Constructicons Rising, Part 4

	{{#if: "I am suggesting, Captain... that in its rage, its pain, in the shadow of its Armageddon... your mortal world may have produced something very close to a God. Or a devil, perhaps." \|; "I am suggesting, Captain... that in its rage, its pain, in the shadow of its Armageddon... your mortal world may have produced something very close to a God. Or a devil, perhaps."}}}}
	"Constructicons Rising, Part 4" {{#if: \| {{#if: \|; (')}} {{#if:\|; ""}}}}
Publisher	IDW Publishing}}
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First published	February 19, 2020}}
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Cover date	December 2019}}
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Written by	Tyler Bleszinski}}
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Art by	Livio Ramondelli}}
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Letters by	Jake M. Wood}}
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Editor	David Mariotte and Tom Waltz}}
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ist}}{{#if: \| by}}	}}
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{{#if: TFGalaxies 4 cvrA.jpg | {{#if: IDW Publishing | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: February 19, 2020 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: December 2019 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Tyler Bleszinski | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Livio Ramondelli | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Jake M. Wood | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: David Mariotte and Tom Waltz | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: 2019 IDW continuity | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: |

{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

The consequences prove devastating when the Constructicons finally take revenge on the society that abandoned them.

Synopsis

It's another morning on the remote world of Mayalx... but the Constructicons who look contemptuously down at the colony below are not the same 'bots they once were. Spurned by the people of Cybertron, embittered by their long exile, Scrapper and his team now yearn to tear down everything they've worked to build, finally recognizing their post as the makework project it is, rather than anything that truly honors their contributions to Cybertronian society. Scavenger worries what'll happen to them when they're through, but Mixmaster assures his compatriot that, after eons of servitude, they'll finally be able to do whatever they want.

Ignoring the complaints of his short-sighted comrades, more interested in eating the Constructicons than anything else, Bombshell explains to the other two Insecticons that they'll need enough energon to fuel up their new allies. The trio split up, ambushing and killing three innocent refinery workers to feed off their living sparks--Kickback simply rips the spark chamber of his victim from his chest; Skrapnel uses his electrical powers to zap the second into oblivion, and Bombshell's cerebro-shells turn the last into a passive slave, unable to defend himself from his killer's hunger. Now brimming with energy, the three slink into the wilderness to metabolize...

As Long Haul loads up on what remains of their allotment of energon cubes, the other Constructicons discuss the next stage of their plan--a plan that involves the long-buried "seventh consciousness", the frighteningly powerful combiner whose anger they've deliberately suppressed all these years. Scavenger frets about the risks involved, but Hook informs the team that they'll first attack the city's main security building--and since the Constructicons helped build the city, they'll know exactly where and how to take out the defenses. Mixmaster wonders if they'll still be able to combine at all after all these years, but Hook points out that they never needed the Enigma of Combination to combine after that first time. All they need now is some energon to kickstart the process, and a strong enough emotion to bind them together in shared purpose, and their toxic, festering rage they all share at being used and abandoned is as good enough a place to start as any.

Bombshell cuts in with their end of the deal: a bounty of unstable energon cubes, an ultra-powerful solution so strong that it shocks Scavenger when he tries to touch it. Skrapnel tries to ask if their new allies could possibly leave some of their victims alive; Scrapper tells him and the other Insecticons to stand back, unless they want to be the first casualties. For the first time since their exile, the Constructicons unite...

The inhabitants of the colony are utterly unprepared for the level of savagery that the combiner unleashes upon them: uniting the mutual anger of his components with his own primal rage, the combiner wrenches one of the city's anti-air cannons from its housing. For too long, the Constructicon combiner has been neglected and suppressed, forbidden to exist by laws and simple necessity. But that day is over, he announces; now, the city and everything in it will burn for the newly-liberated...Devastator!

Nothing can stop Devastator's systematic destruction of the colony: buildings are methodically toppled, 'bots are blown to bits, tossed aside, or simply crushed underfoot, before Devastator finally comes face to face with the great statue of Nominus Prime, the one responsible for everything that's happened to them. After blasting the statue to fragments with a single blast of his improvised rifle, the combiner takes a moment to toss the Autobot's words of tokens of gratitude back at him in a final act of spite. The colony razed and its inhabitants slaughtered, the three Insecticons emerge to feed; the combiner has left nothing alive, depriving the three of the chance to feed on another living spark, but the attack has still resulted in a monstrous bounty of raw material for the trio to consume, and they greedily set to work, but not before first offering a grisly toast to their new friends for the feast. Devastator collapses back into his components, and Bonecrusher exults in the devastation... While the sight elicits a laugh from Scavenger, since the sight takes him back to the good old days, back to Iacon before they fixed it up.

Many cycles later, the Insecticons have finally processed the last of the remains, turning them into a healthy stockpile of energon cubes for theirs Ascenticon benefactors--enough, says Kickback, to power an entire army. Onslaught supervises the loading of the cubes onto Blast Off, who obligingly transports both the cubes and the Insecticons back to Cybertron. Once they've returned to their secure bunker, Blast Off asks Shockwave just what'll happen to the Constructicons who helped make all this possible. Coy as ever, Shockwave isn't telling, but tells Blast Off that he'll contact them again when their services are needed; for now, however, what they do is up to them.

It's another morning on the remote world of Mayalx... and the Constructicons who look down at the plains below have finally made peace with themselves and their legacy. Long Haul idly wonders if Nominus Prime was right; perhaps they really were too dangerous to exist on Cybertron. Mixmaster points out that it's all trivial now--they're never going home after what they've done. The team bicker about their options, and Hook points out that they can't go home and they can't stay on Mayalx, and so the only course of action left is to find a ship and strike out on their own. Scrapper agrees--they'll finally be able to go where they want, and build what they want to build. Despite everything that's happened, for the first time in their lives... the Constructicons are finally free.

Featured characters

{{#if:| {{#if:|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" | }}{{#if:The Rise

Kickback (7)
Bombshell (8)
Skrapnel (9)
Vortex (11)
Onslaught (12)
Brawl (13)
Blast Off (14)
Shockwave (15)|

Autobots }}{{#if:The Rise

Kickback (7)
Bombshell (8)
Skrapnel (9)
Vortex (11)
Onslaught (12)
Brawl (13)
Blast Off (14)
Shockwave (15)|

Ascenticons }}{{#if:|

Humans }}{{#if:* Long Haul (1)

Scrapper (2)
Hook (3)
Scavenger (4)
Mixmaster (5)
Bonecrusher (6)
Devastator (10)|

Others }}{{#if:|

Misc }}{{#if:|

Misc }}

The Rise

Kickback (7)
Bombshell (8)
Skrapnel (9)
Vortex (11)
Onslaught (12)
Brawl (13)
Blast Off (14)
Shockwave (15) }}{{#if:|

}}{{#if:* Long Haul (1)

Scrapper (2)
Hook (3)
Scavenger (4)
Mixmaster (5)
Bonecrusher (6)
Devastator (10)|

Long Haul (1)
Scrapper (2)
Hook (3)
Scavenger (4)
Mixmaster (5)
Bonecrusher (6)
Devastator (10) }}{{#if:|

}}{{#if:|

}}

Quotes

"But... what if it doesn’t work with us? We get to be a gigantic killing machine forever? Awesome."

—Bonecrusher

"I have been in darkness too long. Now I emerge into the light. You will feel my freedom. Taste my vengeance. Witness the liberation… of Devastator."

—Devastator gets a namedrop in whilst basking in his release after being ~~delayed for three months~~ held back by the Constructicons.

“To a successful operation! To the Constructicons! To the feast of a lifetime! And, most importantly, to dear Nominus Prime for making it all happen!”

—Bombshell's toast

Notes

Continuity notes

During his rampage, Devastator takes a moment to destroy the statue of Nominus Prime, sardonically quoting his speech to the Constructicons in the previous issue when he presented the team with their "badges of honor".
The Ascenticons who show up in this issue are none other than Onslaught and several members of the future Combaticons, including Blast Off, who previously appeared in the backup strip that appeared in last week's Transformers Valentine's Day Special. That issue had Blast Off working for some kind of shipping company; as he appears to be a firm member of The Rise in this issue, the Valentine's Day strip must have taken place long before the start of the main ongoing.
Mixmaster proposes that they stay on Mayalx to exploit a vein of quartex he found; he previously enthused about the substance's engineering potential back in issue #1.

Transformers references

Like most characters in this new continuity, the future Combaticons are drawn using their most recent toys as a reference point—in this case, they're based off their appearances in 2015's Combiner Wars toyline, specifically the Hasbro versions. Unusually, Blast Off's vehicle mode is drawn to include the signature purple hand/foot piece that became a hallmark of the line.

Other notes

Originally solicited for December 18, 2019 this issue arrives... *deep sigh*... really late, dropping halfway through February 2020.

Covers (3)

Cover A: Devastator runs amok, Livio Ramondelli
Cover B: Devastator looms over a city, by Sara Pitre-Durocher
Retailer incentive cover: The Constructicons are pawns in Shockwave's game, by Christina Neofotistou

"Hh. "Devastator." Works for me."
And thus began Shockwave's obsession to make all his Generation 1 Figure-Collection toys custom-painted.

Reprints

Transformers Volume 2: The Change In Their Nature (September 16, 2020) ISBN 1684056756 / ISBN 978-1684056750
- Collects Galaxies issues #1–6 and Transformers (2019) issues #13–18.
- Bonus material includes alternate covers.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 100: Constructicons Rising (November 4, 2020)
- Collects Transformers (2019) issues #15–17 and Galaxies issues #1–4.
- Bonus material includes a 2-page afterword on the full Hachette G1 collection series, a tiny cover gallery of the Hachette series, a retrospective on the various G1 publishing companies, a cover gallery of the IDW issues and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

Volume 2: The Change In Their Nature – cover art by Cryssy Cheung
The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 100: Constructicons Rising – cover art by Don Figueroa (Scrapper) and Livio Ramondelli

External links

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