Devastation issue 4

	; Nice jugs. I mean, watch out, giant robots fighting!
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 16, 2008
Cover date	December 2007
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Robby Musso
Colors by	Zac Atkinson and Liam Shalloo
Letters by	Amauri Osorio
Edits by	Andrew Steven Harris
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Devastation

It's a battle royal when Optimus Prime and the Autobots take on Sixshot.

Synopsis

Skywatch wishes to recall their "Seekers", Ravage and Laserbeak, but cannot due to a competing signal from Soundwave, still in cassette player mode and in the bedroom of the boy who purchased him.

Meanwhile, the battle between Sixshot and the Autobots heats up. Bumblebee is injured and Ratchet sees to him while Nightbeat tries to ready the Ark-32 for an orbital bounce. Verity Carlo and Jimmy Pink notice that the battle is far from secret as a news helicopter investigates. The military is also alerted and send in a bomber force to obliterate all combatants.

Wheeljack and Hot Rod arrive with minutes to spare at the impound lot. They break in but realize that the lot is huge and may have a hard time locating Ironhide. The Headmasters have lost track of them but continue to search. They pick up on a police signal alerting them of the impound lot break-in. Meanwhile, at the Machination headquarters in Tampa, Hunter O'Nion and Sunstreaker initiate the painful process to plug Hunter into Sunstreaker's mind.

Verity and Jimmy try to tell a cop that there are good and evil robots but he doesn't want to hear it. They steal his megaphone and later a speedboat to warn the Autobots about the air strike. As Sixshot rips off Jazz's arm and engages Optimus Prime directly, Ratchet tells Prime of the humans' warning and he has the other Autobots bounced to the Ark-32 while he remains behind to be sure of Sixshot's defeat. Unfortunately, the orbital jump seems to have killed Verity and Jimmy.

The Reapers arrive and immediately attack the Decepticon Command Bunker in Oregon. Megatron recalls Sixshot; Optimus Prime orders Nightbeat to bounce him out, just in the nick of time before the bombs drop. The Decepticons are called to arms, but Astrotrain (under the protest of Blitzwing) checks on the now-revived Starscream, who now seems confident enough to take on anyone.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Hardhead (7) Bumblebee (8) Prowl (9) Optimus Prime (10) Jazz (11) Nightbeat (12) Ratchet (13) Hot Rod (16) Wheeljack (17) Sunstreaker (20)	Ravage (2) Laserbeak (3) Soundwave (5) Sixshot (6) Skywarp (21) Megatron (22) Astrotrain (27) Blitzwing (28) Starscream (29)	Joshua Red (1) Jimmy (4) Jimmy Pink (14) Verity Carlo (15) Hunter O'Nion (19)	Sunstreaker clones (18) Ravenous Reaper (23) Klaxa (24) Deathbringer (25) Other Reapers (26)

Quotes

"Frag. What does it take to put this one down? Heavy artillery, that's what!"

—Hardhead answers his own questions!

"You've got a bad reputation, Sixshot. Here's where we separate the truth from the hyperbole."
"You're right. Enough hard sell. Let's skip to the clincher!"

—Optimus Prime and Sixshot throw down and exchange taunts.

Notes

Continuity notes

Sixshot is REALLY BIG compared to the Autobots, most of whom barely come up to his waist. Optimus Prime and Hardhead are the only two who aren't totally dwarfed by him. This is fairly consistent with his portrayals in "The Rebirth, Part 1" and The Headmasters (or as consistent as scale can be in Transformers).
Sixshot boasts that he is powered by a "self-regenerating dark matter fission cell" and that his armature was forged from "metals drawn from the compacted subatomic matter of a collapsed star" to explain his power levels.
The humans Wolverine and Spider-Man had each previously survived orbital jumps in "Man and Machine, Part Four", so it is understandable that the Autobots would think it would be safe for Jimmy and Verity. However, Wolverine and Spider-Man have super powers (notably, both have the ability to heal damaged tissue, beyond the norms of baseline humanity), which might have been a factor in their survival.

Transformers references

A few Easter eggs are featured in this issue. Skywatch refers to Ravage and Laserbeak as their "Seekers". Soundwave's owner has a poster of movie Bumblebee in his room. The K-IDW news helicopter is seen flying overhead. Also, the impound lot named "Wreck-n-Rule", a reference to a slogan used by the Wreckers.

Real-life references

Soundwave's owner is totally lost in the 1980s. Not only does he have the early-80s micro-cassette player Soundwave, he's got a poster for Journey's 1981 album, Escape on his wall. He's also watching what appears to be Speed Racer on his television.

Errors

Sixshot's height throughout the Devastation series itself is not consistent.
Ratchet's head and chevron color change throughout the issue. This has been a recurring error in several issues. This is corrected in the trade.

Other trivia

The long-absent Decepticomments section returns, introduced by ChrisCharger. New editor Andrew Steven Harris answers mail and announces a contest to give him a Transformers name.
On last page before the rear cover, Transformers: Mosaic issue "Ghost in the Machine" is featured.