Stormbringer # 3
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by Don Figueroa

Summary:

Thunderwing begins his rampage on Nebulos, tearing through the native inhabitants' defense forces.  Bludgeon is controlling the monster's actions through a terminal in the Decepticon lair underneath Cybertron's surface.  He and his followers believe that sacrificing other planets in this manner will restore and heal Cybertron's ruined husk.  Bludgeon disconnects from the terminal and has Iguanus switch on an auto-pilot, knowing that Thunderwing will instinctively continue to ravage and destroy now that they've started him off.  Bludgeon goes to check on the progress of the bio-grafting process that he and his followers are developing.  Opening one of the vats, Bludgeon looks upon the developing bio-organic shell as it forms and reflects.  He knows that this same process drove Thunderwing mad, but thankfully Bludgeon and company have the time to refine it.  Soon they will all possess the power Thunderwing had; but without the mind-destroying side effects.  Meanwhile on the surface of Cybertron, Nosecone and Afterburner are in trouble; two Centurion units are preparing to terminate them both.  But just as Nosecone accepts his fate, the Centurion attacking him gets its head blown apart.  The other Centurion is downed by firepower raining from above as Roadbuster, Topspin, and Whirl arrive on the scene.  Roadbuster asks for a status report and Topspin reports that the two Technobots need some medical attention.  Roadbuster agrees but decides to pull out of this hostile area, and order Whirl to prepare for emergency evacuation while Nosecone loses consciousness.  When he comes back online a short while later, Nosecone finds that his distress call was received; in a big way.  Optimus Prime and the Wreckers are preparing to go into the depths of Cybertron and stop Bludgeon's plans.  Afterburner is still offline, but Topspin says that both Technobots will recover eventually while Springer explains to Optimus Prime that they are tunneling so they'll come out right above the Decepticon lair.  Nosecone wants to come with them, but he is still too weak and Topspin tells him to “leave it to the professionals”.  Back on Nebulos, Thunderwing continues his path of destruction, showcasing the pure physical power at his command.  In the Decepticon Infiltration unit bunker, Skullcruncher inquires of unit leader Darkwing whether they should try to fight Thunderwing or try to stop him.  Darkwing knows that what Thunderwing is doing to the planet is basically the same thing the Decepticons want; global devastation.  But if Thunderwing goes TOO far, he might end up totally rendering Nebulos useless to the Decepticon empire.  Therefore, Darkwing orders his team to attack Thunderwing, lest they risk Megatron's anger for totally losing the planet.  Darkwing tells Thrust to stay behind and be ready to destroy the bunker in case the worst happens, and then pulls Dreadwind aside.  He tells his buddy that if things go south, they are going to cut their losses and pull out.  Meanwhile back on Cybertron, Scoop and Twin Twist have just about finished digging a tunnel for the Wreckers to enter the Decepticon underground lair.  Scoop radios Springer and informs him they are ready, and the Wreckers prepare to attack.  Springer asks Prime if he'd rather just stay above out of the line of fire, but Optimus won't have his troops taking risks that he wouldn't take.  A few moments later, deep within the Decepticon lair, Finback notices the ceiling beginning to give out.  To his horror, Optimus Prime and the Wreckers burst through, quickly downing Finback with a barrage of gunfire.  In a nearby chamber, Skullgrin and Bomb-Burst see the attacking Autobots over a monitor, but before they can do anything about it, the door is blown open and Springer disables them both with a grenade.  Iguanus manages to escape the room and frantically transforms, headed to find Bludgeon.  But when he enters the chamber Bludgeon was in, he finds the fanatical Decepticon looking a bit different; Bludgeon has undergone the grafting process and stands over Iguanus in his new Pretender shell!  Meanwhile back on Nebulos, the Decepticon Infiltration unit takes their first crack at Thunderwing.  Crankcase, Ruckus, Roadgrabber, and Skullcruncher approach in vehicle modes and open fire on the enormous entity, but it doesn't even notice their combined firepower.  But when the Decepticons get close enough, Thunderwing turns his wrathful attention on them.  The beast snatches Ruckus off the ground and uses him to batter Roadgrabber away.  Crankcase engages crash bars on the front of his vehicle mode and attempts to ram Thunderwing, but only manages to wreck himself in the process.  Thunderwing blasts Skullcruncher as Darkwing and Dreadwind approach on a bombing run.  Their shots hit home, but do nothing to Thunderwing.  The entity then ionizes the air around the two Decepticon jets, which knocks out most of their targeting and navigation systems.  Not willing to fight blind, Darkwing decides they will retreat back to the bunker, pick up Thrust, and report back to their superiors about this development.  Back on Cybertron, the Wreckers finally breach the chamber that Bludgeon and Iguanus were in, but what they find isn't what they were expecting.  Bludgeon's new hulking form is on its knees, seemingly frozen in the act of madly trying to tear its own face off.  Nearby, Iguanus lies in a pool of his own internal fluids, torn apart and barely alive.  Optimus kneels next to the fading Decepticon, who shakily tells the Autobot commander that they still hadn't perfected Thunderwing's grafting process yet, and it was too soon for Bludgeon to attempt to undergo it.  When Bludgeon did, the psychic backlash caused him to go mad and eventually burn out his own mind.  As Iguanus goes offline from his injuries, Optimus wonders if Bludgeon actually got off easy being “locked in a prison of his own making”.  Optimus notices Whirl and Roadbuster helping the shaken, but still functional Jetfire over.  Jetfire tells them to destroy the axis cradle that Bludgeon was using to control Thunderwing, and Springer blasts it.  Jetfire can only hope that will stop Thunderwing, because if it doesn't, they don't know what can.  Meanwhile in an unspecified location, Razorclaw radios Megatron, who has just arrived on Earth (Infiltration # 4), to report the Nebulos incident with Thunderwing.  Megatron orders Razorclaw to do whatever is necessary to halt Thunderwing's “second coming”, up to and including burning entire worlds; especially Cybertron.  Back in the Decepticon lair on Cybertron, Jetfire examines Bludgeon's computer files, recognizing entries like “Ultra-Energon” as the power source that was tapped to reanimate Thunderwing.  An alarm goes off nearby, which Broadside identifies as the orbital perimeter that was used to detect Jetfire's exploration shuttle.  Something is approaching Cybertron, and oh slag; it's Thunderwing!!!  TO BE CONTINUED!!!


Slagged!:

-Nebulos is NOT the place to be in this issue; Thunderwing lays waste to the planet and its natural inhabitants, Godzilla-style.  Clapping his hands together produces a shockwave or “thunderclap”, if you will, that can shatter buildings.

-Roadbuster cleanly headshots one Centurion drone and holes up another pretty nicely, saving Nosecone and Afterburner from some hurt.

-Sucks to be the Decepticon “Pre-Pretenders” this issue.  Finback gets gunned down, Bomb-Burst and Skullgrin get fried by a grenade, and Iguanus loses an arm and a leg (albeit off-panel) to Bludgeon who had been driven berserk by his new Pretender shell.  Iguanus goes into stasis lock (or “dies”, whatever you prefer) thanks to his injuries and Bludgeon ends up having fried his own brain.  All things considered, Bludgeon probably should have left his new toy in the oven to cook a bit longer.

-The Decepticon Nebulos Infiltration unit fares little better, with Ruckus being squashed and then used as a bludgeon to smash Roadgrabber through a building.  Crankcase ends up wrecking himself when he decides to ram Thunderwing's leg in vehicle mode.  Thunderwing also blasts Skullcruncher (although it's a little indistinct what exactly happens there) and scares Darkwing and Dreadwind into retreating by taking most of their sensory systems offline with an ionized energy field.


Sightings:

-Obviously the bio-grafting process is supposed to represent the Pretender concept, and we see the starts of Bludgeon's eventual skull-faced Pretender shell in one of the vats he examines.  Then later on in the issue, we see a completed, redesigned version of his classic Pretender shell that looks like it might be able to transform into a tank as well.  It is also holding a sword, which is an attribute Simon Furman added to the character long ago in the Marvel days to make him more dynamic.  No toy baring the name Bludgeon yet has had a sword, yet it seems impossible to think of Bludgeon without one.

-The twin rifles that Optimus Prime uses throughout this issue are the rifles that his Powermaster body has.

-A tiny homage here; Skullcruncher has pointy teeth in his mouth, a possible precursor to his eventual alligator mode.  It should also be noted that Skullcruncher, Ruckus, Thrust, Crankcase, Darkwing, and Dreadwind are all redesigned or tweaked by Don Figueroa.  Roadgrabber pretty much had a Cybertronian mode already, so he isn't really touched.

-Scoop is still hanging with the Wreckers, but doesn't seem to participate in the gunplay, so he might just be “on loan” to them.  You'll also notice that Don Figueroa draws Broadside as being much taller than the others, referencing his size in the original cartoon.

-I don't think this was intentional, but this is the second time in a Transformers comic that Crankcase has been totaled by running into an enemy.  The first time was in Marvel's Generation 2 # 7.

-While the caption says “Earth”, it is unclear where Razorclaw is speaking to Megatron from.  The best and most popular theory seems to be that Razorclaw and possibly the other Predacons are in a vessel orbiting Earth, which also could explain how Megatron accomplished the “orbital bounce” seen in Infiltration # 6 to transport quickly to Starscream's base.  Razorclaw has not converted to an Earth mode yet, as evidenced by the drilling bore mounted on his chest instead of a lion's head.  We can see on view screens on Razorclaw's end some of EJ Su's Megatron art from Infiltration # 4.

-The other Technobots appear to have recovered from whatever Bludgeon was having done to them in issue # 2, as we can see Lightspeed and Strafe standing with the group on the last page.


Hearings:

-Verity Carlo heard the tail-end of Megatron's discussion with Razorclaw (“Yes.  Especially Cybertron.”) at the conclusion of Infiltration # 4, tying this story arc directly into the last.

-Ultra-Energon is probably the strange Energon-like matter that Jetfire's group detected from orbit in Stormbringer # 1.


Wreck and RULE!:

-I'll start as I always do; complimenting Don for another amazing issue art-wise.  Thunderwing rampaging on Nebulos, Roadbuster and crew in an amazing hero shot descending from the sky, the Wreckers and Prime bursting through the ceiling above a stunned Finback, and Bludgeon's new design are the standout stuff for me.  Don Figueroa continues to earn his title amongst comic fans as the best Transformers comic artist.

-Simon Furman also turns in an incredibly engaging script yet again.  While Bludgeon's ultimate fate may be something of a letdown for those who were expecting a fight, it is still chillingly effective in a horrific sort of way.  The Wreckers are all business and show why they are the Autobots' most effective strike squad.  The Nebulos situation is resolved a bit fast, but to the story's benefit as Thunderwing is now headed back to Cybertron on a collision course with our main heroes.  And finally, the tie to Infiltration at the end again hammers home the feeling of a “larger” Transformers universe that Furman is slowly laying the building blocks to.

-Characterization also shines this issue; Bludgeon's sick motivation and fanaticism shows through early on, Springer's concern for Prime being in the line of fire shows the respect that Optimus garners from his top soldiers, and Darkwing's backup plans for him and Dreadwind's escape is perfectly in step with what had been established for the duo in the original Marvel run.  I also liked a small, subtle show of Prime's compassion when he held the grievously wounded Iguanus's hand as the Decepticon went off-line.

-How cool were the Wreckers in this one?  Seriously, IDW, I'd buy a Wreckers mini-series and after their showing in Stormbringer, I'm sure a lot of other fans would too.


Wreck and ROT!:

-As mentioned, the Bludgeon sub-plot wraps up a bit anti-climatically, but you can be sure he'll pop up again in the future at some point.

-It would have been nice if Razorclaw's location was made a little clearer.  If he's on Cybertron or another planet, the “Earth” caption is wrong.  And if he's on or near Earth, he's going to have to fly back to Cybertron to carry out Megatron's orders.


Final Judgment:

Three issues into this story and still going strong!  I can only hope the conclusion is paced adequately, because Furman does tend to turn in a lot of rushed climaxes.  Don's art rocks as always and there's barely anything bad I can say about this issue.  Stormbringer is shaping up to be IDW's strongest Transformers story yet, and I can't wait to see how this ends!  Peace.


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