First Strike
From Transformers Wiki
First Strike is a crossover miniseries by IDW Publishing that ran from August to October 2017, focusing on the Transformers, G.I. Joe, and the rise of Baron Ironblood as a new threat to both. A sequel of sorts to Revolution, this crossover begins "year 2" of the Hasbro Universe and serves as a soft relaunch for the line.
Upon the conclusion of the miniseries, G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. relaunched as Scarlett's Strike Force. Likewise, ROM and Micronauts ended and relaunched as Rom & the Micronauts. The Transformers titles continued as before, with the exception of Till All Are One, which at the choice of Mairghread Scott concluded with an annual rather than undergo its own soft reboot, with several characters from that comic going on to star in the Transformers vs. Visionaries miniseries.
First Strike would eventually be followed up by Transformers: Unicron.
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First Strike
First Strike one-shots
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Contents |
Buildup
First Strike follows on from 2016's Revolution event, which dealt with the fallout of Optimus Prime's decision to annex Earth into Cybertron's Council of Worlds as a means to defend humankind from further extraterrestrial threats. In that series, G.I. Joe founder Joe Colton was apparently revealed as a Dire Wraith imposter and slain by Rom, the Space Knight. Meanwhile, IDW's Action Man ended on a cliffhanger, depicting human supervillain Doctor X working alongside fellow supervillains Storm Shadow and the enigmatic Baron Ironblood.
Spinning out of Revolution came Revolutionaries which featured a group of characters travelling across the world to discover the secrets of a mysterious Talisman and its connection to Garrison Kreiger, a villainous character with a mysterious past. This storyline would plant most of the seeds for First Strike: in addition to revealing what had happened to the real Joe Colton and his connection to Baron Ironblood, the series focused on Ironblood's growing Iron Ring, including Kreiger's Transformer servant Centurion. The final issue of Revolutionaries ended with Ironblood unmasked to the world as Joe Colton; having secured the Talisman — the ultimate weapon against Cybertronian life — Colton and his supervillain team retreated to Kalistan to prepare for a genocidal assault on Cybertron in the name of human sovereignty.
Overview
A year after Optimus Prime's decision to annex Earth into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds, a unified Earth stands ready to join the interplanetary coalition as equals to the Transformers. With Marissa Faireborn appointed the official Council delegate and de facto ambassador of Earth, human diplomats and dignitaries assemble in Iacon for the occasion — but as Starscream makes his opening remarks, Baron Ironblood and his forces strike, throwing the ceremony into chaos as the villains deploy sophisticated anti-Transformer weaponry against the Cybertronians. On Earth, G.I. Joe leader Scarlett races to discover Colton's motivations behind his evil deeds; hoping to save her former mentor from himself, she forges an alliance with Matt Trakker and Soundwave to find a way to Cybertron.
With Iacon in chaos, Colton and his team deploy Doctor Mindbender as a decoy Ironblood while the real Colton leads a team underground, using Lady Shazraella to ferry the Talisman underground to its ultimate destination: by enerchanging the Talisman with the core of Cybertron, Colton believes, its corrosive energies will poison the planet's energon from within and doom the species to extinction.
As the villains move on their objective, Kreiger deploys the bounty hunter Colditz to trick Centurion — his mind now fused with that of Mike "Atomic Man" Power and his body saturated with Talisman energy— into travelling into the wilds beyond Cybertron, luring the team of humans and Autobots to follow him in the hopes of killing him and tying up a loose end. Centurion survives, but deprived of his connection to the Talisman the heroes have lost their best chance at halting the invasion.
On Earth, Scarlett and a small team storm Castle Destro and hijack Destro's M.A.S.S. Device to reach the metal planet. On arriving, they unmask the imposter Ironblood but are immediately caught up in the volatile politics of the Council and summarily detained by Starscream. But as Ironhide's forces struggle to pin down Colton's strike team beneath Metroplex, Optimus Prime goes against the law by springing Scarlett and her team from jail as the villains close in on their objective — turning the journey towards the core into a race against time.
The chase culminates in a battle far beneath the planet's surface; having beaten the villains to their objective, the battle begins... but is soon thrown into chaos when the forces of the Council arrive to place both sides under arrest, turning the situation into a free-for-all. The conflict is cut short when Kreiger finally reveals the real reason why he was drawn to the Talisman all those years ago. The identity of "Garrison Kreiger," he reveals, was a convenient pseudonym created to conceal his true name and identity: Merklynn, extraterrestrial sorcerer and one of the few survivors of the lost world of Prysmos. His plan had always been to use the Talisman to transform Cybertron into a copy of his old homeworld; unable to reach the core, he settles on using the Talisman's power transforming only a fragment of the planet into the arcane city of "New Prysmos," the first step on Merklynn's crusade to wipe out technology and usher in a new age of magic in the galaxy. Though Joe Colton, defeated and broken by this betrayal, voluntarily stands down, the victory is bittersweet: Cybertron has survived, but has lost much of its energon in Merklynn's attack, forcing it to rely even more heavily on Earth and the colony worlds.
And neither the Transformers nor the humans know that the worst is yet to come: in the aftermath, Cybertron itself burns through even more of its dwindling energon reserves to transmit a simple message deep into space — a message that awakens Unicron.
Creative team
Mairghread Scott, writer of Windblade and Till All Are One, and David Rodriguez, co-writer of the 2017 M.A.S.K. Annual jointly write First Strike, while Max Dunbar, artist of Micronauts, handles artistic duties.[1] The various one-shots were written by the authors who'd go on to write relaunched series following the event: Aubrey Sitterson wrote for G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K., while Christos Gage wrote for Micronauts and ROM.[2]
Collections
- Transformers/G.I. JOE: First Strike (February 7, 2018) ISBN 1684051223 / ISBN 978-1684051229
- Collects First Strike issues #0–6, The Origins of Evil issues #1–5, and The Signal.
- Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
- Trade paperback format.
- Transformers/G.I. JOE: First Strike: Champions (February 7, 2018) ISBN 1684051231 / ISBN 978-1684051236
- Collects ROM: First Strike #1, Micronauts: First Strike #1, G.I. Joe: First Strike #1, M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand: First Strike #1, Optimus Prime: First Strike #1, and Transformers: First Strike #1.
- Bonus material includes art from most covers.
- Trade paperback format.
- Optimus Prime Volume 3 (June 6, 2018) ISBN 168405270X / ISBN 978-1684052707
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 83: First Strike (April 22, 2020)
- Collects First Strike issues #0–6, Optimus Prime: First Strike #1, and Transformers: First Strike #1.
- Bonus material includes a one-page "Prelude to...Unicron!" article, a cover gallery and an intro from Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.
First Strike – cover art by Leonardo Manco
First Strike: Champions – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher
Scarlett's Strike Force – cover art by Nelson Dániel
Volume 3 – cover art by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 83: First Strike – cover art by Dreamwave (Onslaught) and Max Dunbar (retro)
Notes
- The event appears to have originally been named Insurgency, with a variety of early solicitation texts and filenames referring to it under that title.