Warning! Spoilers ahead for Transformers: King Grimlock #4!
Grimlock‘s tale somehow just one-upped the already epic promise that the Dinobot king would clash against a massive dragon by having the robot sink its teeth into a literal Transformers god.
Grimlock did indeed battle a dragon, though it was actually a wizard known as the Golden One. The Dinobot even vanquished the foul beast, but it was under the control of the malignant deity Soltron that’s apparently a Transformer. And it’s not a Decepticon, either. Soltron has been described as a god who “wears the face inscribed on Grimlock’s chest,” which is the Autobot symbol. This renegade Autobot deity has already proven to have a beastly characteristic in just four issues, controlling others with what Grimlock terms as “stupid bad blood,” which is actually a liquified, almost living form of energon. Now, the liquid energon has just entered into Grimlock’s former ally Arko, as revealed in Transformers: King Grimlock #4 by writer Steve Orlando, artist Agustin Padilla, colorists Jeremy Colwell and Heather Breckel and letterer Jake M. Wood.
Soltron now plays a much larger role in the overall mythos of the mystical world where Grimlock finds himself known as Menonia. In the original cartoon, Grimlock was transported to Menonia and fought alongside the dragon-transforming Golden One to help defeat the villainous Red Wizard. Soltron’s possession of the Golden One in King Grimlock finally explains why he’s now evil when he was originally a heroic figure in the TV show. But even before readers learned of the Golden One’s plight in the comics, there were other discrepancies that suggested that the Menonia from the cartoon and King Grimlock might exist in two different continuities. For example, the Dinobot ruler in King Grimlock doesn’t recall ever coming to Menonia before and neither do the indigenous people there. They are just aware that the Cybertronians once came to their world. But now that King Grimlock has explained the Golden One’s change in character, it’s possible that the two continuities are actually one and the same. If they are, then it’s likely Grimlock has been to Menonia before, and the comics might therefore give an explanation in a later issue about why Grimlock doesn’t remember ever being there before. Whatever the source of his amnesia might be, it undoubtedly has something to do with the mysterious Soltron.
Although Grimlock has defeated the long-awaited dragon, he still must battle the Soltron-possessed Arko. She might not be as epic as a dragon, but she and the Transformer share an intense history that all stems from a misunderstanding. Basically, Grimlock became enraged at Akro’s people because they meant to summon Optimus Prime instead of him, for Grimlock had just so happened to be engaged in a heated argument with Optimus mere moments before he was accidentally transported to Menonia. Grimlock and Akro’s relationship was already strenuous as a result of this misunderstanding, but it eventually crumbled when Grimlock immediately agreed to help another tribe when Akro’s father had to beg and still didn’t receive any help from the Dinobot king.
As a mere humanoid, Arko was never much of a threat to Grimlock. But now he must contend with a version of her that’s now possessed by the almighty Transformers god Soltron. No, she’s not a dragon by any means, but their upcoming battle is much more anticipated, just based on their short albeit heated history.
