Rising Storm issue 3

« Rising Storm #3 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 13, 2011
Writer	John Barber
Art	Carlos Magno
Colors	Aburtov and Graphikslava
Letters	Shawn Lee
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Cover	Brian Rood Carlos Magno
Continuity	Live-action film series

Shockwave's plan slowly reveals itself, as both the Autobots and Decepticons realize they have played right into his hands.

Synopsis

At the NEST base on Diego Garcia, all is quiet. While Knock Out plays cards with the soldiers, Jolt and Dune Runner chat with Theodore Galloway about the Autobot refugees rescued from the Initiative, but Galloway's inability to keep track of which Transformer is which gets on Jolt's nerves, and he goes to check on their Decepticon prisoner, Fearswoop. Tensions are running considerably higher, meanwhile, among the large Autobot strikeforce presently en route to Philadelphia to aid Sam Witwicky and Bumblebee against the Decepticons' massive attack. Optimus Prime again advocates allowing the wounded Arcee to remain behind, but her spark-bonded sister Elita-One reinforces her need for revenge—a sentiment that only opens old wounds between her and Prime, recalling a time on Cybertron when Prime let such an emotion overcome him. Elita's anger over Prime's abandonment of her on Cybertron, and the fact that her death and reunion with him has only led to more fighting and killing, boils over, and she and her sisters angrily depart on their own mission: to infiltrate what the Autobots believe to be Starscream's base of operations in upstate New York and plant explosives.

In Philadelphia, newly-arrived Autobot advance reinforcements Wheeljack and Mirage manage to give the Decepticons a tough time, with Wheeljack projecting a forcefield to protect Sam and Wheelie, and Mirage using his invisibility powers to vex Bludgeon, tricking him into destroying Storm Surge. In the chaos, the object of the Decepticons' attack, Brains, becomes separated from the others, and while attempting to escape the clutches of Space Case, he stumbles across Carly. Sam distracts Space Case to prevent him from taking out both Carly and Brains, giving Carly time to use the fallen Storm Surge's cannons to blast Space Case and send him packing.

Back in New York, Elita-One, Arcee and Chromia silently approach the objective, only to discover that it is not Starscream's base, but rather a construction site created by Astrotrain. Overhearing a communication between the Triple-Changer and his master Shockwave, and realizing that Astrotrain has built a cage to contain Shockwave's "pet", a monstrous creature he has brought with him from Cybertron, the horrified sisters immediately try to radio Optimus Prime and inform him of the unexpected situation. Unfortunately for them, something is blocking all transmissions: Soundwave, who launches an attack on the sisters with his menagerie! The fractured, shared mind of Elita and her sisters is pulled in different directions as Arcee and Chromia's desire to warn Optimus is counteracted by Elita's bloodthirstiness, but the two sisters win out and convince Elita to deliver the message while they hold Soundwave's beasts off. Unfortunately, Astrotrain is hot on her tail!

Things come to a head in Philadelphia when Starscream corners Sam, Carly and Brains, demanding the brain unit be handed over. In the nick of time, though, Optimus Prime's Autobots arrive in force, and Starscream panics, contacting Shockwave to find out what became of his assurances that the Autobots would be too busy to interfere. It transpires that this is all part of Shockwave's plan: he played Starscream like a fiddle, using him as a distraction to draw the Autobots out and leave Diego Garcia undermanned. Shockwave shuts off the communication and descends from the skies over the island, killing Knock Out, smashing into the NEST base, and slaughtering his way through Jolt and Dune Runner as well. Shockwave demands the commanding officer identify themselves, and Galloway bravely steps forward... only to be reduced to a charred skeleton by a blast from Shockwave's cannon, along with all of the soldiers around him, save one! Shockwave aims his cannon at the surviving man, and rhetorically inquires: "Now who's in command?"

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Sorry Storm Surge. I always knew you'd wind up being collateral damage."

—Bludgeon, taking the "friendly" out of "friendly fire".

Notes

Continuity notes

• Galloway refers to Knock Out as "the new guy", but is corrected by Jolt, who points out that Knock Out has been around longer than he has. Galloway apologizes, explaining he finds it hard to keep track of all the motorcycle Transformers. This is author John Barber doing what he does best, correcting a continuity error from Nefarious #2, in which Galloway called Knock Out a new recruit when the character had been on Earth even before the Revenge of the Fallen movie, as seen in Transformers: The Veiled Threat prequel novel.
  • While there have been an inordinately large number of motorcycle Transformers released in the Revenge of the Fallen toyline and the movie-styled portions of the 2010 gold-packagaing Transformers toyline, there were only five Autobots among them, and three of them are the Arcee sisters. While Galloway has most certainly mellowed towards the Cybertronians since the movie proper, well, maybe some jerky habits die hard.
• Elita-One and Optimus Prime again allude to the events of Foundation, hinting at the outcome of the framing sequence seen throughout that comic, which had yet to be revealed at the time of this issue's release.
• This issue featured the debut of Space Case, in advance of his toy being revealed to even exist.
• The "pet" Shockwave mentioned in passing in the previous issue is revealed to the subterranean tentacle-beast previously seen in Foundation #2. At the time of these comics' publication, it had otherwise only been briefly glimpsed in an early trailer for Dark of the Moon.

Transformers references

• Galloway accidentally refers to Knock Out as "Knockdown".
• A NEST soldier accuses Knock Out of having "Robo-Vision".

Real-life references

• As Jolt guards Fearswoop, he entertains himself by reading the first issue of IDW Publishing's Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters comic, which was published just two weeks before this issue. The back cover of the comic features the cover to issue #12 of All Hail Megatron comic.

Errors

• Blazemaster is only just about visible in the background of the second panel on the first page, colored entirely green.
• Repeating a recurring error from Nefarious, Dune Runner's design is based on Landmine's instead of his own toy.
• Also on the first page, Dune Runner suddenly goes from being on Jolt's right in panel 2 to on his left in panel 3.
• Last issue, Soundwave was seen in his new design for Dark of the Moon, complete with his Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG car kibble and even a blatant Mercedes star on his chest, yet in this issue, he's back to his Revenge of the Fallen design.
• The "next issue" page shows Bludgeon in his second body (as he appears in the story, of course), but colored like his first, complete with purple blade.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: Art by Brian Rood of Starscream.
• Cover RI: Art by Carlos Magno, with colors by Aburtov and Graphikslava, of Arcee, Chromia, and Elita-One.

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