Transformers: Shattered Glass (fiction)
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Shattered Glass is a line of comics and prose stories published by Fun Publications, set in a universe that is a strange and bizarre reversal of the "normal" universes. The storyline details part of the war between the evil Autobots and the heroic Decepticons, as Optimus Prime makes plans to conquer Earth.
The first "Shattered Glass" fiction was released in April 2008, when Fun Publications "leaked" three pages of what was supposedly the upcoming BotCon 2008 set's accompanying comic. "Shattered Expectations" gave the "evil parallel universe" concept a highly campy treatment—including such gags as an ingenious Grimlock, a Jazz that talked like Mr. T and reverse-Furmanisms)—rendered in Derek Yaniger's style, even featuring flat, 1990s-era coloring. The fandom response was virtually unheard-of, in that it was almost unanimously positive.
It turned out the comic was actually an April Fools' Day gag. Mmn.
The real comic picked up after the "Crossing Over" storyline, following Cliffjumper as he found himself stranded in the strange "Shattered Glass" universe. It was a far more serious story, with Cliffjumper initially joining the Autobots, but soon finding out that things were not all that they seemed.
The storyline was eventually continued in a series of online prose stories. The popularity of Shattered Expectations led to several of its aspects being incorporated into them, including a more campy approach to portraying the characters, and a more light-hearted and adventurous tone overall.
The "Shattered Glass" world also features in the 2009 Transformers Collectors' Club magazine comic Reunification. Following on from Transcendent, Landquake, Breakaway, Topspin, and Alpha Trion travel with Skyfall's body to the "Shattered Glass" universe and find themselves mixed up in the universe's strange politics. Unlike the prose stories, this tends to have the more serious tone of the original BotCon comic (though with a few exceptions).
Shattered Expectations
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Overview
Goldbug, Grimlock, and Jazz sneak into a laboratory and discover some secret technology. Starscream tries to stop them, but ends up getting beaten by Grimlock. Starscream warns the Autobots to surrender, but both he and Razorclaw are mocked by Grimlock. Razorclaw then uses a device to open the roof and signals the Mayhem Suppression Squad, who show up to kick Autobot backside.
Creative Team
The pages were written by Trent Troop and Greg Sepelak, with Sepelak also providing art and Troop also providing colors.
Shattered Glass
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Main Stories:
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Overview
When Cliffjumper emerges from the portal he was thrown into, he finds himself on Cybertron again. He soon runs into Rodimus and joins back up with the Autobots, only to find them acting far differently than he remembers. After an argument with Optimus Prime over what Cliffjumper thinks is uncharacteristically cruel treatment of a prisoner, he gets shot and disposed of in the Rad Zone.
He ends up being found and repaired by the Decepticons. After a bit of panic on his part, Megatron calms him down and has Sideswipe explain the situation. Unlike everyone else, Sideswipe knows that Cliffjumper is not "their" Cliffjumper, and describes to him a world of evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons, where everything is different from what Cliffjumper is used to.
Meanwhile, Prime makes preparations for the launch of his Ark to Earth, while the Decepticons prepare for their own attack on the Ark's launch platform. Starscream gets the idea to modify Cliffjumper's glass gas into bombs to weaken the platform, to which Cliffjumper reluctantly agrees. The Decepticons then lead a strike on the platform, which turns into a pitched battle. Cliffjumper is initially uncertain which side to fight for, but when Megatron takes a shot from Prime meant for him, that spurs him into destroying the weakened platform. He then decides to join the Decepticons as they retreat from the victory.
Some time later, the Decepticons are defending the recently rediscovered Arch-Ayr fuel dump from the Autobots, when Wheeljack shows up with his new squad of Dinobots, intending to enact revenge on Optimus Prime for banishing him. When Prime offers to take Wheeljack back if his Dinobots can defeat the Decepticons, Wheeljack orders them to attack... and they end up turning on each other before escaping.
Both the Autobots and Decepticons decide to hunt down the Dinobots in hopes of reprogramming them as troops. After each side successfully captures a few Dinobots, Blurr and Rodimus, and Cliffjumper and Sideswipe, independently track the lead Dinobot, Grimlock, to a strange old underground edifice. After navigating a series of traps and dealing with strange Mutants, the four discover that the underground chamber is occupied by the Omega Terminus, the computer which gave life to all of the Transformers in this universe. They also discover Grimlock, who has been bestowed with both an ember and high intelligence by the computer.
A fight ensues between the four explorers, Grimlock, and the corpses of several dead Transformers (including Sideswipe's old commander Drench and this universe's Cliffjumper) reanimated into zombies by the Terminus. The four explorers eventually prevail, with the zombies being defeated by scraplets, and Grimlock being tricked into falling into a pit. The Terminus then forces the four explorers to leave, causing them to forget the entire incident.
Rodimus is eventually punished for his failure to bring back Grimlock, by being sent to Ratchet for "repairs". However, Grimlock soon returns under his own power, having survived his fall, and joins the Autobots of his own free will. Meanwhile, the Dinobots (now Dinocons) captured by the Decepticons are enjoying their new home, until Grimlock sneaks in to take them on a little trip...
As Starscream is checking on the Dinocons some time later, he notices that the two smallest ones, Slugfest and Overkill, seem to be missing. After panicking and checking to see if they had been eaten or kidnapped, he soon discovers that they had actually gained embers and the ability to transform, and had been hidden in cassette form. In fact, all of the captured Dinocons now had embers, transformations, and more developed intelligence. Though the matter is puzzling, since the Dinocons seem to be otherwise fine, the Decepticons turn their attentions to more pressing matters.
Namely, that Optimus Prime has been working on repairing his Ark and its platform in preparation for another launch. Fortunately, the Decepticons have been working on their own ship, the Nemesis, so they can pursue the Autobots. And they both need to hurry, as Cybertron will be entering the Plait Expanse soon, which will render all interstellar travel impossible for over a year of Earth time.
As both sides ready their ships, Megatron answers a summons he believes to be from Boltax, the keeper of the Temple of Knowledge. But it turns out to be a trap set by Ricochet, who thinks that capturing Megatron will prevent the Nemesis from being able to go after the Ark. When Prime hears about the plan, however, he gets angry and storms off to deal with Ricochet, not wanting any hand but his own to be the one that kills Megatron. Meanwhile, Whisper and the Predacons stage their own rescue attempt. The various parties involved all eventually meet up and there's several altercations. In the end, though, the Decepticons are able to outsmart the Autobots and escape.
It turns out to be too late, however. Rodimus has taken over the Ark in a mutiny and launched without Prime, throwing off everyone too loyal to Prime to be cowed under. Meanwhile, the Nemesis likewise has launched without Megatron and the other Decepticons still on Cybertron. They all find themselves now trapped on the planet as the two ships leave them behind and speed towards Earth.
As the two ships finally reach Earth, the Nemesis is able to disable the Ark and send it crashing into the Pacific Ocean near the West Coast of the United States of America. However, the Nemesis is then hit by nuclear missiles launched by the humans, which causes them to crash as well. Most of the Decepticons escape in stasis pods, while Starscream and Cliffjumper stay on board to guide the ship into landing in an unpopulated area.
On Earth, Heatwave manages to locate Soundwave's stasis pod and get him reactivated. They then gather up Soundwave's cassettes who have landed nearby, and go off in search of the Nemesis. They eventually find the crash site, and that there's a team of local scientists snooping around. After a misunderstanding between the scientists and Ravage, the Decepticons eventually discover that the humans—Professor Arkeville and his interns—are friendly and sympathetic, and invite them onboard to meet up with Starscream and Cliffjumper, who survived the crash.
Rodimus, on the other hand, meets up with his own set of human allies, the Witwicky brothers, when the three try to steal him. He takes them back to the Ark and convinces the others to accept the humans' help, though not before dealing with an attempt by Goldbug to usurp leadership. Rodimus ultimately wins, and, after listening to advice from the Witwickys and studying the planet's transmissions, hatches a plan: Hijack one of the United States' military bases, take control of the country's defense satellite, and use it to hold the planet hostage until the humans accept the Autobots as their new Mafia-like leaders.
The Decepticons learn of the Autobots' success in gaining control of the base, and launch an assault to free it, having managed to locate Crasher's pod in the meantime. During the fight that ensues, Heatwave is able to gain access to the satellite's controller and use it to disable the Autobots' control and evacuate the base. He then turns the satellite on the base itself, destroying it, and finally crushes the controller as well. The satellite then self-destructs.
When President Colton hears of the situation, he decides that, while the Decepticons are worth keeping an eye on, he's especially interested in the Autobots...
Back on Cybertron, Remote Patrol Six is tasked with scanning the Plait Expanse for some way to break through it and get off the planet. Though they are unsuccessful in that, Sandstorm does detect a strange signal, and they send Downshift to check it out.
That signal turns out to be Alpha Trion, Blackarachnia, Nightscream, Topspin, Breakaway, and Landquake, who have recently arrived on Cybertron near Trion's old laboratory, along with Skyfall's body. When Downshift arrives and discovers what's going on, Alpha Trion kills him to keep him quiet. That, and Breakaway discovering that Alpha Trion was lying about Skyfall being shot—their dead comrade having been stabbed through the spark instead—makes Breakaway and Landquake highly suspicious of Alpha Trion. That prompts Alpha Trion to have Breakaway, Landquake, and Topspin taken captive by his acolytes, so they don't interfere with his plans. The three manage to escape, however, and Alpha Trion decides to let them go for the time being, so he and his followers can relocate before they're discovered again.
While all this is going on, Rook and his team of ABN journalists make sure to keep the citizens of Cybertron appraised on the relevant news happening around them, through their popular show Around Cybertron.
Creative Team
The Shattered Glass comic featured a brief return of the retired Transformers artist Don Figueroa, with Espen Grundetjern on colors, and was written by Pete Sinclair and Benson Yee.
The remainder of the main stories are written by Trent Troop and Greg Sepelak. Illustrations for Dungeons & Dinobots and The Desert Heat! were provided by Evan Gauntt. Illustrations for Do Over were drawn by Yūki Ōshima and colored by Drew Eiden. Illustrations for Eye in the Sky were provided by Tom Whalen. Illustrations for Blitzwing Bop will be done by Chad Porter.
Reunification is written by Forest Lee with art by Robby Musso and colors by Josh Perez.
Around Cybertron is written and illustrated by Jesse Wittenrich.
