IDW - Transformers #37

Title: Darkness, Once Gazed Upon, Part One

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Winston Chan & Guido Guidi

Colours by: John-Paul Bove

Colour Assist by: Ed Pirrie

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: David Mariotte

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz

Plot

Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime meet with the Immersant Codexa, who relates how they learned of Exarchon's altered state during the original war, but by that time it had cost them many lives, including those of Cyclonus' team. Optimus asks his mentor if she thinks Exarchon is back, and she, connected to the many sparks of the planet, agrees that it is likely, even conjuring the name Ruckus as a potential victim of his...

Back in Iacon, Cyclonus barges into Swindle's bar, to see a fully revived Ruckus, claiming to have recovered from his near-death state, and is now learning what he's missed. He tries to question him about what happened, but the new Decepticon seems uninterested in talking to him.

Swindle ushers Cyclonus out, since he's not a Decepticon, and might get his place shut down by Megatron. Cyclonus leaves, but is getting suspicious by these recent miraculous recoveries...

Magnus and Prime start to leave Codexa's chamber, when Magnus notices that the entrance has been shut, despite him leaving it open, leading to him leaving, ready to fight, immediately finding a Decepticon crew led by Soundblaster holding the rest of the guards at gunpoint.

The Autobot general smashes through them, freeing the other Autobots, allowing them to defeat the Decepticons, and distracting them enough to allow Optimus to escape with the rest of his guards 

Ultimately, Magnus is forced to be left behind, leading to him being knocked out, and taken towards Iacon, for Megatron to deal with him later. Shockwave then orders Soundblaster, over the communicators, to seal Codexa's chamber, so Optimus cannot consult with her again...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport Captured by Decepticons

Ironhide - Van

Groove - Motorcycle

Grotesque - Winged Beast

Backstreet - Car

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Soundblaster - Hovercraft

Slipstream - Jet

Shadow Striker - Car

Ruckus/Exarchon - Buggy 

Roughstuff - Truck

Astrotrain - Trackless Train/Space Shuttle

Flamewar - Motorcycle

Hyperdrive - Car

Blackjack - Car

Tracer - Helicopter

Rumble - Cassette

Frenzy - Cassette

Swindle's Bar Patrons

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Voice Only)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Starscream - Jet (Mentioned)

Sixshot - Tank/Jet/Car/Gun/Winged Beast (Mentioned)

The Threefold Spark

Exarchon - Jet (Image)

Clone-Drone Soldiers - Jets (Flashback) Dead

Turmoil - Tank (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet 

Swindle - Van

Codexa Immersant, Sealed into Chamber

Other Immersants 

Paragon - Treaded Vehicle (Flashback) Captured by Turmoil

Provoke - Motorcycle (Flashback) Shot in Chest, Infected by Exarchon off-panel 

Gridlock - Gun-Mounted Vehicle (Flashback) Kill by Headshot, by Unknown Weapon

Highfire - Jet (Flashback) Killed off-panel

Grudge - Truck (Flashback) Killed off-panel

Nominus Prime - Jet (Flashback)

Highbrow - Helicopter (Flashback)

Dai Atlas - Drill Tank (Flashback)

Quake - Tank (Flashback)

Brawn - Van (Flashback)

Seekers - Jets (Flashback)

Other War Cybertronian's (Flashback)

Flatline - Van (Mentioned)

Strika - Battle Tank (Mentioned)

Croaton - Titan Ship (Mentioned) Dead

The Titans - Titan Ships (Mentioned)

Strika's Heavies (Mentioned)

Turmoil's Prisoners (Mentioned)

Other

Exarchon's "Re-Makers" (Mentioned)

Neutronians (Mentioned) Mostly Extinct, due to Turmoil

Rust Worms (Mentioned)

Notes

• With Cyclonus' team being shown in colour for the first time properly here, it makes it a lot easier to figuring out what their alternate modes are. So I have made my guesses based on these in the character list above.
• Provoke's eyes are shown to be yellow in the flashback scenes, while the version of her seen in the present day has red eyes, making it quite clear those are a side effect of Exarchon's body snatching. Interestingly though, when we see an image of Exarchon later this issue, we see his eyes were blue...
• Optimus theories here that the person he speaks to when he meets with the Immersant Codexa is not actually her, but the collective consciousness of Cybertron's sparks, possibly the afterlife.
• There's a mostly grey scale jet transformer hanging around in the command room when Nominus was being briefed on Exarchon's abilities, he never speaks or makes much notice of himself, but he seems too detailed for just a background character...I think that may be one of Exarchon's bodies...
• We learn here what has been predicted already, Exarchon is able to take over another Cybertronian's spark, overwriting it, and can possess multiple bodies at once, we do learn here though that once possessed, the process seems to be irreversible, and he is limited to controlling three bodies at any one time.
• Cyclonus previously claimed that he lost track of Provoke's body after her apparent death, but we learn here that he was dragged away before he could recover her body, before Strika's Heavies could arrive to finish the battle.
• Roughstuff is shown to be Decepti-branded now, he was a part of the Rise originally, but was arrested before being branded, and allied with Swindle's crew. The latter is shown here, but I can't see a Decepticon badge on him, meaning he's probably still unaligned, despite his bar being Decepticon-only now.
• Ruckus, really Exarchon, is shown to have joined the Decepticons, most likely to try and spread his influence again, and either recruit new soldiers or just cause trouble.
• Soundblaster is shown to be able to hold Cassettes in his chest, an ability that his mould-mate Soundwave hasn't been shown to have yet in this continuity.
• Ultra Magnus, in his Siege body, is being captured by the Decepticons and brought to Megatron? I sure hope this goes better than it did in the War for Cybertron cartoon...

IDW - Transformers: Galaxies #3

Title: Constructicons Rising! Part 3

Written by: Tyler Bleszinski

Art by: Livio Ramondelli

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

Wheeljack witnesses the Constructicons in their combined form complete a building, in the aftermath of the war, but is terrified when he sees the combiner destroy that same building, and smiles as he did so, much as he was expecting from the combination of all those minds.

Termagax manages to calm the giant down and gets him to de-combine. She suggests to Scrapper that the Constructicons need to control the seventh mind that appears when they combine, by allowing him to take the reigns in that form, which they agree to try out.

Later, in Iacon, Wheeljack meets with the Senate to report his concerns about the Constructicons, and despite Termagax's pleas to allow them to work to rebuild Cybertron as they are destined to, but the leader of the Senate, Nominus Prime, disagrees, concerned with the damage they can cause to Cybertron and it's population, and more importantly to him, the extreme amount of Energon needed to power their combined form. He allows them to fix the damage they caused recently, but after that, they need to be dealt with.

Some while later, the Constructicons complete their work in Iacon, having taken Termagax's suggestion about their combined form and are proud with their work. Nominus soon arrives and congratulates them on their hard work, and presents them with badges of honour.

Soon, Nominus gives the Constructicons a new mission, to help rebuild an energy processing plant on one of their outposts, so they can use that energy to further fix Cybertron. Termagax says she agrees with Nominus, but asks them to be wary and not everyone who has left Cybertron, has been for noble reasons.

The Constructicons leave Cybertron, heading to Mayalx, for which they hope to only be a short mission...

Characters

Cybertronian

Nominus Prime - Jet

Termagax - Van

Wheeljack - Car

Scrapper - Earthmover

Bonecrusher - Bulldozer

Hook - Crane

Scavenger - Excavator

Long Haul - Dump Truck

Mixmaster - Mixing Truck

"Devastator" - Constructicon Gestalt

Nominus' Senate Members

Nominus' Guards

Iacon Workers

Primus (Mentioned)

Megatron - Armoured Vehicle (Mentioned)

"The Abomination, Abominus" - Terrorcon Gestalt (Mentioned)

Iacon Rebuilding Teams (Mentioned)

Notes

• Sorry I'm so late on this one as well, but I've been busy with the new Pokémon games etc (plus as I mentioned last time, this series/storyline is kind of repetitive and boring)
• This issue is set entirely in a flashback showing what happened between the flashbacks in issue 1, and the present day scenes
• The scene of the Constructicons in "Devastator's" head seems to be based on the similar scene of the Combaticons inside Bruticus from Till All Are One.
• To possibly explain why the Constructicons blame Wheeljack for them being stranded on Mayalx, we see that he is the one who reported their violence to the Senate here...however Termagax tells them that SHE thought them leaving was a good idea, and we never see them learning that Wheeljack said anything...so.....what happened there?
• Nominus Prime finally makes a full appearance in a piece of media!!! YAY!!!
• Nominus directly references the early scenes from Issue 6 of the main comic, where he says that Megatron, the miners and archivists are pulling their weight in rebuilding, which we saw in that issue.
• The badges of honour shown this issue appear to be very simplified Autobot insignias, either meaning this is the origin of them, or that they simply base them off of their party's insignia for some reason.
• Since Nominus doesn't have a badge in this issue and it being set RIGHT AFTER the world changing war, we can assume that the Autobot party hasn't been fully formed yet, so I'm just going to class everyone as Cybertronian in the character lists.
• I think it's being implied from Scrapper noticing the workers also having the badges that there are some sort of symbol of trouble or perhaps an inhibiter of sorts, but we never see the Constructicons wearing them in this issue, or in the present day

IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #10

Title: Shadowplay Part 2: Patternism

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colour by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Chris Mowry

Editor: John Barber

In the past, Chromedome is chasing down the killer of Senator Momus (the guy who was killed at the end of the last issue) on his skydart when he notices how bad his target is at flying, despite having a jet mode, just before the target crashes and explodes. Chromedome reports back to Prowl and they talk with Red Alert, the warden in the area, who's been spying on Momus. He then turns on a UV light, revealing Momus has a Decepticon shrine of sorts in his room. Prowl deduces that there were two killers, just as the second one attacks, declaring "Death to the Decepticons!".

In the present again, Magnus returns to the ship after a recon mission and learns that Rodimus has detained Cyclonus on the suspision of Red Alert's attack. Drift tries some bad cop interrogation, but Cyclonus isn't impressed and just subdues the Autobot instead. Afterwards, Cyclonus says he didn't attack Red, as if he did he wouldn't leave any evidence and he would have succeeded (Red has a faint spark which First Aid is working on now) and says that he actually likes Red. First Aid calls Rodimus and says he know's who attacked Red, and that it wasn't Cyclonus.

Back in the past, Chromedome, Red and Prowl are rescued by Orion Pax, who appears all of the sudden and forces the attacker to crash, who then immediately has a spark failure, which Orion attributes to spark rejection, which is likely from a spark transplant from the Relinquishment Clinic, which Chromedome links to why his earlier target was so bad at flying, because he wasn't meant to do that. The group also figure out that Sherma and Momus weren't killed by Decepticons, they were killed because they WERE Decepticons. Orion asks Chromedome and Prowl to investigate the R.C. whilst he answers an emergency call to go to Luna-2.

Orion meets with Whirl on Garrus-1, located on Luna-2 where Whirl tells Orion that he heard from a visiting Senator recently that there's a bomb that's being planned to be detonated on Cybertron, which is intended to kill his senator friend and others. Orion thanks Whirl and leaves, just as the warden brings in Impactor as a new cell-mate for him, who proceeds to beat on the imprisoned Autobot.

The Senator is taken into custody by Roller for his protection, whilst Chromedome and Prowl meet with Trepan of the Relinquishment Clinic, and immediately take a disliking to him. Chromedome handcuffs him to a monitor and the two Autobots investigate the area, and find the place is filled with cerebralsurgeons and other horrors, which leads Chromedome to realize that this is actually The Institute, a mysterious, thought to be made-up location. The two of them believe that the council are using them to lobotomize the registered Decepticons from Proteus' Promise to make them forget their ideals. The duo leave after downloading a list found there of the registered Decepticons. Trepan escapes before they leave, but the present day Chromedome mentions that they meet up again.

The team in the past all meet up, and collate all their imformation, but believe that the council are going to use the bomb that Orion learned about to cause damage and blame it on the Decepticons, turning them into the enemies and not a political party like they want. Orion realizes where the bomb is when a news report about Nominus Prime's funeral starts airing, and hears that the Matrix he holds (which he knows is fake) will be viewable. He works out that the fake Matrix is in fact the bomb, and it's going to kill all the mourners as well as destriying a religious artifact (everyone believes the fake Matrix is the real one still). Orion and the team decide to steal the Matrix before it's too late.

Plot

Characters

Autobot/Future Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Rewind - Memory Stick

Rung - Maintenance Buggy Bain Dead

Red Alert Being Repaired after Decapitation

Swerve - Van

Chromedome - Car

Skids - Van

Whirl - Helicopter

Ratchet - Ambulance

First Aid - Ambulance

Ambulon - Leg

Rad

Rollout

Gears

Slapdash

"White Guy"

Orion Pax - Truck (Flashback Only)

Roller (Flashback Only)

Prowl (Flashback Only)

Impactor (Flashback Only)

Slamdance (Flashback Only)

Nominus Prime Dead (Flashback Only)

Flatfoot (Mentioned)

Sentinel (Mentioned)

The Wreckers (Mentioned)

Mechaforensics (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Senator Momus Killed by Fallout and Streaker (Flashback Only)

Senator Sherma Killed by Fallout and Streaker (Mentioned)

Megatron (Mentioned)

Other

Cyclonus - Space Jet

Tailgate - Car

Diagnostic Drone

Pax's Senator Pal (Flashback Only)

Senator Proteus (Flashback Only)

Trepan (Flashback Only)

Fallout - Jet Killed in Crash (Flashback Only)

Streaker - Jet Killed by Spark Rejection (Flashback Only)

Senator Empurata (Flashback Only)

Pious Maximus Captured by The Institute (Flashback Only)

J.A.A.T. Speaker - Car (Flashback Only)

Garrus-1 Warden (Flashback Only)

"Orange with Hat Guy" (Flashback Only)

Relinquishment Clinic/The Institute Staff (Flashback Only)

Relinquishment Clinic/The Institute "Patients" (Flashback Only)

Civilians (Flashback Only)

Registration Act Protesters (Flashback Only)

The Senate (Mentioned)

Senate Enforcers (Mentioned)

Cyberutopians (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Anti-Vocationist League (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Solomus (Mentioned)

Notes

• One of the speakers at the J.A.A.T. Lectures is the NAIL who transformed himself to death in issue one of this series
• Pious Maximus is shown inside the Institute/Relinquishment Clinic in the flashback, implying that his sudden change in heart mentioned in the news reports was part of the council's plot
• Whirl mentions how a bomb would be named after the guy who detonated it. This is likely a reference to Serma and his bridge, as explained in the previous issue
• Red Alert has the puncture marks of a mneumosurgeon on his neck, which is only visible under UV light, as mentioned by Chromedome in issue 8
• It's unsure where Magnus has just come back from, but I'm sure it'll be explained some time soon
• In the flashback, Prowl was still a battle-virgin, and seemed to have a bit more of an idealistic view on life, compared to his modern day counterpart
• Garrus-1 was located on Luna-2...wonder if any inmates are still on the moon?
• Ratchet believes that Whirl beating up Megatron in his cell is what caused him to go so evil
• Orion's (STILL) unnamed Senator friend's colour scheme continues to change, to the extent where he now looks sort of like Ultra Magnus...hmmm....
• It's still not sure if Roller has any connection to Opitmus' future buggy drone buddy.
• First Aid is working on the diagnostic drone that spied on Red back in issue 7
• Proteus' Promise is that when 10,000 Decepticon supporters register they will make them a political party. This is a ploy by the council to know who are Decepticons, and to lobotomize them however.
• It's implied in this story that Duo Combiners existed in the past, meaning that they probably aren't counted as gestalts (also this sign in the Clinic is shown directly under Slamdance on the screen, possibly meaning he's been replaced)
• It's been shown twice now that head damage isn't very fatal here...wonder if that means Nightbeat is still okay after all, he was just shot in the head once.