IDW - Transformers #28

Title: War World, Part 4: Hunt

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Anna Malkova

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: David Mariotte

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz

Plot

Cyclonus breaks into the Decepticon Gladiator Pit base, knocking out several guards in the process, so he can finally confront Sixshot over his destruction of the Memorial Crater.

Elsewhere, the Decepticons are continuing their takeover of the planet's main systems, including the Energon Distribution Centers and the Titan Network Hub, but when they reach the prison cells, they find that Swindle's business partners, Trickdiamond and Headlock have broken him, and a couple other prisoners, Roughstuff and Bumblebee, free already.

At the Gladiator Pit, Andromeda is forced into a staged interview to broadcast, framing the Autobots as corrupt and the Decepticons as the greater good, where they also announce Sixshot as the new head of the Decepticon Guard, and claim that the Rise was just a story made up by the Autobots to scapegoat their own mistakes.

Elsewhere, Starscream has Refractor pass onto an Autobot guard, Vibes, to ask Perceptive about "Titansparks" so that both sides have the information at hand, and to try a convince Megatron that he needs his intelligence gathering skills to win this war...

Later at the Gladiator Pit, Cyclonus finds Sixshot, and attacks him, despite the latters uninterest in the fight, and quickly ends it by informing Cyclonus that the Autobots have released Pyra Magna from prison, after consulting another of his ghosts, he offers to bring Sixshot Pyra's head...

Following their prison break, Swindle's crew, including Bumblebee, who still wants to kill Barricade, enter a hidden chamber under Swindle's bar, where Bee notices Deathsaurus inside an Immersion Chamber, where Swindle explains he's been there's since getting repaired following his injuries from an off-world mission some time ago, and will be there until he disengages himself.

Inside the chamber, Deathsaurus continuously chases and kills Cliffjumper, the one who almost killed him before....

Characters

Autobot

Grapple - Crane Truck

Hot Spot - Fire Truck

Wheel Blaze - Fire Truck

Zetar - Drill Tank

Seawatch - Boat

Stakeout - Police Car

Slapdash - Race Car

Vibes

Pyra Magna (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Megatron - Tank

Soundwave - Hovercraft

Strika - Battle Tank

Ratbat - Cassette

Skytread - Tank and Jet

Sixshot - Tank/Gun/Jet/Winged Beast/Car

Mindwipe - Bat

Sparkstalker - Insect Monster

Bitstream - Jet

Crasher - Race Car

Treadshot

Catgut

Battleslash - Helicopter

Refraktor - Hovercraft

Nautilator - Lobster

Twirl - Jet

Runamuck - Car

Runabout - Car

Swift - Helicopter

Howlback - Cassette

Ravage - Cassette

Singe Imprisoned

Storm Cloud - Jet Imprisoned

Other Random Decepticons

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Mentioned)

Jhiaxus - Jet (Mentioned)

Gutcruncher (Mentioned)

Quake - Tank (Mentioned) Dead

Barricade - Police Car (Mentioned)

Elita-One - Car (Mentioned) Confined to Quarters 

Other Cybertronian

Starscream - Jet

Cyclonus - Jet

Swindle - Van

Trickdiamond - Car

Headlock - Forklift

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Roughstuff - Truck

Deathsaurus - Dragon In Immersion Chamber

Andromeda - Car

Blaster

Playback

Wavelength

Gizmo - Buggy

Glyph - Car

Tap-Out - Car

Steeljaw

Immersion Chamber Users

Cliffjumper - Car (Simulation Only)

Grudge (Ghost) Dead

Provoke (Ghost) Dead

Gridlock (Ghost) Dead

Highfire (Ghost) Dead

Paragon (Ghost) Killed by Pyra Magna

The Titans (Mentioned) Slowly Crashing

Termagax - Armoured Van (Mentioned)

Fake Termagax (Mentioned) Killed by Megatron

The Senate (Mentioned) Overthrown by Decepticons

Perceptor (Mentioned)

Turmoil (Mentioned)

Breaker (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Bruteforce (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Ultimatum (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Kickstart (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Frontrunner (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Stormwave (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Outsider (Mentioned) Killed during War of the Threefold Spark

Other

The Thraal (Mentioned)

The Voin (Mentioned)

Skitters (Mentioned)

Notes

• Cliffjumper and Deathsaurus were last seen in Galaxies 6, which is now confirmed to have occurred "kilocycles" ago.
• Amongst the prisoners seen by Swindle are Singe (who was arrested and interrogated by Prowl) and Storm Cloud who was left behind during the fight at Swindle's bar, and Roughstuff, who was shot and left for dead by the Risers during their escape from Leviathan.
• I'm pretty sure with his opinion in them leaving him for dead, that Roughstuff has probably left their group now (the others are probably still fine with them though)
• Gutcruncher is mentioned as having joined the revolution, which we have been seeing in the Escape comics.
• Elita is being implicated as a traitor, but I'm not sure why...she was a loyal Ascenticon, but disagreed with how Soundwave did things.
• Vibes finally gets an in-story namecheck for the first time!
• Paragon is confirmed to be a former lover of Cyclonus' who was killed by Pyra Magna, which also confirms why she was imprisoned, for mass murder.
• Paragon's ghost doesn't appear to have any damage on it, implying that it was either a lower body damage-based death (since we only see him from the chest up) or he was killed internally perhaps?
• Flatline is mentioned to be giving Starscream some cosmetic surgery for his injuries, but he still appears to be neutral so far, and just working in repairs for everyone who needs them.