IDW - Clue Candlestick #3

Story/Art/Letters by: Dash Shaw

Production Editor by: Neil Uyetake 

Assistant Edits by: Megan Brown

Edits by: David Hedgecock

Plot

When she was a little girl, Peacock would sneak her parent's magazines into her textbooks and read them at night. To stop her from straining her eyes, her father gives her an antique candlestick and tells her to only read until the candle itself goes out.

Over the following years, Peacock's parents die and she meets a man named Milburn, who had mob connections, they fell in love and eventually married, however she eventually started an affair with Mr Green, another mobster.

At some point, a job goes bad, and Milburn needs to be killed, so Green carries out the job by bludgeoning him with the candlestick and burning him in the fireplace.

Afterwards Green and Peacock get together officially, but Peacock is unaware of him killing her husband. he tries to get rid of the candlestick, but due to it being an antique and formerly belonging to her parents, so wont allow him to discard it.

Green claims that he wants to get rid of it because it reminds him of Milburn and upsets him, which she believes and agrees to trade it away. She gets in contact with her friend, Mr Boddy, who agrees to trade an old book with her for it, a book about building hidden passages...

Back in the present, Mrs White reveals that she knows that Peacock and Green arrived together and must know eachother, despite not disclosing this earlier, and due to her family antique business and recent loss of her wealthy husband, she must have wanted to take all the rare items in Boddy's collection for herself to fund her lifestyle.

The police arrive, and White and Plum tell them to arrest Peacock and Green for the three murders. They deny it, but are both arrested and sent away.

Later, at Boddy's funeral, White realizes that Plum was the one who appraised all of Boddy's treasured items, and must also realise their true value, so she bequeaths them all to him on Boddy's behalf, to Plum's apparent shock.

Elsewhere, Peacock and Green talk to eachother over the phone from their respective prisons, but both admit to not being the killer.

One night, Peacock's cellmate suggests to Peacock that they can dig a tunnel out of jail with a spoon, and asks if Peacock knows anything about tunnels, leading her to think about the book she got from Boddy...

She realizes from the doodles in the book that Boddy had tunnels in his house, one that led between the kitchen and study, where  Plum and Scarlett were hiding respectively, meaning he was the one who killed her, he was the closest to the gun that killed Mustard, and was also alone in the house when Boddy was killed, meaning HE was the killer!

At his house, Plum talks to the statue of Scarlett from Boddy's collection and admits that he killed them for the exhileration and just to "win the game". He lights the candlestick, leaves it in his windowsill, and drinks a glass of malted milk with honey to have a restless sleep.

Back at the prison, Peacock whistles through the bars and leads her breath to the candlestick, knocking it over and setting fire to the house, killing Plum as he slept.

Later, Peacock and her cellmate escape from prison and go into hiding.

After a while, Peacock, now in a disguise, goes to see Green and promises to get him free too, he asks her why she loves him, despite his evil ways, but she just says that she sees the goodness in him...and that's what she loves...

Characters

The Dinner Party

Mrs Peacock

Mr Green Imprisoned by Police

Professor Plum Killed by Peacock/Candlestick

Mrs White

Miss Scarlett Killed by Plum

Mr Boddy (Flashback Only) Killed by Plum

Colonel Mustard (Flashback Only) Killed by Plum

Other

Stanley White

Ollie, the Postman

Peacock's Cellmate

The Police

Boddy's Funeral Party

Delivery Men

Other Prisoners

St Peter (In Heaven)

Milburn Pennybags (Flashback Only) Killed by Green with Candlestick and Incinerated

Mr Peacock Sr (Flashback Only) Dead

Mrs Peacock Sr (Flashback Only) Dead

Auctioneer (Flashback Only)

Auction Goers (Flashback Only)

Vicar (Flashback Only)

John Keats (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue ends with an interview with Dash Shaw by Suzette Smith
• The back page of the comic features the last seven custom Clue game cards: The Lounge, Billiard Room, Hall, Library, Study, Ball Room and Dining Room...now we just need a custom game board too (maybe the TPB will give us that!)
• AHEM! About the mystery in this series....I CALLED THE RESULT LAST MONTH!! BWAAHAHAHAHHAHAH!! I'm a detective now I guess!
• As predicted by the title and it's constant references, the Candlestick was ultimately the one to kill the killer.
• The "Milburn" man whom Peacock marries in this issue's flashback is the Monopoly Man....is this series secretly the start of a Hasbro board game comic universe?
• Despite the claims that the Candlestick was never used in a murder, like the other items were, we learn here that Green used it to kill Peacock's husband
• As predicted last issue, we learn this time that the Boddy Mansion uses the hidden tunnels from the real board game
• We learn that the thing Peacock kept hidden from the group in issue one, is that she and Green are in a relationship.
• Mrs White is revealed to be the one who watched Plum arrive at the party in issue one. She also followed the red-herring clues and believed that Peacock, and by extension Green, were the killers due to their prior relationship (though since they were the only two with no prior contact with anyone but Boddy before this night, it makes no sense why no one else is a more likely suspect...)
• In case you missed the motive for the murders, plum wanted to kill off all the other party guests and frame it on Peacock and Green, so he could get all the items in Boddy's collection by default to make money from them. He knew Peacock would get blamed due to her family auction house, and knew people would believe she wanted to sell on the items for her own profit.
• The panels of Peacock and Green being sent to jail appear to be based on the same panels on a Monopoly board
• So...the Candlestick is sentient it seems....this is disturbing, because it also seems to have an attraction to Peacock!
• The prophetic dream from issue one is revealed to actually be a premonition of Plum's own death caused by Peacock whistling for her candlestick falling over at her command kill Plum...she has magic breath I guess!
• Despite his murders and Scarlett not getting there previously, Plum is shown at Heaven in the end (though St Peter does look annoyed at him, so maybe he's about to be plummeted to Hell?)
• Mrs Peacock's "disguise" after breaking out of jail is just a pair of sunglasses...good work!

IDW - Transformers vs Ghostbusters #2

Title: Ghosts of Cybertron, Part 2

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by:Dan Schoening

Colours by: Luis Antonio Delgado

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assisant Editor: Megan Brown

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Ectronymous Diamatron explains who he is to the Ghostbusters, but is somewhat surprised that they don't seem too shocked at his appearance, but they explain that they've seen too many weird things in the past for this to shock them. 

He explains that he is on Earth looking for a Cybertronian signal, but the Ghost Trap is blocking the signal, so he needs them to deactivate it. Ray tries to explain that they cannot do that, whilst Egon tries to figure out what Eck really is, not believing the alien story, but Eck has enough of this, and shorts out the trap, freeing Starscream, who immediately goes on the offensive against the Ghostbusters.

Eck is shocked, since he thought Starscream was just a hologram before, but now he can tell that Starscream IS the signal himself. The Ghostbusters use their proton packs to hold Starscream in place, but Starscream calls for a truce when he notices Eck's Autobot insignia.

Eck approaches Starscream, cautiously, as he knows of his traitorous reputation and agrees to the truce, with Venkman holding a Ghost Trap as insurance to stop him from attacking again.

Starscream recounts how Gozer attacked Cybertron and tore through most of the Decepticon combiners and other forces, whilst Megatron and his inner circle watch on in terror.

Megatron refuses to escape the doomed planet, despite everyone else suggesting to do so, when a cloaked figure, calling himself Kremzeek appears and offers them an escape, without running away.

Megatron agrees to his terms and "Kremzeek" kills the Decepticon leader, but rebirths him as a ghost immediately afterwards.

Starscream explains that the same thing happened to the other Decepticons, but when they became ghosts, they were placed under the thrall of "Kremzeek", until Starscream managed to escape and made his way to Earth, and now he wants Eck's help to use the Allspark to give him a new body.

The Ghostbusters and Eck are unsure about the story, but before they can do anything, another "ghost" appears, a small Kremzeek minion. Starscream freaks out on sight of the tiny "ghost" so the Ghostbusters try to trap him, but the minion detonates the trap instead.

The team work together to ensnare the minion with the Proton Packs and use Eck as a conduit to short out his electrical field, dispersing the energy-based creature.

Eck, seeing this, believes part of Starscream's story and decides to contact Optimus Prime to see about using the Allspark to give him a body, but he notices his communicator is damaged, he can use the one in his ship, but only if he can get replacement parts.

The Ghostbusters agree to help him fix his ship, so long as they can get a ride back to the Firehouse with him, since their real car is broken down.

Starscream, happy with his work, smirks and quietly calls the group fools....

Characters

Autobot

Ectronymous Diamatron - Ecto-1

Scrounge - Wheel (Flashback Only) Killed in Gozer Battle

Optimus Prime (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Starscream - Tetrajet Ghost

Megatron (Flashback Only) Killed by "Kremzeek", Turned into a Ghost

Soundwave - Lamp Post (Flashback Only)

Shockwave - Flying Gun (Flashback Only)

Bruticus - Combaticon Gestalt (Flashback Only)

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt (Flashback Only) Killed by Gozer

Predaking - Predacon Gestalt (Flashback Only) Critically Injured by Gozer 

Straxus (Flashback Only) Killed in Gozer Battle 

Hotlink - Tetrajet (Flashback Only)

Warrior Dropkicks - Cargo Disguise (Flashback Only) Multiple Killed by Gozer

Transport Dropkicks - Pick Up Trucks (Flashback Only) Multiple Killed by Gozer 

Dark Guardians (Flashback Only) Many Killed by Gozer

Other Decepticons (Flashback Only)

Ghostbuster

Peter Venkman

Ray Stantz

Winston Zeddemore

Egon Spengler

Other

Kremzeek Minion Dispersed by Ghostbusters and Ectotron

Gozer/Emperor Starscream (Flashback Only)

"Kremzeek"/Mara-Al-Utha (Flashback Only)

Notes

• The Ghostbusters aren't too shocked by Ectotron, due to them already having dealt with a lot of strange things, and interdimensional beings, so a talking robot made from their car isn't that shocking any more!
• Egon says he cannot accept that Ectotron is an alien...but we know he knows about aliens...the Mars Attacks crossover wher ethey encounter the ghosts of some Martians happened in-continuity to this series!
• It's revealed that the Decepticons were not all killed by Gozer, at least some of them were killed by "Kremzeek" and turned into ghosts.
• In my character notes, I'll only put down "deaths" if they are shown in the comic, despite being told last issue that all the Decepticons died in the battle, since we don't know if they died from Gozer or "Kremzeek" right now (unless we do know)
• Bruticus is seen amongst the Decepticons, in the original cartoon Bruticus was created by Starscream during his mutinee on Earth (he did use existing brain chips for the Combaticons, but they should be imprisoned still at this point in time)
• the creature calling himself "Kremzeek" is actually Mara-Al-Utha, a banished Quintesson from the G1 cartoon in his Red Wizard disguise (though he does have a tiny Kremzeek on his shoulder too)
• Originally, Kremzeek was created by the Decepticons on Earth to eat energy for some reason in the G1 Cartoon, ever since then he's just been a mascot character, usually for Cybertronian beverages.
• From the way he's posed and aiming his cannon at Starscream we can probably assume that Megatron was the one who killed him, turning him into a ghost.
• One of the "bodies" Starscream possessed at one point was an F-15 Jet, his alternate mode in the G1 cartoon and toyline
• So it should be obvious to anyone reading this, who knows anything about Starscream, knows he is lying about what happened to some extent, we jus don't know what he's lying about yet.
• Ectotron mentions the Allspark being able to give Starscream a new body. The Allspark is a concept from outside the G1 continuity...so....this is interesting!
• The Ghostbusters mention defeating Gozer in the past, this happened during the original Ghostbusters movie.

IDW - Transformers (2019) #9

Title: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet, Part 3
Written by: Brian Ruckley
Art by: Angel Hernandez & Anna Malkova
Colours by: Joana LaFuente
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Chromia, Windblade and Sideswipe head to the memorial, where they locate the entrance to the hidden base, once there, Chromia contacts Geomotus, who confirms her theory that the micro-fissures he found during their earlier mission had to be caused by mining, confirming to her that the base was built recently. Chromia bemoans that Barricade isn't responding to her calls and that they have to do this mission without him. The trio arm up with weapons with the armoury and head inside, with Sideswipe standing guard outside...

Elsewhere, Prowl tracks down one of his black market contacts, Headlock, and threatens him to give him all the information he has on the Voin and the recent killings, to which he admits that he's already given all the information he has to Barricade, who came to see him on "behalf" of Security...much to Prowl's surprise.

In the Rise base, the team are detected by Sixshot, Flamewar and Shadow Striker, who are the only members left after the evacuation, and Sixshot bemoans their actions that led Security straight to them.

Whilst exploring the base, Chromia and Windblade find a lot of supplies and equipment, but Chromia gets excited when she sees some Energon stations that haven't had their monitors disabled, so if they use a detector they can discover everyone who has used them! Windblade runs off to get the detector, leaving Chromia alone with the stations, unaware that Sixshot has arrived behind her...

At Ascenticon HQ, Bee is shocked to see the line of potential Ascenticon Guard members, and is surprised to see Barricade has been allowed to try out, despite him being current Security, which he waves off as him just having more to "offer" than Bee did...

Back outside the Rise base, Windblade grabs the detector and rushes back inside, when alone, Sideswipe is attacked by Flamewar.

Inside, Chromia and Sixshot fight it out, and Sixshot appears to be winning, until Windblade arrives and skewers her sword through his chest. Sixshot runs off, with the sword still in his chest, but throws a grenade to slow down the Securities. Chromia gives chase, whilst Windblade attached the detector, and they hear Shadow Striker on the intercom saying to escape before the "boom".

Shadow Striker and Sixshot escape, and Flamewar, seeing them leave, drives off as well, leaving Sideswipe alive behind her.

Chromia gets outside, but is shocked that Windblade hasn't escaped yet, just as the Rise base explodes, destroying the monument and Windblade's broken body is thrown miles away from the site.

Characters

Security Forces

Chromia - Car

Windblade - VTOL Jet Caught in Rise HQ Explosion, Thrown Miles away

Sideswipe - Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Barricade - Police Vehicle (Defecting to Ascenticons)

Security Trainees (Mentioned)

The Rise

Sixshot - Jet 

Shadow Striker - Car

Flamewar - Motorcycle

The Rise Commander (Mentioned)

Other Risers (Mentioned)

Ascenticon

Elita-1 - Car

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Soundwave - Hovercraft (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Headlock

Ascenticon Potential Recruits

Geomotus - Radar Mounted Rover (Hologram Only)

Cyclonus - Jet (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead

Landmine (Mentioned)

The Missing Cybertronians (Mentioned)

Other

Unlicensed Voin Scavenger (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• Despite the main cover, and the solicits for the issue, Sentinel, Starscream Nautica, Orion Pax and Hound do not appear in this issue at all. At least Bumblebee has a page of content though I guess...
• Geomotus mentions a co-worker of his being named Landmine. Since this is a G1 series, we should assume this is the G1 character of the same name, but this series has had a fair few surprises so far, so maybe this is another version!
• Prowl mentioned that he was going to be looking into his black market contacts, just before Rubble died, implying that this is how Quake learned about the Voin Scavenger and went out to look for him.
• Shadow Striker outright names her group "Risers", pretty much confirming that they are the Rise, and not Ascenticons (unless the groups are connected like I originally believed)
• Oh hey! Sixshot is back! Let's hope he doesn't get lobotomized again this time!
• Also, we only see Sixshot in his jet alternate mode, so we don't know if he's a six-changer yet or not (though, based on the wheels on his shoulders, he most likely also turns into a car as well)
• Barricade getting information from Headlock about the Voin, and being instantly admitted into the Ascenticons instead of going through barriers like Bee had to would imply that he's been a mole for Soundwave for a while within the Security Forces, and likely gave them the information that led to the Voin and Rubble being killed by Quake.
• Sideswipe's Thermal Lance seems to be designed after the Decepticon Hunter used by his RID2015 counterpart.

FBF - To The Death #1

Title: Another World, Another War

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Jim Campbell

Design by: Amazing15

Printed by: Mixiam

Plot

On Corcaran Prime, a world 4.7 million light years from Earth, Aleksy Dryagin leads his Pacifier squad in slaughtering the planet's residents, then calls in for the world to be harvested for it's raw materials, afterwards the harvest is shipped back to Earth, and the Pacifiers enter cryo-sleep, before heading home too...

Meanwhile, on Earth, Dryagin's wife, Lena, is working on the family's genetically modified produce farm on the Western Super-Continent, where she finds that her solar zeppelins aren't reaching beyond the pollution layer in the sky to get natural sunlight, so the crops are starting to die off...

Later, the Firedrake, the Pacifier's ship arrives in the Terra-Prima system, where they are prematurely released from their cryo-sleep. They don't detect any problems that would have released them early, but decide to take this opportunity to get refreshed and ready for home a little early, so they head to the showers, get food and generally spruce themselves up.

On Earth's Eastern Super-Continent, at the top of the Hub Tri-Corp cloudscraper, the Triumvirate of Veni, Vidi and Vici watch over the footage of Dryagin's team on their recent mission, and determine that he is too popular due to this being his second successful tour of duty, and they are concerned with his growing fanbase on Earth. The trio decide in unison to "terminate" his contract, before sending out a message...

Back at the Dryagin Ranch, Lena is told by her son that Aleksy is calling from the Firedrake and wants to talk to them.

Lena comes in and talks with her husband over a holographic communicator and tells him about her issues with the lack of resources to keep their farm running, to which he says he's sorted it with the money he has earned for them with the missions, the two start to talk about getting back together properly when another of his team come in saying he's needed on the ship. Aleksy ends the call, much to his wife's annoyance.

Aleksy heads to the bridge, where he sees a bunch of Erath vessels approaching them, refusing to answer their hails, and they start attacking the Firedrake. The Firedrake, being a military vessel, and it's enemies, being commercial ships and the such, is able to easily shoot them down, crippling their engines. The team are concerned about what this means, but decide to continue on to Earth regardless.

Later at the Mercy Spaceport on the Eastern Super-Continent, the crowds have gathered, and everyone is excited for the return of the Firedrake and Aleksy Dryagin, but unknown to most, a sniper is waiting, aiming at the port..

Meanwhile, a pair of aircraft fly over the Dryagin Ranch and deploy some explosives inside it, destroying the whole facility....

Characters

Pacifier

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Diamond Bill

Bette Larssen

Hash Flynn Eye Injured on Corcoran
Huey

Umber

Leone

Kraken

"Moustache Guy"

Other Pacifiers (Mentioned)

Triumvirate

Veni

Vidi

Vici

Other Human

Lena Dryagin

Leo Dryagin

Aleksy's Fans

Mercy Spaceport Security Guards

The Sniper

Other

Lupex (Leo's Striped Pet Dog)

Corcoran Prime's Population Slaughtered by Dryagin's Team

Notes

• This is Simon Furman's new comic series, Furman's famous for his Transformers and Death's Head work, so I figured it would be a fun read :D
• This issue did come out a couple weeks ago, but I've been a bit busy recently with trips and other things, so I'm a bit behind on this one, sorry!
• Though this is issue 1, there is a special issue 0 prequel issue that is available to subscribers and at conventions. I'll try to get one at TFN in August, so don't worry (this may mean some things I question in this review have been explained there, but I don't know yet)
• This story is set in the year 2674 AD, and from what we see it seems that Earth has lost it's own natural resources (aside from solar polar) and has a massive pollution problem (we see there are normal clouds above the dark ones).
• The Pacifiers are a military force that invades other planets so they can use their natural resources to power the Earth. It also appears that they are televised for entertainment back on Earth, most likely to keep people from feeling too bad about their situation in some way.
• One of the Pacifiers is unnamed in this issue, the muscular moustached man, unless I missed his name somewhere anyway.
• Lena mentions that they teach gaming in schools by this point in history, most likely this is to help with hand-eye-coordination to try and teach kids to become soldiers in the future or something...honestly I'm shocked it apparently took over 600 years to do this!
• It's likely that Lena, Leo and Lupex were killed when the Dryagin Ranch is destroyed, but I won't add them to the list as dead unless it is confirmed

IDW - Transformers (2019) #8

Title: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet, Part Two

Written by: Brain Ruckley

Art by: Anna Malkova, Angel Hernandez & Beth McGuire-Smith

Colours by: Joana LaFuente & Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Flamewar calls in to Shadow Striker, reporting that Cyclonus is ripping up their hidden cables, and despite Shadow Striker's orders to stand down, Flamewar decides to attack to stop him.

Inevitably, Cyclonus pummels the smaller bot, but the tides turn when Shadow Striker appears and starts firing on Cyclonus too. Cyclonus flies off, but Striker fires upon him, hitting the flyer, and Striker berates Flamewar for her stupidity.

Elsewhere, Megatron visits Termagax in her fortress, where he tells her about the recent bombing at an Ascenticon rally, but she has no interest in the outside world, and is busy building in her workshop. She says Megatron can just continue leading the Ascenticons, as she doesn't trust or believe in the Senate any more, so he leaves.

Outside, Megatron contacts Soundwave and tells him that she won't get in their way...

Back in the city, Bumblebee has been accepted into the Ascenticon Guard and Elita-1 informs him that Megatron wants him to be part of the guard for Megatron at an upcoming Senate meeting, so he can show off an ex-security officer and friend to Autobots has joined his side, which Bee seems fine with.

Meanwhile, at the Security HQ, Froid is being questioned by Chromia and Prowl about if Quake could be capable of murder, due to his well known anger issues and his recent disappearance. Froid agrees that he is likely to be capable of murder, but also that many more could be too, as their species is being repressed too much, and someone was bound to snap eventually.

At that moment, Cyclonus crashes into the wall, burying Froid in rubble, and hobbles in injured from the earlier attack. he tells Chromia that Shadow Striker attacked him, and where they are, before being allowed to go see Ratchet. Froid offers to join him, but Cyclonus flat out refuses. Froid calls out that he should talk to Paragon, confusing everyone else, to which Froid just explains that he's the one Cyclonus needs to talk to really, before leaving.

In the aftermath, Chromia tells Sideswipe to open up the armoury so they can go after Shadow Striker and the rest of her suspected Rise members, regardless of whether it's going to get them in trouble....

Characters

Security Forces/Autobot

Chromia - Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Sideswipe - Car

Froid - UAV

Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle (Mentioned)

Orion Pax - Truck (Mentioned)

Windblade - VTOL Jet (Mentioned)

Barricade - Police Vehicle (Mentioned)

Ratchet - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Ascenticon

Termagax

Megatron - Treaded Vehicle

Elita-1 - Car

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Other Ascenticons

Soundwave - Hovercraft (Mentioned)

Skytread - Tank and Jet (Mentioned)

Refraktor - Hovercraft (Mentioned)

Quake - Tank (Mentioned) Gone Missing

The Rise

Shadow Striker - Car

Flamewar - Motorcycle

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Grudge (Ghost)

Gridlock (Ghost)

The Senate (Mentioned)

Paragon (Mentioned)

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Pyra Magna (Mentioned)

Starscream - Jet (Mentioned)

The Missing Cybertronians (Mentioned)

Brainstorm's Killer (Mentioned)

Other

Primus (Mentioned)

Preserved Voin Corpse (In Termagax's Workshop)

Notes

• This issue comes with another packet of Transformers TCG cards, and again I got nothing good from it :(
• Art duties this month are split as such: Malkova does the Cyclonus vs Flamewar scene, Hernandez does the Megatron and Bumblebee scenes, and newcomer McGuire-Smith does the Security Forces scene at the end. Interestingly, I legitimately thought that was Andrew Griffith doing the final pages until I just checked the credits page....I am shocked!
• The first page of this issue takes place before Flamewar attacks Cyclonus last issue, giving us her side of the situation.
• From the dialogue this issue, we learn that Shadow Striker, and by extension Flamewar, were amongst the missing Cybertronians mentioned previously, and are part of The Rise, who have gone underground to hide.
• Shadow Striker mentions playing something called "Dead-Dark-Drone" with someone who's name begins with "Fr-". This could be anyone, but considering Froid's presence in the issue, and his history of being someone evil-ish, we might be able to assume this is him?
• Also, Shadow Striker is a mostly purple robot, which could be seen as bluish in the dark. Is she Brainstorm's killer?
• Shadow Striker's design is based on her Cyberverse counterpart, rather than her pre-existing G1 counterparts.
• Flamewar has hidden flamethrowers in her arms....this makes sense with her name!
• Grudge's ghost mentions how Shadow Striker and Flamewar have illegally good weapons, likely being a reference to the Nominus Edict that stops Cybertronians from having external weaponry.
• Dialogue also implies that Shadow Striker was in some way related to the war with the Threefold Spark to, since Gridlock and Cyclonus both recognise her.
• Oh...Termagax actually appears!! I'm not sure what she would turn into yet, but she does have a claw-like hand, which sort of looks like a satellite receiver when opened up (still a cool design though!)
• Termagax appears to have a collection of dead things or weapons...that's not ominous at all!
• Termagax name-drops Pyra Magna here, and asks if she's been "let out", maybe she's the one who Froid isn't allowed to visit in the jail?
• Oh! Sideswipe also makes an appearance for the first time (despite speaking before)
• And adding one more to the character appearances, on the cover preview for next issue, we finally get a look at Sentinel Prime, who seems to be based directly on his Titans Return toy