IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #34

Title: Births, Deaths and Interventions

Written  by: James Roberts

Pencils by: Atilio Rojo

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

One of the Lost Light's ships have landed on Ofsted XVII, and are waiting for word from Rodimus or the others about the Lost Light's condition when First Aid finds a badly injured Cybertronian inside one of the damaged lecture halls. The group assume that he was injured in the battle in orbit between the Galactic Council, Black Block Consortia and a group of Mechs. First Aid doesn't care about the bot's faction, so long as they can save him.

In the distant past on Messatine, Froid arrives to analyse a patient for Council, who is revealed to be Megatron. However he has made up his mind before even meeting the miner (who is in the council's bad books due to his political writings) aand permits Trepan to perform Shadowplay on him.

Back in the present, First Aid begins work on the Cybertronian, and arranges for the group to all donate a small amount of active Energon to ensure his survival. Meanwhile, Bluestreak finds the bot's detachable face amongst the rubble (revealing to the audience that this is Vos of the DJD)

Back on Messatine, Megatron is working on his books some more, when his terminally ill room mate and proofreader Terminus tells him to not give up on his mission, even if it means he has to take to physical violence as well as verbal protests. Megatron asks him why he's suddenly speaking like this, to which Terminus reveals he was visited by some senate men that day...then Megatron gets shocked from nowhere.

On Ofsted, after examining the face mask, and it's hidden spikes, Bluestreak and Mainframe back out of the procedure, knowing it's probably a Decepticon. First Aid tells them to leave the lecture hall if they're not going to help out, leaving Traiilcutter and himself to donate the Energon themselves, however, after using one of the lecture hall's devices to translate Vos' words (spoken in Old Cybertronian) and First Aid recognizes his words to be the DJD's motto, and immediately stops his donation, hating them for how they drove Pharma to madness, and in turn caused Ambulon's death at his hands.

Trailcutter however still continues with his own donation, but once Vos has a small amount inside of him, he attacks Trailcutter and tries to strangle him. Trailcutter uses his leg cannons and blasts the Decepticon across the room. First Aid leaves Trailcutter to grab the others to restrain Vos, whilst Trailcutter uses his forcefield to protect himself.

Unfortunately Vos points out an old chair in the rubble, who turns out to be Kaon, who was just de-energized until the forcefield repowered him, and is trapped in the forcefield with him.

On Messatine, Megatron wakes up on Trepan's table, and feels the Mnemosurgeon dig into his brain, and starts deleting his "anarchic" thoughts, until he gets a call from Froid to stop the procedure, since Rung has turned up with new legislation for Shadowplay procedures, following Shockwave's procedure, which requires TWO doctors to sign off now, which Froid knows Rung will never do.

Suddenly the Mine's alarms sound off, telling the entire staff to get off the planet.

Back in the present again, First Aid and the others return to find Kaon having torn Trailcutter apart, and playing with his brain module in his hands. The Autobots try to convince him that the war is over, and the Megatron has surrendered, so they should too, but Kaon doesn't believe them. Bluestreak shows him Trailcutter's newest read, an updated version of Megatron's autobiography "Towards Peace" with the surrender speech from his trial added in the end, and tells him to read it. Kaon agrees, but still scrapes Trailcutter's brain modeule across the still active forcefield.

Kaon contacts Helex from elsewhere and has himself and Vos teleported out, telling the stunned Autobots that he'll  see them soon....

On Messatine, the planet is being evacuated, but Megatron returns to his dorm, to find Terminus missing, with no one knowing where he's gone, but due to the emergency he gathers up his data pads and runs for the escape vessels, feeling terrible for seemingly abandoning his friend.

Meanwhile, in the mines Brainstorm (seemingly fresh from the Lost Light) appears in a flash of light, holding his briefcase, wondering where to start.....

Characters

Autobot

Trailcutter - Van Torn apart by Kaon

First Aid - Ambulance

Bluestreak - Car

Mainframe

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned)

Pharma - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Ambulon - Leg (Mentioned) Dead

Brainstorm - Jet (Decepticon Double Agent) Back in Time.

Decepticon

Vos - Rifle

Kaon - Variable Volt Harness

Helex - Smelting Chamber (Mentioned)

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Megatron - Armoured Vehicle (Flashback)

Rolt (Flashback)

Froid (Flashback)

Rung (Flashback)

Trepan (Flashback)

Terminus (Flashback) Missing

Messatine Miners and Staff (Flashback)

Senate (Mentioned)

Functionists (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Senator Shockwave (Mentioned)

Other

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

The Black Block Consortia (Mentioned)

Notes

• Bluestreak implies here that those NOT from the original Lost Light crew who were in the ships that disappeared during the incident were left floating in space, until the ships re-materialized
• The weakened space around Ofsted XVII, mentioned by Nautica last issue is revealed to have been due to a battle in orbit over the derelict Lost Light by the Galactic Council, Black Block Consortia and the DJD.
• The battle over the ship could also explain why Rewind was left alive on the ship, since the DJD was simply distracted by someone else to bother with them.
• We see First Aid's alternate mode for the first time here, meaning his Transformation Cog has been repaired since his introduction.
• A bit more of Megatron's timeline is confirmed here, as it seems following the evacuation from Messatine in this issue, he was likely sent to Mining Outpost Croteus 12, which is where Megatron: Origin starts off.
• This issue shows us that Vos' face mask has a button that extends his spikes, rather than them being open at all times.
• Terminus is revealed here as Megatron's room mate on Messatine rather than some evil guy like you'd expect from his name.
• Judging from Kaon and Vos' states here, but Helex and the others presumably being alive still, it's likely the DJD won their battle with the Council.
• Megatron's fear of Mnemosurgery is revealed to be due to Trepan's invasive procedure here, where he tries to fully modify his mind.
• This could also explain his instan killing of Trepan when Overlord brings him into the fold to teach him Mnemosurgery. Simple revenge for his actions here.
• The DJD, or at least Kaon are unaware of Megatron's surrender to the Autobots.
• Terminus going missing at the exact moment that Brainstorm appears, seemingly from the future could be a callback to the temporal displacement used when time travel occurred in the Marvel Transformers comics.
• Trailcutter mentions how he's taken up reading etc since Megatron disabled his ability to enjoy over-energizing (getting drunk)...however that was just that very day, maybe a couple of days earlier....