Wings of Honor

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The origin of Two-Face! ...wait, no.
"Wings of Honor"
Publisher	Fun Publications
First published	May 28, 2009 (BotCon 2009) December 9, 2009 (Diamond Edition)
Story	Rik Alvarez
Writers	Forest Lee and Rik Alvarez
Pencils	Guido Guidi (flashback) and Dan Khanna (shuttle attack)
Inks	Guido Guidi (flashback) and Josh Warner (shuttle attack)
Colors	Thomas Deer (flashback) and Josh Perez (shuttle attack)
Letters	Jesse Wittenrich
Managing editor	Pete Sinclair
Editor in chief
Continuity	Wings Universe
Price	$4.95 US

Kup tells a story about one of his earliest missions at the beginning of the war.

Synopsis

In space, Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps assault an Autobot shuttle, the sheer number of Sweeps outweighing any losses they incur. On board the damaged ship, Hot Rod shifts course, and begins to head for a nearby nebula, while Kup is reminded of the battle of Beta-Nine. The Dinobots demand to hear the story, but Hot Rod tells them that it's not the time, and Kup, noticing that they have thirty-seven Decepticons on them, agrees to wait until they reach the nebula. The Autobots manage to get themselves inside, but the Decepticons, while sensor blind, still follow them in...'

On board, Grimlock wants to know if he can hear Kup's story now. Hot Rod tells him to wait, knowing that repairs are necessary, but the Dinobot intimidates him with his flame-breath. Kup begin his tale of the original Autobots to earn the "Wings of Honor".

Back before the Great War, the young Autobot Kup was the newest member of the crew of the Eight Track. The ship is on patrol for any signs of the new Decepticon malcontents, with no signs of even non-Decepticon life. The ship's captain, Thunderclash, has Kup transmit the ship's log back home. Flak tells the eager young Autobot to calm down, knowing that he should enjoy the peace while he can, but his advice goes ignored. The ship's pilot, an elder Autobot named Landshark, tells Kup to stick with him if he wants to fight Decepticons, causing the excited Autobot to nearly miss a priority transmission from High Command. Magnum greets Thunderclash, telling him that they've received his latest logs, and that their mission is being cut short due to events worsening back on Cybertron. The Decepticons have a new, unknown leader; with more resources and organization than intelligence had indicated, war is imminent. An Autobot ship, the Van De Graaff, was carrying a classified cargo that could change the war's course. Unfortunately, the ship was lost on Beta-Nine, and with no distress beacon activated, it's likely the Decepticons crashed the ship, killing everyone on board. As their ship is closer to the planet than the nearest recovery team, they are given the top-secret mission of retrieving this cargo and keeping it out of Decepticon hands at all costs. Soon, the Eight Track is in orbit above Beta-Nine. Unfortunately, their ship is suddenly fired on by the Decepticons; Thunderclash has Flak find the coordinates of the Van De Graaff, and tells Landshark to get them as close as possible. With the ship's steering system destroyed, Landshark does the best he can, landing 22 klicks east of the Van De Graaff. Kup wonders if the Decepticons have already gotten to the cargo, and Landshark, having lost his earlier bravado, agrees, worried about how they'll get off the planet. Thunderclash tells him to stow it; they will find this cargo before the Decepticons. With no further protests, the group rolls out to ship...but the Decepticons suddenly appear again, blasting Kup off a nearby ravine. The three Decepticons-Skyquake, Leozack, and Hooligan-unleash their payload on the Autobots. Thunderclash pushes the Decepticons back with his own firepower, giving, him, Flak, and Landshark time to evacuate to a nearby forest.

At the bottom of the ravine, Kup wonders how he's going to get back up to the top, but his thoughts are interrupted when Banzai-Tron erupts from the water beneath him, unleashing his arsenal on the young bot. Kup manages to kick the Decepticon back, but is assaulted by two more Decepticon jets, Hellbat and Guyhawk. Kup refuses to surrender, and Banzai-Tron sends forth Hellbat, who uses his hypnotist powers to put Kup to sleep and have him come forth. Luckily for the Autobot, a large draconian creature chooses that moment to emerge from the water, biting down on Hellbat before he can do anything to Kup. Distracted, the Decepticons do not notice Kup escaping until he's already made some headway. In the forest, the other Decepticons search for the Autobots. Thunderclash orders the others to radio Kup and have him meet him at the Van De Graaff. Thunderclash transforms, and draws Skyquake's attention, who leaves Leozack and Hooligan to deal with the others. Kup, already at the Van De Graaff, tells the others that he's gonna scout the wreckage for the crate. On board, Kup finds dozens of dead Autobots, along with the corpse of an odd, tentacled creature. Disturbed, Kup quickly grabs the case and heads on out.

Back at the forest, Flak splits up from Landshark, telling him to come running when he hears firing. Flak proceeds to shut off his comms, cutting off Landshark's protests, and confronts the two Decepticons with his oversized missile launchers. Meanwhile, Kup radios Thunderclash to tell him that he's retrieved the case, and that he doesn't think the Decepticons were behind the Van De Graaff's crash-landing. Unfortunately, his report is cut off when Banzai-Tron and Guyhawk find him. As Kup rushes to cover, Banzai-Tron remarks that he won't be saved by chance now...when Thunderclash suddenly rams through the two in truck mode. Thunderclash transforms and greets his subordinate, as Skyquake prepares his assault. With his commander out of ideas, Kup isn't sure what to do, until he spies a container belonging to one of the dead Autobots...

The fallen Flak is about to be dismembered by Leozack, but Thunderclash manages to surprise the two, knocking them out with his oversized fists. Meanwhile, Banzai-Tron demands the Autobots to surrender. Stepping out of the smoke, Kup offers to give up the cargo if he lets them go. Taking the container, Banzai-Tron is warned by Skyquake of the trap he senses, but the Decepticon mercenary ignores him, considering victory within the Decepticon's grasp now. Unfortunately, Skyquake turns out to be right, as the container holds a pistol set to overload, which blasts right in the Decepticon's face. Thunderclash orders the Decepticons to surrender...

Suddenly, Kup's story is interrupted, the Decepticons having tracked down the Autobot's ship. With the engines too low on power, the Decepticons blow a hole in the ship and board...only to find five Dinobots, angry that their story has been interrupted. The Autobots quickly tear into the Sweeps, and Scourge attempts to scurry away. Kup confronts the Decepticon, but when his gun jams, Scourge laughs, calling his gun an antique. Kup simply does the same thing he did millions of years ago, and throws his overloading gun at Scourge, a massive explosion going off right in the Decepticon's face. As Cyclonus quickly flees, Grimlock asks Kup to finish his story.

Back on Cybertron, Magnum tells the Autobots how proud he is of the quartet. With the Council having announced the breakdown of relations, Magnum notes the irony that the first battle of the war will be unknown, and tells the four that the Autobots will need soldiers like them. The present-day Kup reflects that while what happened next lead down a path of death and destruction, they were honored to be a part of something new, as Magnum welcomes Thunderclash and his men into the Elite Guard! Hot Rod, meanwhile, wonders about the cargo; Kup never knew where it went, but just hopes it did what it was supposed to. And millions of years in the past, Alpha Trion, having created designs for a new Autobot soldier, opens the crate, as a brilliant glow erupts from within...

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in the present day.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"There was a time, back in the day, when Landshark was recognized as one of the finest pilots in the Autobot Guard. No matter how damaged a ship was, he'd put it down as delicate as a filament.
"I'm not one hundred percent on where he got that reputation."

—Kup has not-so-fond memories of Landshark's landing skills.

"Your plan sucks, Flak. We'll never pull this off."
"Shut up and get into position when you hear firing. And hurry up, unless you brought a box to carry home Flak pieces in."

—Landshark and Flak discuss tactics.

"You boys call those missile launchers? These are missile launchers."

—Flak is up on his pop culture references.

Notes

• Characters mentioned but not seen include: The One.
• Characters mentioned in Kup's profile include: Thunderclash, Landshark, and Flak.
  • Kup is noted to be able to detach and reattach his limbs without permanent damage, presumably in reference to how he survived dismemberment in The Transformers: The Movie.
  • Kup's kinetic energy hammer can crush a three-square feet cube of tironium, a tough metal mentioned in Beast Wars episode "Power Surge".
  • Kup is a "protie", Autobot military slang for an inexperienced young bot, taken from the first stage of a Transformer's life cycle, the protoform.
• Characters mentioned in Banzai-Tron's bio include: Megatron.
  • Banzai-Tron's practice of crystalocution is mentioned.
• Characters mentioned in Flak's bio include: Thunderclash.
• Characters mentioned in Leozack's bio include: Skyquake and Megatron.
• Characters mentioned in Dion's bio include: Megatron and Metalhawk.
  • Dion's near-death at Megatron's hands occurred in "War Dawn".
  • The docks that Dion used to work at is noted to be storage yard 67; 67 was his and Orion Pax's e-Hobby toys' I.D. Number.
  • Dion's flame launchers use a Reverse-Higgs mechanism, the opposite of the real life Higgs Mechanism.

Continuity notes

• This story, and subsequent stories in the "Wingsverse", take place in a slightly modified version of the original The Transformers cartoon.
• The framing sequence takes place post-"The Rebirth", with Cyclonus having Nightstick as his Targetmaster partner, and Hot Rod in his "original" form.
• The majority of the comic, meanwhile, takes place prior to "War Dawn", with Megatron being an unknown, and Alpha Trion only having designed specs for the body that would become Optimus Prime's.
• The Matrix was last seen being given to Trion by the previous Prime in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4"; presumably, Alpha Trion had it hidden off-planet.
• The tentacle Kup finds belongs to a Quintesson, the creators of the Transformers in the original cartoon.

Transformers references

• The Elite Guard–the Autobots' "best of the best"–was introduced in the Animated cartoon.
• Several characters appear in bodies based on recent toys; Cyclonus and Nightstick (who only shows up one panel in gun mode) are based off their Universe Deluxe Class toy; Hot Rod is based off his Universe Legends Class toy; and Grimlock is based off his Masterpiece toy. Aside from the toys sold at BotCon 2009, everyone else shows up in their cartoon character models, including modern-day Kup.
• The framing sequence owes inspiration to the space battles seen in The Transformers: The Movie.
• When Grimlock bumps his nose, it glows red, like it did when Wheelie used his slingshot on him in The Transformers: The Movie.
• Grimlock holds a green, stuffed rabbit; presumably, this is a Petro-rabbit. originally mentioned in The Transformers: The Movie (See where we're going with this?).
• Landquake thanks the One, a mysterious entity originally mentioned in 3H Productions' Primeval Dawn comic, who would go on to be revealed as the creator of Primus and Unicron. Here, the One apparently stands in for Primus as the main Cybertronian deity.
• Magnum's design is heavily based on Ultra Magnus.
• Aside from Skyquake and Leozack, a few more Decepticon jets (noted to be Skyraiders elsewhere, taking their name from the European Generation 2 release of Starscream and Ramjet) have their ranks bolstered by "virtual" redecos of Energon Starscream as Generation 2 Cyberjet Hooligan, and Leozack's fellow Victory Breastforce members Hellbat and Guyhawk.
• Magnum's office contains a picture of a female Autobot (presumably Magnum's partner), who looks to be Cybertron Override in teal.

Real-world references

• The Eight Track is named for the 8-track tape, the precursor to cassettes. The Van De Graff, meanwhile, takes its name from the Van de Graaff generator.
• Landshark's personality is based on American comedian Chevy Chase, and his name is taken from the Saturday Night Live "Land Shark" skit, whose titular character was voiced by Chase.
• Leozack is portrayed with a slew of cheesy manga stereotypes, including a giant broadsword, punctuation marks over his head, sweatdropping, calling his attacks, and bold Asian-style fonts in his speech bubbles.
• Flak's "missile launchers" line is paraphrased from the 1986 action-comedy film Crocodile Dundee: "That's not a knife." [draws Bowie knife] "That's a knife."

Other trivia

• The wide-release version (released on December 9, 2009) of this comic book included profiles for Kup, Banzai-Tron, Flak, Leozack, and Dion.
• Kup's narration over the flashback tends to paint a decidedly different and more favorable (to Kup) picture than what we see actually happening.

Covers

• BotCon Edition: Battle scene of Kup facing off against Skyquake and Banzai-Tron; art by Alex Milne and colors by Josh Perez
• Diamond Edition: Battle scene featuring Kup; art by Guido Guidi and colors by Thomas Deer.