Titan - Age of Extinction #4

Title: Locked In

Writer: Martin Fisher

Pencils, Inks and Colour: Andres Ponce

Lettering: Comicraft

Cover Date: NOV/DEC 2014

Cover Price: £3.99

Poster: Movie Poster showing the main Transformer characters

Plot

Lockdown is talking to/taunting his prisoners when he suddenly realizes that one of them is missing. Suddenly the ship's systems all come under someone else's control. Lockdown goes towwards the command deck, but messages the rest of his crew to not interfere, as he wants to have fun with this.

Lockdown approaches the command deck, when he is attacked by a scraplet, who multiplies and starts to kill the Cybertronian. Sojex, the escaped prisoner, who was revealed to be a plant by a crme group who were angry with Lockdown for getting their boss imprisoned, gloats over her killing Lockdown, when suddenly he appears in the room, revealing that the Lockdown she killed was a hologram, and that he destroyed the Scraplets with water.

A short battle ensues, but Lockdown manages to knock out Sojex, and locks her up again, taking her back to her crime group for them to punish her for failing to kill him.

A short while later, Lockdown receives a mysterious message from a group, offering him a bounty to claim on Earth....

Characters

Mercenaries

Lockdown - Cybertronian Car

Mercenary #1

Steeljaw

Other

Sojex Captured by Lockdown, and delivered home

Furry Bat Monster Captured

Lockdown's Bounties Captured

Scraplets Killed by Lockdown

"The Creators"

Coseem Crime Gang (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue comes with either TF: Prime Ratchet or Starscream as the free PVC gift...just one left for the whole set!
• This issue actually seems to fit with the plot of the actual movie rather than the mis-direction leaked information (such as Lockdown being the Decepticon leader etc)
• Though I guess the last 3 issues would explain where Lockdown got the aerosol of water though...
• The Steeljaw seen on Lockdown's ship is actually based on the design for the Steeljaw from DOTM, rather than AOE. This wouldn't be a problem, except the DOTM version was a pet to the Wreckers, rather than alien wolf minion here.
• Lockdown's alternate mode here is possibly based on his Construct-Bots toy's.
• The Scraplet's weakness here is the same as it was in Marvel.
• The end of this comic leads directly to Lockdown's involvement in AOE's plot (therefore this could actually be set BEFORE the previous three comics) but would be set a short time before the events of the film, since he was helping Cemetary Wind kill the Autobots.

Other Features

Lots of Adverts

The Lowdown on Hound - Character Profile

Massive Movie Quiz - Quiz based on the Movie's events

Grimlock vs Scorn - Comparative profiles

Crosshairs' Conundrums - PUZZLES!!!

Are You...Battle Ready? - AOE Character personality test (I got Drift)

The sprint for Cybertron - Game Board

Lockdown's Letterbox - Lockdown and Crosshairs read the fan mail

Drift's Wordsearch

Transformers Prime DVD Competition

Rescue Bots Books Competition (Repaint the Heatwave on back to win!)

Titan - Age of Extinction #3

Title: Accept No Substitutes!

Writer: Martin Fisher

Pencils, Inks and Colour: Andres Ponce

Lettering: Comicraft

Cover Date: Sept/Oct 2014

Cover Price: £3.99

Poster: Optimus runs from a Chopper!

Plot

Bumblebee attacks and leaves a KSI factory, and introduces himself an threatens a bunch of humans. Very soon, elsewhere, Bumblebee hears about this on the news, and is rightfully confused as to how he could have possibly done that!

Bumblebee goes for a drive to investigate what happened, when he comes across a house on fire, with a woman trapped inside. Bumblebee goes to save her, but she's afraid of him. Before anything can happen though, another Bumblebee appears and attacks the real one.

The fake Bumblebee introduces himself to Bumblebee as Stinger, and welds Bee's battle mask shut, so no-one can tell them apart. The two fight briefly, until Optimus appears,a nd he cannot tell who is who, until Bumblebee jumps to action to save the woman, who has just fallen from her window.

Stinger goes to attack Optimus with a gun, but Optimus just smacks it away, allowing Stinger to run away.

Afterwards, the woman has changed her mind about Bumblebee and trusts him. Optimus apologizes to Bumblebee for not recognizing him sooner, but wonders what Stinger wanted with all of this....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Bumblebee - Camaro

"Decepticon"

Stinger - Sports Car

Human

Burning House Lady

Bob the Anchor

Jean the Anchor

KSI Staff

Other

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue comes with either Vehicon or Megatron as the main free gift
• Strafe finally gets named properly in the features in this issue (instead of calling him Swoop)!
• As usual, Bumblebee and Optimus are shown in their mid-AOE bodies, despite this appearing to be set before the movie.
• Stinger really shouldn't be active at this point in time, as he should be a mindless machine still (unless he was being controlled by some KSI guys for some reason here
• The comment by Jean, the News Anchor, about modern toys being too complicated for kids to play with is a double jab at the Transformers toy line. The releases for collectors (such as Generations, Masterpiece etc) are designed to be somewhat complicated to make them look better. The second jab is that the main AOE toyline releases are actually now the very basic One Step series of toys.
• The plot in this issue is very similar to the main plot of the Transformers Animated episode "Where Is Thy Sting?" where Bumblebee is replaced with Wasp, who even uses an electronic paint job like Stinger does here. Stinger comitting offences as Bumblebee is also somewhat similar to the Decepticon's actions during "Megatron's Master Plan" from the G1 cartoon.
• It's unclear what Stinger's ultimate goal was though, did he intend to kill and replace Bumblebee to act as a spy maybe?

Other Features

Adverts

A couple of Competitions

The Ultimate Smack Down! - Galvatron vs Optimus profiles

The Lowdown on.... - Drift profile

Trouble and Strafe! Maze puzzle with Bumblebee and Strafe

Meet the Real Dinos! - Article on real dinosaurs

Crosshairs' Conundrums - Puzzles!

Lockdown's Letterbox - Lockdown and Crosshairs read the fan art and mail

Dinobot Wordsearch! - Find the Dinobot names in a wordsearch!

Titan - Age of Extinction #2

Title: Thousand Island Fight

Writer: Robin Etherington

Pencils, Inks and Colour: Andres Ponce

Lettering: Comicraft

Cover Date: August 2014

Cover Price: £3.99

Poster: Bumblebee riding Strafe

Plot

Following the battle in Chicago, Optimus, Bumblebee and Crosshairs are on a mission in Indonesia to track down some Decepticon straglers when they fly off. Optimus is cautious as to why the Decepticons leave, despite being in a good position to win the fight. Crosshairs reaveals that he's placed a tracer on one of them and asks to go after them on his own. Optimus allows it, but secretly asks Bumblebee to watch him, as he wants to see what Crosshairs' skills are like.

Later. Crosshairs arrives on a mostly abandoned island where the Decepticons are hiding, expecting a full on assault, but instead are picked off one by one by Crosshairs. After a short battle, only one Decepticon remains, and he mocks the Autobot as he found the tracer earlier. To which Crosshairs laughs that the Decepticon thinks it's JUST a tracer, and sets off a explosion, killing the last one.

Optimus and Bumblebee soon arrive and congratulate him on his victory, but Optimus worries that this event doesn't make sense and there's probablly more to it, which Crosshairs disagrees with...not knowing that Lockdown has been watching the entire fight from a hiding place on the island.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Crosshairs - Chevy Stingray

Bumblebee - Camaro

Decepticon

Lockdown - Lamborghini 

Blue Bloke - Osprey Helicopter Killed by Crosshairs

Green Fella - Possibly a Jet? Killed by Crosshairs

Purple Dude - Maybe a Buggy? Killed by Crosshairs

Other

Indonesian Children

Dynasty of Primes (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue comes with either an Arcee or a Bumblebee PVC figure, as promised last month :)
• Also included is a promotional booster pack of the Transformers card game, including a Titan exclusive card of Optimus Prime (with art by Horacio Domingues)
• Optimus and Bumblebee are shown in their new bodies that they scan into DURING Age of Extinction. So they are a bit out of place in this pre-Movie comic. (and it's not like they don't have toys for their "older" modes shown at the start of the film on the shelves right now!)
• The Decepticons shown are just generics here, why exactly couldn't they have used some random toy-only characters from DOTM for this or something?
• The artwork in this comic seems a lot higher quality than usual, just as a note!
• Optimus seems quite happy to have seen Crosshairs murder three Decepticons. This shows how much he's changed since his encounter with Sentinel Prime at the end of DOTM, and backs up his attitude in AOE.
• From the cover for the next issue, it looks like the next issue will be post-Movie.

Other Features

Competitions

Adverts

Stinger vs Bumblebee - Factfile

The Lowdown on Crosshairs - Factfile

Battle for the Beast! - Boardgame

Meet the real Dinos! - Factfile on some Dinosaurs

Crosshairs' Conundrums - Puzzles

Lockdown's Letterbox - Lockdown and Crosshairs read the mail

Grimlock Gridlock! - A maze!