Characters
Autobot
Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex (formerly Cybertronian Armoured Vehicle) Arrested
Slag - Triceratops (formerly Cybertronian Armoured Vehicle)
Snarl - Stegosaurus (formerly Cybertronian Armoured Vehicle)
Sludge - Apatosaurus (formerly Cybertronian Armoured Vehicle)
Swoop - Pteranodon (formerly Cybertronian Armoured Vehicle)
Sunstreaker - Sports Car
Hot Rod - Cybertronian Sports Car (formerly Earth Sports Car)
Repugnus - Scythed Monster
Doublecross - Two Headed Dragon
Grotusque - Saber Toothed Monster
Ultra Magnus - Cybertronian Car Carrier
Optimus Prime - Truck Cab
Ratchet - Ambulance
Ironhide Van
Decepticon
Scorponok - Scorpion Tank Arrested
Shockwave - Ray Gun Arrested
Soundwave - Cassette Player
Ravage - Cassette
Laserbeak - Cassette
Megatron - Gun (Flashback)
Decepticon Energon Silo Team Killed by Dynobots
Human
Hunter O'Nion - Sunstreaker's Head
Abraham Dante - Scorponok's Head (Machination)
Drake (Machination)
Joshua Red (Skywatch)
Weston (Skywatch)
Kloss (Skywatch - Machination Spy)
Skywatch Operatives
Fallon Residents
Jimmy Pink
Verity Carlo
Jimmy (Soundwave's Former Owner)
Sergeant Donnelly (Churchill County Sheriff's Department)
Other
Headmaster Clones - Sports Cars Destroyed by Autobots and Hunter
Storyline
On ancient Cybertron Grimlock leads his Dynobots in a raid against a Decepticon team and steals their Energon supply (killing the Decepticons in the process of course) and they celebrate as a team. However in the present day Grimlock is alone in a glacier with his crashed ship and laments on how he's an outlaw now.
In Nevada Skywatch activates the rest of the Dynobots and have them train in a compound, but under their control now, Kloss reports this to Dante in Dallas, Texas who comments on how his Machination Empire is now ready to rise and looks out on his army of Headmasters.
Sunstreaker and Hunter destroy a Machination warehouse whilst looking for his original head, however they find out about the Dynobots through the Machination's database, and head out to Dallas to find out more.
On the Skyfire Grimlock sends out a pulsewave message into space for some help, unaware that the Machination has located him. Dante/Scorponok send out a team through a Space Bridge (which Scorponok was shown to have in the past)and sends them to the glacier in New Zealand and they start attacking the ship. Grimlock uses an escape route he made to sneak up on the Headmasters and attacks them, however he gets tagged by a probe that allows the Machination to force him to Orbital Jump into the middle of a town, Fallon, Nevada and he causes a panic.
Skywatch detects his presence in Fallon and sends out a team with the other Dynobots to intercept him (hidden in cargo trucks). Meanwhile Hot Rod arrives at the Machination's Dallas base and tries to sneak in, but Scorponok sees him.
Scorponok has Hot Rod brought into the base and beats him down, but doesn't want him dead, since he wants someone to witness his plan falling into place, he has his legs crashed so he can't run away or transform, and has two of his Headmasters carry him around the base to watch his plan come together. Grimlock is attacked by the local police in Fallon, unaware that Scorponok and Skywatch are watching when the Dynobots are brought in and are made to attack Grimlock as well.
Sunstreaker and Hunter continue to head to Dallas, rather than dealing with the Dynobots (now called Dinobots thanks to Hunter), as Sunstreaker needs his head back, and by doing that will stop the Headmasters as well. From Dallas Scorponok has his team dampen the Dynobots' neural dampeners loosened so they can be more savage. Grimlock tries to get through to his friends but they can't here him. Skywatch are stopping anyone from entering Fallon, so as to limit outside contact and knowledge of the Dynobots. Joshua Red heads from the Reno, Nevada Skywatch base after learning that the Dynobots are losing their neural control to an unspecified location.
Grimlock is forced to fight back against his friends as they continue to attack him as well when Slag accidentally causes a gas station to blow up and causes a major incident. Scorponok watches on happily, and reveals that his plan is to pin all of the trouble on Skywatch and that all the Skywatch funds and government support will go to the Machination (under it's Epsilon Holdings alias) from which he can take over the planet.
An Autobot shuttle crashes into the New Zealand Glacier after receiving Grimlock's message, but can't find him on the ship. Scorponok has his team lower the Neural Inhibitors again so they can access theur memories again. Back in Fallon Grimlock sees some trapped humans and goes to help him, when he's suddenly attacked from behind and the Dinobots ask him what he did to them, how he could trap them on Earth like that (see Spotlight: Shockwave for more details). Grimlock says that any of them would have done the same, but they counter that they would have at least said something first, and that once he did that to them they stopped being a team.
Grimlock said that he finds it funny, since Slag had always said they never acted like a team in the past, and proceeds to rescue humans from the fires, which leaves the Dynobots just standing there.
Scorponok is disappointed and sends in his Headmasters, who run the barricade and head towards the town. Joshua Red arrives in Slat Lake City, Utah where he meets with the concious, but restrained Shockwave.
Red frees Shockwave from his restraints and tells him that they'd placed a powerful explosive in his neural mass, and that if he doesn't help them, then it'll detonate in 24 hours, unless Red resets it. Red sends out Shockwave to neutralize Laserbeak, Ravage (still on the run) and the Dynobots, Shockwave heads out. The Headmasters break through the last of the barricades and reports it to Skywatch. Scorponok has the Headmasters only target Grimlock as he's interested in seeing if the other Dynobots will help him out or not.
In Fallon Grimlock says to the others that they need to get off Earth, and tells them that the Skyfire IS functional, but just can't fly right now. Swoop however says that they can't trust him any more and they all turn their backs on him. Suddenly the Headmasters appear and begin to attack Grimlock, whilst the others all just watch on.
In Dallas Scorponok continues his exposition to Hot Rod that once his Headmasters have saved the day he'll integrate himself into several seats of power and eventually take over. Hot Rod isn't impressed. Scorponok warns him to be impressed next time, or he'll have him killed.
Back in Fallon, the Dynobots decide to help Grimlock, as they have no where else to go, and that they are still a team, no matter what has happened in the past. They Headmasters manage to surround the Dynobots and Scorponok gives the order to execute them. Sunstreaker and Hunter reach the Dallas Machination base, Sunstreaker wants to go in had first, but Hunter takes control and separates him from Sunstreaker, and they wait for the right moment (as they barely escaped Scorponok the last time).
In Fallon the Dynobots are rescued by the Monsterbots, who have now located Grimlock after arriving at the Glacier earlier. Grimlock reveals that he called them earlier to help him with repairing the Skyfire, especially since they are a rogue group as well. The two Autobot teams start tearing apart the Headmasters.
In Dallas Hot Rod laughs at the scene, and Scorponok has the two Headmasters take him outside to be shot, in the elevator however Hot Rod emits a flaming attack from his body and incinerates the two Headmasters, and he drags himself to the shutter doors to try and escape, since his legs were crushed earlier.
Shockwave flies over Portland, Oregon and picks up the signal of Soundwave below him.
Ravage and Laserbeak break into a house in Portland and rescue Soundwave from Jimmy, his owner and take him to Mount St Helens in Washington where they talk over the situation and Soundwave says that he's been blocking their implants, but he can't keep it up, when Shockwave arrives and offers his help in exchange of some help of his own since it was his weapon that was used to freeze Soundwave in the first place.
Hot Rod manages to break out of the Machination base when he finds Sunstreaker, who helps him out with the clones and enters the base. Hot Rod says that they need big help, so he stays outside to call for it , whilst Sunstreaker walks into the base and looks for his head.
On board their ship Grimlock says that they still need the Monsterbot's help, and that he'll give them Shockwave's downloaded data cache from his ship if they continue to help them out for now. In the back of the ship the other Dynobots realise that Grimlock's actions before were illegal and that they're classed as Outcasts now, when he enters the room they contront him.
In Dallas Hot Rod boosts his personal intercom system to send out a call to anyone, the message is received by the Monsterbot's ship and gets relayed through several Autobot satellites to Ultra Magnus' ship as well. Sunstreaker makes it through the base and reaches the lab where his head is being held when Scorponok attacks and blasts a hole through his chest, he goes to examine the body when he notices that his head is missing. Scorponok received word that a Cybertronian ship is approaching their location, he has all the bases' defence systems and troops get ready for battle. The ship blasts the weapons from the base and the Dynobots ttack the base and fight off the Headmasters.
The Dynobots are being overrun by the Headmasters, but Hunter saves the day when he reaches Sunstreaker's head and pulls the plug, killing all the Headmasters and powering them down. The Dynobots are confused but Hot Rod appears and says that Sunstreaker must have pulled the plug on himself. Sludge starts to celebrate their win when he is suddenly blasted by Scorponok and killed. Scorponok is angry and wants revenge against them all for destroying his empire, but then Shockwave suddenly appears on the scene and says he wants revenge against Grimlock as well.
Elsewhere Ultra Magnus detects Scorponok's presence on Earth and vows that this time only one of them will walk away.
Scorponok continues his attacks on the Dynobots whilst Grimlock is distracted by Sludge's death and Shockwave starts to attack Scorponok himself as he wants Grimlock to himself. Hot Rod goes off and hobbles into the base so he can try and stop Scorponok himself by severing his original head. Skywatch hears that Ravage and Laserbeak have been disabled at the location that Shockwave transmitted to them and Red decides to hold off on resetting the detonation charge until after Shockwave is finished, as he plans to just let it detonate if he kills the Dynobots first anyway.
In Dallas Grimlock starts trying to use his own spark to jump start Sludge's whilst Shockwave continues to beat the crap out of Scorponok, all the while analysing the Headmaster process, saying that whilst it increases his reaction time and speed etc, it does cause him to feel fear as well. Grimlock gives up on trying to revive Sludge when it seems fruitless, when he sees Shockwave letting Scorponok head to his escape route, Grimlock goes after Scorponok but Shockwave attacks him. Suddenly Sludge wakes up, thanks to Grimlock's efforts. Soundwave watches on from a building, waiting for his moment.
The three Dynobots who left the base head to the Monsterbot's ship and plan to join with them. Inside the Machination base Hot Rod has reached Scorponok's head and finds Hunter there as well, having survived the severing of Sunstreaker's head. Hot Rod goes to sever Scorponok's head when Scorponok himself enters the room and attacks him.
Outside the other Dinobots rejoin Grimlock, having declines the Monsterbot's offer to join them and attack Shockwave as well, including the newly revived Sludge. Shockwave's bomb's timer reaches the end and Red transmits the reset code, which Soundwave intercepts and alters to disarm the bomb totally, and at the same moment Shockwave fulfils his promise and sends Soundwave the reset code to his mode locking, and frees him. Soundwave in turn informs Laserbeak and Ravage, who immediately kill the approaching Skywatch operatives too.
Shockwave stops fighting and reveals that he doesn't care about revenge and that he just needed to expend time until the reset code was transmitted. Shockwave goes to leave but Grimlock drops a bomb and detonates it.
The other Dynobots break into the base and stop Scorponok from killing Hot Rod, who tells Swoop to slice up the connectors from the head and he does it leaving Scorponok in a vegetative state. As the assembled Autobots and Hunter are about to kill Scorponok Ultra Magnus arrives and says that he has to be put on trial for his crimes. Magnus then tells everyone assembled to help him to get rid of all the Headmasters and any weapons that Scorponok created and to get them off the planet ASAP.
Three days later Sunstreaker and Hunter have been separated as much as possible, but not fully, and Verity and Jimmy are reunited with their friend. Magnus leaves but tells Optimus that there's a group called Skywatch who knows about them now, Optimus says that they are truly compromised now, but Magnus also says that they make it look like all the combatants were killed in an explosion. On his ship Magnus thanks Grimlock for helping to capture Scorponok and Shockwave and offers to lessen his own sentence as well, Grimlock refuses and just asks that he let the other Dynobots go free, Magnus agrees.
On Earth the Dynobots start work on repairing the Skyfire.
Notes
- Rule #1 of the Dinobots: There are no rules
- Epsilon Holdings has sevral flip out weapons!
- Repugnus' name was seen on the Garrus-9 cells, seems like he was released between Spotlight: Arcee and now.
- It's also of note that he's the most stable member of the group, maybe that's due to the forced therapy the inmates have to take?
- The raid the Dinobots perform in the first few pages is the one mentioned in Spotlight: Shockwave
- Swoop's wings have been replaced by metal ones since the organic ones from Spotlight: Shockwave were burned up
- The Headmasters come in at least 4 colours, yellow, red, white and black
- Hunter acts as Sunstreaker's Holo-Avatar now
- Sunstreaker has a USB port
- Hunter coins the Dynobot's new name the Dinobots, just because they turn into dinosaurs now
- Shockwave has been concious but restrained for some time before this story, so maybe he woke up as soon as they got him back to a Skywatch base after Escalation?
- Hunter can take control of Sunstreaker's body fully when needed
- Hot Rod can expel fire from him when needed for an attack
- It's very likely that Hot Rod found out where Scorponok was, and therefore where Sunstreaker's head is because he asked the Magnificence
- Hot Rod's new body seen in All Hail Megatron is explained away as being because he needd repairs after Scorponok's beat down on him.
My Thoughts
Art
The artwork uses Nick Roche's common style, which is cartoony in design, and when combined with the colours it looks fantastic
Story
This story was made to wrap up most of the open plot points from the first storyline before the second one began with All Hail Megatron. It does it well in my opinion.
Continuity
This story continues from Devastation and Revelation's open plot points. It acts as a sequel to Spotlight: Grimlock. This story occurs within a year before All Hail Megatron starts. Verity and Jimmy are revealed to be alive and were on Ark-32 for the duration of Revelation. After being freed from his mode lock, it can be assumed by Soundwave and his cassettes just reunited with Megatron in time for All Hail Megatron. This ends the first IDW storyline/series.
Other
The Dinobots have been redesigned to make them look more like Beast Era characters (just minus the organic skin).
Sunstreaker's body at the end is based on his Universe 2008 toy, as seen in All Hail Megatron as well.
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