Megatron finally decodes a partial message from the Gold Disk. Surprisingly, it's a message from himself, warning that something will doom them all, but the transwarp drive can... do something. The file is corrupted, leaving Megatron even more frustrated not knowing what the message truly is. Terrorsaur thinks it wont be long before they'll need a new leader. However, Scorponok quickly shuts him down, knowing Terrorsaur isn't fit for the job. Instead, he says they need to stick to the plan. He's sure the Maximals would never attack them, and they can't make it past the Axalon's shields. With Megatron and Tarantulas busy with their work, he orders Terrorsaur and Waspinator to gather energon and leaves Skold to watch the base (with Terrorsaur openly mocking her, believing it'll keep her in her place).
Elsewhere, one of the stasis pods in orbit receives a transmission that is interrupted. The pod automatically lands and Blackarachnia emerges. Her computer reports receiving a partial code update, which will take some time to implement. She decides to look around while she waits, being an explorer after all, but is attacked by an alligator type creature, which I guess she kills. After, her computer detects a faint Cybertronian signal. Making her way to the Axalon, she's able to pass through the shield, but shortly after boarding the ship, her computer finishes the updates, switching her allegiance to a Predacon. Cheetor hears her talking to herself in the hall, and once again, no one believes him or thinks they should follow up on it. Cheetor decides to check it out anyway, grumbling about his crewmates not listening to him (and just like Tarantulas in the previous issue, Cheetor points out to himself that he's talking to himself...). Blackarachnia gets the jump on him, while Cheetor believes she's just a little confused after recently emerging from the stasis pod. When he tries to call for backup to help subdue her, she knocks him out with her cybervenom.
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Winston Chan takes over the art in this issue. It's a little iffy in places, but I have to say, I like it a lot more compared to Josh Burcham's art style. I gather they'll be sharing art duties, with them both listed on the solicitations for upcoming issues.
It's good to FINALLY be getting some characterization for characters that were basically ignored in the first 6 issues. I kinda think it's a mistake that they're already introducing new characters, when they're only just starting to develop characters introduced in issue 1.
I really don't like how Blackarachnia's pod was able to receive a communication from the surface, even if it was interrupted. It again makes the energon fields on the planet feel like a non-issue in this series, rather than a major problem that should prevent exactly this sort of thing. And being able to remotely reprogram a protoform I also feel takes a lot of the drama out of the story, with no struggle from both sides simply to reach it first. It seems odd neither side was even aware of the pod landing, especially if it landed relatively nearby the Axalon.
It's odd that Blackarachnia and Cheetor both say that she's supposed to be an explorer, when the first issue had established the protoforms are not... Optimus called the protoforms "science experiments" and that the Axalon was simply delivering somewhere. I guess it's possible the protoforms could have been ultimately intended to be sent out on missions after the Axalon delivered them... But then, it wouldn't make sense for Primal to call them experiments. So which is it? Are they explorers or are they experiments? Could they be experimental explorers?
I think it's safe to say Tarantulas was the one that reprogrammed Blackarachnia's pod after discovering their existence in the previous issue, although there's no verification of it in this issue. I'd also have to guess he uploaded the beast mode templet? We never see the pod scan for one, and Blackarachnia emerges already having her black widow beast mode. And I can't help but wonder what the downside of having the transmission cut off may have been... Was it simply the reason it took so long for the computer to update Blackarachnia's programming? Could it be why she's not exactly the most loyal of Predacons, assuming she's like her cartoon counterpart? Or was it intentional? Allowing her to pass through the Axalon shield as a Maximal, just for the update to finish once inside to "further the cause"?
Despite still having some shortcomings, I actually felt this was one of the best issues of this series thus far. If not for introducing Blackarchnia, I almost think this could have made for a good 2nd or 3rd issue, rather than the 7th. There's some good character interactions from both the Maximals and Predacons that allows us to start getting a sense of who some of these characters are, which we really should have gotten earlier in the series.
