Ironing Out the Details

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"Ironing Out the Details"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	July 8, 2010
Written by	Mike Costa
Art by	Casey Coller
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2010)

Ironhide meets the person responsible for his resurrection.

Synopsis

Following the mysterious robot into the city, Ironhide is greeted by a robed mech introducing himself as Alpha Trion. Unfortunately, the name doesn't ring any bells with Ironhide, who is only further confused by the old guy's claims that he was dead until now and that Cybertron has been abandoned for years. His temper boils over when Alpha Trion starts acting like he's a big deal, insisting that Ironhide must have heard of him (maybe by the name A3?), but he calms down when Trion proves capable of taking control of people who touch him.

Alpha Trion then begins to answer Ironhide's questions, explaining that he has been dead for the past four million years. In the meantime, Cybertron was ruined, abandoned and finally became the habitat of the Insecticon swarm. Ironhide is speechless at first, but his attention is soon turned towards a screen alerting them of another life sign on the planet. Trion dismisses it, claiming that it's not part of his plan, but Ironhide recognizes the energy signature as Sunstreaker's and heads out to save him.

Alongside Alpha Trion's minion, Ironhide makes his way to a ruined bridge and digs Sunstreaker's broken body out of a pile of swarm corpses. Barely conscious, Sunstreaker apologizes and blames the humans for doing things to him, but Ironhide has no idea what he's talking about and begins carrying him to safety. On the way, he has to fight off more members of the swarm while his cargo keeps apologizing about things he doesn't understand, this time involving Mirage.

After four long hours of fighting, Ironhide makes his way back to Alpha Trion, whom Sunstreaker recognizes. Trion notes that Sunstreaker's mind is in a recursive loop and takes him temporarily offline, then admonishes Ironhide for risking his life to save a "pile of scrap" like him. This only serves to anger Ironhide again, and he demands to know about Alpha Trion's plans and why he's so important to them. Trion explains that Ironhide did in fact survive the assassination attempt on Optimus Prime and lived on for several million years until he was killed on Earth one year ago. While the damage caused by the assassination attempt made it impossible to rebuild any memories after that point, Alpha Trion eventually managed to bring him back from the dead after years and years of work, a fact which he is fairly proud of. Ironhide asks why he, a mere bodyguard, was the one to be revived, and Alpha Trion finally gets to the point: He wants to restore Cybertron, but he needs someone to get rid of the Insecticon swarm first. And who's more suitable for the job than the toughest Autobot of them all?

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Ironhide (1) Scamper (2) Alpha Trion (3) Sunstreaker (4)	Insecticon swarm

Notes

• As Alpha Trion explains that the Transformers have spread across the galaxy, one of the planets displayed on the screen is Gorlam Prime (now known as Cybertron).
• Alpha Trion implies that resurrecting people would be easier with Vector Sigma, but mentions that it was "essentially erased" when Cybertron was destroyed. This marks the first mention of the supercomputer in 2005 IDW continuity.
• When compared to his previous appearance in Megatron Origin, where he had just a mustache, Alpha Trion now sports a full beard, though a much shorter one than usual.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: by Marcelo Matere and colors by Priscilla Tramontano.
• Cover B: by Casey Coller with colors by Joana Lafuente.
• Cover RI: Text-free "virgin" version of Cover A.

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