IDW - Transformers vs The Terminator #4

Title: Enemy of my Enemy, Part 4

Story by: David Mariotte, Tom Waltz & John Barber

Written by: David Mariotte & John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: Tom Waltz

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Plot

Starscream continues his gambit to force the Terminator to team up with him to take out the Autobots and Megatron by holding the Cyberdyne employees hostage, however the smaller robot has scanned the humans and determined that they aren't needed for Skynet to be formed, but he still agrees to an alliance for his own needs.

Sarah tries to contact the Ark from a guard house, but is stalked by Ravage, and is unable to reach the Autobot shuttle.

Whilst Optimus and Megatron fight it out, Arcee, Velocity and Bumblebee battle the other Decepticons, when Soundwave notices Sarah's attempts to contact the Ark failing, and realizes that something has happened to it, he tries to inform Megatron, but gets shot from behind by the treacherous Starscream, who then launches the Terminator at Megatron to try and kill him immediately, but Megatron catches him and flings him back at Starscream, downing him in his jet mode.

Seeing Soundwave getting attacked, Ravage gets distracted, so Sarah makes her move, she tussles with Ravage, and manages to get her gun into his mouth, shooting him through the brain module, killing him.

The Autobots finish the other Decepticons off, seemingly leaving just Megatron around. Sarah calls for help, as she's found the Terminator crushed under Starscream. The Decepticon jet transforms and prepares to attack the Autobots, when the badly injured Soundwave arrives, firing on him in revenge, leading to him flying away. Soundwave turns on Sarah and the Terminator, but they shoot him, finishing him off.

After the bulk of the battle, the Terminator asks the Autobots to throw him into Megatron again, seeing he has a small hole on his chest now from the battle, he's thrown through, and starts shooting at Megatron's spark, causing it to explode, killing the smaller robot along with Megatron.

In the aftermath, the surviving Decepticons are captured, but the dead are left behind as the human authorities arrive. Sarah stats behind to cover for the Autobots, but promises Bumblebee to keep an eye on them...

Soon, the Autobots return to where the Ark should be, but instead find the molten remains from the Terminator's explosives, and realises that they are the only Cybertronians on Earth now, so until they can make contact with Cybertron again, they should stay low and form a truce for now, which the Decepticons agree to.

Some time later, Sarah has joined Skywatch as a high ranking member, so she can watch over the Autobots, fulfilling her promise to Bumblebee...

However, under ground of the facility, scientists have examined Megatron's body, and created an army of T-800 and T-8000 Terminator's, which seem to be infected with Megatron's still working mind....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Arcee - Ford Mustang

Velocity - Pontiac Firebird

Bumblebee - VW Beetle

Ratchet - Ambulance (Mentioned) Killed in Ark Explosion

Wheeljack - Race Car (Mentioned) Killed in Ark Explosion

Ark Autobots (Mentioned) Killed in Ark Explosion

Decepticon

Megatron - Gun Killed by the Terminator, Rebuilt into Skynet

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Soundwave - Cassette Player Killed by Starscream, Sarah Connor and the Terminator

Ravage - Cassette Killed by Sarah Connor

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Kickback - Locust Killed by Arcee

Skrapnel - Stag Beetle

Bombshell - Bill Weevil

Future Starscream - Hunter-Killer Aerial (Memory)

Skywatch

The Terminator Killed when Megatron's Spark exploded

New T-800's

New T-8000's

Human

Sarah Connor

Chet

Cyberdyne Employees

Skywatch Employees

Emergency Responders

Notes

• Even though it doesn't seem likely, Kickback seems to have been killed from his kick from Arcee, since we never see him again after this.
• With Starscream and the other Seekers still alive, and Megatron being used as the basis of a new Skynet, it seems possible that the future seen at the start of this series could STILL happen, just with, and given the series, most likely will happen again 
• The Terminator killing Megatron by attacking his Spark directly seems to be in reference to Megatron's temporary death at the end of the 2007 Movie, with the Terminator in place of the Allspark.
• The United Transformers at the end of the story stand around in a circle chanting "Till all are One" in a reference to the G1 movie
• The Skynet Alpha Base seen here is the same one referred to as "Omega Base" in issue one, just altered due to the time travel.
• Why would Skywatch create the T-800s in the likeness of the kill-robot that came from nowhere?
• As is traditional for these recent Crossover comics, the end leads it open for a sequel of some sort.

IDW - Transformers vs The Terminator #3

Title: Enemy of my Enemy, Part 3

Story by: David Mariotte, Tom Waltz & John Barber

Written by: David Mariotte & John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: Tom Waltz

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Plot

Aboard the Ark, The Autobots are busy fixing up their shipmates, and the vessel itself, though Wheeljack says it'll never fly again, but the systems are online. Whilst they are rebuilding, the Terminator watches on, analysing his current allies, waiting for his future opportunities to take them down.
Optimus gives out orders to the actice Autobots, Wheeljack and Ratchet are to stay on the Ark to continue reviving their friends, and monitor the situation on Earth using the local transmissions, Optimus and Velocity are going to investigate possible energy source to help power the Ark for the repairs, Arcee and the Terminator are to search the perimeter for any Decepticon traps in the area, whilst Bumblebee is to escort Sarah home, per her request. Before they leave, the Terminator mentions that he has no weapons, prompting Arcee to take him to the armory.

Elsewhere, the Decepticons have ransacked the Cyberdyne Systems facility, where Starscream interrogates the scientists about their "Hunter" robot, which they know nothing about, meanwhile the others are using the machinery to fill Energon Cubes for their own usage.
Meanwhile, on the Oregon coast, Optimus and Velocity have found the remains of the dune buggy and humans that Starscream destroyed, and Velocity finds a used optic casing, showing them that the Decepticons were definitely here...
On her way home, Sarah stopped by a clothing retail store to change out of her battered waitress outfit, before carrying on with their journey. On the radio they hear about the Decepticon attack on the Cyberdyne facility, and decide to look into it.

Back at the Ark, the Terminator finds a blaster that he likes, and Arcee has Teletraan-1 resize it for him to use, but Arcee also mentions that, even if Optimus trusts him for some reason, she's going to keep an eye on him, and if he tries to fire upon any Autobot, she WILL kill him on the spot.
The two head out for their perimeter check, but along the way, the Terminator secretly plants explosives around the Ark and the perimeter.
They duo reaches where the downed Sky Spy crashed, where the Terminator states that he shot it down when it scanned him. Before they can continue though, Bbumblebee calls in about the Decepticon attack.

At the Cyberdyne facility, Bumblebee prepares to stall the Decepticons, to prevent further damage and wait for the others to arrive, but before he can get Sarah to safety first, Skywarp attacks them, forcing Bee to grab Sarah and drive her straight to the facility.
Just before Skywarp can attack them again though, he is shot down by the Autobots and Terminator. An all out battle begins, and Sarah is tasked with getting through to Ratchet and Wheeljack for reinforcements. During the battle, the Terminator plants one of his explosives on one of the Refraktor trio's face and pushes down the plunger.

On the Ark, Ratchet and Wheeljack are working on their next batch of repairs, and they just need a little more energy from the Ark to revive them so they can bring real reinforcements to the battle. However, before they can find an energy source, they start hearing beeping, as the Terminator's explosives all set off, engulfing the Ark, Mt St Hilary and the surrounding area with destructive fire!

Back at the battle, Refraktor's head blows up in a controlled explosion, just as Vvelocity shoots off the head of another Refraktor, signalling a "nice job" thumbs up to the Terminator. However, just as he is reciprocating it, Starscream shoots around him to get his attention, and declares that he knows his secret, that if he kills the Cyberdyne workers, then he'll cease to exist, so he wants to make a deal....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Semi-Truck
Bumblebee - VW Beetle
Arcee - Ford Mustang
Velocity - Pontiac Firebird
Ratchet - Ambulance Caught n Ark Explosion
Wheeljack - Race Car Caught n Ark Explosion
Grimlock Inactive, Caught n Ark Explosion
Jazz Inactive, Caught n Ark Explosion
Sideswipe Inactive, Caught n Ark Explosion
Windblade Inactive, Caught n Ark Explosion
Other Ark Autobots Inactive/Dead, Caught n Ark Explosion (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Megatron - Gun
Soundwave - Cassette Player
Ravage - Cassette
Starscream - Fighter Jet
Skywarp - Fighter Jet Blasted by Optimus and the Terminator
Thundercracker - Fighter Jet Skewered with Sword by Arcee
Kickback - Locust
Skrapnel - Scarab Beetle
Bombshell - Boll Weevil
Refraktor Trio - Camera Two killed by the Terminator and Velocity

Skynet

The Terminator

Human

Sarah Connor
Cyberdyne Systems Workers Some killed by Decepticons
Random Human Pedestrians
Radio Presenter (Voice Only)

Notes

• Arcee being a warrior and being "Threat Level: Maximum" is a reference to her depiction mainly in the IDW continuities, despite this continuity being based on the G1 cartoon, where, whilst she was a gunner, wasn't really a hardened warrior
• Arcee and Velocity get completely new alternate modes here! Arcee now has a mode based on a Ford Mustang, and Velocity is a Pontiac Firebird. Whilst Arcee HAS had a few Earth-modes before in comics and toylines, this marks the first time Velocity has an Earth-mode! Congrats to her!
• The Terminator mentions that the Sky Spy scanned him...could this be how the grandfather paradox comes to play of Cyberdyne creating Skynet from the Terminator's design?
• Grimlock is shown to have existed pre-Earth in this version of the story, despite being built on Earth in the G1 cartoon.
• Whilst blasting holes into, and skewering Cybertronians isn't normally enough to kill them, considering this is the penultimate issue of this crossover, I think we can assume that the badly injured here are most likely dead.
• Among the Autobots being repaired is Windblade, a character that is usually pretty major in these crossovers, so having her just being "dead" here is a bit of a jarring move.
• I'll be quite surprised if Ratchet, Wheeljack and the inactive Autobots were able to survive the Ark and Mt St Hilary exploding, though then again, the Decepticons all survived being dropped in a lava stream at the end of season one of the cartoon... (And NO, them saying they need a little energy to revive the others will not be a good excuse, a giant explosion is not a "little energy")
• How did Starscream learn about the Terminator's true nature? If he heard him call himself a "Cyberdyne Systems" robot, then that would make sense, but I'm pretty sure he's only referred to himself as that to Sarah and the Autobots.
• Starscream's threat also doesn't really work in canon though, since we've seen that even when Skynet is wiped out in Dark Fate's backstory, the Terminator they sent back, who killed John, was still around decades later, so it's not a Back to the Future style time travel paradox like he seems to be implying here.

IDW - Transformers vs The Terminator #2

Title: Enemy of My Enemy, Part 2

Story by: David Mariotte, Tom Waltz & John Barber

Written by: David Mariotte & John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: Tom Waltz

Assistant Editors: Riley Farmer & Megan Brown

Plot

The T-800 interrupts Megatron's attempt to execute the inert Optimus Prime by shooting out his left eye, leading to him siccing Starscream and Soundwave on him.
Sarah Connor tries to escape from the Ark, but is noticed by Soundwave, who ejected Ravage to chase her.
Eventually Ravage chases Sarah to Teletraan-1's console, where the scanner is knocked to Optimus' body, who gets repaired and attacks Starscream immediately. Sarah realises there's two factions of robots and points the scanner at another boy with the same badge as Optimus, Bumblebee, who quickly joins the battle

Believing the Autobots are all waking up, the Decepticons retreat, leaving Optimus and Bumblebee to sort through the dead or inert Autobots still on the Ark.
The T-800 turns his attention to the Autobots, intending to kill them too, bit Sarah forces them all to stop killing for now, and demands that the future robot explain his mission, or she'll just let the Autobots finish him off now.

The T-800 explains that the Decepticons awoke in his timeline and soon conquered the planets military. Skynet was formed to stop them, but they "surrendered" to the Decepticons, using their truce to develop time travel and send the T-800 to the past to both defeat the Cybertronians and ensure Skynets creation.
Following this story, Optimus surmises that the Autobots weren't in his future, which is why the Decepticons were able to win so easily, so he has changed the future already, and suggests a truce between them. At Sarah's insurance, he agrees, for now. Optimus asks Sarah if she'll help them recover the other Autobots and navigate the Earth, she agrees, so long as they can give her a ride home afterwards, though upon seeing Optimus' new alternate mode, the truck the T-800 stole, she gets nauseous and passes on the offer...

Later, on the west coast of Oregon, Megatron is being repaired by Soundwave, when the other Decepticons return from their scouting mission, revealing that the dominant species on the planet are organic, and will be easy to conquer. Refraktor reports that he's found a robotics lab nearby, which could be where the smaller robot from the Ark was built, and could also provide them with the power generators they need.
The Decepticons soon arrive at Cyberdyne Systems, and attack the workers...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Semi Truck and Trailer
Bumblebee - VW Beetle
Hound Inert
Arcee Inert
Wheeljack Inert
Trailbreaker Inert
Prowl Inert, Seems Dead
Mirage Inert, Seems Dead
Sideswipe Inert, Seems Dead
Huffer Inert, Seems Dead
Other Autobots Inert or Dead

Decepticon
Megatron - Pistol
Starscream - Fighter Jet
Soundwave - Cassette Player
Thundercracker - Fighter Jet
Skywarp - Fighter Jet
Refraktor - Camera
Ravage - Cassette
Bombshell - Boll Weevil
Skrapnel - Scarab Beetle
Kickback - Locust
Future Megatron - Pistol
Future Starscream - Fighter Jet
Future Soundwave - Cassette Player
Future Thundercracker - Fighter Jet
Future Skywarp - Fighter Jet
Future Refraktor - Camera Killed by T-800s
Future Bombshell - Boll Weevil
Future Skrapnel - Scarab Beetle
Future Kickback - Locust

Other Cybertronian

Primus (Mentioned Only)
Sharkticons (Mentioned Only)

Skynet

T-800
Future T-800s

Human

Sarah Connor
Beachgoers Killed by Starscream
Cyberdyne Systems Staff
Future Skywatch Army Destroyed by Decepticons
Future Skynet Scientists Killed by Decepticons
The Trucker Brutalized by T-800 (Mentioned Only)

Notes

• In this continuity the Insecticons were apparently on the Ark when it crashed, rather than ejected from the Nemesis
• Arcee is amongst the Ark's crew members in this continuity too! She normally doesn't turn up until much later in G1 cartoon based continuities!
• It's implied that the Decepticons killed all the Autobots, leading to the conquering of Earth by Megatron. However we saw several Autobot corpses in the future scenes last issue, likely meaning the Terminator knew about the two factions and just wants to take both out.
• Skywatch, an organisation from the first IDW continuity, is revealed to have been the company that founded Skynet, with the latter being the science Division of the group that developed the Terminators
• The dune buggy driven by the humans on the beach appears to be based on Beachcomber.
• Cyberdyne Systems, seen at the end of this issue, was the company in the Terminator franchise that eventually created the technology that developed Skynet, using Terminator parts left in the past following the first movie.
• Reflector is now going by his trademark friendly toy name of Refraktor 

IDW - Transformers vs The Terminator #1

Title: Enemy of My Enemy, Part 1

Story by: David Mariotte, Tom Waltz & John Barber

Written by: David Mariotte & John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editor: Tom Waltz

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Plot

In the year 2029, a solo T-800 Terminator runs through the ruins of Los Angeles, amongst the corpses of humans, Skynet robots and Autobots as he makes it to a hidden Skynet resistance base, where they have developed a time machine to go to 1984, and stop the Decepticon uprising before it can begin...

As the T-800 activates the machine, Starscream, the Seekers and Insecticons find the hidden base and tear through it, but fail to stop the lone Skynet operative from time travelling...

45 years earlier, the Terminator arrives in Los Angeles (nude, as per time travel rules), and disconnected to Skynet. He locates a near-by diner and heads towards it. Inside, Sarah Connor, a waitress accidentally spills some coffee onto a showboating trucker, leading to him leaving without paying his bill.

Sarah follows the trucker, to get him to pay up, when he goes to punch her, however the Terminator stops him and orders him to hand over his clothes. The trucker shoots the robot in the hand, but it doesn't phase him, so the robot knocks him out with a single punch.

Sarah tries to run back inside the diner, but the staff lock the doors, seeing the fight outside. The Terminator, now wearing the clothes stolen from the trucker asks whether Mt St Hilary has erupted yet, as she confirms that it's due to erupt any time now. She gives him directions to it, but he doesn't understand them, so he orders her to come with him, at gun-point.

The Terminator and Sarah drive in the trucker's vehicle, where he explains to her that he needs to get to the volcano before it erupts so he can prevent the destruction of the world in the future...only for them to see the volcano has started erupting already!.

The Terminator goes into his secondary objective and runs through a police barricade and heads towards the Ark, now unearthed and exposed at the base of the volcano.

The Sky-Spy probe exits the Ark and scans the truck, only to get shot down by the Terminator, and crashes into the cab of the truck, smashing a hole into the driver's side of the vehicle, and exposing half of the robot's endo-skeleton head. He explains that he is a robot, but one from Earth, not an alien like the Transformers, and since he failed to stop them from waking up, he's going to kill them all now, before it's too late.

Only to find Megatron and his Decepticons awake, and looming over the still-inert body of Optimus Prime from the stasis lock.....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime Still Inert from Ark Crash

Future Jazz - Porsche Dead

Future Powerglide - Glider Jet Dead

Future Bumblebee - VW Beetle Dead

Future Glyph - VW Beetle Dead

Future Cosmos - Orbiter Dead

Future Gears - Pick Up Truck Dead

Other Future Autobots Dead

Decepticon

Megatron - Pistol

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Reflector - Camera

Future Starscream - Hunter-Killer Aerial

Future Skywarp - Hunter-Killer Aerial

Future Thundercracker - Hunter-Killer Aerial

Future Bombshell

Future Shrapnel

Future Kickback

2 Future Seekers Dead

Skynet

T-800 Time Travelled to 1984

Other T-800's Most Destroyed by Decepticons

T-8000's Most Destroyed by Decepticons

Human

Sarah Connor

Truck Driver Knocked Out by T-800 

Big Jeff's Diner Staff and Patrons

Mt. St. Hilary Blockade Cops

Notes

• Like most of the recent "Transformers vs <BLANK>" series, the Transformers setting appears to be set in a universe based on the G1 cartoon, whilst the Terminator setting is from yet another alternate timeline, where humanity has been wiped out, the Autobots are dead, and Skynet are the resistance against the Decepticons.
• Despite Sarah Connor looking pretty accurate to Linda Hamilton's appearance in the original Terminator movie, the T-800 doesn't really look much like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but from the dialogue, Sarah says he has a German accent, so he should look like him logically.....It's probably just an image-rights thing or something.
• This story confirms that Mt St Hillary's eruption was expected to happen, and the nearby settlements were evacuated during it.
• Since the T-800 shoots down the Sky-Spy just after Optimus' alternate mode is scanned we can assume that the other Autobots aren't able to get alternate mode scans yet (unless there's more than one Sky-Spy unit)
• So in this version of the story, it seems that rather than leaving the Autobots to rot asleep in the Ark whilst they conquer the Earth, the Decepticons planned to finish off Optimus whilst he was in stasis