IDW - Transformers Annual 2021

Title: Light/Star

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: John-Paul Bove

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: David Mariotte

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz

Plot

Lodestar undergoes an upgrade at the Black Hub station, where she and her City Speaker, Light bright, are joined by a technical crew led by Scattershot. Lodestar and Lightbright are upset with an Imploder weapon onto her, since that was the weapon used to kill Croaton, and all Titans now despise them.

Eventually, a possible sighting of Vigilem is reported, and Lodestar heads off to the Hexagon station to try and bring him in. The station's commander Thunderwing is quite off-putting towards the new arrivals and claims to have now known about Vigilems crimes on Cybertron.

The Technobots head to the station while Lightbright stays aboard Lodestar, with both hoping to get through to Vigilem and get him to return to stasis rather than destroy him.

On the station, the Technobots are shocked to find Bludgeon and the Conehead Seekers as part of Thunderwing's main crew, being known criminals, but try to work with them to get Vigilem to stand down.

The Technobots are split up, where they are quickly targeted by the station crew, when they point out contradictions with things that Thunderwing has stated, in listing letting it slip that he knows the Senate has fallen, but doesn't know about Vigilem's attack. He reveals that his plan is to use Vigilem to return to Cybertron and join the Decepticons as heroes.

Eventually, the Technobots are rounded up in another hired criminal, Airachnid's lab, where she is trying to recreate the lost artifacts of the Primes, and the Technobots are knocked into an artificial Enigma of Combination, where they are forcibly combined into Computron, sending the Conehead adrift into space, and forcing Airachnid to get Thunderwing to eject her lab to get Computron off the station before he can destroy them all.

Outside, Vigilem starts launching away, with Lodestar giving chase. The two Titans transform and engage in battle when Vigilem refuses to talk, forcing Lodestar to use the Imploder and destroy the rogue Titan, injuring herself in the process, and watches his remains fall into the system's star, destroying him fully...

Later, the Technobots are adrift in the ejected chunk of Hexagon station, having de-combined and Scattershot still infused with the Enigma's energies. Soon the team are recovered by an injured Lodestar, who is stuck in robot mode due to her injuries.

Later still, Lightbright and Lodestar are relaxing to energetic music when she is informed of an intercepted message from Cybertron that all of the orbiting Titans have crashed and been destroyed, leaving Lodestar as the last Titan. Hearing this catastrophic news, Lodestar and Lightbright mourn with somber music instead....

Characters

Autobot

Scattershot - Jet

Strafe - Jet

Lightspeed - Car

Afterburner - Speedbike

Nosecone - Drill Tank

Computron - Technobot Gestalt

Sentinel Prime (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Lightbright Injured in Imploder Detonation

Lodestar - Titan Ship

Vigilem - Titan War Ship Killed by Lodestar

Thunderwing - Jet

Bludgeon - Tank

Airachnid - Aircraft/Spider

Dirge - Jet Sent Adrift into Space, by Computron

Ramjet - Jet Sent Adrift into Space, by Computron

Thrust - Jet Sent Adrift into Space, by Computron

Metalhawk - Jet

Syphon

Black Hub Staff

Jazz - Car (On Monitor Only)

Skystalker - Car (Mentioned)

Croaton - Titan Ship (Mentioned) Dead

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Mentioned) Missing

The Primes (Mentioned)

The Orbiting Titans (Mentioned) Dead

The Senate (Mentioned) Captured by Decepticons

Hexagon Cybertronian Population (Mentioned)

Other

Hexagon Organic Population

Thraal Assassinator (Mentioned)

Notes

• The Technobots actually all have Autobot insignias, this is rare at this point in the continuity, since the Autobot insignia has mostly only been seen on Optimus Prime so far, since it's still officially only a political party.
• This story feels more like a finale to the Galaxies series than a solo story, with many of the events from that series referenced, and even fits the off-Cybertron story theme of the series. My guess is that this was originally planned to be the finale of the series, but was changed to a solo story when the series was ended.
• Lodestar left Cybertron to get upgraded back in issue 21 of the main series.
• We barely see Metalhawk in the early pages of this story, but he appears to use his Timelines toy, usually they use the most recent toy for the character, but considering the Power of the Primes figure was a Prime Master, we can probably understand this change.
• The Technobots use the Unite Warriors version of the team, but with some colour changes 
• We learn that Croaton was killed using an Imploder, we learned previously that he was killed by Citadel, so he must have used that weopon to do the action. However, we know that Croaton was reduced to a cloud of rubble, while Vigilem only has a massive chunk torn out of him by it. There's a few possible explanations for this, such as that Citadel used a larger Imploder, he used multiple weapons, Croaton was just smaller than Vigilem, or even that Lodestar just used the weapon wrong. I wonder if we'll ever find out the answer?
• We last saw the Hexagon outpost in issue 12 where Nautica and Road Rage fought off a Thraal assassination attempt.
• Thunderwing used his Generations toy model for his appearance here, while Bludgeon uses a design based on his RID2015 model, but with some modifications
• The Conehead Seekers appear to be using their current Earthrise figures as a basis, but with Cybertronian modes.
• Airachnid is a transfer of the Prime series character, but with an updated design that has her as a triplechanger instead of just having a spider-themed attack mode.
• It's mentioned that the Enigma of Combination is one of the "lost" artifacts of the Primes, but we saw Termagax and the Constructicons discover it in issue 1 of Galaxies...so...where did it go?
• Scattershot has absorbed the power of Airachnid's artificial Enigma, much like how Superior did in the previous continuity.
• We end this issue with confirmation that all of the orbiting Titans on Cybertron have crashed and died, which also tells us that this story ends at about the same time that issue 29 of the main series is set (but could be a bit later, since the message could be delayed)
• I find it hard to believe that there's no more Titans out in the universe, perhaps stationed on one of the Colony world's or on deep space missions.