IDW - Transformers (2019) #7

Title: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet, Part One

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Angel Hernandez, Andrew Griffith & Anna Malkova

Colours by: Joana LaFuente & Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Prowl and Chromia meet with Greenlight and Ratchet in the medical center, where they confirm that the Voin and Rubble were both killed via blunt force, rather than gunshots like Brainstorm was, meaning that there is likely two killers on the loose, rather than just one, as they were hoping.

Chromia tells Prowl that it's not his fault, but Prowl feels bad for not being able to find the Voin himself, and for not being able to help Rubble when he called for help, and he vows to solve this case.

Elsewhere, Bee is mourning for the death of his charge and Windblade reassures him that he isn't to blame for this.

Orion comes to see him, but Bee doesn't want to talk to him right now and leaves. Orion offers his condolences for Rubble's death and leaves him be. Soon, Ironhide contacts him to let him know that following the newest deaths, the colony tours has been called off, and Sentinel and his crew are returning to Cybertron via the spacebridge, which Orion was expecting...

Bee heads to the Ascenticon HQ where Elita is shocked to see him, following his recent loss. Bee explains that he wants to join now more than ever, to make the world safer, and also says that Soundwave told him that the rest of the crew can decide if he joins or not. 

Skytread and Refraktor aren't impressed, and try to push him around due to him only being a scout, and being chucked out of the security forces in the past, but when Skytread points out that Bee coulsn't even keep his charge alive, Bee snaps and takes down Skytread and Refraktor with relative ease. Elita puts an end to the fight and Bee notices that Quake wasn't there too...

Meanwhile, at the memorial crater, Cyclonus stands watch, in case Exarchon and the Threefold Spark ever return, and continues to be haunted by the ghosts (or delusions) of his old friends. Cyclonus notices a new wire in the land around the memorial and decides to tear it out, considering it disrespectful, when he is attacked by Flamewar, who silently opens fire on him. Cyclonus tries to escape in jet mode, but is shot down.

Pissed at being forcibly grounded twice recently, he openly challenges Flamewar to a fight..

Characters

Autobot/Security Forces

Orion Pax - Truck

Chromia - Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Windblade - VTOL Jet

Ironhide - Van (Hologram)

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Sentinel Prime (Mentioned)

Ascenticon

Elita-1 - Car

Skytread - Tank and Jet

Refraktor

Soundwave (Mentioned)

Quake - Tank (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Ratchet - Ambulance

Greenlight - Car

Cyclonus - Jet

Flamewar - Motorcycle

Cybertronian Pedestrians

Rubble (Body) Killed by Quake

Gridlock (Ghost)

Highfire (Ghost)

Grudge (Ghost)

Provoke (Ghost)

Primus (Mentioned)

Starscream - Jet (Mentioned)

Nautica - Submarine (Mentioned)

Perceptor (Mentioned)

Arcee - Car (Mentioned)

Arcee's Charge (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Exarchon (Mentioned)

The Threefold Spark (Mentioned)

Other Species

Unlicensed Voin Scavenger (Body) Killed by Quake 

Notes

• Well this issue confirms it! Rubble was indeed killed in issue five. I am so glad they haven't given him a hand-waved save, thus negating the whole concept of death in the continuity from the onset :D
• This issue's art duties are divided up as follows: Hernandez does the Bumblebee scenes, Griffith does the Prowl and Orion Pax scenes, and Malkova finishes it off with the Cyclonus scene at the end.
• This issue comes with a free booster pack of the Wave One Transformers TCG. Mine didn't have anything too good in it unfortunately :( Also, the advert on the cover is kind of irritating...
• Greenlight is revealed to be a Xenobiologist (ie an alien specialist), the name of her and Arcee's new charge is still not known however...curious...
• Orion starts to suggest something to Bee in this issue, which he ignores and proceeds to the Ascenticon HQ, further adding to the idea that he is joining them as a ruse for Orion and the Senate. 
• Nautica and Starscream are mentioned as being part of Sentinel Prime's crew, possibly meaning they are also Senators, or at least high ranking individuals
• This issue gives our first proper mention of Spacebridges in this new continuity.
• Elita-1 is very different from her previous IDW self, with this one seeming to be more in line with her G1 cartoon self, as a protective and caring personality, but still a strong warrior who commands respect.
• Oh wow! It's Flamewar! We haven't seen her since her brief cameo in the TAAO Annual! Looks like she still has her motorcycle mode too! (NOW GIVE US A DECENT TOY FOR HER ALREADY HASBRO!!)
• Cyclonus mentions that this was his second forced landing, referring to the one he suffered at Windblade's hands in issue four.

IDW - Transformers (2019) #6

Title: Orion Pax: Free Fall

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Beth McGuire-Smith

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Orion Pax comes to meet with Codexa, to try and speak with her about something he plans to do, but she, having become part of Cybertron, is having a hard time concentrating, but remembers Orion, but also Megatron, remembering that they were friends..

Orion remembers back to two megacycles earlier, following the war with the Threefold Spark, that he helped Megatron trying to recover a buried statue of their creator god, Primus, when a hover trailer loses control and almost bashes into them. Megatron controls the crash, whilst Orion keeps hold of Primus, and the two work together to keep it all together...

A long time later, the Winged Moon is completed, and Orion bumps into Megatron there, where Orion asks him why he didn't tell him that he was running for a senatorial position, especially for a controversial party like the Ascenticons. Megatron in turn questions Orion's allegiance to the Autobots, and they head into the Tether to go back to the surface. On the way down, Orion says that he is going to leave planet for a while to explore the colonies before taking Codexa's place as head archivist, which leads Megatron to manually turn off the elevator and leaves it, encouraging Orion to join him in the atmosphere.

The two admire the view of their homeworld from afar, and Megatron hads his friend a levitator, and leads him to join him in freefalling from the sky to Cybertron's surface.

Megatron's levitator works, but Orion's fails for him, and he falls to the surface, luckily landing in a lagoon, relatively unharmed. Megatron is happy and asks if Orion's spark is running faster and brighter from the fun, but Orion wonders if Megatron is a bit mad, which offends his old friend, and tells Orion to leave for his journey through the stars, as he'll be here, where the future will be built up...

Codexa finishes remembering about Megatron and Orion Pax, comparing Megatron to Exarchon, the one who led the Threefold Spark, which Orion doesn't want to believe. 

Orion asks for permission to do something that could get someone hurt, and could be seen as a small betrayal to others, to which Codexa remembers that Orion was always so formal, and never let himself be, and hid his true feelings...seemingly leading Orion to his decision....

Characters

Autobot

Orion Pax - Truck

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Ascenticon

Megatron - Treaded Vehicle

Termagax (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Codexa Immersant with Cybertron

Winged Moon Construction Crew (Flashback Only)

Post War Repair Crews (Flashback Only)

Primus (Statue Only)

The Senate (Mentioned)

Constructicons (Mentioned)

Exarchon (Mentioned)

The Threefold Spark (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue follows the end of issue 3 of the series, where Orion starts his conversation with Codexa (why this story was released 3 issues later is anyone's guess though, since this story doesn't seem to indicate any of the plot from issues 4 and 5 though)
• This is the first issue of the new continuity to use only one artist throughout all the different story locations/threads. ALSO, it is a new artist to the series!
• This issue gives us a big dose of Cybertronian measurements of time, so I decided to ask the writer if he could confirm what the dates would translate as by our standards. A cycle is a day, but is shorter than an Earth day, a Kilocycle would be a Cybertronian year, but as the name suggests is actually around 1000 Cycles long, and a Megacycle is a millennium, or 1000(ish) Megacycles. Answer here
• The issue begins with an abbreviated version of the Nominus Edict, which, as could be surmised from the previous issues mainly covers the restriction of Energon, the founding of new colonies and birth of new Cybertronians. It also states that non integral weapons are banned on Cybertron....so...how did Quake use his massive cannon last issue?
• Nominus Prime is also confirmed to be an Autobot, and the former head of the Autobot party, before Sentinel, who is the current one.
• Due to the rebuilding process and general destruction, we can assume that the war with the Threefold Spark ended about 2000 Cybertronian years ago (from the context of the "present" being the main setting of the series, and not the real world present day), which would be approximately 6000 Earth years in the past.
• We learn here that Megatron was a miner, and gladiator before his senatorial position, and Orion was an archivist. Both being the roles held by the characters in the Aligned continuity (Megatron was also a miner in IDWv1, and Orion was an archivist in Dreamwave, but as Optronix)
• The statue of Primus briefly seen being rescued by Orion and Megatron is based on his mythical appearance in IDWv1, well at least from the head, which is all we've seen so far!
• The winged moon of Termagax was pretty much complete about 300 Kilocycles ago, which would be about 900 Earth years before the "present"
• So it turns out that Codexa wasn't a Senator, like I assumed she was, but she was Orion's mentor and the head archivist before going "Immersant" (aka melding into Cybertron)
• From his request to get permission to do something that could endanger someone else, it seems likely that Orion asked Bumblebee to go undercover with the Ascenticons, as we saw him trying to join them last issue.
• We learn a bit more about the Threefold Spark, it was led, or was influenced by someone called "Exarchon"...wonder if we'll see him in some way soon? :D

Sig Pub - Transformers #44

Notes

• This month's screen-cap comics are of the episodes "Sabotage" and "Teletraan-X"
• The "Search and Find" game uses a screen-cap from the comic from LAST MONTH'S issue...this is irksome...
• According to the Signature Move quiz, my move is "Smart Twist"...interesting!
• There's no comic quiz this month! How are they going to test if we skim over the comic again!
• The free gifts this month are a packet of stickers, a projectile launcher (disguised as a flip phone) and the final pack of fun fact cards
• As I assumed last month, this month's pack gave us the last of the 20 cards for the set :)

• I forgot to mention last month, one of the cards I got in the packet was of Drift! We haven't seen his character model in Cyberverse yet! (Only Deadlock) So...that was cool!

Features

Cyberverse Rewind! - Do a crossword of words relating to Windblade and her Earth mission!

Colour in Bee! - Take a guess...

Battle of the Bots - Wheeljack vs Thundercracker profiles!

Search and Find - Locate a bunch of hidden items in a picture

Bumblebee's Tricky Tasks! - Do some Bumblebee related puzzles!

Cyberverse Race! - Play a maze-game with some counters!

Decepticon Sudoku - Play Sudoku with some Decepticon pictures instead of numbers!

Colour in the Autobots! - Colour in a picture of four Autobots!

Transformers Competitions- Enter a contest to win some larger Cyberverse toys!

Signature Move Match- Match an ability to a bot. Also do a quiz to find your own!

Transformers Post - See what pictures the tiny humans have sent in

Solve the Quest! - Find a hidden message throughout the magazine (also colour in Optimus)