Dark of the Moon issue 4

« Transformers: Dark of the Moon #4
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	July 6, 2011
Written by	John Barber
Pencils by	Jorge Jimenez Moreno
Colors by	Romulo Fajardo
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Edits by	Andy Schmidt
Continuity	Movie continuity

The final battle begins!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bumblebee (4) Topspin (5) Roadbuster (6) Leadfoot (7) Optimus Prime (8) Wheelie (9) Ratchet (10) Sideswipe (11) Brains (12) Wheeljack (13) Sentinel Prime (14) Mirage (18)	Megatron (17) Driller (19) Shockwave (20) Starscream (21) Igor (26)	Robert Epps (1) Sam Witwicky (2) Hardcore Eddie (3) Carly Spencer (15) Dylan Gould (16) Seymour Simmons (22) Charlotte Mearing (23) Dutch (24) William Lennox (25)

Notes

• This issue also includes Convergence chapter 4 as exclusive bonus back-up material.
• Megatron's tarp-cape varies in length. It varies between short (going down to his neck) and long (going over his shoulder, like how it's mostly seen).
• This issue was planned to be released on June 29. but after the movie date was pushed to that same date. the adaptation was delayed to July 6

Differences with movie

Several pieces of the film are trimmed out and/or pared down, but purely for page-space reasons, rather than due to the issue being based on an early script. These include:

• We never see Sam and Epps finding the soldiers, unlike the film
• Lennox shows up after Starscream is dead.
• Bumblebee doesn't save Sam when Starscream dies.
• The Wreckers don't tear apart the Decepticon pilot.

Other script-based differences include:

• Carly does not change her clothes while she is trapped with Dylan Gould. She still wears her white dress from last issue.
• Shockwave speaks in the final battle.
• Starscrean attacks Sam and the others when they are in the building about to shoot at the pillars, something that never happened in the movie.
• Simmons is still sans wheelchair.
• The bombstick that ends Starscream's life is stabbed in his mouth instead of eye.
• Wheeljack lives, and insted Mirage has his head ripped off by Soundwave.
• Shockwave stands with Sentinel as he triggers the pillar, and is simply stabbed in the chest as opposed to having his throat ripped out.
• Megatron helps Optimus Prime in killing Sentinel Prime, providing a distraction so Optimus can use Sentinel's rust cannon against him. As well, Megatron does not die and offers a sincere truce after Cybertron disappears.
• The main control pillar is destroyed by missile launchers instead of Bumblebee destroying it.
• The final scene from the comic, with Igor looking at the sky wondering what became of his master, is not in the movie.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: Megatron and Soundwave, by Jorge Jimenez Moreno.