Shattered Glass II issue 5

It's all-out war as Metroplex joins the battle between evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons! Soundwave tries to carry his wounded leader Megatron to safety, even as the Decepticon leader orders his lieutenant to ignore him and stop Ultra Magnus. As he works to patch up Megatron's injuries, the Decepticon leader explains that Magnus has already captured Optimus Prime and recruited Ratchet to oversee a procedure that will allow him to take Prime's place. Soundwave's worried--not just by the idea of an emboldened Magnus commanding Metroplex, his own Wreckers, and those Optimus Prime loyalists who won't see through the deception, but also what his enhanced senses tell him: Metroplex isn't roaring in rage, he's screaming in agony... and, beneath that, he can hear Starscream's voice.

As he moves forward, Soundwave spies Slicer, half-crushed beneath one of Metroplex's digits--after he first knocks the overconfident Springer unconscious as the Wrecker tries to catch him off-guard, the compassionate Soundwave successfully frees the trapped Autobot... who promptly pulls his blaster on the would-be rescuer. Despite the imminent threat, however, Soundwave's telepathy picks up a jangled mess of conflicting emotions; as he tries to talk down Slicer, he lets slip that Megatron knows about Magnus's ultimate plan, and exactly why it is they can't control Metroplex. At that moment, however, a recovered Springer makes a second pass on the Decepticon... only for Slicer to unload his gun in Springer's face! Listening to Soundwave's transmissions through Blaster's jury-rigged head has given the amoral engineer an odd fondness for the 'bot he'd normally see as an enemy... and, grimly, Slicer decides to join Soundwave on his quest to take down Ultra Magnus once and for all.

Together, the two scale the Titan's hull and make their way up to a convenient ledge, where Soundwave uses his voice-disguising powers to briefly mislead Jazz and Ricochet before he can non-lethally incapacitate the pair, brushing off the wounded Slicer's repeated offers to assist. The unlikely allies make their way through Metroplex's empty hallways as they discuss their possible next moves, before Soundwave makes a ghoulish discovery--Ultra Magnus's severed leg! Slicer wonders if Metroplex's erratic movements might've complicated the surgery, but the two soon discover the rest of Ultra Magnus nearby... a mangled shell, using a disabled voice box to scream silently. As the two soon discover, however, that body now belongs to Optimus Prime: the real Ultra Magnus has come out the other side wearing Optimus Prime's stolen body!

Soundwave puts up a cool façade, hoping to keep his captors off-balance--indeed, his jibes quickly start to overwhelm the already-erratic Magnus as the Wrecker leader adjusts to his new body's motor functions. Fortunately for the pair, Magnus doesn't realize that Slicer's changed sides--when he orders his ex-underling to execute Soundwave, Soundwave has just enough time to read Slicer's mind and learns that he plans to take out the Wreckers, grab Ratchet, and run. Worse yet, Metroplex and Starscream's mind patterns are growing closer and closer: if they merge, then Starscream is gone for good. At that moment, however, Metroplex rears backwards, and the sudden shift buries Magnus in debris and gives Slicer and Soundwave the opening they need to make their move.

In the ensuing chaos, Soundwave takes out Tailgate and Drift, and Ratchet winds up taking a shot from Rodimus intended for Slicer--and, amidst the chaos, Soundwave breaks his own oath and kills both Drift and Rodimus. After freeing Jetfire, Soundwave informs him that Starscream needs him; the pair arrive at Metroplex's spark chamber in time to sever the connection, incapacitating Metroplex and allowing Jetfire to scoop up Starscream's disembodied spark. Without his power source, the Titan promptly topples to the ground as Jetfire escapes through one cracked eye, leaving Soundwave to face an enraged Magnus alone in the head of the falling Titan. The enraged Autobot, attacks... only for Soundwave to scan his thoughts and correctly deduce that this whole mad scheme stemmed from Magnus's own self-confidence issues: he had to steal Optimus's body because he didn't think he could lead the Autobots as himself. Before the berserk Autobot can kill Soundwave, however, a shot from below nails Magnus in the chest! Magnus plummets out of Metroplex's shattered eye... and Soundwave glimpses at the ground below, where he sees Slicer and Ratchet--by saving him, they've repaid their debt.

As the Titan plummets, Laserbeak swoops in to rescue his master as the rest of the Decepticons crowd in to congratulate Soundwave on saving the day. Elsewhere, Jetfire retreats to the Static Zone with Starscream's spark, while Slicer and an injured Ratchet recuperate in a nearby cavern. Optimus Prime, Goldbug, and Ultra Magnus might be gone, but there are still others out there who would do harm... and as long as Soundwave and the other Decepticons still stand, they'll never stop fighting for what's right!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Autobots	Others
Laserbeak (1) Frenzy (2) Soundwave (4) Megatron (5) Rumble (6) Ravage (7) Starscream (20) Flamewar (21) Slipstream (22) Hotlink (23)	Cosmos (8) Springer (9) Slicer (10) Jazz (11) Ricochet (12) Optimus Prime (13) Rodimus (14) Ultra Magnus (15) Drift (17) Tailgate (18) Ratchet (19) Prowl (24)	Metroplex (3) Jetfire (16)

Quotes

"So you've listened to my voice through... Blaster's head? I'm stuck in your head like a hit song. I'd like to think that means something."
"Then let's go kill my boss, Mister DJ."
"That simple?"
"Yup."

—Soundwave and Slicer

"I would have expected one of Megatron's spies. Or assassins. Not his... grief counsellor? Music bot? What do you fancy yourself these days, Soundwave?"

—Ultra Magnus

"I will do what Optimus was too arrogant to do! I will crush every Decepticon spark myself! I will guarantee the end--"
"Save it for someone who can't read your mind and know the truth--you had to steal Optimus' skin because you were too scared to openly lead without it."

—Ultra Magnus versus Soundwave

"Slicer wasn't supposed to save me. And I get the feeling he'll never let me thank him for it either."

—Soundwave

"I went into battle because there's life on the other side of the war for all of us if we are brave enough to face it. If we are determined to live with ourselves and what we've become. It may get worse before it gets better. But I will never stop believing peace is worth it. Because Cybertron is worth fighting for."

—Soundwave says that's all, folks

Notes

Continuity notes

Slicer's revealed to have survived his impromptu defenestration at the hands of Flamewar, which occurred in the previous issue.
Ultra Magnus sardonically calls Soundwave "Megatron's grief counsellor"; as established in issue #3 of IDW's first Shattered Glass miniseries, Soundwave ran an underground radio station that allowed him to reach out to any Decepticon stragglers in distress.

Transformers references

The concept of Starscream's consciousness somehow persisting after death ties this story back to the long-standing concept of Starscream surviving as a "ghost", as popularized by the The Transformers episode "Starscream's Ghost".
Ultra Magnus's ultimate scheme involves him switching bodies with Optimus Prime; after the switch takes place, Magnus's new body is colored blue in reference to the inner robot that came with his 2022 Generations toy. However, in the comic, his new body is very clearly based on the Earthrise Optimus Prime mold that formed the basis for Generations Selects Shattered Glass Optimus, and makes no attempt to integrate any features from Ultra Magnus's own toy.
Wheeljack switching sides from an Autobot to a Decepticon may be a reference to Wheeljack (Armada)

Errors

There’s no real in-fiction explanation given as to why Magnus-in-Optimus’s-body turns blue, beyond the need to advertise his Generations play feature—the same thing doesn’t happen to Optimus-in-Magnus’s-body, and it would seemingly run counter to the idea of him needing to wear Prime’s skin to feel confident.

Other trivia

While individuals who ordered Soundwave from Hasbro Pulse received this issue more than a month in advance, its mass-market release in December 2022 marks the very last issue of the final Transformers miniseries ever published by IDW Publishing after an astonishing seventeen-year run. Truly, they were... an IDW Publishing's The Transformers.

Covers (4)

Cover A: Soundwave and Starscream’s ghost, by Andrew Griffith
Cover B: Soundwave, by L. Kershaw
Retailer incentive cover: Graffiti-style art of Soundwave and his cassettes, by Mark Maher and Reggie Graham
Hasbro Pulse exclusive cover: Soundwave leaps into action, by Casey Coller