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

IDW - Transformers Galaxies #6

Title: Wannabee, Part 2

Written by: Kate Leth & Cohen Edenfield

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: David Garcia Cruz

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood & Val Lopez

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Plot

A long time ago, Bumblebee walks out of the Great Pyramid at Iacon to cheers and warm greetings, however, when the crowd disperses, a horrible discovery is made, a second Cybertronian was forged by mistake, one named Cliffjumper, who is unwanted by everyone still present...

Back in the present, Cliffjumper wakes up on Probat, just after Deathsaurus knocked him out following the murder of the Probat Foreman, Natalus. Cliff tells his superior that he intends to tell the Senate about the murder and his plans to use the spires, where the Probats live, to create powerful Energon crystals. Deathsaurus however knocks out the smaller bot again, and leaves to enact his plan..

Outside, Deathsaurus claims that they have all been lied to, the bot he came with is NOT Bumblebee after all, and that he killed Natalus, and he sets the Probats onto the red false-Bee!

Cliff, soon getting chased by the Probats, transforms and races away, but soon discovers a small Probat child inside his alternate mode, having been on his back when he transformed, but she soon says that she knows Cliff didn't kill Natalus, since he is too kind.

At the spires, Deathsaurus starts burning the spires in his dragon mode, since the Probats were distracted with chasing Cliff. The small red bot and the young Probat race off to stop Deathsaurus, Cliff drives along a newly sharpened and exposed spire, whilst the child breaks off a piece of the Energon spire, and jabs it into Cliff's body, supercharging him, allowing him to pummel the dragon-bot, knocking him into the Energon spire, skewering him, to Cliff's horror and the Probat's joy.

Later, Cliff returns to Cybertron, along with a comatose and injured Deathsaurus, claiming it was caused by a an Energon stockpile exploding to Chormia and Prowl, and that the planet's Energon stores are dry now.

The two cops don't seem to believe him, but let him go, just saying that the investigation isn't over, and Cliff flashes back to Probat, where the people there are now free and have built a statue of their new saviour...

Characters

Security Forces

Chromia - Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft

Other Cybertronian

Cliffjumper - Hover Car

Deathsaurus - Winged Dragon Skewered and Rendered Comatose by Cliffjumper

Deathsaurus' Attendants

Nominus Prime - Jet (Flashback Only)

Sentinel - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Megatron - Mining Vehicle (Flashback Only)

Soundwave - Hovercraft (Flashback Only)

Shutter - Telescope(?) (Flashback Only)

Brainstorm - Jet (Flashback Only)

Windblade - VTOL Jet (Flashback Only)

Wheeljack - Race Car (Flashback Only)

Cyclonus - Jet (Flashback Only)

Elita-1 - Car (Flashback Only)

Other Crowd-fillers (Flashback Only)

Orion Pax - Truck (Mentioned)

The Senate (Mentioned)

Probat

Probat Girl

Foreman Natalus (Skull Seen) Killed by Deathsaurus

Probat Dogs

Other Probats

Other

Voin Scavenger (Flashback Only)

Voin's Enslaved Organics (Flashback Only)

Notes

• Sorry this is later than it could have been, the delays in delivery times and my current schedule has been a bit hectic.
• We learn this issue that Cliffjumper is essentially Bumblebee's younger brother, but that his forging was unintended
• Bumblebee mentioned in a past issue that his mentor was female, here we learn that her name was Shutter. We don't see her alternate mode this issue, but she appears to turn into a telescope of some sort.
• This issue confirms that Bumblebee is younger than most of the other major characters in the main series (like Windblade, Brainstorm and Wheeljack)
• The timing of the present day of this story is unclear, Deathsaurus mentions that Sentinel is "playing with the organics", likely a reference to the colony tours he was on at the start of the series, but the end of the issue shows Bumblebee still seemingly as a part of Security Forces, despite him having been ejected for some reason for a while at the present of the main comic. It could be that Sentinel goes on his tours frequently, but hopefully it gets some sort of explanation later...
• Cliffjumper's alternate mode looks more like his usual car mode, just with wings on the side, unlike Bumblebee's G1 cartoon-opener hovercraft mode, so at least he's not a total copy of Bee I guess!
• The hole in Deathsaurus' chest appears to shrink between his skewering on the Energon spike on Probat, and reaching Cybertron, this could be a sign of him healing...or just an inconsistency in the artwork....take your pick!

Sig Pub - Transformers #54

Notes

• The screenshot comics this month are of the episodes "Starscream's Children" and "Spotted", but the episodes aren't titled in the comic itself, though both are heavily edited to fit the short comic space in the magazine.
• The free gifts this month are a pot of "Energon Putty", a Megatron action figure, and another packet of the fun fact cards that were completed a few months ago. I think they were supposed to give us the third of the Build-a-Bot set, but it wasn't ready in time or something (I dunno)

Features

Meet Megatron - Do some Megatron themed puzzles etc

Bee Connection! - Lead Bee through a maze to see Cheetor

Decepticon Disguises - Find the odd-Decepticon out

Autobot Roll Out! - Do an Autobot themed wordsearch

Scraplets Spotting! - Find all the Scraplets in a picture!

Alt Mode Match! - Match a character to their alternate mode

Spot the Differences - Play spot the difference.

Memory Challenge!- Memorize the characters on one page, then name them the next page

Ttransformers Post - Witness the pictures drawn by the small Earth children! 

What's Up, Windblade? - Find the missing pieces to a Windblade image, then take a quiz

Competitions - Enter some contests to win some BotBots and Cyberverse figures

IDW - Rom: Dire Wraiths #2

Writer: Chris Ryall

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Main Story Title: One Small Step for Dire Wraith-Kind, Part 2 

Main Story Artist: Luca & Andrea Pizzari

Main Story Colourist: Jim Boswell

Side Story Title: One Small Step for a Spaceknight, Part 2

Side Story Artist: Guy Dorian Sr. & Scott Hanna

Side Story Colourist: Ross Campbell

Main Story Plot

The Wraiths on the Moon attack Armstrong and Aldrin, intending to take their bodies to head to Earth, but are stopped when the Adventure Team arrive, Kiev shoots at Axlar, despite being told to not risk them all with weapon's, and the Wraith seems to vanish.
Adventure One docks with the Apollo 11 Command Module, where he congratulates Collins on humanity getting this far, but tells him that it's over, as their journey is beginning now...
Back on the Moon, Armstrong tries to contact Houston, but their signal is still baf, but they do hear him saying that they are under attack, and Sulor attacks the line Human, before he is joined by some of the Adventure Team to fight the alien off by freezing him with and ice cannon.
Nearby, Kiev starts to pass out, after Axlar secretly drilled into her foot, and replaced her. Sulor breaks free of the ice, and destroys Flannery's helmet as revenge for the ice cannon, but also absorbs his essence to use his knowledge to their advantage.
Axlar reveals his identity to the others and bites off Aubreyson's head, instantly killing him too.
Aldrin grabs the historic American flag from the ground and spears it through Sulor, killing the Wraith surprisingly easily.

The second Mystic finds the Adventure Two shuttle, where she taps into it to learn how to pilot it, when she picks up an SOS from the Adventure Team's satellite, where Sandra announces Hanks murder and asks for a reply, or she's going to sound the alarm to Earth.
The Mystic decides to head to the satellite to use it to head to Earth to join the bulk of the invasion.

The last member of the Adventure Team, Dodger, tries to get Armstrong and Aldrin into the lunar lander to return to the Command Module to get back home to safety, whilst he stays to fight Axlar, however the Wraith still plans to possess one of them to go to Earth, as they need to help in rebuilding it to a new homeworld, as the Solar Order do t know anything about their plans here yet, and they're the only ones who can possibly stop their spread.
Axlar bulks out, ready to destroy the astronauts and take over one, whilst the second Mystic approaches the satellite and Collins looks ominously ahead, completely alone in the Command Module....

Side Story Plot

Rom and Bikini arrive on Marn-33, where they find Dhorian's lifeless body and a portal to an unknown-to-them part of space, which they cannot enter.
The two Knights mourn their fallen ally, and wonder whether the armour could possibly live on without the living Knight inside. On cue, Dhorian wakes up, and attacks his allies, revealing that it's a tally a Wraith-Mystic using his corpse as a puppet, who launches herself and the two Knights through to portal, leaving them adrift near a red planet...

Characters

Adventure Team

Dodger/James Brightside
Arsenal/Anatoli Kiev Killed and Replaced by Axlar
Scalpel/Elmo Aubreyson Killed by Axlar
Mixmaster/Martin Flannery Killed by Sulor
Sandra Shore
Hank Armstrong (Mentioned) Killed and Replaced by a Mystic 

NASA 

Neil Armstrong
Buzz Aldrin
Mike Collins Possibly Replaced by a Mystic
Houston Operator (Voice Only)

Dire Wraith

Mystic Aby'ss
Mystic Sky'sm
Axlar
Sulor Killed by Aldrin
Third Mystic (Side Story Only)

Solstar Order

Rom (Side Story and Flashback Only)
Nikomi (Side Story and Flashback Only)
Dhorian (Side Story Only) Dead, Body Possessed by Third Mystic
Orphion (Flashback Only)
Livia (Flashback Only)
Fy-Laa (Flashback Only)
Guar (Flashback Only)
Maur (Flashback Only)
Other Space Knights (Flashback Only)

Notes

• Sorry for the delay on this again, when I'm not at work I'm busy playing Animal Crossing (maybe I'm not sorry)
• Due to the current pandemic, comics are being delayed right now, so a lot of the newer releases haven't been shipped here to the UK yet, or are just postponed for a while. Sorry, but that's life right now :/ 
• I'm still not sure about the identities of some characters because the mages have the same character models, and the NASA astronauts all look very similar. The only way I know Collins is the one in the Orbiter, is because I know Armstrong and Aldrin were the first to walk on the moon from history.
• So...I'm guessing my hopes for an Inhumanoids comic are dashed now, since most of those characters are dead now!
• Despite us seeing last issue that the Wraiths actually absorb their victims, and imitate them, rather than possessing their bodies....Kiev appears to just get possessed by Axlor.
• Sandra is revealed to have been hiding whilst Hank was killed last issue.
• Due to the Hank-Wraith being a sent from the scene, and Collins looking a bit sinister at the end, we can probably assume that he's been taken by the Wraiths too.
• Apparently the other Wraith-Mystic can absorb the ability to fly the Adventure Two shuttle from accessing it's systems....okay then....
• The Wraith possessing Dhorian's body in the side story appears to be the Mystic that he seemed to kill last issue...so what happened to the other soldier Wraith??!!

IDW - Transformers (BNE) #19

Title: Rise of the Deceptions: All Fall Down

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

Windblade finally wakes up from the stasis pod she's been in since she was caught in an explosion, only to discover that the planets gone to crap, and that the Tether has fallen.
Megatron, assuring his fellow Ascenticon Senators that this was a necessary evil to save Cybertron from the Autobots, gives them all orders to "help" with the recovery, but also confines Soundwave to the base, so he cannot be taken by the Autobots.

Soon, the Ascenticon Guard has some major changes, Elita is relieved of her duty and confined to quarters, to allow Skytread to take over her commander role, and several Risers are recruited into the guard.
Skytread and his team are sent out to help in the recovery efforts, and he orders Bee to investigate a damaged building, where the yellow bot is attacked by Treadshot and Catgut, having been deemed a risk to the Ascenticons now. Bee manages to mostly evade the assassins, but is almost killed by them, until Chromia arrives and rescues him, telling him that his mission is done, but the bot is upset, since he didn't accomplish anything from it, and Rubble is still dead, and his killer hadn't been brought to justice...

Elsewhere, Prowl and Nautica are escorting the Voin Asserter through Iacon, trying to placate him, and Orion Pax tries to convince Sentinel Prime to release Pyra Magna from prison, as she is the only one of the Great Generals still available to them, but the Prime refuses, and declares that HE has the Matrix, not Orion, and that after he is gone, Ultra Magnus will take on the Matrix.

Windblade is summoned by Novastar as she had been drafted into a new team of hers to act as recon and rapid response, whilst Hound is leading a similar team of Heavies to go after the Rise.

Elsewhere, Flatline is finalising the repairs to Shockwave, whilst Skystalker tries to explain that he cannot connect with Vigilem again, but they are interrupted by Sixshot, who asks why Mindwipe has headed to Iacon with some troops for resources for his research, much to Shockwave's shock and anger!

Characters

Autobot
Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle
Orion Pax - Truck
Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Mentioned)
Nominus Prime - Jet (Mentioned) Possibly Dead

Security Forces
Chromia - Car
Prowl - Police Vehicle
Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet
Ironhide - Van
Novastar - Car
Smokescreen - Car
Blades - Aerial Vehicle
Sureshot - Car
Springer - Car/Helicopter
Javelin Being Operated on by Ratchet, following a head-shot
Sentinel's Guards
Streetwise - Police Vehicle (Mentioned)
Hound - Jeep (Mentioned)

Ascenticon/The Rise
Megatron - Mining Vehicle
Soundwave - Hovercraft Confined to Ascenticon HQ
Strika - Battle Tank
Jhiaxus - Jet
Ratbat
Shockwave -  Flying Artillery
Sixshot - Tank/Jet/Winged Beast/Gun/Car
Elita-1 - Car Confined to Quarters 
Bumblebee - Winged Hovercraft Left Faction
Skytread - Tank and Jet
Refraktor - Hovercraft
Flatline - Van (Possible Member)
Skystalker - Car
Treadshot
Catgut
Swift - Helicopter
Roadtrap - Van
Battleslash - Helicopter
Crasher - Race Car
Runamuck - Car
Runabout - Car
Acid Storm - Tetrajet
Ion Storm - Tetrajet
Nova Storm - Tetra Jet
Ruckus - Buggy Comatose
Kaskade Comatose
Mindwipe (Mentioned)
Stormcloud - Jet (Mentioned)
Visper - Jet (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian
Nautica - Submarine
Ratchet - Ambulance
Corpse in the Rubble Killed in Tether Collapse
Crowdfillers
Primus (Mentioned)
Pyra Magna (Mentioned) Imprisoned
Wheeljack - Race Car (Mentioned)
Wheeljack's Team (Mentioned)
Dai Atlas (Mentioned) Gone Immersant
Vigilem - Titan Warship (Mentioned) Missing
Alpha Trion (Mural Only)
Solus Prime (Mural Only)
Solomus (Mural Only)
Quintus Prime (Mural Only)
Other Bots in the Murals (Mural Only)
Lodestar - Titan Starship (Mentioned) Crippled by Vigilem
The Other Titans (Mentioned) Unresponsive
The Iron Hope Hundred (Mentioned)
Scraplets (Mentioned)

Other
The Voin Asserter

Notes

• Due to the Rise members joining the Ascenticon Guard, I see no reason to continue pretending they are separate organizations, like they are in universe
• This is the first main series issue to only have one person providing the art in a long time!
• Windblade has finally gotten out of her stasis pod...and is immediately put to work...poor gal
• We learn that Kaskade and Ruckus were the two Risers to survive the explosion at the Immersant Titan.
• It's unclear if Ratbat is also a Senator here, like he is in most other continuities pre-war.
• It's mentioned that Nominus Prime "left us", either meaning that he died, went Immersant, or is somewhere off world. I guess we'll find out in the future though :) 
• Elita has been relieved of her duties and confined to quarters, and Bee gets effectively relieved of duty when they try to kill him, meaning that all the known traditionally Autobot Ascenticons are out of the group now.
• It's unclear if Flatline is a Riser, or just making house calls as a dedicated medic, but since Shockwave's return to Cybertron is supposed to be hidden, we can assume it's the former.
• Vigilem is mentioned to be missing now, but Lodestar is also confirmed to be alive, but crippled