An unidentified energy source is discovered on a long abandoned world named... Cybertron.

Synopsis[]

The crew of the Autobot spacecraft Calabi-Yau pick up an energy trace from the dead planet Cybertron. The ship's captain, Jetfire, orders the Calabi-Yau to drop him and three of the Technobot crew on Cybertron to conduct a detailed survey. Technobots Nosecone and Afterburner take the Calabi-Yau back into orbit, while Jetfire recounts a time before the disaster that destroyed Cybertron, when the warnings of a Decepticon scientist who predicted the apocalypse fell on deaf ears (including his). Suddenly, the four Autobots below are attacked by partially-invisible enemies and overcome.

The Calabi-Yau is then attacked and destroyed by a missile volley launched from Cybertron, although the two remaining Technobots escape in an emergency pod.

At the Autobot Orbital Command Hub, Optimus Prime receives a message from Prowl's unit on Earth. It informs him that the Decepticon infiltration unit has enacted siege mode prematurely. Prime orders Searchlight to keep him informed of the situation. Through Prime's flashbacks, we discover that during the Cybertronian apocalypse, Autobot and Decepticon were united against a mysterious winged figure, wreathed in flame, who was somehow the avatar of the catastrophe. The combined might of the Transformers was ineffectual against it; in the end, the planet itself swallowed the figure.

Jetfire wakes up deep below the surface of Cybertron, and discovers a group of mechanoids worshiping a massive, inert winged figure—they call it "Thunderwing".

Credits[]

Featured characters[]

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Errors[]

• On the cover, Jetfire sports Autobot symbols from a fan-made font, one that erroneously gives the symbol three hatches on each side of the forehead instead of two.
• The placement of symbols is particularly bad in this issue, with the contours rarely conforming to the contours of the surface they're placed on. In fact, the symbols on Jetfire are so badly photoshopped in they actually erase some of Don Figueroa's pencilling near the edges of the symbols.
• In the flashback on page 7, Megatron's chest is missing the "squiggle" design seen in all the other flashbacks featuring him.
• On page 19, all three word balloons are attributed to Afterburner, though they read like they should be attributed to Afterburner, Nosecone, and then Afterburner again. This error was corrected when the issue was published in trade paperback.
• On page 2, when Jetfire questions Nosecone's attention to detail, the speech bubble containing Nosecone's reply is shown pointing to Afterburner.

Items of note[]

• This issue was the first glimpse at Figueroa's design for what would become Classics Jetfire. The fans rejoiced, and complained.

Cameos[]

• Among the Autobots shown stationed on their orbital headquarters are Bluster, Bluestreak (or Smokescreen), Pincher, Siren, Crosshairs, Groundbreaker, Overdrive, Downshift, Gunrunner, and someone.
• A flashback shows Thunderwing communicating with Jetfire, Soundwave, Perceptor, Mixmaster, and Swerve about Cybertron's impending collapse.
• Also in a flashback, Omega Supreme and Trypticon were shown attacking during Thunderwing's original assault.

Covers (3)[]

• Cover A: Jetfire and the Technobots by Don Figueroa and Josh Burcham. This cover can be combined with similar ones from the other three issues to form a giant battle scene.
• Cover B: Thunderwing in flames by Don Figueroa and Rob Ruffalo
• Cover RI-A: Cover A uncolored

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