DW - Generation One V3 #7-10

Plot

In San Desto the US Military are investigating the sudden disappearance of the townspeople in a theater when suddenly one of them is hit by a device and begins to act odd, when his friend goes to check on him, he's killed by Bombshell.

At the EDC base at Area 51 Marissa plays the dying scream of the murdered army guy to the Autobots and says that the situation seems to be because of something Cybertronian and asks Jazz, Bumper, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker for help in investigating. They agree and are debriefed.

Starscream returns to his base after the incident with Sunstorm, Frenzy warns Soundwave, who quickly stops his communication with someone. The Autobots and EDC are taken to San Desto and find it deserted, unknown to them though they are being watched. The group splits up to investigate. Bumper and most of one group of EDC operatives are captured by something. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe head into the theater to investigate, after which the ground starts opening up and a swarm of Insecticons pour out and begin encroaching on Jazz, Marissa and the remaining EDC guys.

Jazz fights off the Insecticon swarm, but all the EDC guys, except Marissa are captured, so her and Jazz drive off to safety. The Twins, whilst investigating the theater find a cavern filled with eggs (containing presumably the swarm). Elsewhere, Bombshell is operating on Bumper, but leaves him when he and the others go to "welcome their guests" above, and he breaks free.

In Ohio, Bumblebee goes to visit Spike at his home and tells him he's quit the Autobots. Below the theater the Insecticons attack the two Autobots and manage to defeat them in battle, knocking them out. Elsewhere, Jazz and Marissa hide out in a warehouse where they find a pile of dead cattle, Jazz remembers that when Grimlock and the others arrived on Earth they were attacked by the Insecticons and Marissa remembers reports of dead cattle elsewhere and large insect monsters too. They work out that the two are connected, but are found by the swarm, so they run underground, where they end up at the cavern nest. Jazz worries about what's inside the eggs so he scorches them with his flamethrower.

The Autobot brothers are taken to Bombshell's lab, but are rescued by Bumper before Bombshell can operate on them. All the Autobots make their way up top into the town where they battle the Insecticons (though Bumper takes a detour and kills a couple of EDC guys offscreen). The Insecticons order the mind-controlled townspeople to act as a human shield, but Bumper stops them by turning one of their cerebro shells to overload Bombshell and defeat him and saves the day...all too easily......

On Cybertron someone steps into Shockwave's territory and he sends out Blitzwing and Astrotrain to investigate, outside they find out its one of the Air Warriors from the Age of Internment (Age of Wrath) and are confused as they were all thrown away ages ago. They manage to destroy it, but then Razorclaw appears and attacks them. Inside his base Shockwave loses all contact with his troops and wonders what happened, when Megatron appears and blasts him.

Elsewhere Hot Rod trains in an Earth simulator with Kup whilst Arcee and Springer watch as Prowl and the others load a ship and head off back to Earth. On Quintessa the Quintessons are gloating as their sleeper is doing her job well.

On Earth Jazz and the others leave the EDC base and rejoin the other Autobots on the Orion. In Cincinnati Bumblebee and Spike are hanging out by driving around and stop an attempted car jacking. On Cybertron Megatron has spared Shockwave's life, but has disabled him and introduces him to his troops, including Astrotrain who switched sides (but not Blitzwing as he wouldn't turn, so he was killed). Megatron reveals that he plans to head to Earth next, rather than bothering with Cybertron anymore.

On Earth Starscream is having the Combaticons train against the captive Sky Lynx, but the Autobot is too strong, so he binds him up again, suddenly Predaking rises out of the water, ready to fight the Combaticons and Starscream. Starscream calls Soundwave for help, but he ignores him, as his true leader Megatron has just returned.

At the Pentagon Buster Witwicky orders Marissa to restart the EXO-Suit program, whilst the Autobots begin construction of Autobot City in the Alaskan Wilderness. The Combaticons battle with Predaking, but ultimately are defeated by the more powerful gestalt, Starscream flies away to safety, however upon returning to base is attacked by Soundwave and Megatron (in gun mode).

Megatron questions both of the traitors about all that has happened and learns about Sunstorm's existence and questions Shockwave about it further. On Cybertron Sixshot is wandering around when he finds the remains of Blitzwing and examines them. Elsewhere on Cybertron Magnus is holding a meeting about reinforcing the defense of Cybertron, whilst the Quintessons watch through their sleeper agent and prepare to send another team through to the planet....NEVER!!!!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Badly Injured

Ultra Magnus - Car Carrier

Prowl - Police Car

Jazz - Porsche

Sunstreaker - Sports Car

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Bumper - Sports Car

Bumblebee - VW Beetle

Hot Rod - Sports Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Springer - Helicopter/Rocket Car

Arcee - Sports Car

Wheelie - Car

Gnaw - Sharkticon

Twin Twist - Drill Tank

Topspin - Jet

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Slag - Triceratops

Swoop - Pteranodon

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Warpath - Tank

Wheeljack - Race Car

Windcharger - Sports Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Brawn - SUV

Cosmos - Orbiter

Hound - Jeep

Grapple - Crane

Hoist - Tow Truck

Omega Supreme - Rocket and Base

Gears - Pick Up Truck

Huffer - Truck Cab

Ironhide - Van

Bluestreak - Sports Car

Mirage - F1 Race Car

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle In Starscream's Captivity

Galazy Shuttle - Space Shuttle Orion

Other Autobots at City Site

Metroplex - City (On Autobot City Plans)

Gravitas (Flashback)

Kudori (Flashback)

Vraz (Flashback)

Jetfire - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Megatron - Gun (Tank in Flashback)

Shockwave - Ray Gun Injured by Megatron

Starscream - Fighter Jet Injured by Megatron and Soundwave

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Frenzy - Cassette

Rumble - Cassette 

Onslaught - Anti Aircraft Truck Killed as part of Bruticus

Brawl - Tank Killed as part of Bruticus

Swindle - Jeep Killed as part of Bruticus

Blast Off - Space Shuttle Killed as part of Bruticus

Vortex - Helicopter Killed as part of Bruticus

Bruticus - Combaticon Gestalt Killed by Predaking

Razorclaw - Lion

Tantrum - Bull

Divebomb - Falcon

Headstrong - Rhino

Rampage - Tiger

Predaking - Predacon Gestalt

Bombshell - Boll Weevil

Kick Back - Locust

Shrapnel - Stag Beetle

Astrotrain - Train/Space Shuttle

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet Killed by Razorclaw

Sixshot - Tank/Jet/Winged Wolf/Car/Gun

Dirge - Fighter Jet

Thrust - Fighter Jet

Ramjet - Fighter Jet

Insecticon Swarm Defeated by Bumper

Air Warriors - Jets

Skywarp - Cybertronian Jet (Flashback)

Thundercracker - Cybertronian Jet (Flashback)

Cy-Kill - Motorcycle (Flashback)

Scourge - Space Shuttle (On Monitor) Dead

Quintesson

Judges

Elita One

Human

Marissa Fairborne

Spike Witwicky

Carly Witwicky

Daniel Witwicky

Colonel Buster Witwicky

Cruz Killed by Bumper

Dorry Killed by Bumper

Colligan Killed by Bombshell

"Lady Driver"

"Muggers"

EDC Team in San Desto Killed by Insecticons

EDC Members

US Military

Citizens of San Desto

Sparkplug Witwicky (Photo) Dead

Nathaniel Fairborne (Mentioned)

Other

Sunstorm - Fighter Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Dai Atlas (Statue in Flashback)

Deszarus (Statue in Flashback)

Nightbird (Film Character)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• These are the last four present day G1 issues made by Dreamwave, and it ended just as it was finally starting to get interesting!
• The movie shown in the first story features the Nightbird robot from the G1 cartoon.
• The toy shown at the start of the story is the Tako-Tank from Beast Wars II (and not a Go-Bot like the army guy thinks)
• The Autobots rescued by the EDC in the previous story line are now helping the EDC on missions as repayment for being repaired
• Soundwave's been in contact with Megatron for a short while before this story
• The Autobots haven't been told about the EDC holding some dead Transformers
• The Insecticons seem to be unknown of by the Autobots...despite being around during the War Within stories....
• For some reason the Insecticons needed to use cattle to make their swarm....I don't get it either
• Bumper is implied to be under Insecticon control by the end of the story, and he kills 2 of the EDC members as well as other things.
• The Predacons were shwon being recruited by Megatron in the Summer Special
• The Earth simulation used by Hot Rod seems to be based on the location we first see him in in the 80's G1 Movie
• Arcee is shown to be a Quintesson sleeper agent here, who seems to be working to cause trouble by pitting Springer and Hot Rod against each other
• Starscream has Sky Lynx in binds since he took them back to Earth, he now uses him as a training partner for the Combaticons
• Buster Witwicky has joined the army and now hates the Transformers for what happened to his father
• Marissa is shown to be related to Flint from GI Joe here
• The Exo-Suit is a military project here, it's not known what it would have meant, but most likely would have been used by the army to battle Transformers on mass.
• Autobot City is shown being built here (of course we never see it being completed)
• It's shown here that Shockwave knew about all that happened on Earth and wanted Sunstorm to come to the planet to unlock that seal with Starscream (but again, we never know why)
• Sixshot is mentioned as having been completed by Shockwave, and was an improvement on Blitzwing and Astrotrain, most likely due to him being a 6-changer rather than just a triple changer.
• The Dinobots are suddenly shown to be GIGANTIC in the meeting (see characters picture)
• The Female Autobots are being deployed at the end of this story for an adventure that'll never be seen!!

IDW - International Incident

Characters

Autobot


Optimus Prime - Truck Cab
Bumblebee - Sports Car Badly injured by Joe Gladki
Cliffjumper - Sports Car
Ratchet - Ambulance
Smokescreen - Sports Car
Prowl - Police Car
Wheeljack - Race Car
Jazz - Sports Car
Jetfire - Jet Injured by Vortex
Broadside - Warship/Jet Injured by Vortex
Cosmos - Orbiter
Brawn - SUV
Red Alert - Lamborghini Gallardo Emergency Vehicle
Silverstreak - Sports Car
Ironhide - Van (Mentioned) Dead
Blurr - Cybertronian Race Car
Hot Rod - Sports Car (Mentioned)
Springer - Helicopter/Rocket Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon


Thundercracker - F15 Jet
Onslaught - Anti Air Missile Truck Crippled by Autobots
Brawl - Tank Crippled by Autobots
Vortex - Military Helicopter Crippled by Autobots
Swindle - Military Jeep (Mentioned)
Rampage - Tiger
Divebomb - Falcon
Headstrong - Rhino
Tantrum - Bull
Scrapper - Front End Loader Killed by Spike
Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt (Flashback)
Starscream - F15 Jet
Megatron - Gun Badly injured
Shockwave - Ray Gun
Soundwave - Cassette Player
Razorclaw - Drill Tank
Dreadwind - Jet Killed and Cannibalized 
Darkwing - Jet (Mentioned)
Needlenose - Jet
Quake - Tank Killed by Starscream
Pounce - Puma
Acid Storm - F15 Jet
Sunstorm - F15 Jet
Rumble - Cassette
Bombshell - Boll Weevil
Kickback - Locust
Shrapnel - Stag Beetle

Human


Major Spike Witwicky (Skywatch)
Joe Henderson (Skywatch)
Campolongo (Skywatch)
Kyle Pennington (Skywatch)
Sandra (Skywatch)
Emily (Skywatch)
Schwalbe (Skywatch Engineer)
Kim Jong Du
Joe Gladki
US President (On Screen)
Russian Prime Minister (On Screen)
General Daniel Witwicky
General Allenby
News Anchor
Kim Jong Il (Mentioned) Dead/Dethroned
Korean DMZ soldiers
North Korean Soldiers
US Military Soldiers
Skywatch Personnel
Mrs Witwicky (Flashback)
Tim Simmons (Flashback) Killed by Devastator

Storyline

Megatron laments over the recent events from his CR Chamber whilst being repaired, the Decepticons are fighting and stealing amongst themselves. Dreadwind is hunted down for stealing from the others and killed, all whilst Razorclaw is watching. Shockwave is busy doing a mystery project whilst Soundwave is slaving over fixing Megatron. Starscream is strutting around the base, made from their crashed shuttle with the Matrix around his neck and goes to see Bombshell, who rather than working on a way to replenish their supplies has been working on a cerebro-shell design to control anyone fully. Starscream is angry at him for wasting his time when Quake blasts into the lab intending to kill them for leading them to their doom, when Starscream throws the shell at him and tells him to die, which he does. Starscream asks if he has any more of them.
On Earth Daniel Witwicky is officially introduced to Optimus Prime as an ally and when alone he tells Spike to be careful, considering what they've been up to in secret. Later, after the general leaves Spike introduces Sandra, a new member to the Autobots, all whilst Megatron waits to heal up.

Spike works out at the gym and reveries over how he doesn't like relying on machines and how he likes to work out to make himself stronger. Later he meets with the chiefs and explains his decision to ally with the Autobots to them which they don't seem too happy with still.
Spike goes out on the hunt and finds Scrapper in a building site, where he attacks him with weapons designed specifically to harm Cybertronians like an acidic compound. When he manages to pin down Scrapper using some fallen girders he says that he wants to kill him because of how he's a part of Devastator, and that the Gestalt killed a good friend of his in New York. He grabs a specially designed gun and blasts him in the head, utterly killing him. He leaves as he knows that a Skywatch patrol will be called in to pick him up later.

North Korea has started to produce Energon for an unknown reason to the rest of the world, but it's causing concerns across the globe as the country has been quiet since the Decepticon Occupation of Earth. In Korea's demilitarized area the Combaticons Onslaught, Brawl and Vortex attack on orders from Kim Jong Du (Kim Jong Il's son) to try and take Seoul.
Back in America Skywatch have learned of the Combaticons involvement in the crisis and admit that they expected something like this would happen sooner or later with Decepticons allying them with the more aggressive nations and they decide to get involved.
Ratchet is showing the Skywatch engineers how to help with repairing Transformers whilst fixing up Cliffjumper, whilst Jetfire and some others are worried that they might try to harm them again, since they were just doing so a few months ago. Spike goes a speaks with Optimus, who is still in a cell voluntarily and he asks Optimus to help them out as a "consultant". Bumblebee and Optimus agree that the Combaticons have to be stopped, and say that they're stronger than that average Decepticons who have been left on Earth, so they need a team to attack them.
Before they can assemble a team however the US President appears on TV and announces that the US are not allied with Autobots and that any country that is will be treated as harbouring nuclear weapons, and will be dealt with as such. Spike says that they need to change their plans now.

The Skywatch team arrives in South Korea via boat, but encounters some problems with a dock manager, until he's knocked out. The Autobots on the team leave their crates, they head into a warehouse, transform and plan their moves, including outfitting their vehicle modes with weapons.
Elsewhere the Combaticons have finished an attack and are taking an Energon break, when Du appears and moans at them for being lazy and idle. The Combaticons obey Du until they can come up with a plan for themselves. The nearby Military are getting ready to attack the Combaticons, when some heavily armed cars appear and start blasting at them (so the Autobot's involvement can be kept secret). They target Vortex so he can't fly off but he manages to fly into the air, where he's intercepted by Jetfire.
The Autobots and Skywatch lure the Combaticons to the nearby water where they mock them by reminding them that they're waterproof, however Broadside starts blasting them from the water in boat mode. Until Vortex uses his rotors to slice off one of Jetfire's wings, making him plummet down into Broadside, taking them both out of the battle. The Combaticons leave in the confusion.
Later Jetfire and Broadside are taken into the wraehouse for repairs whilst Optimus and the others worry about how they can't even win with the element of surprise, however Optimus has been in contact with Bumblebee, who has a plan to help them out.
Back in America Bumblebee meets with Skywatch at his hideout and asks him to help them out.

Thundercracker says he doesn't want to get involved, but Bumblebee appeals to his warrior side by asking himhow long will it be before he gets bored of just watching TV. Thundercracker comments that he must have been a good saboteur before his promotion. At a Skywatch base the left behind Autobots are bored with waiting for something to do. Sandra is irked by having to go against Presidential orders for the Cybertronians, but is told to just follow the orders given.
The Combaticons are relaxing after their victory in Korea when they suddenly see  alot of smoke around them and Optimus rams through the wall of the building and knocks Vortex out, where Ratchet clips his rotors and the others are stalling the other two. Meanwhile Cosmos is in orbit and manipulates the satellite monitoring the area, and alters it to show some false images, allowing the Autobots to transform and fight properly. Voretx manages to escape and gets into the air, but is stopped by a newly arrived Thundercracker and forced to the ground. The Autobots fight with the Combaticons with Skywatch's help, but are stopped by the Predacons from entering Chinese territory, which they are very nearly approaching, and the Predacons have been hired to protect.

Optimus manages to avoid fighting with the Predacons by promising not to bring the fight into China, and they start to walk off when Onslaught shoots Rampage in the back making them believe that they've broken their word, and they begin to fight with them. The situation is getting worse in the Korean/Chinese border and Cosmos is having to alter the satellite feeds again and Sandra gets worried that someone might notice how suspicious these video feeds are if analysed, she flips and turns off the encryption, allowing the real footage to go live instead of Cosmos' false images.
Skywatch learn of what Sandra just did and that she left the base right afterwards. The images are now on the news stations and the White House makes a statement. The Russian Prime Minister announces that they will start and investigation of this incident, and that they are going to air strike the battle field so that the Transformers will be destroyed, rather than having a repeat of the Occupation occurring again.
Pennington contacts Spike and warns him about the nuclear strike coming, and he informs everyone else in the battle field. The Predacons leave the area for China again to get to safety, whilst Cosmos grabs the missile and hacks into it, redirecting it into the Arctic Circle, whilst Thundercracker flies off and destroys the Energon production facility in Pyongyang. The Autobots worry about what's going to happen next, since it's been revealed that Skywatch is fighting along with the Autobots on the news thanks to Sandra. They leave the Combaticons in Korea, with no energon supplies and no way to fix themselves.
A week later Spike and his team are still on route home, whilst Skywatch's base is being hounded by protesters all saying to send the robots away. Bumblebee decides to leave the base and speak to the protesters himself and insists that they aren't here to harm them, only help and tries to explain how they are different to Decepticons, he sways some of the protesters, but one of them, Joe Gladki gets out a special gun and blasts Bumblebee square in the chest, sending him offline, causing mixed reactions from the protesters.

Notes

• The Decepticons are cannibalising amongst themselves to keep alive
• Thundercracker's lair is full of TVs so he can watch several channels at once
• Skywatch provided a ship for Springer's people to leave Earth
• It's not clear why Razorclaw stayed on the Decepticon asteroid whilst the others went to Earth...
• Spike's workout scenes are oddly homoerotic!
• Kim Jong Il must have been killed during the occupation of Earth
• I can understand why Swindle isn't with the Combaticons, since he's on the run from Magnus, but why isn't Blast-Off with them?
• The Combaticons working for North Korea is very similar to what happened in the G1 cartoon when Octane and Trypticon worked for Carbomia
• Bumblebee gets shot :3
• It's not clear why the Predacons have taken on beast modes on Earth, maybe it's of mythical significance for China?
• Ratchet uses his G1 toy's sled to help him in repairing the injured Autobots.

My Thoughts

Art


The art in the first issue of this story is much more simplistic than the rest of the book and was a drastic change after the movie-inspired issues before. The remaining issues are quite well drawn with bold colours and lines.

Story


This is actually quite a fun story-arc and looks into what would happen if other countries made alliances with Transformers, rather than just the Autobots being allied with America

Continuity


The events of Infestation happen before the events of the International Incident storyline. The rest is continued on from the earlier issues of this storyline. Springer is mentioned from Last Stand of the Wreckers. Megatron was badly injured in All Hail Megatron, but will be fully restored in Revenge of the Decepticons. Sandra's storyline will conclude in Chaos: Police Action. Ironhide was killed in For All Mankind.

Other


Cosmos' and Smokescreen's new character model is based on their Universe toys. Cliffjumper has switched to his G1 based character model rather than his previous IDW model. For some reason Thundercracker is shown in his F15 body again here, despite being back in his F22 body in the next storyarc!