IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #39

Title: The Permanent Revolution

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Hayato Sakamoto

Colours by: Joana Lafuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Coordination: Phases

Editor: John Barber

Plot

[1] Troika

Tarn, Helex and Tesarus have captured and are torturing Blip for the crimes of being involved in a cult and offer him one last request before he dies, which is when he tells Tarn to remove his mask and reveal his true identity, to which Tesarus and Helex simply kill him.

The DJD return to their ship when they encounter their newest member Nickel, who berates them for making a mess of Blip's parts meaning she can't use them for spares, and starts complaining about the team's maintenance skills.

Later, Tesarus is in his Appraisal with Tarn, who is complimenting him on his work with Borebit and Heretech, when Tesarus brings up how Tarn abandoned Vos and Kaon on Ofsted XVII after they were ambused by the Galactic Council whilst trying to take the destroyed Lost Light's Quantum Engines (following them killing the crew).

Tesarus claims to Tarn that Decepticon's don't abandon their teammates, which Tarn takes offence to, as he knows EVERYTHING about being a Decepticon. Soon Helex comes in, and says he's recovered both Vos and Kaon from Ofsted, as they were alive (much to their shock), but he also shows Tarn the new edition of Towards Peace that they took from Trailcutter, which shows Megatron defecting from the Decepticons.

[2] Troska

The DJD return to Messatine where Tarn mulls over these revelations, and tries to kill himself in a tank of Nuke (a supercharged fuel), as his life flashes before his eyes he sees Nickel worriedly looking at him, and decides to break free, announcing a change in plan.

[3] Perestroika

The DJD have tracked down Deathsaurus' warworld, as he is at the top of their list, but Tarn reveals to the team that they aren't there to kill him, or his crew, but simply to talk.

On board the ship, Deathsaurus manages to separate Tarn from the others on the pretence of their talk, but he immediately tries to kill him, on the assumption that that's what they are here for, he also disables his audio sensors so Tarn can't talk him to death, however Tarn hacks into his ship's inter-Decepticon radio frequency and makes the entire crew hear him out, he reveals that due to the recent events of Megatron defecting, he sees that one individual doesn't make up the entire ideal of the Decepticon cause, even if he did start it, and explains how Nickel joined his crew after hearing about the Decepticon ideal, despite being from a now dead colony world called Prion. He invites Deathsaurus and his crew to join him to restart the Decepticons anew, and with a clean slate.

Deathsaurus agrees to join up, if Tarn kills the rest of the DJD, but he refuses. Deathsaurus however reveals that that was a test to see if Tarn treats his men as expendable like Megatron does, and agrees to join forces. 

As such, the united forces decide to target Megatron and the crew of the Lost Light as the first names on the new list....

Characters

Decepticon

Tarn - Tank

Helex - Treaded Mobile Smelting Tank

Tesarus - Treaded Mobile Metal Grinder

Kaon - Variable Volt Harness

Vos - Rifle

Nickel

Deathsaurus

Blue Bacchus

Browning

Gairyu

Yokuryu

Goryu

Rairyu

Kakuryu

Doryu

Leozack

Guyhawk

Jarugar

Killbison

Drillhorn

Deathcobra

Rest of Deathsaurus' Crew

Blip Killed by Tesarus

Soundwave (Flashback)

Alternate Brainstorm - Jet (Flashback) Dies in DJD attack

Alternate Overlord - Tank and Jet (Mentioned) Killed by DJD

Heretech (Mentioned) Captured by DJD

Autobot

Megatron - Tank (Footage)

Optimus Prime (Flashback)

Skids (Flashback)

Alternate Ratchet - Ambulance (Flashback) Killed by DJD

Alternate Drift - Car (Flashback) Killed by DJD

Borebit (Mentioned) Killed by Tesarus

Cybertronian

The Pet

Eucryphia (Mentioned)

Prima (Mentioned)

Thriteen Tribes (Mentioned)

Prion - City/Space Ship (Mentioned) Probably Dead

Prion's Colonists (Mentioned) Killed by Black Block Consortia

Other

Captain K'gard (Flashback)

Galactic Council (Flashback)

Black Block Consortia (Flashback)

Notes

• Blip is shown here in a drastically different design to his previous appearances, this is either an artistic error, due to the new artist, or it's a different character to the previous one.
• The Empyrean Suite is revealed here to be the DJD's "theme tune" and was written by Eucryphia, who was shown to be Nova's ally during the war of the Primes started by Galvatron.
• Tesarus and Helex are revealed to have vehicle modes, meaning we now know the alternate modes for all five of the main DJD members
• This issue confirms without doubt that the alternate Brainstorm was the one who revealed Overlord to the DJD, before this it was just Rewind's theory. One has to wonder though, why didn't the OTHER Brainstorm do the same?
• Tarn has several of his masks sitting on his wall, all somewhat damaged...guess he's sentimental huh?
• Brainstorm's time jump to Messatine in the past altered some of the Nucleon there into the DJD's personal stash of "Nuke"
• The DJD haven't been in contact with Megatron since issue 18 of the Costa Transformers ongoing series
• Deathsaurus' crew is made up of mostly Japanese exclusive Transformers characters. The only ones missing from his Victory cast are Black Shadow (who was killed by the DJD) and Hellbat (who was working with Gigatron)
• Huh...wonder if it's just a coincidence that at the start of the Combiner Wars storyline in the other comics we get a couple of traditionally combiner teams here?
• Nickel is from the Prion colony, showing that female Transformers are available from any of the colonies in theory.
• Speaking of Nickel, she has a few similarities to Fixit from the new Robots in Disguise franchise, meaning she may be a Mini-Con.
• Amongst Tarn's memories, we see a young Skids with his Matrix tattoo, which was also how Skids looked whilst he was helping with the raid of the Primal Basilica in Shadowplay....more evidence for him being Roller perchance?
• It's revealed here that the Galactic Council and Black Block Consortia have started attacking Cybertronian colonies and outposts to try and wipe out the Cybertronians, considering their dwindling numbers now.
• Tarn states that he erases his list in this issue....this means that technically the Scavengers and Drift should be off the list now, and won't be hunted by the DJD.
• Tarn also realizes that the Lost Light crew are still alive, but doesn't question how or why, he just knows he wants them dead.

IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #34

Title: Births, Deaths and Interventions

Written  by: James Roberts

Pencils by: Atilio Rojo

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

One of the Lost Light's ships have landed on Ofsted XVII, and are waiting for word from Rodimus or the others about the Lost Light's condition when First Aid finds a badly injured Cybertronian inside one of the damaged lecture halls. The group assume that he was injured in the battle in orbit between the Galactic Council, Black Block Consortia and a group of Mechs. First Aid doesn't care about the bot's faction, so long as they can save him.

In the distant past on Messatine, Froid arrives to analyse a patient for Council, who is revealed to be Megatron. However he has made up his mind before even meeting the miner (who is in the council's bad books due to his political writings) aand permits Trepan to perform Shadowplay on him.

Back in the present, First Aid begins work on the Cybertronian, and arranges for the group to all donate a small amount of active Energon to ensure his survival. Meanwhile, Bluestreak finds the bot's detachable face amongst the rubble (revealing to the audience that this is Vos of the DJD)

Back on Messatine, Megatron is working on his books some more, when his terminally ill room mate and proofreader Terminus tells him to not give up on his mission, even if it means he has to take to physical violence as well as verbal protests. Megatron asks him why he's suddenly speaking like this, to which Terminus reveals he was visited by some senate men that day...then Megatron gets shocked from nowhere.

On Ofsted, after examining the face mask, and it's hidden spikes, Bluestreak and Mainframe back out of the procedure, knowing it's probably a Decepticon. First Aid tells them to leave the lecture hall if they're not going to help out, leaving Traiilcutter and himself to donate the Energon themselves, however, after using one of the lecture hall's devices to translate Vos' words (spoken in Old Cybertronian) and First Aid recognizes his words to be the DJD's motto, and immediately stops his donation, hating them for how they drove Pharma to madness, and in turn caused Ambulon's death at his hands.

Trailcutter however still continues with his own donation, but once Vos has a small amount inside of him, he attacks Trailcutter and tries to strangle him. Trailcutter uses his leg cannons and blasts the Decepticon across the room. First Aid leaves Trailcutter to grab the others to restrain Vos, whilst Trailcutter uses his forcefield to protect himself.

Unfortunately Vos points out an old chair in the rubble, who turns out to be Kaon, who was just de-energized until the forcefield repowered him, and is trapped in the forcefield with him.

On Messatine, Megatron wakes up on Trepan's table, and feels the Mnemosurgeon dig into his brain, and starts deleting his "anarchic" thoughts, until he gets a call from Froid to stop the procedure, since Rung has turned up with new legislation for Shadowplay procedures, following Shockwave's procedure, which requires TWO doctors to sign off now, which Froid knows Rung will never do.

Suddenly the Mine's alarms sound off, telling the entire staff to get off the planet.

Back in the present again, First Aid and the others return to find Kaon having torn Trailcutter apart, and playing with his brain module in his hands. The Autobots try to convince him that the war is over, and the Megatron has surrendered, so they should too, but Kaon doesn't believe them. Bluestreak shows him Trailcutter's newest read, an updated version of Megatron's autobiography "Towards Peace" with the surrender speech from his trial added in the end, and tells him to read it. Kaon agrees, but still scrapes Trailcutter's brain modeule across the still active forcefield.

Kaon contacts Helex from elsewhere and has himself and Vos teleported out, telling the stunned Autobots that he'll  see them soon....

On Messatine, the planet is being evacuated, but Megatron returns to his dorm, to find Terminus missing, with no one knowing where he's gone, but due to the emergency he gathers up his data pads and runs for the escape vessels, feeling terrible for seemingly abandoning his friend.

Meanwhile, in the mines Brainstorm (seemingly fresh from the Lost Light) appears in a flash of light, holding his briefcase, wondering where to start.....

Characters

Autobot

Trailcutter - Van Torn apart by Kaon

First Aid - Ambulance

Bluestreak - Car

Mainframe

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned)

Pharma - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Ambulon - Leg (Mentioned) Dead

Brainstorm - Jet (Decepticon Double Agent) Back in Time.

Decepticon

Vos - Rifle

Kaon - Variable Volt Harness

Helex - Smelting Chamber (Mentioned)

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Megatron - Armoured Vehicle (Flashback)

Rolt (Flashback)

Froid (Flashback)

Rung (Flashback)

Trepan (Flashback)

Terminus (Flashback) Missing

Messatine Miners and Staff (Flashback)

Senate (Mentioned)

Functionists (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned)

Senator Shockwave (Mentioned)

Other

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

The Black Block Consortia (Mentioned)

Notes

• Bluestreak implies here that those NOT from the original Lost Light crew who were in the ships that disappeared during the incident were left floating in space, until the ships re-materialized
• The weakened space around Ofsted XVII, mentioned by Nautica last issue is revealed to have been due to a battle in orbit over the derelict Lost Light by the Galactic Council, Black Block Consortia and the DJD.
• The battle over the ship could also explain why Rewind was left alive on the ship, since the DJD was simply distracted by someone else to bother with them.
• We see First Aid's alternate mode for the first time here, meaning his Transformation Cog has been repaired since his introduction.
• A bit more of Megatron's timeline is confirmed here, as it seems following the evacuation from Messatine in this issue, he was likely sent to Mining Outpost Croteus 12, which is where Megatron: Origin starts off.
• This issue shows us that Vos' face mask has a button that extends his spikes, rather than them being open at all times.
• Terminus is revealed here as Megatron's room mate on Messatine rather than some evil guy like you'd expect from his name.
• Judging from Kaon and Vos' states here, but Helex and the others presumably being alive still, it's likely the DJD won their battle with the Council.
• Megatron's fear of Mnemosurgery is revealed to be due to Trepan's invasive procedure here, where he tries to fully modify his mind.
• This could also explain his instan killing of Trepan when Overlord brings him into the fold to teach him Mnemosurgery. Simple revenge for his actions here.
• The DJD, or at least Kaon are unaware of Megatron's surrender to the Autobots.
• Terminus going missing at the exact moment that Brainstorm appears, seemingly from the future could be a callback to the temporal displacement used when time travel occurred in the Marvel Transformers comics.
• Trailcutter mentions how he's taken up reading etc since Megatron disabled his ability to enjoy over-energizing (getting drunk)...however that was just that very day, maybe a couple of days earlier....

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.