The Transformers: Salvation

« The Transformers: Salvation
Foolish Samurai...
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 14, 2017
Cover date	June 2017
Writer	John Barber
Art	Livio Ramondelli
Letters	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

When Bludgeon reactivates the monster Trypticon and threatens the unborn lives of the next generation of Cybertronians, the Dinobots join forces with Sandstorm for one last ride.

Synopsis

In the months that have followed the re-ignition of the hot spot in Alyon, Starscream has been forced to keep the miracle a secret from Cybertron's populace. Swift, who brought him the news in the first place, is frustrated by his decision, but Starscream deems the sociopolitical climate too volatile to introduce new life into, and further, is concerned over what side the newborn Cybertronians will ultimately take. However, evidence suggests someone has recently paid a visit to the hot spot, and an examination by medic Flatline throws suspicion on the fugitive Dinobots. Starscream leaves a platoon of Badgeless with Flatline to guard the hot spot, while he returns to Iacon and pays a visit to his secret prison. Unable to publicly take action against the Dinobots due to their Autobot allegiance (tenuous as it may currently be) and the potential that has to put him in conflict with Optimus Prime, he offers inmate Sandstorm a choice: kill the Dinobots for him in exchange for his freedom. As the Dinobots and Optimus Prime are already on his "enemies" list, Sandstorm gladly accepts.

Sandstorm manages to track down the Dinobots the next morning, while they are searching the wastes of Tyger Pax for any trace of Bludgeon—against whom new Dinobot team member Strafe is particularly hungry for revenge. The Dinobots discover an abandoned makeshift laboratory containing vats of the corrupted energon that gave the Dinobots their alternate modes, and the bodies of several of Bludgeon's reanimated Sweeps. No sooner have the Dinobots realized that Bludgeon has been mutating the Sweeps' sparks with the energon and then harvesting them than a long-distance sniper shot from Sandstorm rips through Slug. The other Dinobots rush outside to try and find their attacker, but a second shot hits Slug and leaves him fatally wounded. Refusing to allow Bludgeon to keep the corrupted energon, Slug uses the last of his strength to release a stream of flame breath that causes the lab to explode. He perishes in the blast, but the explosion gives the other Dinobots the chance to escape.

Sandstorm sets about trying to track the Dinobots down, and finds his way to the hot spot... which is in the process of being raided by Bludgeon and his Sweeps! They have already killed the Badgeless guards, and when Sandstorm tries to intercede, Bludgeon takes him down with remarkable speed. With all opposition removed, Bludgeon harvests every spark and takes them back to his new base of operations: the inert body of the monster Trypticon, which has lain beneath Praetorus Wharf since Cybertron was reverted to its primordial state. There, Bludgeon brings the giant back online by linking the Sweeps' sparks—mutated by the corrupted energon that is Trypticon's blood—to Trypticon's brain module. Bludgeon places Trypticon under his control by using a replica he has built of the fabled Void Scepter—that which legends claim Mortilus, the god of death, used to originally create Trypticon, a beast-Titan to counter the Titans of Primus, in ancient times. Whether those legends are true or not, no one can say—but Trypticon lives again, and he is a Titan, complete with a now-functional space bridge...

Commanded by Bludgeon, the reactivated Trypticon marches on Iacon. Starscream sends Devastator into action, but though the combiner is more than up for the challenge, his strength is as naught compared to that of Trypticon. Devastator does, however, manage to hold the beast's jaws open just long enough for Sludge, Snarl, and Strafe to come charging onto the scene, tearing their way through a pack of cyber-morphic predators generated by Trypticon's internal foundries and diving down the beast-Titan's cavernous gullet. Strafe orders Sludge and Snarl to look for a power source they can destroy in hopes of stopping Trypticon, while she breaks off to search for Bludgeon and claim her long-sought revenge.

Swoop, meanwhile, has returned to the hot spot, only to find it empty and littered with the bodies of the Badgeless. He spots the unconscious, but still-living Flatline, and is just flying down to interrogate him when a shot hits his wing and knocks him out the sky. Sandstorm, it transpires, is also still alive, and proposes that he and Swoop temporarily put their differences aside to stop Bludgeon's plan for the sparks. Swoop isn't happy about the arrangement, but agrees; the Dinobots will never wipe their personal slates clean, but any sacrifice is worthwhile if they can save a generation of new Cybertronians from living through the horrors they were part of. Sandstorm transforms to airborne mode and carries the wounded Swoop back towards Iacon and Trypticon...

Inside Trypticon, Strafe makes her way to the Titan's brain chamber, where she is confronted by Bludgeon. The mad scientist is only too happy to elaborate on his plan for her; he does not actually intend to destroy Iacon or Cybertron. Rather, he is going to use Trypticon's space bridge to take the Titan, and all the stolen sparks he contains, off into space, where the sparks will be mutated by Trypticon's blood and become a monstrous army loyal to him that he will use to conquer the galaxy in the name of Cybertron. Having learned a little about cityspeaking from Windblade, Strafe is able to tell from studying Trypticon's brain module that Bludgeon has enslaved him; she tries to rush Bludgeon, but he knocks her aside with ease.

Outside, Devastator tries to continue the fight against Trypticon, but eventually winds up being crushed between his jaws. He survives the experience, though—an uncommon act of mercy from Trypticon, out of respect for Devastator's strength and fortitude. As Trypticon stops and stares at the Spire ahead of him, Sandstorm and Swoop come soaring in, zipping into his mouth and down his throat, following the energy signature of the sparks and quickly hooking up with Sludge and Snarl in the belly of the beast, where the harvested sparks are all collected. Before Swoop can explain his temporary alliance with Slug's killer, however, Snarl immediately lunges to attack Sandstorm, stabbing him with his energo sword. As Swoop tries to break them up, Bludgeon observes their battle with amusement and satisfaction; he deliberately left Sandstorm alive to ensure he would keep the Dinobots busy and out of his way as he put his plan into motion. And into motion it now goes, at Bludgeon's order, Trypticon transforms into a draconic spaceship form and prepares to bridge across the stars.

The reconfiguration of Trypticon's body moves Bludgeon and Strafe into the same chamber as the sparks, where Sandstorm and the Dinobots are fighting, but unfortunately for Bludgeon, he is too caught up in deciding where his first stop will be that he does not realize he has been tricked. Swoop actually managed to get his teammates calmed down; their continued fighting has been a distraction, which Sandstorm now exploits to pull Snarl's sword out of his shoulder and hurl it at Bludgeon, shattering the Void Scepter and freeing Trypticon from his control. Trypticon is not best pleased at having been enslaved, and uses his space bridge to teleport Bludgeon... but only a short distance, right outside his body, directly in front of his mouth, whereupon Trypticon unleashes a stream of atomic fire breath that reduces Bludgeon to a molten ruin.

Snarl and Sandstorm are ready to resume their fight, and no amount of attempts by Swoop to convince them otherwise seem able to stop them, so Strafe gets in between them instead, urging them to work together so they can continue to protect the sparks. This is a sentiment with which Trypticon himself agrees, and he tells the Transformers inside him as much, uninterested in whether they agree or not. Trypticon long ago tired of being treated like a monster by all those around him, of being a force for destruction; now, he returns to the depths of Cybertron from which he was supposedly raised to change his path, and become a force for creation. Together, the Dinobots and Sandstorm watch as the sparks within Trypticon draw upon the metal of the Titan's body and protoforms begin to take shape—a new generation, uncorrupted, born at last.

Back in Iacon, Starscream takes stock. The sparks, the Dinobots, Trypticon, and Sandstorm may all be lost to him... but things aren't all bad. Starscream now has the still-living Bludgeon in his custody... and a single mutated Sweep spark, recovered from the laboratory by Flatline... along with Slug's corpse. Now, what would happen if those two things were added together...?

Featured characters

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

Quotes

"Twenny's as high as I can count, and I passed it a while back."

—Sludge keeps count of the cyber-morphic predators he takes out

"We aren't born to war."
"Says the girl with the Decepticon symbol to the boy who gave up his. We may not be born to war—but we're pretty easily tainted by it."

—Swift and Starscream

"Who cares what's the right way or the wrong way—Dinobots just blast a hole and make our own way."

—Sludge

"We can kill each other, or we can save Cybertron's future!"
"Don't offer Snarl a choice! He'll pick the wrong one!"

—Sandstorm and Swoop

"THE FUTURE IS HERE AND IT DOESN'T CARE WHAT YOU WANT."

—Trypticon

Notes

Continuity notes

• Salvation is the third chapter in John Barber and Livio Ramondelli's "Dinobot Trilogy," following on from the events of Punishment and Redemption. It was in the former that Sandstorm embarked on his killing spree, while the latter featured the Dinobots exiling themselves to the wilderness and gaining Strafe as a new team-member, and the ignition of the new hot spot.
• Salvation also draws heavily on Trypticon's backstory from Monstrosity, re-introducing the cyber-morphic predator creatures from that story which were generated from within Trypticon's body.
• Flatline has been serving as (chief?) medic for Starscream since he took over Iacon beginning in Robots in Disguise #18, but hasn't been seen since Robots in Disguise #33.
• Swift recalls Barricade's death from Redemption, after which Starscream observes her Decepticon symbol. It was very soon after the events of Redemption that Swift properly took up the badge, after her short-lived romance with Barricade; she joined the Decepticons for their big push to invade Earth in The Transformers vol. 2 #47.
• Starscream talks about how "old Primes are coming out of graves to murder us," referring to the return of Sentinel Prime during the Titans Return crossover event. He might also be referring to Liege Maximo, given that he also mentions the Titan invasion that culminated in Maximo's return that took place over in Till All Are One #5-8, but if he was, Swift wouldn't know it, since that's a top secret right now.
• Sandstorm was established to be locked away in Starscream's secret prison in The Transformers vol. 2 #41.
• Trypticon's ancient battle with Metroplex was established to have taken place in Monstrosity #10. It was that same story which referred to him as a "spawn of Mortilus"; other IDW comics have subsequently used that phrase euphemistically, in an apparent attempt to retroactively mitigate its use in Monstrosity, since Mortilus and the rest of the Guiding Hand are only figures of myth who may or may not have actually existed, thus stating that Trypticon was definitively his creation would break that conceit. Accordingly, though this issue purports to show Mortilus creating Trypticon in flashback, the narration states that this origin story is only what legends claim. The narration is coming from Trypticon himself—he's a sly one!
• Before his reappearance in Redemption, Trypticon had chronologically last been seen in Spotlight: Blaster, participating in one of the last big Decepticon offensives before Cybertron was rendered uninhabitable. This issue reveals that he did get off the planet, and returned shortly before the events of "Chaos", only to be re-absorbed into the planet when it reverted to its primordial state.
• When contemplating which planet to destroy first, Bludgeon thinks of the homeworlds of the Galactic Council (whom the Lost Lighters have run into a few times over in More than Meets the Eye) and the Solstar Order (the order to which Rom, the Space Knight, belongs).
• Bludgeon notes that "million of years ago," he "found" Trypticon and "made him a Decepticon." This plugs the last gap in Trypticon's story, explaining how and why he continued to serve the Decepticons after the events of Primacy, in which he was possessed by the spark of the Quintesson Pentius, but was rendered non-functional at its end.
• The Dinobots will next be seen in Optimus Prime #13.

Transformers references

• Slug's flame breath is powered by phlogiston. Though a real-life concept (hypothesized by 18th century chemists to be the substance that caused combustion), its "actual" existence in the world of the Transformers was first established by the tech specs for BotCon 2011's Wildrider toy.
• The Void Scepter takes its name from the weapon wielded by The Fallen in the Revenge of the Fallen movie, which was christened by a bio on Hasbro's website. That it was originally wielded by Mortilus is another point of commonality between the two characters, both already being members of a Cybertronian "pantheon" who turned on their siblings and instigated war between them.
• The idea of Trypticon being reactivated by hooking multiple sparks up to him seems to owe something to the Aligned version of the character, who was animated via this same procedure in the Exodus novel.
• Trypticon's boredom with war and hatred for those around him comes straight from his original bio. This is the first time it's ever really been used in a story!

Real-life references

• Swoop paraphrases Bugs Bunny's famous catchphrase as he tries to rouse the unconscious Flatline with a cry of "Yo, doc! What's up?"
• Sandstorm's narration is presented as an entry in his "Battle Diary". Considering his portrayal in IDW thus far as a Punisher-style vigilante, this seems likely to be a sly homage to the Marvel Comics character's traditional entries in his "War Journal".
• In addition to the Council and Solstar Order's worlds, Bludgeon also ponders destroying Airlandia, the world which was the setting for Hasbro's 1987 toyline, Air Raiders. The Hasbro Universe grows!

Errors

• It's an old, established goof, so its reoccurrence here might be a deliberate reference to that, but Sandstorm says the Dinobots and Firecons fought on Veras Centralus, when Punishment established it was Varas Centralus.
• Though the reference is fun, "Airlandia" is misspelled "Arlandia."

Covers (2)

• Regular cover: Bludgeon stands over the devastated Dinobots, silhouetted by the blazing outline of Trypticon, by Livio Ramondelli
• Subscription cover: Trypticon in a Coast Salish art style, by Jeffrey Veregge

• 

  The skeleton-samurai robot has defeated the dinosaur robots while a 2-mile tall triple-changing monster robot roars—and Michael Bay didn't think G1 was cool enough!

• 

  A big purple blue mist-bathin' lizard!

Advertisements

• "The Hasbro Tribune" editorial page promoting June's Hasbro Universe titles, including this issue, G.I. Joe #7, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2, Optimus Prime #8, Revolutionaries #7, Lost Light #7, and Till All Are One #11.
• Saucer State
• G.I. Joe vol. 1 TPB
• ROM vol. 2 TPB
• Optimus Prime vol. 1 TPB

Collections

• The Transformers: Redemption of the Dinobots (March 14, 2018) ISBN 1684051835 / ISBN 978-1684051830
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5, Redemption, and Salvation.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 70: Punishment (October 30, 2019)
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5, Redemption, and Salvation.
  • Bonus material includes an article about the Motion Book Tool app used for the digital version of Punishment, a "Brief History of the (IDW) Dinobots", and a Livio Ramondelli sketchbook, a cover gallery and an introduction by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 3 (September 27, 2022) ISBN 1684059070 / ISBN 978-1684059072
  • Collects Revolutionaries issues #5–8, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2: "Upgrade", Lost Light issues #8–9 & #10–12, Optimus Prime issues #7–8 & #9–10, Transformers Annual 2017, and Salvation.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Redemption of the Dinobots – cover art by Livio Ramondelli

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 70: Punishment – cover art by Don Figueroa (Snarl) and Livio Ramondelli

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 3 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher