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"Escape Part Three"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	May 19, 2021
Cover date	February 2021
Written by	Brian Ruckley
Art by	Beth McGuire-Smith
Colors by	Priscilla Tramontano
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz, and Riley Farmer
Continuity	2019 IDW continuity

The besieged Autobots arrive at Darkmount to begin the final stage of their evacuation efforts, while Shockwave's remaining troops contend with Bombshell's betrayal.

Synopsis

Having ambushed the Autobot refugee caravan and isolated their rearguard, the Insecticons prepare for a feast—while Nautica escorts the nearest organics to safety, Hound, Road Rage, and Mudslinger struggle to keep the monstrous Transformers at bay. Tote uses his alternate mode to shield a group of A'ovan; although Kickback tries gnawing his way through Tote's vehicle mode roof, he doesn't make much headway before Powerflash and Highjump break off from the front of the convoy and provide some much-needed reinforcements. With the entire Autobot force bearing down on them, Bombshell orders a retreat, and Skrapnel uses his powers to kick up a cloud of electrostatic dust to confound their foes as the Insecticons escape.

In Shockwave's hidden bunker, Onslaught confronts Skystalker when he sees the ex-Cityspeaker loading up the Thunder Arrow with vital scientific equipment. Still acting under the influence of Bombshell's cerebro-shells, Skystalker evades his questions... but when Onslaught pushes the issue, Skystalker uses a hidden electrical weapon to paralyze the Combaticon commander before he takes off in his stolen ship.

Once they're back underway, Hound updates Dai Atlas on the situation: though they successfully drove off the Insecticons, the Decepticons absconded with two organics and the Cybertronian Scrambler as they retreated—and yet, despite the mounting body count, he cannot believe that the general—the war hero who vanquished Abominus—will not take up arms against this threat. Dai Atlas does his best to explain: when he stood against Abominus, the people of Cybertron truly believed that the combiner could not be reasoned with or controlled. When the Threefold Spark threatened the planet, Dai Atlas saw Exarchon as an existential threat and met force with force—but came away from the conflict increasingly unsure of the role he played in perpetuating the cycle of violence. When he finally went immersant after the war against the Thraal, his spiritual journey convinced him that every spark—dead, alive, those yet unborn—are all, truly, one... and if all are one, then any kind of violence is inherently self-destructive, for hurting one being hurts them all.

Elsewhere in the wilderness, the three Insecticons squabble over Scrambler's remains as they soar towards their new base of operations inside the hollowed-out head of an immersant Titan. Their inside man Skystalker has served his purposes well: he's already landed the Thunder Arrow nearby and unloaded his stolen equipment to establish a makeshift cloning machine based on the model Shockwave developed during the war. Once they've metabolized the energon they've produced from their latest feast, the device will harvest the planet's living metal and reshape it into an entire clone army. Bombshell gloats that Shockwave's arrogance will prove his undoing: he's not the only 'bot smart enough to use the machine, and soon everyone will see the Insecticons as the hunters they were born to be...

As their convoy arrives at Darkmount, Wheeljack and Hoist have picked up some more civilians along the way—including the giant Leviathan, who's been left paralyzed and unable to transform since her run-in with Quake. The pair do what they can to repair her while Nautica shoos away some overeager A'ovan children playing on her face before telling Wheeljack there's someone here to see him: his mentee Gears. As the two reunite, Highbrow arrives; though he's intrigued to see the rumors of Dai Atlas's return, he's really there to relay a message from the ever-reclusive Straxxus. Straxxus is glad to offer whatever assistance he can spare... but orders the Autobots to come no closer to the city limits. Accommodating a massive influx of new arrivals would only jeopardize his own progress on the Ark project, he explains; as the city's representative, he must consider all potential dangers and take the appropriate steps.

Meanwhile, Rage has finally limped back to Rise headquarters, but does not receive a warm welcome: neither Shockwave nor his henchman Soundblaster are pleased that he blew their cover during the recent skirmish in the badlands. Still, the scientist offers a way back into his good books by ordering Rage to find the rogue Insecticons and recover what they've stolen. Rage isn't happy to hear that he'll be working with Hydradread but makes the best of a bad situation when the eccentric weaponsmith unveils his extensive arsenal of bespoke weapon prototypes in his lab. The hunt for Bombshell, Rage decides, is as good a time as ever to give these gadgets a test run!

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.)

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I fought because I saw all around me the living, and I thought he threatened all of us. When the war began, I saw the living. By the time it ended, all I could see was the dead. The great heaps of them that Exarchon and us, together, had piled up. And I... I was unsure."

—Dai Atlas

"The span of our individual sparks... it's not all we are. I can't see it clearly any more, but I truly think there's a unity that precedes it, and follows it. Even my enemies... they are me. If I use violence against them, I use it against all of us."

—Dai Atlas

"We'll be the hunters now. That's our nature, and our destiny, and our fate."

—Bombshell

"Everything that's happening, it's all so appalling. So ugly and purposeless. It doesn't feel like my world any more. I want to mend and fix and build. But the only things that need mending right now are broken bodies."

—Wheeljack

"Hydradread?! Megatron really has taken everyone worth having, hasn't he? Hydradread's a deranged tinkerer! What possible point...oh, fine."

—Rage

Notes

Continuity notes

• The "Constructicons Rising" arc of Transformers: Galaxies introduced Abominus as an ancient combiner who had once terrorized Cybertron in the days before the War of the Threefold Spark, though Termagax did not specifically name him, and only described him as an "abomination". The revelation that Dai Atlas helped bring him down is a new one, however; this would presumably be the battle of Rivets Field that took place at some point before the events of Galaxies #1.
• The second flashback shows Dai Atlas during the War of the Threefold Spark, and includes a cameo from the now-deceased Quake, a notable veteran of the war who struggled to readjust to peacetime.
• Bombshell notes that Shockwave and Exarchon experimented with cloning technology during the War of the Threefold Spark, but their attempts to clone Skywarp's teleportation power resulted in the "clone-drone swarm" that appeared in Transformers #15 and the prologue to Galaxies #10. To counter this army, Nominus authorised the creation of a Seeker army of his own; Starscream's report in Transformers #24 had previously noted the existence of "war-forged Seekers", suggesting that most, or possibly all, of the many characters with this body-type were mass-produced during the war.
• The flashback shows another "iteration" of the elusive Exarchon. This must take place at some point before his fateful encounter with Megatron in Transformers #15, however; his lanky-limbed body appeared in #15, where Warpath blew it up.
• Just as he did in issue #1, Wheeljack observes a Titan skimming the atmosphere of Cybertron—as this story runs parallel to the events playing over in the main Transformers ongoing, this story must take place juuust before the events of Transformers #29, which ended with the Decepticons deliberately de-orbiting the Titans and sending them all crashing into Cybertron.
• The gigantic Leviathan last appeared in Transformers #22, where she accidentally defeated Quake after the reckless warrior shot her in the knee and sent her toppling.
• Wheeljack's mentee Gears last appeared in Transformers #27; along with the other members of Wheeljack's engineering crew, he helped defend the Winged Moon from Slipstream's Decepticons until Novastar and her team rescued him from "Team Stream".
• Rage last appeared in Transformers #21, where he abandoned his fellow Risers when it became clear the battle wasn't going in their favor. In his argument with Soundblaster, he correctly recalls that Triggerhappy bailed on them partway through the battle, while Fangry conspicuously disappeared right after their transport fell into a crevasse.

Transformers references

• The Thunder Arrow cargo transport is, of course, based on the transforming shuttle base that came with Skystalker's 1989 toy, though the name for the ship comes from the Victory cartoon, where Deathsaurus used it as his main flagship.
• The Zone story pages introduced the Autobot Micromaster Speeder as Dai Atlas's son—naturally, his one-panel cameo shows him as a soldier under Dai Atlas's command.
• A jet-former in Bombshell's flashback is drawn to resemble Leozack's Timelines toy, though it's not clear if this is meant to depict Leozack himself or his sister Lyzack, who both used this in Fun Publications' Wings Universe stories. The framing of this scene leaves it ambiguous if they're members of Skywarp's clone army or the mass-produced Seekers sent to hunt them down.
• Bombshell describes the special energon he and his compatriots produce as "ultra-energon", an alternate term for Ore-13 in the Infiltration miniseries.
• Rage and Hydradread both debuted in 1994 as members of the Decepticon Stormtroopers. Like many other Generation 2 toys, the Stormtroopers were built around a water-squirting gimmick, and the comic hybridizes this play feature with his Wings Universe incarnation by depicting Hydradread as a mad tinkerer who specializes in unusual fluid-based weapons.
• Hydradread namedrops a number of weapons as he shows off his arsenal: acid pellets were Prowl's weapon of choice in the Marvel and Generation 1 cartoon continuities, while Trannis wielded a pair of quagma rifles as per Ask Vector Prime. Hydradread also mentions something to do with "exothermic cryo-" before Rage cuts him off... Cryo Saber? Cryo-inducer? Cryo-gas, maybe? You decide!

Errors

• The energon the Insecticons produce in this issue is colored blue instead of purple—an artistic choice likely inspired by the substance's depiction in the popular Transformers: Prime cartoon. This is not the first time this phenomenon has occurred.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for February 24, this issue's long-overdue May 19 release marks the lengthiest delay between Transformers issues so far—inching out the previous record-holder, Sins of the Wreckers #4, by one week.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Hound and Wheeljack escort the A'ovans to safety, by Beth McGuire-Smith
• Cover B: Hanging out in the A'ovan habitat, by Umi Miyao
• Retailer incentive cover: Insecticons, by Jeffrey Veregge

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Reprints

• Transformers Volume 4: Declaration of War (January 19, 2022) ISBN 1684058066 / ISBN 978-1684058068
  • Collects Transformers (2019) issues #25–30, Transformers Valentine's Day Special, and Escape issues #1–5.
  • Bonus material includes alternate covers.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Volume 4: Declaration of War – cover art by Cryssy Cheung

External links

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