IDW - Spotlight Thundercracker

Title: The Hunting Party

Story by: John Barber

Art by: Chee

Colours by: Ronda Pattison

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assistant: Thomas Boeing

Editor: Carlos Guzman 

Plot

Thundercracker leads a team looking for Metroplex on Megatron's orders (as he was present during the capture of Orion Pax and Alpha Trion, who discussed the Titan). Blitzwing gets annoyed with the mission, saying that this wasn't why he joined the Decepticons, afterwards Thundercracker finds a piece of metal he believes was part of Metroplex at some point and smuggles it back on Bludgeon's ship.

On the ship Thundercracker scans the metal chunk and detects a similar signature found on it on a planet not that far away. Thundercracker tells Bludgeon that he has a hunch about the system due to it being similar to the one they're in at the moment, but doesn't mention the metal chunk, but he's not sure why.

A group of Autobots (Bumblebee, Jetfire and Nightbeat) are following Bludgeon's ship when it quantum jumps, the Autobots follow. A few days later the Decepticons reach the planet and find a small organic colony in an area with strong Energon substitute readings in the area, Thundercracker suggests avoiding the organics, but Bludgeon wants to go through them and kill them all. The Autobots arrive as well and decided to take on the Decepticons to stop them from killing the organics below (as they detected them too).

The battle on the organics begins, but Thundercracker just tries to scare them off, rather than killing them unlike the others. Thundercracker decides to just go look for Metroplex instead. The Autobots attack, and launch their small shuttle into Bludgeon's shuttle, Bludgeon decides to abandon his shuttle, and leaves the non-fliers in his crew to die. Bumblebee follows Thundercracker down a tunnel, which is noticed by some of the organics, whilst the Autobots and Decepticons fight.

Down below Thundercracker finds Metroplex absorbing the Energon alternative in the caverns to recover energy and Bumblebee appears and the two start to fight. Bumblebee is defended by one of the organics during the fight, and then Bumblebee defends the organic from Thundercracker in turn, Thundercracker suddenly realizes why he didn't tell Bludgeon the whole truth, he doesn't want the Decepticons as they are right now to have the power of Metroplex, so he reports to Bludgeon that Metroplex isn't there and that they should leave.

Thundercracker leaves Bumblebee and the organic alive, and wonders about if all Autobots are the same, as he leaves he causes damage to the cavern causing a wave of the energon onto Metroplex, fully charging him. Metroplex wakes up and teleports away due to his secret mission. Bumblebee returns to the surface to find the Decepticons gone and the team settle down, as they are stranded for the meanwhile.

As the remaining Decepticons fly off Bludgeon says he's sending Thundercracker back to the front lines for his failure today, whilst the rest continue their search for Metroplex, and Thundercracker is happy...for now.

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Car

Nightbeat - Car

Jetfire - Jet

Metroplex - City/Ship

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax (Flashback)

Alpha Trion (Flashback)

Decepticon

Bludgeon - Flying Tank/Tank

Thundercracker - Jet

Blitzwing - Jet/Tank

Waspinator - Wasp Killed or Disabled by Autobots

Barrage - Rhinoceros Beetle Killed or Disabled by Bumblebee

Chop Shop - Stag Beetle

Venom - Cicada

Guardminder Drones Killed in Ship destruction

3 more Jets

Megatron (Mentioned)

Seekers (Mentioned)

DJD (Mentioned)

Other

Urtuskians

Metrotitans - Cities/Ships (Flashback)

Primus (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Nibarians (Mentioned)

Notes

• I hope that Nightbeat's appearances in 3 past stories in a row (Shadowplay, Orion Pax and here) is an indicator of him coming back in the present
• Hey look! Waspinator's an Insecticon here...then he looks a bit dead...though knowing Waspie I'd bet it's not permanent
• Waspinator seems to be in his Transmetal body but in his organic colours
• Thundercracker has an odd mix of his Cybertronian and F15 Earth modes in this story
• Metroplex disappeared shortly after becoming Autobot HQ in Autocracy...kinda seems like an empty gesture from him now huh?
• The DJD exist THIS early in the war?? It's been a couple of years!!!
• Bumblebee's basically in his Robots in Disguise body here, and Jetfire's in his Classics body (also how he appeared in early IDW comics as well)
• Thundercracker's future "betrayal" of the Decepticons is hinted at here
• Why does Thundercracker have a seat in his cockpit? I could understand if he scanned an alien jet for this mode, but it doesn't seem that way...so why?
• Apparently Bumblebee keeps making friends on missions, which seems to be annoying Nightbeat a bit
• Metroplex leaves for his mission, which is implied to have begun by this early point in the timeline
• I guess Bludgeon and the others don't continue their mission for very long or succeed, as Bludgeon is doing his own stuff by about 1985ish and Metroplex is still in hiding and on the run for his mission by 2007 (and present I guess)

IDW - Regeneration One #81

Staff

Title: "Loose Ends" Part 1

Writer: Simon Furman

Pencils: Andrew Wildman

Inker: Stephen Baskerville

Colorist: John-Paul Bove

Letterer: Chris Mowry

Editor: John Barber

Editor-In-Chief: Chris Ryall

Storyline

In the Wrecker's base, Debris, Kup is going through a battle simulation to train against tying up all the loose ends of the Decepticons, when Springer walks in and says there's a ransom situation in Kalis involving Decepticons and warheads , and they're going to see if Magnus will let the Wreckers deal with the Decepticons, Wrecker-style. Magnus says no, and Kup storms off. Elsewhere Soundwave releases the Deluxe Insecticons from his chest cavity and sends them to turn the Decepticons staging this issue into Martyrs to make things look bad for the Autobots.

Inside the depot the Skyscorchers are preparing to make a deal with Magnus, as they never really intended to cause major damage, but wanted attention and the ransom too, when they are attacked and disabled by the Insecticons, who plan to activate the warhead properly and cause massive damage. Suddenly the wall explodes and the Wreckers break in and detain the Insecticons inside a Detention Sphere, and disarm the warhead with Perceptor's help.

Later Magnus goes to visit Optimus at Nova Point to decide what to do with Kup disobeying orders, whilst Optimus is acting distant, but agreeing that Magnus is right to be angry, and he ends up having a vision of Unicron telling him he will kill him, which disturbs Prime somewhat. Outside, Kup is waiting with Optimus' protege Hot Rod, and explains that he hates all the waiting around whilst there's still loose ends out there and they should be doing things about it, like Grimlock is, so he leaves Nova Point just as Magnus exits the chambers to deal with him.

Kup returns to Debris and rounds up the Wreckers, who agree to follow him on his plan to visit the worlds who were affected by the Civil War and try and fix things. Elsewhere, Soundwave is unexpectedly contacted by Bludgeon, who needs him to collect something for him for a plan to wipe out the Autobots once and for all.

The Cosmic Carnival arrives in the Sol System and drops off the Wrecker's ship near Earth, with plans to return in 10 Cycles for them. The Wreckers enter orbit and power down, so they don't attract unneeded attention, and send down probes to see what's happening, but are startled to see the planet in ruins, rivers dried, other areas flooded or just destroyed. One of the probes is hacked and sent to DC (I think?) where the Wreckers are shocked to see Megatron alive and sitting in the ruins happy that someone finally came. Megatron sets off some nuclear warheads which destroys the Wrecker's ship in orbit before they can power their systems up again, all as Megatron laughs maniacally...

Characters

Autobot
Optimus Prime
Hot Rod
Ultra Magnus
Kup On Ship that blew up
Springer On Ship that blew up
Whirl On Ship that blew up
Roadbuster On Ship that blew up
Sandstorm On Ship that blew up
Broadside On Ship that blew up
Topspin On Ship that blew up
Rack 'N' Ruin On Ship that blew up
Leadfoot On Ship that blew up
Perceptor
Grimlock (Flashback)
The Last Autobot (Mentioned) Dead
Security Forces
CCD Cadets (Mentioned)
Those Affected by Nucleon (Mentioned)

Decepticon
Megatron
Soundwave
Bludgeon
Chop Shop - Stag Beetle Captured by Wreckers
Ransack - Locust Captured by Wreckers
Venom - Cicada Captured by Wreckers
Terradive Killed/Incapacitated by Venom
Afterburner Killed/Incapacitated by Chop Shop
Eagle Eye Killed/Incapacitated by Venom
Windrazor Killed/Incapacitated by Chop Shop
Thunderwing (Mold Only)
Galvatron - Laser Cannon (Hologram)

Human
Berko
Other
Unicron - Ringed Planet (Vision)
Cybertronian Civilians 

Notes

• Still not too fond of the artwork being in the old style....colours are nice though!
• The Wreckers and Deluxe Insecticons make their US Marvel continuity debut here
• The intro of a Wrecker killing some fake Decepticons is just like their intro in Marvel UK
• Twin Twist has been replaced in the visible Wrecker ranks by Leadfoot, making the roster resemble the DOTM Wreckers a bit more now
• Soundwave can hold Insecticons in his chest
• It's not clear if the Skyscorchers are killed in this issue or not...
• Grimlock is mentioned to be elsewhere right now
• Hot Rod being mentored by Optimus seems to have calmed him down somewhat....this I do not enjoy
• Bludgeon has a mold in the shape of Thunderwing's pretender shell, which implies that he's planning to rebuild him some how
• The Cosmic Carnival seems to go near Earth nowadays
• It seems like Earth has been conquered by Megatron in this continuity now, much like it was in All Hail Megatron, however as noted in the story this must have happened some time ago
• There's a random guy amongst the Wreckers on page 21, he looks like a Headmaster in design, but doesn't match up with any I can think of - After asking Andrew Wildman at Auto Assembly, he told me it's supposed to be Broadside with his face plate up!
• Megatron still has a black bucket head!
• Springer's chest changes like every panel in this comic