IDW - More than Meets the Eye #3

Comic Staff

Title: Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colour by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editor: John Barber

Storyline

Just as the Lost Light takes off from the planet Shock goes to see Ore's remains in the engine room and says his goodbyes before deleting the evidence of Prowl communicating with him before the original launch. Shock then goes looking for the tracking device that Prowl had them take into the engine room and tries to complete his mission, when suddenly a trapped Sparkeater breaks out of a now damaged door and attacks Shock, eating his spark. Red Alert shortly finds him and informs Rodimus, who seems excited.

Rodimus has the crew, bar a few members who could be of use, go to some habitation suites so they can be safe.Whilst leaving Tailgate recognizes Cyclonus from before the Ark launched and asks him for some help.

In the lower decks Ratchet and the rest of the Autobots assembled by Rodimus look into what happened to Shock and soon they believe it is indeed a Sparkeater. This is confirmed by Ratchet examining the body, and Chromedome using his Mnemosurgeon abilities to see Shock's last few moments of life.

Upstairs Cyclonus and Tailgate find a room and claim it, whilst Hoist and Boss look at Cyclonus in an unhappy way, though Cyclonus doesn't really care about that. Tailgate's happy with the room, but again Cyclonus doesn't care. Elsewhere Swerve and Skids find a room, but soon discover that it's an Engex distillery and bar, which leads Swerve to reminisce about how he and Blurr had always wanted to run a bar together before the war. Skids gets bored and goes into an airduct, but before he leaves he asks if Swerve likes music, and then comments that "Skids and Swerve" DOES actually sound quite cool.

Back in the lower decks Chromedome pulls himself out of Shock's brain and is in pain, but confirms that it was a Sparkeater. The team begin to search for it, but Rodimus and Drift remain behind to investigate the area, and because Rodimus has a plan, since Ratchet believes the Sparkeater will go after the brightest spark he can find to eat.

Upstairs Animus knocks on Whirl's door to get him to open it and let him in, as he didn't find a room yet himself and he doesn't want to get in trouble with Magnus, when he hears a noise. Whirl tries to let him in, but discovers that the door is locked. outside the Sparkeater has just killed Animus when Whirl busts out of the room and fires some missiles at him. Trailbreaker appears and protects the Sparkeater with his forcefields and Whirl is told that if he detonated one of those sparks then half the ship would explode. The Sparkeater goes hunting for Rung now, as he has the brightest spark on the ship.

Rung has just finished decorating his office when the Sparkeater breaks in and begins to attack him, however Skids appears from the airduct and rescues the Autobot. In their room, Cyclonus and Tailgate talk about what happened in the past 6 million years whilst Tailgate was asleep, and Cyclonus wonders what side Tailgate would have chosen if he had the choice.

Skids and Rung are escaping the Sparkeater in the ducts when Rung gets a message from Rodimus, who explains that they found the room the old owners of the ship trapped the monster in and had fed it Turbofoxes to keep it quiet. He asks Rung to lead the monster to the engine room as he has a plan. Skids and Rung make it to the elevator shaft and jump down it, and enter the elevator, where Brainstorm is confused.

The Sparkeater rips into the elevator, but Rung and Skids escape, leaving Brainstorm to die, but he's spared when the Sparkeater concentrates on hunting down Rung.

In the engine room, Rung makes it to Rodimus, who uses him as a lure for the Sparkeater to come closer to the engines and himself, whilst Drift keeps Skids from interfering. Rodimus throws Rung to the side at the last moment and grapples with the Sparkeater, and then holds him against the generator, whilst Perceptor activates them, drawing the monster and Rodimus' arms into the engines, impressing both Skids and Drift in the process.

Later in the Medibay, Ratchet has replaced Rodimus' arms, whilst Magnus tries to tell off Rodimus, who has to remind him that HE'S in charge of this mission, not Magnus. On the other table Tailgate is being fixed by Ratchet and he talks about how he's been thinking about the war recently, and reveals that if he's allowed to, he'd like to be a Decepticon.

Characters

Autobot
Rodimus - Speedy Car
Ultra Magnus - Truck
Drift
Ratchet
Swerve - Off Road Vehicle
Skids - Van
Whirl - Osprey Helicopter
Animus - Treaded Vehicle Killed by Sparkeater
Shock - Treaded Vehicle Killed by Sparkeater
Ore - Treaded Vehicle Killed by Quantum Generator
Trailbreaker
Chromedome
Rewind - Giant Memory Stick
Rung - Communications Maintenance Vehicle
Brainstorm - Jet
Perceptor - Treaded Vehicle
Red Alert
Hoist - Tow-Crane Truck
Boss
Prowl (Flashbacks/On Ore's Communicator Screen only)
Cosmos - Orbiter
Smokescreen
Brawn
Grapple
Powerglide - Jet
Pointblank
Xaaron
Inferno
Huffer
Dipstick - Car
Blurr (Mentioned)
Sentinel Prime - Truck (Flashbacks only)
Nominus Prime - Truck (Flashbacks only)
Impactor - Tank (Flashbacks only)
Sideswipe - Speeder (Flashbacks only)
Sunstreaker - Speeder (Flashbacks only)
Grimlock - Armoured Truck (Flashbacks only)
Decepticon
Megatron - Cybertronian Tank (Flashbacks only)
Starscream - Tetra Jet (Flashbacks only)
Blip (Mentioned)

Cybertronian 
Cyclonus - Space Jet
Tailgate - Car (Wants to be a Decepticon)
Proteus (Flashbacks only) Killed by Starscream
Senate (Mentioned) Killed by Decepticons

Other
Sparkeater Killed by Rodimus with Quantum Generator
Turbofoxes Killed by Previous owners of ship

Comic Notes

• This story confirms that Prowl was communicating with the Duobots before the ship departed, and judging from the dialogue here they were drafted by Prowl after they pulled a prank on him (welding his hands together).
• The thing Prowl asked the Duobots to place on the ship was a tracking device, which it's unclear if it's still around or not now. (this also caused the Generator to go wrong when Ore went too close to it)
• Rodimus seems to be a bit of an unconventional leader, he thinks that a Sparkeater hunt would be fun, he locks his crew in quarters with no knowledge, and even uses Rung as live bait in the end.
• Ratchet really doesn't like Drift...
• I can totally see Swerve becoming the bartender on the Lost Light now...
• Skids seems to be warming up to Swerve as a partner/friend
• Animus was first seen in the prose story Bullets (just like Hyperion) and just like Hyperion he dies after his name drop. However in Animus' case he actually appeared unnamed in the previous issue in a crowd scene. It's revealed here that he lied in order to get himself on the Ethics Committee before.
• Animus seems to be made up of a combination of a few older character models and body types. His torso seems to be based on Cybertron series Leo Breaker (complete with lion face on chest) his back features some tread kibble like Lio Convoy did in The Gathering and The Ascending. His head looks like a combination of Beast Wars Razorbeast and Ironfist...what a fun character!
• Rung has his own office on the Lost Light, which he has just finished decorating (until the Sparkeater slams down the door). Rung has some of his toy spaceships however, so I guess he recovered at least a few after Cyclonus accidentally sliced off his arm.
• Cyclonus' recounting of the war that Tailgate missed seems awfully in favor of the Decepticon's point of view as the right way, which could explain why Tailgate decides he wants to be a Decepticon in the end. (plus you know, Tailgate's experiences with Autobots so far is basically Swerve...YIKES!!)
• One of the swords left behind in the Sparkeater's chamber seems to have similar markings to Drift's sword, and Drift seems interested in it as well
• Perceptor still has his Sniper-eye, but appears to have returned to a scientific mindset as well
• Okay...we now have Ore, a Sparkeater and Rodimus' arms in the Quantum Generator....When are they going to remove them exactly??
• Rung's spark is the brightest most likely because he's stayed away from the war, unlike most of the others on the ship.