Windblade issue 4

« The Transformers: Windblade #4 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	July 23, 2014
Cover date	July 2014
Written by	Mairghread Scott
Art by	Saren Stone
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	John Barber
Assistant editor	Rebecca Huard
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)

The identity of the bomber is revealed as Windblade takes the ultimate risk and merges with Metroplex.

Synopsis

Windblade and Chromia race to Metroplex's brain with Starscream's enforcers hot on their tail when another blackout plunges the city into darkness. Chromia advocates simply killing their pursuers, but in deference to Windblade, she simply disables them by clipping their wings with her bladed weapons. As Metroplex begins to convulse all around them, the pair take refuge in Metroplex's brain chamber—but even a barred door proves no obstacle to Starscream himself, who has dealt with Blurr and Slug and has arrived to put an end to Windblade. Chromia engages Starscream in battle; as Windblade fails to convince them to stop fighting, she is instead faced with a daunting task: to risk her own life by mentally merging with Metroplex in order to gain full control over his stricken systems.

Chromia holds her own in the fight, but Starscream takes the upper hand when he hurls his sword at the distracted Windblade, tearing a gash in her shoulder. As Chromia instinctively turns to aid her friend, Starscream cuts off her arm with his second blade. Standing victorious over the two fallen females, Starscream gloats that they could never have beaten him because he was chosen by the Titan under Crystal City. Windblade, with the last of her strength, plugs an interface cable into her head—directly linking herself to Metroplex. The chamber comes alive at Windblade's command, blasting Starscream back and restraining him against the wall. With the mental link, Windblade probes all of Metroplex's systems, realizing that the blackouts have been orchestrated to divert power to the Titan's space bridge. Through the bridge, she is offered glimpses of many of the other worlds across the galaxy that were colonized by Titans, but finds that she cannot sense the beacon of Caminus. Perceptions being to swim and blur as Windblade and Metroplex become further and further intertwined, and the truth is revealed to the cityspeaker: the one who was responsible for the blackouts was Chromia!

Chromia tries to reason with Windblade, explaining that her plot was all for a single reason—to try and get Windblade home. Chromia refuses see her friend killed for Cybertronians, and insists that Windblade would never return to Caminus alive unless she was forced to do so. Chromia continues to attempt to coax Windblade/Metroplex into activating the bridge. Starscream screams in protest, noting with distress that, as Metroplex is now integrated with Iacon, using the spacebridge would kill everyone not completely inside the Titan. Windblade/Metroplex's linked mind drifts through space and time, as the cityspeaker loses her grip on reality and starts to feel isolated and alone... but as that thought seizes her mind, a vision of Metroplex offers her his hand with the assurance that she is never alone. United in purpose, Windblade and Metroplex deactivate the spacebridge. Disconnecting herself from the Titan, Windblade holds a hand up to silence Chromia, and strides past her friend and gives Starscream an offer he cannot refuse: if she frees him, he will keep everything that has occurred a secret, and in return, once Metroplex is well enough, she will allow Starscream unlimited access to the Titan's spacebridge. This will allow the leader of Cybertron to find and unite all of Cybertron's colony worlds, making the "Chosen One" the true savior of the entire Cybertronian race.

As dawn nears, Windblade prepares to look for Circuit to try and prevent any information about what has gone on getting out. An abashed Chromia thanks Windblade for taking the blame for her; Windblade grants Chromia permission to leave Cybertron if she wants, but demands that Chromia follow her orders until that time. Chromia vows to serve her faithfully, and Windblade quietly hopes to herself that one day, her friend will believe in her too. Windblade launches into the dawn sky, with the vow that she has only just begun to fight for the safety of both her homes: Caminus and Cybertron.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text are Windblade's visions, and have not been officially named except Caminus and Nautica.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	NAILs	Others
Windblade (1) Chromia (2) Slug (3) Metroplex (6)	Starscream (4) Blurr (5)	Knock Out (7) Vanquish (8) Fireshot (9) Injector (10) Air Hammer (11) Caminus (12) Nautica (13)

Quotes

"We have to shake them."
"You sure you don't mean "kill"? I would've gone with "kill"."
"No, Chromia they're not the enemy."
"You wanna tell them that? 'Cause I don't know- if you're accurately- assessing the situation."

—Windblade and Chromia discuss their pursuers.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Starscream refers to himself as the "Chosen One", a direct reference to the events of the 2012 Robots in Disguise Annual, where the dying Titan—having teleported inside the Crystal City—declared that Starscream would unite the planet.
• The colony worlds glimpsed at in this issue were previously alluded to in Metroplex's more-poetic thoughts from issue #2: racers ("...and some are light and fleet of foot..."), beastformers ("...and some as fierce as beasts..."), and tiny combiner pairs ("...and some were paired forevermore...though fools called them the least.").
• The characters of Windblade would next appear in Robots in Disguise #33.

Transformers references

• Further establishing just how diverse the colony worlds have grown, the few occupants that Windblade glimpses include Fireshot and Vanquish (a pair of Micromaster Combiners), and Injector and Air Hammer (two Fuzors) in an ocean. There's also a red, non-Earthly vehicle that word of god says is a G1 version of Prime Knock Out; the race he appears to be having with another 'bot seems to deliberately evoke Velocitron, a Cybertronian colony world from Transformers: Cybertron where racing was the order of the day. A year later, Windblade vol. 2 #3 would confirm the identity of Knock Out and his planet as Velocitron.
  • The planet of beastformers and the planet of combining twins would be covered in further detail in Windblade vol. 2 #6.
• However, Drift - Empire of Stone #1, published after this issue, introduced a non-Micromaster Decepticon Vanquish. This problem could be resolved, though, if one assumes that the colonist Vanquish is his Autobot Return of Convoy counterpart.

Covers (3)

• Standard cover: Windblade and Starscream, by Saren Stone.
• Subscription cover: Windblade, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• 30th Anniversary cover: Chromia, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.

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• Robots in Disguise #33
• More than Meets the Eye #31
• The Transformers: Primacy
• Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
• Machi Koro (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: Windblade (October 1, 2014) ISBN 1631400525 / ISBN 978-1-63140-052-0
  • Collects Windblade (2014) issues #1–4.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 (October 18, 2017) ISBN 1684050855 / ISBN 978-1684050857
  • Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–27, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–27, Dark Cybertron Finale, and Windblade (2014) issues #1–4.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 64: Windblade (August 9, 2017)
  • Collects Windblade (2014) issues #1–4, and The Transformers (2012) issues #35–38.
  • Includes a bio for Windblade, an overview of her conception, pictures of her Thrilling 30 toy, early design sketches by Hasbro, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Windblade - The Last City (February 14, 2018) ISBN 978-1684052240
  • Collects Windblade (2014) issues #1–4, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–7, but not the alternating chapters of Combiner Wars from The Transformers vol. 2 needed to complete the story. Um.
  • Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• 
  Windblade – cover art by Saren Stone
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 64: Windblade – cover art by Guido Guidi and Saren Stone
• 
  Windblade - The Last City – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

External links

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