Iacon

Iacon is the name of a prominent city on the fictional planet Cybertron in the various Transformers Media. It is best known as the home (sometimes capital city) of the Autobots..

Marvel comic continuity

Iacon appeared throughout the US and UK Transformers comic as the main base of the Autobot resistance on Cybertron.

"And There Shall Come... A Leader", a flashback story in the 1985 UK Annual, shows Iacon as home to the Autobot Council of Elders based in the Celestial Templs, who include Emirate Xaaron, High Councilor Traachon and Councilor Tommandi. The city itself is protected by a great dome, and is the last Autobot outpost to hold out against Megatron's advancing army of Decepticons. During the story, Prime’s troops destroy the main expressways into Iacon, halting the Decepticon advance.

In the 1986 UK Annual another flashback story, "State Games", details pre-war Cybertron and the build up to Megatron’s uprising. After the failure of a global ruling body known as the Overlords, Cybertron has been divided into various independent city-states, all of which are now facing overcrowding and a lack of resources. Iacon is the largest and wealthiest of these city-states, and the home of Optimus Prime. Inter-state gladiator matches increase the tension between Iacon and lesser city-states such Tarn and Vos, and eventually a botched act of sabotage leads Tarn and Vos into civil war with each other. The survivors are united by Megatron, and blame Iacon for standing by and, falsely, starting the conflict in the first place.

In the storyline (UK #66 to #88), Iacon is revealed to have been conquered by the Decepticons and its dome is a broken shell. Emirate Xaaron now leads the Autobot resistance movement from secret bases beneath Iacon’s surface.

The Autobot resistance moves out of Iacon and into the city-state of Kalis in the "City of Fear" storyline (UK #164 to #169), but are back in Iacon by "Yesterday’s Heroes" (UK #252 to #254, US #60).

Whether Iacon survives Unicron's attack in "On the Edge of Extinction" (UK #319 to #322, US #75) is not made explicit.

G1 animated continuity

In the first episode, "More Than Meets the Eye Part 1", Iacon is shown as a dome shaped city. The dome structure retracts to reveal a launching pad for the Autobot spacecraft the Ark.

"Beast Machines" continuity

The Beast Machines animated series is set some 300 years in the future of the original Transformers G1 continuity, drawing on elements of both the animated series and Marvel comics. In "The Reformatting", the first episode of the Beast Machines TV show, the Maximals, descendants of the Autobots, discover the remains of Iacon on Cybertron, deep beneath the planets current surface. The episode suggests that in the intervening years between the end of the G1 / G2 series and the start of Beast Wars, the inhabitants of Cybertron have built over older city-states with new cities, in a similar manner to an onion skin.

"Transformers: Cybertron"

Dorling Kindersley's "Transformers: The Ultimate Guide" included illustrations and descriptions of Cybetron’s surface, including an image of Iacon itself. The Guide, first published in 2004, drew on both the Marvel comic continuity and the then recent depictions of Cybertron and Iacon from the Dreamwave comic book series, including elements such as the Stellar Galleries from the latter series, not documented in the original Marvel run.

In 2006, a toy of Cybertron was released as part of the toy line. The toy transformed from planet mode into Primus, the Transformers creator. Of the many cities sculpted into the toys surface, one, painted in gold, clearly resembles the illustration of Iacon from "The Ultimate Guide".