Scavengers (Part 2): Who's Afraid of the DJD?

2012-08-26T06:51:20Z

124.83.54.54: /* Quotes */

{{Comicstory|
|series=mtmte|issueno=8
|prev=Rules of Disengagement
|next=
|caption=
|image=MTMTE8_cvrA.jpg
|title="Scavengers (Part 2): Who's Afraid of the DJD?"
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]]
|date=[[August 22]], [[2012]]
|coverdate=August 2012
|story by=[[James Roberts]]
|art by=[[Alex Milne]]
|colors by=[[Josh Burcham]] and [[Joana Lafuente]]
|letters by=[[Shawn Lee]]
|editor=[[John Barber]]
|continuity=[[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW continuity]]
|chronology=[[IDW timeline|Current era (2012)]]
}}

'''The Scavengers use Grimlock to fight back against the D.J.D.'''

==Synopsis==
''Years ago, above the planet [[Clemency]], a regiment of [[K-Class]] Decepticons prepare to drop into the battle raging below. The perky [[Torque (G1)|Torque]] introduces himself to a somber [[Fulcrum]], who says nothing. And then, the order is given to disembark and enter the conflict...''

On Clemency today, within a crashed P-6 [[Worldsweeper]], the rag-tag team of [[Decepticon]] "[[Scavenger (group)|Scavengers]]" desperately try to figure out what to do about the approach of the [[Decepticon Justice Division]]. With none of their number willing to own up to being the unfortunate soul the D.J.D. are looking for, [[Krok (G1)|Krok]] proposes that they stand and fight, and although Fulcrum laughs in his face, the other Decepticons get behind the idea and begin a plot to use the comatose [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] to their advantage.

Across space, on the ''[[Lost Light]]'', [[Skids (G1)|Skids]]—his tune changed about his amnesia following a recent conversation with [[Chromedome (G1)|Chromedome]]—requests that the mnemosurgeon use his mind-reading abilities to see if he can unlock his lost memories. Chromedome discovers that Skids's memories of the last year have not just been suppressed: they have been ''erased'', replaced with an imperative to "escape". However, all the memories from before that point that Skids has lost are indeed still locked inside his head, buried away by the trauma of the erasure of the others... but upon getting a glimpse of them, Chromedome is so horrified that he pulls out, assuring Skids that he's better off ''not'' remembering them. Skids grimly accepts this, but reveals to Chromedome that he always hears a piece of music playing inside his mind. Having heard it as well, Chromedome identifies it as "[[The Empyrean Suite]]", and hopes that Skids never understands its significance...

Back on Clemency, the Scavengers lug the capsule containing Grimlock out into the open, transmitting to the D.J.D.'s ship the [[Peaceful Tyranny]] that they have killed their target and left him for them to collect, learning in the process that the Division is looking for Fulcrum. Presently, the D.J.D. arrive and approach the capsule, at which point Krok triggers the [[circuit speeder]]s he laced it with, jolting Grimlock awake and into a berzerker rage. The Scavengers delay leaving until they see which way the battle is going, but Grimlock quickly tires to their shock, and their subsequent attempt at escape goes nowhere as [[Helex (DJD)|Helex]] appears, mocking Misfire's timing and blocking their path. The battle that follows is a gruesome one as [[Flywheels]] is killed by [[Tesarus (DJD)|Tesarus]]'s chest grinder, and [[Vos (DJD)|Vos]] removes his own face, laden with spikes, and jams it over Krok's own. [[Misfire]] accidentally shoots Krok when he tries to help him, and is then mauled by [[Kaon (DJD)|Kaon]]'s [[The Pet|pet Sparkeater]]. Tarn, meanwhile, turns his "weaponized conversation" on Grimlock, but before he can end his life, [[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]] comes to the rescue in the most unexpected way: he has recovered a [[cybernought]] battle-mech from the Worldsweeper, and begins raining destruction down on the D.J.D. Unfortunately, an electric shock from Kaon cripples both mech and pilot, and the giant robot is quickly taken down by Tarn. In answer to Tarn's bellowed challenge, Fulcrum then appears atop the Worldsweeper and delivers a speech decrying the D.J.D. as symbolic of everything that went wrong with the Decepticon movement. He leaps from the ship, and transforms... into a bomb! He lands with the least dramatic impact possible, barely causing a cloud of dust, at which point Kaon alerts Tarn to his detection of the [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]]'s energy signature. Considering Fulcrum dead, the D.J.D. pull out to pursue this new target, warning the Scavengers that they are all on their list now.

Fulcrum, however, is anything but dead, much to his own surprise: it turns out that the very first thing the Scavengers did upon finding him the previous day was remove his explosive charge - apparently Spinister was capable of the difficult manual task despite his lack of intelligence. Fulcrum tries to explain his story to them—how he was convicted of desertion of duty and, after initially being sentenced to death by [[Traitor's Wheel]], was conscripted into a K-Squad and reconfigured to auto-transform into a bomb upon deployment, only for his systems to become paralyzed with terror—but they lose interest very quickly and check up on Grimlock instead. However, the former Dynobot leader soon reveals what's wrong with him, when he can barely struggle out a "Me Grimlock" and inspects his hands as if he doesn't know what they're for. Assuming he was left behind because "he's practically brain-dead", Misfire suggests the Scavengers take him back to Cybertron figuring they can use him as a bargaining chip regardless of whether the Autobots or Decepticons are in charge of the planet. The others agree, but before they depart, Misfire delivers a eulogy for the fallen Flywheels, mocking his search for the [[Necrobot]]<ref name="bigfatmistake" />, and the team then descend upon his body to Fulcrum's shock, doing what they do best: scavenging.

Eighteen months later... a shadow falls over Flywheels's skeletal remains. The all-too-real Necrobot has come to mark his passing, and adds his name to a list of the recently deceased: right after [[Hound (G1)|Hound]], Chromedome, [[Dipstick]], [[Drift (G1)|Drift]] and [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]]...

==Featured characters==
(Characters in ''italic text'' appear only in flashbacks.) 
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] (8)
*[[Chromedome (G1)|Chromedome]] (9)
*[[Skids (G1)|Skids]] (10)
*[[Rewind]] (12)
*[[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]] (13)
*[[Pipes (G1)|Pipes]] (14)
*[[First Aid (G1)|First Aid]] (15)

|c2=
*''[[Torque (G1)|Torque]]'' (1)
*[[Fulcrum]] (2)
*[[Misfire]] (3)
*[[Krok (G1)|Krok]] (4)
*[[Spinister (G1)|Spinister]] (5)
*[[Crankcase (G1)|Crankcase]] (6)
*[[Flywheels]] (7)
*[[Tarn (DJD)|Tarn]] (16)
*[[Vos (DJD)|Vos]] (17)
*[[Kaon (DJD)|Kaon]] (18)
*[[Tesarus (DJD)|Tesarus]] (19)
*[[Helex (DJD)|Helex]] (20)
|c4=
*[[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]] (11)
*[[The Pet]] (21)
*[[Necrobot]] (22)
}}

==Quotes==

"'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>Fighting the D.J.D.<nowiki>'</nowiki>''' is just ''''<nowiki>'</nowiki>certain death<nowiki>'</nowiki>''' with more letters! It's—it's '''suicide''' with '''delusions of survival!'''"
:—'''Fulcrum'''

"Anyway, I thought you '''liked''' having amnesia." 
"Who told you that?" 
"You told '''Swerve''', right? So assume everyone on board knows. In fact, assume everyone on '''Cybertron''' knows. In fact, assume that distant '''alien races''', otherwise untouched by civilization—" 
"Okay, okay, point taken."
:—'''Chromedome''' and '''Skids'''

"I was lucky. I was forged when the Decepticon Empire was at it's peak. We'd overthrown our '''oppressors,''' we'd torn down a system that served only those at the top, and we'd turned '''outwards'''—refining the galaxy by cleansing it of organic races too backward to reconfigure their inferior nature. And you know what went wrong? People like '''you.''' The thugs and the sadists and the psychos—people for whom the war was a convenient excuse to inflict pain. Yesterday, my faith in the Decepticon was '''restored.''' I met six scavengers—and they were average and normal and brilliant, and they fought on my behalf when I really, '''really''' didn't deserve it. And I know you look down on them, but each one of them is worth '''ten''' of you. So what I'm about to do, I do for '''them'''—and for everyone else the D.J.D. has murdered. This is for everyone who's ever turned and fled in protest at what the Decepticons have become!"
:—'''Fulcrum's faith in Decepticon humanity is restored.'''

'''Misfire:''' "A senseless waste. His ludicrous search for the Necrobot ends unfulfilled. A terrible, terrible tragedy. Boo hoo." 
'''Fulcrum:''' "'Boo hoo'? I though Flywheels was your '''friend!''' You're just going to leave him here?" 
'''Misfire:''' "You're '''right.''' What were we '''thinking?'''" 
'''Crankcase:''' "I'm having his rotor system—" 
'''Misfire:''' "There's probably enough for a '''sip''' of innermost [[energon]] each..." 
'''Spinister:''' "Leave the knees for me."

==Notes==

*The title likely refers to the children's song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?".
*The return of Grimlock coincidences with that of the rest of [[Dinobot (G1)|his team]] in ''[[The Transformers: Robots in Disguise|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Dinobot Hunt|#8]] and another appearance by Big Grim himself in ''[[The Transformers: Regeneration One]]'' [[Loose Ends, Part 2|#82]] for a micro-event called out on the August covers as "Dinobot Month!"
*Rewind screens a public information film named "[[Proteus's Promise]]" for his crewmates; presumably, the title character is [[Proteus|Senator Proteus]] from "[[Chaos Theory Part 2|Chaos Theory]]".
*Skids and Chromedome's conversation is footnoted to have occurred in the ''More than Meets the Eye'' 2012 annual, which was released a few weeks after publication of this issue. This tactic seems to deliberately hearken back to the [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|Marvel UK]] days, when important story beats would appear in the [[Transformers Annual|Annual]] stories.
*Chromedome knows Skids from a "heist" pulled back on Cybertron before the war. This heist is dealt with in the upcoming "[[Shadowplay]]" storyline.
*Skids is revealed to be a master of Cybertronian martial art [[Metallikato]], and in the same breath name-drops the [[Povian]]s of [[Pova]], from ''[[The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers|Last Stand of the Wreckers]]''.
*Tarn calls Krok a [[Genericon]], a pejorative intended to indicate a 'bot of little importance last used in reference to [[Sonic (G1)|Sonic]] and [[Boom]] in [[Life After the Big Bang|issue #4]].
*The D.J.D.'s [[turbofox]], glimpsed last issue and referred to in the cast list at the end of this issue as "The Pet", is also a [[Sparkeater (creature)|Sparkeater]] (well, more of a "sparkchewer"). Here it's specifically identified as Kaon's pet, but Helex was holding its chain last issue; Kaon was in alternate mode at the time, so perhaps he was just holding it for him.
*Fulcrum refers to his imprisonment in [[Styx]], the Decepticon penal colony only previously seen in ''[[Spotlight: Hot Rod]]''.
*We're not told what the "K" in "K-Class" stands for, but given their suicidal job description, "kamikaze" seems almost certain.
**Torque has "Ultra Magnus" written on him while in bomb mode, probably indicating that he was targeting this specific Autobot.
*The normal cast list at the end of the issue is replaced with a new list showcasing the D.J.D. members, The Pet, the Scavengers, and Fulcrum.

===Errors===
* Perhaps not strictly an error, but while the in-story text consistently abbreviates "Decepticon Justice Division" as "D.J.D.", the title renders it "DJD" without the periods, perhaps to avoid a period followed by a question mark.
* Reference is repeatedly made to Fulcrum's impressive, distinctive chin... but it's not any bigger or more notable than many of the other characters, and certainly not more than Misfire's and Grimlock's in their profile-angled shots on page 21, which are positively ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Animated]]'' in their chintasticness. The only thing notable about it is its 'chin strap' styling.
*Issue #7 saw Helex given the task of scanning for Overlord's energy signature, but in this issue, it's Kaon who reports finding it.
*Fulcrum says yesterday he met "six Scavengers"... but there were only five of them.
* This issue ends with Misfire lamenting over Flywheels's "ludicrous search" for the Necrobot... except last issue, it was ''Misfire himself'' who was searching for him! As such, the obvious poetry of the final scene, in which the Necrobot comes to record the death of one who has searched for him for so long, is... kinda screwed up. Given that Flywheels is being played a born-again religious type in this story, the role of believer in the Necrobot fits him well and suggests that issue #7's depiction of Misfire as the believer was probably the one in error. James Roberts later confirmed that an error was made (though not precisely what the error was), and should be fixed for the trade.<ref name="bigfatmistake">[http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?t=12478 James Roberts:] It seems that a line of dialogue on the last page of issue 8 is causing some confusion. Standing over Flywheels' remains, Misfire says, "His ludicrous search for the Necrobot remains unfulfilled." Yet in issue 7, it is clearly established that Misfire himself is the Scavenger with the Necrobot obsession. This is what is known - in comic book industry jargon - as a big, fat mistake. [...] P.S. We'll fix the dialogue for the trade - unless someone comes up with a truly amazing explanation.</ref>

===Covers (3)===
* '''Cover A:''' Grimlock looms, art by Alex Milne and [[Joana Lafuente]].
* '''Cover B:''' Grimlock in T-Rex mode, art by [[Nick Roche]] and [[Josh Burcham]].
* '''Cover RI:''' Grimlock (notice a pattern?) breathing fire; art by [[Marcelo Matere]] and [[Priscilla Tramontano]], the fourth quarter of a combined image formed with the RI cover to ''[[The Transformers: Robots in Disguise|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Interference Patterns|#7]], [[Dinobot Hunt|#8]], and ''[[The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye|More than Meets the Eye]]'' [[Rules of Disengagement|#7]].

<gallery>
Image:MTMTE8_cvrA.jpg|This scene does not occur in the issue...
Image:MTMTE8_cvrB.jpg|...and he doesn't transform to T-Rex mode...
Image:MTMTE8_cvrRI.jpg|...and his T-Rex mode doesn't even look like this!
</gallery>

===Advertisements===
*''[[The Transformers: Robots in Disguise|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Dinobot Hunt|#8]]
*''[[The Transformers: Regeneration One|Regeneration One]]'' [[Loose Ends, Part 2|#82]]
*''[[The Transformers: Autocracy|Autocracy]]''
*''[[More Than Meets the Eye Annual 2012]]''
*''Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom'' (back cover)

==External links==
*[http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=4452&page=9 Preview]

==References==
<references/>

Tarn (G1)

2012-08-19T08:25:50Z

124.83.54.54:

{{Disambig2|the leader of the Decepticon Justice Division|the Cybertronian city|Tarn (city)}}

{{factions|decepticon}}
[[Image:MTMTE Tarn Alex Milne.jpg|thumb|350px|He kills you with culture...and also ''violence''.]]
:''Tarn is a Decepticon from the [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW continuity]] portion of the [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''

'''Tarn''' is an eloquent [[Decepticon]]. He enjoys nothing more than playing beautiful music as he waxes poetic quoting "[[Towards Peace]]" and other philosophical works by [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]. He tends to indulge these pleasures at the same time he's using his specially modulated vocal processor to cause the [[Decepticon Justice Division]]'s latest transgressor's spark to self-destruct. The current leader of the DJD, Tarn epitomises the mentality of the team. He is beyond zealous in his devotion to Megatron's cause, going so far as to emboss the Decepticon [[insignia]] onto his own faceplate. No traitor, no coward is capable of escaping his team. But like many leaders, the pressures of his job have led him to fallback on addiction. Developing an obsession with transformation, he changes form constantly, to the point where he burnt through his original [[transformation cog]] long ago. Now he uses either the victims of the DJD, or cogs acquired through less direct means to acquire replacement cogs, feeding his addiction and ensuring he can continue putting the fear into those who would dare abandon the path of the Decepticons.

==Fiction==
===IDW Generation 1 comics===
Tarn brokered a deal with [[Pharma]] for an ever-increasing supply of transformation cogs from the deceased patients of [[Delphi]], in exchange for the hospital being unmolested by the Justice Division. As his demands grew greater, Pharma looked into rather unorthodox means of escaping this arrangement. {{storylink|How Ratchet Got His Hands Back}}

{{spoiler|Rules of Disengagement|August 24 2012}}
After [[Black Shadow (Victory)|Black Shadow]] was captured by the DJD, Tarn mused on the tendency of Phase Sixers to rebel. He paused when he realised Black Shadow was still alive. Playing his music, he discussed his views on the so-called end of the war, noting that as far as he was concerned, the war would end only when Megatron said so. He then began modulating his voice to Black Shadow's spark frequency, causing him to explode. He then ordered the DJD to move onto their next target. He contacted their said target on [[Clemency]], warning his comrades that if they handed him over, they could live to watch. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement}}

[[Category:Comic-only Transformers]]
[[Category:Generation 1 Decepticons]]
[[Category:Decepticon leaders]]

==Notes==
His design seems to be based on WFC Megatron.

MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Scavengers (Part 2): Who's Afraid of the DJD?

Tarn (G1)