IDW - Transformers (2019) #10

Title: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet, Part Four

Written by: Brian Ruckley

Art by: Angel Hernendez, Anna Malkova and Beth McGuire-Smith

Colours by: Joana LaFuente & Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editors: David Mariotte

Plot

Megatron meets with his guards, Elita-1 and Bumblebee, and they escort him towards the Senate meeting, on the way they come across a silent protest starting, in honour of the recent murder victims, which people are blaming on the extremist group, the Rise.

Meanwhile, Froid visits Cyclonus at a medical facility, where he brings up his dead friends, and asks if he ever talks with Paragon, who was killed by Pyra Magna. Upon hearing his name, Cyclonus snaps, and heads off alone again, to get away from society...

The Senators meeting begins, and the topic of discussion is, of course the recent murders and rising tensions and riots across the planet. Megatron dismisses the claims and tries to accuse the others of blaming his Ascenticons for the riots and recent troubles.

Orion points out to Megatron that there is no real discussion to be had, the Autobots hold the majority vote, and they will uphold Nominus' Edict, and they will not be removed from power until the next voting season, so Megatron will have to disband his private army, the Ascenticon Guard, and also join the rest of the Senate in publicly denouncing the Rise as an extremist group and even rename them.

Before Pax can give the new name to the Senate, Megatron starts to leave, dismissing the idea as Pax trying to deceive the population.

Outside, Megatron is met with his guards, but his is noticed by a member of the crowd, and a riot starts, with the population starting to equate the Ascenticons to the Rise and start attacking the Senator. Bee and Elita fend off the rioters, whilst Megatron gets to safety, but the two guards begin to question what they are doing, when they start injuring the rioters...

Megatron heads off into the wasteland outside the city, where he meets with his associate, the leader of the Rise, Shockwave, whom Megatron put in the position to cause chaos, but screams at him that he wasn't to kill anyone. he warns Shockwave to not cause the Ascenticons any more problems and to never let it be reveals that they have a connection...but Shockwave has other plans in mind....

Prowl heads towards Ascenticon HQ, where he asks Soundwave to hand Barricade over to them, as they need to speak to him about some recent actions he has made, but Soundwave simply refuses them entry...

Elsewhere, a large Cybertroninan lands on the planet, and deploys her precious cargo, of Sentinel Prime and his retinue, who is fairly pissed off at the recent events on his planet, and wants to head to the Senate offices immediately to start smashing some heads together! 

Characters

Autobot

Sentinel Prime - Space Shuttle

Senator Orion Pax - Truck

Nominus Prime (Mentioned)

Security Forces

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Sideswipe - Car

Ironhide - Van

Windblade - VTOL Jet In Protective Stasis, Following Injuries

Security Cadets

Ascenticon

Senator Megatron - Treaded Vehicle

Senator Soundwave - Hover Craft

Elita-1 - Car

Bumblebee - Winged Hover Craft

Acid Storm - Tetra Jet

Skytread

Other Ascenticons

Barricade (Mentioned)

The Rise

Shockwave - Space Craft

Flamewar - Motorcycle (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Froid - Jet

Flatline

Senator Heretech

Senator Crisscross

Starscream - Tetrajet

Nautica

Hound - Jeep

Firestar - Car

Road Rage

"Giant Woman" - Senate Space Shuttle

Other Two Meeting Senators

Medical Facility Staff

"Silent" Protestors

Primus (Mentioned)

Cyclonus' Ghost Friends (Mentioned) Dead

Paragon (Mentioned) Death Caused  by Pyra Magna

Pyra Magna (Mentioned) Imprisoned

Rubble (Mentioned) Dead

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Dead, Confirmed Killed by a Rise Member

Other

A Skitter Crushed by Megatron

Pterasaur Aliens

Notes

• This issue's cover and synopsis was switched with last issue's, explaining the mis-matched covers, though it doesn't appear that the issues themselves were swapped, since this issue directly references the previous one heavily.
• The art duties this issue are as such: Hernandez does the scenes Senate meeting scenes, and the protest outside, Malkova deals with the scenes in the medical facilty and Sentinel's return to the planet, and McGuire-Smith does the meeting between Megatron and Shockwave.
• Uh oh, Windblade is in a "protective stasis" tube now! Last time we saw that sort of thing was when Sideswipe, who sustained injuries from an explosion and being in a crashing ship, and subsequently stayed in one for a couple of years and then died...let's see where this goes....
• Paragon, mentioned by Froid as someone whom Cyclonus has to speak to earlier is revealed to be dead, and that Pyra Magna was responsible for his death, possibly explaining why she is imprisoned too?
• Sideswipe claims to not know Flamewar's name, but since she knows his name, does this mean that he's well-known or some sort of celebrity?
• One of the Senators in the meeting is using a holo-generator to appear....why doesn't Sentinel do the same if he needs to speak to Orion and the others so badly?
• Another of the Senators is Heretech, revealed to be the leader of the Reversionists, mentioned here as being affiliated with the Autobots. This is interesting since Heretech in IDW's old continuity was a Decepticon
• Orion Pax's plan to rebrand the Rise as something more appropriate (a word that begins with "Dece-" hmmm?) is reminiscent of the use of the term "Daesh" to de-legitimize the terrorist group ISIS.
• Elita-1 shows the first signs of her not fully agreeing with the Ascenticon ways, when she shows remorse for hurting others during the protest riot.
• I CALLED IT!!! I said early on in this series that The Rise would just be an off-shoot of the Ascenticons and would in fact be controlled by Megatron or one of his cabal secretly! (I believe I even suggested Shockwave was in charge!)
• It is revealed this issue that Nominus exiled some troublemakers offworld, though this was kept quiet, so many believe it to just be a conspiracy theory.
• Interestingly, Megatron attributes Brainstorm's death to a member of the Rise, but also to Rubble's death too....is Quake classed as a member of the Rise now due to his actions, despite his prominence in the Ascenticon Guard, or does Megatron not know that Quake was the killer?
• It's finally revealed what the Rise actually is now, it was an off-shoot of the Ascenticons created to cause trouble and force the hand of the senate to give control of Cybertron to the Ascenticons, as they are the only ones who can take them down, by repealing the Nominus Edict. However Megatron claims that he never planned for anyone to actually die by their actions, and is now blaming Shockwave for it.
• The large Cybertronian who turns into a spaceship for Sentinel and his crew MIGHT be a Titan, but she may just be a giant Cybertronian (like Leviathan was mentioned as being). Also, I believe it's a female Cybertronian, simply due to her general form and appearance, I could be wrong though!
• Sentinel's comments about smashing heads together may be a reference to the toy he is modelled after being a Titan Master (aka his head turns into a tiny robot)
• We don't see any insignias on any of Sentinel's crew, but since all of them (except Starscream) are traditionally Autobots, and are under his command, we can probably assume they are in the political party too.