Spotlight: Ultra Magnus

Script: Simon Furman
Art: Robby Musso
Lettering: Neil Uyeyake
Colors: Kieran Oats
Editor: Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Covers by: Klaus Scherwinski and Robby Musso

• Major characters (in order of appearance): Swindle, Ultra Magnus, Scorponok, Zarak
• Originally published: January ?, 2007

Synopsis

Ultra Magnus apprehends the Decepticon criminal Swindle. However, Swindle decides to make Ultra Magnus a deal: his freedom in exchange for Scorponok's location. Realizing that Scorponok's capture would be far more important that Swindle's, and knowing that he would easily be able to catch Swindle the next time he got himself in trouble, Ultra Magnus agrees. The information leads him to Nebulos, where he finds that Scorponok is using businessman Mo Zarak's corporation, the Zarak Consortium as a front for his own activities. Using a holomatter disguise, Ultra Magnus penetrates into the very heart of the facility and discovers what appears to be a Nebulan whose body has been almost entirely re-engineered with Cybertronian technology; in short, a transforming Nebulan. Shortly after discovering this, his hologram is detected and destroyed, and Ultra Magnus reenters the facility via less subtle means and confronts Scorponok. In the ensuing battle Mo Zarak, afraid that all his work will be lost, tries to stop Scorponok and is shot in the crossfire, revealing cybernetic components in his body. Ultra Magnus takes advantage of Scorponok's distraction at having seemingly killed Mo Zarak and shoots him the Decepticon the face. Scorponok, distraught over the loss of his research, flees through an artificial wormhole generator.

Twenty-nine stellar cycles later, Ultra Magnus finds himself taking Swindle into custody once more. As Swindle once again tries to bargain his way out of trouble, Ultra Magnus wonders just how many compromises he'll make in order to get Scorponok.

Errors

TBA

Items of Note

• When Ultra Magnus re-arrests Swindle on the last page, he is reporting to Optimus Prime - this report is seen on the first page of Transformers: Escalation.
• Scorponok's experiments on Nebulos seem extremely close to what the Machination are doing in Escalation and what is known from Devastation. As the Machination are revealed in Escalation to be run by the severed head of a Transformer, they could be another front organisation for Scorponok.
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.