IDW - Transformers '84 #0

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist: Guido Guidi

Colourist: John-Paul Bove

Letterer: Tom B. Long

Production Assistance by: Amauri Osorio

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Cybertron is hurtling through the cosmos, but despite that, the war between the Autobots and Decepticons still wages on it's surface. The planet is heading directly for an asteroid field though...

Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots has a plan however, and has his forces construct a giant spaceship for them to leave the planet on, on a mission to clear the asteroids, but as the Autobot Council point out, they also have a plan to detonate explosives off the side of Cybertron to re-direct their course away from the field, so why is Optimus committing so much to this needless plot?

After a while, the Ark's crew is compiled, and optimus names his friend and compatriate, Ultra Magnus as the defender of Cybertron in his absence.

A Decepticon spy amongst the Autobots, Counterpunch, informs Megatron about the imminent launch of the Ark, giving Megatron the idea to follow them, and attack them after the crew is exhausted from clearing the asteroids, so they can finally defeat them!

Later, Counterpunch meets with Optimus Prime in the Badlands, reverting to his true form of Punch, a loyal Autobot, and tells him that Megatron has taken the bait and will attack the Ark as planned.

Optimus explains that he intends to have Megatron board the Ark, after which Optimus will crash the ship on a planet, trapping everyone within it, to save Cybertron from his evil, hopefully forever.

He tasks Punch with going undercover again, and ensuring that NO ONE ever finds the Ark or revives them.

Optimus apolgozies for asking his friend to do this, as it will be messy, but he is also going to suffer for his actions as well....

In the year 1017, on Earth, a hoard of Vikings attack Stansham Castle in England, which is fended off by their own soldiers.

Mostly unnoticed by the waring sides, an Autobot shuttle crash lands nearby, with it's crew, Fastlane and Cloudraker exiting and exploring the area, looking for the long lost Ark. The two however have been followed by a Decepticon team, made up of Counterpunch, Wingspan, Battletrap and Flywheels, who have been following the duo to find the Ark and their lost leaders too.

The Decepticons ignore the humans, seeing them as just mindless animals, and leave them to their petty feuds, but the Autobots decide to help out the underdogs, the Englishmen, in chasing off the Vikings.

Wingspan stays behind at the Decepticon's ship, and manages to locate the crash site of the Ark in America, however, before he can alert the others, he is shot in the back of the head by someone...

The other Decepticons find Wingspan, headless, and his computer console destroyed, and they immediately assume it was one of the two Autobots.

The go on a rampage and attack the two Autobots, who were completely unprepared and unaware of the Decepticons being here. They manage to fight them off, but Cloudraker is badly injured and placed into a CR Chamber on their shuttle. Fastlane tries to get them away, but Counterpunch shoots the ship down, crashing it into Stansham Castle, burying it underground and under rubble....

Characters

Autobot

Punch/Counterpunch - Hover Car

Fastlane - Car Trapped under Stansham Castle by Punch

Cloudraker - Jet Badly Injured by Flywheels, Trapped under Stansham castle by Punch

Optimus Prime - Battle Platform Trapped in the Ark

Prowl Trapped in the Ark

Jazz Trapped in the Ark

Ratchet Trapped in the Ark

Ironhide Trapped in the Ark

Windcharger Trapped in the Ark

Wheeljack Trapped in the Ark

Sunstreaker Trapped in the Ark

Sideswipe Trapped in the Ark

Bumblebee Trapped in the Ark

Cliffjumper Trapped in the Ark

Mirage Trapped in the Ark

Bluestreak Trapped in the Ark

Gears Trapped in the Ark

Hound Trapped in the Ark

Brawn Trapped in the Ark

Huffer Trapped in the Ark

Ultra Magnus

Crumble

Erector

Perceptor

Quickmix

Councillor Traachon

Autobot Council

Unnamed Ark Crew Members Trapped in the Ark

Other Autobot Soldiers

Decepticon

Battletrap - Van and Helicopter

Flywheels - Tank and Jet

Wingspan Killed by Punch

Megatron Trapped in the Ark

Starscream Trapped in the Ark

Soundwave Trapped in the Ark

Rumble Trapped in the Ark

Ravage Trapped in the Ark

Laserbeak Trapped in the Ark

Buzzsaw Trapped in the Ark

Reflector Trapped in the Ark

Shockwave - Ray Gun

Astrotrain 

Acid Storm

Ark Invasion Force Trapped in the Ark

Other Decepticon Soldiers

Other Cybertronian

The Titans (Mentioned)

Neutrals (Mentioned)

Human

King Canute

Knight Hakon

English Knights

Viking Invaders

Notes

• This one-off story marks the second official 35th anniversary special comic for the franchise, with the first being the Ghostbusters vs Transformers mini. Though this one IS the first solo franchise anniversary!
• The "84" in the title refers to 1984, the year the Marvel comics began in, as such, this story acts as a prequel to that part of the franchise
• Like with the prior series "Regeneration One" this series adds to the original continuity, and even features a large amount of the crew that worked on Regen.
• Punch's narration implies that he is speaking from the relative present, as he says that 1017 was about 900 years ago.
• This story is actually told in a non-linear style, so I reorganized it to make more coherent sense in the plot section.
• Since this story is set "pre-Earth" I have no idea what most of the characters turn into, since that was never really shown in Marvel, so unless they are shown or it is previously known information, I wont bring it up in the character section.
• This series marks the first major role for Punch/Counterpunch in a mainstream comic...EVER! The last time he appeared was in the afore mentioned Regeneration One, but only for one issue, and in a very unfulfilling role. (Before you mention it, the TFCC fiction doesn't count)
• Due to this being "in continuity" with the Marvel comics, it features some design nods etc to that series, such as Megatron having a dark grey bucket-head, or the Ark being white. However it also has some continuity errors in that case, such as the Micromasters, Erector and Crumble being amongst the Ark construction crew, despite them not existing until much later (these could be just tiny Autobots rather than Micromasters, but it seems like a stretch)
• Megatron appears to be aware of Counterpunch having an Autobot counterpart, but Punch appears to be the dominant persona, sue to him still being loyal to Optimus' orders millions of years later.
• The scenes set on Earth feature mostly characters not seen in the modern day of the Marvel continuities (US or UK) so they could be taken out without messing up the timeline too much.
• Despite Flywheels and Battletrap having pretty much their normal alternate modes, Punch/Counterpunch is shown to have a Cybertronian mode redesign (ie a hover-car). This seems a bit needless considering the other characters not being altered too.
• Amongst the Autobots in the Ark are five rather detailed generics. Are these just five random guys who die in the Ark crash, or are they the future Dinobots who were mentioned to be rebuilt just to face Shockwave during the rest of their sleep.
• It's finally revealed that the reason why Optimus brought his best warriors with him on an asteroid clearing mission, and wound up crashing the advanced ship on a random planet, was because this was an elaborate plot by him to imprison the Decepticons, who would go after Optimus and his best warriors, in a crashed ship, locking them into stasis lock in the process.
• Fastlane and Cloudraker are revealed to be the true identities of "The Man of Iron" and "Navigator" from the story "Man of Iron", who crashed into the castle when trying to leave Earth by Counterpunch. Their different appearances in that story are explained with Cloudraker's paint starting to chip away after he is shot by Flywheels.
• The Ship they piloted is named the "Mantlo" named after the writer for the first two issues of the G1 comics.
• It isn't outright stated, but it's very likely that Punch was also responsible for taking out Slamdance when he came to Earth with information about the Underbase

TFNation - Signal of Doom

Written by: Ralph Burns & Andrew Turnbull

Illustrated by: Nate Webb

Cover Art by: Ed Pirrie & Matt Marshall

Plot

This story is a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, so where the story would deviate to a bad ending, I'll mark it in parentheses, bold and italics (as such) Anything outside of these are the ideal storyline. Occasionally a bad route can be taken, but can be reversed to a good route, but I am just taking the most direct routes here.

Battle Unicorn (You) returns to Cybertron, but finds the planet under radio silence and with no life signs anywhere, until he receives an SOS from the planet.

(Battle Unicorn opens the SOS, and is directed to the Central Spaceport and decides to head there to investigate, however he finds a strange group of Cybertronians there, that he doesn't recognise, and before he can do anything he is ambushed and his spark is extracted)

Battle Unicorn hovers above the planet in his ship, and decide to land in Cybertropolis instead of the Central Spaceport, you see a group of Cybertronians you don't recognise, but smartly decide to leave them be

(You are foolish and approach the Cybertronians and get your spark extracted)

You walk towards the Central Spaceport to investigate the area from afar, but are surprised when a blinding light hits you and you plummet into a tunnel system, you see some lights down the tunnel, you ignore them, and head further into the darkness, where you encounter the Oracle itself, who tells you about Megatron conquering Cybertron and is calling wayward Cybertronians back to the planet with a fake distress signal to capture them too. The super computer gives you the option to help it...

(You decide to run away from the Oracle and proceed with you own mission to stop Megatron, but soon realise that you may have led the Drones to the Oracle's chamber, you return to save it, but you are instead captured, and you witness the Oracle being dismantled...)

You decide to accept help from the Oracle and are reformatted. You learn how to control your new form and are sent on a mission to destroy the Transmission Facility and proceed with you own mission to stop Megatron, and make it to the surface, you make your way to the Central Computer, where you link up to the computer to figure out where the Transmitter Facility is...

(You decide to stay hooked up for a while longer to determine what Megatron's plan really is, and you learn that he, after the Beast Wars on Earth returned to Cybertron and created his virus to conquer the world. Infuriated, you decide to go after Megatron at his fortress in Cybertropolis. He is, however, soon ambushed and is attacked by Jetstorm...ending his story there...)

You disconnect from the network and start to leave, you are attacked by a group of Tank Drones however...

(You go on the offensive and charge at them, but you are eventually caught by them, and are taken out)

You use your beast mode's seismic hooves to send the Vehicons flying and you run for your life, you see a load of Drones assembled

(You try sneaking past them, but they notice you and are captured and taken out by Jetstorm)

You go for higher ground to avoid the Vehicons, and are near the Tramsitter, but find a Transit Tube, that would get you to the Transmitter controls in record time

(You take the tube, but are ambushed by Jetstorm, who fires missiles at the prone vehicle, destroying it, and you along side it...)

You realise it would be foolish to take the Tube, so you enter the building and take the walkways instead, you follow the paths laid out for you, when you come across a small gap you can leap over

(You ignore the leap and continue down the pathway, but you made a mistake, and are taken out by a missile from Jetstorm)

You leap across the small gap, and continue doing that between buildings, until you start finding the gaps too far apart

(You return to the pathways, but are quickly dispatched by Jetstorm with a missile)

You make your way to the ground, and have eye-contact with the transmitter, you notice no Vehicons between you and the facility

(You rush out to the facility, but are quickly flanked upon, and taken out of commission)

You pause, and a Drone passes by you, not noticing you in the shadows, you dash towards the facility, where you see it is guarded by an army of drones.

(You try to sneak into the facility, but you trip the alarms and you are overcome with the Vehicons, who take you down, and extract your spark)

You transform and bellow out a threat to the drones, causing them to chase you

(You head to the transmitter controls, you enter the deactivation code, and it works and the transmission is stopped...however you realize that this was too simple, and the transmission can simply be reactivated, you should have gone to the power planet instead! With that, Jetstorm appears and take you out)

You diverge from the original plan and head to the power plant, you arrive and realize you don't have energy weapons any more..

(You try to overload the consoles, but cannot do so in time...Jetstorm arrives and takes you down)

You use you battle axe to smash the console apart and cause a chain reaction that causes the entire plant to go up. You resign yourself to you fate, when you are teleported to safety by the Oracle.

You have succeeded in this battle, but the war is not over and Megatron must still be defeated, and you will be hiding in the shadows until the day you can make your move....

Characters

Maximal

Battle Unicorn - Technorganic Unicorn (Killed/Spark Extracted by Vehicons - Bad Endings Only)

Vehicon

Jetstorm - Jet

Aero Drones - Jets

Tank Drones - Tanks

Cycle Drones - Motorcycles

Mole Drones

Megatron - Dragon (Mentioned)

Autobot

Sparkless Shells

Xaaron (Mentioned)

Admiral Rodney (Mentioned)

Other

The Oracle/Vector Sigma (Dismantled by Vehicons - Bad Endings Only)

Cybertronian Population (Mentioned) Sparks Captured by Megatron

Notes

• This is the TFNation 2019 exclusive fiction.
• This year we have a choose your own adventure style book, as such the plot synopsis will feature the "bad endings" as well as the "true ending"
• The timing of this story is unclear, but the presence of Jetstorm implies that this happens during the events of Season One of Beast Machines....but where are Optimus and his crew then? As soon as Botanica arrived on the planet they went out to try and save her!
• The branching options on page 9 make no sense. if you choose the "bad road" on page 19, you speak about how the Oracle is being dismantled and how you'll never learn of Megatron's secret plans....you haven't been informed of EITHER of those things in the story yet!
• On Page 11 to can decide to run away from the Oracle BEFORE you get reformatted on the next page, yet you are later referred to as Technorganic, and can complete the story from then on
• The comments about Battle Unicorn waiting in the shadows may be to explain why he never encounters Primal and his team...
• So...the Oracle can teleport at great distances? WHY DID IT NEVER DO THAT TO HELP THE MAIN CHARACTERS?!?!?
• Quite a few references are made in this story to things like "Pretenders", the "Multiforce" etc, but since context isn't ever given I'll only mention them in the character list if they are definitive names of characters etc

Sig Pub - Transformers #47

Notes

• This month's screencap comics are for the episodes "Matrix of Leadership" and "The Extinction Event"
• Most of the stock images used this issue are actually the Evergreen G1 designs...this confused me a lot when I saw Barricade, since I haven't played the Earth Wars game, and thought this was a previously unseen design for Cyberverse XD
• According to the "Barricade Fact!" feature, Barricade was once a racing car, rather than a cop like in most continuities
• The free gifts this month as some more of the sticker set started last month, an Optimus Prime figure and a box of temporary tattoos

Features

Adverts - Some adverts for a few UK Transformers products

Prepare for Battle!- Help Optimus with some puzzles!

Stop Shockwave!- Find the correct path and block it off to stop Shockwave from attacking!

Colour in Bumblebee! - Take a wild guess...

Priority Profiles - Ge some basic info on some Transformers, then do a crossword puzzle!

Battle of the Bots - Optimus Prime vs Megatron profiles

More Than Meets The Eye - Identify some characters by a small part of their bodies

Bee Count! - Count the different Bumblebee Poses on a page

Barricade Fact! - Complete a puzzle to find out a fun fact about Barricade

Decepticon Differences - Find the differences between two pictures of Evergreen Decepticons

Draw Grimlock! - Copy a grid-drawn Evergreen Grimlock, then answer some questions.

Transformers Post - Look at some scary kids pictures! (Also be jealous that one got the BotBots Arcade set as a prize!!!)

Competitions - Win some BotBots stuff!

Make a Doorhanger - Cut up the back page to make a doorhanger!

FBF - To The Death #3

Title: The Art of White Noise

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Martin Baines

Design by: Amazing15

Printed in UK by: Mixam

Plot

Following the lack of any real insurgents at Luna-9, the Pacifiers head towards Luna-5, another of the mining facilities on the Moon.

On Earth, in the former sea of Japan, Deacon Snow speaks to his captive, Lena, and explains that he has rescued her, as well as her son and dog, from being executed by the Triumvirate, but had to make it look like they still died, so they could live on, but under the radar. He explains that the Triumvirate wanted them dead to punish her husband for his success, but insists that they are going to save him too, before the Triumvirate decide he is no longer useful to them....

At the Southern Landmass's Regional Spaceport, a White Noise team arrive and kill the crew, until they find the technician capable of performing the pre-flight on a shuttle, an force him to help them head towards the Moon

The Pacifiers set up camp outside Luna-5, and are joined by the remote Cyber Warriors, they aere ordered not to kill anyone, and to try and find one man in particular, Paca Varos, one of the employees at the mine.

Soon, the group attack the encampment, with the Cyber Warriors ignoring their main orders and firing on everyone they can, causing absolute mayhem. Two of the Cyber Warriors are destroyed and their operators are out of the "game" during the battle, but the Pacifiers eventually manage to capture Varos, whom Dryagin puts in front of one of their camera drones to relay his story of working for the Energy Corp and being forced into being an insurgent by the terrible conditions at the facility, for the world below to see, but it of course falls on deaf ears.

One of the Cyber Warriors appears to go for Varos (really going after Dryagin though) and is also destroyed by Rekt.

Afterwards, the other two Cyber Warriors appear to accept Dryagin's leadership (see how long that lasts) and he orders for the "insurgents" to be placed into holding cells for their own safety, only for Kraken to later enter the cell and incinerate the prisoners, declaring that Dryagin isn't calling the shots any more...

On Earth, Snow apologizes to the footage of Lena, who he makes sure can't hear him, and apologizes for his past actions dooming their future, and swears to make amends and save everyone 

Characters

Pacifiers

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Jonas Huey

Josiah Kraken

Leone

Hash Flynn

Megan Umber

Dolan Rekt

White Noise

Deacon Snow

Juddh King

Mazur

Two Other White Noise Members

Luna Insurgency

Paca Varos Killed by Kraken

Ned Killed by Kraken

Gil Killed by Kraken

Other Insurgents

Luna-9 Residents

Triumvirate

Veni

Vidi

Vici

Other Human

Lena Dryagin

Five Cyber Soldier Operators Three Defeated in Battle

Defeated Cyber Soldier #3's Family

Regional Spaceport Staff Killed by White Noise

Spaceport Flight Prep Technician Abducted by White Noise

Leo Dryagin (Footage Only)

Other

Lupex the Dog (Footage Only)

Notes

• Just like with Issue #0, I have to apologize that I have Furman's scribbles on the cover of this issue :)
• Snow's base is mentioned as being in the (former) sea of Japan. This is the first real mention of a modern-day location in this dystopian future.
• Snow's organization is named "White Noise" here, referring to the noise found in dead space (such as on TV or radio) which some people believe can hide messages or communicate with the dead etc. Seems appropriate for a subversive group huh?!
• The cyber soldiers are revealed to be allied to the Pacifiers, and were just sent to the Moon to set off the booby-traps...yes...they are totally not there to try and kill Dryagin and his crew
• Unshockingly after his psychopathic tendencies, we learn at the end of this issue that Kraken is planning a coup against Dryagin 
• Lena's reaction to the Triumvirate's names implies that they are not public figures, or could be shadowy figures of some sort
• Snow's past actions that he is sorry for, is most likely his work on the extinction weapon seen in issue 0.

FBF - To The Death: Forged by Fire

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Martin Baines

Design: Amazing15

Plot

Following the birth of his son, Aleksy Dryagin decides to re-enlist for his second tour of duty as a Pacifier, to be able to provide money for his family, despite his wife, Lena, disapproving of the idea.

Aleksy and his team are soon formed, and are shipped out to the Borderlands to take on some violent alien species, whoa re giving their current troops problems. They arrive on the planet Asphodel, where they encounter weird creatures, and have a full battle with an army of Sentinels protecting their leaders, by literally forming themselves as a dome around them.

The battle eventually ends when  Aleksy tosses a belt of grenades into the lava surrounding the capitol island, and detonating them, destroying the bridge and most of the defending army, allowing them to slowly defeat the rest of them, and pacify the planet for the Tri-Corp.

After the battle, Aleksy and his team head towards another planet to conquer, when Aleksy thinks back to his wife's thoughts on his mission, she believes that the Tri-Corp reached out to him to take on another tour of duty, just so they can kill him off in battle, since no-one normally returns from even one tour alive, let alone two. 

One year later, on Earth, Deacon Snow and his team prepare for a simulated detonation of the "Asphodel Extinction Weapon", and comments on how beautiful it is to use an entire planet's molten heart and soul for this device, but that it is also terrifying too....

Characters

Pacifiers

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Diamond Bill

Jonas Huey

Dolan Rekt

Hash Flynn

Megan Umber

Leone

Bette Larssen

Josiah Kraken

The Echelon (Mentioned)

Other Pacifiers (Mentioned)

Other Human

Lena Dryagin

Leo Dryagin

Deacon Snow

Energy Corp Development Team

Alamo Staff Member

The Tri-Corp (Mentioned)

Other

Asphodel Denizens Wiped Out by Pacifiers

Borderland Combatants

Notes

• This is the special prequel issue of the series, which has only been released on the To The Death website and at conventions, such as TFNation, which is where I got mine.
• The cover doesn't normally feature the scribbles that are on mine, as I said before, I went to TFNation.
• This story takes place mostly five years before the events of To The Death, with the epilogue taking place one year after that.
• This issue shows that Aleksy left Earth shortly after Leo was born, not just before like I assumed in issue 2
• Aleksy mentions that he doesn't know if Diamond Bill's name is a codename or his actual one.
• We learn here that Aleksy personally recruited Leone, Larssen and Kraken to the team, we knew this about Leone already, and Kraken is shown in the issues to be dangerous, but Larssen hasn't shown any dangerous tendencies so far..
• We keep hearing about "Tri-Corp" this issue, but in the series proper we only hear about the Energy Corp, which appears to be just a branch of it. Unless this is just an abandoned plot line from this prequel that is.
• We learn that the pacifier teams are given their orders from a group called "The Echelon", who we haven't heard of in the main series so far.
• In his cryo-sleep, we see Aleksy dreams that his wife is taken from him by a three headed monster (ie his wife being seemingly killed by the Triumvirate) and Earth being burned and destroyed in the aftermath (this hasn't happened yet) we can probably assume this is some sort of prophetic dream.
• In the burning Earth scene, we see a human-looking guy seemingly floating in the flames...do we have a fire-bender or something on the way?
• Deacon Snow is revealed to be a member of the Energy Corp, developing a super-weapon...huh...I wonder why he left them to form the White Noise team?
• The old man next to Snow hasn't appeared in the main series yet (unless he's just changed his appearance since then) so he's likely either died in the interim, or has just not appears yet.
• So the Asphodel Extinction Weapon appears to be made from the spoils of the planet Asphodel, meaning that more than just Helium is being harvested after all...what are the Triumvirate up to?

IDW - Transformers (2019) #10

Title: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet, Part Four

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Angel Hernendez, Anna Malkova and Beth McGuire-Smith

Colours by: Joana LaFuente & Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte

Plot

Megatron meets with his guards, Elita-1 and Bumblebee, and they escort him towards the Senate meeting, on the way they come across a silent protest starting, in honour of the recent murder victims, which people are blaming on the extremist group, the Rise.

Meanwhile, Froid visits Cyclonus at a medical facility, where he brings up his dead friends, and asks if he ever talks with Paragon, who was killed by Pyra Magna. Upon hearing his name, Cyclonus snaps, and heads off alone again, to get away from society...

The Senators meeting begins, and the topic of discussion is, of course the recent murders and rising tensions and riots across the planet. Megatron dismisses the claims and tries to accuse the others of blaming his Ascenticons for the riots and recent troubles.

Orion points out to Megatron that there is no real discussion to be had, the Autobots hold the majority vote, and they will uphold Nominus' Edict, and they will not be removed from power until the next voting season, so Megatron will have to disband his private army, the Ascenticon Guard, and also join the rest of the Senate in publicly denouncing the Rise as an extremist group and even rename them.

Before Pax can give the new name to the Senate, Megatron starts to leave, dismissing the idea as Pax trying to deceive the population.

Outside, Megatron is met with his guards, but his is noticed by a member of the crowd, and a riot starts, with the population starting to equate the Ascenticons to the Rise and start attacking the Senator. Bee and Elita fend off the rioters, whilst Megatron gets to safety, but the two guards begin to question what they are doing, when they start injuring the rioters...

Megatron heads off into the wasteland outside the city, where he meets with his associate, the leader of the Rise, Shockwave, whom Megatron put in the position to cause chaos, but screams at him that he wasn't to kill anyone. he warns Shockwave to not cause the Ascenticons any more problems and to never let it be reveals that they have a connection...but Shockwave has other plans in mind....

Prowl heads towards Ascenticon HQ, where he asks Soundwave to hand Barricade over to them, as they need to speak to him about some recent actions he has made, but Soundwave simply refuses them entry...

Elsewhere, a large Cybertroninan lands on the planet, and deploys her precious cargo, of Sentinel Prime and his retinue, who is fairly pissed off at the recent events on his planet, and wants to head to the Senate offices immediately to start smashing some heads together! 

Characters

Autobot

Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle

Senator Orion Pax - Truck

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Security Forces

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Sideswipe - Car

Ironhide - Van

Windblade - VTOL Jet In Protective Stasis, Following Injuries

Security Cadets

Ascenticon

Senator Megatron - Treaded Vehicle

Senator Soundwave - Hover Craft

Elita-1 - Car

Bumblebee - Winged Hover Craft

Acid Storm - Tetra Jet

Skytread

Other Ascenticons

Barricade (Mentioned)

The Rise

Shockwave - Space Craft

Flamewar - Motorcycle (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Froid - Jet

Flatline

Senator Heretech

Senator Crisscross

Starscream - Tetrajet

Nautica

Hound - Jeep

Firestar - Car

Road Rage

"Giant Woman" - Senate Space Shuttle

Other Two Meeting Senators

Medical Facility Staff

"Silent" Protestors

Primus (Mentioned)

Cyclonus' Ghost Friends (Mentioned) Dead

Paragon (Mentioned) Death Caused  by Pyra Magna

Pyra Magna (Mentioned) Imprisoned

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead, Confirmed Killed by a Rise Member

Other

A Skitter Crushed by Megatron

Pterasaur Aliens

Notes

• This issue's cover and synopsis was switched with last issue's, explaining the mis-matched covers, though it doesn't appear that the issues themselves were swapped, since this issue directly references the previous one heavily.
• The art duties this issue are as such: Hernandez does the scenes Senate meeting scenes, and the protest outside, Malkova deals with the scenes in the medical facilty and Sentinel's return to the planet, and McGuire-Smith does the meeting between Megatron and Shockwave.
• Uh oh, Windblade is in a "protective stasis" tube now! Last time we saw that sort of thing was when Sideswipe, who sustained injuries from an explosion and being in a crashing ship, and subsequently stayed in one for a couple of years and then died...let's see where this goes....
• Paragon, mentioned by Froid as someone whom Cyclonus has to speak to earlier is revealed to be dead, and that Pyra Magna was responsible for his death, possibly explaining why she is imprisoned too?
• Sideswipe claims to not know Flamewar's name, but since she knows his name, does this mean that he's well-known or some sort of celebrity?
• One of the Senators in the meeting is using a holo-generator to appear....why doesn't Sentinel do the same if he needs to speak to Orion and the others so badly?
• Another of the Senators is Heretech, revealed to be the leader of the Reversionists, mentioned here as being affiliated with the Autobots. This is interesting since Heretech in IDW's old continuity was a Decepticon
• Orion Pax's plan to rebrand the Rise as something more appropriate (a word that begins with "Dece-" hmmm?) is reminiscent of the use of the term "Daesh" to de-legitimize the terrorist group ISIS.
• Elita-1 shows the first signs of her not fully agreeing with the Ascenticon ways, when she shows remorse for hurting others during the protest riot.
• I CALLED IT!!! I said early on in this series that The Rise would just be an off-shoot of the Ascenticons and would in fact be controlled by Megatron or one of his cabal secretly! (I believe I even suggested Shockwave was in charge!)
• It is revealed this issue that Nominus exiled some troublemakers offworld, though this was kept quiet, so many believe it to just be a conspiracy theory.
• Interestingly, Megatron attributes Brainstorm's death to a member of the Rise, but also to Rubble's death too....is Quake classed as a member of the Rise now due to his actions, despite his prominence in the Ascenticon Guard, or does Megatron not know that Quake was the killer?
• It's finally revealed what the Rise actually is now, it was an off-shoot of the Ascenticons created to cause trouble and force the hand of the senate to give control of Cybertron to the Ascenticons, as they are the only ones who can take them down, by repealing the Nominus Edict. However Megatron claims that he never planned for anyone to actually die by their actions, and is now blaming Shockwave for it.
• The large Cybertronian who turns into a spaceship for Sentinel and his crew MIGHT be a Titan, but she may just be a giant Cybertronian (like Leviathan was mentioned as being). Also, I believe it's a female Cybertronian, simply due to her general form and appearance, I could be wrong though!
• Sentinel's comments about smashing heads together may be a reference to the toy he is modelled after being a Titan Master (aka his head turns into a tiny robot)
• We don't see any insignias on any of Sentinel's crew, but since all of them (except Starscream) are traditionally Autobots, and are under his command, we can probably assume they are in the political party too.

IDW - Transformers vs Ghostbusters #3

Title: Ghost of Cybertron, Part 3

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Dan Schoening

Colours by: Luis Antonio Delgado

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Editor: Megan Brown

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

At the Ghostbuster's Firehouse, Janine isn't impressed with Ectronymous, but not because she's afraid, she's just annoyed because she thinks he's going to cause damage that they'll have to fix themselves afterwards. She also outright refuses to call Ectronymous Diamatron by his full name, so gives him the nickname "Ectotron", which he reluctantly accepts.

Starscream arrives at the firehouse, where he is greeted by Janine threatening him with a proton grenade until the Ghostbusters inform her that she's "sort of" with them. Screamer gets annoyed so he goes upstairs, utilizing his new size-changing abilities. Venkman follows him, and sees him trying, and failing to kill another captive ghost, Slimer, and Venkman outright tells him that he doesn't trust him, and knows he's up to something. Starscream warns the human not to taunt him, when Venkman activates a hidden ghost trap and locks Screamer inside.

Downstairs, Venkman tells the others what he did, and they agree that it might be for the best. Ray repairs Ectotron's communicator (which just had a loose wire) allowing him to contact the Ark.

Behind the Earth's Moon, the Ark is waiting when they get Ectotron's communication, Optimus talks to him (and is glad that he got a shorter name) and is intrigued by Ectotron's findings on the planet and decides to come to the planet himself.

Wheeljack and Grimlock try to talk Prime out of going to Earth himself, but he insists on doing it, as showing faith in his followers is what makes him a great leader.

Back on Earth, the Ghostbusters get a job at a warehouse, and they need Ectotron to drive them there, with the promise that they'll be back to meet Optimus when he arrives.

Soon, the team arrive at the warehouse in Brooklyn, where Egon detects a signal similar to the one from the Kremzeek they battled before. Ectrotron wants to help out, so he takes a trap and starts modifying it.

Optimus arrives on Earth and takes on a truck mode, he heads to the Firehouse, but doesn't see Ectotron, so he does into a rest cycle...unfortunately some punks arrive and decide to graffiti him up...

At the warehouse, Winston and Venkman investigate but can't find anything, until Venkman flips a switch, releasing the ghost, Killerwatt, a GIANT electrical spirit.

They run outside, leading the spirit towards the others, and they try holding it in place with their particle beams, but they realize that the ghost is feeding on the city's power grid, prompting Ectotron to smash the power lines, weakening the spirit. The team use the modified trap and capture the electrical being, without the trap exploding this time!

The team return to the Firehouse, where they find the "decorated" Optimus Prime waiting for them, Venkman leaves the group to recover the trap he placed Starscream in, so they can get to business, but when he returns he is shocked to find that the trap is empty! Starscream has somehow escaped!!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Ectronymous Diamatron/Ectotron - Ecto-1 Replica

Grimlock

Wheeljack - Hover Van

Decepticon

Starscream - Tetrajet (Ghost) Missing after being Trapped by Venkman

Ghostbuster

Peter Venkman

Egon Spengler

Ray Stantz

Winston Zeddemore

Janine Melnitz

Other Human

New York Punks

Mr Colchamiro (Mentioned)

Mr Avery (Mentioned)

Other

Killerwatt Captured by the Ghostbusters and Ectotron

Slimer Imprisoned by the Ghostbusters

Kremzeek (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• Just like the rest of the Ghostbusters, Janine is not bothered at all by the appearance of Ectotron, showing just how much they've been through in their own series.
• Janine is the one who renamed Ectronymous Diamatron into the "Ectotron" from the toy, as she refuses to say an eight syllable name. A decision that everyone is happy with, even (reluctantly) Ectronymous himself.
• The portrait of Vigo the Carpathian, the main villain and haunted item of Ghostbusters II is seen in the entry-hall of the Ghostbuster's Firehouse.
• Starscream reveals that as a ghost, he has the ability to change sizes.
• The ghost in the containment chamber is the original version of Slimer from the first two movies, and is not the "cute" sidekick from the animated series'
• The firehouse has various ghost traps rigged into the walls, and most likely other things. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it!
• The Ark is revealed to have just stayed behind the Moon since dropping off Ectotron...why couldn't more Autobots have gone with him, if they were just going to stay in the area anyway?!
• Egon still refuses to accept that Ectotron and the Cybertronians are aliens.....WHY?!?!?!
• In a possible error, Janine answers the phone to a "Mr Colchamiro" but the order form states that their contact is "Mr Avery". It's possible this is the same person somehow, or there were two phone calls for orders made, or some sort of ghostly manipulation. But most likely they just changed the name between the scripting and artwork being made for the comic.
• Ectotron doesn't want to talk about the experience of having the Ghostbusters ride around inside him.
• In the car park where Optimus scans his Earth-mode we see the orange truck that he scanned in the original cartoon, but also the what appears to be the five vehicles the Stunticons were created from in the series too. Now, whilst we didn't see the Stunticons die last issue, I don't think these are them either. These are most likely either doppelgangers or actually the original vehicles that would have been stolen and converted in the originally intended timeline.
• The ghost this issue is Killerwatt, from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, though I think it's safe to assume that this version is another minion of Mara-Al-Utha 
• The graffiti on Optimus includes a load of references to Transformers and Ghostbusters (I won't go into them all here, but some are shown in the picture above)
• Venkman starts to make the old "Pessimus Prime" joke when meeting Optimus, until Ectotron stops him.

FBF - To The Death #2

Title: Severance

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Martin Baines

Designer: Amazing15

Printer: Mixam

Plot

The Triumvirate hold a meeting to discuss a mini-revolution at a mining facility on the Moon, but due to most of their military forces being off-world, they need someone to deal with it...when they remember that a military team IS nearby...

At Mercy Spaceport, the crowds are excitedly waiting for the Pacifiers to return, when one of them, a disguised Juddh King receives a call from his associate, Deacon Snow, informing him of the sniper waiting to kill Dryagin upon arrival. King goes in disguise and heads to the sniper's location

On the Firedrake, Dryagin is working out, when he is interrupted by the holograms of the Triumvirate, who order him to lead his team to the Moon and liberate the facility from "terrorists", in exchange they will give his team some extra pay...

Back on Earth, the Triumvirate confirm their stay of execution for Dryagin, but decide to still kill his family, as that order has already been given.

Soon, at the Dryagin Ranch, Lena is furious that Aleksy is going to be late home due to this new mission, and the two argue over the holo-communicators , but Lupex, the family dog keeps barking at something, leading to the communication cutting out. Lena tries to find out what happened, but is unaware that a man is standing behind her...

On the Firedrake, Aleksy tries to re-establish communication, but there's nothing wrong with their equipment, so it must be Earth-side...

The jets fly towards the Ranch and detonate their payloads in the building, incinerating it, leading the skeletal remains of a woman holding her child....

At Mercy Spaceport, the sniper is approached, and shot by King. They originally planned to recover Aleksy and his team as well, but have now learned that they have been redirected to the Moon for a mission...complicating their plans.

The Firedrake arrives at the Moon, and prepare to raid the mining facility to liberate it from the "terrorists", all whilst being recorded and shown to the people of Earth too. Bill and Larssen remain on the Firedrake to run the ship, whilst the rest of the team land on the Moon and easily get inside the facility, where they quickly discover that the "terrorists" are just the miners, staff and families who were stationed there, simply protesting their treatment at the facility.

On Earth, some of the viewers are recruited to control some robotic soldiers and are encouraged to attack and kill the Pacifiers for a reward, which they happily try to do!

Elsewhere on Earth, Lena wakes up in a cell, where she is greeted by a man who refuses to show himself, he has abducted her, Leo and their dog to keep them safe from the Triumvirate as they want them dead for some reason...

On the Moon, the Pacifiers quickly realize that they have been lied to and set up by the Triumvirate, and learn that the ships that attacked them before they were sent on this mission are approaching them too...the team suit up and prepare to fight their way out of the facility....and get home to their families.....

Characters

Pacifiers

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Hash Flynn

Leone Shot in Arm by a Brood-Class

Jonas Huey

Josiah Kraken

Megan Umber

Dolan Rekt

Bette Lawson

Diamond Bill

Triumvirate

Veni

Vidi

Vici

Other Human

Juddh King

Deacon Snow

Lena Dryagin Abducted by Snow

Leo Dryagin Abducted by Snow

Lemuel Hemmingway

The Sniper Killed by King

Luna-9 Staff, Miners and Families

Brood-Class Cyber Warrior Operators

Hope Resettlement Camp Bar Patrons

Dryagin's Fans

Mercy Spaceport Security

Other

Lupex, the Doggo (Heard)

Varos (Mentioned)

Notes

• My biggest wish for a comic have been granted in this issue...IT COMES WITH A CAST LIST AT THE START!!! I don't need to keep character notes to remember names now!!! YAY!!!
• The moustached man I couldn't identify last issue is called Dolan Rekt by the way. Maybe this is more evidence of computer games being important in this future?
• This issue begins before the last couple of pages of the previous issue, before the missiles attack the Dryagin Ranch 
• According to the "advertisement" in this issue, the main resource that is used on Earth and is being harvested from other planets is Helium, which was exhausted as a natural resource on Earth decades ago in universe.
• Juddh King (and presumably others) use holograms to disguise themselves as others, seemingly by superimposing an image of someone else over themselves and moving in time with the hologram. When he kills the sniper, the sniper's face seems to vanish, so he most likely has the same device in effect.
• The Triumvirate  is revealed to be the heads of "The Energy Corp", a company that controls entertainment, energy and arms. We can assume that (from the name) it began as an energy company, but branched out over time
• Unless they are just unnaturally tall, we can assume that the Triumvirate enlarged their holograms when talking to Dryagin, in order to intimidate him
• We learn here that Aleksy has been on duty for Leo's entire life and hasn't really met his son before, he took the job with the Pacifiers to pay their bills.
• Adding to the theme of this future being de-sensitised to violence and being obsessed with computer games (which are being taught in schools now remember) we have people watching the team's missions and hoping to see death, and even volunteering to control remote soldiers to try and kill them as well.