IDW - Transformers #18

Title: Arcee/Greenlight: Run

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Umi Miyao & Bethany McGuire-Smith

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Plot

Gauge, Arcee's new mentee is trying out a new job as an architect, whilst Arcee and Greenlight are arguing a out how they should leave Cybertron, due to the recent escalating violence, and especially Rubble's murder. Arcee doesn't want to leave, but is willing to discuss it later, when Gauge finds her place in the world first.
Soon the sky goes dark, and the trio notice the now detached Tether, which was just torn from the Winged Moon by Vigilem, is collapsing into Iacon.

They manage to avoid the initial collapse, but can hear it still falling further away, due to it's size, and they start trying to help the injured.
Gauge tries to help out when she hears some screaming in the distance, but ends up caught in a firefight (albeit with non lethal rounds) and is injured. Arcee goes mad and takes down the looters who are trying to loot an Energon store and agrees with Greenlight that it's now time to leave.

Greenlight and Arcee, with Gauge holding on, due to not having an alternate mode yet, speed past a damaged Energon store, which is detonating, but manage to make it to the spaceport, where they find it crowded.
The trio barge their way to the front, attempting to reach the Reversionist ship, the Exodus, but are barred from boarding by Security, since the Autobots are trying to block space travel following the recent attack.
Arcee distracts them by attacking them, allowing Greenlight and Gauge to board, they are concerned as the doors shut, as they need to leave, but when Arcee leaps in, at the last second, the little surrogate family embrace, looking forward to their new adventure together....

Characters

Security Operations

Strongarm - Police Van
Number - Car
"Red Tailgate" - Car
Spaceport Security Guards

Other Cybertronian

Arcee - Car
Greenlight - Car
Gauge
Red Alert - Emergency Vehicle
Inferno - Fire Truck
Fixit - Ambulance
Grapple - Crane
Lug
Green Architect
Gutcruncher
Purple Looter Arrested
Exodus Ship Greeter
Primus (Mentioned)
Exaarchon (Mentioned) Presumably Dead
Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead
Rubble (Mentioned) Dead
The Immersant Titan (Mentioned) Dead
The Rise (Mentioned)
The Reversionists (Mentioned)
Random Cybertronians

Notes

• This issue follows on from the cliffhanger of last issue, but also acts as a prequel to the upcoming storyline starting in Galaxies #7
• Lug is shown to be an architect in this continuity, when we last saw her she was Anode's assistant in archaeology/thievery in the old IDW continuity
• Strongarm us revealed to be a new cop, much like her status as a cadet in the RID cartoon, where she originated from
• Her partner, Bumper, was last properly seen in Megatron Origin, where he was killed for spying on the early Deceptions...let's hope he doesn't suffer the same fate here...
• Arcee is revealed to be a war veteran, and even assassinated one of Exaarchon's bodies, both references to her past in the previous IDW continuity 
• Rather than using his most recent toy as his basis, Inferno appears to be using his Energon incarnation's alternate mode.
• He is also paired up with Red Alert, a reference to the long standing joke that they're in a relationship following their roles in the G1 cartoon.
• The main guard at the spaceport appears to be using the Thrilling Thirty Tailgate character model, but in more Windcharger looking colours, but still with Tailgate's head... VERY confusing!!
• The opening excerpt on being a mentor mentions how Titan mentors have a different role, most likely meaning that those mentors become that Titan's Cityspeaker.

FBF - To The Death #10

Title: Tooth and Claw

Story by: Simon Furman

Art by: Geoff Senior

Letterer by: Martin Baines

Design by: Amazing15

Printed in the UK by: Mixam

Plot

At the Clouds taper, Veni crushes Dryagin's chest to try and kill him, however he stops when the Firedrake appears outside their window, blows out the glass and Bill proceeds to shoot through the Triumvirate. Dryagin gets up and vivisects Veni.
The remaining two try to grab him from behind, but Leone and Bette attack them in turn, Leone almost gets knocked out the now smashed windows, but Bette has her head crushed by Vici. Dryagin decapitates both of them, and sends their bodies plummeting down the building

Down below, King reports that the Asphodel weapon's defences are different to what they were expecting, so it'll take longer to disarm, all whilst the Dolmen are continuing to contact their homeworld...
The sky above the Cloudscraper turns dark as the evacuation Starliner hovers above it to pick up the rest of it's passengers.
Leone searches for a hidden switch in the room to find where the real Triumvirate are, since the ones they've killed were Simulacrums, whilst Lena talks to Dryagin, and tries to get him to leave it, and come with her, but he needs to finish this, since it's partly his fault that Asphodel was used for this weapon in the first place. Leone finds the switch and all the holograms in the room vanish, revealing a hidden staircase. Dryagin heads up, and orders Leone to join Lena and Bill in the Firedrake to escape and says goodbye to Leo too.
Dryagin makes it upstairs, and finds a stasis chamber with the Triumvirate's human bodies within, still living, and conscious. The roof opens and the Starliner abducts them to take them to the "New Earth".

Suddenly, the Dolmen portal opens above the Starliner, and a giant Asphodel dragon flies out of it.
Just as it appears, Flynn is rescued from the limo he was left in, and the Firedrake speeds away, just as King announces that he's disabled the weapon.
The giant dragon fires down, destroying the Starliner, the Cloudscraper and the ground around it before returning to Asphodel.
The Firedrake leaves the planet with its newly permanent residents.
Three Days later, Snow meets with "The Director" who has taken over the absence of Tri-Corp on Earth, but promised that she is still invested in Earth, unlike the Triumvirate, however, Snow can't hear her, as he has died from drinking poison, having completed his mission.

The Firedrake stop off on a planet to leave memorials for their fallen friends, before heading off for a new adventure, out in the stars...
Back on Earth, rescue work has begun on the crater where the Cloudscraper was when someone crawls out if the rubble, shocking a rescue worker, who tries to help the victim, however Killatoa, fully healed again, tears the poor human apart and starts crawling out of the crater, plotting his revenge on the Firedrake Crew....

Characters

Firedrake Crew

Aleksy Dryagin Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Diamond Bill
Leone
Bette Larsen Killed by Vici
Hash Flynn
Lena Dryagin
Leo Dryagin
Lupex, the Space Doggo

White Noise

"The Director"
Deacon Snow Poisoned to Death
Juddh King Likely Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction

Berenger Likely Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Forward/Tactical Bunker Staff

Tri-Corp

Veni/Beauregard Percy Simulacrum Destroyed by Dryagin, Real Body Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Vici/Sebastian Pelle Simulacrum Destroyed by Dryagin, Real Body Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Vidi/Lucius Warrender Simulacrum Destroyed by Dryagin, Real Body Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Killatoa
"The Chosen Few" (Implied) Killed in Starliner Explosion

Asphodel
Dolmen Trio Likely Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Asphodel Dragon

Other Human

Rescue Worker Michael McGarry Killed by Killatoa
Cloudscraper Rescue Workers
Cloudscraper Siege Livestream Audience
800,000 Casualties (Mentioned) Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction

Notes

• This marks the finale of To The Death, though the letter at the end mentions a future for this story, so we may get a  sequel down the line :)
• This issue does NOT have a character list at the start...this irks me....
• So Berenger survived last issue, despite how it looked...but I'm pretty certain he died this time....
• The original human bodies of the Triumvirate members are revealed to have been still alive, but in some sort of life support goop that allowed them to control the Simulacrum bodies...at least until the end of this issue...
• We dont know the "director's" name but it may be Baroque, based on her company name
• It's unclear is Snow poisoned himself, or was killed by the Director, but I believe it was suicide, as he feeling guilty about his actions with Asphodel and getting many people killed.
• The rescue worker killed by Killatoa at the end is based on  fan Michael McGarry, who won a contest on Simon Furman's website. I've decided to just name the character after him too, just for identity-sake.
• We don't see Killatoa's body too clearly at the end, but due to his apparent death last issue, and his call of "to the death" I'm going to guess that he took Dryagin's body for his own, just for future plot reasons

IDW - Transformers Galaxies #5

Title: Wanabee, Part One

Written by: Kate Leth & Cohen Edenfield

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Ambassador Deathsaurus arrives on the planet Probat with Cliffjumper brought along for "security". However, Cliff soon discovers that he was brought along because the planets population are blind, and use echolocation to see, and Cliff looks similar to Bumblebee, who is very popular on the planet.
Whilst Cliff is giving an unkowing distraction to the population, Deathsaurus goes to an Energon facility with the foreman Natalia to "inspect" their progress.

Cliff, not wanting to be rude, and being used to everyone mistaking him for Bumblebee, goes along with it, and goes off with a couple of locals, who take him to their homespire, where they light a fire with with some "substance" which he soon learns is a natural byproduct of their bodies, stored in the homespires, and when it is burned...it changes form....

At the facility, Natalus apologizes for the lower output recently, and claims it is due to environmental problems, bit Deathsaurus tears into a wall and finds a hidden stash. Natalus tries to explain that they needed to store some away for a possible upcoming disaster, to which Deathsaurus simply incinerated him.
Cliffjumper arrives as he is killing Natalus and thinks he was attacked, leading to Deathsaurus laughing at the thought. Cliff shows him the substance, revealed to be hyper refined Energon after burning.

Given this new information, Deathsaurus plans to harvest the substance from the homespires and hyper refine it for his own use.
Cliff tries to stop him, but is quickly knocked out, as Cliff stalks off towards the homespires...

Characters

Cybertronian

Deathsaurus - Winged Dragon
Cliffjumper - Car
Orion Pax - Truck (Flashback Only)
Windblade - VTOL Jet (Flashback Only)
Starscream - Tetrajet (Flashback Only)
Random Cybertronians (Flashback Only)
Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft (Mentioned)
Nominus Prime - Jet (Mentioned)

Probat

Foreman Natalus Killed by Deathsaurus
Probat Denizens

Notes

• This issue marks the start of the second story arc of the Galaxies line. At least this one is currently paced better than the first one!
• The ongoing joke this issue is twofold, it refers to Bumblebee's over-popularity following the original Live Action Movie, and how Cliffjumper is usually a repaint/remould of Bumblebee.
• Deathsaurus is notable this issue for not using the Deszarus character model from Combiner Wars, since that would be technically his most recent toy design.
• In the Cybertronian flashbacks we see Cliffjumper working mostly in the Security Forces HQ, implying that he works for them, but he appears to be more of a custodian rather than a fighter.
• At the end of the issue, on the cliffhanger, Deathsaurus misnames Cliffjumper as "Cliffhanger" very meta :)