Around Cybertron

For in-depth, hard-hitting news coverage no matter where you are in the Positive Polarity universes, you always look FIRST to Around Cybertron. Your hosts are there for you with breaking news from the front lines. Whether it's Decepticon malcontents or plush lizards, they bring you the news you need, when you need it.

In the Negative Polarity universes, however, your hosts bring you the news that your Autobot overlords want you to have, when they want you to have it, via the ABN (Autobot Broadcast Network, presumably). And you'd better be watching, if ya knows what's good for ya.

TransTech

Rook's news crew includes anchor-bot Andromeda.

• Rook reports live from the scene of a Decepticon attack on... a waste fuel depot? Yuck! Around Cybertron #1
• An expose on the sordid exploits of CEOs Ego and Bulletbike. Around Cybertron #2

Shattered Glass

Rook's news crew includes his boss Countdown, journalist Punch, camerabot Sprocket, and co-anchor Andromeda.

• An energy surge near the abandoned protoform hospital! Could it be the work of those notoriously soft Decepticons? Around Cybertron #3
• Rook reports on an eye witness who recorded two traitorous Autobots. Zetar and Skyfall are seen meeting with an unknown Decepticon! Who could it be?! Punch reports on an ABN exclusive! Around Cybertron #4
• The long-awaited execution of the comic duo Dreadwind and Darkwind! Around Cybertron #5
• The news that Megatron is dead, while an advertisement for Corrostop presented by a Wireless Automated Sales Person plays on the left in the written language of the Autobots. Around Cybertron #6
• Andromeda interviews bank robber-turned-Ratchet-experiment Mirage while Rook is "on vacation", but the interview is interrupted when breaking news comes in about a coup against Optimus Prime. Around Cybertron #7
• The Decepticons are causing trouble, so Rook turns things over to their resident expert, Punch. Unfortunately, it looks like Punch might have gone native, accepting a better offer from Monstructor and Esmeral at DBN! What will Rook do without his favorite co-anchor? Stay tuned! Around Cybertron #8

Wings Universe

Bishop's news crew includes his camerabot Spearhead, and co-anchor Cassiopeia, in the early days of the program.

• Bishop is here with your top stories for tonight... once a few technical difficulties get ironed out, that is. Around Cybertron #9
• An exclusive interview with leading entomologist Repugnus on the origin of the giant bugs that have been terrorizing Cybertronian cities. Around Cybertron #10
• Cassiopeia reports on the Elite Guard's twentieth mission without a casualty. Just ignore the competing anchormech over there claiming that the Combaticons were captured... Around Cybertron #11
• "Doc" and Centrifuge give Bishop an exclusive demonstration of their new Centurion droids. Around Cybertron #12
• Cassiopeia is live on the scene of the latest Decepticon attack in Iacon. It's... not pretty. At all. Around Cybertron #13
• Viewers at home can rest assured that the Around Cybertron crew feels their pain at this horrible, horrible tragedy. ...really, honest, they do! Around Cybertron #14
• Rook presents a highly-enlightening interview with the Custodiobot. Around Cybertron #15
• In the second interview with highly influential bots, Rook interviews Alpha Trion, who is certainly not Bishop with a new paint job. Around Cybertron #16
• Cassiopeia's report on a battle is interrupted by Rook with the much more important news that they've won the Running Cogs Award for Captivating Journalism for their Alpha Trion interview. Around Cybertron #17
• Andromeda finishes her first turn co-hosting the show with Rook, and confesses she had been a bit nervous. Bishop and Cassiopeia join them and Rook says goodnight. Around Cybertron #18

Notes

• Around Cybertron is a mini-comic written and drawn by Jesse Wittenrich that appears on the back cover of the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club magazine. The events that the host reports on are generally related to one or another of the club's ongoing storylines.
• The comic title switched to a new Indiana Jones-style font when the locale switched from the TransTech to the Shattered Glass setting, and Rook went from his original incarnation to a Shattered Glass doppelganger.
• It then switched again to a more classic "nuts and bolts" look when the locale changed to the Wings Universe, and we see Rook's mentor Bishop, back in the early days of the program.
  • On top of Bishop and Rook, Wittenrich almost named the camera system the "Primary Autorecording World-Wide Network". Groan.
• Several examples of the Autobot language pop up now and then:
  • Around Cybertron #6 included the following text on the bottom, written in the Autobot language:
    • ENERGON PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE.
    • METROPLEX BLIGHTS ANOTHER NEIGHBOR
    • RUB SYMBOLS BECOMING TRENDY, DANGER
    • SWEARING, NOT JUST FOR YOUNG BOTS
  • Cassiopeia has "PRESS" written on both her helmet and the side of her "newstank" altmode.

External links

• Jesse Wittenrich's deviantART gallery - contains an archive of Around Cybertron strips, as well as larger versions of some of the character closeups.