Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations

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Okay, we didn't kill him, you all saw that right?}}}} |-

|colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center" | "Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations" {{#if: |

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|- {{#if: IDW Publishing | |Publisher || IDW Publishing}} |- {{#if: | |Published by || }} |- {{#if: | |Imprint || }} |- {{#if: | |Published in || }} |- {{#if: September 12, 2012
November 28 (2nd printing) | |First published || September 12, 2012
November 28 (2nd printing)}} |- {{#if: | |Shipping date || }} |- {{#if: | |On-sale date || }} |- {{#if: August 2012 | |Cover date || August 2012}} |- {{#if: | |Credits || }} |- {{#if: | |By || }} |- {{#if: | |Manga || }} |- {{#if: | |Manga by || }} |- {{#if: | |Original story || }} |- {{#if: | |Story & art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Story and color art || }} |- {{#if: | |Story || }} |- {{#if: | |Story by || }} |- {{#if: | |Story consultants || }} |- {{#if: | |Story concept || }} |- {{#if: | |Screenplay by || }} |- {{#if: | |Screenplay || }} |- {{#if: | |Adaptation by || }} |- {{#if: | |Adapted by || }} |- {{#if: | |Adaptation || }} |- {{#if: | |Based on || }} |- {{#if: | |Writer || }} |- {{#if: | |Writers || }} |- {{#if: | |Writing || }} |- {{#if: James Roberts | |Written by || James Roberts}} |- {{#if: | |Written & art || }} |- {{#if: | |Plotter || }} |- {{#if: | |Plotters || }} |- {{#if: | |Plot || }} |- {{#if: | |Plot by || }} |- {{#if: | |Plot/Script || }} |- {{#if: | |Scripter || }} |- {{#if: | |Scripters || }} |- {{#if: | |Script || }} |- {{#if: | |Scripting || }} |- {{#if: | |Script by || }} |- {{#if: | |Script and art || }} |- {{#if: | |Sript [sic] consultant || }} |- {{#if: | |Translation by || }} |- {{#if: | |Artist || }} |- {{#if: | |Comic artist || }} |- {{#if: | |Artists || }} |- {{#if: | |Art || }} |- {{#if: Jimbo Salgado & Emil Cabaltierra | |Art by || Jimbo Salgado & Emil Cabaltierra}} |- {{#if: | |Additional art by || }} |- {{#if: Guido Guidi | |Flashback art by || Guido Guidi}} |- {{#if: | |Art assistant || }} |- {{#if: | |Art assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Line-art || }} |- {{#if: | |Line-art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Line art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciller || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencillers || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciler || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencilers || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencil art || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencils || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencils by || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciled by || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciling || }} |- {{#if: | |Guest penciler || }} |- {{#if: | |Layouts || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencil breakdowns || }} |- {{#if: | |Breakdowns || }} |- {{#if: | |Breakdowns by || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustration || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrations || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrator || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrated by || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustration by || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrations by || }} |- {{#if: | |Finished pencils || }} |- {{#if: | |Finishes || }} |- {{#if: | |Finished art || }} |- {{#if: | |Finishes by || }} |- {{#if: | |Inker || }} |- {{#if: | |Guest inker || }} |- {{#if: | |Inkers || }} |- {{#if: | |Inks || }} |- {{#if: | |Inks by || }} |- {{#if: | |Ink finishes || }} |- {{#if: | |Ink assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional inks || }} |- {{#if: | |Inking || }} |- {{#if: | |Backgrounds || }} |- {{#if: | |Backgrounds by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colorist || }} |- {{#if: | |Colorists || }} |- {{#if: | |Colourist || }} |- {{#if: | |Colourists || }} |- {{#if: | |Color || }} |- {{#if: | |Colors || }} |- {{#if: | |Color art || }} |- {{#if: | |Colour || }} |- {{#if: | |Colours || }} |- {{#if: | |Colored by || }} |- {{#if: Juan Fernandez with Joana Lafuente | |Color by || Juan Fernandez with Joana Lafuente}} |- {{#if: | |Colors by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colors assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color assists || }} |- {{#if: | |Color assistance by || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional colors || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional colors by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colour/Computer FX || }} |- {{#if: | |Computer coloring/effects || }} |- {{#if: | |Color Reconstruction || }} |- {{#if: | |Flats || }} |- {{#if: | |Flats by || }} |- {{#if: | |MTMTE Profiles || }} |- {{#if: | |Letterer || }} |- {{#if: | |Letterers || }} |- {{#if: | |Lettering || }} |- {{#if: | |Letters || }} |- {{#if: Chris Mowry | |Letters by || Chris Mowry}} |- {{#if: | |Lettered by || }} |- {{#if: | |Lettering|Production || }} |- {{#if: | |Special Thanks{{#if: | To}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Collaborators || }} |- {{#if: | |Contributors || }} |- {{#if: John Barber | |Editor || John Barber}} |- {{#if: | |Editors || }} |- {{#if: | |Editing || }} |- {{#if: | |Edits by || }} |- {{#if: | |Compiled and Edited by || }} |- {{#if: | |Original series editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Original Edits by || }} |- {{#if: | |Deputy editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Assistant editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Editorial assistant{{#if: |s}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Editorial Assistance
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Synopsis

1: Signs and Portents

It's just another ordinary day on the Lost Light: a swarm of long-dormant Nanocons, hidden inside Ultra Magnus's body for years, have suddenly become active again, and Brainstorm has shrunk Rodimus and a team of Autobots with his mass-displacement gun so they can enter Magnus's body and wipe them out. They are unable to stop the Nanocons before they reach Magnus's mouth, however, and at Ratchet's direction, Magnus is forced to smile to crush them in his mouth-pistons and prevent their escape. Unfortunately for Magnus, this makes him a laughingstock aboard the ship, and he does not take it well.

Once everyone is back at full size, preparations begin for the day's other big event: having passed his Autobot Code exam, Tailgate is getting his probationary Autobot badge. While Cyclonus silently rebuffs an invitation to the Act of Affiliation ceremony, the other attendees deal with their own problems: Rewind helps Chromedome through the shock of an inherited memory of death, Swerve goes looking for Red Alert in the bowels of the ship and is horrified when the corpse of Ore—still enmeshed with the quantum generators—begins talking to him, and Drift tries to convince Rodimus that he's saying "'Til all are one" a bit too much. As Rodimus and Drift move to discussing their impending arrival on Theophany, home of the Circle of Light, Magnus enters, threatening to leave the ship over his mockery at the hands of the crew. Rodimus calms him down, and Magnus then voices his concern about their failure to make contact with the Circle of Light, despite Drift's assurances that the Circle can take care of themselves.

2: Sacraments and Ceremonies

Tailgate's ceremony begins, with the audience members taking bets on how long it will take Rodimus to say "'Til all are one" (Brainstorm wins after five seconds). As Rodimus recounts his own Act of Affiliation, Skids notices that Ambulon is absent, and is informed by First Aid that he is in the medibay, where a group of offline Autobots have suddenly reactivated and begun clutching their ears. And that's not the only strange thing going on: Cyclonus arrives just in time to see Rodimus bend to draw Tailgate's Autobot symbol onto his chest, only for him to instead scrawl some words that Rewind translates as "Let me out" in Old Cybertronian. As Rodimus immediately has no memory of doing so, Drift suspects he was possessed by something, and Ratchet's attempts to be rational are drowned out by word coming through on the comm from Swerve of Ore's sudden return to life as well. Perceptor instructs Swerve to keep Ore calm, lest he panic and trigger the quantum generators, so the talkative little 'bot tells the blinded Ore that he's just in the medibay. When the Duobot misidentifies his voice as Pipes, and says he sounds like "that Lug-Nut Swerve", Swerve seizes on the mistaken identity and proceeds to confess all his hopes, fears, and disappointments, particularly the guilt he carries following his accidental shooting of Rung.

As if things weren't bad enough, the Lost Light is then hailed by the Galactic Council ship The Benign Intervention, whose captain K'gard informs the Autobots that, as members of a race blacklisted from the council for their war, they are trespassing in one of their sectors. K'gard shocks the Autobots by revealing that the Circle of Light has disappeared from Theophany, but Ultra Magnus—known and respected by the captain—is able to provide legal precedent that grants the Autobots an hour to investigate. Without discussion, K'gard teleports Rodimus and a team down to the planet's surface, where they discover Crystal City in ruins. Drift, having maintained an unrelentingly positive attitude about everything up until now, finally begins to crack and furiously stabs the ground with his Great Sword... causing a subsidence that dumps the Autobots into an underground cavern below Crystal City. Simultaneously, K'gard brings Magnus to The Benign Intervention and extends him a surprising invitation: to join the Galactic Council!

3: Epiphanies

Underground, Rodimus and his team discover that the Circle of Light have been powering their city with a Titan, one of the living city-ships of the Knights of Cybertron, and they promptly venture inside its gigantic body, straight to its brain. Musing that he used to pray in the shadow of the Titans, Cyclonus is convinced by Rewind to recount the "Primal Sacrament", the Transformers' creation myth, and so tells the tale of the Guiding Hand: how the creator-god Primus split his life-force into five, creating Mortilus, Solomus, Epistemus, and Adaptus. Following their creation of the Transformer race, Mortilus turned on the rest of the Guiding Hand and was destroyed after a brutal, costly war that saw Primus required to merge with Cybertron itself to survive, while Solomus became the Creation Matrix, and Epistemus and Adaptus became the prototypical brain module and transformation cog that would be the basis of all others. The first Cybertronians blessed with these traits were the Knights of Cybertron, who set out to spread their gifts across the universe aboard their Titans. Ratchet's complete dismissal of the story as utter nonsense finally brings him and Drift to blows, but before things get physical, Rodimus separates the two and takes Drift for a walk, on which Drift confides that he knows Rodimus is going to be very important in the future.

Spurred by Cyclonus's story of their race's origins, Skids and Chromedome talk about the meaning of life and how it is shaped by interactions with others. Chromedome proceeds to tap into the Titan's brain to find out what happened to the Circle of Light, and is assaulted by a horrific vision of Crystal City being razed by Legislators. Worse still is the distressing revelation that the Titan is still alive, psychically screaming in terrible pain, having heard the call to return to the reformatted Cybertron, but lacking the power to teleport its massive bulk after being drained by the Circle of Light for so long. A destructive beam bursts from the tortured titan's eyes, shooting up into space and clipping The Benign Intervention, prompting a furious K'gard to cry treachery, return Magnus to the Lost Light, encase the ship in an incineration shield, and teleport a squad of troopers down to Theophany to finish the Autobots off. The troopers arrive just as Skids is realizing that the Titan's psychic scream is responsible for all the recent weirdness—the offline Autobots and Nanocons reactivating, the message written by the "possessed" Rodimus (which Cyclonus notes actually said "Set me free")—and Drift and Rewind are trying to stop Chromedome re-entering its brain in the pursuit of proof of God, and battle breaks out. Believing the destruction of the Lost Light assured, Magnus contacts Rodimus to say farewell, but Rodimus has an idea and has Swerve put on the line. He instructs Swerve to tell Ore the truth of his situation, hoping that doing so will cause him to panic, jump-starting the quantum drives and teleporting the ship away to safety, but after Rung, and the long discussion he has had about life and death with the revived Duobot, Swerve refuses on the basis that Ore may die. With no options left and no guarantee of their own safety, Rodimus acquiesces to Brainstorm's original suggestion: shrink the Titan with his mass-displacement gun in order to make him small enough to teleport away. The gun flares, and everything goes white...

It's just another ordinary day on the Lost Light. After the Titan shrank to a small enough size, it teleported away, sending the Autobots back to the Lost Light and taking the psychically linked Ore with it, in turn triggering the quantum drives and jumping the ship out of the council's clutches. Or as Swerve relates to Rung, to hear Drift tell it, the Autobots' act of kindness restored the Titan's faith in them, and he sent them all to safety and Ore to the Afterspark. Whatever the case, the mystery of what happened to the Circle of Light remains, and the Lost Light sets course for the Argon Nebulae to investigate a possible Decepticon lead. The universe is too hostile for Rodimus to wing it any more: it's time to take control of their situation.

Back aboard The Benign Intervention, Captain K'gard reports his findings to a superior officer, proposing a "regime change" off the back of his discovery that the Autobots forces are split between Cybertron and the Lost Light. He relates that Magnus turned down his offer to join the council, despite his K'gard's warning that staying with the Lost Light crew would only change Magnus into something he was not. To that, Magnus had nothing to say...he just smiled.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
{{#if: ||(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)}}

{{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"

Rodimus (1)
Skids (3)
Whirl (4)
First Aid (5)
Ratchet (6)
Ultra Magnus (7)
Brainstorm (8)
Atomizer (9)
Jackpot (10)
Trailbreaker (11)
Chromedome (12)

Rewind (13)
Swerve (16)
Ore (17)
Drift (18)
Fortress Maximus (19)
Rung (20)
Perceptor (21)
Ambulon (22)
Optimus Prime (23)
Blaster (35)

|

!! style="background:#ffdddd;" | Autobots }}{{#if:* Nanocons (2)| !! style="background:#ededff" | Decepticons }}{{#if:* Primus (26)

Mortilus (27)
Solomus (28)
Epistemus (29)
Adaptus (30)|

!! style="background:#fbefde;" | The Guiding Hand }}{{#if:* Captain K'gard (24)

Troopers of The Benign Intervention (34)
Officer of the Galactic Council (36)|

!! style="background:#ffeeb8;" | Galactic Council }}{{#if:* Tailgate (14)

Cyclonus (15)
Metrotitan (25)
Metrobase (31)
More unnamed Titans (32)
Legislators (33)|

!! style="background:#d5e6d5;" | Others }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#fedeb5;" | Misc }} |- {{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent" |- |style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|

Rodimus (1)
Skids (3)
Whirl (4)
First Aid (5)
Ratchet (6)
Ultra Magnus (7)
Brainstorm (8)
Atomizer (9)
Jackpot (10)
Trailbreaker (11)
Chromedome (12)

|style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|

Rewind (13)
Swerve (16)
Ore (17)
Drift (18)
Fortress Maximus (19)
Rung (20)
Perceptor (21)
Ambulon (22)
Optimus Prime (23)
Blaster (35)

|}|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |

Rodimus (1)
Skids (3)
Whirl (4)
First Aid (5)
Ratchet (6)
Ultra Magnus (7)
Brainstorm (8)
Atomizer (9)
Jackpot (10)
Trailbreaker (11)
Chromedome (12)

Rewind (13)
Swerve (16)
Ore (17)
Drift (18)
Fortress Maximus (19)
Rung (20)
Perceptor (21)
Ambulon (22)
Optimus Prime (23)
Blaster (35)

}}{{#if:* Nanocons (2)|

| style="background:#ededff;" valign="top" |

Nanocons (2) }}{{#if:* Primus (26)
Mortilus (27)
Solomus (28)
Epistemus (29)
Adaptus (30)|

| style="background:#fbefde;" valign="top" |

Primus (26)
Mortilus (27)
Solomus (28)
Epistemus (29)
Adaptus (30) }}{{#if:* Captain K'gard (24)
Troopers of The Benign Intervention (34)
Officer of the Galactic Council (36)|

| style="background:#ffeeb8;" valign="top" |

Captain K'gard (24)
Troopers of The Benign Intervention (34)
Officer of the Galactic Council (36) }}{{#if:* Tailgate (14)
Cyclonus (15)
Metrotitan (25)
Metrobase (31)
More unnamed Titans (32)
Legislators (33)|

| style="background:#d5e6d5;" valign="top" |

Tailgate (14)
Cyclonus (15)
Metrotitan (25)
Metrobase (31)
More unnamed Titans (32)
Legislators (33) }}{{#if:|

| style="background:#fedeb5;" valign="top" |

}}

|}

Quotes

"Rodimus said "no guns"! What part of "no guns" don't you understand?"
"The gun part..?"

—Skids and Whirl

"I can't see what's going on down there, but all I can hear is macho banter. You've got to shut up and keep moving!"

—Ratchet is concerned by the progress made so far.

"I was infected years ago, when I arrested this Decepticon--I forget his name. He'd been peddling miniaturization technology. I thought all the nanos were killed shortly afterwards."
"Well, there certainly won't be any survivors this time. Not with Whirl down there."
"Whirl?! You let Whirl inside my body?!"
"It's okay--he's been told not to open fire."
"He's armed?!"

—Ultra Magnus and Ratchet

"Ultra Magnus, I wouldn't ask you to do this if the fate of the entire crew didn't depend on it, but I need you to give me a great big smile."
"A what?"

—Ratchet asks Ultra Magnus to do the unthinkable

"Atomizer. Interior designer turned deadly assassin. Fascinated by high-velocity bladed weapons. Potential troublemaker."
"Jackpot. Overbearing and reckless. A pathological gambler. Over-reliance on good luck puts everyone at risk. Potential troublemaker."
"Trailbreaker/Trailcutter. A brave and gentle mediator. Cheerful, conciliatory manner boosts the morale of others. Potential troublemaker."

—Ultra Magnus's crew member files have a very consistent theme.

"Let me get this straight: you left graffiti inside Ultra Magnus?"
"Yeah, don't pretend you're not impressed."
"What does it say?
"It says the duly appointed enforcer of the Tyrest Accord can duly appoint my shiny metal-"
"Assuming that's everyone, we'll begin!"

—First Aid and Whirl talking about Whirl's latest "achievement." Rodimus inadvertently cuts him off for the more "sensitive" readers.

"Guys? I've got Swerve in my ear. He says Ore's just come back to life."
"You timed that deliberately."
"I'm serious! He said, 'The blue Duobot's just started talking to me, what do I do, he's asking all these questions, I haven't said anything yet, I am officially scared witless, tell the others but not the bit about me being scared witless.'"

—Skids and Ratchet

"Nothing tingles like a teleport. How come we don't teleport everywhere, Brainstorm?"
"'Cos it's bad for you."
"Whereas all those weapons you build--"
"Are bad for other people."

—Rewind and Brainstorm

Notes

Continuity notes

Nanocons were first mentioned in "Zero Point", where it was left ambiguous whether or not they really existed or were just figments of Roadbuster's imagination.
While perusing the A's of the crew manifest back in issue #1, Ultra Magnus warned against letting an unnamed character anywhere near a crossbow. That character is implicitly revealed in this issue to be Atomizer, a character first mentioned in James Roberts's prose story "Bullets", making his first pictoral appearance here.
Magnus's optic readout of Trailbreaker notes that he is also known as "Trailcutter", the alternate name that Hasbro had to use to release toys of the character due to trademark concerns. The in-universe origin of this second name would later be explored in Spotlight: Trailcutter, set before this issue.
Skyfall's death by drinking Gideon's Glue also took place in "Bullets".
Rodimus's "'Til all are one" montage gives us a few glimpses of scenes "between the panels", including him welcoming Fortress Maximus onto the ship after issue #5, and cradling Rung's body between the last few pages of issue #6.
The Cybertronian game of Fullstasis is mentioned, which first appeared in issue #69 of the original Marvel series.
The epigraph to chapter two is a quote from Beachcomber's work on the Primal Prophecies, which were mentioned in Roberts's "Chaos Theory Part 2".
While the Galactic Council were first mentioned in "Chaos Theory Part 1", the notion of other alien races hating and shunning the Transformers was previously seen in IDW continuity back in "Spotlight: Drift".
Rewind is able to tell that Drift "sounds upset" by listening to him as he transforms, backing up Chromedome's claim from issue #6 that Rewind can determine a Transformer's mood from the sound of their transformation.
The epigraph for chapter three is a quote from After the Ark: Nominus Prime and the Illusion of Progress, a tract written by Megatron and mentioned in part 1 of "Chaos Theory".
The Guiding Hand's war is revealed as the alleged reason for the loss of Cybertron's first moon, first mentioned back in issue #1 and in multiple places since. It is noted that Rodimus once vowed to find it; presumably this was the "moonquest" Swerve said he'd been on in that same issue. However, back in "The Death of Optimus Prime", Optimus attested that the disappearance of Luna 1 was not something which happened in the "ancient past".
Rewind shows Cyclonus an image of Cybertron as it existed in his time, including annotated images of the Pious Pools and Warrior's Gate, locations Cyclonus specifically pined for back in issue #1.
Swerve refers to the Afterspark, first mentioned in "The Death of Optimus Prime". Where that issue implied it to be a hellish, barren wasteland, here, Swerve refers to it with some degree of hope. Really, it's just the most recent IDW vision of the Transformer afterlife, given a new name probably because its previously most-popular one, "Allspark", has become nothing but confusing since the introduction of the physical AllSpark object in other continuities.
Before Chromedome reads Metrotitan's memories, Drift says to Rodimus: "You're important, Rodimus. More important than even you realize. One day, everything will depend on you." This comes true in the penultimate issue of Lost Light, when Rodimus opens the final Matrix to shut down the false Primus.

Transformers references

"Inter-Autobot radio" was a term first used in issue #10 of the original Marvel comic book, but Ultra Magnus's use of it here is more akin to the live-action film series' Bumblebee's use of "inter-Autobot frequencies" to communicate in lieu of actual speech.
Beachcomber's epigraph identifies him as hailing from Ibex, a Cybertronian polity previously only seen in issue #77 of the Marvel US series.
The Metrotitans take their name from the Zone character of the same name, who was a redeco of the original Metroplex. This concept will soon be quietly retconned out; the species name will be shortened to just "Titan," and the one at the center of this story is identified as the Metrotitan. That does mean we have to ignore a little Easter egg, though: in Cyclonus's flashback panel, another Titan has Metrotitan's classic color scheme.
Speaking of Easter eggs, in that same panel, there's a purple and orange Titan. About a year after this story was published, the "Metrowars" manga would apply that color scheme to the pre-existing character of Metrobase, another Metroplex redeco, tying him into the Titan concept.
During Cyclonus's story about Primus and the Guiding Hand, he stops to ask Rewind a question when he's about to name Primus's "opposite". He never does give the name, but we can guess who it might be; a certain chaos-bringer is keeping up his track record of not being mentioned by name in IDW continuity thus far.
Swerve and Ore's conversation sees use of the phrase "Naturally-occurring gears, levers, and pulleys..." which was originally used in the first issue of the Marvel Generation 1 comic.
The Argon Nebulae originate from the Marvel UK story "Robot Buster!".

Real-world references

Whirl's graffiti makes mention of doing something to a shiny metal bodypart of his. This is probably a reference to Bender from Futurama, whose catchphrase is "Bite my shiny metal ass!" In fact, Rodimus just happens to interrupt him with "Assuming that's everyone, we'll begin!".
Drift's lengthy list of the virtues of Crystal City's denizens, and inability to give a similar list for his own crew, tailing off with "...and us with our... with our...", leading to his crewmates' put down is very similar to an exchange in the UK sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf VI episode "Legion".
The fleet of ships in the background of the panel where Mortilus melodramatically gestures the advance of his warriors includes the recognisable silhouettes of vessels from several other science-fiction franchises, such as the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, Serenity from Firefly, the "derelict" from the Alien franchise, and a Cylon raider from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.
The above-mentioned epigraph quote from Megatron paraphrases the famous [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Karl Marx|{{#if:||Karl Marx}}]] quote, "Religion is the opiate of the people."

Trivia

This issue contains the first of two interlinking stories with the title prefix of "Primus", told through the 2012 Transformers annuals. The stories' unifying theme is that of exploring and revealing a lot of new information about the earliest days of life on Cybertron, embodied in the presence of the Titan, which appears in the Robots in Disguise annual following its disappearance at the end of this issue. The flashback sequences in both these issues are drawn by Guido Guidi in a retro style gloriously evocative of the original Marvel Comics series—particularly the inking work of Ian Akin and Brian Garvey and the limited-palette, not-always-entirely-inside-the-lines coloring of Nelson Yomtov—which he has also showcased in the variant "B" covers of Regeneration One.
Initially solicited for release on August 15, this double-sized issue eventually arrived three weeks late.
A sketchbook section in the back of the issue includes designs for the Guiding Hand by Guido Guidi.
This brings Ultra Magnus's lifetime smile count up to three.
When Rewind says he hasn't heard Cyclonus's version of the story of Primus, he might as well be speaking for the readers, who have probably heard several versions of the story of Primus and the origin of the Transformers, but not one exactly like this.

Errors

In general, the artwork for the second half of the story seems to have been extremely rushed, with multiple errors, visible pencil-lines, and many characters being little more than a collection of shapes, missing limbs or decorative parts of their bodies.

The artist appears to have misinterpreted how Alex Milne drew Ore's trapped head in issues 2 and 3 — instead of being trapped across the forehead such that the entire top of his head is stuck in the engine and his right cheek is free, his head drawn far more vertically, and the slice above where the top of his head had been embedded is drawn as "bald", missing the helmet he shares with Shock.
First Aid is erroneously colored as Swerve in the first panel on page 11, this was corrected for the TPB.
When Rodimus recalls his own Act of Affiliation ceremony, the flashback panel shows him in his current day body, which is assuredly not what he looked like back then.
Throughout this story, the color of Tailgate's hands keeps changing from panel to panel, ranging from the same white as his forearms (page 6, panel 4) — the same way they are typically colored over in the monthly More than Meets the Eye series — to appearing almost black (e.g. page 7, panel 5 or page 11, panel 1). Additionally, the "Bomb Disposal" inscription on his right forearm he's supposed to have since issue 6 is never seen in this story.

Sir not-actually-appearing-in-this-scene. Two of them, in fact.

Skids is drawn with no left hand on page 15.
Rewind appears to be flying in data slug mode at the top of page 18. James Roberts later clarified that the panel was "misleading", and that Rewind lacked this ability;<ref name="FlyingRewind">James Roberts: I'm afraid this is a misleading panel. Rewind can't fly in giant dataslug mode.</ref> obviously, he's just falling with style.
On the same page, Drift's entire body is colored gray, save for his head; this was corrected for the TPB.
On that same page again, Chromedome is blue.
Cyclonus sports green eyes on pages 20 and 21.
In panel 2 on page 24, both Tailgate and Swerve are seen standing on the Titan's face, despite neither of them being part of the group that teleported to Theophany's surface. Swerve is supposed to be talking to Ore on the Lost Light throughout the story, and Tailgate is later also shown to be still on the Lost Light with Ultra Magnus when the Titan teleports everyone away. The issue is further confused by Rodimus, in the same panel, not only addressing the assembled group as "Crusadercons" (a term previously coined by Swerve back in issue #2), but also referring to the task ahead of them as a "brain-quest" (back in issue #1, Swerve referred to a "Moonquest", and in issue 2, Skids's question whether the crew of the Lost Light was on "some sort of quest" resulted in Swerve rattling off a variety of potential quests), giving the appearance of a script error rather than an art one. Roberts would subsequently clarify that the dialogue was indeed Rodimus' and that Swerve appearing was an art error.<ref name="CrusaderconsQuest">[1]</ref> Additionally, some of the detail lines on the Titan's face (underneath its nose and right of Tailgate) are missing, with the slightly washed out colors in this spot making it look as if a previous art error had been hastily erased. For the More than Meets the Eye Vol. 3 trade paperback collection, Tailgate was removed from the panel entirely, Swerve was partially redrawn and recolored into Chromedome, and the detail lines on the Titan's face have been completely redrawn.
Also on page 24 Rewind reacts with (perhaps sarcastic) surprise when Cyclonus speaks, yet on page 20 he's right there when Cyclonus reports in to Rodimus and Drift.
In the center panel of Cyclonus' story on pages 26–27, "Destroyed" is misspelled "Destoyed". Despite other corrections this remained unchanged in the TPB.

In Metrotitan's memories of the Legislator attack, the two Circle of Light members seen are drawn as Ratchet and Skids. Also, whilst not strictly an error, the right-hand panel of the flashback is very directly referenced from the Legislators' first appearance in issue #2, to the point of including the wrecked Legislator head in the foreground.
One page 31, Blaster is erroneously colored pink with a purple head, and is missing a computer-applied Autobot insignia, instead sporting a rough red block with "LOGO" handwritten inside. The colors were corrected for the TPB, but the missing symbol was not.
On page 33, either Rodimus's hand is miscolored and missing his wrist vents, or Ratchet is using his miscolored hand to push Rodimus's ear piece. Either way it's wrong, but the latter interpretation seems very odd.
Ratchet's hands are colored red on page 35. They are back to the correct blue in the TPB. In the same panel his right foot is missing, which wasn't corrected for the trade.
Also on page 35, almost all the Galactic Council troops are drawn as Cybertronian-esque robots, with only two in the background of panel 2 being drawn as the correct, vaguely insectoid organic aliens seen throughout the rest of the issue.
At the bottom of page 38 the right hand side spike on Rodimus's helmet is colored like the background.
Ultra Magnus's left shoulder missiles are missing on page 38 along with his left 'helmet tube'. He briefly regains them on page 39 but in the bottom right panel his left shoulder missile has vanished.
When Tailgate asks Cyclonus to attend his badge ceremony, the first part of his speech bubble is missing punctuation.
When Rodimus tries to calm down Ultra Magnus, he says "From embarrassing things happen to you". It was probably meant to say "Some embarrassing things happen to you".

Crew manifest

Ore briefly returns to life before being teleported away with the Titan.
Swerve is having trouble locating Red Alert, who said his "last words" in issue #7.
Although Hyperion and Polaris were the only fatalities, First Aid confirms that several Autobots sucked out of the ship in issue #1 are off-line and in the medical bay.

Soundtrack

"Nothing Lasts Forever" by [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Echo & the Bunnymen|{{#if:||Echo & the Bunnymen}}]]
"For the Dead" by [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Gene (band)|{{#if:Gene|Gene|Gene (band)}}]]
"Too Late to Die Young" by [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Departure Lounge (band)|{{#if:Departure Lounge|Departure Lounge|Departure Lounge (band)}}]]

Foreign localization

Japanese

Title: "Primus: Omae to Ore to Himitsu no Hanashi" (プライマス：お前とオレと秘密の話, "Primus: You, Me, and Secret Fables")

Swedish

Title: "Primus: Du, jag och andra uppenbarelser" (Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations")
- The Pious Pools are given their second translated name as "Piusdammarna" translating out to "The Pius Pools". Bizarrely, this is despite the first issue—collected in the same volume—giving them a different name.

Covers (3)

Cover A: Hot Rod & co. look at the collapsed Titan, by Tim Seeley
Cover B: A fantail of pictures showing the cast with Crystal City at the centre, by Alex Milne
Cover RI: Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, Ratchet, and half a Titan, linking with the Robots in Disguise Annual 2012 cover, by Jimbo Salgado
2nd Printing Cover: Primus (art taken from page 25 of this issue), by Guido Guidi.

Cover A
Cover B
Cover RI
2nd Printing Cover

Reprints

The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 3 (March 27, 2013) ISBN 161377592X / ISBN 978-1613775929
- Collects More than Meets the Eye Annual 2012 and issues #9–11.
- Bonus material includes "Meet the Crew", variant covers, and designs for the Guiding Hand.
- Trade paperback format.

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404741 / ISBN 978-1631404740
- Collects More Than Meets the Eye volumes 1–5.
- Bonus material unknown at this time.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 3 (February 24, 2016) ISBN 1631405403 / ISBN 978-1631405402
- Collects Spotlight: Thundercracker, Bumblebee & Megatron, More than Meets the Eye Annual 2012, issues #9–11 & #12–13 & "Signal to Noise", and Robots in Disguise Annual 2012 & issues #10–11.
- Bonus material unknown at this time.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 55: Shadowplay (January 9, 2019)
- Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #7–13 and Annual 2012.
- Bonus material includes the second of a new three-part interview with Roberts, early pages of scripts, design sketches from Alex Milne, a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: Mer än ögat kan se (June 15, 2019)
- Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #1–8 & Annual 2012, Spotlight: Trailcutter & Hoist, and a special illustrated edition of "Bullets".
- Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

More than Meets the Eye Volume 3 – cover art by Alex Milne and Joana Lafuente
More Than Meets the Eye Box Set – cover art by Marcelo Matere
The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 3 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 55: Shadowplay – cover art by Don Figueroa (Whirl) and Alex Milne (retro)
Mer än ögat kan se – cover art by Alex Milne and Joana Lafuente.

References

External links

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