In First Strike #4 Sunstreaker is gunned down, but I can't find a single copy of said issue and TFWiki is very vague on his status. Anyone who has read it, can you tell me if he's dead?

 

You have to be torn apart on panel, your brain module eaten, spark crushed and your death recited by at least 3 main cast for 2 seasons and your statue on Necroworld shut down to be remotely dead.

 

It's sad how accurate that is.

 

Don't know if #5 shows something a bit more definite, you don't even technically see the shot. He has definitely lost an eye, but you just see Sunstreaker standing, Joe's gun 'PCHOOM'ing and in the third panel Sunstreaker's hand on the ground while Joe's gun smokes. The dialogue definitely suggests death though.

Spoiler

Sunstreaker shoots at Shazrella
S: Drop your weapons and stand down. I'm bringing you in.
J: Afraid I can't let you do that, son (is Joe son-ing a robot millions of years old?). There's too much at stake now. But if you stand down, we promise not to shoot.
S: If you're going to start a war, human, then you'd better be ready to take it all the way.
There's no halfway with genocide.
J: Point taken
PCHOOM

This is the part of the Hasbro Universe I don't like, or death in storytelling. Both I guess. People I don't care about shooting people I do care about in an artificial attempt to convince me I've been doing a disservice to the people I don't care about because death. Do feel the need to stress I'm enjoying Revolutionaries, Micronauts and ROM vs Transformers, I'm not blanketing the whole universe here. Just the BIG IMPORTANT CROSSOVER EVENTS!

They did the same thing with Swindle's death, it was so dull it took Till All Are One showing me a corpse to make me realise I was supposed to at least think he was dead.

 

And you can't be a fanfav.
In IDW fanfavs don't die.
So the answer is no, Sunstreaker is not dead.

This is the part of IDW or storytelling in general i don't like:
fanfavs i don't care about killing less popular characters i do care about left and right in an artificial and shallow attempt to seem gritty and realistic.
While those fanfavs never really die.
Even if they die they are brought back to life.
Case in point was that great Swindle death.
It was done very well how they killed him and it was time for him to be put down.
But then they just brought him back to life like it was nothing. So lame and childish.

When are Dreadwind and Darkwing, Skullgrinn, Triggerhappy and the Technobots going to be brought to life again.

 

wait, when did the technobots die again?

of course "die" is a relative term in this context - we're talking about an ongoing collection of stories licensed from a toy manufacturer and written by vastly different people over the years, and everyone has different favs and different places they want to go, and looming over it all is Hasbro, and you just know if they want you to bring back a dead character to tie in with a new toy that's what's gonna happen, intricate decade of plot notwithstanding.

not gonna lie, kinda hope he is "dead" - i haven't been keeping up with non-LL for a while but i feel like we're owed some yellow narcissist silencing from way back in AHM

 

Skids was a fanfav and he's stayed dead.

 

So far......

 

I think Skids will play a big part in the ll seasons final and be revived.

 

Spoiler

Does the context make this scene any less absurd? Surely if one character gets the drop on another to the point where they can legitimately say "Drop your weapons", they're supposed to be ready to shoot first? The spoken or unspoken threat is "... or I'll shoot" - otherwise, what is it? A polite request?

It sounds like Sunstreaker walks into the room with his weapon drawn, then does absolutely nothing as Joe turns and raises his own weapon - then resigns himself to being shot by setting Joe up for a flat one-liner.

 

Well prior to that scene, Sunstreaker had been attacked by a swarm of cyborg ninjas that did considerable damage to him. In fact, he more staggers into the room clutching his gut and bleeding Energon.

 

I hope he' s dead too, cause let's face it: Sunstreaker had a good run in IDW.
And about the fanfav thing: everybody does have their favorites, but nobody is going to call the likes of Strafe or Gutcruncher fanfavorites. And experience has tought us these kinds of characters don't get revived no matter if they get a new toy or not (if only these old laws still apllied, it would be far preferable to the immortal fanfavs and redshirt everybody else situation we have now) while someone named Swindle never really dies wether they have a new toy or not.
Nosecone, Lightspeed and Afterburner died in the attack on Kimia station.

 

And yes, it was totally absurd for Joe to call a million year old robot son.

 

There were the injuries Danny-Boy mentioned, but he still managed to get a warning shot off. Could have injured Shazrella or killed one of the others if he wanted to. Although just typing that out maybe it is down to his missing eye. Still he didn't try firing again.

I'm not saying he is the same person years later after a change of heart and a few more change of authors, but I do think Mr "Kill all the humans" was a poor choice for that scene, if anyone had to give the small squishy things out to get his race a warning shot and then offer his life in service of making GI Joe look good? Bad? Still not sure what I'm supposed to feel about that.

Short version is less absurd, but not un-absurd.

The Technobots, or at least a chunk of them, died back in Stormbringer I think.

Can't say I need Sunstreaker dead but after comatosed for five minutes in Maximum Dinobots, killed off in AHM and a non-redemption (last one off memory, certainly feels like distance from humans have played a large part in his attitude).

 

I hope Sunstreaker isn't dead. "Gets shot by Joe Colton while he's trying to destroy Cybertron" has no resonance to his character arc.
Like, if they'd included something about Sunstreaker being too cocky and assuming Colton couldn't harm him, that would've had resonance - he dies because he can't overcome his narcissism and prejudices against humans. As it was... nah.

Well, Joe's an old man. Sunstreaker isn't that old for a robot. It's all relative.

 

He'd better not be dead.

Main TF book characters should not be lost to the event someone's following the book might not even care about.


Also, Skywarp should be returned to TF books.

His place is there, not as a resident cameo in an unrelated Hasbroverse title.

 

i cant believe there are people who want to break up rock&roll & skywarp!!! thats heartless!!!!!

 

Fixed that for you.

 

In your imagination maybe.

G.I.Joes theme is fighting terrorist groups and would-be-world-conquerors supervillains.

That's not much in terms of books being related save for existing in the same universe.

Or... Maybe it was the theme...

These days they're more occupied with Dire Wraiths and Inhumanoid knock-offs.

Skywarp is out of place in this book. His power level is well above what Joes may be facing which makes him either steamrolling what's thrown at him or the writer must be coming with ways of making that the character can't be simply blowing up everything on his way.

His also acting very weird for himself, given how Skywarp is not a dude well liked even by other cons and always was the most thuggish of the three Seeker brothers

 

No even worse, they died in Chaos.