IDW - Transformers #33

Title: Lord of Misrule: Swindle's II

Written by: Brian Ruckley 

Art by: Beth McGuire-Smith

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: David Mariotte

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz

Plot

Sixshot inspects the newly reopened Swindle's Bar, and agrees to allow it to stay open, but ONLY if they serve Decepticons exclusively.

Elsewhere, Skywarp raids an Energon facility to refuel, witnessed by Gutctuncher, who knows this is bad news...

Back at the bar, Bumblebee and Rough stuff are working underground in secret while Swindle greases up a few Decepticons who he thinks will spill some secrets to him.

After a while, Swindle approaches Bee and informs him that Elita-1 is being moved to the former Senate building to join the Senators in prison, and he thinks this is a good time to break her free to join their underground resistance.

Joined by a couple of Decepticons that Swindle has bribed, Charger and Fire Beast, Bee intercepts the prisoner see detail to save Elita, but he stalls when he realizes that Barricade is part of the and intends to kill him, untill he realizes that he's only in this situation because he killed Quake for revenge before, so he decides to end this vicious cycle, and let Barricade live before leaving. Charger however decides that he doesn't want Barricade to shoot them in the back, so he scorches his hand, still holding the gun.

Bee and Elita return to the bar, where Swindle says that he knew Barricade was in the area, but didn't know where, but he would have informed Bee if he knew he was in Elita's detail. Swindle also reveals that his recent intelligence gathering session revealed that he knows where the Enigma of Combination is, along with other Decepticons secrets.

Bee says they need to pass this information onto Optimus and the Autobots, so they can take out the Decepticons and bring things back to normal...

Skywarp  ontinues exploring and finds the new status quo on Cybertron interesting, so he hunts down a Decepticon, Off-Road, and asks to see his leader...

Characters

Decepticon

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

Barricade - Police Car

Jolt - Car

Ravage - Cassette

Charger 

Fire Beast - Equipment Accessory

Off-Road - Van 

Crasher - Race Car

Windsweeper - Jet

Tentakil - Squid 

Nautilator - Lobster

Twirl - Bomber Jet

Refraktor - Hovercraft

Cindersaur - Lizard Monster

Apeface - Ape/Jet 

Gutcruncher

Slicer

Treadshot

Catgut

Deveptiçon Patrons

Seekers - Jets 

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Soundwave - Hovercraft (Mentioned)

Autobot

Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Orion Pax/Optimus Prime - Truck (Flashback Only)

Other Cybertronian

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Elita-1 - Car

Swindle - Van

Trickdiamond - Car

Headlock - Forklift

Roughstuff - Truck 

Skywarp - Jet 

Deathsaurus - Dragon In Immersion Suite

Proxima (Flashback Only)

Devastator - Construction Gestalt (Flashback Only)

Big Wing (Flashback Only) Killed by Devastator 

Rubble's Forging Audience (Flashback Only)

Starscream - Jet (Mentioned)

Perceptor (Mentioned)

Cyclonus - Jet (Mentioned)

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead 

The Senate (Mentioned) Imprisoned

The Iron Hope 100 (Mentioned)

The Mentor Assessors (Mentioned)

Mayalx Inhabitants (Mentioned) Dead

Other

The Voin (Mentioned)

Notes

• Swindle and his crew are openly operating out of Swindle's bar, except for Bumblebee and Rough stuff, who are both in a hidden area of the complex.
• During the flashback to Devastator's attack on Mayalx we see a bot being killed by the combiner, who we can assume is Trickdiamond's mentor, Big Wing.
• We also learn here that the massacre on Mayalx has been covered up as being caused by an asteroid strike.
• We're told here that Charger and Fire Beast were part of the Iron Hope 100, and thus survived on Nucleon and lost the ability to transform....though we see here that Fire Beast can transform into some armour accessories...how does that work?
• With us seeing the Iron Hope 100 members so far being all traditional Action Masters, we can probably assume this to be true of all action Masters and partners, unless we see them transform in a comic.
• We see Sentinel Prime amongst those in attendance of Rubble's forging, but he's supposed to be off-world doing his colonybtour at this point in continuity (unless he came back just for this I guess)