IDW - More Than Meets the Eye #43

Title: The One Where They go to Earth

Written by: James Roberts

Pencils by: Ale Milne

Inks by: Alex Milne and Brian Shearer

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Megatron calls for Swerve over the ship's intercom, but can't get through to him, he informs Rodimus that Earth appears to be chasing the Lost Light, and any attempts at communications with the planet results in a "theme tune" about Swerve's bar playing on repeat.

Meanwhile, in the Medi-bay, First Aid is given a going away present from Tailgate of photos of the crew and his friends so he wont forget them, despite his trip only being a short one back to Cybertron for the celebrations for Caminus and Cybertron. First Aid and Velocity are both worried since she's never been left in charge before, and she's only just arrived on the ship. Before anything else can happen though, Skids runs in with Swerve in his arms, in a terrible condition.

Soon, they determine that Swerve is alive, but only just, as he has massive systems failures, but his brain is working in overtime. Before long they determine that the Swerve they've been seeing around, acting happy and his usual self has been just a holo-avatar projected by the real one. However they can't treat him, as his condition is so frail that it could kill him.

Shortly afterwards, they find out that the Earth following them is a hologram too, and Swerve has been projecting that too, as well as several holographic humans as well.

Rodimus calls together a team made of Cyclonus, Tailgate, Skids, Bluestreak and Rung to send their own holo-avatars down to the fake Earth (Swearth) and find Swerve's own avatar, so he can tell them what is wrong with his real body. The team are sent down with some basic lessons in humanity.

On Swearth, Cyclonus and Tailgate wait in the apartment whilst the others are scouting the city, looking for Swerve's avatar, where Tailgate finds a comic series, "More Than Meets the Eye", depicting their adventures on the Lost Light, and starts reading it. Skids and the others return to the apartment empty handed, and they start replanning their strategies, when Rung accidentally shoots Cyclonus in the face with a paint ball gun....ROLL CREDITS!

After a while, Tailgate finds out in issue 21 of MTMTE that Swerve opened the time case when no-one was looking, which no-one else knew about. Bluestreak returns to the apartment again with their wacky neighbours Ted, Sheldon and Jerry, who immediately start arguing and insulting each other, as they don't get along.

Bluestreak receives a phone call from Rodimus, who has arrived on the planet with the rest of the crew to speed up the search. Bluestreak quickly summarizes the planet up for Rodimus as "Sitcom world" where there are laughter tracks, clapping audiences from nowhere, and nothing really makes sense in the large scheme. Megatron joins up with the others, and he finds it strange being a human for the moment.

Back at the apartment, Bluestreak is helping the neighbours get their locked door open, when Skids talks to Rung about how no-one had been to visit Swerve for months, allowing him to get into this bad condition. Suddenly Tailgate chimes in that his comic has reached this point in the series, where they are looking for Swerve. In the "previously" page Swerve explains what happened to him with the Meta-Bomb and the Time Case, and calls into question his own reality. Rung deduces that this is Swerve actually talking to them, and realizes something else, that the three neighbours are all aspects of Swerve's personality, so he tricks them into responding to the name "Swerve" causing them to remember their true self, and merge into Swerve's avatar.

At a bar, Megatron is tickled by Nautica, as she wants to see if he was ticklish, but in the process Megatron cuts his hand on a glass, and finds the fragility of humans interesting. Rodimus comes back in and reports that Bluestreak and the others found Swerve, but he refuses to tell them where he is injured.

At the apartment, Swerve says he can't remember where he is injured, as he's feeling no pain, then explains that he hid away because he felt as though he wasn't a "main character" any more, not since the beginning of "season two". He fell in love with sitcoms as he could relate to them as he's a misfit like them.

Cyclonus berates him for giving up, and points out that the entire crew is on this planet to find him, and that in the process they are risking their own lives to help him out, showing him that he is indeed loved and cared about, as a "main character". Suddenly Swerve's shoulder begins to bleed in an Autobot insignia shape, and he remembers where he was injured.

Later on, First Aid and the others have left the Lost Light for Cybertron, and Velocity reports to him that Swerve is recovering from the infection in his shoulder, and he should make a full recovery soon. However First Aid makes a shocking discovery when he flicks through Tailgate's photos, as an old picture of Swerve with Ironfist reveals that he used to have an insignia in that same arm. He tells Velocity to operate carefully on the shoulder, as Agent 113, the Autobot mole within the DJD probably shot a message into his insignia in the past, which is still there. And sure enough...Velocity soon finds a bullet within the wound...a bullet that not only caused an infection inside Swerve, but carries a message from Agent 113.....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank

Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus - Vehicle Transport/Minesweeper

Swerve - Van

Tailgate - Car

Skids - Van

Rung

Bluestreak - Car

Nautica - Submarine

Blaster - Acoustic Tank

First Aid - Ambulance

Velocity - Race Car

Nightbeat - Car

Brainstorm - Jet

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Groove - Motorcycle

Mirage - Race Car

Ratchet - Ambulance (In Opening Credits Footage)

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter (Issue #1 Cover Only)

Drift - Race Car (Issue #1 Cover Only)

Red Alert - Emergency Car (Issue #1 Cover Only)

Ambulon - Leg (Photo)

Ironfist - Van (Photo)

Fortress Maximus - Tank (Mentioned)

Agent 113 (Mentioned)

Mainframe (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Blot (Mentioned)

Blip (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Ten (In Opening Credits Footage)

Diagnostic Drone (Photo)

New Medi-Drone

Bob - Insecticon (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Chief Justice Tyrest (Mentioned)

Other

Verity Carlo (Acts as Ultra Magnus' Avatar)

Jerry Merged into Swerve

Ted Merged into Swerve 

Sheldon Merged into Swerve

Nanobots (Mentioned)

Notes

• The issue title, and the apartment the Autobot Holo-avatars use is based on the "Friends" TV series from the 90's
• Tailgate's holo-avatar appears to have aged a little bit since the last time we saw it.
• Tailgate says that the comic is the only thing there is to read in their apartment...despite some books being clearly visible in the table/cabinet under the tissues next to Cyclonus.
• Skids was last shown with a Holo-avatar based on Matt Smith's Doctor Who, here he looks like Chris Ecclestone's version of the character.
• A couple of the scenes shown in the "opening credits" are actually from covers, rather than actual comic interiors (ie the one with Nautica dancing, and Rodimus handing the ship's keys to Megatron)
• The "Swerve's" theme tune is based on the "Cheers" theme tune.
• First Aid and the others leave for their role in the Combiner Wars crossover storyline in this issue.
• Apparently it takes a lot of energy and concentration to create Holo-avatars, which may be another reason why they aren't used so much nowadays.
• It's revealed here that Swerve in fact opened the Time Case just after Tyrest was shot in issue 21, but off-screen, and with the time-waves from it, combined with the Meta-Bomb he was affected with during Overlord's attack caused him to become more conscious of his life as a fictional character, and the time-waves giving him infinite spark energy to create his elaborate holograms etc.
• The Swerve that we've seen since (probably) the end of Dark Cybertron  has been a holo-avatar of the real Swerve, who locked himself away to hide from reality. This explains how he's been able to absorb all of Earth's culture in such a seemingly short period of time
• Ted the Priest is based on Father Ted, Sheldon the Scientist is based on Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory, and Jerry the Comedian is based on Jerry Seinfeld (though none look like their "real" counterparts.
• Bluestreak mentions that Rodimus' voice sounds different in his human form, implying that the characters change their voices (so the male-persona Cyclonus probably sounds female in his holo-avatar form for example)
• The "reflective" avatar programs used for the new holo-avatars gave Megatron a walking stick, possibly showing that he's been crippled from the special fuel he has to take.
• Swerve's hab-suite number is 43, which is also this issue's number. Fun!
• Since Swerve appeared to get the message bullet before the Chaos storyline (he was shown with a covered up shoulder there) you have to wonder if Agent 113's message is actually important still, I mean it must have been in there for like 3+ years by now...
• It's shown here that the "previously" pages we've had in the past with Swerve talking to the readers have actually been happening in continuity as well!