The Coming Storm: Part 2
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| "The Coming Storm: Part 2" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Fun Publications | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #32 | ||||||||||||
| Story | Rik Alvarez & Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Writers | Pete Sinclair & Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Pencils by | Dan Khanna | ||||||||||||
| Inks by | Frank Milkovich | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Thomas Deer | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Managing editor | Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Wings Universe | ||||||||||||
Cleanup in aisle six!
Synopsis
A giant explosion rocks a city on Trigon, sending bits of buildings toppling. It turns out Ironfist is the cause, part of two Elite Guard squads attempting to combat a horde of giant insects swarming the city. Unfortunately, the bugs are able to fly, so the explosion mostly just ticks them off. The squads find themselves quickly swarmed by the attacking swarm as they fire their weapons. Every killing shot sends green goo flying everywhere—mostly landing on an annoyed Dion.
Eventually, Metalhawk tells Over-Run they should bring in some aerial firepower. Landshark hopes the two will show off their flying upgrades, but Over-Run instead has his remote-controlled helicopter send an impressive spray of firepower against the bugs. Once the bugs are soundly defeated, the two squads take a bit of a break.
After only a few moments, though, Thunderclash's comm bleeps with a call from Magnum. He informs them that their R&R is being cut short, with Metalhawk ordered to ferry Thunderclash's squad to Centry Quadrant. After some friendly banter and Over-Run loaning his helicopter to Landshark for dealing with the buzz flies in Centry, everyone boards the Hawk's Claw and heads to Space Port Bravo.
The two squads say their farewells. After Thunderclash's squad heads into the spaceport to disembark on the Beast With Wings, Metalhawk's squad speculates on where they'll end up. Dion is eager to meet and beat up Decepticons, but storms off when asked if he's ever actually seen a Decepticon before.
The squad re-boards their ship and flies to Elite Guard headquarters. There, Magnum greets them, praising the performance of Metalhawk's squad. He also has a special mission for them—since he has doubts about Alpha Trion's "Prime Initiative", he wants the Elite Guard to take point instead. To that end, he's created a new special ops unit to take out the Decepticon leaders that are popping up; a unit called the "Combaticons".
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
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Quotes
"Promises, promises, eh, sailor?"
"For the last time, I worked on the docks, not the ships!"
- —Ironfist cheeses off Dion... again, apparently.
"...and don't even think about asking to fly the Claw!"
"How about now? C'mon, I'm great at landing!"
"Is that why the crater next to the runway is named after you?"
- —Over-Run is not impressed with Landshark's piloting skills.
"Thunderclash's crew is ready for takeoff. I've given them Beast With Wings. It's the biggest, sturdiest interstellar ship we have. It's survived a Turquillian asteroid shower with nothing but scratches."
"If they can wreck that ship, then they deserve a commendation."
- —Magnum and Sentinel Major are not impressed with Landshark's piloting skills either.
Notes
Continuity notes
- This takes place 10 years after the events of the "Wings of Honor" comic.[1] Thunder Clash and his squad were established to be the first members of the Elite Guard in that story. Magnum also first appeared in that story.
- Dion was seemingly destroyed in Transformers episode "War Dawn". Variously Wingsverse materials indicated he was found by the Elite Guard and rebuilt by them. His job at the docks is brought up a few times in this story.
- Kup has a pet shrikebat; they were originally mentioned in The Transformers: The Movie, and showed up in Transformers episode "Chaos".
- Metalhawk mentions the "creators"; later stories would indicate these are vague memories of the Quintessons.
- Alpha Trion's "Prime" is Optimus, whom he rebuilt from Orion Pax in "War Dawn".
- The Combaticons are revealed to have originally been Autobots. The rest of the storyline will detail their defection to the Decepticons.
Transformers references
- Metalhawk originates from the Japanese Super-God Masterforce series. Unlike his main incarnation, Metalhawk is not a Pretender, but does use a suit of armor that resembles his armored human form.
- Ironfist was one of the Transformers' toys exclusive to Europe, as part of the Lightformer subgroup. Funnily enough, Ironfist received two appearances in fiction after years of being a toy-exclusive character, appearing in the seminal Last Stand of the Wreckers.
- Over-Run was one of the Action Masters in the final year toyline, part of the Action Blaster toys who came with transforming vehicles. Here, he's represented as a "virtual redeco" of Energon Bulkhead and able to Transform, but he still has his Attack Copter drone.
- The Virulent Clones were part of the BotCon 2005 "Descent into Evil" toys, clones of the Insecticons Dirge and Buzzclaw. Unlike the original clones, who had a set color scheme of yellow, black, and blue, these clones have three separate color schemes, with some being all yellow, some being all black, and some being all blue.
- Sentinel Major is based on Animated Sentinel Prime, his design specifically based off Prime's Cybertronian form.
- Ricochet and Moonracer appear alongside Alpha Trion in flashback; Ricochet also originates from the BotCon 2005 toys, while Moonracer is repurposed from BotCon 2005's Chromia, a toy that was initially meant to be her, until trademark issues prevented her name being used. Recognizable characters among the crowd include Sky Garry from Return of Convoy, Sonic Bomber and Roadfire from Zone, and Blacker from Victory.
- Onslaught is based on his Universe Ultra-Class toy, while the other Combaticons are all Cybertronian versions of their cartoon bodies, including details like Swindle's windshield chest.
Real-world references
- Space Port Bravo takes its designation from similarly named Spaceport Bravo from Second Life.
- Buzz flies take inspiration from a line of dialogue in Crocodile Dundee: "Well, to get a buzz." "What, like a blowfly up your nose?"
- Magnum notes that the Beast With Wings has survived a "Turquilian asteroid shower"; the name takes inspiration from Scrubs character Christopher Turk.
- Trigon takes its name from DC Comics supervillain Trigon.
Errors
- Shrikebat is spelled "shreik bat".
- Over-Run is miscolored as Dion on page 1.
- Blacker's appearance is somewhat off-model, most noticeably with his head.
