IDW - Lost Light #22

Title: Crucible Part 4: The Return of the King

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Brendan Cahill

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rodimus and Ultra Magnus react with anger about Megatron's return from the Functionist Universe, having believed that he stayed behind on purpose, however Megatron points out that THEY abandoned him there, and he is not trying to invade his home universe again, and is in fact escaping from another attack. 

Behind him, from the portal a fleet of Functionist ships and the transformed Functionist Cybertron break through as well. The captured Lost Lighters are in awe of the sight of apparently Primus attacking their universe and Megatron prepares to rendezvous with them at the Architect's Worldsweeper.

"Primus" sees Mederi and crushes it in his hand, devouring the energies sparking out of it. The Architect and his remaining Lieutenants watch on, as the Architect explains that he saw this when he was younger, before he fled to the past to prepare for this very moment. Tyrest is distracted however, not understanding why The Architect looks like Pharma, however before he can explain, Flame reminds them that they need to fight off the monster , so they send the Infinites, Black Block Consortia and Worldsweeper fleet against "Primus" and his Functionist allies, planning to use the "God Gun" to push them back into their own universe again.

"Primus notices and starts destroying the replica Cybertrons at this point, but the Architect is distracted and wants to go see the prisoners immediately, focusing on Ratchet.

Inside "Primus", the Functionist Council's remaining members have merged with Vector Sigma and are controlling the monster, and see this new universe as a sign from Primus that they should purify this universe, but they are disturbed by how Megatron and his crew have also followed them, as they believed them to be long dead by this point.

Megatron locates the Lost Lighters and shoots at the windows of their cell to break them free, however, before he is successful the Architect and his troops arrive for their meeting, and Drift is shoot through the chest. The majority of the crew are blasted through the now destroyed window, and are recovered by Megatron's ship, but Rodimus, Ratchet, Rung, Whirl and Nautica are trapped inside the cell by an emergency forcefield.

Rodimus and his group are approached by the Architect, who just wants to talk, and asks how they know his language, and it is revealed that the Architect is just using Pharma's previously dead body as his own, and that the Autobot is starting to come to the surface every now and again. However he soon reveals his true name to the Autobots...the god Adaptus...

In Shuttle Bay Four of Megatron's ship, the Last Light, Megatron greets his old crewmates, and reacts happily to seeing some "real" Decepticons with the Scavengers. Their reunion is soon disrupted though, when the medics of the group begin to panic that Drift is dying from his injury and has entered a Zero Point. First Aid wants to use the medibay, but Megatron takes over and heals Drift of his near-death state, much to the shock of the other medics.

Soon, the group are brought to the bridge where they learn that the Functionist Council built thrusters on the back of Cybertron and used it to travel through the Warren to attack and wipe out all organic life in the universe, but eventually they realizes that the Anti-Vocationist League were ahead of them and were getting people to escape in time, leading them to create the fast and more intimating form of "Primus".

The team decide that the best idea is to destroy "Primus", which the Magnificence agrees is their "destiny", however Megatron reveals that that cannot be their only option, since "Primus" is populated by the civilians of Cybertron, if they destroy it, then the people of Cybertron will die too!

Back in their jail, everyone, even his followers question the claims that The Architect is Adaptus, but he still asks how he knows his language, with them just playing themselves off as "everyday heroes" who just wanted to find the Knights of Cybertron, whom Adaptus reiterates didn't really exist, but does point out that they DID succeed in some way, as they found the Guiding Hand, as Getaway explained to him through stories of their adventures. Rodimus is confused, so Adaptus explains...

Censere, the Necrobot, is revealed to be Mortilus, Tyrest is Solomus and the Magnificence is what remains of Epistemus, whilst a member of their crew, Rung, is the modern form of Primus himself, with all of them having forgotten their true identities due to information creep....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Megatron - Tank

Thunderclash - Truck

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Drift - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

First Aid - Ambulance

Velocity - Race Car

Rung/Primus

Brainstorm - Jet

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Riptide - Boat

Nautica - Submarine

Swerve - Van

Tailgate - Car

Sunder - Van

Pharma - Jet Body Being Used by Adaptus

Skids - Van (Mentioned) Dead

Getaway - Car (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Krok

Misfire - Jet

Crankcase - Van

Spinister - Helicopter

Fulcrum - K-Class Bomb

Nickel - Rocket Powered Buggy

Anti-Vocationist League

Nine-of-Twelve

Clicker - Laser Pointer

Decibel - Cassettes

Flame - Car

Lightspeed - Car

Terminus - Mining Vehicle (Mentioned) Dead

Orion Pax - Truck (Mentioned) Dead

Impactor - Mining Vehicle (Mentioned) Dead

Nightstalker - Cassette (Mentioned) Dead

Rung (Mentioned) Dead

Functionist Council

Twelve-of-Twelve

Eleven-of-Twelve

Six-of-Twelve

Five-of-Twelve

Three-of-Twelve

Two-of-Twelve

One-of-Twelve

"Primus" - Functionist Universe Cybertron

Population of Functionist Cybertron (Mentioned) Trapped inside "Primus"

Grand Architect

The Grand Architect/Adaptus

Tyest/Solomus

Flame - Car

Scorponok - Scorpion Dead

Grand Architect's Troops

The Infinites

Black Block Consortia (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Roller - Truck

Wipe-Out - Car

Froid - UAV Jet

Anode - Bi-Plane

Lug - Backpack Equipment

The Magnificence/Epistemus

Censere/Mortilus (Flashback) Dead

The Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• I CALLED IT!!! The Grand Architect is Adaptus, and the Magnificence is Epistemus! I may have been wrong about Solomus being the Matrix Crystal and Mortilus being Unicron, as well as possibly Primus being Vector Sigma, but this is still good for my investigative skills :D
• Though, if you remember, it WAS Tyrest/Solomus who used the Matrix to create the Cold Construction process, so maybe he does have a connection to it?
• Mortilus being Censere/The Necrobot makes perfect sense, as he would naturally want to keep a record of deaths as the god of death.
• So...Rung is Primus? Hmmm....I know there have been many mysteries surrounding Rung and his alternate mode, but him being Primus seems a bit odd. The only real foreshadowing for this would be the crystals he generates being used for holding sparks, his unique alternate mode and him having the brightest spark on the Lost Light.
• Most likely, Rung, and the rest of the Guiding Hand are able to combine into the original form of Primus, and his alternate mode is just a part of that greater alternate form.
• Functionist Cybertron/Primus is based on the Cybertron Primus toy, as well as including details from the existing IDW design of Primus.
• Amongst the AVL members are the Motorvator characters Flame and Lightspeed, which are very confusing, since one of them shares a name with a major character in this very story!
• Evidentally, the only reason why The Grand Architect had Mederi brought to the Benzene Cluster was just so Primus could crush it, for his past self to witness
• Since we last saw them, the Functionist Council have been reduced to just seven members, implying that the four unaccounted for members were killed in the mean-time 
• It's explained now that when Skids went through the Space Bridge to "Cyberutopia" he actually went into the mind of Adaptus, and merely showed his plans for the current multiple Cybertron filled Benzene Cluster. Adaptus then reached out from the bridge to get Skids, but found Pharma's recently dead body instead, so he took it for his own. However Pharma's spark is still in there, allowing him to have some pull over Adaptus' actions, explaining his apparent dislike of Decepticons from last issue.
• It's revealed that 200 years have passed for Megatron since he was trapped in the Functionist Universe, and since that time Temrinus, as well as the alternate reality versions of Orion Pax, Impactor and Nightstalker joined forces with him, and were killed.
• Megatron knows the names of the Scavengers (minus Nickel) by name, this likely is because he had a database of all his followers at some time and was looking forward to seeing some again one day
• Megatron has now learned how to be a medic, after mentioning back in Dark Cybertron that he originally wanted to train to be one. Why does his medical kit look like his fusion cannon? Misdirection of course!
• Megatron mentions that he found the "Last Light" in the same place that the Lost Light was originally found, but that it's quantum engines aren't as strong, this is because the Lost Lighters never altered the engines in the past in the Functionist timeline.
• So...this issue features a bit of a continuity headache...Magnus and Chromedome announce that they only returned from the Functionist Universe about a month ago (making this story apparently set in about early 2016) Now I wouldn't question this normally, but the Scavenger's involvement makes this harder, since they were a part of the Revolution event, set at the approximate end of 2016, and have since had some adventures after that point. So...maybe the use of the Warren to get to Mederi made the Lost Lighters time travel a bit?
• Also, since this is set so much earlier than the rest of IDW, and we haven't seen Rodimus or the rest of the crew involved in the Unicron event, or even mentioned in any way, seems to imply that the Lost Light, or the crew never return to Cybertron for some reason...maybe they go to the Functionist Universe to restart their lives?
• The Magnificence repeats the need for Rung, Rodimus, Ratchet and Tailgate to save the day. Rung's status as Primus and Rodimus' Matrix affinity make their choices make sense, but I'm not sure about Tailgate and Ratchet.

IDW - Lost Light #21

Title: Crucible Part 3: Farsickness

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Jack Lawrence

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rodimus sets the Lost Light onto the surface of Mederi, allowing the rest of his team to load up the now cured, but injured, former Sparkeater crew members, so they can escape the strange rift now splitting across the sky. In the ship, Rodimus forgives Perceptor and the rest of the mutineers for what they did and allows them to recover.

Before the ship leaves, Rewind finds a Geobomb that has just teleported onto the surface, which Rung warns him against touching. The ship tries to escape, but the gravitational pull of the rift is too strong and they are pulled through it...

On the other side of the rift, the Grand Architect is waiting with his fleet of Worldsweepers, being repaired by Flame, and having his crew wait for an incoming danger, that the Architect knows is coming here, to this point in time and space.

The Lost Light is flung out of the rift, only to find five multicoloured Cybertrons. Rodimus has the ship land on one of the Cybertrons, so they can investigate, there, Cyclonus recognizes the layout as Ancient Cybertron, from his time there, however, Anode and Swerve use their skills to determine that the metal on the world is very new, so it can't be Ancient Cybertron. Nautica and Rung recognize the location as where Skids described to them as visiting when he went through Tyrest's portal.

The group are soon encountered by a fleet of Black Block consortia ships, and a large Worldsweeper. They are soon surrounded, and the Architect gives the order to kill them, but are quickly stopped when Nautica speaks the word for the symbol of the Knights of Cybertron. The Architect is intrigued and allows Rodimus to bring a small team to the ship, whilst the rest will be killed, however Rodimus refuses, saying that everyone will come with him, which the Architect agrees to, despite complaints from the rest of his team.

Annoyed by the Architect's actions, and Tyrest's complacency in letting him do anything, out of a sense of loyalty to him for saving his life. He contacts his new allies, Sunder and Froid to attack the Architect to try and find out his identity in his mind.

The Lost Light parks into one of the docking bays, where the active crew departs from the ship amd wait for their "host" to join them. Whilst they have a moment of peace, Rung and Rodimus as Nickel about the Magnificence and she remarks that they found it, and it's been quiet for a while now, however when Rung examines it, following hearing it whisper his name, he is forced into his alternate mode, shocking everyone, especially since he spoke the transformation sound as he did it...

Out of the window, they notice Mederi is flung through the rift, and it starts to close. The crew start to wonder why this has happened when Froid and Sunder are brought into the room, revealed to be a large jail cell. There, the two new arrivals reveal that they tried to read the Architect's mind to find his name, but only saw his recent memories before being kicked out, and Sunder losing his Mnemosurgery skills.

Froid explains that from what they learned, the Architect created these worlds using a hollow world with a mould of Ancient Cybertron within it and used the Warren to bring them here, and had the Consortia, which is under his control, and use it to create the "God Gun" to use it to punch a hole in the universe to the next one over, to send a great evil he has been expecting though there, and trap it.

They couldn't use the real Cybertron for this, as it needs to be a pristine Cybertron, and thanks to the wars, the planet has been damaged too much over the years.

After the explanation, the Architect has the God Gun activated, and it starts poking a hole into the universe. Scorponok is contacted by the Architect, who explains that he didn't have a vision of this evil coming here, he saw it when he time travelled using the Warren millions of years ago, and has been preparing ever since. Scorponok however detects a powerful signal through the portal and declares that the Architect is wrong, and that by doing this, he has just summoned the evil here, since it was on the other side all along.

The Grand Architect, revealed to be Pharma, enters the room and kills Scorponok for his rudeness, and sending Sunder after him earlier.

Outside, the portal opens, and a fleet of ships, led by what appears to be another Lost Light exit, just as both Rodimus and Magnus receive a call at the same time...Megatron has returned from the Functionist Universe!

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Megatron - Tank

Thunderclash - Truck

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Ratchet - Ambulance

First Aid - Ambulance

Velocity - Race Car

Swerve - Van

Riptide - Boat

Brainstorm - Jet

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Whirl - Osprey helicopter

Nautica - Submarine

Tailgate - Car

Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator? Forced into Alternate Mode by Magnificence

Sunder - Van

Perceptor - Tank In Recovery

Hound - Jeep In Recovery 

Skids - Van (Mentioned) Dead

Getaway - Car (Mentioned) Dead

Nightbeat - Car (Mentioned) Dead

Metrotitan - City/Ship (Mentioned) Dead

Metroplex - City/Ship (Mentioned)

Rest of the Lost Light Crew (Mentioned) In Recovery

Decepticon

Misfire - Jet

Spinister - Helicopter

Crankcase - Van

Krok

Fulcrum - K-Class Bomb

Nickel - Rocket Powered Buggy

Overlord - Jet and Tank (Mentioned)

The Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned) Dead

The Firstborn (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Roller - Truck

Anode - Bi-Plane

Lug - Backpack Equipment

Wipe-out - Car

Froid - UAV

Primus - Cybertron (Mentioned)

The Necrobot (Mentioned) Dead

Proto-Functionists (Mentioned)

Grand Architect's Forces

The Grand Architect/Pharma - Jet

Tyrest

Scorponok - Scorpion Killed by The Grand Architect

Flame

Black Block Consortia Biomech Soldiers

Grand Architect's Troops

Other

Telepathic Aliens Comatose

Scraplets Quarantined in Lost Light Medibay

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

The Grand Architect's Enemy (Mentioned)

Notes

• First Aid refers to Misfire as "Flyhigh". This was his original name, implying that First Aid knew him before this encounter. He also refers to him as "red"...he's more of a pink....
• Nickel can be seen looking at Roller, seemingly interested. This is likely a reference to the long-standing theory that he was Tarn's identity under his mask, before it was revealed to be Damus/Glitch.
• Crankcase declares "we're being sucked into it!" a clear nod to the Transformers Movie, when Spike and Bumblebee were eaten by Unicron.
• Before the end of this issue, Flame was seemingly the only one to have seen the Grand Architect, considering Pharma's known hatred of Decepticons, this makes sense, since Pharma was originally an Autobot.
• The world Skids was sent to through Tyrest's spacebridge led him to one of these new Cybertrons, and that they were made using the hollow Necroworld in the past, which was a mould created of Ancient Cybertron, and was located in the Benzene Cluster, a part of space mentioned many times in this series.
• It's finally revealed that the Black Block Consortia were infiltrated by some of the Grand Architect's biomech troops to cause them to go to war with the Galactic Council
• It's revealed that when Tyrest was transported away after his capture on Luna-1, he only reached the planet's thrusters, where The Grand Architect was for some reason located at the time.
• Rung reacted to the Magnificence by involuntarily transforming...I'm gunna guess that they are connected in some way.
• Cybertron originally being a weapon or being converted into one has been a plot point explored a few times in the past of Transformers media.
• It's likely that Primus' intended target for the God Gun would have been Unicron.
• Scorponok is killed in a similar manner to Ambulon...I guess this means we can guess he is indeed dead now.
• It's implied at the end of this issue that the monster the Grand Architect was fearing was Megatron, but this seems unlikely since he's only been in the Functionist Universe for about a year now (maybe less in-universe). It's more likely, due to the big event this year, that it's Unicron he was fearing. Honestly, the Architect's plan to shunt Unicron to the next universe over is a good idea...so long as he doesn't have the ability to cross universes here...
• Pharma being the Grand Architect is quite unexpected...he was a loyal Autobot until he was coerced into harvesting his patients for their T-Cogs by the DJD, so how is he the "big bad" here? He was even active when Anode was first "killed" and when Scorponok and Flame were released from Garrus-9. The last time we saw Pharma, his headless, seemingly dead body was being dragged into the portal by some tentacles into what is now revealed to be one of these worlds. More than likely, the Grand Architect is actually the identity of that giant spark that Skids interacted with, and he is simply controlling the dead body of Pharma now.

IDW - More Than Meets the Eye #5

Comic Staff

Title: How Ratchet got his hands back

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colour by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Chris Mowry

Editor: John Barber

Storyline

On Delphi, the newly revived Fortress Maximus kills the Genericons in...well frankly nightmare inducing ways, but then calms down once both are dead. First Aid tries to tend to Pharma's wounds, but is struck away from him. Ratchet tries to work on Drift, but he's afraid he'll die, when Ambulon goes to recover a part of one of the Genericons from Fort Max's chest Pharma draws a gun on him and claims that Ambulon, as a former Decepticon is a traitor and released the Decepticons from their cell. However the other Autobots quickly realize through several clues that Pharma is in fact the one who released the Decepticons, and also caused the virus to be released, with it being caused when the infected Transforms. Pharma escapes from the group by blasting a power relay that threatens to kill most of the lifers at the facility.

The Medics all try to save the now fading patients, and Ratchet transforms to allow Backstreet to survive by using his medical supplies in his vehicle mode, after which he runs off after the traitor.

On the Lost Light Tailgate asks Ultra Magnus to help him get ready for the Rite of Autobrand, and so Magnus starts to teach him the very extensive Autobot Code, elsewhere in his Ofiice, Rung is having a session with Red Alert, who has started hearing voices from under the Sparkeater's cage, despite there being just empty space under there. Red Alert reveals a recording he made that features something saying "Me...Kill..." repeatedly. During his lesson Tailgate gets interested in a clause that Magnus says is redundant, Clause 19-80-4, which reminds Tailgate of the robots who attacked Skids when they first met him. Magnus tells him that it regards Thought Warfare.

Back on Delphi, Ratchet catches up with Pharma and manages to get him to monologue about what he's done, he reveals that the only reason why the DJD has been leaving Delphi alone is because Pharma's been supplying their leader with Transformation Cogs, but the orders kept increasing, so in order to leave without any odd questions being raised, he arranged with Sonic and Boom to enter the facility and to help him deploy the virus and knock out communications etc, which infected everyone who heard it, and then spread via touch. Pharma planned to survive by hiding in the quarantine lab, but then Ratchet arrived and ruined everything. Ratchet tells Pharma that all of this is pointless, as he's just infected him with his rusting parts (as he transformed and infected himself earlier). The two medics fight briefly, with Pharma revealing he has a cure for himself and then blasts Ratchet, knocking him out.

Pharma escapes to the roof where he encounters Ratchet's Human holo-avatar, who distracts him long enough for the real Ratchet to tackle Pharma from behind and sends the cure falling over the edge. Ratchet and Pharma fight on the roof and Pharma ends up hanging over the edge begging for help, Ratchet turns his back on him, and Pharma activates his back mounted cannons and prepares to kill him, when Drift suddenly appears and slashes off Pharma's hands, sending him falling or flying to his doom.

Later First Aid administers the cure to everyone remaining at the facility (Ratchet had his holo-avatar catch the cure before it fell) and on the ride back to the Lost Light Ratchet suggests that First Aid takes over from him as Chief Medical Officer due to his actions at Delphi. The Delphi Survivors join the Lost Light crew and Ratchet has had Pharma's old hands replace his own faulty ones.

Character List

Autobot
Ratchet - Ambulance
First Aid
Ambulon - Leg
Pharma - Jet Presumed Dead from Fall/Virus
Drift - Car
Pipes - Truck
Fortress Maximus - Tank
Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport
Rung - Maintenance Buggy
Red Alert
Backstreet On Life Support
Tracer (Mentioned) On Life Support
Omega Supreme (Mentioned)
Skids - Van (Mentioned)
Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned)
Rewind - Giant Memory Stick (Mentioned)
Chromedome - Car (Mentioned)
Whirl - Osprey Helicopter (Mentioned)
Ironfist/Fisitron (Mentioned) Dead
About 20 Patients at Delphi (Mentioned)
Delphi Staff (Flashback) Dead
Pharma's Victims (Flashback) Killed/Mutilated by Pharma

Decepticon
Sonic - Part of Light/Sound Cannon Killed by Fortress Maximus
Boom - Part of Light/Sound Cannon Killed by Fortress Maximus
DJD Leader (Flashback - Heavily Shadowed)
Megatron (Mentioned)
Starscream (Mentioned)
Killmaster (Mentioned)
Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Other
Tailgate - Car
"The Voice under the Ship"
Nineteen Eighty-Four Bot (Flashback)
Nova Prime - Truck (Flashback)
Sparkeater (Mentioned) Dead

Comic Notes

• The panels on Fort Max's chest can be used to slice off heads!
• The Decepticons tried to create a Gestalt 10 years ago
• First Aid has a damaged Transformation Cog
• Red Alert's character model from the past uses his more commonly known model from the G1 toys, cartoon etc rather than his new different character model (which sort of brings up the question of what's up with this new body)
• "Me...Kill..." could be a reference to Grimlock in some way, or could be really meant to be "Kill Me"
• Ultra Magnus hates dirt
• Holo-Avatar's were taken out of common use due to them not looking right and being energy intensive and requires constant concentration
• I wonder how long it'll take for Ratchet to paint his new hands red again?
• It's not stated, but it's likely that the lifers from Delphi (like Backstreet and Tracer) would have been taken to the Lost Light too
• First Aid and Ratchet both think they could have saved Ironfist