IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #56

Title: Ten to Midnight

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Priscilla Tramontano

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Red Alert is working on Luna 1, documenting the unborn sparks on the hot spot, when he starts noticing a strange five dotted pattern everywhere he looks, in the shape of a Mnemosurgery scar...

Red Alert is stationed on Luna 1 with Fort Max, a newly arrived Cerebros and an hoard of Domesticated Roboids.

Red Alert, whilst still paranoid, thinks that things are getting better in his mind, that is, until lately...something is going wrong....

Red Alert is woken up by Cerebros one day, so they can meet with Fort Max in the "Departures" room to see off one of the repaired Roboids, who is returning to Cybertron following his rehabilitation. Fort Max is upset that none of the repaired Roboids ever want to remain on the moon with them, but understands that they need to go back home.

Cerebros bemoans his heavy work load, being the only surgeon on the moon, when he suggests that he use a remote device to speed up the rewiring of the Roboid brains, by taking full control of their brains. Both Fort Max and Red Alert think that it would be unethical and that he should go with the slower method for safety.

Before anyone can argue any more, Prowl appears through the space bridge, and is immediately attacked by Fort Max, who is still annoyed about Garrus-9. After a short argument, Prowl manages to get Max to stop fighting, as they have a major issue to deal with.

In the Titan Graveyard, Outrigger is climbing up one of the dead Titans, whilst vlogging his adventure with the help of the partially de-domesticated Roboid Beak. Inside the Titan, the duo find a working space bridge and a small robot near it. Outrigger approaches it, assuming it's a Roboid too, but is immediately attacked by him. Beak snatches Outrigger's datapad with his Vlog on it and leaves for help.

The small robot, revealed to be Sentinel, reattaches to his larger robot body and orders his new cohort, Sovereign to devour Outrigger's spark, so he can turn it into Energon for himself. Sovereign refuses, and Outrigger uses his back-mounted crane to attack Sentinel, before running out of the Titan, and plummeting from a great height.

Back at "Departures", Prowl has locked down the space bridge, to try and stop Sentinel from reaching the moon. Prowl explains that Sentinel resurfaced from death earlier that day and killed a load of Cybetronians in the Ghetto, and also reveals that during the early days of the war, Sentinel intended to use a Titan to attack the Decepticons with, before he was "killed" by Megatron, explaining why Prowl thinks Sentinel will come here.

Red Alert isn't sure if he can trust Prowl, due to his recent actions, and his past as Sentinel's employee, and he believes that Prowl and Sentinel are still in league with each other. Beak arrives and drops the datapad, informing the group of Sentinel's arrival.

The team head out to the Titan Graveyard, where they determine that Sentinel must have somehow used one of the dead Titan's space bridges to get to the moon. Fort Max and Prowl briefly talk about the messages from Rodimus and the others on Necroworld, and lament that they haven't been able to contact any of the Lost Light crew since then.

Red Alert finds Outrigger with Beak's help, luckily he's still alive, but badly injured. Cerebros notices one of the Titans moving nearby, so the group go after it, Beak stays with Outrigger.

The group head to the Titan, which appears to be standing on one of the mysterious thrusters on the moon, and the Titan shoots lasers out of his eyes. The group land on his shoulders, behind the head, where they find Sentinel. Sentinel monologues about how bad Cybertron has gotten, and how he plans to fix it.

Soon the group are directed towards the Titan's brain module, where they see Sovereign hooked up to it, giving the Titan life, and as a bi-product, also giving life to the other nearby "dead" Titans. Sentinel plans to use them as an army to take on this new "corrupted" Cybertron.

The Autobots prepare to take on Sentinel as a team, but Prowl is quickly shot in the back...by Red Alert, who stands beside Sentinel with darkened optics, apparently under the Titan master's control

Characters

Autobot

Fortress Maximus - Tank

Prowl - Police Car Injured by Red Alert

Red Alert - Car Under Sentinel Prime's control

Cerebros - Car

Sentinel Prime - Truck (Bulk), Head (Titan Master)

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Rung (Mentioned)

Skids - Van (Mentioned)

Swerve - Van (Mentioned)

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned)

Chromedome - Car (Mentioned)

Sunder (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Overlord - Tank and Jet (Mentioned)

Roboid

Beak - Bird Partially Domesticated, being repaired

Bolt - Antelope

Brace (Mentioned) Domesticated

Buck (Mentioned) Domesticated

Sprint (Mentioned) Domesticated

Clutch (Mentioned) Domesticated

Random Roboids Domesticated

Other Cybertronian

Sovereign - Head Hooked up to Titans

Outrigger - Crane Badly injured by Sentinel Prime

Titans in Graveyard Being awoken by Sovereign

Sentinel Prime's Victims (Flashback) 23 Killed

Pious Maximus (Mentioned)

Chief Justice Tyrest (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue is set AFTER the upcoming Ongoing #56, as such the "previously" section includes a MAJOR spoiler for one character in that series...so I'll try not to mention it here...no promises though....
• This story follows Red Alert and Fort Max on Luna 1, where they were left following the Killswitch incident.
• It appears that Red Alert's mnemosurgery wounds seen during Shadowplay were caused by someone associated with Sentinel Prime.
• Cerebros has been mentioned on-and-off as a member of the Luna 1 crew, but makes his first visual appearance here.
• The Roboids, rescued by Fort Max and the Scavengers earlier, are still being repaired now.
• The Luna 1 crew have repaired the space bridge on the lost moon, and have a connection with Cybertron.
• Prowl was last seen active during Sins of the Wreckers, where he was abandoned by the Wreckers and left to his own devices.
• Outrigger is a Cybertronian Youtuber...this is adorable!
• Sovereign is the name of Alpha Trion's Titan Master partner in the toyline...I wont mention what other connection he has with any other characters...
• Sentinel mistakes Fort Max for Pious Maximus, a pre-war dignitary who was opposed to Functionism.
• Amongst Sentinel's grievances with modern Cybertron include the peace between the factions, Starscream's rule, colonists, "cog snatchers", "half breeds", Monoformers, Conjunx Endurae being openly affectionate and other concessions.
• The "cog snatchers" and "half breeds" are hard to identify, but it does bring to mind the Harry Potter franchise and the hatred for Muggle born wizards ("Mudbloods" who were rumoured to steal wands for magic and "half bloods" where muggle blood is added to a pure wizard line) so maybe it's something like that...some how....
• It's revealed that Sentinel has knowledge on the biology of Titans, including otherwise unknown details on how they can be revived by a Titan Master linking to them.
• Sentinel also knows about the secret thrusters on Luna 1, since Luna 1 went apparently missing during the war between the Guiding Hand this would make Sentinel extremely old. On the other hand however, Sentinel may know about them because he was informed about it by someone who built the thrusters at a later date (ie, the Mystery Gear sigil group)
• Huh...Cerebros and Fort Max are teaming up to deal with a Titan? Why does that make me think of a certain new Titans Return toy?