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What an issue.

I really liked E.J's cover for this one, really great. (I still wish he did that art for 3# & 4#, but oh well)

I'll just give a run down of the issue, so if you don't want to know whats going on, look away

-Starts off with skywatch losing control of Ravage and Lazerbeak, because soundwave is calling them to him.
-Sixshot is smashing the autobots quite convincingly, with bumblebee taking a smashing. Nightbeat is preping a warp to get them the hell out of battle
-Hotrod and Wheeljack have just lost the Headmasters, and are still looking for Ironhide. Having lost connection with the ark (because its been blown up), they no longer have ironhides exact location, and are trying to find him in a huge junk yard. The Headmasters are frantically searching for them
-Hunter gets all Head'ed up and ready to go help the autobots
-More 6v1 battles with Sixshot and the autobots, while the military getting ready to bomb the whole battle
-Verity/Jimmy banta/thinking of a plan to let the autobots know they are gonna be bombed
-Hot rod and Wheel Jack still search for Ironhide. The owner of the junkyard has reported a break in, and the Headmasters have overheard the transmisson, and are most likely coming.
-Verity/Jimmy steal a boat to get to the autobots because the road is closed
-More Autobots Vs. Sixshot, with a Prime Vs. Sixshot battle. Jimmy/verity arrive and tell ratchet about military news, and that they have got to go
-Nightbeat warps them out and lets prime and sixhot battle it out on earth

GIANT SPOILER COMING NOW!






-Autobots all warp back onto ark-32 but the bounce kills verity and jimmy during the process!
-Decepticon HQ gets attacked by the reapers, and megatron calls Sixshot back for immediate assistance. Just before the military bomb the battle, prime also gets warped out.
-While the reapers smash Decepticon HQ, astrotrain and blitzwing go get starscream, and he's ready for battle, and still scheming away.

-end.


So yeah, pretty big issue. Looks like Soundwave will be in the next issue, as well as starscream being back, and the reapers causing havoc. Two of the main humans dying was a huge, huge shock. I never really saw that coming. Looks like Nightbeat didn't kill the that russia guy after all, as he would have died in the warp anyway. The government as well as the whole world are now fully aware of the Transformers, so that should make for some interesting relationships and war's eg for the rest of Devastation.

Who else has read this issue, and what did they think?

This issue was really good. I've not seen anything of Sixshot before I starting reading the IDW stuff, but it made me feel like someone was actually gonna die - although I didn't expect it to be who it was. I think Jazz got the raw deal compared to Prowl and Hardhead. I cannot wait 'til the next issue which hopefully wont be too far away.

The two 'dead' humans...probably future headmasters.

You knew Soundwave was coming again.

Nice to see Hardhead's Earth Alt mode choice.

Is it me, or does Sixshot seem to change scale a lot?

I am still not a fan of the Reapers, but oh well...I guess someone has to be strong enough to challenge the Decepticons, because the Autobots are not cutting it.

Overall pretty good. Very enjoyable...

Also on the first page they mentioned the "Eureka acquisitions" which was Shockwave and the Dinobots back in Spotlight #1. This might mean after all this time Shockwave is gonna get in on all the action, along with the Dinobots

And there is still 2 issues left in the arc!

Oh crap, I still have to wait a couple days

It sounds pretty interesting so far though.

Excuse me, but I have just been blinsided...

Killing the humans was a big step, but unlike the facsimile who turned to goo, they just went... green and died (nebulon green?).

I'm thinking perhaps their brain patterns were somehow stored and they'll come back as Headmasters. For Furman to just go and off them like that, and have the issue end 2 pages later (with only the frame of their death focused on them after the part they have played is strange, especially seeing as how much time the characters were given.

I expect Ratchet to go bonkers in issues #5 and #6.
Bumblebee taking damage is interesting, i wonder if he will have to be rebuilt.
So Soundwave, Shockwave and the Dinobots will all appear soon (obviously since we know that Spotlight Grimlock ties into the main books.)

The Reapers attacking only the Decepticon Bunker shows that they really are after Sixshot, although I doubt attacking 11 Con's he cares nothing for will get him to change his mind. Megatron must take the Reapers as a aserious threat for him to call back Sixshot so quickly, that or he is losing his mind.

How the hell is Screamer going to take down Sixshot, when he couldn't take down Megatron?

Musso did good for this issue, but I relaly would have liked to have seen Su's work on what is probably the issue with the greatest Impact the series has had thus far.

So much packed into this issue, not a frame wasted, I was a little sad that it ended so quickly. February cannot come soon enough for me.

Starscream is always overconfident. When he sees the situation, and how daunting it is, he will probably work to get Sixshot on his side, or try to get the Reapers to take care of his problems for him, and then find a way to pit them against the Autobots, giving him time to decide how he will then dispose of those bodies still remaining from any side.

I mentioned the set up for those two to become headmasters in my post too. Or targetmasters, or powermasters, or breast force members or...

It looks to be a promising ending.

i hope they leave verity and jimmy dead personaly.not that i dont particularly like them, as far as humans in TF go. i just think that bringing them back in any way would cheapen the dramatic impact of there death. plus i can see the whole situation leading to some good character development within the autobots particularly ratchet blaming himself.

iaconcityrocker wrote:i hope they leave verity and jimmy dead personaly.not that i dont particularly like them, as far as humans in TF go. i just think that bringing them back in any way would cheapen the dramatic impact of there death. plus i can see the whole situation leading to some good character development within the autobots particularly ratchet blaming himself.

One would hope it is covered at more length in the next book, because it was quick, and un-descriptive in its small part within this book.

Man I just finished reading this and I gotta say I was yet again blown away, and irritated that it was over so quickly. It seems that in the recent issues that the story is really picking up speed, almost every frame has something relevant going on. The most interesting part for me was the "deaths" of Varity and Jimmy, I'm not convinced that this is the last we're seeing of them. I get the feeling that somehow Bumblebee getting blasted, them "dying", Hunter becoming more of a Headmaster is all going to tie in together at some point. Either way I wish these things came out faster then once a month!

iaconcityrocker wrote:i hope they leave verity and jimmy dead personaly.not that i dont particularly like them, as far as humans in TF go. i just think that bringing them back in any way would cheapen the dramatic impact of there death. plus i can see the whole situation leading to some good character development within the autobots particularly ratchet blaming himself.

I think that Nightbeat swapped them around for a couple of corpses he made earlier.

He looks kinda wierd in the panel where Ratchets is holding two dead "friends".

Stormwolf wrote:

iaconcityrocker wrote:i hope they leave verity and jimmy dead personaly.not that i dont particularly like them, as far as humans in TF go. i just think that bringing them back in any way would cheapen the dramatic impact of there death. plus i can see the whole situation leading to some good character development within the autobots particularly ratchet blaming himself.

I think that Nightbeat swapped them around for a couple of corpses he made earlier.

He looks kinda wierd in the panel where Ratchets is holding his two dead "friends".

Stormwolf wrote:I think that Nightbeat swapped them around for a couple of corpses he made earlier.

He looks kinda wierd in the panel where Ratchets is holding two dead "friends".

Has it ever been mentioned if there is a recovery or lag time from an orbital bounce? Because Nightbeat would have to be extremely fast to pull a switcheroo like that.

i_amtrunks wrote:

Stormwolf wrote:I think that Nightbeat swapped them around for a couple of corpses he made earlier.

He looks kinda wierd in the panel where Ratchets is holding two dead "friends".

Has it ever been mentioned if there is a recovery or lag time from an orbital bounce? Because Nightbeat would have to be extremely fast to pull a switcheroo like that.

He could have transported them into a compartment while beaming the corpses into Ratchet's arms.

It sounds wierd, but Nightbeat is operating by Nemesis Prime's agenda. I'm also pretty sure that he killed Breski.

I have no doubt Nightbeat has been sabotaging the Autobot cause, ans killed Braski, but killing/replacing Jimmy and Verity is something I doubt would have ever crossed Nemesis Prime's mind, humans are just seen as far inferior to almost all Transformers (barring Ratchet).

Unless the orders were to crush the Autobots spirit as well as sabotage, if that were the case, then Nightbeat is a raging success.

Finally got this in the mail today, after the extended holiday weekend. I'm glad I skipped this thread and didn't read any spoilers, because well, it would've spoiled the issue for me. Like you guys, I was quite surprised to see Verity and Jimmy killed off like that. This will definitely help develop Ratchet's character, something he's needed since he really hasn't changed much.

Was anyone else expecting an Autobot to bite it during the battle? I was thinking Hardhead would be the sacrificial lamb there. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. And poor Jazz. At least it wasn't his head that got ripped off. Can't have ole Jazz dying on me.

Great to see Starscream back. I've been envisioning how he'd actually be since his return. I imagined maybe he'd be like, "Meh, do it yourselves. I'm done", but I guess he's the same old Starscream he ever was. Guess he doesn't learn lessons too well.

And yay for Soundwave. I've been looking forward to his inevitable return, and hopefully it'll be soon. The story is in real danger of overloading itself on the sheer number of characters in play, but as long as the story paces itself and goes beyond the next two issues, it'll be ok. I'm just glad it's not real slow like it was in Infiltration.