Windblade vol. 2 issue 6

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« The Transformers: Windblade vol. 2 #6 »
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published August 19, 2015
Cover date August 2015
Written by Mairghread Scott
Art by Corin Howell
Colors by Thomas Deer
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2015)

When Cybertron makes contact with the colony world of Eukaris, they find themselves with a real beast war on their hands.

Synopsis

On the colony world of Eukaris, Tigatron and Airazor visit the prophet Blackarachnia to bring her news of the battle between Optimus Maximus and Devastator that they have witnessed. Intrigued, Blackarachnia uses her powers to consult the "Web of Time", and foresees the coming of Cybertron to Eukaris. In response to her prophecy, the leaders of the planet's four tribes—Dinobot of the Scale Walkers, Cheetor of the Fur Walkers, Manta Ray of the Wave Walkers, and Sonar of the Cloud Walkers—gather before Eukaris's space bridge to discuss the matter. Manta Ray and Sonar are uninterested and willing to leave the matter up to the land-dwellers, and soon enough, everyone is arguing amongst themselves... only for their hostilities to be redirected when the space bridge activates, and Rattrap hops out! Having snuck off to Eukaris without Starscream or Windblade's knowledge, Rattrap is a little taken aback when Airazor and Blackarachnia step in to prevent Dinobot from attacking him, but is grateful for the chance to speak...

A week later, on Cybertron, Starscream and Windblade oversee the induction of the newest members of the Council of Worlds: first Knock Out, then Vanquish and Fireshot of Devisiun, a colony world of tiny combining Transformers all born in pairs which Starscream visited while Windblade was on Velocitron. Weary of the back-and-forth struggle for dominance in the council, Windblade takes Starscream aside and insists they will visit the next colony world together, hoping for a level playing field. The odds are then unexpectedly tipped in her favour when she is approached by Rattrap, who shares the knowledge he has picked up from his secret advance trip to Eukaris and tells her to focus her efforts on Blackarachnia and Cheetor.

The next day, Windblade and Starscream depart for Eukaris and are met by Blackarachnia, Tigatron, Airazor, and the four tribe leaders. Having heard old tales of Cybertron, the four leaders are immediately suspicious, but Manta Ray affords Windblade the opportunity to speak, as she is not a Cybertronian. Following Rattrap's advice, she concentrates on winning over Blackarachnia and Cheetor, and her words are just beginning to succeed when the ground beneath everyone's feet suddenly trembles violently. Blackarachnia recognizes this as part of her prophecy: Chela, the colossal phoenix-like Titan of Eukaris, has been reactivated by the arrival of "standard-formers", and erupts from the ground ready to carry out Onyx Prime's final command and destroy all non-beasts. Evading Chela's massive talons, Windblade flies inside the giant and makes her way to his brain chamber, hoping to use her Cityspeaker abilities to reason with him. Chela, however, has no time for reason, and pins Windblade with pieces of his internal structure. Starscream comes swooping in and opens fire on Chela's brain, destroying it and slaying the Titan. A tearful Windblade apologizes to the Eukarians, but Blackarachnia reassures her that Chela's death was also part of her prophecy, a necessary step on the path to changing their planet. As any tribe will gain an advantage over the other if a member is placed on the Council of Worlds, the spider chooses Tigatron and Airazor—who abandoned their tribes long ago in order to be with one another—to serve as Eukaris's delegates.

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Others

Quotes

Rattrap: "Am I missing somethin'?"
Blackarachnia: "You are missing a great deal, Cybertronian."
Dinobot: "Speak quickly, vermin, or you'll soon be missing a bit more."


"You waited until I was on Velocitron. You deliberately courted the Devisens on your own... again."
"Only after you ran off without my consent."
"I told you I'd get them to join us. I don't need your permission on how to do that."
"No, but I couldn't let you get too far ahead, could I?"
"This isn't a game, Starscream."
"Of course it is. A serious one, a deadly one—but a game nonetheless. And we're both playing it. Regardless of what you tell yourself."

—Windblade and Starscream

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Vanquish and Fireshot first appeared in issue #4 of the original Windblade mini-series, when Windblade was offered a glimpse of the colony worlds. In what was presumably a co-ordination error, Vanquish subsequently appeared as a full-size non-combining Decepticon in the Drift - Empire of Stone mini-series, but Windblade is ignoring that and moving ahead with the original intent for the characters. We suppose it might be argued that one of the Vanquishes (this one, probably) could be considered to be the Japanese Return of Convoy version of the character, but we're reluctant to do that.
  • It's no great surprise to find that Eukaris is the colony associated with Onyx Prime, the master of beasts. He was previously mentioned in IDW continuity in Robots in Disguise #34.

Transformers references

  • This issue is, of course, replete with references and inspirations drawn from the 1996 Beast Wars cartoon, starting with the casting choices, which include six of the show's main characters.
    • Tigatron and Airazor are established to be a couple, just as they were in the show. Their status as loners traveling together reflects their truncated role in Season 2, when they left in search of downed stasis pods.
    • Dinobot refers to Rattrap as "vermin", one of his favourite insults to throw at the rat in the cartoon, where the two frequently sparred with words and occasionally fists.
    • In response to the news that he and Airazor will be delegates, Tigatron drops Optimus Primal's catchphrase from the Beast Wars cartoon, "Well... that's just prime."
    • When Dinobot refuses Windblade's offer to visit Cybertron, Cheetor proclaims that the Fur Walkers aren't "scaredy beasties". Beasties was the Canadian title of the Beast Wars when it aired on YTV in order to comply with Canadian children's programming regulations, which prohibited the use of the word "war" in the title.
  • Blackarachnia appears with the design of her Animated counterpart, at the discretion of artist Corin Howell.
  • Animated Jetfire and Jetstorm make a cameo when we get a look at Devisiun (but see also "Errors", below). Also in the crowd are a pair of 'bots, one green and one red, whose colours might be a reference to The Twins from the live-action film series, given that they're another pair of siblings who have had a combined alternate mode at one point.

Trivia

  • It's likely not a deliberate reference, but this story isn't the first time Blackarachnia has been depicted with some kind of psychic power. In the Beast Wars cartoon episode "Master Blaster", she displayed telekinetic abilities that were apparently a product of her recent Transmetal 2 upgrade.
  • Upon Chela's death, Windblade is shown to "cry". Over in More than Meets the Eye, Tailgate "cries" quite regularly, via the effect of splashes and trails of light. The art makes Windblade's tears look a little bit more liquid than his, but presumably, within the "reality" of the comic, it's just the same "trail of light" effect.

Errors

  • In the first panel he appears in, Animated Jetstorm is a pale blueish-grey, but appears in his more traditional dark blue in his second and final panel.

Covers (3)

  • Regular cover: Windblade and Chromia look up into the skies of Eukaris, by Priscilla Tramontano
  • Subscription cover: Tigatron shreds through the cover, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
  • Retailer incentive cover: Windblade chases Starscream; one of a series of super-deformed covers by Agnes Garbowska that make up the Retailer Incentive covers on IDW's August Transformers titles.

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