IDW - Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor #5

Written by: John Barber & Christos Gage

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Josh Perez & Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Ultra Magnus/Vekktral has hold of Starscream by the neck, and has his Wraith army pin down the other Decepticons. Both personalities inside the hybrid agree that Starscream should die, but are stopped by the Knights attacking the creature, managing to free the Decepticon, whilst Ultra Magnus fights for control inside the beast.

The other Decepticons help to free their fellows, and they intend to leave...once Starscream can retrieve the Energon Synthesizer. Stardrive notices them leaving and gives chase, and is in turn chased by Livia. The Knights concentrate their fire on the hybrid  onto his chest, having learned about sparks from the Cybertronians, but the armour is too thick to break through.

Stardrive soon engages Starscream at the Synthesizer's location, and the two fight, with Livia helping Stardrive out.

Bumblebee tries to reach to Magnus, but seems to be failing...on the outside anyway. Inside his mind, Magnus is determined to overwhelm Vekktral, who reveals that he knows how Cyebrtronians work as he studied the dead body of Sky Blast, but finds that Magnus' body is different somehow, giving Magnus an idea...he opens his armour's chest from the inside and allows the Knights to shoot his now exposed spark.

Stardrive appears to be winning her battle with Starscream, even tearing off his wings, but he is rescued by the rest of his Decepticons, they decide to leave, but Starscream decides to be petty and shoots the Synthesizer, intending for it to detonate so no-one can use it. Stardrive immediately tries to access the safety systems to override the detonation, but Livia stops her, since they need to raze the planet to get rid of the infection.

Bumblebee looks over Magnus' now-dead body, and is consoled by Rom, but he questions why there is a smaller robot inside Magnus. Bumblebee reveals that Magnus was a title held by a group over the years, and this one was named "Convoy". They mourn him, but it is cut short when Sata notices that Vekktral escaped the body before he died, and is heading towards the imminent explosion.

At the explosion site, Stardrive is still trying to get to the Synthesizer to save it, and prevent the destruction of the planet, but Livia continues to stop her. Ultimtaely, as Vekktral approaches her it detonates, forcing Stardrive to transform and fly away, with both Livia and Vekktral hanging onto her wings, but Vekktral looses his grip and falls into the explosion, and rubs it into Stardrive that she is the cause of this destruction.

Stardrive manages to scoop up the rest of the team, including Magnus' body, and flies off the planet, as the Synthesizer fully blows and wipes out half of the planet.

In the planet's orbit, the group witness the destruction with no-one having really won this conflict. Stardrive has had enough and rips off her Solstar Armour, which is otherwise thought to be impossible, and returns it to a crystal form, and returns it to Rom, resigning her commission before flying off into space alone. The Solstar Knights head towards the Orchid Crossing escape pods, whilst Bumblebee declines joining them, since he knows the Magnus Armour will teleport back to home base before long. Rom leaves him, hoping that he never comes across the Cybertronians again...

Starscream returns to Megatron and suggests that they not work with the Dire Wraiths again in the future due to all that happened during this conflict, with Megatron commenting that he has disappointed him again... Meanwhile, the Dire Wraiths are watching a magical projection of Vekktral's failure to control the Cybertronians properly, which cements their plans to rely on magic, rather than technology in their future campaigns.

Bumblebee returns to the Autobot fleet, where he reports Magnus' death to Optimus, and is upset that the Decepticons managed to destroy another world with this war. Optimus accepts that this is the cost of war, but does mourn their deaths. It is decided that a previous Magnus, Minimus Ambus will come out of retirement and wear the armour again. Bumblebee says his final goodbyes to Convoy, and admits that he kept the Synthesizer hidden from Optimus, as he is worried that even the Autobots might do horrible things to get it, like the Solstar Order believed at first...

At a Solstar station, Orphion is contacted by some representatives of the Galactic Council, and both sides fling accusations against the other over who was to blame for what happened on Xetaxxis. Rom leaves, clearly fed up with the finger pointing, and gets worse when he sees several new recruits being introduced to the Order by Livia and Sata.

Stardrive ends up on a peaceful and beautiful alien planet, and tries to live apart from her Cybertronian and Solstar pasts...until she sees something approaching her...something with tendrils....

The end.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Bumblebee - Two Wheeled Car

Ultra Magnus/Convoy - Vehicle Transport Killed by Rom

Prowl - Emergency Vehicle

Ironhide - Van

Ratchet - Ambulance

Minimus Ambus - Minesweeper (On Screen)

Chief Justice Tyrest (On Screen)

Original Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Mentioned) Dead

Sky Blast - Rocket (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Megatron - Tank

Starscream - Jet

Dirge - Jet

Ramjet - Jet

Thrust - Jet

Astrotrain - Galactic Council Shuttle/Land Train

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet

Soundwave - Acoustic Tank

Laserbeak - Cassette

Ravage - Cassette

Tarn - Tank

Onslaught - Anti Aircraft Tank

Acid Storm - Jet

Thundercracker - Jet

Skywarp - Jet (Mentioned)

Solstar Order

Stardrive - Car/Jet Leaves Solstar Order

Orphion

Rom

Livia

Sata

New Solstar Order Cadets

Orchid Crossing Crew (Mentioned) Most Died in Attack

Dire Wraith

Vekktral Killed in Synthesizer Explosion

Xetaxxis Wraiths Killed in Synthesizer Explosion

Magic Purist Wraiths

Other

Xetaxxans Half of Population Killed in Synthesizer Explosion

Galactic Council Representatives (On Screen)

Galactic Council Envoys (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• So, Stardrive uses Sata as a sword...this is actually really cool, and I hope we get to see her with a sword alternate mode Mini-Con in the future or something :)
• The landscape in Magnus' mind seems to be based on the old G1 toy packaging
• Oh wow! I never expected Ultra Magnus to actually be a different character from the one we've grown to know over the years, and totally didn't see that coming! It was a surprise that Ambus was revealed to be the Magnus before Convoy, only to have retired for a while though.
• Stardrive removing her Solstar Armour would have been a nice surprise...if we didn't see her sans armour at the end of Optimus Prime #13, released a week before this issue...
• The Dire Wraiths are shown to swear off of using technology following the events of this story, this has been maintained throughout their appearances in IDW otherwise, where they rely solely on Magic.
• It's revealed that Optimus and Ironhide also know about Ultra Magnus being a title. Ratchet and Prowl's knowledge was revealed at separate times in More Than Meets The Eye.
• Bumblebee is shown to have known about the Magnus Armour for some time, since people like to talk to him.
• Orphion makes it sound like the devastation on Xetaxxis was caused by the Dire Wraiths and Cybertronians....whilst Starscream was the one who shot it, causing it to overload, and the Wraiths were the reason for the Decepticons even being there to do that, he fails to mention that it was Solstar technology, which could have been disabled by Stardrive, had Livia not of stopped her, since she wanted the planet to be razed, due to the Wraith infection.
• The ending shot of Stardrive with Dire Wraith tendrils in her optic can be taken a couple ways, either she has a Wraith taint inside her...which given what we've seen of it, and seen of her from 200 years later, seems unlikely. The more likely explanation, coupled with her optic widening slightly, is that she has seen more Wraiths on the peaceful planet that she has landed on.
• Whilst I wouldn't believe that Optimus would "go after" the Energon Synthesizer, it is a smart move by Bumblebee to not share that information with him, as we all know how Prowl would act in this situation....
• I am actually shocked, I thought Sata would have died by the end of this series, especially since we haven't seen her in the modern era or even any other Solstar flashback stories.

Fun Pub - Cybertron's Most Wanted

Writers: Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair

Pencils/Inks: Matt Frank

Colours: Thomas Deer

Letters: Jesse Wittenrich

Plot

It's a normal day in Axiom Nexus when suddenly a small group of Decepticons and Evil Autobots disrupt the peace by driving through a pedestrian area, however they are stopped when they run into a group of Seekers. Whilst trying to get past them however one of the Seekers identifies one of the problem-starters as a Megatron, causing a small panic. However before anything more can happen, the group are captured by the Offworlder police force.

The group are taken into custody, where a member of the Convoy (a group of Optimus' and other leaders formed to help keep the peace in the Multiverse) named General Prime agrees with the Seeker that he could be a Megatron, despite Cheetor's insistence that it's impossible for one to breach the ban on high ranking individuals (Shockwave, Ultra Magnus, Megatron etc) in Axiom Nexus, but General Prime isn't sure still.

In their holding cell the group meet up with Oilmaster and Packrat, who were previously imprisoned, and they end up working together to escape, exploiting the Transtech's lack of knowledge on Oilmaster's Double Pretender status, they send his smallest component  to disable the power to the complex, allowing them to escape.

At first the plan seems to fail, but suddenly the power is completely down, allowing the group of criminals to attempt an escape. Along the way they take down several Autotroopers and Blast Charge guards and blow their way out, only to find the exterior power is also down, implying that it wasn't Oilmaster who actually knocked out the power, and rather something outside. The group decide to head back to their base in the tunnels under the city.

Back inside the complex the prisoners are rioting and General Prime learns from Cheetor that all the Transtechs have been knocked out due to a power surge in the main computers, which all Transtechs were linked up to. The only reason Cheetor and Stungun were spared was because they were disconnected from the main system at the time. Cheetor orders General to investigate what's happening at the planet's core, and to resolve the issue before the public find out about it. General orders Bruticus to take control of the jail again, whilst he and Sergeant Hound head out to investigate.

In the tunnels. Burn Out and Lift-Ticket are investigating something, when C-81's crew return and they're scared off further into the tunnels. The group assume they are with the security forces and arm themselves up, to get ready for the upcoming raid.

Instead of the raid from security however, some insect-robots attack the group from the shadows, and begin to swarm them under their commander's orders. The group fight them off, but decide to evade them after a short while. During their escape, Scalpel examines the body of one of the dead insects and discovers that they've been eating some of the old metals at Cybertron's core, and probably caused the power-outage.

After a while, the group are led into the insect's lair, and end up trapped and injured, however they are saved when General Prime and Sergeant Hound appear, and Lift-Ticket and Burn Out make another appearance too, revealing the insects to be Waruders. They say that the Waruders have poisoned the main computers by eating into it and spreading their venom into it, but it can be reverse if they get a sample of the venom from their commander.

The groups join forces and fight the Waruders, and joining the battle it's revealed that Lift-Ticket and Burn Out are actually just piloted mech suits run by Humans, simply disguising themselves as Transformers for this mission. The battle ends when C-81 directly attacks the commander, and hints to him that he knows of a place where they can go to have all the old metal they could possibly want to eat.

Soon, C-81 has made a deal with the Waruders, that in exchange for some of his venom, they will send the Waruders to one of the many abandoned Cybertrons in the Multiverse, so they can live in relative peace. The Diaclone humans are unhappy with this, but are somewhat happy that they now know what the Waruders like the eat, so they can use that for traps etc now.

General Prime and C-81 part ways on good terms, with General claiming that he'll just pretend that his crew got away after the battle, and he plans to drop his pursuit of him as a Megatron.

General and Prowl leave, and C-81 seems happy, despite them not getting anything for their actions in the long-run, they did save the world, and they had an adventure, so that was enough...then Packrat mentions that he stole one of the cop's credit sticks, much to the ire of his companions.

Later, General relays the events of his adventure to the rest of the Convoy and some Transtechs, and claims that C-81 and his team escaped, but that he was also wrong about C-81 being a Megatron too. Afterwards, Starscream issues orders to the Convoy members to sort out some issues that cropped up during the invasion, such as repairing the tunnels, settling some Insecticons down (they feel the Waruders are an invading faction of bugs) and to rejail the rioting prisoners.

Afterwards, Beast Prime assures General Prime that he and the others will leave C-81 alone, and that if he's earned his trust, then he's earned theirs too.

General looks out over Axiom Nexus and comments on how everyone has the capacity for change, as Axiom Nexus is perfect proof of.

Characters

Autobot
SG Stepper - Sports Car
SG Nebulon - Gun
G1 Black Convoy/Nemesis Prime - Sports Car
G1 Sentinel Maximus - Truck
G2 Hero Prime - Truck
RID Ignition Prime - Fire Truck
General Optimus Prime - Armoured Jeep
Sergeant Hound - Front End Loader
RID2015 Strongarm - Police Cruiser
RID - Prowl - Police Chaser
G1 Blastcharge Strika Drones - Tanks
G1 Kiss Players Autotroopers - Sports Cars
RID2015 Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex
G1 Clipper - Sports Car
G1 Tap-Out - Porsche
G1 Generations Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet
G1 Legends Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet
G1 Doublecross - Two Headed Dragon
Kreon Scrounge
Off-Worlder Ultra Magnus' (Mentioned)

Decepticon
Movie C-81/Megatron - Armoured Truck
Movie Scalpel - Dual Bladed Weapon
Movie Boombox - Cannon
Movie Heavyweight - Mace
G1 Battletrap - Helicopter/Armoured Car
G1 Oilmaster - Pretender Shell, Van and Jet
Galaxy Force Gasket Police Type - Police Motorcycle
G1 Skywarp - Fighter Jet
G1 Nacelle - VTOL Fighter Jet
G1 Redwing - Fighter Jet
G1 Acidstorm - Fighter Jet
G1 Thunderwing - Fighter Jet
G1 Action Master Thunderwing - Fighter Jet
G1 Sunstorm - Fighter Jet
G1 Hotlink - Fighter Jet
G1 Bitstream - Fighter Jet
Movie Hailstorm - Multiple Rocket Launcher Truck
Alternators Decepticharge - Sports Car
G1 Flamewar - Motorcycle
G1 Lugnut - Bomber Plane
G1 Minicon Overbite - Wolf
TFA Scalpel - Microscope
G1 Slugfest - Cassette
G1 Hellbat - Jet
Kreon Straxus
Movie Fearswoop - Fighter Jet
Cybertron Undermine - Spinosaurus
Off-Worlder Shockwaves (Mentioned)
Off-Worlder Megatrons (Mentioned)
Insecticons (Mentioned)

Maximal

BW Packrat - Ratackrat - Rat
BW Leo Prime/Lio Convoy - Lion
BW Beast Prime/Optimus Primal - Gorilla
BW Ramulus - Ibex
BM Primal Prime - Treaded Vehicle/Jet/Ape
BW Prowl - Owl

Predacon

RID Predacon Bruticus - Chimera Dragon
Prime Blight - Land Dragon
BW Antagony - Ant

Transtech

Starscream - Jet

Cheetor - Race Car

Stungun

Prowl

Rhinox - Crane

Rattrap

Silverbolt - Jet

Heinrad

Andromeda (Hologram)

Cryotek - Tank (Mentioned)

Other Transtechs

Diaclone

Lift-Ticket Mech  Tow Truck Damaged by Waruders

Burn Out Mech - Van

Spy-Eye - Camera

Waruder

Beet-Chit - Stag Beetle Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Zaptrap Mech - Stag Beetle Damaged by C-81

Buzzer - Wasp Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Storm Rider Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Paralyzer Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Parasite Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Mudfighter Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Other

Dia

Cline

Other Off-Worlders

Primus (Mentioned)

Xal (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the comic made to "advertise" the Botcon 2015 boxset and souvenir sets
• Even Axiom Nexus has a hoard of Seekers...just like every collector's dusty toy shelf!
• C-81's appearance and Mini-Con partner Scalpel would place him as from about the Dark of the Moon era of the movies.
• Things start to get a bit confusing here as Prowl from Robots in Disguise appears in the same panel as Strongarm from Robots in Disguise 2015! Why is life hard?
• Oilmaster is based on one of the proposed Double Pretender toys from the G1 toyline. This would explain why the Transtechs wouldn't know too much about his technology's design since it was an aborted project originally.
• One of the things found in the holding cells was a Matrix of Leadership from the Movie-verse...why is it there?
• The under city of Axiom Nexus (where most Offworlders live) uses artificial solar rays to keep it alight. This does make some major sense really, since the buildings shown in the art would be too high to allow light to naturally reach the lower depths. Clever old Transtechs! Clever!
• Burn Out and Lift-Ticket are designed on the pre-Transformer versions of Hoist and Skids from Dialone.
• Also, the human names "Dia" and "Cline" are also based on the original concept of the robots being piloted mechs rather than sentient, and of course...their names are based on the line too.
• The Waruder's were a villain faction in Diaclone (same as here) which were remade as the Insecticons for Transformers.
• Battletrap now acts as a Triplechanger instead of a modular robot, much like how Flywheels has been redesigned the same way in IDW.
• Oilmaster's shell can bleed....that is worrying!
• Black Convoy, aka Nemesis Prime, is the same character who appeared in the Balancing Act arc from the TFCC Magazine. He's been off in the Alternity continuity recently, and has been "reborn" as an Autobot (I had to look it up as I haven't followed the Japanese exclusive continuities recently)
• Despite being, presumably, Maximals, Lio Convoy/Leo Prime nad Optimus Primal/Beast Prime are the same size as their Autobot counterparts
• Ignition Prime/RID Optimus Prime is using his yellow Universe "Sam's Club" repaint. This is probably to bring more variation to the colour schemes in the group shots.
• Spy-Eye, one of the Diaclone robots has apparently decided to remain in Axiom Nexus...wonder if this will lead to more adventures with the Diaclone guys?
• Why is Primal Prime allowed to wander the streets of Axiom Nexus? Isn't he classed as an authority figure? He is the living embodiment of the Matrix after all!