Shattered Glass issue 2

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« Transformers: Shattered Glass #2 »
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 29, 2021
Cover date September 2021
Written by Danny Lore
Art by Dan Khanna
Colors John-Paul Bove
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Editor David Mariotte and Riley Farmer

A weary Megatron reflects on the history of the Great War as Starscream tries to convince his former leader to retake command.

Synopsis

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Since the end of the Great War, Megatron has abandoned the Decepticons in favor of eking out a solitary existence in the deepest, least inhabitable regions of the Rust Sea—when the damaged Starscream makes a rough landing, the former Decepticon leader gruffly reminds Starscream that he asked to be left alone. When the damaged Seeker falls unconscious, however, Megatron's compassion compels him to bring Starscream inside to his jury-rigged shelter and repair his former lieutenant. As soon as he regains consciousness, Starscream explains his recent run-in with Blurr and the other bodyscrappers, who've put a bounty on his head after somehow catching wind of his recent activities. When the conversation turns to Starscream's former ally Jetfire, however, Starscream abruptly changes the conversation to Megatron's dingy living quarters. As he takes in the sight of a tattered Decepticon poster on the wall, Starscream admits that it reminds him of the first time he ever saw Megatron...

Before the war, Starscream was a scholar; he and Jetfire visited the Senate in Iacon to discuss funding for their work on the same day that Megatron held an anti-empurata rally outside the building. The pair watch from the sidelines as an argument between Megatron and security officer Prowl over their right to protest turns heated—when Prowl accuses Megatron of getting away with his rabble-rousing only because Orion Pax lets him, the crowd looks on as Megatron loses his temper and throws Prowl aside.

Starscream admits that this was the moment that inspired him to join the Decepticons: the idea of a lowly miner taking a stand against a bloated and corrupt Senate inspired him and countless other 'bots to rise up and join the Decepticons. Megatron's memory of that day is less rosy, however; that fight ended with his first arrest, and the Senate holding him up as an example to keep the other manual workers in their place. Again, Megatron asks why Starscream came to him for assistance, and Starscream explains that, with a target on his back, he needs help recruiting others to the cause. Megatron growls that Starscream would need a real leader to inspire a new generation of Decepticons and Megatron is no leader, not anymore.

As he stews in his holding cell, an officer abruptly tells Megatron that he's free to go; the moment he sets foot outside, he discovers that his friend Orion Pax has pulled some strings and cleared Megatron of all charges, despite an acidic comment that some jail time might've done the Decepticon leader some good. The subsequent argument marks the end of their friendship-Orion accuses Megatron of spreading chaos under the guise of "empathy", and Megatron retorts by reminding Orion of his secret police, and their role in Senator Shockwave's recent arrest and subsequent torture. The disagreement escalates into a full-on brawl; when Prowl and Chromedome step in to break up the fight, Pax instructs them to let Megatron go; despite Orion's warning that Megatron could've stood alongside him on the winning team, Megatron retorts that a 'bot like Orion could never share his power.

As he and Starscream step out into the Rust Sea, Megatron privately reflects on his turbulent friendship with Orion—did he allow him to pull strings out of genuine concern for the 'bots he'd be leaving behind if he went to jail, or out of his own selfish desires? Starscream snaps him back to the present; although the flier begs Megatron to take up arms and fight the good fight again, Megatron shouts that he's not Decepticon leader anymore: his bad decisions cost them everything and lost them the war.

When Orion Pax—now Optimus Prime—turned his attention to Earth, the Decepticons fought to protect the planet and its supplies of Rarified Energon, and as collateral damage continued to mount, their destructive conflict came to a head when the Autobots attacked Los Angeles. In what would become Megatron's final battle on Earth, the Decepticon leader lead the charge and eventually threw himself into a duel against his old nemesis. If he could not kill Optimus, Megatron reasoned, then he could at least martyr himself for the cause—and although Optimus beat him to the brink of death before laying waste to Earth, Megatron somehow survived. Cursing himself for ever trusting Orion, Megatron eventually salvaged a ship and limped back to Cybertron, only to find that the triumphant Autobots had already conquered the planet: the tyrant he'd once called a friend had destroyed everything he'd ever worked for.

Starscream, on the other hand, remembers the battle differently. Despite overwhelming odds, Megatron courageously led his men into battle—a crack shot from his fusion cannon saved Thundercracker from Bumblebee, and the sight of their commander fighting on inspired them to redouble their efforts. Only when Optimus Prime arrived did Megatron choose to lay down his life for the cause, secure in the knowledge that his sacrifice would buy time for Starscream to coordinate the evacuation of Earth. Despite his hesitation, Starscream followed his orders to the letter... and although Megatron still thinks himself a failure, Starscream assures him that everyone who survived the battle—survived because of him, and his willingness to lose to keep them alive. For too long, the Decepticons have kept to the shadows, but Starscream might have given the Decepticons a new edge. During the war, Megatron and Starscream discussed using Starscream's unique spark as an indestructible repository... and now, Starscream's found a way to use that spark to reactivate the Titans and take back Cybertron!

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Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons Autobots

Quotes

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"So many of the bots in this city have grown comfortable with this pathetic hierarchy you've set up. Where those of us that labor so that you don't have to are worthy of nothing but your cruelty. It is amusing to see you sputter when confronted by someone who is done with your bullying."

—Megatron


"You could have joined me, Megatron. Been on my side. If it weren't for-"
"—That's where you are wrong, Orion. You may have offered me a place at your side... but I could never have been on your side."

—Orion Pax and Megatron


"To this day, I wonder about the times he pulled strings. Was I complicit in letting him do so? Did I do it because my bots needed me outside with them? Or was I masking my own selfish desires? Perhaps I've spent my time in the Rust Seas making up for the time I should have spent in other cages."

—Megatron


"I hoped it would come to this—old friend!"
"We are past friendships."
"We are past nothing, Megatron! Until I say we are!"
"No! I have never followed your orders, Prime. I see no reason to start now."

—Couples counseling with Optimus Prime and Megatron


"We spoke of how you saved Thundercracker, with a pointblank shot that led to Bumblebee needing a new body. We drank to the vision of you taking down wave upon wave of Autobots. And how tyrants fell at your feet. Perhaps you saw yourself as a martyr. But to us, you were a hero."

—Starscream

Notes

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Continuity notes

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  • The... um... shattered glass on Optimus Prime's right windshield has been a prominent feature since his very first appearance in the original "Shattered Glass" comic; while its prominence in the original Fun Publications stories was never explained, this issue gives it some significance by revealing that it's a scar left over from his very first fight with Megatron from before the war.
  • During the battle on Earth, Megatron hits Bumblebee dead-on with his fusion cannon; going by Starscream's narration, this would be the incident that necessitated Bumblebee's complete rebuild into his present-day identity of Goldbug.
  • The late Blurr makes a silhouetted appearance during the flashback to Earth; he'd previously described Earth as a key battlefield in issue #1, but it wasn't clear if he'd actually gone to Earth himself with Optimus and the other Autobots.
  • A Titan resembling Metroplex and colored to resemble Metrotitan appeared last issue, seemingly echoing the "immersant" Titans from IDW's Transformers reboot, ancient figures who've merged with their homeworld's geography. Echoing a trend that's most recently surfaced in 2021's My Little Pony crossover, it seems that most contemporary depictions of Cybertron will feature dormant Titans in some capacity.

Transformers references

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  • The first issue of this miniseries primarily used characters who hadn't appeared in the original Shattered Glass run or had already appeared in Hasbro's new Generations subline. This issue features a huge number of characters who'd appeared in some way, shape, or form in the original Shattered Glass run; although most sport bodies based on their Generation 1 counterpart's most recent Generations figure, all of them are colored to resemble their original Shattered Glass selves—examples include a yellow and grey Shockwave, a black Ironhide, a Ratbat colored to resemble Batman, and a... well, let's just say "aggressively technicolored" Thundercracker. One notable exception is Prowl, who's had a made-up white, blue, and lime paintjob applied to his Siege toy.
  • Upon discovering Megatron's underground bunker, Starscream sardonically compares him to a "driller", the giant, tunnelling kaiju from Dark of the Moon film. Additionally, Megatron's habit of skulking around the desert, clad in a tattered cape, evokes his live-action film series counterpart's behaviour in that same film.
  • The first two flashbacks take heavy inspiration from the works of James Roberts—together, they constitute a bizarro version of Megatron's rise to power as depicted in the "Chaos Theory" duology, and feature additional story elements lifted from More than Meets the Eye's "Shadowplay" arc.
    • While the previous Shattered Glass universe established Optimus and Megatron as an evil librarian and a heroic university professor with no apparent connections to one another, most if not all contemporary Transformers stories have adopted some version of the Exodus novel as a backstory, most notably by depicting Optimus and Megatron as friends and political contemporaries during Cybertron's pre-war era. While Megatron's disenfranchised miner backstory has been a staple of the character since the days of Megatron Origin, its depiction of Orion Pax as a police officer serving a corrupt Senate hew much closer to IDW's first Transformers universe. Furthering the connection, Megatron's accusations of Pax's "secret police" echo the sinister Institute from More than Meets the Eye.
    • Prowl and Chromedome are shown to be police officers on the beat with Orion Pax, just as the "Shadowplay" trilogy depicted them as fellow investigators during the early days of the Decepticon movement.
    • Megatron's anti-empurata rallies are specifically a protest in support of Senator Shockwave, who was recently kidnapped and tortured by Orion Pax's secret police in an attempt to take away his compassion: in "Shadowplay", Shockwave voluntarily took the fall for Orion Pax and his gang of outlaws after they foiled a plot to implicate the Decepticons in an assassination, and suffered both empurata and shadowplay as a result. Given that this is a mirror universe, it's noted that, rather than turning him cold and emotionless, the procedure went wrong and left him with a hyperdeveloped sense of empathy for others, tying into how the original Shattered Glass stories depicted him as a kindly diplomat.
    • Ratbat's pre-war job as a senator has its roots in the Megatron Origin miniseries, which depicted him as an arrogant, opportunistic humanoid Transformer who was forcefully changed into an animalistic cassette by the Decepticons in a bit of karmic retribution. In contrast, Shattered Glass Ratbat is shown to be pretty chummy with Megatron and the other Decepticons.
    • A Shattered Glass version of Whirl, IDW's other most famous empurata victim, features on what seems to be a pro-empurata poster on page eight. More than Meets the Eye's Whirl despised the Functionist Council for taking away his original head and hands, so it makes sense that his mirror-universe self would come out in favor of the punishment.
  • Jetfire and Starscream's shared background as scientists and former friends are traits inspired by the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Fire in the Sky."
  • The first panel on page eight features a T-shaped lamppost colored to resemble Shattered Glass Soundwave, referencing his famous disguise in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1"—given the context of the scene, it's possible that this actually is Soundwave keeping an eye on the conversation, but the comic doesn't confirm or deny this. The same panel also features what appears to be a police model Watchdog drone with a lightbar.
  • Cybertronians based on Skydive and Slapdash are shown taking part in Megatron's protest. Another Decepticon who uses the Battlecharger body-type appears in the Earth flashback, but the block colors leave it ambiguous whether it's Runabout, Runamuck, or some other guy.
  • In this universe, Megatron's history on Earth apparently follows his live-action and Animated counterparts; his speech to the Decepticons makes note that he crashed on Earth, and that other Decepticons arrived later to help repair him. Still others came to Earth to help defend Earth's supplies of Rarified Energon, a miracle substance that played a major role in the original Shattered Glass stories—the evil Ultra Magnus used the stuff to destroy the Classics universe in 2012's "Invasion" storyline.
  • During the flashback on Earth, Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker are all in bodies based on their positive-universe counterpart's Earthrise toys.
  • Autobot casualties in Los Angeles include Rodimus and Sideswipe, who both played major roles in the original Shattered Glass stories. Sideswipe's body prominently displays an intact Autobot insignia, suggesting that, unlike his Fun Publications counterpart, he never changed sides.
  • Bumblebee's original body never appeared in the original Shattered Glass comics or prose stories. His appearance here has him copping the white and purple color scheme from his Shattered Glass Animated counterpart, who was in turn conceived as a homage to BotCon 2007's Timelines Bug Bite. Here, Bumblebee is modeled on his positive counterpart's 2020 War for Cybertron Trilogy Walmart toy, not to be confused with Generations Selects Bug Bite, which employs the body of Earthrise Cliffjumper despite also homaging the BotCon toy.
  • It goes without saying that Starscream describing his spark as an "indestructible safe" hearkens back to the character's traditional "indestructible spark" as one of his character traits, which was first established in the Beast Wars cartoon episodes "Possession" and "Bad Spark".

Real-world references

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  • A half-glimpsed poster on the streets of Iacon show numerous miners raising their tools into the air against a red and yellow background, underneath the slogan "MINERS UNITE", a bit of memetic signage inspired by the early days of the Soviet Union. Given that James Roberts would take heavy inspiration from the lives of both Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin while fleshing out the history of IDW's original Megatron, it's apropos that Megatron's heroic counterpart would also borrow some of their iconography.

Errors

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  • It's not necessarily an error, given that it's an alternate universe and all, but Megatron's description of Shockwave's fate notes that the empurata procedure was intended to alter Shockwave's personality, in keeping with the More than Meets the Eye riff. However, in that comic, the procedure which alters personalities is called shadowplay; empurata was purely the physical punishment of removing heads and/or hands.
  • On page five, "reckless" is misspelt "wreckless".
  • Prowl's line of "stop this instant!" erroneously uses "instance".
  • On page seventeen, "point blank" is spelt as one word, "pointblank".
  • In the final battle, a blue-and-white cassette-bot makes a cameo. This is most likely supposed to be either Frenzy or Rumble; however, both 'bots appear a few pages later, with one colored to resemble Eject and the other Rewind. Presumably, it's just a colouring error... or maybe it's meant to be a new deco for Enemy?

Covers (4)

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Reprints

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  • Transformers: Shattered Glass (July 27, 2022) ISBN 168405902X / ISBN 978-1684059027
    • Collects Shattered Glass issues #1–5.
    • Bonus material includes alternate covers.
    • Trade paperback format.
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