A year after the onslaught that took place in IDW’s Revolution event, an occurrence that was masterminded by Miles Mayhem, Baron Karza and the Dire Wraiths that had everyone at war with everyone.

Now, An era of peace has been agreed upon by the Autobots, Rom, Micronauts, G.I. Joe, Action Man, and M.A.S.K. and they’ve allied themselves with one another. Earth is almost about to be recognized by the Cybertronian Council of Worlds when during Starscream’s speech, an explosion happens.

The man behind this orchestration is none other than G.I. Joe turncoat, General Joe Colton, now christened Baron Ironblood and has regrouped with the Joes’ mortal enemy, Cobra so that he can destroy the Autobots and Decepticons because he thinks that are cohorts with Dire Wraiths.

And now Scarlett and crew join forces with Optimus Prime and the other factions, to go up against Ironblood and the reassembled Cobra, to stop another state of bedlam between Earth and Cybertron.

Christos Gage brings us up to speed with the crew of the Heliopolis as we find them on Earth, still dealing with the loss of Oziron Rael (Oz) and licking old wounds that haven’t healed yet. Larissa is now the de facto leader and is still coming to terms with being the daughter of Madman, Baron Karza. The book gets going rather quickly with adversaries and begins to pull into the First Strike storyline rather well, but a little easy in some areas and Gage is probably used to writing for the wordier and more cerebral Rom. He does give a nice bit of humor with Microtron and Biotron that is refreshing.

Chris Panda is still onboard with The Micronauts, his style has gotten better with progression of the characters and his lines and expressions are better as well. He seems to be at home with drawing everyone and well equipped. Surprisingly enough, his Rom, in my humble opinion is welcomed over Ron Joseph’s. He’s able to give the space knight a little more character and personality in his body language.

But it’s just getting started folks, looks like I am strapped in with this one for the long haul, to see how this whole thing plays out.

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