IDW - Transformers #22

Title: Rise of the Decepticons, Part 4: Prisoners

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Anna Malkova

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Plot

Novastar's team battles it out with Sixshot, but the six-changer is far too powerful for them to handle, and it gets worse when Rumble and Frenzy free Quake from the electro net. Luckily for security though, Leviathan arrives and smashes Quake into the ground like a discarded toy. The Riser does manage to shoot the giant Cybertronian in the leg, causing her to fall directly on top of him. Knowing they're unable to win this now, Sixshot has Frenzy and Rumble retreat with hm.

Happy with having one of their top targets in custody, Novastar decides to let the other Risers escape for now, so they can also get aid for their injured team members.

News of Quake's capture spreads to Iacon quickly, and crowds begin to gather to witness the "parade" that Sentinel is having the prisoner go through before going into the prison itself, so as to show his dominance over the Rise and Ascenticons. Orion isn't happy with this idea as he thinks it'll go horribly wrong, but Sentinel is uninterested. Behind his back, Orion has Security line the streets along with some of Ironhide's Senate Guards to try and keep the likely attacks on the prisoner at bay. Whilst making these plans, Nautica contacts Orion to warn him that the dangerous Voin Asserter she and Road Rage had been escorting around Iacon has gone missing..

Elsewhere at his safe house, Bumblebee goes to a hole in the wall (caused when the Tether fell) to watch the prison parade, where he notices a lot of Ascenticons in the crowd, making him nervous.

During the "parade" Flatline works on Roughstuff's heavily damaged form, while Skytread has been working up the Ascenticons in the crowd, so they start to rush the parade platform carrying Quake, allowing the dangerous bot to escape, albeit still shackled and trapped in robot mode.

Quake manages to slip through the crowd, and down an alleyway, where he encounters the Voin Asserter, who sets his enslaved organics on the Riser causing him heavy damage, before Quake kills another Voin.

Bumblebee arrives in the aftermath, seeing Quake having been unshackled during the battle and jumps him from behind with a sword dropped by one of the dead organics, skewering his throat, causing a reaction that decapitates him and ejects his spark casing in the process.

Shortly afterwards, Stakeout and Smokescreen arrive, and although the recognise why he had to kill him, they need to arrest him for murder now. Bumblebee calmly accepts this fate, having gotten revenge on the bot who killed Rubble, but also knows his work isn't complete yet...Barricade is still alive, and his intel was what led to Quake murdering Rubble in the first place.... 

Characters

Autobot/Security Forces/Senate Guard

Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle

Orion  Pax - Truck

Ironhide - Van

Stakeout - Police Vehicle

Novastar - Car

Springer - Car/Helicopter

Smokescreen - Car

Sureshot - Buggy
Windblade - VTOL Jet

Vibes

Bumper - Car

Roulette - Car

Pipes - Truck

Brawn - Van

Grotusque

Other Guards

Blades - Helicopter (Mentioned) Injured

Ascenticon/The Rise

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

Quake - Tank Killed by Bumblebee

Skytread - Tank and Jet

Rumble - Cassette

Frenzy - Cassette

Roughstuff - Truck Badly Injured, Under Repairs

Ascenticons in the Crowd

Soundwave - Hovercraft (Voice Only)

Megatron - Mining Vehicle (Mentioned)

Barricade - Police Vehicle (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft Arrested by Stakeout

Starscream - Jet

Nautica - Submarine

Flatline -  Van

Leviathan - Metal Harvester Injured by Quake

Andromeda

Voxpop

Iacon Crowds

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead

Road Rage - Flying Car (Mentioned)

Beachcomber - Buggy (Mentioned) Injured

Hoist - Tow Truck (Mentioned)

Ratchet - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Other

Voin Asserter Killed by Quake

Enslaved Organics Killed by Quake

Notes

• I know this is a common comment in this series now, but the main cover with the main female Risers really has nothing to do with this issue's plot, in the slightest.
• Despite being depicted as a friendly character, Leviathan is shown with red eyes and a mostly purple colourscheme, which is more evocative of a Decepticon design...wonder if that's a story-beat for the future?
• The two headed NAIL from early in the Robots In Disguise era of Transformers comics is finally named here as Voxpop. His gimmick is that one of his heads just says "pop".
• Ironhide's team is confirmed here to be separate to the main Security Forces, as they are specifically Senate Guards
• Despite how it seemed last issue, Roughstuff is still alive (but in a VERY bad condition)
• In Bumblebee's defence, I don't think Quake was going to survive long after his wounds fighting the Voin Asserter

IDW - Sins of the Wreckers #3

Written and Drawn by: Nick Roche

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

In the past, on Cybertron, Prowl visits his secret Neutral ally, Mesothulas in his lab where he reports that his new invention, the "Decepti-Bomb" was a success, and the survivors of an attack by it all assumed it was a Decepticon weapon, and have all joined the Autobots out of radicalization. Prowl begins to wonder whether he's being ethical, and thinks that he can't keep manipulating people like this, however Mesothulas interrupts him and shows him his newly created Noisemaze portal, which he had originally tried to get made as a prison that causes suffering, and asks if Prowl thinks it's any good....

In the present, Verity and the Wreckers are inside the Noisemaze, but the Transformers, except for Claw Jaw and Hubcap are all in pain from the effects of the maze. Claw Jaw starts cackling and Verity asks him and Hubcap what's going on.

Elsewhere, Mesothulas shows himself to Prowl in his new body, a giant spider, and reveals that his name is now Tarantulas. Tarantulas explains that he wants to show Prowl something, and he only went after the Aequitas files since he knew it was the only thing that would catch his attention, and make him listen to him, he then takes Prowl elsewhere in the complex.

Back in Nome, Alaska, the battle is continuing, and Carnivac appears and watched the fight, he receives a message from Leobreaker inside Tidal Wave, who says that he's discovered what's jammed Tidal Wave's T-Cog. Carnivac has Tidal Wave convert back to whale mode and retreat with the others so they can sort out the problem.

In the aftermath, the Wreckers wonder what to do next, when Kup reveals the identity of Prowl's captor. Impactor recognizes the name, and has Guzzle and Kup return to Debris immediately.

Tarantulas gives Prowl a tour around his facility and reveals that he built all of this for Prowl to use in his plans to dominate the Cybertronian species, by making him a perfect undetectable army, and powerful weapons.

Inside Tidal Wave's T-Cog room Leobreaker explains that Stakeout got himself trapped inside the gears and jammed it during Tidal Wave's conversion. Carnivac dismisses Leobreaker and takes Stakeout's hand, and waits with him until his death as they reminisce over their time spent under Ultra Magnus' command in the past.

Back in his lab, Tarantulas states that he and Prowl need each other to survive, he needs Prowl to keep giving him new projects and ideas to make, and Prowl needs him as he was addicted to seeing what happened from those devices. Prowl denies all of it, then muses that he wasn't supposed to have survived what he did to him. After being shown the Noisemaze portal, Prowl attacked Tarantulas, and knocked him into it, and destroyed the lab in the process.

Taranulas explains that he survived the Noisemaze by using a "back door" he created in the system in the form of a personal jumpgate, however it took a long time for him to react to the situation due to the maze's effects. By the time he escaped, the lab and everything inside it was destroyed.

After his betrayal, Mesothulas decided to continue his work in secret and travelled to Earth where he took samples of Ore-13 and created a new substance, Obtenteum, which was used for his new organic bodies, whilst on the planet he also became obsessed with Earth's wildlife, especially the spider.

Tarantulas asks Prowl what happened to their shared creation, Ostaros, a fully artificial Cybertronian lifeform, and Prowl states that he made him pass off as an Autobot, and he died in the war. Tarantulas gets angry and threatens to cause Prowl extreme agony if he refuses to join him, but Prowl still refuses. Tarantulas leaves the room, simply hoping that Prowl hasn't lied to him about Ostaros.

Inside the Noisemaze, Claw Jaw is still cackling away, and begins to taunt Verity about Hubcap's true allegiances, but Hubcap disables his neural blocks, and kills the squid-bot, and just claims that he was annoying him.

Verity begins to ask Hubcap to project some mental defences on the other Autobots, but then has another one of her pain spasms, but Hubcap reaches out to her, praises her f trying to expose Prowl's amoral actions, but asks her to be brave for just a short while longer...

Back at Debris space station, Impactor is digging up his own grave, where he explains to Kup what the Noisemaze is, since Prowl explained it to him some time ago. They prepare some mental shields and dampeners etc, whilst Impactor unearths another gateway to the Noisemaze that was buried there.

Later, Prowl is sitting in the dark when he starts hearing the voices of Springer, Arcee and Roadbuster coming from nowhere, he wanders in the darkness until he comes to a room where he finds the three Autobots, and Verity strapped to some devices, which Tarantulas explains is his new version of Aequitas, called Impetus, a device that extracts guilt from it's users and exposes it for all to hear. Hubcap is also now standing with Tarantulas as his open ally.

Characters

Autobot

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Arcee - Sports Car

Springer - Helicopter/Car

Roadbuster - Armoured Jeep

Hubcap - Sports Car

Stakeout - Police Car Crushed by Tidal Wave's T-Cog

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Impactor - Tank

Guzzle - Tank

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Mentioned)

High Command (Mentioned)

Judge Tyrest (Mentioned)

Mayhem

Carnivac - Wolf

Tidal Wave - Whale/Tank

Leobreaker - Lion

Claw Jaw - Squid Killed by Hubcap

Cybershark - Shark

Stamp - Rabbit

Decepticon

Shockwave (Mentioned)

Neutral Cybertronian

Tarantulas/Mesothulas - Spider (formerly Motorcycle)

Ostaros (Flashback) Supposedly died during the war

Jhiaxus - Jet (Mentioned)

Human

Verity Carlo

Notes

• Mesothulas' body appears to be a new character model design, but from what we can see (and based on Tarantulas' common past alternate modes) he probably turns into a motorcycle of some sort.
• Prowl uses the radiation suits previously seen in Spotlight: Kup in the opening flashback.
• It's revealed that Mesothulas designed Aequitas.
• Tarantulas' modern body is based on his Transmetal toy design, but with an organic look, rather than mechanical.
• Tarantulas states that he is not really affiliated with the Mayhems, he just supplied them with their new disguises, and is using them as soldiers for now.
• From Prowl's dialogue it sounds like he did indeed destroy his copy of the Aequitas files.
• Tarantulas developed the Mayhem's perfect organic disguises by using some of Shockwave's Ore-13 and adding onto previously created simulated organic forms, such as those seen in Spotlight: Shockwave, and also creates a cloaking device around the spark.
• The Mayhems are also apparently fitted with mass-shifting devices to explain how they can better infiltrate the animals (such as Stampy turning into a small bunny)
• Amongst the organic body frames in Tarantulas' lab are what looks like a horse, a shark, a bison and maybe a kangaroo.
• Leobreaker is named after the Autobot from the Cybertron series, but is designed after the "big cat" mold used in Beast Wars, such as by Cheetor and Tigatron.
• Carnivac is revealed to have been a former Autobot cop working under Ultra Magnus along with Stakeout.
• Stakeout claims that Magnus missed Carnivac after he defected to the Decepticons. Carnivac thinks this is a lie, but considering how attached Magnus is shown to get to people in recent years this could be true!
• The spider that Tarantulas examines in the past to get his inspiration for his alternate mode is actually based on Black Arachnia's Beast Wars toy.
• I get the feeling that Prowl may have lied about what happened to Ostaros.
• It's highly likely that Hubcap actually made Claw Jaw's head explode on purpose, as none of the Autobots had their heads explode when exposed to the Noisemaze's effects.
• Also, I totally called that Hubcap was involved in Prowl's disappearance back in issue one!
• After this issue there will be a couple of months of hiatus due to personal reasons for Nick Roche.

IDW - Sins of the Wreckers #2

Written and Drawn by: Nick Roche

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

On Cybertron, Optimus thanks Prowl for showing him the error of his ways, by following his every suggestion, and making Cybertron a peaceful world without Decepticons. However this is all a fantasy, and Prowl finds himself tied up in some spider-webs in a dark room, where he is greeted by a voice from his past, Mesothulas. Prowl is shocked that he's still alive, but refuses to talk to his old "friend", so Mesothulas tells him to get cozy, as he'll give him a reason soon.

At the warehouse, the Wreckers are arguing with Arcee over her implication that Verity or Kup know what happened to Prowl. Stakeout gives Verity her old exo-suit again to help her keep warm, when all of a sudden she becomes sick again, and needs to step outside, Stakeout follows her to make sure she's kept safe.

Outside, Stakeout finds Verity on the end of a dock where she says that she understands why he left her before, but is glad that he's back, and admits that she's scared. Suddenly however a rabbit appears and steals her back, containing the Aequitas files. Stakeout chases after it across the frozen water and Verity goes to inform the Wreckers so they can help too.

Verity reaches the Wreckers and tells them what happened when Kup faints, only to wake up again suddenly, but controlled by Prowl from his prison using the Mind-Uplink he had implemented when Kup was revived in the past. He tells them that he's being held by Mesothulas, that he detected sea water on his body before entering his current location, so he's probably on an off-shore facility, and tries to warn them about the effects of the Noisemaze, all before being suddenly cut off from his communication. Hubcap reports that he detects no other Cybertronian life-signs in the area for them to go after.

In the Wildernesses, Guzzle and Impactor are patrolling when they come across a polar bear, who seems to instinctively attack the two invading tanks, Guzzle takes this as a challenge and shoots the innocent creature, which Impactor admonishes him for, until it turns out that the polar bear is actually Polar Claw, a Transformer, whom Impactor allows Guzzle to take on.

Stakeout follows the abnormally fast rabbit into a gap in the ice, where he finds it swimming into the mouth of a waiting whale he decides this needs to be reported back to the others.

Back at the warehouse, Kup is back to himself, but has now learned about all the Autobots he killed during the rescue missions to save him, distressing him to no end. Arcee still thinks that Verity and Stakeout have something to do with Prowl's disappearance, but is soon shut up when Stakeout reports in about the rabbit and the whale, then relays that more sea animals are appearing from the whale's mouth as well. The group put their differences aside and head out to Stakeout's location.

Along the way to the battle site, Springer begins to ask Verity why she was blackmailing Prowl, but she changes the topic to whether Springer dreamt during his coma, which he confirmed that he did, and his dreams were about Garrus-9. Verity begins to tell him what's happened to her, but before she can, Springer is attacked by a wolf from the ground.

Springer is forced into robot mode, but manages to grab Verity in his arms, and crashes down to the ground. Carnivac reveals himself and explains that he leads a group called the Mayhem, and starts to explain to Springer that they are trying to bring down the oppressive command structure amongst the Autobots and Decepticons, and also explains that his Outlier abilities allow him to paralyze and force-convert an opponent.

Impactor and Guzzle arrive, along with Polar Claw's dead body, which Carnivac allows them to keep, as he is already dead and serves no further use to them. However once Carnivac is gone, Guzzle tears the corpse in half and drains him of energon, causing a power surge in the Autobot. Springer is shocked by this, having recovered from his attack, but decides to use Guzzle as a weapon against the Mayhem.

The other Wreckers and Arcee arrive at the break in the ice, where they start shooting into the water and attack the whale, Tidal Wave. The other three Mayhems, Stampy, Claw Jaw and Cybershark leap out of the water and into robot mode, which somewhat confuses the Autobots, since they STILL cannot detect any Cybertronian lifesigns from them. The groups begin to battle, with Tidal Wave even converting into a tank mode to join the battle. Duiring the battle, Tidal Wave tries to transform to his robot mode, but is stuck halfway through, leaving some areas exposed.

Springer and the others rejoin the group and join the battle. The team head inside Tidal Wave, minus Kup, Impactor and Guzzle, who continue the fight outside, and take an injured Claw Jaw along with them.

The group are led down a corridor where they locate a gate, which Claw Jaw says they need to use to reach Prowl, so they enter it, into the Noisemaze...

Back in his holding area, Prowl is woken up by Mesothulas again, but he still refuses to engage with his captor...until Mesothulas shows Prowl the copy of the Aequitas files now in his possession, which finally catches the Autobot's attention....

Characters

Autobot

Prowl - Police Vehicle Imprisoned by Mesothulas

Arcee - Sports Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Springer - Helicopter/Car

Impactor - Tank

Guzzle - Tank

Roadbuster - Armoured Jeep

Hubcap - Sports Car

Stake Out - Police Car

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Fantasy)

Perceptor - Tank (Mentioned)

Mayhem

Carnivac - Wolf

Tidal Wave - Whale/Tank

Stampy - Rabbit

Claw Jaw - Squid Captured by the Wreckers

Cybershark - Shark

Polar Claw - Polar Bear Killed by Guzzle

Decepticon

Overlord - Tank and Jet (Flashback)

Neutral Cybertronian

Mesothulas (Voice Only)

Tyrest (Mentioned)

Human

Verity Carlo

Notes

• Just going to announce this here, my comic reviews have been a bit missing recently due to my comic supplier going bankrupt. Hopefully things should be back to normal soon though :)
• Originally it was planned for the positive-reinforcement prison that Mesolthulas uses on Prowl here to be used in Garrus-9 for the prisoners instead of Spark extraction, but Prowl found this method too humane.
• I would do speculations on he identity of Mesothulas here, but since I already have issue 3 I know it's Tarantulas, explaining the speech patterns and spider webs etc.
• Verity still owns her exo-suit that she was given by Ultra Magnus.
• When Prowl is controlling Kup, the energy coming from Kup's eyes resemble Prowl's forehead crest.
• The Wreckers and Arcee learn about Prowl implanting a mind-uplink into Kup here, and are obviously pissed off about the abuse.
• Again, I know what happened due to me owning issue 3 already, but when Prowl's communication is disrupted, you can clearly see Hubcap doing something to his head, much like he does next issue when he uses his abilities!
• The polar bear from last issue and the bunny rabbit from the start of this story are revealed to be Cybertronians, along with several others based on Beast Wars Maximal characters.
• Along with the Maximal re-purposes, Carnivac is based on his G1 character, but with a new character model, and Tidal Wave is clearly based on his Armada design, but with a new whale and tank alternate mode.
• Verity reveals that she went to Nome so she could see the Northern Lights before...whatever is happening to her takes it's toll.
• The effect given to Guzzle after drinking Polar Claw's energon resembles what happened to Razorbeast in Beast Wars: The Ascending when he was dosed with Angolmois energy.
• The final shot of the issue shows Prowl's face lined up against the Autobot insignia on the Aequitas data-slug, which is very apt since the Autobot insignia was designed based on Prowl's toys face.

IDW - Sins of the Wreckers #1

Written and Drawn by: Nick Roche

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Arcee detects Prowl's signal on Earth, but suddenly it disappears, at the same time, Kup blacks out whilst riveting the bull of the Ark. Arcee manages to pull the older Autobot inside the ship, and questions why he passed out at the same moment as Prowl turned up. She's determined to find out what happened, so she orders Kup to unseal Prowl's old quarters, which Kup claims to be impossible, due to Prowl's extreme security measures.

Elsewhere in space, Impactor is watching over Guzzle, who has been locked into a crate to try and calm him down whilst at the Wreckers space station, Debris. Roadbuster joins him, taking a break from watching over Springer's still near-death body. The duo discuss how peace has essentially ended the need for the Wreckers, and all they are now is a group of baby-sitters for their leftover members. Impactor gets fed up of wasting his time, and takes Roadbuster elsewhere in the station.

Back on the Ark, Kup manages to quickly unlock Prowl's quarters, which Arcee grows a bit suspicious of. Soon the two Autobots locate some files mentioning Garrus-9, and find an image of Verity Carlo holding a copy of the Aequitas files, and threatening Prowl with releasing it. Kup explains to Arcee who Verity is, and correctly guesses that Ironfist made her a copy of the files before his sudden death on the way back from Garrus-9.
After the discussion, Arcee deems Verity a major risk due to her holding Autobot war secrets, and having the ability to send secret messages to the head of Autobot Special ops, but Kup doesn't agree. Soon, a hologram of Prowl appears in the room, having been left in case of his own disappearance, and asks for Springer to be called in to help find him. Arcee is shocked as she can't believe that Prowl trusts Springer more than her, despite them hating each other. Kup prepares to contact Debris, but Arcee knocks him out before he can, and heads out to confront Verity herself....

Somewhere, Prowl wakes up and soon finds himself in a place called the "Noisemaze" where he appears to be suffering from visual and audio disruptions. He's greeted by a shadowy figure, his apparent kidnapper.

In Nome, Alaska, Verity is sick with an unknown illness, and is almost attacked by a bear whilst travelling through the wilderness, however she is rescued by Stakeout, an Autobot assigned to protect her by Ultra Magnus following their separation. Despite his worries about her condition, Verity seems glad to see the Autobot, and allows herself to go into the back-seat of his police car mode. The two drive off, with Stakeout apologizing for not being with her for so long, but also reprimands her for trying to expose Prowl, and shattering their loose peace with the Decepticons. Verity claims that Prowl deserves to be punished for all he did, especially to her Wrecker friends, but STakeout points out that if she does release the information, then they died for nothing. Verity however, still wants to do this, before it's too late for her.
Before long, Stakeout is shot off the road by Arcee, who captures Verity and sword-point, demanding to know where Prowl is, before Verity passes out.

On the Ark, Kup manages to contact Debris, where he confides to the comatose Springer that he hasn't been to see him, because he doesn't know what he'd do, especially knowing that Springer would do anything to save him if their places were reversed. He then orders Springer to wake up, and cuts off communications.

On Debris, Impactor and Roadbuster are walking through the Wrecker monument and Impactor asks Roadbuster about letting Springer die with dignity, which starts an argument again. However this one is cut short when Hubcap, the station's new admin officer interrupts to tell them that Guzzle is over-heating his crate and will cause a fire soon. Suddenly the alarms hooked to Springer's life-signs goes off, alerting the Wreckers that he has no signs of life any more.
Roadbuster rushes to the medical bay, where he refuses to go inside, as he can't handle it, but Impactor forces him inside, where they find Springer...has gone...

Back on Earth, Arcee has taken Verity to an old warehouse where she interrogates her for Prowl's location. Verity admits to having threatened him due to him needing to pay for his evil acts in the past, but she had no part in him going missing, not that she's upset about it. Arcee threatens to destroy Verity's bag, which assumedly contains the Aequitas files (and probably medicine for her illness) unless she gives her Prowl, she gets interrupted however, when the Wreckers, led by a now healthy Springer, appear, ready to fix the problem.

Characters

Autobot

Arcee - Sports Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Springer - Rocket Car/Helicopter

Impactor - Tank

Roadbuster - Jeep

Hubcap - Car

Guzzle - Tank

Stakeout - Police Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle Trapped in the Noisemaze

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Mentioned)

Threnody (Mentioned) Dead

Crest (Mentioned) Dead

Hyperion (Mentioned) Dead

Ironfist (Mentioned) Dead

Rotorstorm (Name on Memorial) Dead

Rack (Name on Memorial) Dead

Pyro (Name on Memorial) Dead

Decepticon

Overlord - Jet and Tank (Mentioned)

Human

Verity Carlo

Other

Prowl's Captor

Polar Bear Injured by Stakeout

Sharkticons (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the sequel series to the hit series "Last Stand of the Wreckers" but also includes some lot lines carried over from the comics released since then (Such as Prowl went missing, and Arcee is in command of the Earth forces in The Transformers)
• The art style of this comic has a more muted colour palette than it's predecessor.
• Kup's connection to Prowl is more than likely due to his secret "Pretender" process that allowed Prowl to subliminally control the older Autobot. This was referenced before during Infestation, where Prowl was able to control the zombified Kup.
• Guzzle and Impactor were last seen working alone in space taking down residual Decepticon groups in the LSOTW Hardcover edition. Roadbuster was also noted as taking care of Springer in the same book, as well as Ironfist giving Verity a copy of the Aequitas files.
• Prowl's missing eye is due to the fight he had with Optimus, following his attempted coup.
• Judging from the basic shadow shapes, and the audio-based attack being used on Prowl, I'm going to guess that the kidnapper will be revealed as Hubcap, and is probably as revenge for Pipes' death at Overlord's hands (foot) which was indirectly caused by Prowl as well.
• It's strongly implied that the police car seen at the end of Last Stand of the Wreckers was actually Stakeout beginning his new job as Verity's guard.
• Verity's mystery illness appears to be in relation to Cybertronians, as she is seen suffering with pain whenever one appears. Stakeout also seems worried about touching her or even being near her. More than likely she caught this "disease" whilst with Magnus or the Wreckers, as Jimmy wasn't shown as suffering when he reappeared in recent comics.
• Kup's comments on how Springer would do anything to save Kup if he was ill is a reference to Spotlight: Kup, where Springer authorized the deaths of many Autobots just to rescue the insane Kup.
• Why didn't Debris go down when all the other Autobot outposts were knocked out during All Hail Megatron? We know it was around before those events, since Impactor put up his pre-emptive memorial slab before his arrest.
• Guzzle has grown A LOT since we last saw him, with him now being larger than Roadbuster, last time we saw him be was the shortest of the current Wreckers.
• Judging from the letter to the readers, and small doodle in the corner after the comic, at least three Autobots will die in tis story....eep!
• Due to them being around in "The Transformers" after this, we can assume that Kup and Arcee will survive at least.