IDW - Transformers #30

Title: War World: We are Not Meant to be Darkness

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

Optimus wants to try and end this war before it can go any further and tries to have Pyra Magna arrange a meeting between him and Megatron, however she convinces him to do the meeting over holo-casters, and to escape Iacon during the meeting, as she knows Megatron will betray this truce. Optimus asks if he can trust her to follow orders, since she disobeyed the orders for amnesty from Nominus Prime to kill Turmoil, and his ship full of prisoners, and she hopes that she can be trusted this time...

Later, Pyra and Strika meet in the ruined Iacon, where they act as the proxies for their leaders and project their holograms for the meeting. The conversation goes about as well as expected, with Megatron claiming that Optimus only cares about the apparent destruction of the Titansparks, as he wanted to use them against him.

Megatron ends the transmission, and Strika activates a suppressor spear, so no one can hear them, or teleport in. Strika won't kill her herself, since they were comrades in arms, and respect each other too much, but she does allow a new recruit of Sixshot's to take her out, Cyclonus, who wants revenge on her for killing Paragon, who was onboard Turmoil's ship.

Once the spear is activated, the Companions, a group of Cybertronians loyal to Pyra, come out from hiding behind a shimmer field and head off to help their leader. The Decepticons mistake them for Sec-ops members and are easily taken out by the war veterens.

Pyra is willing to allow Cyclonus to kill her, as penance for her ear crimes, but the manifestation of Paragon in his mind stops him from killing her, and he doesn't know what to do now. Pyra doesn't know what he needs if it's not to kill her, as breaks the spear blocking their Comms.

Realising the spear is gone, the Companions quickly reunite with their leader, and ask her what to do now, with her deciding to join Optimus, but allows the others to do what they want...

Optimus and his followers evacuate Iacon, using the meeting and fight as a cover. As Pyra believed, Megatron did try to betray them, and only took the meeting to try and locate Optimus' hiding place to take him and his followers out. Now he won't be satisfied with his victories until Optimus is finally dead!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Pyra Magna - Truck

Chroma - Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Ironhide - Van

Perceptor

Nightbeat - Car

Pipes - Truck

Vibes

Groove - Motorcycle

Grapple - Crane

Brawn - Van

Autobot Evacuees

Sentinel Prime - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Nominus Prime - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Megatron - Tank 

Strika - Battle Tank

Soundwave - Hovercraft

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

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet

Flywheels - Tank and Jet

Ion Storm - Jet

Nova Storm - Jet

Acid Storm - Jet

Nautilator - Lobster Beaten down by Rust Dust

Scatterspike - Can

Red Wing - Jet 

Hooligan - Jet Shot down by Jumpstream

Nacelle - Jet Badly Injured by Windcharger

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Mentioned)

Infiltration Troopers - Cassettes (Mentioned)

Most of the Seekers - Jets (Mentioned)

The Companions

Sunstreaker - Car

Jumpstream - Car

Windcharger - Car

Groundbreaker - Jet

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Demolisher - Battle Tank (Flashback Only)

Rest of Pyra's Crew (Flashback Only)

Three-fold Spark

Turmoil - Tank (Flashback Only) Possibly Killed in Ship Explosion

Megabolt (Flashback Only) Possibly Killed in Ship Explosion

Turmoil's Crew (Flashback Only) Possibly Killed in Ship Explosion

Exarchon (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet 

Immersant Titan Part of Mountain Range

Paragon (Ghost)

Captured Senators (Mentioned) In Decepticon Custody

The Titans (Mentioned) Crashed into Cybertron

The Sixteen Titansparks (Mentioned) Apparently Destroyed

Turmoil's Prisoners (Mentioned) Possibly Killed in Ship Explosion

Other

Green, the Flyt 

Notes

• This issue was released on the same day as issue 29...so it was kind of annoying when my copy of 30 arrived first, giving me a couple of spoilers of 29 :/
• Megatron claims that all the Titansparks were destroyed when the Pyramid was destroyed...but, let's face it, he's the leader of a group who willingly call themselves DECEPT-icons....I don't think he can be trusted ...
• We can't easily identify most of  Pyra Magna's past crew members, but one prominent one is based on Armada Demolisher, who is traditionally a Decepticon. Wonder if that means anything for a future plot?
• The only member of Turmoil's crew I can identify is based on RID Megavolt, who is based on a Grand Mal version of Beast Megatron from Beast Machines (though presumably not the same size as him, otherwise Turmoil must be humongous!)
• The members of the Companions who come to help Pyra Magna includes Groundbreaker in Pyra Magna's colours. It was mentioned before by Jumpstream that some bots have taken on her colours in protest for her imprisonment. Everyone else is in their normal colours 
• Pyra mentions that MOST of the Seekers have joined the Decepticons, implying some have not. My guess would be the others would be characters like Jetfire and the Aerialbots.
• Scatterspike is a straight transfer of her RID2015 character model.
• So...Windcharger has finally been allowed to show off how a bot with the power of magnetism would be VERY scary on Cybertron.
• Cyclonus is stopped from killing Pyra Magna by the manifestation of Paragon. However, we learned last issue that Provoke, one of his other ghosts, is still alive...so, again, are these just Cyclonus' mind playing tricks on him, or something more sinister?
• I think it's pretty safe to say now that any bots seen in the group leaving Jacob with Optimus are now part of his Autobots, if even just by association. This is notable mainly for Perceptor, who noted last issue that he doesn't see the Matrix as a "boss token"
• The final shot of Optimus looking over the ruined Iacon, with the Tether still draped across the landscape is a direct parallel to the scene from issue one, where Rubble looks over the landscape himself, before the chaos all began.
• The preview text for next issue says it is 40 cycles later, possibly setting it near to when Ultra Magnus should be returning home after his time-dilated journey