Frozen

1954 — What you fear most... is among you.

Synopsis

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Humans
Megatron (7) Jetfire (8)	Walter Simmons (1) Philip Nolan (2) Danco (3) Anne Fischer (4) William Simmons (5) Fontaine (6)

Bill Simmons appeared in the previous issue, in which he lost his hand. As we were given cause to speculate at the time, it is confirmed in this issue that he is the father of John Turturro's character Seymour Simmons from the live-action films, while this issue's new character Anne Fischer is his mother. However, this makes it apparent that in all the research author John Barber has done into the movie universe, some pieces of fiction he either didn't read or chose to ignore were the novels surrounding Revenge of the Fallen (The Veiled Threat and the novelization of the film itself), which named Seymour's parents Felix and Tova Simmons.
Danco is the grandson of Reginald Danco, previously seen in IDW's Movie Prequel and the first issue of this series. Issue #2 made clear that either Danco, Philippe Bowen or Theodore Grant was no longer with Sector Seven, but the presence of Danco's family in the organization in this issue suggests we can remove him from the list.
Philip Nolan (whose first name is not given in this issue) previously appeared in the Ghosts of Yesterday novel. That novel was also the source of the alternate code-name for Megatron given in this issue, the "Ice-Man", where other material referred to him as the "Mega-Man". This issue explains that "Ice-Man" was a nickname later generations of Sector Seven coined for him, while Simmons continued to use the original "Mega-Man" nomenclature he had coined.

By Barber's own admission in the notes page, this whole story is based on John Carpenter's 1982 movie, The Thing, in which a group of scientists are stranded at an Arctic base while an alien that has taken the form of one of them stalks among them. The "blood testing" scene in this issue is, in particular, based on one of the most famous scenes in the movie.
As in previous issues, Sector Seven is seen owning and using technology that the rest of the world wouldn't see in use until a few years later, including Lockheed U-2 spy planes and Sikorsky S-58 helicopters. The U-2, specifically, was the predecessor of the SR-71 Blackbird, which was Jetfire's alternate mode in Revenge of the Fallen, that being the (out-of-universe) reason that he is disguised as one in this issue.
Bill says his robotic fist "takes a licking and keeps on ticking", a famous slogan for Timex watches which grew out an ad campaign starring baseball player Mickey Mantle around the time this issue is set. Boxer Rocky Marciano, mentioned by Danco, also starred in a Timex ad at the time.
Real-life scientist Robert Oppenheimer is referred to again as being involved with Sector Seven, as he was in issue #3 of this series, and much earlier, in IDW's Movie Prequel. This issue makes reference to the allegations of Communism that defamed Oppenheimer in real life, indicating that Bill Simmons was one of his accusers.

Cover A: Art by Brian Rood depicting the frozen form of Megatron looming above Sector Seven's Arctic base
Cover RI: Art by Joe Suitor, the fifth of a series of interconnecting exclusive covers depicting archival Sector Seven documents and photos that cover the events of this issue.