Shining Armor issue 4

	; Hangover. 'Tis a helluva thing.
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 18, 2017
Cover date	October 2017
Written by	John Barber and Christos Gage
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Josh Perez
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Late 1830s or early 1840s

While Ultra Magnus risks his life, Stardrive tries making a deal with Starscream, and comes to blows with Bumblebee and her fellow Space Knights.

Synopsis

Ultra Magnus fights on bravely as wave after wave of Dire Wraiths swarm towards him; a hundred of the aliens fall before him, but thousands more remain, and Magnus is sure he is not going to survive. Astrotrain and Vekktral watch from a safe distance, the Decepticon a little taken aback by how many men Vekktral is happy to sacrifice in the name of subduing Magnus. Eventually, Magnus is brought down, pinned by the Wraith horde, whereupon Vekktral approaches him. Vekktral is a scientist as well as a master of Wraith magics, he explains, and from studying the calamitous fusion of Sky Blast and a Wraith, he has learned how to master and control the process of merging a Wraith with a Cybertronian. Vekktral extends his arm to touch Magnus's forehead, and Magnus screams...

Some distance away, Bumblebee and Sata are following Magnus's last command to escape. Sata insists they return to help Magnus, but Bee refuses, which only seems to confirm Sata's prejudices regarding Cybertronians as emotionless robots. An angry Bumblebee transforms to robot mode to give Sata a bit of a shake, telling her to knock off her bigotry and explaining that Magnus is risking his life to give them a chance to accomplish their mission—but as Sata points out, indicating the blaster fire and explosions on the horizon, it seems they have already failed, as the Decepticons have already reached the wreck of Orchid Crossing and the energon synthesizer within...

While Rom and Livia battle Dirge and Ramjet, Starscream and Stardrive continue their talk. Stardrive has offered the Decepticon the synthesizer in return for him taking the Wraiths with him when he leaves Xetaxxis, but Starscream has an additional suggestion: that Stardrive joins the Decepticons and comes with them as well. She refuses, unwilling to join forces with anyone who would call a Dire Wraith an ally; Starscream pleads innocence, claiming that he had no idea of the things the Wraiths were capable of, and how he is now scared of them as well. This bluff seems like it might be in danger of changing Stardrive's mind... until the tension of the moment is broken by Dirge suddenly crashing into Starscream from behind, having been shot down by the other Space Knights. Rom and Livia combine their firepower against Starscream, who is forced to use Dirge's unconscious body to shield himself against their fire. Dirge wakes-up mid-barrage, and Starscream transforms to aircraft mode to flee, carrying his comrade on his back.

Rom moves to pursue the Decepticons, but Livia proposes an alternative solution: rather than scour the entire planet of life, as she proposed earlier, they should blow up the energon synthesizer, simultaneously robbing the Decepticons of their prize and causing an explosion that will burn only half the planet—the half with the Wraiths on it. Stardrive objects wholeheartedly, and, exasperated, decides to cut ties with the knights and take the synthesizer away with her. They try to talk her into remaining, but she transforms to jet mode and takes off, daring them to take the synthesizer by force—a dare Livia is more than willing to accept, as she shoots Stardrive out of the sky with a single blast. Stardrive fights back, shifting to car mode and slamming into Livia—and unfortunately, that's the moment Bumblebee and Sata arrive, leading to them both getting the wrong end of the stick and attacking Stardrive. Bumblebee is quick to realize the error of his ways, though, and manages to pin Stardrive long enough to say sorry and explain he thought she had been possessed by a Wraith. When she learns that Magnus had probably died to give them all a chance at victory, Stardrive calms down; though she maintains that Livia's answer is wrong, she apologizes and agrees to work with everyone if they all agree that no more lives will be lost in vain.

Starscream and the other Decepticons, meanwhile, have been watching the fight from the skies above, having hoped the Autobots and Knights would destroy each other, and are disappointed to see them talk it out. Starscream grows impatient waiting on the backup Vekktral has promised, but as he grouses, a silhouette appears on the horizon—one that Bumblebee and the Knights spot as well, which Bee recognizes as Ultra Magnus. Alas, it is a monstrous, warped Ultra Magnus, possessed by Vekktral! As the Vekktral/Magnus hybrid opens fire, the native Xetaxxans cowering on the edges of the battlefield reveal that they too are Wraiths, lying in wait, and our heroes suddenly find themselves surrounded and facing life-threatening odds. As Vekktral vows to use this perfected Cybertronian fusion to conquer both the Solstar Order and the Galactic Council, the Decepticons descend from the sky to join Vekktral in finishing off their enemies. But Vekktral is not content to let the Decepticons leave with the energon synthesizer... and as one, the Wraiths all turn on the Decepticons, swarming over them and starting to possess them too!

To be concluded!

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Solstar Order	Others
Ultra Magnus (1) Bumblebee (6) Sky Blast/Wraith hybrid (14)	Astrotrain (3) Ramjet (7) Dirge (9) Starscream (13) Blitzwing (14) Thrust (15)	Sata (5) Livia (8) Rom (10) Stardrive (12)	Assorted Dire Wraiths (2) Vekktral (4) Xetaxxans (11)

Quotes

"He sounds like he's got a fusion cannon up his tailpipe... but you've convinced me that's part of his charm."

—Starscream gives Stardrive his opinion on Rom

"One Star-Person to another.... what d'you say?"

—Starscream invites Stardrive to join forces

"You've been waiting a long time to take that shot, Livia. I hope it was worth it!"
(Stardrive slams into Livia)
"You'll regret that... Cybertronian."
"I have a feeling I'm going to regret a lot... but not that."

—Stardrive and Livia fight

"Sata—don't make me fight you. You won't win."

—Stardrive

Notes

Continuity notes

Vekktral calls Astrotrain "Startruck", another instance of someone getting his name wrong; Galvatron called him "Spacebus" in Robots in Disguise #30.

Errors

On page 12, the Ï in "naïve" is not bolded like the rest of the word.

Other trivia

Blitzwing and Thrust were both weirdly absent from the two fronts on which the action was waged last issue, despite dialogue indicating that at least one of them was supposed to be part of Starscream, Dirge, and Ramjet's attack on the Space Knights. They remain missing from this issue until the Decepticons all gather on the last two pages, and even then, Blitzwing still only appears as a silhouetted jet mode high above the others on page 19; he's nowhere to be found on page 20.
Starscream refers to Sky Blast as "Blast Off, or whatever his name was". Now, it could just be a reference to the short-lived Autobot's catchphrase, but the "Roll Call" page of issue #2 did give the same erroneous name. Could the authors have made changes to Starscream's dialogue between issue #2 being released and issue #4 going to print...?

Covers (3)

Cover A: Rom, Bumblebee, and Stardrive at the mercy of the Wraiths, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
Cover B: Ultra Magnus tastes Vekktral's magicks, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
Cover C: Rom battles Vekktral as a fallen Bumblebee struggles to stand, by Fico Ossio and Joana Lafuente