Astrobots #5

Creator & Editor: Aaron Thomas

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist & Letterer: Hector Trunnec 

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Plot

Athenia returns to the Persephone to warn them about Atlas' mad plans, and manages to arrange the evacuation of almost half of the colonists, however, despite a delay caused by Eros-10 jamming the signal, the deepscreen scan still takes place, and all the humans who were still on the ship are instantly killed, infuriating Athenia.

In Atlas city, Apollo is told by Atlas how he arrived on a faster colony ship in the past, and built the first city, Paradise City, but he claims that a cult of humans created the A.I. Phage, a virus that destroys Astrobots. Though Atlas was affected by it, he also fought back, and destroyed Paradise City, and killed all the colonists there, eventually ending up in the future Atlas CIty.

Atlas leaves, and swiftly executes the Rebellion leader, Articus, and publically blames the rebels for the attacks on the human colonists, and "exiles" them out of the city, which the regular population start to question, and believe is suspicious.

Later, Lyrel, one of th Persephone's delegate party who came to Atlas city is taken from her holding cell, and dragged away, with the rest of the team left in jail...

After a short drive, the convoy carrying the "exiles" stops, and the guards intend to execute them, only to be fought off by Apollo, and a rescue party.

At the city, Atlas is attacked from the sky by Athenia in a shuttle, seeking revenge for her fallen colonists, but he is defended by his guards. The other crew members beg her to leave him, as they need to tend to their surviving colonists, and worrying about Atlas' will not help them, leading her to head to their rendezvous with their new allies...

Later, Athenia meets with the rebels in the deserts outside the city, where the teams join forces and start hunting for the launched Arks to protect the surviving colonists, Vulkan and some of the other resistance members decide to return to the city to fight from within, while Apollo and Athenia head to find their first Ark...

In the dark labs under the city, Atlas continues the human cloning project, he has created his own version of the Venus type Astrobot, using Lyrel's template, and has also rebuilt the Venus type as a new Astrobot, Artemis, the hunter.

Characters

Resistance

Articus Killed by Atlas 

Apollo-08

Vulkan

Chernos

Praxis

Geomek

Eros-10 

Other Resistance Members 

Persephone Crew

Athenia

Pausanius

Eudoxus

Strabo

Zenofanes Imprisoned in Atlas City

Galax Imprisoned in Atlas City 

Stratus Imprisoned in Atlas City 

Lyrel Rebuilt Into Artemis

Venus Units 

Colonists More than Half Killed

Atlas City

Atlas

ARGUS Intelligence

Tribune Kronoz

Senator Cypherion

Senator Stratica

Senator Eoz

Senator Solus

Artemis

ARGUS Enforcers

City Guards

Black Eros Units 

Dark Venus Units

City Denizens 

Human Clones In Pods

Other

Paradise City Colonists All Killed, bar Atlas

The Children of Eve (Flashback) Killed in Paradise City 

Notes

• This issue marks the end of the first mini series of Astrobots, but does end with a confirmation of a return in 2024 (yay!) 
• Atlas confirms that he was part of an earlier colony team, that arrived on the colony world before the others, but they were betrayed by some of the humans and a war broke out, resulting in the destroyed city found in the deadlands outside the city.
• Interestingly, when the first colony ship lands on the planet, they land in a forest, whilst we have only ever seen wastelands outside the city before now (maybe the Astrobots chopped down all the trees or something?)
• Articus is killed in the same way as his old friend Trydant, his head is crushed by Atlas, using his bare hands.
• Lyrel is converted into a new Astrobot, Artemis here, a fate I'm sure is also due to befall on her fellow Persephone delegates in Atlas's custody.
• As he threatened to do to Athenia, if she didn't work with him, Atlas has created his own versions of the Venus type, to nurture his cloned humans.
• Eros-10 reveals that he has created a counter signal for the alpha wave deepscreen, so Atlas shouldn't be able to mass exterminate any more humans.
• It's not mentioned where the DNA for the cloned humans came from, but I would assume they were from the failed Paradise City that Atlas procured somehow.

Astrobots #4

Creator & Editor: Aaron Thomas 

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist & Letterer: Hector Trunnec

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Plot

Athenia, having seemingly agreed to Atlas's demands to raise his new human clones, is escorted back to the rest of her crew, but E-10 secretly prints an access card and slips it to Athenia.

Soon, Athenia detaches from the rest of her crew and fights her way through the building, eventually reaching her shuttle and hads back to the Persephone to warn them about what is about to happen, and to protect the colonists.

Outside, Apollo and Vulkan leave the battle at the resistance base, and head towards the Capitoline Peak.

A crowd begins gathering outside the Peak, which is quickly brought to chaos when the Enforcers start attacking the crowd, starting another fight with hidden resistance members in the group.

The riot outside acts as both a distraction for Argus and Atlas, the former of which is finding it hard to concentrate on so many battlefronts, and allows Apollo to break into the facility.

Apollo soon finds Atlas, who is beating up E-10, due to the latter helping Athenia escape, but soon discards him, in favour of fighting the outsider. E-10 is soon grabbed by Apollo, who flings him outside, and is caught by Vulkan, who whisks him away, due to him likely being able to disable the imminent deep screen scan.

Atlas is furious and quickly stuns Apollo, and plans to vilify the resistance and Persephone crews publically, to turn the people of Atlas city against the newcomers, and prevent him clone human army from populating the city...

Characters

Resistance

Apollo Disabled by Atlas

Vulkan

Other Resistance Members 

Atlas City

Atlas

Argus Intelligence

Argus Enforcers 

Senator Stratica 

E-10/Eros-10 Abducted by Vulkan 

Black Eros Units

Atlas City Civilians 

Human Clones (In Pods)

Persephone

Athenia

Zenofanes

Galax

Stratus

Lyrel

Persephone Crewbots 

Human Colonists 

Notes

• Zenofanes' type has been changed to Age or, rather than Scorpios.
• Similarly, E-10's name has been changed from "Emissary-10" to "Eros-10".
• The building that Atlas is usually based in is revealed to be called the Capitoline Peak.
• It's mentioned that Atlas and Apollo have both been affected by "Phage", a bug that affects Astrobots in the wastelands, where both of them have been shown to arrive in the city from.
• It's confirmed that the abandoned city seen by Apollo in the wastelands was a prior human colony, but Atlas claims the humans destroyed it with their natural violence, but I think we can all just assume that he lied a bit... 
• The Ninjex Units that arrived as a big problem last issue arent seen this issue...I guess they vanished?
• The middle of this issue, where Apollo confronts Atlas appears to include a cliffhanger and pick up (incuding character and location markers). This seems to imply that this issue's story may have been shuffled around a bit.
• The bots working with Argus to activate the deep screen scan appear to be of the same type as Eros-10, but in black (it's possible it's just the lighting, but who knows?)

Skybound - Void Rivals #3

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Lorenzo De Felici

Colourist: Matheus Lopes

Letterer: Rus Wooton

Editor: Sean Mackiewicz

Plot

The duo fight off the Skuxxoid, and manage to escape him. The Skuxxoid doesn't chase them, as he knows they'll probably kill themselves with the other dangerous cargo in the ship, and investigates their ramshackle ship

The two rivals fight off a mechanical scorpion in the ship, and eventually encounter a Quintesson, who leads them to his ship, supposedly to escape together. Unfortunately, the Skuxxoid is waiting for them at the Quintesson ship, where he offers the rivals a Nebulon transport for them to use on exchange for their ship, since it's made with a rare material that he wants to sell, and since there's no bounties on their heads. The duo accept, leaving the Quintesson to his fate.

The two rivals set course to the Sacred Ring, where they consider how to save themselves. A few days later, they approach their home, where they are detected by both people. The initially intended to take escape pods to go to their respective homes, but Solila betrays Darak, by electrocuting him, knocking him out, and takes him prisoner for her people, whilst apologizing...

Characters

Agorrian

Darak Knocked out by Solila 

Handroid

Minister Dulin (Mentioned)

Zertonian

Solila

Other

Skuxxoid

Quintesson Prosecutor

Mecha Scorpion

Slizardo (Mentioned)

Skuxxoid's Family (Mentioned)

Nebulons (Mentioned)

Notes

• Following on from the seeming trend of this series, we get more Transformers franchise characters introduced here, with a Quintesson Prosecutor appearing, and Slizardo and Nebulans being mentioned.
• The two halves of the Sacred Ring are revealed to be called Zertonia and Agorra. 
• The Quintesson mentions the Age of Wrath, which his species has been blamed for. In past media this refers to a period of time where the Quintessons controlled Cybertron, but considering most sentient life apparently hates the Quintessons for this event, it's likely something else here.
• The Handroid has no information about Quintessons in its database, implying the Aggorians arent part of the wider Galactic community.
• The Quintessons in this continuity appear to be much smaller than past ones, where they seem to be about the same size as humanoids (which from issue one, we know are about human size, from the scale with Jetfire).
• Solila is revealed to be a warrior and not a pilot, despite previous implications.
• This issue features a three page preview of the upcoming Transformers series, showing Spike and an unnamed female friend (Carly?) discovering the sleeping Transformers in the Ark.