IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #27

Written by: James Roberts and John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne, Brendan Cahill and Livio Ramondelli

Additional Inks by: Brian Shearer

Colours by: Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

Optimus Prime and his team leave Nova's castle to find their portal home has collapsed leaving them separated from Wheelie and Garnak at the Gorlam Prime entrance. Nightbeat manages to find a small tear in the sky however, but it's much too small to fit through...then the entire Dead Universe begins to collapse in on itself...

At Crystal City on Cybertron Shockwave has Galvatron restrained and is using him to draw out the energies from the Dead Universe into himself for his master plan.

At Iacon, the battle with the Necrotitan is over, Metroplex is resting whilst the rest of the Cybertronians, including the returned Lost Lighters are starting to celebrate and begin repairs on themselves. Bumblebee tells Ratchet to make Megatron's repairs a priority as he did save them all with his actions, and begins to wonder about the new arrivals who are using feminine pronouns

During the celebrations Prowl gets annoyed by his Constructicon fanboys, and tries to concentrate on them finishing off Shockwave, but Bumblebee tells him to take a moment to relax, as there must be someone he wants to speak to from the Lost Light.

Meanwhile Ultra Magnus meets with Chromedome at Metroplex and asks him to inject into his brain to help repair his mind following his illness, but Chromedome refuses as he promised Rewind he'd stop doing it.

Ratchet takes Megatron on board the Lost Light and begins repairing him in his medi-bay, during the process Megatron compliments Ratchet on his skills, and even admits that he originally wanted to be a doctor, but didn't have the patience.

In the Dead Universe the team are running from the collapsing universe, and begin thinking of plans to escape, Nightbeat suggests they use the spacebridge inside himself (as he's realised that all Dead Universe denizens must have a spacebridge inside them like Kup, Nova etc) but Optimus refuses to allow anyone to kill themselves to save anyone else, then he and the others start to notice some music coming from somewhere...

Back on the Lost Light Hound is shocked that after all there years of war, the Autobots and Decepticons appear to be at peace, and all drinking and singing in a bar together of all things! At the bar itself Brainstorm is grumpy and complains of a sparkache making him feel ill, then annoys Bluestreak with his mispronunciation of the word "Necrotitan" before Blurr walks into the bar, making Swerve fangirl out. Skids manages to convince Swerve to just talk to Blurr and be casual with him...instead Swerve shakes him hand for several minutes, babbles on about being his stalker and creeping him out entirely.

At Crystal City, Shockwave finishes explaining everything to Galvatron, including about how he was never truly loyal to Megatron and his troops, but just uses them for his own goals, unknowingly also telling Waspinator and Metalhawk the same things from their hiding place high-up. Skywarp arrives and takes the two eaves droppers away so they can tell the others about what they've learned, but leaving before they hear his last comment about how he plans to bring time itself to an end.

Prowl is on the Lost Light and winds up at the medi-bay where he finds Arcee in her new body following her battle damage and pays her a compliment on how nice it is, she doesn't care, then Ratchet tells Prowl that if he's looking for Bumblebee, he's with Megatron, and they're laughing!

Inside his room, Megatron and Bumblebee are having a discussion, on how Megatron thinks they're both similar, since they both had Cybertron in their grasps, but lost it to Starscream. Megatron then admits that he regrets the war, and that he feels that the moment he stopped being a revolutionary and started being a warrior, he lost the people's hearts.

Prowl finds Chromedome outside, and confronts him on how he messed with his head before leaving on the Lost Light, then makes a snipe quip about Rewind's death. Chromedome loses it and throws him off the cliff they're standing on.

Inside Metroplex, Magnus goes to see Windblade to ask how Metroplex is doing, she reports that he's unable to talk still, except through his pattern method which she can understand. Magnus gets to what he wants to asks really though, and asks if Windblade can ask Metroplex about the Knights of Cybertron, but Nautica reveals that they themselves asked him weeks earlier, and he said that none of them deserved to know. Magnus receives a report of Prowl and Chromedome's fight outside and goes to deal with it.

Magnus manages to break up the fight, but also gives Prowl a verbal beatdown on all the evil and amoral things he's done in the past, and that he shouldn't be surprised when others begin to fight back, then leaves him to the company of his new "friends" the Constructicons.

Elsewhere in the ruined Iacon Starscream and Rattrap go to see a despondent Scoop and learn that he heard the whole prophecy from Shockwave before the war even started, suddenly Skywarp appears with Metalhawk and Waspinator to report what they've learned, but not before Metalhawk shoots Starscream for killing him, then moves on...

All the meanwhile Shockwave begins the final phase of his plan to make everything stand still at one point in time, and never change again, thus creating perfect order by calling in his biggest weapon...

Outside the Cybertronians all notice the stars beginning to go out...then they realize that that's not what's happening, the stars are being blocked out by the 70 billion Ammonites who have been summoned by Shockwave, who are there to stop anyone from stopping him in the last crucial stages!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Rodimus - Car

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Nightbeat - Car

Bumblebee - Muscle Car

Metroplex - Space Ship/City Damaged

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Hound - Jeep

Prowl - Emergency Car

Windblade - Jet

Chromia

Nautica

Arcee - Car

Slug - Triceratops

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Swoop - Pteranodon

Chromedome - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Swerve - Van

Bluestreak - Car

Brainstorm - Jet

Crosscut - Van

Fixit - Ambulance

Perceptor

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Skids - Van

Getaway

Mirage - Race Car

Ironhide - Van

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle

Sideswipe - Car

Sunstreaker - Car

Huffer - Truck

Gears - Van

Hoist - Crane

Brawn - Van

Atomizer

Blaster

Slapdash

Xaaron

Cosmos - Orbiter

Dogfight - Jet

Rung

Trailcutter - Van

Siren

Rollout

Wheelie - Car (Voice Only)

Rewind (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Shockwave - Flying Artillery

Bludgeon - Tank

Dreadwing - Stealth Bomber

Monstructor -Gestalt 

Megatron

Waspinator - Wasp

Skywarp - Jet

Bonecrusher - Bulldozer

Scavenger - Excavator

Hook - Crane

Mixmaster - Mixing Truck

Long Haul - Dump Truck

Soundwave - Van

Ravage - Cassette

Rumble - Tank

Frenzy - Tank

Astrotrain - Space Shuttle/Train

Blitzwing - Jet/Tank

Overlord (Mentioned)

Devastator (Mentioned)

United Cybertron

Starscream - Jet

Rattrap - Mole Rat

Scoop - Front End Loader

Metalhawk - Jet

Flatline - Van

Blurr - Race Car

Jazz - Car

Sky-Byte - Flying Shark

Quickmix - Mixing Truck

Landfill - Dump Truck

Tracer - Gun

Holepunch - Gun

Ricochet - Gun

Boomer - Gun

Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet Dying

Galvatron - Laser Tank

Jhiaxus - Jet

Bob

Other Cybertronians

Necrotitan - Space Ship/City (Footage) Dead

Nova Prime - Truck (Mentioned) Dead

The Thirteen Tribes (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Tyrest (Mentioned)

Others

Ammonite Army

Centuritron - Ammonite Gestalt

Swerve's Serving Droid

Garnak (Mentioned)

Notes

• Kup asks questions about Wheelie's rhyming, which Rodimus claims he can't help. This reinforces the fact that Kup has been gone since JUST before Wheelie was recovered by Rodimus
• In a nice bit of detailing, Monstructor uses his second set of arms to hold Galvatron in place.
• Shockwave explains that his plan was to have all of his ores return to Cybertron, as they all act as counterbalances to each other, and cause strange effects, which he plans to use to freeze all time into one point, with him ruling over it all.
• The giant 2 page spread of the aftermath of the battle with the Necrotitan is just beautiful!
• Metroplex is revealed to still be a bit iffy after the battle, as the regenerative ore he absorbed has become inert.
• You have to wonder, what if Flatline was just outside the door when he compliments Ratchet as being "better than my best"
• The Autobots, Decepticons and NAIL's all join together to sing and relax in Swerve's bar on the Lost Light (most likely since Maccadam's is still burned down)
• Swerve finally gets to meet Blurr properly (and Blurr hates him for it)
• Blurr and Crosscut seem to be on familiar terms, this would make sense since both are basically celebrities
• Skywarp is shown to have survived the explosion from before, but he seems unable to stay in a corporeal form for too long, though his teleportational powers seems to be stronger now
• Arcee's new body would appear to be her upcoming, currently unseen Generations toy
• Aww how cute, Flatline has his hand across Ratchet's shoulder whilst they look at Arcee (I think I caught the "fangirl" bug from somewhere...)
• It was hinted at in Shadowplay and with some of the discussions about Prowl throughout More Than Meets The Eye that he and Chromedome had a past relationship, it seems all but confirmed here with his smirk about Rewind's death, essentially at his own hands 
• Metroplex is revealed to have contracted his illness by some Ammonites who attacked him on Shockwave's orders for the ore he had within him (which he jettisoned within his thumb which the Lost Light found), and he escaped them, and slowed the infection by teleporting to Hydrophena (the red ocean planet)
• It's revealed that Scoop heard the entire Dark Cybertron prophecy from Senator Shockwave before his empurata when he was at the Acadaemy, meaning that it was possibly made up by him for some reason (he wasn't mad back then) or he decided to make the prophecy happen afterwards.
• What is it with Soundwave always holding Ravage like a pet cat? I thought they thought of each other as equals?!
• It's revealed that when Metroplex acted as the Autobot HQ in the early war he was asked about the Knights of Cybertron by some Autobots, but he refused to answer any questions about them.
• When Skywarp teleports in, Waspinator is upsidedown and seems to be panicking...poor fella!
• The Thirteen Tribes are most likely something to do with "The Thirteen", like tribes who followed their individual ideals etc
• Nautica expresses an interest in the Knights of Cybertron and legends etc here, considering she is absent from the previews of the upcoming Windblade series it seems likely she'll be joining the Lost Light in "season 2"