IDW - Rom: Dire Wraiths #3

Writer: Chris Ryall

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Main Story Title: One Small Step for Dire-Wraith-Kind, Part 3

Main Story Artist: Ron Joseph

Main Story Colourist: Jim Boswell

Side Story Title: One Small Step for a Spaceknight, Part 3

Side Story Artist: Guy Dorian Sr. & Maria Keane

Side Story Colourist: Ross Campbell

Main Story Plot

On the Moon, the Human astronauts figure out that the last surviving Wraith soldier is too weak to take them on, causing him to run away towards the remains of their gateway, hoping to escape them, but the humans chase him.

When the Wraith reaches the remains of the portal, he stalls for a moment , allowing Dodger to leap at him, but the astronaut goes right through the illusion, and into the portal, activating it again. The real Wraith grabs one of the remaining astronauts to further power the portal to send him back to where he came from, but Rom, on the other side of it fires on the monster, killing him.

As the portal closes, Rom congratulates the humans in their victory and salutes them...

On the Advebture-One Station the Mystic, Aby'ss, is searching for the only Human onboard, Sandra Shen, so she can be absorbed too, however the human scientist is smarter and manages to blast her with an energy weapon, and jabs needles into the alien to take samples for humanity to be prepared to take them on better in the future, killing the creature in the process

In the aftermath, the remaining astronauts complete their moonwalk, and replant the American flag. Shen contacts them and says she will complete the cleanup of the lander site, and lock down the area so noone will know what happened as the duo return to their shuttle.

Reunited with Collins on the Apollo shuttle, the three astronauts head back towards Earth, with two if them unaware that Collins was replaced by a Wraith whilst waiting for them....

Side Story Plot

The adrift Solar Knights manage to take down the Wraith-possessed Dhorian, finally putting their old friend out if his pain. Unfortunately the portal that sent them to this distant part of space is closing, forcing Nikomi to send Rom through alone, while he hibernates until he can be found again...

Rom, grateful for the sacrifice doesn't waste his time, now back where this all started, he opens up the portal again, and sees two Human astronauts being harassed by a line Dire Wraith, whom he kills, congratulating and saluting the two Humans in the process and flying off to continue his long mission to defeat the evil species....

Characters

Adventure Team

Sandra Shen

Dodger/James Brightside Killed by the Wraith Portal

Mixmaster/Martin Flannery (Mentioned) Dead

Arsenal/Anatoli Kiev (Mentioned) Dead

Scalpel/Elmo Aubreyson (Mentioned) Dead

Hank Armstrong (Mentioned, Images used by the Wraiths) Dead

NASA

Neil Armstrong

Buzz Aldrin

Mike Collins (Mentioned, Replaced by Sky'sm) Dead

Other Human

Franco Columbo (Mentioned)

President Eisenhower (Mentioned)

President Kennedy (Mentioned)

Dire Wraith

Mystic Aby'ss Killed by Sandra Shen

Mystic Sky'sm (Posing as Mike Collins)

Third Mystic (Posing as Dhorian) Killed by Rom

Axlar Killed by Rom

Sular (Corpse Only) Dead

Solar Order

Rom

Nikomi Stranded in Deep Space

Dhorian (Corpse Puppeted by Wraiths) Dead

Notes

• This issue was VERY delayed, but after about a year, this three issue miniseries is finally complete!
• Since they never get properly identified this issue, I've decided to use logic to name the Mystics who have different dates this issue. Aby'ss is the one who dies and Sky'sm is the one who survived. If a later story changes that, then oh well.
• As I speculated last issue, it's revealed that Collins has been replaced by the surviving Wraith at the end of this issue.
• Somehow, the Wraith who attacks Sandra turns into Hank to try and trick her, and is implied to be the one who absorbed him, but the one who replaced Collins was also the one who replaced Hank and this is confusing....
• Nikomi being lost in space, seemingly acting as a "death" this issue really loses its edge when you remember this is a prequel, and we see Nikomi later, alive and well.
• And as the series ends, we still don't have a name (or status) for the third Wraith soldier, orca name for the Mystic who took over Dhorian's suit/corpse.
• Rom somehow knows that the beings on Earth's Moon are Humans, despite not knowing about them later in the timeline before Earthfall.

IDW - Rom: Dire Wraiths #1

Writer: Chris Ryall

Main Story Title: One Small Step for Dire Wraith-Kind, Part 1

Side Story Title: One Small Step for a Spaceknight, Part 1

Main Story Artist: Luca Pizzari

Main Story Colourist: Jim Boswell

Side Story Artist: Guy Dorian Sr. & Sal Buscema

Side Story Colourist: Ross Campbell

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Main Story Plot

It's July of 1969, and the Apollo 11 shuttle is heading to the Moon to make it's passengers famous as the first men to walk on the Moon. The crew go into radio silence with Earth and make contact with their companion team, the crew of a orbital base designed to watch the Earth for alien threats, who they are planning to meet with on this mission. 

Unknown to either team however, there is a third faction on the Moon, some members of the evil alien species, the Dire Wraiths, who have been stranded there following a portal (from the side story). They notice the landing module and decide to make their move, they head towards the landed astronauts, whilst one of the Mystics heads to the newly arrived shuttle belonging to Adventure-One, the second Moon team.

On  Earth, NASA begin to get worried about the unexpectedly extended radio silence with Apollo 11, but chalk it down to a solar flare.

On the Moon, the Apollo Team are taking photos and making the most of their time on the Moon's surface, when they are attacked by the Dire Wraiths, who have jammed the lander's communications.

Four of the Adventure-One Team members head out to meet with the Apollo Team, unaware of the attack, and leave Hank alone in their shuttle, where he is attacked and assimilated by the Mystic Wraith, who drains Hank of his essence and takes on his appearance and memories, and uses his skills to take off and take over Adventure-One's base...

Side Story Plot

On the planet Marn-33 one of the Solstar Knights, Dhorian, has been captured by a group of Dire Wraiths, who intend to kill him, and use his life force to open a portal to Earth, so they can join in with the invasion there. Dhorian manages to kill one of the Mystics, but is killed himself by the Soldiers in revenge.

Two fellow Solstar Knights, Rom and Nikomi are flying nearby and see a signal fired by Dhorian before his death and head to the site, however they are too late as the Wraiths walk through the portal, and leave Dhorian's corpse behind them... 

Characters

NASA

Neil Armstrong

Buzz  Aldrin

Michael Collins

JoAnn Morgan

Kennedy Space Center Crew

Adventure-One

Dr Herman "Hank" Armstrong Killed, Assimilated and Replaced by a Wraith Mystic

Dr Sandra Shore

Dr James Brightside/Dodger

Colonel Anatoli Kiev/Arsenal

Dr Elmo Aubreyson/Scalpel

Dr Martin Flannery/Mixmaster

Dire Wraith

Mystic Aby'Ss

Mystic Sky'Sm

Axlar

Sulor

Third Mystic (Side Story Only) Killed by Dhorian

Third Soldier (Side Story Only)

K'Allor (Mentioned)

Solstar Order

Rom (Side Story Only)

Nikomi (Side Story Only)

Dhorian (Side Story Only) Killed by Wraith Soldiers

Other Human

Rick Ruby/Bulletman (Mentioned)

Mike Power/Atomic Man (Mentioned)

Neil Armstrong's Father (Mentioned)

Ray Bradbury (Mentioned)

Isaac Asimov (Mentioned)

Ralph Ellison (Mentioned)

"The Russians" (Mentioned)

Other

The Inhumanoids (Mentioned)

Notes

• This story marks the return to the original IDW Hasbroverse, although it's a prequel to most of the action in the series
• At this point in history, the Earth already has a load of Dire Wraiths living on it (as they arrived in the 1800's originally) and there should be only Centurion still alive on Earth of the Maximal team he was a part of, so we shouldn't likely see any robots in this series.
• Considering the brief knowledge of Cybertronians existing, it's not too shocking that this universe has an outpost near the Moon monitoring space for aliens. It's very likely that the Adventure-One we see here will eventually become the Skywatch we are introduced to in the main series time line.
• The Adventure-One team are, quite unexpectedly, based on characters from the Inhumanoids franchise. Sandra Shore's name is taken directly from her counterpart there, Herman Armstrong's counterpart went by the nickname of "Herc" instead of "Hank" in the original, and Anatoli Kiev was "Anatoly Kiev", a male character in the original.  The other characters seem to be new characters, but still sport uniforms coloured to match the original series'.
• The Inhumanoids themselves are referenced, as Kiev apparently encountered them in Russia. The Inhumanoids were originally set to appear in issues 4 and 5 of the Sitterson GI Joe series (the one with Skywarp as a team member), but they were replaced with the "Fatal Fluffies" as Hasbro didn't hold the licence to the property any more. It's currently unclear if the rights have been bought back by Hasbro, or if the human character tweaks mentioned before were to accommodate to the property ownership change.
• It's unclear which of the Mystics attacked and assimilated Hank this issue, as they look identical (trust me, I examined both of them in detail and found no visible differences in them, or their personalities)
• This is the first time we properly see a Wraith assimilation, and it confirms that they kill the humans and mimic their appearances, rather than possessing their bodies, something only really hinted at before with their ability to copy Joe Colton, despite his survival. It does bring to question how Camilla ended up fusing with a Wraith though...
• Amongst the Wraiths we see in the Side Story are 3 Soldiers, and 3 Mystics, one Mystic is killed during the story, but the third soldier isn't present in the main story...did he die on the way to the Moon, or is he still on the previous planetoid?
• We keep hearing mention of a "K'Allor" in a god-like fashion. Could this be the real name for the Wraith-God "The Presence"?

IDW - Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor #2

Written by: John Barber &Christos Gage

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Tom B Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

A few weeks before the attack on the Xetaxxis Solstar station, a Decepticon team led by Starscream are approached by Vekktral and his Dire Wraiths. At first Starscream is uninterested, but when he learns of Vekktral's encounter with Stardrive, he becomes interested, as he wants to know how she's been staying alive without access to Energon, and determines that if they get that secret then they can stop worrying about raiding other planets to get more...

A short while later, an Autobot shuttle holding Sky Blast, Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus inside come across a Decepticon team destroying a Galactic Council ship. They kill the Decepticons, but find the Galactic Council crew inside, all dead. They find it weird how the Decepticons were seeming to be trying to hide their involvement in the attack, since normally they'd announce this attack proudly. Magnus hacks into the computer and finds out that the ship was heading towards Xetaxxis for the negotiations, so they head there too...

About a week later, Rom attacks the newcomer Autobots, assuming they are allied with Starscream, but soon realizes that the two groups of Cybertronians are enemies too. He tries to form an alliance with them, but Magnus simply shoots him away, assuming, and insisting that the Solstar Order and Decepticons are allied together, and that Stardrive is a Decepticon who has been coated in the Solstar Armour, though Bumblebee points out that the Decepticons and the Knights are fighting each other too..

Outside, Sky Blast reports that the Station is falling apart, and the only thing keeping it in place is the force-field around it, as he observes some of the crew escape in shuttles and escape pods. 

Inside, Magnus drives into Starscream, splitting him away from Stardrive, whom Bumblebee tries to help up, she assumes he's attacking her and shoots him away. Suddenly Sky Blast appears and attacks her, in order to protect Bumblebee.

Vekktral takes the chaos as an opportunity to send one of his troops to merge with the newcomer Autobot, which causes Sky Blast to mutate into a horrifying monster, and the Wraith's mind to be merged with him, creating a new primal creature. Everyone is shocked that a Wraith and a Cybertronian can merge, and how messed up they are.

The Knights attack the new Sky Blast-Wraith, but cannot do anything to harm him. Starscream and Doomwings go to retrieve the Energon Synthesizer and leave whilst everyone else is distracted, but Doomwings is grabbed by the monster and torn to pieces.

Starscream is pissed off with Vekktral for letting his new troop kill one of his men, but Vekktral reveals that he is not in control of the monster. The Decepticons try to fight off the monster too, but end up heading out of the station themselves.

Bumblebee approaches Stardrive again, insisting that she explains who she is, and when he learns that she isn't a Decepticon, but a Solstar Knight, he explains that the Autobots are opposed to the Decepticons and their allies too, which now includes the Dire Wraiths. Magnus interrupts them and disables the force-field of the station, hoping that the re-entry into the atmosphere will kill the monster.

Magnus summons the Autobot shuttle remotely for them to escape in, whilst everyone else starts evacuating too. However Starscream destroys the shuttle before leaving with the other Decepticons and Wraiths, intending to recover the Synthesizer from the rubbles of the station on the planet below.

Stardrive takes on her aerial form and flies the two Autobots into the planet's atmosphere, knowing that they cannot survive the fall without her.

Following the destruction of the station, the Solstar Knights follow Stardrive down to the planet. Livia and Sata dismiss Stardrive as having chosen her "own kind" over them, but Rom still believes she is loyal to them, so they go to find her.

The Decepticons arrive too, hoping that the Synthesizer has survived, but soon learn that the monster managed to survive the station's destruction too, and is heading towards the planet too.

On the planet's surface, Stardrive and the Autobots are in a crater, where Magnus attempts to arrest Stardrive for breaching the Tyrest Accord by sharing herself, and her technology with an alien empire. Bumblebee calls Magnus out on being ridiculous, but he doesn't care. However he is soon blasted square in the chest by Rom who threatens to do the same to Bumblebee if he doesn't surrender, as he mourns the supposed death of his teammate....

Characters

Autobot

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport Seemingly Killed by Rom

Bumblebee - Car

Sky Blast - Rocket Merged with "Soldier"

Decepticon

Starscream - Jet

Dirge - Jet

Ramjet - Jet

Thrust - Jet

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet

Astrotrain - Galactic Council Shuttle

Doomwings - Jet Killed by Sky Blast-Wraith

"Plasma Torch Guy" - Jet Killed by Autobots

"Bulldozer" - Bulldozer Killed by Autobots

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Solstar Order

Stardrive - Spacefaring Car

Rom

Livia

Sata

Orphion (Footage)

Nikomi (Footage)

Dire Wraith

Vekktral

"Soldier" Merged with Sky Blast

Dire Wraith Troops

Other

Galactic Council Crew Killed by Decepticons and Dire Wraiths

Stardrive's Classmates (Mentioned)

Notes

• Looks like my guess from last month about this Ultra Magnus not being the Minimus Ambus incarnation was correct, he acts nothing like out little rules-stickler from Roberts' work
• The Dire Wraith's original attempt to form an alliance with the Decepticons was to point out that they both can change forms...nice try kiddos!
• So it looks like the Galactic Council ship was indeed attacked by the Decepticons, and since we see some of their corpses here, it's likely that the Wraiths only used some of their body parts to take on their forms, just like one did with Joe Colton on Earth...though I guess this could be another group of Galactic Council crew members, but it's unlikely.
• The "Plasma Torch Guy" is based on a Prime Aerial Vehicon. The Bulldozer guy appears to be just a generic with his bulldozer shovel stored on his shoulders.
• So turns out that the Galactic Council-Solstar Order negotiations were actually a real thing, but the Decepticons and Wraiths simply ambushed the Council ship en-route and took their place for this attack.
• Awwww....All of Stardrive's trinkets got destroyed with the station...including her pig-alien teddy thing from last issue :(
• I was a bit worried about all the non-Knight crew members and dignitaries on the station when it blew up, but then I noticed that a load of shuttles left the station a few pages earlier.
• Sky Blast is a direct import of the Mini-Con character from Armada, just upscaled into a full-sized Autobot here.
• So....we heard about how terrifying a Cybertronian-Wraith hybrid is from Orphion back in the Rom series....EEEP!
• The problem now, is that just about all of the characters left in the story, excluding Sata and Stardrive herself, are known to be active in the modern day setting, so we know no-one else important is likely to die off in the remaining three issues of this series, so there's less of a threat element here...
• So...Stardrive's vehicle mode has a flight mode too? I'm not sure if she's a triple changer or just developed a space-faring version of her car mode. You'd think she'd have mentioned this during her issue-long intro last time huh?
• Wonder if we'll get a cameo of Tyrest next issue so he can call on the next Ultra Magnus, or see this one vanish for the process instead?
• Technically, Ultra Magnus is wrong about Stardrive sharing Cybertronian technology with the Solstar Order. She is Camien, not Cybertronian, they have different technologies.
• The next issue preview claims that they have crashed on a mysterious planet....aka the planet Xetaxxis, which we've been told the name of a few times now?