromia - Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Sideswipe - Car (Voice Only)

Ascenticon

Megatron - Treaded Vehicle

Soudnwave - Hovercraft

Quake - Tank

Elita-1 - Jet (Mentioned)

Ascenticon Guard (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Rubble Possibly Killed by Quake

Wheeljack - Car

Gears - Pick Up Truck

Cybertronian Crowds

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Missing Cybertronians (Mentioned)

The Rise (Mentioned)

Other Aliens

Unlicensed Voin Scavenger Killed by Quake

Unlicensed Voin Scavenger's Slaved Organics Some Killed by Quake

Organic Pteraxadon

A'ovans

Skitter Being fed to Pteraxadon

Other Alien Species

The Thrall (Mentioned)

Akalouthans (Mentioned)

Notes

• Sorry this review is so late, my comic supplier forgot to mention that they were going on a trip whilst this was being released, so I had to reorder a copy earlier this week from somewhere else.
• Despite all the characters on the front cover of this issue, only three of them actually appear in the comic itself (and two of those are only for one page each!)
• I rearranged some scenes in this review to make the story recap flow better, since they skip between plot points VERY frequently this issue.
• This comic's art duties are divided up thusly: Malkova does the three one-page plot lines at the start of the issue, Hernandez deals with the Rubble story once again, and Pitre-Durocher deals with the Bumblebee plot line.
• This issue seemingly ends the first story-arc of the series, unless there is an epilogue next issue (otherwise the "end" in the title doesn't make too much sense)
• Megatron's dialogue confirms that Nominus was indeed a past Prime, and that he was responsible for the end of expansion (colonies etc) and the use of weaponry, which is most likely a part of the Nominus Edict mentioned throughout the series.
• Sideswipe reports that nearly two hundred Cybertronians have gone missing, in a previous issue we learned that they couldn't find a lot of the higher ups from the Rise....hmmmm.....
• Prowl's pet pteranodon looks quite like an organic version of the Battle Master Pteraxadon, could this be a pre-cursor to him? Or maybe he later cyberforms this cute critter into a machine?
• The green aliens that Rubble greets on his way home look sort of like the A'ovans from the Titan comics, considering he mentions having to pass it on his way home, we can assume these are indeed A'ovans
• I doubt that Bumblebee is really interested in joining the Ascenticon Guard, he is most likely joining them to go undercover for the Senate.
• Bee also reveals that he was expelled from the security force, wonder what happened there!
• Bee seems to imply that the Autobots are a political party (with the mention of voting for them) rather than just a faction like in the past. Is this a political drama in disguise?!
• Bumblebee theorizes that Soundwave's electromagnetic suppressor uses subsonics. We haven't really dealt with those since Steeljaw used them in RID2015...is Steeljaw coming back/being transplanted to this series?
• This issue shoes Quake, in heavy shadows looking mostly blue, just like the ghost hanging with Cyclonus said last issue...we may have found our killer here!
• Well...to be fair, we didn't see him killing the Voin in this issue, he may have just found the body...then went after Rubble to try and seemingly kill him right afterwards...it's possible!!
• Chromia mentioned that she linked her's and Prowl's communicators to Rubble's in case he needs help 2 issues ago.
• The last page of the comic features most of Rubble's opening monologue from issue 2 of the series
• So, this could be interesting! If, after showcasing Rubble and saying how great he is, they just kill him off by the end of the first story arc, then IDW are taking a leaf out of Transformers: Prime's book, with how they dealt with Cliffjumper. I love it!