IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #52

Title: The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The newly arrived Drift and Ratchet protect the badly injured Ten from the DJD, but are greatly outnumbered. During the battle, Drift notices how attached Kaon is to The Pet, and takes it hostage, forcing Kaon to stop the attacks, as team leader. The crew are surrounded still, but are rescued by Ratchet's own shuttle hovering above them, and lowering a loading-platform. The team get onto the shuttle to find Ravage. Down below, Helex takes command from Kaon and orders the attack to begin again, hitting the ship's engines. Ravage still has control of the ship, and aims to towards the Necrobot's fortress.

Several miles away, at Megatron's statue, Megatron is surrendering to Tarn, under the condition that he lets the rest of his crew go free. Megatron apologizes to Tarn for turning him into a killer, and reveals that his new found pacifism is due in part to Brainstorm's recent attempt to kill him before his own creation, and found himself disappointed that he failed.

Tarn, sick of hearing his role-model talking like this, attacks him, and beats him down, but points out that he's doing this because he cares for him, but also hates what he's become.

Tarn says that he'll stop fighting him, if Megatron just fights back, but Megatron refuses, and tells Tarn that even though he thinks the Fool's Energon he has inside him is changing his mindset on life, he doesn't mind, as he feels happier now, and is better off this way. Tarn is furious at this, and shoots Megatron point-blank in his chest, declaring that he's be better off dead.

Tarn knows that Megatron isn't dead yet, since his statue is still visible, and would have gone out if he died, so he goes for the final blow. Except he is stopped...by.....OVERLORD!!!

The shuttle crashes outside the fortress, when inside Ten is taken for repairs by Magnus, and Swerve thanks his employee for leaving the message to use the flowers to power up the storm shield, and says that they think it'll work out.

Skids reunites with Ratchet, and learns that Ratchet is there because someone called him from this location and hung up. Velocity reveals that she called him, but thought it was First Aid she was reaching, and the DJD cut the call before it could go through. She then thoroughly embarrasses herself in front of Ratchet, leaving her embarrassed

Elsewhere, Rodimus reunites with Drift, and apologizes for not coming to find him after he left, out of fear that he's hate him. Drift forgives him, and Rodimus promises to protect him from the DJD, knowing he's on their list, but Drift doesn't believe it....

At the Megatrn statue, Tarn and Overlord are fighting over who gets to kill Megatron. During the fight, Overlord reveals that he was rescued from space by a mysterious group, who want him to kill Megatron as part of their plans. Tarn begins to suggest that they team up to kill Megatron together, but suddenly realize that he's escaped....

Unknown to either of them, he managed to drag himself to his space scooter and is now returning to the fortress.

At the memorial to the lost outside the fortress, Rewind is examining it to see if he can find any correlation between the names and when they disappeared, when Nautica appears and asks him about how the Conjunx Endura process works on Cybertron, as she wants to decide on something before it's too late...

Elsewhere on the planet, surrounded by mountains, Tarn and Overlord enter the Peaceful Tyranny, where immediately Overlord starts belittling the alliance between Tarn and Deathsaurus, despite their known hatred of each other.

During the encounter, Kaon returns and begs Tarn to help him rescue The Pet from the Autobots, making Overlord laugh louder at how domesticated he's become. Tarn embraces his friend, and comforts him...before he tears off his head. Tarn denounces emotions, as they caused Megatron to turn soft.

He goes to Overlord and crushes Kaon's head into his chest and tells him not to ridicule him on his ship any more, then decides to speed up the operation and has everyone begin their plans to attack the fortress now..

At the fortress, Rodimus and Ratchet bring a near-dead Megatron inside, watched by a worried Ravage, whilst Megatron still grasps his Autobot insignia (it broke off during the fight with Tarn)

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank Badly Damaged by Tarn

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Ratchet - Ambulance

Drift - Car

Skids - Van

Velocity - Race Car

Nautica - Submarine

Rewind - Data Slug

Optimus Prime - Truck (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned)

Chromedome - Car (Mentioned)

Tailgate - Car (Mentioned)

First Aid - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Dominus Ambus (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Tarn - Tank

Overlord - Tank and Jet

Deathsaurus

Nickel

Kaon - Variable Volt Harness Killed by Tarn

Helex - Smelting Chamber

Ravage - Cassette

Generic Deathsaurus Troops

Genericons (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Ten Badly Damaged by the DJD

The Pet Abducted by the Autobots

Other

Overlord's Benefactors (Mentioned)

Notes

• Since the end of Empire of Stone, Drift and Ratchet have been travelling around space, fighting "Genericons".
• Despite him being a fairly high-profile target, Drift isn't apparently identified by the DJD.
• Gee it's a good thing the DJD destroyed Ratchet's shuttle, else the Lost Lighters may have had a chance to leave the planet!
• Megatron hints that Tarn's true identity is someone who was important to someone else, further adding to the theory that he is actually Roller.
• Megatron claims that he's fine with having his mind altered to be "nicer", despite his long-standing fear of having his mind altered.
• Oh, Overlord is back.....OVERLORD!!!!??? HIDE THE MINI-BOTS!!!!
• So, turns out that First Aid gave Velocity the same phone that Ratchet gave him earlier, meaning that he never gave her a chance to contact him....or never programmed his number into it? I dunno.
• Rodimus reveals that the reason he never went after Drift following his revelation about his involvement in the Overlord scandal is because he was afraid that he would hate him. Turns out Drift is okay with it!
• Oh look! Overlord transforms to his tank mode...I think this is the first time we've seen that since Last Stand of the Wreckerss.
• Though unnamed here, it's very likely that Overlord's benefactors are related to the Mystery Gear faction.
• Amongst the memorial for the lost, it appears that Roller's name is shown, further fuelling that he may be Tarn.
• This issue confirms that on some colonies Transformers begin relationships as Amica Endura, then become Conjunx Endura, but on Cybertron you can only be one or the other.
• This also implies that Nautica wants to become Conjunx Endura with someone in the group. She has connections to so many of the group that it could be pretty much anyone there.
• Tarn appears to be under a lot of stress. When Kaon was dying from Tyrest's attack in season one, he was comforting towards him, but now that he's panicking over his pet being captured, he gets killed on sight. Maybe Overlord and Megatron have that effect on people?
• Tarn crushing Kaon's head on Overlord's chest somewhat mirrors how Kaon crushed Trailcutter's spark on his forcefield at the start of the season.
• Despite his love for The Pet, Kaon apparently never gave him a more affectionate name...maybe he just owed him money and that's why he wanted him saved?
• The Pet isn't seen with his captors after they return to the Fortress...maybe they killed him on the way?
• Nickel appears to be horrified by how Tarn just killed Kaon for his emotions.

IDW - More Than Meets the Eye #8

Staff

Title: Scavengers (part 2): Who's afraid of the DJD?

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colour by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Years ago, Fulcrum and his fellow K-Class Decepticons are airdropped onto Clemency during a battle, where Fulcrum doesn't seem too happy about things.

Back in the present the Scavengers are all panicking about the D.J.D. coming to kill one of them, and decide between them that their only chance is to fight them, Krok even has plans to use the still stasis-locked Grimlock as well.

On the Lost Light, Skids and Chromedome have met up in the Oil Reservoir, where Skids asks Chromedome to read his mind so he can remember his lost memories.

On Clemency the Scavengers have set up Grimlock's "coffin" with circuit speeders (taken from the Monstercon they found before) that when opened will give Grimlock an adrenaline boost. Tarn contacts the Scavengers and they say the traitor has been killed and is in a coffin for them to pick up. Tarn reveals that he's upset that he can't kill Fulcrum himself. The group look at Fulcrum, who starts to explain what he did, but is cut short when the D.J.D. land on Clemency.

Tarn opens Grimlock's coffin and the Dinobot immediately attacks him, but he is easily subdued, which Krok can't understand why. Helex appears behind the Scavengers as they try to escape and they're drawn into fighting the D.J.D.

Back on the Lost Light, Chromedome cuts the mind-reading short when he starts seeing disturbing things, and certain song that he never wants to hear really, and says that Skids doesn't want to remember these things as the memories weren't suppressed they were destroyed.

On Clemency Tesarus puts Flywheels through his mincing chest, which shreds his upper body into little pieces. Kaon restrains Krok whilst Vos puts his spike-backed face mask over Krok's own face, causing immense pain, Misfire tries to save him, but ends up shooting him instead. Misfire is attacked by The Pet, who starts chewing his arm. Crankcase is thrown across the battlefield by Helex and lands near Fulcrum, who runs off, however Crankcase sees something and remembers what Worldsweepers were famous for.

Tarn starts using his weaponized speech to try and kill Grimlock, but is stopped by Crankcase inside a ginat battle suit. The D.J.D. fight Crankcase in his new suit and destroy it.

Fulcrum decides enough is enough and declares to the D.J.D. that he's not afraid any more, and that he thinks the Scavengers are worth ten of them, he then transforms to his bomb mode and launches towards Tarn, intending to kill himself and the D.J.D. He lands with barely an explosion, but before anything else can happen Kaon informs Tarn that he's located where Overlord is. The group leave immediately to hunt down their primary target, and Tarn reveals that all of the Scavengers are now on his list to kill.

The Scavengers find Fulcrum still intact, and Misfire reveals that they removed his explosive before he woke up (in case he blew up on them), and he then explains how he was arrested for cowardice and sent to Styx, but before he could be killed there he was conscripted into the K-Class by Megatron, and his team were deployed as weapons against the Autobots on Clemency. Crankcase brings back Krok, badly hurt, but still alive. Misfire tries talking to Grimlock, but discovers that his brain is basically destroyed, which explains why he was left behind on that ship. The Scavengers decode to head back to Cyberton with Grimlock in tow, to use him as a bargaining chip. Either as a gift to Megatron if the Decepticons won, or to return him to the Autobots if they won, for leniency. Before they leave however they scavenge through Flywheels' remains for anything they can find.

18 months later a robot (most likely the Necrobot) arrives on Clemency and adds/removes Flywheels' name to his list, right after Hound, Chromedome, Dipstick, Drift and Ultra Magnus....

Characters

Autobot

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex Mostly Brain Dead

Chromedome - Car

Skids - Van

Rewind - Memory Stick

Pipes - Truck

Swerve - Van

First Aid - Ambulance

Ultra Magnus (On the List)

Hound (On the List)

Dipstick (On the List)

Drift (On the List)

Diplomatic Corps (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Misfire - Jet

Spinister - Helicopter

Krok Face Crushed by Vos

Crankcase

Flywheels - Tank/Jet Killed by Tesarus

Fulcrum - Disarmed Bomb

Tarn - Tank

Kaon - Electric Chair

Tesraus - Metal Mincer

Vos - Sniper Rifle

Helix - Mobile Smelting Pool

Torque - Bomb Dead

K-Class Cons - Bombs Dead

A Monstercon (Mentioned) Dead

Megatron (Mentioned)

Genericons (Mentioned)

Banzai-Tron (mentioned)

Overlord (Mentioned)

Other

"The Pet"

Tailgate - Car

Proteus (Mentioned)

Mortilus (Mentioned)

Necrobot

Notes

• The K in K-Class/K-Cons likely stands for Kamikaze
• Rather than splitting into 2 vehicles, Flywheels is a triple changer (as he was shown converting into tank mode last issue, and jet mode this issue)
• The Lost Light has Movie Nights...this is awesome!
• This story references the events of the 2012 Annual, but the book was postponed to after this issue
• Tarn's transformation addiction is shown in this issue, he's shown changing from tank-bot-tank-bot within 4 panels and even changes to tank mode during his fight with Grimlock as well (and then changing back again)
• The song Skids keeps hearing is called The Empyrean Suite, this is likely the song Tarn plays as well
• Vos' line of "Wear My Face" is clearly an inversion of Optimus' line "Give me your face" from ROTF
• This issue shows that Sparkeaters can come in various forms (the one from the Lost Light was more standard robot-like, whilst The Pet is a Turbofox)
• Boy Kaon sure does looks like an evil version of Rung doesn't he?
• The Worldsweeper ships come with several "Cybernaughts", giant battle suits for Transformers to ride in
• Tarn has read Banzai-Tron's files of every Decepticon, and has ranked everyone in order of importance etc
• Grimlock has been rendered basically brain dead since he was last seen. This is likely due to Overlord torturing him on G-9. How he got off the planet is still a mystery though.
• It's assumed that the robot on the last page is the Necrobot, but there's actually no actual proof of that (he probably is though)
• Krok is usually shown holding a small rod in his hand, this is something connected to his squad, which he seems to think is still around. The others think they aren't.
• Despite being dumb as toast, Spinister is actually a skilled surgeon! (Maybe the Lost Light can get him to work on Rung?)
• The list on the last panel is most likely misleading on some of those names, as shown earlier in both MTMTE and RID, some characters have shared names (Prowl on Delphi and Prowl on Cybertron, Autobot Skydive and Decepticon Skydive) so some may be misleading like that, such as with Hound or Drift (though unique names like Ultra Magnus are unlikely to be duplicated).
• Krok is referred to as a Genericon by Kaon, this is most likely just an insult, and doesn't mean he's part of the same group as the guys shock in the Delphi storyline.
• In the background, Spinister can be seen using his rotor blade as a sword...awesome
• Fulcrum didn't turn into his bomb mode in the first place because he was too afraid of dying, and this was his D.J.D. crime as well, he lived.