IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #35

Title: The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue

Written by: James Roberts

Pencils by: Alex Milne

Inks by: Alex Milne & Brian Shearer

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Minimus Ambus has returned to Cybertron following the disbanding of the Primal Vanguard and meets with Rewind, hoping to meet with his brother Dominus. The duo are stopped and examined by a Functionary, when suddenly a Lunabot, who have all apparently been "recalled" runs past and knocks the Functionary over. However before long, the Lunabot is executed, as part of the recall, all whilst everyone continues with their day, ignoring the murder.

As is to be expected, on PRESENT DAY CYBERTRON!

On the Lost Light, Rewind wakes up from a memory of the Laser Pointer disposables, but Chromedome, who breaks into the room, having taken a split from rewind due to them both being unsure how to act together following their rebirths, and points out that that never happened, confusing both of them, since Rewind's database has it on record, despite neither remembering it.

Megatron is in the Morgue, and examines Trailcutter's body, having been returned to thee ship, and Rodimus tells him about how Brainstorm poisoned the crew to stop them from stopping him from his mission, and managed to escape into what Perceptor believes to be a time machine, which he plans to change the future so the Decepticons win the war (which as we know by now, didn't happen).

Back on Cybertron, Rewind brings Minimus back to his and Dominus' home, and shows him some footage of protesters being killed for disobeying the Council's wishes, and Minimus suddenly realizes that Rewind and Dominjus are rebels against the Council, and soon realizes why, Dominus appears, having undergone Empurata with his head replaced with a computer screen and his words replaced by text on a screen.

Rewind asks Minimus to join them in taking down the Council, but he needs to think about it, and leaves to go to a meeting with the rest of the Primal Vanguard for their re-employment.

Elsewhere, at the Cog, the Funstionist Council's HQ, the Council discuss the next occupation to be "recalled" which they decide to be the Data Slugs.

Back on the Lost Light, Perceptor shows Rodimus, Magnus and Megatron Brainstorm's time machine, made of his multiple briefcases and explains that the way it's designed means that to by-pass the Grandfather Paradox, it slowly replaced the current history with a new one. He also reveals that Nightbeat found one of Brainstorm's briefcases on the other Lost Light, which has the control device inside it, meaning they can send someone back to solve whatever he is doing 4 million years in the past.

Megatron theorizes that Brainstorm plans to kill Orion Pax before he can become Optimus Prime.

On Cybertron, Minimus is racing back to Rewind's home, whilst witnessing the deaths of the Data Slugs, but finds Rewind still alive and well back at his home, since Dominus removed his Obsolescence Chip earlier, which would have killed him too. Rewind then reveals that Dominus has had his mind altered now, so that his words have been taken away, when suddenly the Council starts communicating with the two of them through Dominus, where they reveal that they've been watching them, through minimus, whom they have upgraded secretly on his way back to Cybertron with cameras in his eyes, along with the rest of the Vanguard, and now plan to do the same to everyone.

Rewind tells the Council that he will reveal everything to the population, but they reveal to him that he has a backup chip in his head too, and activates it, killing the last of the Data Slugs to Minimus' horror.

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank

Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus - Vehicle Transport

Perceptor

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Nightbeat - Car

Trailcutter - Van Dead

Bluestreak - Car (Flashback)

Mainframe (Flashback)

First Aid - Ambulance (Flashback)

Rung (Flashback)

Repugnus (Flashback)

Doublecross (Flashback)

Shimmerstick - Laser Pointed (Mentioned)

Swerve - Van (Mentioned)

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax - Truck (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Brainstorm - Jet (Flashback)

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Adaptus (Mentioned)

The Guiding Hand (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Alternate Cybertronian

Rewind - Data Slug Killed by Functionist Council

Minimus Ambus - Minesweeper

Dominus Ambus

One-of-Twelve

Two-of-Twelve

Three-of-Twelve

Four-of-Twelve

Five-of-Twelve

Six-of-Twelve

Seven-of-Twelve

Eight-of-Twelve

Nine-of-Twelve

Ten-of-Twelve

Eleven-of-Twelve

Twelve-of-Twelve

Hot  Shot - Car

Bulkhead - Van

Ratchet - Ambulance

Pharma - Jet

Functionary Officers

The Data Slugs Killed by Functionist Council

Last Lunabot - Space Shuttle Killed by Functionaries

Present Day Cybertronians

Female Protester (Footage) Killed by Functionaries

The Primal Vanguard (Mentioned) Disbanded

The Senate (Mentioned) Disbanded

The Cold Constructed (Mentioned) Deported

Other

Black Box Consortia (Mentioned)

Notes

• Brainstorm's actions in the past (whatever they are) have resulted in Functionism never becoming defunct, the Cybertronian population expanding, and even female Transformers existing on Cybertron.
• One has to wonder whether Nova Prime and the Expansion still happened to some extent in this new timeline?
• Most of the cameos seen on Cybertron are from the Unicron Trilogy (there's TOO MANY to name in the character list, especially since most are reuses of established character names in this continuity).
• Something of note: Rung has avoided being cloned for the new timeline again, maybe another clue to his uniqueness.
• We actually see Minimus Ambus' alternate mode for the first time!
• Chromedome and Rewind are having problems adjusting to having eachother back, especially since they had different experiences for a while before their respective deaths.
• Trailcuttter is confirmed to have died at Kaon's hands last issue, it's also shown that the DJD rigged the shuttle his group arrived on to explode, attempting to kill them too.
• Brainstorm has been spiking the Lost Light's Engex for a few months (most likely since the relaunch) and his briefcase simply activated the poison to knock out the crew who were present at the time.
• In the new timeline Empurata (and presumably Shadowplay) has evolved significantly.
• The Council member with the designation Three of Twelve looks different to the one we saw in the past, implying that it is simply a rank, and this is a different guy to the original. (Like what we have with the DJD)
• We also find out that all twelve members of the council have a specific role to perform.
• Brainstorm is revealed to have dozens of identical briefcases, which he had stashed across the Lost Light, which create a time machine when connected (the components are built into the walls). The time machine features an anti-paradox device, which could explain why the briefcase and Rewind from the alternate Lost Light were able to survive the rest of the ship's deletion.
• Perceptor claims that parallel universes were dismissed as a fact some time ago. However, by simply following the Transformers franchise, you know there are MANY parallel universes in play (with the Mirage Spotlight being the perfect example of one active in the IDW-verse, and even Rodimus having his mini-adventure in Regeneration One)
• Considering that the concurrent Robots in Disguise has no indications of edits to history showing, and the knowledge of the upcoming Combiner Wars and Windblade series' in this continuity, I feel safe to assume that Brainstorm's new future will be deleted before long...