IDW - Unicron #5

Main Story

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Side Story

Title: A World and a Future

Written by: Magdalene Visaggio

Art by: Fico Ossio

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Lettered by: Curtis Fandango

Edited by: David Mariotte

Main Story Plot

Shockwave watches on from the CN Tower in Toronto as his Maximals continue to destroy the city, readying it for a new Cybertronian Empire. And he determines that the Talisman must have been transported to Earth with the Transformers, so he links up with his Titan, Nemesis, who is within Unicron to scan the planet to find the device so he can retrieve it and use it on Unicron. He is however unaware that Snake Eyes and a group of Ninjas are currently approaching his location...

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Thundercracker is helping to put out fires and rescue trapped Humans, due to Unicron's proximity to Earth causing natural disasters. He soon realizes that he forgot to return a call to Marissa, which he tries to do, but is told they cannot talk, as she is in a meeting.

Marissa hangs up on her friend as she stands with Scarlett, Flint and a few world leaders, preparing a mission with the assembled forces of Earth, including the Action Man programme, GI Joe, Cobra, Dire Wraiths and the Dinobots, amongst others. Soon, the meeting is intruded on by Shockwave, Swift, Ironhide, Rom and Livia, who are acting as representative of Cybertron and the colonies.

After a short altercation between the Solstar Knights and Dire Wraiths, Trypticon orders everyone to get along, for the sake of everyone, including the still forming new Cybertronians within him.

Back in Africa, the refugees from Cybertron are preparing for battle, and reuniting with their friends  when Prowl's shuttle arrives with his crew and the Autobot Colonists in tow, willing to help in the final battle.

Soon, Jetfire calls everyone together to explain to them that Unicron devoured the black hole that his original planet form orbited, which is why he is also blinking out he stars whenever he devours a planet, meaning this threat is to everyone and everything, not just them. Optimus appreciates this, but they have to focus on defeating Unicron before fixing the damage, and they plan to use the Talisman to do it...

Shockwave has located the Talisman using the Nemesis and relays it's location to Bludgeon, ordering him to bring it to Unicron to kill him before he gets to Earth. Unfortunately Bludgeon's loyalties are now with Unicron, so he sends the Maximals down to destroy it instead....

In a moment of quiet, Optimus looks out to the stars and is joined by Arcee, who is now worried for her future, since she is finally happy with Aileron, and is worried that she'll lose her in this war. Optimus tells her that despite what happens, she has to cherish what she has now, and not dwell on what could happen. Their moment is soon ended however when Aileron reports that the Maximals are approaching the city.

Earth's militaries, including GI Joe meet the Maximals head-on, with several being killed on both sides, but the Maximals manage to slip past them. Luckily they gave the city enough time and Destro links his Mass transport device to Metroplex, allowing the city and all the ships around it to be transported away, to the confusion of the Maximals.

Thundercracker reaches Mount Rushmore, which Trypticon has also left and gives Buster to Marissa to look after for him, shocking her as Thundercracker loves his dog more than anything. He leaves to join the battle and asks her to explain that she left her out of love..

In Toronto, the Ninjas attack Beast Megatron, whom is shot in the throat by Helix with a sniper rifle, soon Stardrive arrives to help them out with Prowl heading to the CN Tower to take on Shockwave himself.

Thundercracker joins up with Starscream and Skywarp as they head towards Unicron, seemingly alone, with Thundercracker carrying the Talisman whilst the others carry Optimus and Arcee in their undercarriages. Bludgeon sees this and laughs at Starscream's feeble attack, sending Monstructor to kill him, unaware that the surviving Torchbearers have been handing onto the side of the ship this whole time.

Before Monstructor can get too far, Metroplex and Trypticon appear before him, and unleash the entire Cybertronian army, and other space-faring warriors upon him, utterly shocking Bludgeon.

Whilst the bulk of the forces face off with the corrupted Decepticons and Maximals, Starscream and the others sneak the Talisman, Optimus and Arcee to Unicron, for their final battle...

Side Story Plot

Virulina wakes up on what she assumes is Earth, but soon finds foliage and landmarks that tells her it is actually Prysmos, despite the planet's destruction. She is soon joined by Galadria, Cindarr and Witterquick, and they toy with the idea that they are in heaven, but Cindarr soon explains that they are actually on an ancient version of Prysmos, having been transported there by the Talisman.

The team start to look for more of their people and start planning some shelters, but find themselves on a cliff-ledge where they bask in the beauty of their untouched world, ready to start anew.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Chromia - Speedbike

Bumblebee - Car

Ironhide - Van

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Jazz - Sports Car

Metroplex - Cybertronian City

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Head

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Wheelie - Car

Goldbug - Car

Slide - Part of Oil Tanker

Bump - Armadillo

Roulette - Muscle Car

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Sandstorm - Buggy/Helicopter

Slug - Triceratops

Swoop - Pteranodon

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Tracks - Muscle Car

Sunstreaker - Sports Car

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Dust Up - Sports Car

Skyburst - Helicopter

Primus (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Shockwave - Flying Artillery

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Tall Tankor - Oil Tanker/Cargo Plane

Fat Tankor - Tank

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Acid Storm - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Red Wing - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Dirge - Fighter Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Maximal/Corrupted Decepticon

Bludgeon - Tank

Monstructor - Monster Gestalt

Broadside - Tank

Sledge - Backhoe-Payloader

Wideload - Dump Truck

Decepticon Vengeance Division

Beast Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex Throat Shot out by Helix

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Rhinox - Rhino

Inferno - Ant

Maximal Army

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Trypticon - Earth Embassy

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Stardrive - Car/Jet

Centurion - Luxury Car

Swift - Helicopter

Strafe - Car/Two Headed Dragon

D.O.C.

Bob the Insecticon

G2 Sideswipe - Sports Car

Next Generation Cybertronians

Cybertron/Colony Survivors

Nemesis - Unicron's Eye/Titan Ship (Mentioned) Merged into Unicron

GI Joe

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Scarlett

Flint

Stalker

Snake Eyes

Agent Helix

Mayday

Spike

Talon

Slip-Stream Killed by Maximals

Ace

Chameleon

Hi-Tech

Action Man Programme

Action Man, Ian Noble

Terrence Salmons

Bryce Chan

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Cobra

Cobra Commander/Krake

Cobra Commander/Tomax

Cobra Commander/Baroness

Major Bludd

Destro

Tempest

Red Shadow Ninjas

Storm Shadow (Mentioned)

Iron Ring

Joe Colton

Miles Mayhem

Colditz

Iron Klaw

Doctor X

Lady Shazraella

Dire Wraith

Countdown

Various Wraiths

Other Human

Madame President

Chinese President

British Prime Minister

Marissa Faireborn

Sergeant Savage

Bulletman

Jet Pilots Many Killed by Maximals

Toronto Civilians Being Killed by Shockwave's Maximals

L.A. Civilians

L.A. Emergency Responders

Visionaries

Virulina

Cindarr

Galadria

Witterquick

Leoric (Mentioned)

Other

Unicron

Buster the Dog

Garnak

Notes

• How does Shockwave not know that the Maximals now work for Unicron? He seems to know literally everything else in the Hasbroverse! Why is he being out of character in trusting Bludgeon so much to assume that he is blindly loyal to him and no-one else?
• The Nemesis is revealed to have actually been a Titan, and that was how it's absorption into Unicron gave him a T-cog. Apparently Shockwave also still has contact with it, and can see through it....making my earlier point about him not knowing that the Maximals have betrayed him even worse now....
• It's still unclear whether Beast Megatron, Optimus Primal and Rhinox are actually still loyal to Shockwave, or if they are just acting as double agents for Unicron.
• Matt Trakker is mentioned as being missing from the assembled heroes and villains of Earth, he was shown to be in Detroit with his team back in an earlier side story, showing them helping protect the people from the effects of Unicron's arrival.
• Amongst the assembled villains are THREE Cobra Commanders! The Krake version from before the Revolution event, Tomax, who was shown inheriting the title in Revolutionaries, and Baroness who became the new Commander for the last few issues of the Sitterson GI Joe run.
• Also, noticeably absent from the crowd are most of the cast of Sitterson's GI Joe team, further implying that they were probably killed in the Maximal attack on the Lemuria.
• Destro mentions that he has repaired Skywarp's teleportation powers, which have been messed up since the start of Robots in Disguise.
• Unicron having devoured and become a black hole explains how he can consistently devour planets without getting "full". It also explains the side-effect of the stars blinking out of existence whenever he eats a world, rather than it just being a poetic ending to this continuity.
• Not to be that guy, but this issue confirms a fear I had regarding Arcee and Aileron's new relationship. It was only started up because they wanted to give Arcee someone to worry about and not want to lose, rather than just having her not want to let her friends and family (aka the Autobots) die horribly...yay...
• The Earth forces include a ton of GI Joe vehicles, but since I'm not really a Joe fan, I wont be talking about them beyond this.
• It's revealed in this issue that not all of the new Cybertronians have actually be fully formed yet, with G2 Sideswipe and a couple of other generics being the only ones
• Thundercracker, assuming that he will die and not wanting to risk Buster's life in space, returns her to Marissa, who gave the puppy to him as a peace offering at the start of Season Two of Robots in Disguise.
• Tempest mentions that she wants to see if she is equal to her predecessor, implying Storm Shadow...but she lost that title when another/the original Storm Shadow arrived...maybe he died in the unreleased issues of Scarlett's Strike Force and she ended up taking the title back
• Tempest and her Red Shadows gained their Dire Wraith powers from the Talisman before the events of Revolutionaries.
• Amongst the Maximals appear to be characters using the models of the Predacons from Prime and Dinobots from Age of Extinction. Though due to the block colouring and some simplified details it can't be certain
• Uh oh, the last time Prowl and Shockwave battled it resulted in the destruction of Junkion...good luck Toronto!!
• All three original Seekers, albeit all in different body deigns, are reunited for the first time since the events of All Hail Megatron.
• If you look closely to Starscream and Skywarp in space, you can just see Arcee and Optimus underneath them, albeit heavily shadowed.
• Centurion, despite not being a Titan Master, has apparently had some sort of training from Blackrock to allow him to assist Trypticon in battle.
• Bludgeon's text box is white in his last lines, implying that he's been putting on a scaryvoice before now (much like Sunder did in MTMTE)
• This story ends with a "To be Continued". Shouldn't that be "Concluded" since it's the final issue?
• The Visionaries are revealed to have been sent to a prehistoric Prysmos, from before their civilization developed, without weapons and with a fresh start, implying this could be the backdoor pilot to a new series...
• HOWEVER! This isn't exactly a good thing for them! Assuming this isn't another dimension and was just time travel, that means that they are doomed to eventually lose their planet in the same way, with their descendants ending up on Cybertron and everything happens again
• Why does everyone act like Virulina got them to Prysmos? It was Leoric who used the Talisman to do this (you can tell this was his plan from his face last issue!)

IDW - Unicron #0

Title: Our Darkest

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

It's a beautiful, peaceful and happy morning on Elonia, the capital planet of the Solstar Order, one of the three great powers in the galaxy. Everyone is happy, as the planet is a peaceful, happy paradise... That is until a giant planet-sized creature appears in the sky above them, and begins harvesting the planet, dragging Elonians and the ground up into his gaping maw.

Optimus and his team, joined by Rom of the Solstar Order arrive to try and help the Elonians, having learned of the Unicron anomaly approaching the planet recently. The Transformers plan to set up a global space bridge on the planet's surface to transport the population to Cybertron, and to safety.

Rom hopes this isn't needed, and points out the approaching phalanx of Solstar Knights approaching the planet eater , whom Rom joins in battle. The majority of the team approach Unicron's maw to attack him from inside, whilst Rom and Livia skim the surface of the anomaly, where they discover the destroyed remains of several planets, as well as the dead Velocitronian population, including their planet's leader, Override, and the Autobot Cliffjumper, who was set with his team to help the colony out when they were under attack.

Unicron, detecting the Knights, unleashes a blast on them, killing all who entered his maw, and sending Rom and Livia hurting back to the planet's surface.

Seeing they are running out of time, the Cybertronians orbital jump to the planet's surface and proceed to set up the space bridge relays, however when they activate the system, it fails. There is a disrupting signal on the planet, which Optimus and Arcee head out to investigate. They find Rom having crashed at the Thrail Mineral Mines, where he found the Solstar Order's ore, and they are all shocked to find a partially unearthed Titan, having been buried under the surface for millions of years.

The trio enter the Titan's open mouth where they discover that the ore is actually one Shockwave's Regenesis Ores and also identify the Titan as Emissary, the Titan of Prima of the Thirteen Primes, and he is sending out the disrupting signal as he doesn't understand what the space bridge is being used for. Optimus wants to try and explain to him, but there isn't any time. Arcee draws her swords, and despite Rom's protests (since he knows Titans are like gods to Cybertronians) she skewers Emissary's brain module, finally killing him.

The Titan screams and the disruption signal is stopped, however the scream has overloaded the remote function of the space bridge. Wheeljack notices this and says his goodbyes to Bumblebee, before transporting the planet's remaining population and the Cybertronian helpers back to Cybertron, but remains behind as the planet is fully destroyed.

The remaining Solstar Knights managed to get off the planet in shuttles, with Livia even being rescued by Sata, as Optimus, Arcee and Rom Orbital Jump back to the Ark-Zero, where they learn the death toll of the third of the planet.

Having finished devouring the planet, Unicron teleports away, ready for his next meal, in his wake, the stars begin to vanish...

In the aftermath, Rom is informed by Windblade, through a holo-communication that Elonia is the fifth known planet to be devoured by Unicron, and they now know that he is going after the Colony/Regenesis Ore planets, which means he will eventually arrive at Earth, which they are now more determine to keep safe.

Unknown to the team however, Unicron teleports into the skies of Eukaris, and begins feeding on the planet, finally speaking aloud..."I hungerrr..."

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Arcee - Sports Car

Bumblebee - Sports Car

Wheeljack - Race Car Killed with Elonia

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

Slug - Triceratops

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Sunstreaker - Sports Car

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet (Over Holo-Communicator Only)

Cliffjumper - Sports Car Dead

Ironhide - Van (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Swift - Helicopter

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Bob, the Insecticon

Strafe - Two Headed Dragon/Car

Emissary - Space Ship Euthanized by Arcee

Override - Race Car Dead

Energon Hot Shot - Sports Car Dead

Velocitronian Civilians Dead

Cheetor - Cheetah

Manta Ray - Stingray

Prowl II - Owl Killed by Unicron

Various Eukarians Killed by Unicron

Primus (Mentioned)

The Primes (Mentioned)

Prion's Titan (Mentioned) Dead

The Necrotitan (Mentioned) Dead

Solstar Order/Elonian

Rom

Livia

Sata

Guar

Butin

Nikomi Killed by Unicron

Q'b Killed by Unicron

Prim Killed by Unicron

The Bat Knight Killed by Unicron

Elonian Girl

Elonian Girl's Pet

Elonian Civilians One Third Killed by Unicron

Elonian Animals

Other

Unicron - Ringed Planet

The Iron Ring

Notes

• So...this issue kind of spoiled that Bumblebee is coming back from the dead in an upcoming Optimus Prime issue huh?
• Cliffjumper hasn't been seen too much in recent years, so he was pretty expendable and could be killed off quite easily...seems a bit weird that they gave him a new Evergreen style body just before killing him though.
• Amongst the dead Cybertronians on Unicron's surface is the Energon version of Hot Shot. Whilst this is possibly just an Easter Egg, it's also possible that this is the already established Camien version of Hot Shot. We know that some Cityspeakers were sent to Velocitron to help repair Navitas, and Hot Shot is a Cityspeaker, so maybe he was sent there and just changed his body to better fit in with the locals.
• Something to note, as of this issue, with Override's death, we see the first confirmed permanent named female Cybertronina death (Praesidia and Magrada aren't confirmed as Shockwave probably did some experiments on them, and Lug was only confirmed dead for one issue before being brought back to life with the power of love)
• In case you don't read the Rom comics, the read beams in Elonia's sky is a forcefield designed to keep the planet free of Dire Wraiths.
• This issue confirms that both the planet Emissary crashed on was Elonia, and that the strange ore used by the Solstar Order for their suits is one of Shockwave's Regenesis Ores, which has been a long-standing fan theory.
• Optimus identifies the Solstar Ore as "Ore-12". It's not explained how he knows this, but most likely he either finds a dossier on the Ores in the Crystal City, or Shockwave gave him the knowledge before this issue.
• The ship used by Optimus is named the Ark-Zero, and is apparently the fastest Cybertronian ship available to them. Again, we don't know where this ship has come from or who built it. Maybe Wheeljack or someone has been building it in secret for the past couple of years just in case of the war restarting?
• Optimus can apparently read the thought patterns of Titans now! Again, we don't know how or why, but my guess is that he IS in fact "The Arisen" and this is just an innate talent he has, that was just never really shown before (other than him raising three different Titans in the past)
• So...we know that Emissary was carrying Prima's body on him, but Optimus says that he was travelling to try and spread the word of the Primes, and is claimed to be one of the Colony Titans...does that mean he had a Hotspot inside him that has just been eaten by Unicron too?
• Soundwave confirms that they managed to rescue two thirds of the life on Elonia (including animals) and Optimus states that three billion Elonians died in Unicron's attack. So we can guess that there was approximately nine billion Elonians on the planet (I'd assume that Optimus isn't counting the animals) meaning that Elonia is likely about the same size as Earth.
• This issue makes a potential soft retcon that the Colony Worlds, and the planets seeded with Shockwave's Regenesis Ores are the same worlds. It's unclear if this was always the plan, but it doesn't really contradict anything stated earlier. We just haven't seen the Ores of Velocitron, Caminus or the other colonies yet.
• It is confirmed in this issue that LV-117 was indeed destroyed by Unicron, and the red light in the sky etc we saw when Optimus was sent there during it's time-displacement was due to him.
• It is mentioned that Gorlam Prime was also devoured by Unicron...didn't that planet get destroyed by the portal to the Dead Universe? Maybe there was a husk remaining that he devoured or something?
• We learn here that along with LV-117 and Gorlam Prime that Prion and Velocitron have been recently devoured too, so I'm guessing this stuff will happen in the upcoming Optimus Prime issues.
• This issue ends with Eukaris being attacked by Unicron. Whilst we don't see it fully devoured like Elonia, we can assume that he does destroy another planet here.
• One of the Eukarians is based on the Transmetal Prowl II character, who was previously seen as part of the Chimeracons under Tarantulas' command. It's possible that he's the same guy who just relocated to Eukaris following the events of the upcoming "Requiem of the Wreckers"
• The "Allies" Windblade mentions, who have been monitoring Unicron and his actions for some time is likely Prowl's group, who we saw had a mass of weapons and even artefacts depicting Unicron.
• The winged Solstar Knight isn't named here but since he has a fairly big role this issue, I have decided to name him "The Bat Knight"...because he looks like a bat to me....that is all...
• Windblade reveals that the second Talisman pulse (Galadria's healing wave from the end of Transformers vs Visionaries) also sent out another message into space, the name "Unicron".
• Adding to my long-standing belief that Unicron is actually Mortilus of the Guiding Hand, Cybertron's messages to space refer to Unicron as "Death", which was the aspect that Mortilus is the "God" of. Considering it's been stated recently that Primus placed his consciousness into Vector Sigma, the core of Cybertron, thus meaning it was him, another of the Guiding Hand, who called out
• So...here's my twisted theory of the day. Unicron devouring planets and rebuilding himself with the remains is basically the IDW version of the concept of "till all are one" with all the Cybertronian colonies being fused into one (whether they survive it or not)

IDW - Rom and the Micronauts

Title: Gods and Monsters

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rom and the Micronauts confront Karza and D'rge, whilst the Absence is incubating both the Presence and the Entropy Cloud within himself, speeding up her rebirth. Rom takes on Karza alone, whilst the Micronauts attack D'rge. Using the Presence's power, D'rge sends energy to all the Wraiths on Earth, allowing them to reveal themselves and begin conquering the planet.

Nearby, Orphion and Livia detect the massive Wraith readings, so they decide to join Rom in his battle, leaving the Wraith guards at the facility to Camilla and Darby.

During Rom's fight with Karza, he attempts to retake his energy from the Baron using an Enerchange, shocking Karza, and the two fight over the Enerchanging process and are slowly fusing.

Livia and Orphion arrive, with Livia joining the Micronauts in attacking D'rge, whilst Orphion goes straight for the Absence, shooting into him to hit the Presence...however when he fired into him, he became exposed to the Entropy Cloud inside, corrupting his body. Knowing he is dying from the exposure, he grapples with D'rge and strangles him to death, just as his body fails too, and he dies...

The Micronauts and the Knights begin their attacks on the Presence when Karza appears behind them, having fully merged with Rom, seemingly in charge of the body, however Rom manages to show he has some sway too, and forces him to blast a hole into the Absence, opening a hole, and beginning to seep out the Entropy Cloud forcing him to help them. The group focus all their weapons fire on the hole, and force the Presence to remain inside the decaying body of the Absence, forcing her to also become over-exposed to the Entropy Cloud, killing her with explosive effect.

The group make it outside where Karza ejects Rom from his body, giving him back all his own energy. The Knights and Micronauts prepare to battle their enemy, when he suddenly displaces himself back to Microspace, declaring victory.

The team soon learn that the Wraiths across the planet are being subdued and killed due to their extra energy being removed with the Presence's death.

A while later, Orphion is buried on Earth with full Solstar honours. Rom bids goodbye to his tiny allies, who have learned that when Karza returned to Microspace he took full credit for getting rid of the Entropy Cloud, and is now being hailed as a god. The Micronauts are heading back home to reunited with Oz and the Time Travelers to try and stop Karza and his new regime...

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphion Killed by Entropy Cloud Exposure

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron

Oziron Rael (Mentioned)

Dire Wraith

The Presence Killed by Entropy Cloud Exposure

The Absence Killed with The Presence

D'rge Killed by Orphion

UN President Wraith Defeated

NORAD Wraiths Defeated

Parisian Wraiths Defeated

Other Earth Wraiths Defeated

Other Microspace

Baron Karza

Microspacian Citizens (Footage)

Acroyear III Units (Footage)

Time Travelers (Mentioned)

Human

Camilla Byers

Darby Mason

UN Members

NORAD Workers

Parisian Citizens

Notes

• It turns out, despite his theory that he would survive exposure to the Entropy Cloud, due to his armour, that Rom would have died if he had of back in Microspace.
• So...for basically the main villain of the Rom series, D'rge dies from being strangled....I'm surprisingly okay with that!
• Orphion's death was sort of spoiled in the earlier released (not reviewed here yet) Unicron #0, where he was missing from the Solstar Order's ranks
• So...I was sort of right in my theory...Karza did end up betraying the Wraiths and helped to kill their Goddess, but he was forced to do so by Rom. So I sort of got it right I guess?
• AHHHH!!! Microtron zombie!!! I mean he clearly seemed to die before, so what other explanation is there to him coming back to the story?
• It can be assumed that Livia leaves Earth after the events of this story to return to Elonia for the events of Unicron #0. This is likely due to the Wraith infection on Earth being so minimal now.
• Oz gets a name-drop in this issue! Now if only he would have appeared...
• Aww what a happy ending (minus the Orphion dying part) it sure would be a pity is some evil demon planet was to come along and ruin it...
• Despite this being the ending of the Rom and Micronauts series', this really feels like an opening to another series for the Micronauts back in Microspace being set up.

IDW - Rom and the Micronauts #4

Title: Asymmetric Warfare

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Gold Goldstein

Plot

Orphion, Livia, Camilla and Darby are pinned down by a small army of Wraiths, including Axiom and Reptos, being powered up by sorcerers in South Korea. Luckily Rom and the Micronauts arrive and turn the tide of the fight by taking down the sorcerers, allowing the others to fight properly again. Axiom escapes to warn Karza and the others about this turn of events, whilst the heroes take out the remaining Wraiths. During the battle Rom is pointed towards the Reptos, who have Enerchanged with others to gain a larger size, but are left unstable due to the difference in power, meaning Rom needs to Enerchange with Karza to regain his own true powers.

Following the battle, the Earth team explain that Karza and the Wraiths have set up base on a Japanese island facility, Hashima Island, and have Japan on their side due to them infiltrating their government and portraying the Solstar Knights as murderers. Whilst Orphion shares his intel on the island with the Micronauts, Rom talks with Livia about his lessons in Enerchanging, and believes that they could use it to be able to safely remove their armour and resume their pre-war lives, however Livia doesn't want to do that, as she isn't the same person she was before they joined the war.

At Hashima Island, Axiom explains what has happened, and the Wraiths are starting to panic. Karza reveals that he has a plan to speed up their plans, but it requires The Absence to be "dedicated", angering the intangible Wraith to the point that he agrees, just to show his power...

Back at the staging ground, Acroyear approaches Livia and relates to her that he is also an organic being trapped inside armour, and that he would give anything to remove it and have a normal life, indicating towards Phen again. Livia picks up on what he's saying and points out to him that one's appearance doesn't matter, and she has witnessed many very different species fall in love in her travels across the universe, even a Solstar Knight and a Dire Wraith once fell in love. Rom's true ambition with removing his armour is that he hates it because it is a constant reminder of how his family and his innocence died.

After their preparations, the team head out to Hashima Island, where they split in two teams, Rom and the Micronauts use their smaller size to sneak into the base, whilst Orphion and the others create a big distraction outside.

Things begin well, but Axiom notices that Rom isn't amongst the others fighting so he hunts him down. The Micronauts manage to fight off Axiom, but Rom finishes him off by Enerchanging with him, stealing his size and seemingly sending him to Microspace as Karza did to him earlier. Rom is glad to have a full sized body again, but can feel his body is unstable, so the group rush off to confront Karza and get Rom's true power back, however as they reach his chamber, they see Karza has already succeeded...he has awoken The Presence...

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphion

Space Knight in Love (Flashback)

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron (Voice Only)

Baron Karza

Dire Wraith

The Absence

The Presence 

D'rge

Axiom Shunted to Microspace by Rom

Wraith Sorcerers

Wraith Soldiers Most Killed

Wraith Hawks

Reptos Army Most Self Destruct

Wraith Sorcerer in Love (Flashback)

Human

Darby Mason

Camilla Byers

Other

Fire Alien (Flashback)

Multi-Headed Alien (Flashback)

Torchbearer (Flashback)

Blind Alien (Flashback)

Rom's Family (Flashback) Dead

Notes

• I know it's the penultimate issue, and they had to gloss over the timeline between the end of Rom and this series, but I still find it amazing how quickly Livia and Orphion accept Camilla and Darby, considering the former has partial Dire Wraith powers, and the latter is wearing the dead arm of one of their former allies...
• Oh wow! It's Axiom! He hasn't been seen in like a year, wonder if he'll do a lo- oh...he pretty much dies at the end
• It's implied by his dialogue that "The Absence" is technically "An Absence" and is a position one can attain through a hard ritual, and implies to be a conduit for The Presence to be summoned through.
• Amongst the aliens who find love appears to be a Torchbearer (Camien religious warriors and the guards for the Mistress of Flame) and a blind alien (based on her eyes being covered, yet they still have a gun out)
• Microtron, despite seeming to be on death's door last issue is HEARD on the ship a few times this issue...we don't see him, so either this was a late addition just to show people he's fine before the series ends, or it's for a reveal that he's been modified in some way on the ship (maybe even as part of the ship now?)

IDW - Rom and the Micronauts

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editors: Carlos Guzman & David Mariotte

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

D'rge and Karza discuss their potential new alliance to deal with their now mutual enemies, with The Absence joining them to at that he has a plan for them to work together to defeat the Micronauts and Rom alike. He teleports them all away to their goal...

A few hours later, the Micronauts arrive at the Dire Wraith's lighthouse, having been following Karza's signal but find it abandoned. They detect Wraith signals there too, but since there's no sign of a battle they assume that the two forces have teamed up. They head off to find Rom, as they figure he'd be interested in working together since the Wraiths are involved.

Inside the Lighthouse, one piece of the Absence remains and reports to the others that the Micronauts are doing as they planned.

Later, the Micronauts find Rom and his human allies, Darby Mason and Camilla Byers, in Utah having just taken down a Wraith cell, and they agree to join the Micronauts in taking down Karza and the Wraiths alike. Rom uses his Analyzer to detect a location where Wraith and Microspace technologies are the highest, and determines that that must be where they are hiding. He sends a message to Orphion and Livia, who are currently dealing with another mission, to tell them where they are going and they head off.

Soon our heroes arrive at the Yucca Mountains in Nevada where they immediately attack the Wraiths, but unfortunately they planned for this, and using a combination of Karza's Enerchange ability, and D'rge's magic, Karza begins to Enerchange with Rom himself. Rom tries to fight off the Baron, but he's getting weaker as Karza is stealing his strength, whilst the rest of the team are busy with the Wraiths, and cannot help their ally.

Orphion and Livia manage to arrive, just in time to see Rom seemingly reduced to nothingness and Karza has taken all his power. The other two Knights attack Karza, but he easily defeats them, and leaves with the remaining Wraiths, planning to kill the Knights at a later date.

Later, the Knights are revived and they confirm that there is no sign of Rom, or the Micronauts. They swear to take down Karza in the name of Rom, and will get revenge for him...

Some time later still, the Micronauts manage to unearth themselves from some rubble they were trapped under during the battle, where they make shocking discovery, Rom is not dead, he has been transported to Microspace. They decide to head to Microspace to rescue him, and also see if he has some way to stop Karza, since their powers are now connected through the Enerchange...

In Microspace, Rom is floating in space, surrounded by a Reptos swarm....

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom Displaced to Microspace, Energy Drained by Karza

Orphion

Livia

Fy-Laa (Mentioned) Dead

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron

Dire Wraith

The Absence 

D'rge

Lava Monster Likely Killed by Orphion and Livia

Wraith Troops

Wraith Cows Killed by Rom's Team

The Presence (Mentioned)

Human

Darby Mason

Camilla Byers

Action Man (Flashback Only)

Scarlett (Flashback Only)

Roadblock (Flashback Only)

Snake Eyes (Flashback Only)

Other Joes (Flashback Only)

Miles Mayhem (Mentioned)

Other Microspace

Baron Karza

Reptos Swarm

Other

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Flashback Only)

Notes

• It's confirmed here that The Absence is in various locations at once, partly explaining his translucent appearance and intangibility 
• It's also confirmed that The Presence is not literally under the Earth's crust, but in a "Synchronic Dimension" that appears to be connected to the crust
• Larissa has been given a slight redesign, giving her a fully shaved head, likely to help distinguish her from Darby Mason, who could honestly be her alternate universe self, they look so similar!
• Orphion and Livia are fighting against a lava monster of some sort...I guess that explains where they were during the First Strike tie-ins, but....WHY AREN'T WE SEEING THAT STORY?!?
• Rom doesn't look in any way concerned that Darby is wearing his dead best friend's arm on her arm does he? Also his other human friend still has Dire Wraith powers.....I think we're missing a story here!
• Biotron kept up to his promise to analyse the Wraith magic so the Micronauts can be protected from it
• From the looks of it, Karza didn't just steal Rom's strength and size, but also his Neutralizer energies...who wants to be that he'll turn against the Wraiths and kill some with that power in this series?
• The beam of Neutralizer energy that Orphion and Livia shoot up in memorial for Rom's "death" is a reference to what Rom did to memorialize his family's murder by the Wraiths in his annual.
• Oh hey! Rom was sent to Microspace! I look forward to returning there for the first time since pretty much the start of the Micronauts series!
• It's mentioned a few times that there is a Microspace colony on Earth now...I want to see that!
• Considering how Microspace looks peaceful, and the Reptos as alive again, we can assume that the Time Travelers were successful in stopping the Entropy Cloud...yay!

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.