IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #37

Title: Elegant Chaos Part 2: Stet

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Lettters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Rodimus' team are staking out around Rodion in the past, looking for Brainstorm and trying to keep an eye out for Orion Pax to keep him safe. Meanwhile, in the present Perceptor and the others try to figure out Brainstorm's method to time travel, and figure out that he may still be trying to reach his actually desired location, and has to land on temporal hotspots to do so along the way.

After a short while of staking out the city, Brainstorm figures out that he's in a useless time frame for him, and flies off, Rewind notices and reports him in. Cyclonus follows, but he time jumps before he can be shot down.

The team regroup and are taken back in time by a year where the team split up with half staying at Maccadam's bar, and the other half staking out the police station. Meanwhile, Brainstorm ambushes the Rung of the past, and knocks him out, trying to prevent him from being involved in the events.

At the police station, Rewind starts wondering if they can use the Time Case to find out what happened to Dominus Ambus, but isn't sure that he's be able to stop himself from saving him, even if it would ruin the time stream again.

Whirl notices his own past self arriving at the station, and recognizes his prisoner as the last one to come in before Megatron....

At Maccadam's New Oil House, Megatron is sitting with Imapctor whilst Rodimus' crew observe his pre-war self. Shortly, Rung accidentally spills a drink over a cadet, and gets thrown across the room onto Megatron's table, resulting in Impactor starting a bar brawl. Roidmus and the team recover Rung and escape the bar before getting further involved. Outside Brainstorm is incredulous that his plan to stop Rung from "starting" the brawl failed as the police arrive to start arresting people.

Back in the present, Megatron has figured out what is happening, and that they've been working on th wrong assumption all along...

In Rodion again, the Senate's thugs are killing Wheelarch and Springarm whilst Chromedome and the others are forced to watch and not interfere, unless Brainstorm makes an appearance and tries to kill Orion Pax when he arrives shortly.

Shortly the Heavies arrive to join the fight, and Whirl goes into a frenzy, knowing them as the ones who destroyed his watch making business and starts beating them down. Chromedome stops him from killing them though as they are supposed to be there to attack Shockwave and the others in a year's time, so this would ruin the future again.

Whirl learns from them that the Functionist Council were the ones who ordered his Empurata, as a punishment for leaving his asigned position in the Aerial Corps. He gets angry, so he kills the third member of the Heavies group to vent his frustrations.

In the present once more, Megatron recounts all of the time points Brainstorm has travelled to, and points out that all of them are important points in HIS life, not Optimus'. This means that Brainstorm is trying to stop Megatron from forming the Decepticons. Perceptor announces that Brainstorm has made another time jump, and Megatron predicts that it is to the day he was created.

Brainstorm arrives in the factory where Megatron is being created, and points a gun at his exposed chest.....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Perceptor

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Riptide - Boat

Tailgate - Car

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Rung

Prowl (Mentioned)

Wreckers (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Brainstorm - Jet

Cybertronian

Cylonus - Jet

(Past) Nightbeat - Car

Quark - Proton Microscope

Scrounge

Rattrap

"Streaker"

"Fallout"

Crossbar

Impactor - Mining Vehicle

Hammer

Anvil

Senate Crony Killed by Whirl

Bar Brawl Cadets

Roller - Paddy Wagon

Police Officers - Speed Bikes

Senate Thugs

Wheelarch - Speed Bike Killed by Senate Thugs

Springarm - Speed Bike Killed by Senate Thugs

Senator Sherma Dead

Pre-War Cybertronians

Senator Proteus (On Billboard)

Orion Pax (Mentioned)

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Alpha Trion (Mentioned)

Dominus Ambus (Mentioned)

Senator Shockwave (Mentioned)

Senator Decimus (Mentioned)

Primal Vanguard (Mentioned)

Senate (Mentioned)

Functionist Council (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue features re-prints of 2 pages from Chaos Theory Part 1, and Shadowplay Part 1, and adds more details and context to the events in those scenes.
• The train that Chromedome is riding on is on a set of rails with C-131 on them. C-131 was the Japanese product code for Raiden, who was the combined form of the Trainbots
• We get to see that Cybertron used to be a very watery planet, especially near Rodion.
• Cyclonus apologises to Tailgate for beating him back in issue 4
• Brainstorm finally gets what he's always wanted, Perceptor to be impressed by his genius.
• It's revealed here that Rung's appearances in Shadowplay and Chaos Theory were actually of his future self time travelling, explaining why the Rung of the past has a model of the Lost Light during these scenes
• The broken window in Maccadam's is said to be broken for more than a year here....dahell?
• Tailgate can fit inside Cyclonus' cockpit
• Brainstorm takes off from hi hiding spot on the Interstate Bridge, just as Sherma's body is being planted there by his murderers.
• Rung's fake kibble in the past can convert into a scooter for him to ride on
• The music that Rung and Brainstorm both whistle in this issue is from the Empyrean Suite
• The reason that Rung knocked a drink into the cadet, and caused the bar fight in Chaos Theory is revealed to be because he was grabbing a curly straw for Tailgate (so Tailgate is at least partially responsible for the war!)
• It was mentioned that Impactor caused a lot of damage to one of the cadets back in Chaos Theory...here we see that he did it by drilling out the front of the body....YIKES!
• Rewind and Tailgate start calling the briefcase a "Time Case" in this issue, confusing both Chromedome and Riptide as to why
• The two generic cops coming out of Roller for the brawl are using Wheelarch and Springarm's character models.
• The Functionist council is revealed to have created Empurata (and most likely Shadowplay too)
• Whirl's original face and hands are shown in this issue (see above)
• It was implied that someone gave away Shockwave's location at the end of Shadowplay, here it is hinted that it may have been Chromedome here and now to have done that.
• The events of issue one with the spark radiation is revealed to have taken place during the start of Megatron: Origin, as Proteus was having the mine closed down for automation.
• Megatron is shown with a blue spark at the end of this issue, despite being claimed to be a point one percenter....wonder if this will have anything to do with the green spark Brainstorm harvested in Remain in Light?