IDW - Lost Light #7

Title: After Megatron (A Dissolution Epilogue)

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Jack Lawrence

Inks by: John Wycough

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Following their return from the Functionist Universe, the Transformers on Necroworld are recovering from their recent adventures and hardships. Rung is told about how his counterpart was a figurehead, Anode reveals her secrets to the newly reborn Lug, and Nightbeat questions how Brainstorm managed to move the entire world to another universe.

Before long, Rodimus calls for a meeting at Megatron's now inactive statue plinth and announces that one of the dead Decepticons is able to turn into a space ship, so they're going to force him into vehicle mode, mass displace him, and pilot him to a space port, before heading off in a new ship to go after the Lost Light. Everyone seems okay with the plan, despite it involving the mutilation of a corpse. Following the meeting, Drift and Ratchet notice that the crew seem a little more relaxed now that Megatron is gone.

Minimus Ambus visits the medibay, where he learns that Kaput has taken on Fangry, now recovered from his Tailgate-inflicted injuries, and reveals to the spark doctor that the Ultra Magnus armour isn't working any more.

Outside, Tailgate is using his super strength to reconfigure the dead Decepticon, Skip, into his ship mode, when Cyclonus appears and wants to talk to him, however, to Cyclonus' surprise, Tailgate doesn't want to spend time with him, citing his experience with Getaway manipulating him as the reason...

Kaput spends a while examining Ambus, who says that he can wear the suit, but it won't move any more, which he believes was caused during the trip to Cybertron. Kaput cannot find anything noticeably wrong with Ambus, but is interrupted by Rodimus calling him, reminding him that he's late for the ship inspection, leading the Autobot to run off.

At the ship-site, Roller is throwing Lug into the air for fun, with Anode and Nautica watching, both happy to see the newly revived Lug seeming to have her old memories, up to her time of death. Anode inquires about Nautica's new eye patch, but Nautica dismisses it as Kaput having already looked at it.

Rodimus calls out to the crew that they are planning to leave within minutes...

Cyclonus finds Tailgate and tells him that it's time to head off, but Tailgate states that he wants to remain behind, and wants Cyclonus to leave without him. Cyclonus protests this decision, but Tailgate tries to ignore him, and even tries to return the phial of innermost energon that Cyclonus gave him when he was near-death, which Cyclonus refuses to take, allowing it to fall to the floor...#

Rodimus drags an immobile Ultra Magnus inside the Skip ship, where he learns that Ambus attempted to use the suit again, and is now trapped inside it, unable to do anything. Magnus gives a half-assed inspection of the ship, and Rodimus recognizes that Magnus misses Megatron, so he admits to the larger Autobot that Megatron was a good guy, who just made some bad life decisions. On hearing this, Magnus snaps and denounces Megatron as a monster who used them, and left the second he had the chance to, never realizing that the suit has started to work for him again.

Drift enquires as to what happened, and Rodimus explains that Magnus' suit uses a neural signature interface, so with Ambus being so conflicted over his "friend" Megatron "betraying" them, it messed with him, so Rodimus pushed him over the edge by making him snap over the betrayal, admitting that he doesn't really forgive Megatron after all.

As the ship begins to take off (following another proper inspection by Magnus), Cyclonus sits alone, and begins to self-harm again, only to be stopped by Whirl, who sits silently with him..

Outside, Tailgate and  Kaput watch the ship take off, when Kaput reveals to Tailgate that Cyclonus came to see him before take off, and asked him to treat Tailgate's self-inflicted wounds for him. Kaput then suggests that he could try some procedures to power down Tailgate, allowing him to be safe again.

After a few days of tests, Kaput has set up an isolation chamber deep into the planet's surface, and plans to have Tailgate placed in there for six months and hit with Neutronic Radiation, which is normally fatal, but due to his abnormal spark, he COULD be fine.

Tailgate enters the chamber, and prepares to be locked in, but before the chamber is sealed off, he hears Fangry's voice over the intercom into the chamber. He has killed Kaput, and has reset the lock-down settings, changing the time period from six months to SIX MILLION YEARS, all as revenge for Tailgate humiliating him before. Fangry buries the chamber, and enough time passes for grass and flowers to grow over the chamber.....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Minimus Ambus/Ultra Magnus - Minesweeper/Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Velocity - Race Car

Nautica - Submarine

Kaput Killed by Fangry

Tailgate - Car Trapped in Isolation Chamber by Fangry

Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Swerve - Van

Brainstorm - Jet

Nightbeat - Car

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned) Left in Functionist Universe

Getaway - Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Fangry - Winged Wolf

Rapidfire - Off Road Vehicle

Skip - Spaceship Dead, body used as ship for Team Rodimus

Deathsaurus - Dragon (Mentioned)

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned) Dead

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Anode - Bi-Plane

Lug - Backpack Equipment

Roller - Truck

Ten

Censere (Mentioned) Dead

The Functionists (Mentioned)

Functionist Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• Considering how they haven't mentioned contacting Cybertron again so far, I'm starting to wonder if Brainstorm's teleporting trick actually worked, or if Necroworld was sent to some other universe?
• Rung was shown to be feeling a bit worthless whilst Rodimus and his crew were on Cybertron, so Rewind and Chromedome telling him how he was an idol on that version of their planet will certainly reinvigorate his feelings again.
• So...Lug grew up really fast huh? Considering the crew are said to have been there for seven days now, they arrived there, stayed overnight before the battle with the DJD, then had the last storyline take place over about 2 days, so I guess Lug took three or four days to fully develop...that's quick!!
• Megatron's statue being "turned off" is likely due to him being in another universe, and thus the Necrobot's computer's cannot pick him up any more.
• Kaput's comments on Estriol Positive being a discredited spark type is a joke regarding how Nautica was originally mentioned as having that same spark type, before it was changed in the trade version (and canon in general) as potentially being offensive.
• Tailgate's question on how difficult it is to turn a hand into a thruster seems to be addressed to the toy collecting audience...I can't tell you how many times I have screamed at Mach Kick and other awkward figures for being too hard to transform.
• Nautica's eye was damaged when the Rodpod was destroyed, she spent the last few issues of MTMTE with half of her face missing in fact, though she says it's okay, and why would she lie about that?
• Amongst the Transformers who have left Necroworld on Rodimus' new mission are Anode, Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Rewind, Chromedome, Drift, Ratchet and Whirl. I'd assume that Lug would tag along with Anode too, and the "next issue" teaser shows us Nautica as well. So given Rodimus' estimate of about 20 bots fitting inside the shuttle there are still nine unidentified crew members.
• Cyclonus is shown scratching himself seemingly out of grief for his "fight" with Tailgate, he was shown doing something similar when he learned that Tailgate was dying at the end of MTMTE season one.
• It's implied that Whirl's unseen conversation with Tailgate from earlier in the series was him telling him about him hurting Cyclonus when he was recharging, which is also why Tailgate has been avoiding Cyclonus recently, out of fear for hurting him further.
• Tailgate's fate at the end of this issue brings his story full circle so far, where he is trapped under the surface of a planet for (seemingly) six million years...lets hope he causes an explosion and half kills Whirl again soon, or he'll be missed!
• So...Kaput lasted a long time didn't he?! What's it been? 2-4 issues?
• I wonder if Kaput's body has been hidden by Fangry? Is he smart enough to know to hide the body, or would he just assume no-one would notice he was dead...or missing....isn't he one of the main doctors on the planet now!?