Cybertron Magna Convoy

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"Cybertron Magna Convoy"
Publisher	e-HOBBY
First published	June 5, 2017
Art by	Shin Sasaki
Colors by	Kazumasa Yasukuni
Continuity	Precursor World
Packaged with	LGEX Convobat

The descendants of the Primus Vanguard join forces against the Blue Order's traitor.

Synopsis

Magna Convoy tells Convobat of the Primus Vanguard, the group of interdimensional warriors who defended their universe from invaders, and how they passed down the Matrix Sword from leader to leader. They were ultimately betrayed by Straxus, who used programs to force them to turn on each other, leading to the destruction of the Vanguard and the death of their final leader. Seeing as Convobat is a clone of that leader, Magna Convoy passes the remains of the sword to him, though the diminutive bot is reluctant to accept such a treasured object. When the two prepare to recover Convobat's transtector, they find their ship under attack from Straxus's Rollermaster Corps, and Magna Convoy heads out to fight them while urging Convobat to flee with the ship.

Confronted by Straxus himself, Magna Convoy holds his ground and describes that while he had previously lost everything and had nothing to fight for, he now sees the light of hope in Convobat and is determined to protect him. Straxus is unimpressed and destroys Convoy's hand, but his ensuing barrage of missiles is blocked by Convobat who swoops in on a shield vehicle and returns the Matrix Sword to Magna Convoy. While keeping the Rollermaster Corps busy, Convobat tells Magna Convoy that he was the one entrusted with the sword, though Convoy just wants to know why he didn't escape when he had the chance. Convobat explains that Magna Convoy's stubbornness reminds him of his least favorite aspect of his friend, and he feels compelled to confront that stubbornness rather than oblige it.

The return of the Matrix Sword doesn't worry Straxus, who mocks Magna Convoy's similarity to his late leader and tells him that even if they are granted power, lifeforms like him don't have the ambition to use it and must be led by someone like Straxus. He fires a powerful blast, but to his shock it fails to affect Magna Convoy, who has accepted that he was entrusted the Matrix Sword for a reason and is now able to call upon its powerful light. The blade regenerates along with his hand and he unleashes its full power on Straxus, who is blown clear and left heavily injured elsewhere. He demands the nearby Rollermasters help him, but instead, the robots finish him off and one of them declares that they are Straxus now.

As Magna Convoy leaves the planet with Convobat, reflecting that the legend of the Primus Vanguard is over, he discovers faint signals that suggest other Vanguard members may have survived. He vows to seek them out together with Convobat and restore the light in the form of a new Blue Order.

Elsewhere, Soundwave and Bludgeon dispassionately observe our heroes and a variety of other misfits throughout the multiverse. Bludgeon cryptically remarks that the "Blue" has finally awoken and that the warriors who have inherited the "Seven Lights" divided from "The One" have begun to move. A new era is about to begin...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• Straxus refers to the planet the comic is set on as "Gaea" in the English translation, perhaps a reference to Gaia. However, this name is not present in the original Japanese text, so whether this is an intentional naming or not isn't clear.

Continuity notes

There has been...an awakening...

• Soundwave reappears after having aided Magna Convoy in the prequel comic to "Cybertron Magna Convoy" and abetted Megalligator's escape in the prequel to "Cybertron Convobat". It seems he was assisting in Bludgeon's greater agenda.
• Primus would later refer to his Vanguard as the "Warriors of the Seven Lights" (七つの光の戦士達 Nanatsu no Hikari no Senshitachi) when the Primus Vanguard storyline was picked up by the Generations Selects Special Comic some years later, specifically in the first God Neptune story. What's more, Bludgeon states that the Seven Lights were divided from "The One" (ザ・ワン Za Wan). Given the Primus association, there's a good chance he's talking about The One, the sentient core of the universe who created Primus as described in a number of Simon Furman-penned tales. This would indeed be confirmed four years later in the finale of Generations Selects.
• We very briefly check back in with Megalligator on one of Bludgeon's viewscreens here, seen holding the Creation Matrix, an artifact that would later be revealed to hold great significance to the Primus Vanguard's Green Order. Standing next to Megalligator is a figure in the colors of Optimus Primal's seldom seen Burning Convoy form, seen here with the Titans Return Infinitus head on Titans Return Hardhead body-type. This article noted that Infinitus's block red coloring, resembling the Titan Force version of the toy, also calls to mind Red Sentinel Prime of the Red Order; sure enough, years later, "Finale" would reveal this to be a new body called Burning Red Sentinel Prime.
• The viewscreen above Megalligator depicts a Straxus's hand grasping a healing tank of some sort, indicating reports of their demise(s) may have been exaggerated.
• Deadlock on the top left is a dimension-jumping Cloud World Decepticon who has previously appeared in e-HOBBY's Cloud stories and in his own pack-in e-HOBBY issue. He would also later be explicitly confirmed as a member of the Primus Vanguard's Black Parade.
• The Jhiaxus depicted on the lowermost screen previously appeared in an indistinctly-colored cameo in the Cloud Compilation Comic. Notably, Jhiaxus appeared in that issue in his Thrilling 30 body, which was never released in Japan, and this issue portrays him in his original never-in-toy colors from the Marvel Generation 2 comic.
• The screen above Magna Convoy appears to depict the Japanese Aligned incarnation of Ratchet in his Go! "Hunter Ratchet" Decepticon body, wearing a Cybertron Alliance-style cape. The much later "Finale" would reveal that this is actually Megatron possessing the body of Green Megatron.
• On the bottom right, obscured by a speech balloon and identifiable only by the back of his calves, is the Shattered Glass character Solarbot. Seeing as he is floating in mid-air and facing off against two silhouettes block colored like Blaster and Rewind, it seems that this image represents the events of the comic "Solar Requiem".
• A third (fourth?) Straxus is introduced on the far right screen. This iteration is based on the character's appearance in the "Metrowars" mini-manga.
• On the top-rightmost screen, a gold or orange hand can be seen clawing at a "Wanted" poster. It's not clear who this is, but given that the panel seems to be evoking the cover of previous e-HOBBY release "Badlands", our best guess is that this is Scrash, the enigmatic Decepticon High Regent whose story was teased out over the course of "Badlands" and United EX.
• Finally, the far left screen behind Deadlock's depicts a portion of a Quintesson insignia on a purple background, its significance unknown.

Transformers references

• Magna Convoy refers to his ship by the name of "Sentinel". The second Super Megatron comic of the Generations Selects Special Comic would later clarify that the ship is, more specifically, a version of Omega Sentinel belonging to the Blue Order of the Primus Vanguard.
• The orange orb held by Magna Convoy in the first epilogue is identical to the Planet Map from the Cybertron cartoon.
• Bludgeon is a veritable rat king of references.
  • His body is Titans Return Hardhead.
  • His head is Titans Return Throttle.
  • His sheathed sword comes from Robots in Disguise Warrior Class Windblade.
  • His projection drone, meanwhile, is modeled on the vehicle partner of Titans Return Terri-Bull.
  • Finally his actual color scheme is patterned after his original Pretender shell, with the white shoulder stripes of Robots in Disguise Destructicon Bludgeon, while both his Titan Master partner and drone bear his Generation 1 inner robot colors.

References

• Scans (including official English translation)
• Cybertron Magna Convoy translation by Mohair Translations
• Lettering of the translation by MrRald