IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #17

Title: Remain in Light Part 1 of 5: The Fecund Moon
Written by: James Roberts
Art by: Alex Milne
Colours by: Josh Burcham
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editorial Assistants: Toni Korde and Mariel Romero
Editor: John Barber

Plot

Tailgate, after finding out he has only 3 days or so to live after being diagnosed with Cybercrosis, panics and runs back to his quarters to tell Cyclonus. Elsewhere, Rodimus, Ambulon and Blaster are monitoring the security footage of Magnus waking up and seemingly levitating to Shuttle Bay 3, where he steals a shuttle. The group track the shuttle and go after it.

Tailgate tells Cyclonus what Ratchet told him, and Cyclonus leaves, then scars himself in anger for what is happening. Later the ship appraoches a portal in space, where Magnus seemingly went through, and everyone is excited/nervous. Rodimus takes the ship into the portal for more adventure. On the other side, they find the long lost Luna-1.

Later, after some scans Perceptor reports that the thing they've found does indeed appear to be Luna-1, but oddly, despite seemingly being deserted, they've detected a billion people on it.

Rodimus soon puts together an away team for an excursion to Luna-1, made of himself, Rung, Brainstorm, Whirl, Chromedome, Ratchet, Cyclonus and Tailgate (who Cyclonus wanted to bring, so he can have an experience before his death). Rodimus explains to his team that the mission is to look for Magnus, but anything else they find is a bonus. Cyclonus tells Tailgate not to get his hopes up about finding a cure on the moon, and that this is just for the experience.

The shuttle lands on the moon and the team go either by alt mode, or MARB across the deserted planetoid, with Fort Max and Blaster keeping in contact with them from the ship above. The team come across Magnus' shuttle and find it smashed apart, Rodimus jumps off his MARB to examine it closer, when suddenly the entire moon lights up with sparks, still in the ground, with everyone thinking it has something to do with the Matrix in Rodimus, or just Rodimus himself.

The team discuss what this means, and how important this is now when they lose contact with the Lost Light. In the Oil Reservoir, Skids is sitting alone when suddenly he hears "nineteen eighty-four" from the darkness.

On Luna-1, the team have found a green spark, and Brainstorm immediately starts extracting it, despite others, like Cyclonus and Rung complaining about the land not being consecrated or that this is technically stealing, when suddenly the team is attacked from the air by Lockdown and his crew.

On the Lost Light again, Skids starts a fight with the Legislators, who explode from the oil, meanwhile more Legislators start appearing across the ship, inside Swerve's bar, the bridge, and everywhere else. On Luna-1, the team are trying to escape when Ratchet's MARB is blasted away, and he's taunted by Pharma!

Later on, Rodimus relates these events to someone calling himself Ambus

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Perceptor

Ratchet - Ambulance

Chromedome - Car

Rung - Maintenance Buggy

Brainstorm - Jet

Skids - Van

Fortress Maximus - Tank

Blaster

Ambulon - Leg

Swerve - Van

Pharma - Jet

Dominus Ambus (Flash Forward)

Inferno

Grapple

First Aid - Ambulance

Huffer

Gears

Ultra Magnus (Footage) Gone Missing

Optimus Prime (Mentioned)

Spoke (Mentioned)

Lockstock (Mentioned)

Mainframe (Mentioned)

Drift (Mentioned)

Bumblebee (Mentioned)

Prowl (Mentioned)

Trailbreaker (Mentioned)

Rewind (Mentioned) Dead

Polaris (Mentioned) Dead

Animus (Mentioned) Dead

Shock (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Lockdown

Chop Shop

Venom

Ransack

Barrage

Rest of Lockdown's Crew

Overlord (Mentioned)

Rossum (Mentioned)

Scorponok (Mentioned)

Shockwave (Mentioned)

Other

Tailgate - Car Dying of Cybercrosis

Cyclonus - Jet

Legislators

Nova Prime (Mentioned)

Medibot (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Notes

• Rodimus considered himself, Magnus and Drift to be like Rossum's Trinity, as they all complimented each other as a team
• Last time we saw Ambus (in flashback form) he was looking for a cure to Cybercrosis...coincidence?
• Tailgate's green innermost Energon is explained here as it being curdled...why didn't anyone mention this to him when they saw it!??!
• Remember when last time Tailgate transformed he was trapped half-way through? We all thought it was funny back then didn't we? Turns out, it's a sign of him dying!
• Gee, Rodimus sure sounds a bit like a Functionalist here doesn't he? When he screams at Swerve about him being a Bartender, not a Metallurgist now.
• Wow, Cyclonus should give speeches to more people with terminal illnesses "NEVER HOPE. HOPE IS A LIE."
• Rodimus leaves Fort Max in charge of the Lost Light in his absence....yeah, the gun totting PTSD sufferer, good idea!
• Rodimus reveals that he keeps his half of the Matrix inside his chest, wonder if Bumblebee does the same?
• Brainstorm has experience in harvesting Point One Percenters...wonder if that means he helped "create" one of the Phase Sixers?
• The new Legislators chant Seventeen Twenty-One. Whilst we don't know what that means in this universe, in real life it's the start and end issue numbers for this story-arc
• Pharma's appearance in the last panel confirms that he survived the Red Rust on Messatine. His new saw-hand is most likely a gift from Lockdown, who is know to have one in at least one continuity (Animated), but it also invokes a feel of Ash from the Evil Dead series. His pose even sort of resembles the pose shown on the Army of Darkness DVD covers.
• Chromedome points out that they seem to never transform any more, and ask why they even have alt modes!
• Swerve calls Trailcutter "Trailbreaker" here, either this is a mistake, or Trail-guy decided to go back to his old name again some point in the last day.

My Crazy Theories

• It's been mentioned in solicitations for July's comics that Star Saber will be appearing, now with this issue's revelation of the powerful green sparks being on Luna-1, it's possible that that is in fact Star Saber, just waiting to be born in the next couple of issues. Perhaps even using Magnus' body as raw materials (I always did think his inner robot looked a bit like Magnus).
• On a similar note, it was noted in earlier issues that Ununtrium (the thing used to make Phase Sixers indestructible) is basically non-existent now on Cybertron (at least when that part of the story was set). It's likely therefore that this compound is actually native to Luna-1, which could be how the Decepticons keep finding some of it for more Phase Sixers, as Lockdown's crew could have been mining the planet.
• The explosive energies from Cybertron early in the RID series were meant to be sent into Luna-1, but it wasn't there, it's likely that those energies could have reignited the sparks on the moon to help revive the Cybertronian race that way
• Also, Lockdown never mentioned who his "boss" was in Spotlight: Trailbreaker...maybe they were the Quintessons, hence linking it to my theory that the Legislators are made by them too