Ping

	; It's taken them seven issues, but the Titans have FINALLY returned.
	"Ping"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 23, 2016
Cover date	November 2016
Written by	Mairghread Scott
Art by	Sara Pitre-Durocher
Colors by	Joana Lafuente and Priscilla Tramontano
Letters by	Tom B. Long and Chris Mowry
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

When the Titans return, Cybertron fights back!

Synopsis

Out in the depths of space, aboard the Titan Carcer, Lancer is relaxing at the scanners when the sensor array starts to pick up something alarming. Greenlight immediately goes to call for Elita One....

Windblade returns to Cybertron following the recent events on Earth, where she is greeted by Obsidian. Feeling very downtrodden after recent failures, Windblade believes she may no longer have a part to play in the future of Cybertron, but Obsidian tries to raise her spirits, pointing out all the good work that they can yet do. All those future plans immediately become secondary concerns, however, when Obsidian's communicator chimes...

Across town, Starscream is meeting with Ironhide, who, as new director of security for Iacon, requests that custody of the oft-stolen Enigma of Combination be turned over to him to prevent the unsupervised creation of any new combiners. Starscream is resistant, more interested instead in seeing the Combaticons prosecuted for their crimes, which Ironhide is unwilling to do so long as they remain in the brain-damaged state they have been in since de-combining. Starscream accuses Ironhide of working against him, but Ironhide denies it; in fact, he says, he believes it is time for Starscream to stop playing games and properly, genuinely lead the planet, and that he'll stand behind him if he does. Before they can talk any further, their communicators also go off.

A short time later, the Council of Worlds assembles at the Spire, where Obsidian shocks everyone by requesting a declaration of war. A team of advance scouts, he explains, were sent to investigate the anomaly detected by Carcer's sensors, which was discovered to be a spacebridge portal that had disgorged an armada of undead Titans. The entire scout team were slain by the monstrosities, who are now bearing down on Cybertron and are due to arrive in six hours. The council flies into a panic, with Knock Out ready to flee immediately, but Starscream—taking Ironhide's advice—sternly snaps them all into shape. Preparations are made for all of Cybertron fight back against the approaching threat: sick and injured 'bots are quickly relocated to Caminus, under the direction of the Mistress of Flame; Ironhide's security forces organize the evacuation of Iacon; and every available ship is drafted to take part in the looming combat. This last order in particular proves distressing for cargo hauler Razorbeast, who tries to convince his partner Fizzle that they should just make a run for it, but a stirring speech from Starscream that is transmitted to all ships convinces them to stay and fight.

As the Titans arrive overhead, Windblade gives Metroplex the signal to transform in order to battle his zombified brethren on the ground, while the ships—with Carcer at the fore, its troops led by Strika—try to eliminate as many as they can before they hit the ground. Down among the city streets, Knock Out uses his speed to evade the giants, luring them into a barrage of fire led by Breakdown, while Tigatron and Airazor rip at the giants with fang and claw. Metroplex fights bravely, but as the combat wears on, more and more Titans arrive, and the giant Autobot is steadily overpowered and wrestled to the ground. Observing this, Starscream contacts Elita One aboard Carcer and, shelving his characteristic pride, requests that she bring Carcer down to the surface of the planet and transform him to help in the fight. Elita listens to him silently, and after a moment... politely refuses and shuts off her comm line!

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Others

Windblade (4)
Chromia (6)
Optimus Prime (7)
Ironhide (8)
Fizzle (24)
Bumblebee (hallucination, 26)
Metroplex (27)

Carcer (1)
Lancer (2)
Greenlight (3)
Obsidian (5)
Starscream (9)
Rattrap (10)
Moonracer (11)
Knock Out (12)
Tigatron (13)
Airazor (14)

Vanquish (15)
Strika (16)
Multiple Titans (17)
Fireshot (18)
Mistress of Flame (19)
Zetca (23)
Razorbeast (25)
Breakdown (28)
Elita One (29)

Quotes

"There's a saying on Earth, where Optimus is now, 'there's no rest for the wicked.'"
"There is a similar saying among my people. There is no rest for the just."

—Windblade and Obsidian

"Now, will the Justice Committee, the most annoying of committees if I may add, please tell us why we're here?"

—Starscream

"Always knew that guy was a manipulative ass-gasket. I just never thought he'd be so damn inspiring."

—Fizzle, on Starscream

"Think we'll make it out of this?"
"Yes, but look where optimism got me."
"Fair enough. On the bright side, if we lose, maybe I'll get to haunt Megatron. Annoy him as much as you annoy me."

—Starscream and Bumblebee's "ghost"

"I don't like to humble myself, Elita, but we won't survive without this."
"Then I wish you well, Starscream. May your body defend and serve whatever remains."
CLK
".....She hung up."

—Starscream and Elita One

Notes

Continuity notes

Windblade returns from her participation in the Revolution crossover, which she was seen leaving Cybertron to take part in in the Till All Are One: Revolution tie-in one-shot, and which, due to delays, hadn't actually wrapped up by the time this issue was released.
After being arrested last issue, Chromia is stated to be in prison following her confession to the bombing in the Acrolight District of Iacon.
Obsidian notes that "Kaon must be resettled." The former Decepticon capital, previously believed destroyed in Cybertron's reformatting, was discovered still standing in the Titans Return one-shot.
In what has become an ongoing trend, Starscream has again adopted a new body, the third time he has done so since becoming leader. For a point of comparison, note that Ironhide still sports the War for Cybertron-inspired design he acquired back at the start of 2012.
Ironhide refers to the Enigma of Combination's distressing history of being very easily stolen since it fell into Starscream's hands, which has happened in The Transformers #41, Combiner Hunters, and just last issue, which resulted in the formation of Optimus Maximus, Victorion, and Bruticus, respectively.
We are also reminded that the murder that took place back in issue #1 has not yet been solved; the implication has always been that Blast Off, disguised as a Badgeless, did it.
The undead Titans were reanimated by Sentinel Prime on Luna 1 in More than Meets the Eye #57.
Despite the More than Meets the Eye issues of the crossover establishing that there is regular contact between the two, apparently nobody on Luna 1 thought to forewarn Cybertron of the incoming Titans.
Zetca is seen running the Cybertron spaceport, a job he was shown to have taken up in The Transformers #47.
Fizzle was last seen issue #1 of the Windblade mini-series, hanging around in Maccadam's. Looks like he's found himself a job since then!
Elita's refusal to let Carcer transform and join the fight on Cybertron is alarming enough without context, but it's important to remember we've known since Windblade vol. 2 #7 that there's something suspicious about her Titan, and that it may not be exactly who or what she claims it is.

Transformers references

Beginning in this issue, Starscream takes on a new design, which at the time, everyone assumed was a Pitre-Durocher original. Half a year later, however, with the announcement of the Power of the Primes toyline at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, it turned out that he's actually based on his toy from that series, and that the design's inclusion in the comic was a mandate from Hasbro.^[1] A little while after that, it would turn out that the design itself was one of several "evergreen" character designs created by Hasbro for use on licensed media not tied to any particular toyline or film/animation project; Optimus Prime had, in fact, also been switched over to his "evergreen" design in the same month's issue of his own comic.

Errors

On page 2, Windblade sadly notes Optimus doesn't listen to "her council"; that ought to be "counsel."
Perhaps not an out-and-out error, but Obsidian refers to Bruticus by name. As his name was only ever shown to readers when Vortex revealed it during Bruticus' combination, and the Combaticons are suffering from brain damage since decombining, it's not very likely that they would have been coherent enough to reveal their combined form's name.

Other trivia

Till All Are One gets a new logo this issue, shifting the subtitle to below the "Transformers" logo and enlarging it to span the width of the cover.
This is the first part of Till All Are One's sequel/follow-up to the Titans Return event. It's not branded as part of the event itself—a bit ironic, given that this is the story in which the Titans actually return! The launch of Till All Are One was apparently held back by delays on Sins of the Wreckers; had it come out on its originally promoted launch date, Till All Are One would presumably have had a more interconnected set of crossover issues that would have run concurrently with the other Titans Return chapters in The Transformers and More than Meets the Eye. But hey, things change, and so this story has actively been written to fall after Revolution, clocking in at four parts in length (the entirety of the second Till All Are One trade paperback).

Covers (3)

Regular cover: Metroplex rises, by Sara Pitre-Durocher
Subscription cover: Split-screen of Windblade, Starscream, and our cast as the Titans draw near, by Priscilla Tramontano
Retailer incentive cover: Knock Out and Breakdown, by Jack Lawrence and Thomas Deer

Reprints

The Transformers: Till All Are One, Volume 2 (July 19, 2017) ISBN 1631409247 / ISBN 978-1631409240
- Collects Till All Are One: Revolution #1 and issues #5–8.
- Bonus material includes art from most covers.
- Trade paperback format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 76: Titans Return, Part 2 (July 25, 2018)
- Collects Till All Are One issues #5–11.
- Bonus material includes an article on Revolution.
- Hardcover format.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 1 (November 17, 2021) ISBN 1684058422 / ISBN 978-1684058426
- Collects Revolution issues #0–5, Till All Are One: Revolution #1 & issues #5–8, The Transformers (2012): Revolution #1, Action Man: Revolution #1, More than Meets the Eye: Revolution #1, and Revolutionaries issues #1–4.
- Hardcover format.

Till All Are One, Volume 2 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 76: Titans Return, Part 2 – cover art by Don Figueroa (Metroplex) and Sara Pitre-Durocher (retro)
The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 1 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher