The Age of Wrath

	; The Turbomasters kick back!
	"The Age of Wrath"
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	September 15, 2004
Cover date	September, 2004
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	Joe Ng
Inks	Tracy Ho
Additional inks	Ferd Poblete
Colors	Rob Ruffolo, David Cheung and Josh Burcham
Letters	Ben Lee
Continuity	Dreamwave continuity
Chronology	The Age of Wrath

The name or term "Age of Wrath" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Age of Wrath (disambiguation).

Peace on Cybertron! Or is it?

Synopsis

Ultra Magnus recounts to an image of Optimus Prime of all the hard work and effort and sheer strength of character that was needed for Ultra Magnus to fill the void left by Optimus, after Optimus sacrificed himself to remove Megatron from the equation. The resentment in Ultra Magnus's words is almost tangible. Grimlock arrives and announces that it's time for the ceremony to finalize the peace between four of the six factions.

On Moon Alpha, Starscream rallies the Predacons, explaining that their plan is to crash the ceremony.

Live from the new High Council Pavilions, Slamdance broadcasts from the Chamber of the Ancients, where the apprentice council members will fill the void left by the previous council after their murder. At the same time, a holographic projection of Slamdance broadcasts from Tyger Pax where the four assembled leaders will essentially shake hands. Grimlock admits to Ultra Magnus that there is a potential security problem with the arrangements.

The Decepticons and Ultracons arrive, with Barrage displaying some lingering hostile feelings. Ultra Magnus begins a speech, but Shockwave makes it clear that the Decepticons' surrender is just their manner of cutting their losses. Slamdance describes how the ceremony deactivates the weaponry in each faction's storage, and stores energy from the four leaders in a ceremonial spherical containment field.

Swoop radios to Grimlock, reporting a pair of rapidly incoming transports. When it's evident the transports are loaded with explosives, Grimlock commands Wheeljack to initiate protocol Hydra-Nine, but that doesn't stop the transports from exploding.

Slamdance loses the signal from Tyger Pax, but has something more important to worry about: Starscream breaks into the chamber and executes the new Council.

The rest of the Predacons stand in the area leveled by the explosion, but when the smoke clears, the Autobots and Decepticons emerge ready to fight back against their assailants. Their survival is attributed to smart thinking on Grimlock's behalf; he expanded the energy field used to hold the leader's energy into a shield to protect the leaders. Ultra Magnus says that now the remaining insurgents won't be able to do any real harm. As if on cue, a sniper shot from Motormaster tears through the shielding and is headed right for Magnus. Grimlock sees the shot and steps in to take the hit instead of the Autobot leader.

With Grimlock down, Wheeljack and the three remaining leaders suddenly find themselves surrounded by an army of soldiers similar in design to Starscream, but they are actually the Aerospace Extermination Squadron. A plethora of drones loyal to Megatron!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Ultra Magnus (1)
Bumblebee (2)
Jazz (3)
Optimus Prime (4)
Grimlock (8)
Blaster (10)
Slamdance (22)
Swoop (23)
Eronus (24)
Neo (25)
Templar (26)
Wheeljack (27)
Prowl (28)
Skids (29)

Tracks (30)
Sludge (42)
Snarl (43)
Slag (44)
Defunct (46)
Hound (47)
Bluestreak (48)

Megatron (5)
Venom (6)
Barrage (7)
Chop Shop (9)
Starscream (11)
Astrotrain (12)
Motormaster (13)
Carnivac (14)
Dirge (15)
Snarler (16)
Slugslinger (17)
Octane (18)
Runabout (19)
Dead End (20)

Quotes

And there I'd be revealed, the pretender-to-the-throne...

—Ultra Magnus

Me... peace...
...wouldn't...have...worked...

—Grimlock

Notes

The "Declarations of War" page has reader mail answered by Matthew Hansen.
The "Wavelengths" page has a letter from the desk of Erik Sander.

Continuity notes

This marks the second time Starscream is responsible for killing the Council of Ancients. Meaning it's one of the two times when the sequence from the start of "The Omega Effect" could have occurred.

Transformers references

Ultra Magnus's line about being a "pretender to the throne" is possibly a reference to the concept of Pretenders, if not the Marvel story "Pretender to the Throne!".
"Seibertron" (a popular Romanization of the Japanese name for Cybertron and the name of a Transformers fan site) is written on the platform Grimlock and Ultra Magnus are standing on at the ceremony.
Ultra Magnus hopes for "peace in our time". In both cases, war erupted almost immediately after a peace agreement was reached.

Other trivia

The Wreckers are unaccounted for the duration of the miniseries.
The Predacon blasted in the face moments after Starscream executed the council is a fan character by X-Warlock, who at the time was a moderator of Transformers fan forum The Allspark.
The red, deactivated Autobot whose head is visible on the same panels is the head of a fan character belonging to Defunct.
As Starscream storms the Council of Ancients, the words "BY NG" are visible around the edge of the council walls. Joe Ng had fun leaving little messages in plain view this issue!