Astrobots #5

Creator & Editor: Aaron Thomas

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist & Letterer: Hector Trunnec 

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Plot

Athenia returns to the Persephone to warn them about Atlas' mad plans, and manages to arrange the evacuation of almost half of the colonists, however, despite a delay caused by Eros-10 jamming the signal, the deepscreen scan still takes place, and all the humans who were still on the ship are instantly killed, infuriating Athenia.

In Atlas city, Apollo is told by Atlas how he arrived on a faster colony ship in the past, and built the first city, Paradise City, but he claims that a cult of humans created the A.I. Phage, a virus that destroys Astrobots. Though Atlas was affected by it, he also fought back, and destroyed Paradise City, and killed all the colonists there, eventually ending up in the future Atlas CIty.

Atlas leaves, and swiftly executes the Rebellion leader, Articus, and publically blames the rebels for the attacks on the human colonists, and "exiles" them out of the city, which the regular population start to question, and believe is suspicious.

Later, Lyrel, one of th Persephone's delegate party who came to Atlas city is taken from her holding cell, and dragged away, with the rest of the team left in jail...

After a short drive, the convoy carrying the "exiles" stops, and the guards intend to execute them, only to be fought off by Apollo, and a rescue party.

At the city, Atlas is attacked from the sky by Athenia in a shuttle, seeking revenge for her fallen colonists, but he is defended by his guards. The other crew members beg her to leave him, as they need to tend to their surviving colonists, and worrying about Atlas' will not help them, leading her to head to their rendezvous with their new allies...

Later, Athenia meets with the rebels in the deserts outside the city, where the teams join forces and start hunting for the launched Arks to protect the surviving colonists, Vulkan and some of the other resistance members decide to return to the city to fight from within, while Apollo and Athenia head to find their first Ark...

In the dark labs under the city, Atlas continues the human cloning project, he has created his own version of the Venus type Astrobot, using Lyrel's template, and has also rebuilt the Venus type as a new Astrobot, Artemis, the hunter.

Characters

Resistance

Articus Killed by Atlas 

Apollo-08

Vulkan

Chernos

Praxis

Geomek

Eros-10 

Other Resistance Members 

Persephone Crew

Athenia

Pausanius

Eudoxus

Strabo

Zenofanes Imprisoned in Atlas City

Galax Imprisoned in Atlas City 

Stratus Imprisoned in Atlas City 

Lyrel Rebuilt Into Artemis

Venus Units 

Colonists More than Half Killed

Atlas City

Atlas

ARGUS Intelligence

Tribune Kronoz

Senator Cypherion

Senator Stratica

Senator Eoz

Senator Solus

Artemis

ARGUS Enforcers

City Guards

Black Eros Units 

Dark Venus Units

City Denizens 

Human Clones In Pods

Other

Paradise City Colonists All Killed, bar Atlas

The Children of Eve (Flashback) Killed in Paradise City 

Notes

• This issue marks the end of the first mini series of Astrobots, but does end with a confirmation of a return in 2024 (yay!) 
• Atlas confirms that he was part of an earlier colony team, that arrived on the colony world before the others, but they were betrayed by some of the humans and a war broke out, resulting in the destroyed city found in the deadlands outside the city.
• Interestingly, when the first colony ship lands on the planet, they land in a forest, whilst we have only ever seen wastelands outside the city before now (maybe the Astrobots chopped down all the trees or something?)
• Articus is killed in the same way as his old friend Trydant, his head is crushed by Atlas, using his bare hands.
• Lyrel is converted into a new Astrobot, Artemis here, a fate I'm sure is also due to befall on her fellow Persephone delegates in Atlas's custody.
• As he threatened to do to Athenia, if she didn't work with him, Atlas has created his own versions of the Venus type, to nurture his cloned humans.
• Eros-10 reveals that he has created a counter signal for the alpha wave deepscreen, so Atlas shouldn't be able to mass exterminate any more humans.
• It's not mentioned where the DNA for the cloned humans came from, but I would assume they were from the failed Paradise City that Atlas procured somehow.

Astrobots #4

Creator & Editor: Aaron Thomas 

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist & Letterer: Hector Trunnec

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Plot

Athenia, having seemingly agreed to Atlas's demands to raise his new human clones, is escorted back to the rest of her crew, but E-10 secretly prints an access card and slips it to Athenia.

Soon, Athenia detaches from the rest of her crew and fights her way through the building, eventually reaching her shuttle and hads back to the Persephone to warn them about what is about to happen, and to protect the colonists.

Outside, Apollo and Vulkan leave the battle at the resistance base, and head towards the Capitoline Peak.

A crowd begins gathering outside the Peak, which is quickly brought to chaos when the Enforcers start attacking the crowd, starting another fight with hidden resistance members in the group.

The riot outside acts as both a distraction for Argus and Atlas, the former of which is finding it hard to concentrate on so many battlefronts, and allows Apollo to break into the facility.

Apollo soon finds Atlas, who is beating up E-10, due to the latter helping Athenia escape, but soon discards him, in favour of fighting the outsider. E-10 is soon grabbed by Apollo, who flings him outside, and is caught by Vulkan, who whisks him away, due to him likely being able to disable the imminent deep screen scan.

Atlas is furious and quickly stuns Apollo, and plans to vilify the resistance and Persephone crews publically, to turn the people of Atlas city against the newcomers, and prevent him clone human army from populating the city...

Characters

Resistance

Apollo Disabled by Atlas

Vulkan

Other Resistance Members 

Atlas City

Atlas

Argus Intelligence

Argus Enforcers 

Senator Stratica 

E-10/Eros-10 Abducted by Vulkan 

Black Eros Units

Atlas City Civilians 

Human Clones (In Pods)

Persephone

Athenia

Zenofanes

Galax

Stratus

Lyrel

Persephone Crewbots 

Human Colonists 

Notes

• Zenofanes' type has been changed to Age or, rather than Scorpios.
• Similarly, E-10's name has been changed from "Emissary-10" to "Eros-10".
• The building that Atlas is usually based in is revealed to be called the Capitoline Peak.
• It's mentioned that Atlas and Apollo have both been affected by "Phage", a bug that affects Astrobots in the wastelands, where both of them have been shown to arrive in the city from.
• It's confirmed that the abandoned city seen by Apollo in the wastelands was a prior human colony, but Atlas claims the humans destroyed it with their natural violence, but I think we can all just assume that he lied a bit... 
• The Ninjex Units that arrived as a big problem last issue arent seen this issue...I guess they vanished?
• The middle of this issue, where Apollo confronts Atlas appears to include a cliffhanger and pick up (incuding character and location markers). This seems to imply that this issue's story may have been shuffled around a bit.
• The bots working with Argus to activate the deep screen scan appear to be of the same type as Eros-10, but in black (it's possible it's just the lighting, but who knows?)

Astrobots #3

Creator and Editor: Aaron Thomas 

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist and Letterer: Hector Trunnec

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Publisher: Whatnot Publishing

Plot

The visitors from the Persephone have been separated, with Athenia being escorted by Atlas, whilst the rest are being kept in a meeting room. The Persephone crew are told that Atlas needs them to lower the shields to commit a "deep screen" to ensure the colonists are safe to come to the planet. The crew are insulted that Atlas doesn't trust their own systems, but agree to the terms...

Elsewhere, Apollo is brought into the Resistance base, where he meets their leader, Articus, who reveals that he knows Atlas intends to commit genocide on the humans aboard the ship, and also reveals that Atlas led a bloody rebellion in the past, which led to him taking control from the bots who were nominally in charge, who wanted to have the city be a cooperative venture between the Astrobots and human colonists. 

Atlas relays this same story to Athenia, but frames it as him protecting the city for the upcoming humans, as other Astrobots wanted the city for themselves.

Athenia is taken to see E-10, where she discovers the science project that he has been forced to work on by Atlas, countless cloned humans, ready to populate his city. 

Atlas reveals that he plans for these clones to populate the city, because the real humans from Earth are historically known to be violent and destructive. He reveals that the deep screen scan will kill all the human colonists, and he wants Athenia and her fellow Venusians to help these clones to acclimate to life, if she refuses, then he will just destroy the Persephone, and build his own Venus units from Athenia.

Argus, in his new body, leads his troops to the Resistance base, and a full-on battle takes place, with Apollo teaming with the rebels, using their stolen weapons from previous heists, and tears through his forces...

Characters

Atlas City

Atlas

Emissary-10

Argus Intelligence 

Senator Stratica 

Argus Units 

Ninjex Units 

Emissary Science Units 

Human Clones (In pods) 

Resistance

Articus

Apollo-08

Vulkan

Chernos

Geomek

Red Geomek 

Trydant (Flashback Only) Killed by Atlas

Other Resistance Members 

Persephone

Zenofanes

Athenia

Belus

Galax

Stratus

Lyrel 

Venusian Therapists

Human Colonists 

Notes

• This issue confirms that Argus is an A.I. which uses avatars for interacting with other Astrobots.
• Atlas is shown in three different forms this issue, a "naked" mode, which features no armour, as seen when he first arrives at the city, his usual white form, and a black body which seems to have a dragon-like design on the back, which was revealed by an upcoming toy to be "Savage Atlas".
• Interestingly, it is stated that Atlas arrived in the city, meaning he hasn't always been there, and that it was likely called something else before he conquered it.
• The character E-10 is revealed to actually be named "Emissary-10" and was one of the visionary leaders of the city before Atlas took control.
• Atlas is revealed to have cloned his own humans, and intends to kill off the real one on the Persephone. He says that this is due to humans being innately evil and self destructive, but wouldn't the clones have those same base instincts? 
• Trydant, one of the former triad of leaders, appears to use Chernos' model as the basis for his design.

Astrobots #2

Creator and Editor: Aaron Thomas 

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist and Letterer: Hector Trunnec

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Publisher: Whatnot Publishing 

Plot

Aboard the Persephone, the human colonists are being put through physical therapy to get them ready for arrival on the colony world, but Athenia is suspicious of things on the planet, which includes whole regions that cannot be scanned. During her research, she finds news about Apollo and the recent troubles...

In Atlas City, Apollo is brought to see Atlas, the former informs the city leader about anothet city in the dead zone, but realizes that Atlas already knew about it. Atlas brushes it off as a previous, failed city, but they have learned from their mistakes. Atlas tries to recruit Apollo to help with this city, but the newcomer isn't interested, and leaves. After he leaves, Atlas leaves Apollo's fate to Argus....

The Argus units are dealing with any spectators of Apollo's previous fight to stop any support for him growing. Meanwhile, the resistance works to try and locate Apollo to recruit him for their own goals.

Soon, Apollo stumbles upon the resistance, asking for directions, but before he can be recruited, Argus and his troops arrive and start firing upon Apollo. Their target however, is too strong and manages to pretty much take out the Argus units single-handedly, and he joins the resistance...

Members of the Persephone crew, including Zenofanes and Athenia arrive at Atlas City, where they meet the titular leader, who is impressed by Athenia's brash nature and bluntness.

After a while, smoke pours from the area where the Argus units fought Apollo, and Atlas tries to calm the situation with his guests, but Athenia simply states that they need to talk...

Characters

Rebellion

Articus 

Apollo-08

Vulkan

Geomek

Chernos

Other Rebels

Persephone

Athenia 

Zenofanes

Galax

Stratus

Lyrel 

Venusian Therapists 

Human Colonists 

Atlas City

Atlas

Argus Seemingly Deactivated by Apollo

Senator Stratica 

Atlas City Denizens

Argus Enforcers 

City Guards

Notes

• Huh, there actually are humans on the Persephone. I was actually beginning to think they were all dead or something!
• The halo behind Athenia, and presumably the other Venusians, appears to be detachable or perhaps able to be stored away somehow, like the horns/blades they have too.
• Argus is referred to as "A.R.G.U.S" and "ARGUS" implying that his name is an acronym of something.
• Two bots that share Geomek and Eoz's designs are captured by the Argus Enforcers. I don't think they are those named characters though, especially since the latter was a senator.
• Galax and Stratus (presumably) are Scorpios bots. They share a character model with Zenofanes, but without his "clothes", implying that model can be customized for different purposes.
• Argus appears to die at the end of this issue, but his constant dialogue about being "legion" and "everywhere" makes me think that he can swap his consciousness into another Argus unit.

Astrobots #1

Well, it's been a couple of months since the end of IDW's Transformers run, and there hasn't been any news on a new publisher yet (even with Rise of the Beasts around the corner, and Earthspark being out), so I haven't had much to talk about here recently!

I've found this Transformers-like series that's just started, and it's even written by Simon Furman of Transformers fame, so this should tide me over for a few months.

If there's still no new comics from Transformers soon, I may just start doing some article/essay pieces on parts of the franchise or other related things that I have an interest in.

Until then, enjoy this new review/synopsis series!

Creator and Editor: Aaron Thomas 

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist and Letterer: Hector Trunnec

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Publisher: Whatnot Publishing 

Plot

Construction of Atlas City on Colony World-1 is complete, and the first contingent of human colonists are due to arrive within a day.

However, the city's leader, Atlas, is distracted due to a "gathering" of Astrobots, causing a riot, which have to be quelled. The Argus patrol take out the rioters, but soon realized that this was just a distraction for another attack to steal from an arsenal store for their rebellion

Outside the city, a lone Apollo-series bot approaches from the Dead Zone, to the surprise of the city guards, but he is allowed inside, where he is ambushed by the guards, who are shocked by how durable the older robot is, and he counters their attacks with relative ease.

The rebel leaders watch this, and think they can use the Apollo for their means. Meanwhile, a Senate meeting is disrupted with footage of the attack on the newcomer interests them.

Soon, Atlas barges in to see Argus, berating him for letting the senate find out about the Apollo bot before they could suppress him. Atlas contacts the Apollo, and invites him for a talk, being escorted by a large contingent of Argus units...

The colonist ship, Persephone, approaches Colony World-1, with Athenia being concerned by how smoothly their journey appears to have been...and wants to make some checks before they arrive on the planet with their passengers...

Characters

Apollo Unit 08

Chernos

Geomek

Vulkan

Athenia

Zenofanes

Consul Atlas

Tribune Kronoz

Senator Argus

Senator Stratica

Senator Eoz

Senator Solus

Senator Cypherion

Advocate Scylla

E-10

Tauran Type

Saturn Type

Scorpio Typse

Venusian Type

Argus Patrol

Wasp Drones 

City Guards

Red Horned Guards 

Random Astrobots

Humans (Flashback)

50,000 Persephone Colonists (Mentioned)

"Batch-33" (Mentioned)

Notes

• This series is based on the new toy line by Aaron Thomas and Esmond Zhou (toys available online, take a look!) The character designs in this comic are based on the toy models, and some seemingly new ones (potentially based on upcoming designs). The backstory of this comic is based on the one made for the toyline, and is a lot deeper than you may think for a new line. Here's a link to their facebook page with more information about it, and other stuff: here 
• So in brief, the back story is that humanity created the Astrobots, who feature sophisticated A.I. that essentially makes them sentient beings. An indeterminate amount of time in the past, and launched them into space to build up colony worlds for them to populate 
• The Astrobots of different models all look identical, but do seem to have some customization, such as some artwork of Vulkan having grabbing claws or drill arms. Based on a mention of a "Batch 33" we can probably assume there are 33 distinct types of Astrobot. The names of the models seem to be based on classical figures, such as gods, planets and constellations.
• I do apologise now for not knowing all the character or model names, but I couldn't find a lot of details on the background (so far). The character list will likely be better organized in future issues, when factions are formed etc.
• There is very clearly a conspiracy going on here. Apollo seems to be under the impression that there may be colonists amongst the Astrobots in Atlas city, but the Persephone is supposed to be the first colony ship to arrive, and Argus seems very concerned by him mentioning it when he arrives at the city...(Also I read something stating that the story is a conspiracy mystery series)
• Apollo-series bots are designed to self-deactivate after they fulfil their purpose...but why though? None of the others appear to have this quirk...
• The jet packs on the backs of some of the Argus Patrol bots are Wasp Drones, an add-one piece from the toy-line. Gotta love seeing play patterns in action :)