Shattered Glass II issue 2

With Goldbug out of the picture, Megatron's Decepticons have taken what remains of "Gold City" and have set about rebuilding the war-torn capital into "New Kaon". On the outskirts of their new headquarters, Clench and Gutcruncher work to clear the mess... unaware that Blaster and his Mini-Cassettes are watching from the shadows until Rewind makes his move by blasting Clench in the head and crushing Gutcruncher beneath a chunk of fallen masonry. The stage cleared, Rewind shines a spotlight so that the ever-theatrical Blaster can make his entrance... just as a very annoyed Slicer and Rodimus arrive, and demand an explanation for his disappearance. As one of Ultra Magnus's many deep-cover agents, Megatron's attack and Goldbug's abdication forced Blaster into hiding; although Rodimus brands him a deserter, Slicer reminds him that they've got a job for him—infiltrate Soundwave's radio station, download every file he can, and throw the Decepticon communications network into disarray. As Blaster hurries away to set up his grand entrance, Rodimus coldly reminds his compatriot that he's bound to get it wrong—and failure is the one thing that the Wreckers can't tolerate.

Blaster orders his three remaining minions into action as they slip past New Kaon's defenses and breach the city walls: as they pass Megatron and Jetfire, Blaster—remembering Eject's death at the hands of the Decepticon leader—briefly uses his sonic abilities to mess with the pair and generates a "subsonic irritation" that briefly sets the pair to arguing. Although Blaster is more than content to sit back and watch the two tear each other apart, Ramhorn takes that moment to report that he's found the source of Soundwave's radio signal.

While Blaster's minions flush out any lingering Decepticon cassettes, Blaster himself easily breaks into the secure compound, easily bypasses Soundwave's slipshod voice-activated security, and contacts Slicer to report his success... only to find that Slicer's already had to cover for Blaster's missteps by taking out a pair of guards who witnessed Blaster's subsonic sabotage. At that moment, however, an all-too-familiar voice heralds the arrival of Soundwave! Sonic waves fly as the two do battle with each other; despite Soundwave's insistence that he doesn't want to fight, Blaster quickly gets the upper hand, ignoring Soundwave's warnings that the Decepticons are mobilizing to free Cybertron from Autobot tyranny as he does so. As he prepares to deliver the final blow, however, an explosion from above prompts Blaster to make a hasty exit. Thinking quickly, the communications specialist retreats and transforms into his alternate mode—when Flamewar investigates, Blaster's concussive sonics blow a hole in the wall and allow him to escape amidst the chaos.

In the badlands beyond New Kaon, the exhilarated Blaster reunites with his handlers... but when they demand to know if Blaster actually got around to destroying the console before he ran, Blaster admits that there wasn't enough time; when he demands to see his "boys", however, he realizes that Rodimus and Slicer have killed all three of his remaining cassettes, moments before Rodimus smacks Blaster in the face, claiming that this is his punishment for his inability to complete missions and follow orders. Blaster tries to hit back, but Rodimus is the better fighter; as Blaster stares down the barrel of Rodimus's gun, the Wrecker tells him that he's nothing.

Blaster remembers his original career as a news anchor at ABN—after a career-ending slipup, Blaster became a supporter of Optimus Prime while returning to his musical roots, but developed a longstanding enmity with ABN's replacement, Soundwave. When the two crossed paths at one of Blaster's gigs, an innocent offer to arrange an interview pushed Blaster over the edge; eventually, Blaster established his own pirate radio station, where he worked to spread pro-Autobot propaganda... when the conflict escalated to full-on war, Blaster and his minions found themselves on the front lines. Blaster considers himself to be many things, but "failure" is not one of them—

—at least, not until Rodimus pulls the trigger. While Slicer gets to work salvaging whatever he can from Blaster's body, he orders Rodimus to drag the headless corpse back to the outskirts of New Kaon and make it look like the Decepticons found them. Rodimus agrees... but warns his compatriot to find some more competent operators the next time the Wreckers contract some outside muscle. And, although Blaster ultimately failed in his mission, Slicer finally finds a good use for the Autobot—his severed head makes an excellent improvised radio, allowing Slicer to keep an ear on what the Decepticons are up to...

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Autobots	Others
Clench (2) Gutcruncher (3) Flamewar (9) Megatron (10) Soundwave (12) Whisper? (13) Reflector (15)	Blaster (1) Rewind (4) Ramhorn (5) Steeljaw (6) Rodimus (7) Slicer (8) Rewind (14) Chromedome (16) Blurr (17) Jazz (18)	Jetfire (11)

Quotes

"Look at me, a triple threat... Excellent shot! Irreplacable television and radio personality! A truly iconic leader!"

—Blaster

"Authorization required to initiate system backup."
"Ahem *cough* I'm Soundwave, so take this overly emotional and pathetically whiny authorization and stick it up your—"
"Voice verified.".

—Blaster hacks Soundwave's security

"I don't want to fight you, Blaster—"
"Stop lying, Soundwave! I'm not going to just hand over the spotlight that easily."

—Soundwave versus Blaster

"Bravo, rockstar. You did half of what was demanded of you. But from what I remember... that's to be expected, isn't it? Failing is your thing."

—Rodimus'

Notes

Continuity notes

Blaster previously appeared in issue #3 of IDW's first Shattered Glass comic, where he and his cassettes attempted to bring in both Starscream and Megatron—while it seemed like he was just one of the many bounty-hunting bodyscrappers working for Goldbug at the time, this issue reveals that he's another one of Ultra Magnus's deep-cover operatives. Notably, this issue reveals that he lost Eject during his battle with Megatron, but see "Errors" below.
In his last appearance in Shattered Glass #5, Jetfire, unable to call himself an Autobot or Decepticon, left to hunt down Goldbug and avenge Starscream's recent death. Since then, however, he seems to have gone back to working side-by-side with Megatron and helping to rebuild New Kaon.
In his old life, Blaster was a member of ABN, the news network that'd previously been namedropped in the previous issue. The first flashback shows him covering a story relating to ongoing tensions at the Senate; this seems to tie into the events of that issue, as Laserbeak and Flashbox unsuccessfully tried to interview Shockwave before the Wreckers intimidated them into leaving.

Transformers references

Goldbug's personal fiefdom of "Gold City" was a major setting throughout the first Shattered Glass instalment. This issue reveals it to be a name for the occupied Kaon; with Goldbug's defeat, the Decepticons have named it "New Kaon", a name that's seen use elsewhere in the Transformers mythos.
The two Decepticons Rewind kills in the opening act of this issue are mirror-universe versions of Clench and Gutcruncher; while Gutcruncher did play a minor role in the Fun Publications story "Dungeons & Dinobots", and Clench's dead body appeared in the original Shattered Glass convention comic, they sport, respectively, blue and pink colour schemes.
During Blaster's time as a pirate DJ, he's shown to possess a mug with a picture of Kremzeek on it.

Real-world references

While remembering the feel-good songs on Soundwave's underground radio station, Blaster remembers hearing the lyrics "I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour"—this would be a snippet of "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts, which you'll probably recognize as the Friends theme song.

Errors

Throughout the present-day scenes of this issue, Rewind is coloured to resemble Eject.

Other trivia

This comic was also packaged with Blaster’s Shattered Glass figure. Much like 2021’s Shattered Glass #4, Blaster shipped early, meaning that anyone who purchased Blaster's figure from Hasbro Pulse received this issue a little less than a month in advance.

Covers (4)

Cover A: Soundwave versus Blaster, by Dan Khanna
Cover B: Blaster plays the hits, by Zoner Siyi Hemu
Retailer incentive cover: Blaster the master spy, by Winston Chan
Hasbro Pulse exclusive cover: Blaster and Rewind leap into battle, by Casey Coller