Shattered Glass issue 1

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Publisher	IDW Publishing}}
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First published	August 25, 2021}}
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Cover date	August 2021}}
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Written by	Danny Lore}}
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Art by	Guido Guidi}}
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Colors	John-Paul Bove and Ed Pirrie}}
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Editor	David Mariotte and Riley Farmer}}
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{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

On a shattered Cybertron where evil reigns supreme, the ruthless bounty hunter Blurr pursues a high-ranking Decepticon rebel.

Synopsis

For eons, the Autobots and Decepticons have battled for supremacy, a struggle that took them from Cybertron to Earth and back before the Autobots finally triumphed. In this universe, however, the Autobot are the villains: ruthless, freedom-hating autocrats, the tyrannical Optimus Prime and his minions have conquered Cybertron and nearly crushed the heroic Decepticon freedom fighters under their heel. Their takeover has not been smooth, however, as Prime's followers Goldbug and Prowl have rebelled against their leader and seized territories and soldiers of their own. Amidst these three-way turf wars and border skirmishes, the task of mopping up the Decepticons falls to the bodyscrappers: elite bounty hunters who track down, round up, and junk Decepticon fugitives. And among the bodyscrappers, there are few as efficient or cruel as Blurr—an adrenaline junkie forever chasing his next high, he delights in going after dangerous Decepticons and other high-risk targets, playing with his prey before finally going in for the kill. But as Blurr drives through the deadly Static Zone, passing the volcanic Chrome Ridge with Sixshot's dismembered corpse hitched to his bumper, Blurr muses that the trade's grown dull: the remaining Decepticons are too weak to put up an entertaining fight and their numbers are dwindling.

Blurr returns to Gold City, pushes his way through the squalid slums, and triumphantly delivers his latest catch to Ratchet. As part of his ongoing quest to engineer a better breed of 'bot, the mad doctor endlessly experiments on the poor and downtrodden inhabitants of Gold City using the spare parts Blurr brings in from his victims. As Ratchet's latest experiment writhes in pain, Blurr describes his latest adventure: though the trail took him all the way into Prowl's territory and into the path of a rival scrapper gang, Blurr easily escaped with his kill. It's not like he was in any real danger, he sighs; after all, he can outrun anyone. Despite his ennui, Ratchet piques Blurr's interest with news of Goldbug's latest bounty. The ruler of Gold City has reached out to every scrapper under his command to bring in a certain high-value target alive; as Blurr snatches a homing beacon from Ratchet and races out the door, he has just barely enough time to learn who he's hunting: Megatron's loyal lieutenant, Starscream!

Elsewhere, Hardhead and Chromedome have already found Starscream and pinned him under a volley of fire. Blurr observes the fight from a safe distance; although Starscream puts up a good fight, it's still two against one. Unable to bear the idea of losing a bounty to his rivals, Blurr takes the only option he has left, shoots Chromedome's blaster from his hands, and dives into the fray to rescue his quarry! The unlikely allies work together to take out their mutual enemies, but this is no sudden show of altruism on Blurr's part. If he activates the beacon now and calls down Goldbug and Ratchet, Starscream will immediately realize the game and escape. The only way he can deliver Starscream to his employer is by convincing the Decepticon to walk right into Goldbug's arms... and if he can do that, then he'll surely go down in history as the greatest bounty hunter on Cybertron.

Of course, Starscream's no fool, and immediately suspects treachery the moment he and Blurr are a safe distance away from Gold City. Blurr tries to get Starscream to see reason—after all, he's injured, Goldbug wants him dead, and the other two Autobot warlords won't treat him any better if he can even make the trip. There's nowhere on Cybertron he can run to; Blurr knows all the safe routes through the Static Zone, and the only way Starscream survives is if he accepts Blurr's assistance. When Starscream snaps that he's not going anywhere, Blurr goes for another angle: he's not really an Autobot anymore, he claims, he just can't afford to declare his neutrality. When the war began, he was just a scout; after Earth and the end of the war, however, the scouts were out of a job. Most survived by becoming couriers... but as the new regime took shape, packages became contracts, and couriers became scrappers. After still more back-and-forth, Blurr finally convinces Starscream that he just wants to help, and the pair set off towards the Chrome Ridge volcano range—a hazardous region at the best of times, it's currently a boiling hellscape of molten metal during the rainy season. Secretly, this turn of events delights Blurr: the volcanoes will keep Starscream trapped until Goldbug arrives. Blurr is so caught up in his egotistical imaginings that he doesn't realize he's been double-crossed, as Starscream blasts his vehicle mode and sends him tumbling out of control!

Starscream was never convinced by Blurr's affable façade and has been waiting for the right time to strike—and did so the second Blurr let his guard down. But despite his best efforts to hit the Autobot, Blurr easily runs rings around the Decepticon flier and blasts him again and again. Convinced that he's run Starscream ragged, Blurr zips in to deliver the final blow... only for Starscream to promptly sidestep his wild charge at the last second! With no way to stop, Blurr careens right into the nearest volcano slope and into a flow of red-hot liquid metal. As Blurr struggles to get free, Starscream explains that he could never outrun Blurr, but outthinking the reckless Autobot is another matter entirely. Trapped and helpless, Blurr screams that he'll kill Starscream even as the molten metal engulfs him...

Starscream stays with Blurr's corpse for the rest of the night to make sure that he's truly dead. As the sun rises, Starscream must continue his mission, but as he transforms and takes off, he takes a moment to thank Blurr, despite his selfish cruelty. After all, the bounty hunter has brought Starscream one step closer to his ultimate goal: finding Megatron!

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.
{{#if: ||(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)}}

{{#if:* Sixshot (1)

Starscream (9)
Reflector (18)|

Decepticons }}{{#if:{\|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
Blurr (2) Ratchet (4) Kup (5) Springer (6) Ultra Magnus (7) Roadbuster (8) Hardhead (10)	Chromedome (11) Goldbug (12) Prowl (13) Optimus Prime (14) Brainstorm (15) Fortress Maximus (16) Highbrow (17)

|

!! style="background:#ededff" | Autobots }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#fbefde;" | Humans }}{{#if:* Metroplex (3)| !! style="background:#ffeeb8;" | Others }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#d5e6d5;" | Misc }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#fedeb5;" | Misc }} |- {{#if:* Sixshot (1)

Starscream (9)
Reflector (18)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
Sixshot (1)
Starscream (9)
Reflector (18) }}{{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"

|- |style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|

Blurr (2)
Ratchet (4)
Kup (5)
Springer (6)
Ultra Magnus (7)
Roadbuster (8)
Hardhead (10)

|style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|

Chromedome (11)
Goldbug (12)
Prowl (13)
Optimus Prime (14)
Brainstorm (15)
Fortress Maximus (16)
Highbrow (17)

|}| | style="background:#ededff;" valign="top" |

Blurr (2)
Ratchet (4)
Kup (5)
Springer (6)
Ultra Magnus (7)
Roadbuster (8)
Hardhead (10)

Chromedome (11)
Goldbug (12)
Prowl (13)
Optimus Prime (14)
Brainstorm (15)
Fortress Maximus (16)
Highbrow (17)

}}{{#if:|

| style="background:#fbefde;" valign="top" |

}}{{#if:* Metroplex (3)|

| style="background:#ffeeb8;" valign="top" |

Metroplex (3) }}{{#if:|

| style="background:#d5e6d5;" valign="top" |

}}{{#if:|

| style="background:#fedeb5;" valign="top" |

}}

|}

Quotes

"I try not to ask too much from a bunch of numb nodes not smart enough to avoid having a contract out on them. It's just that I remember that there used to be Decepticons who were a challenge."

—Blurr

"I know we're supposed to take him in alive, Hardhead... but Goldbug didn't say anything about not leaving a few cracks in his casing."
"One thing you should know about me... I'm incredibly vain. I don't take to denting and cracking very well."

—Chromedome and Starscream

"Don't let my devastatingly good looks fool you—I'm always twitchy around Autobots."
"HA! Don't flatter yourself, Screamo—ain't nobody swooning over an outdated Seeker these days!"
"Outdated? I'm a classic, you overgrown junkheap!"

—Starscream vs. Blurr

"Blurr, the fastest bodyscrapper of them all. Fastest being on Cybertron."
"NONONONONONONO!"
"But I didn't need to outrun you. I needed to outthink you."

—Starscream kills Blurr

Notes

Continuity notes

Shattered Glass was originally created by Fun Publications in 2008 as the theme for that year's BotCon convention. Subsequent comics and prose stories fleshed out this universe, and it soon became one of, if not the, most popular things Fun Publications ever contributed to the overarching Transformers brand. Likely in response to this popularity, Shattered Glass repeatedly crossed over with other Fun Publications universes and became a key setting within Fun Publications' complex multiverse meta-lore all the way up until the company lost the Transformers license in late 2016. In comparison, IDW's take on Shattered Glass is a simpler, back-to-basics reboot unconnected to Fun Publications' stories—indeed, the comic does its own thing by eschewing the usual Autobot-Decepticon conflict in favor of a post-war setting not unlike IDW's own "Phase Two" era, and as is the way of Transformers reboots and re-imaginings, the comic picks and chooses characters and concepts at will. Details between these continuities differ: for instance, Starscream speaks about his "spark" when the original Fun Publications stories established that mirror-universe Cybertronians possessed negatively charged "embers" instead.

Transformers references

The Static Zone is occupied by a motionless Titan, partially sunken into the ground—an apparent riff on IDW's Transformers ongoing, which features a number of "immersant" Titans as a regular feature of Cybertron's geography. This particular Titan is colored to resemble the Decepticon Metrotitan; given that this is Shattered Glass, however, it's likely that this is (was?) actually an evil Metroplex.
The silhouetted 'bots trying to gank Blurr's kill on page three appear to be mirror-universe versions of the Wreckers. The largest 'bot is clearly Ultra Magnus, sporting his unmistakable head antennae and shoulder pads; to his left is a smaller Autobot with a two-ridged head—presumably Kup, who's been a Wrecker in multiple IDW continuities. The sword-wielding 'bot with a three-ridged head is likely Springer, and the bruiser to his right is probably Roadbuster, using a version of his Sins of the Wreckers body. If that's the case, then his shoulder weapons are on the wrong side... but then, this is a mirror universe!
The lethal no-man's-land known as the "Static Zone" has some precedent in Fun Publication's Shattered Glass prose stories, where it was known as the "Rad Zone" (which was itself lifted from the Marvel comics), and encompassed a sizeable portion of the planet.
Optimus Prime's city of "Pax" features a massive dome-structure, much like the Great Dome in the city of Iacon. The comic doesn't explicitly lay this out, but given the setting and timeframe, it's likely that "Pax" is Iacon, having been conquered and renamed in honor of the evil Autobot leader's original identity.
The bodyscrappers in Blurr's flashback are the four original Autobot Headmasters: Chromedome, Hardhead, Brainstorm, and Highbrow, plus an evil Fortress Maximus in the background. In a rather notable example of IDW's artists using a character's most recently released toy, this means that they're specifically based on their Retro Headmasters action figures, and as a result Brainstorm and Hardhead both have mouths instead of mouthplates. Their victim Reflector, meanwhile, combines his Siege toy with his black, white, and yellow color scheme from the original Shattered Glass run.

Real-world references

The idea of bounty hunters receiving unique fobs for each new contract they receive probably owes something to the first season of [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}The Mandalorian|{{#if:||The Mandalorian}}]], which used a similar system as a plot point.

Errors

On the sixth panel of page five, Blurr's "circle" should be "circles".
Chromedome's chest is miscolored on page nine; his Autobot insignia is also red instead of purple.
On the last panel of page 11, Blurr's "over soldered" should be hyphenated.
On the third panel of page 16, "volcanos" should be spelled "volcanoes".
Blurr's last monologue box on page 16 should likely be moved back to the penultimate panel.
On the third panel of the last page, Starscream's "who" should be "whom".

Other trivia

The original Shattered Glass stories featured a nerdy running gag where basically every minor character sported colors based on characters from the other faction—for instance, the Shattered Glass Technobots wore the colors of the original Terrorcons and vice versa. In the reboot, things are a bit more nebulous: although at least one character intentionally uses the livery of another, colorist John-Paul Bove has gone on record to say that most of the minor characters in this issue—Chromedome, Sixshot, and Hardhead—weren't colored as homages.<ref>{{#if: I did colour this, but their colours are not based on any other character they are just schemes I liked. |"I did colour this, but their colours are not based on any other character they are just schemes I liked."—|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/wordmongerer/status/1428618566442565634 |John-Paul Bove|John-Paul Bove}}{{#if: Twitter |, Twitter|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2021 |, 2021{{#if: 08 |/{{#switch:{{#len:08}}|1=008|08}}{{#if: 20|/{{#switch:{{#len:20}}|1=020|20}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/wordmongerer/status/1428618566442565634 ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/wordmongerer/status/1428618566442565634%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/wordmongerer/status/1428618566442565634%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/wordmongerer/status/1428618566442565634%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/wordmongerer/status/1428618566442565634%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref>

Covers (4)

Cover A: A sinister Blurr homages Derek Yaniger's cover for Transformers: Generation 2 issue #1, by Alex Milne
Cover B: Blurr on the run, by Dan Khanna and John-Paul Bove
Retailer incentive cover: Blurr, by Sara Pitre-Durocher
Hasbro Pulse exclusive cover: Gotta go fast, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente. Included with orders of Shattered Glass Collection Blurr.

Reprints

Transformers: Shattered Glass (July 27, 2022) ISBN 168405902X / ISBN 978-1684059027
- Collects Shattered Glass issues #1–5.
- Bonus material includes alternate covers.
- Trade paperback format.

Shattered Glass – cover art by Alex Milne

References

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