Syndromica (2)

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|- {{#if: IDW Publishing | |Publisher || IDW Publishing}} |- {{#if: | |Published by || }} |- {{#if: | |Imprint || }} |- {{#if: | |Published in || }} |- {{#if: October 10, 2012 | |First published || October 10, 2012}} |- {{#if: | |Shipping date || }} |- {{#if: | |On-sale date || }} |- {{#if: October 2012 | |Cover date || October 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: John Barber | |Story by || John Barber}} |- {{#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: | |Written by || }} |- {{#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: Livio Ramondelli | |Art by || Livio Ramondelli}} |- {{#if: | |Additional art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Flashback art by || }} |- {{#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: | |Color by || }} |- {{#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: Shawn Lee | |Letters by || Shawn Lee}} |- {{#if: | |Lettered by || }} |- {{#if: | |Lettering|Production || }} |- {{#if: | |Special Thanks{{#if: | To}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Collaborators || }} |- {{#if: | |Contributors || }} |- {{#if: Carlos Guzman | |Editor || Carlos Guzman}} |- {{#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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Orion Pax's pursuit of Jhiaxus takes him not just to LV-117, but through time itself.

Synopsis

In deep space, aboard Turmoil's captured spaceship, Spectro gripes about the assignment Shockwave has given to him, Spyglass, and Viewfinder, and suggests that after weeks of failing to find the planet they've been sent to visit, they should just pick a random planet from which to gather the data Shockwave wants. Suddenly, however, the very planet they are looking for materializes out of nowhere right in front of them, and as they hit its atmosphere, all aboard have a vision of Viewfinder's death. Although lasting only an eye-blink, once the vision is over all the ship's fuel has disappeared, and it begins to crash.

Reflector's plight is detected by Orion Pax, Hardhead, Wheelie, and Garnak, who have come to this region of space in pursuit of Jhiaxus and his minions. Garnak deduces from Wheelie's panicked reaction to the planet's sudden appearance that it must be LV-117, the world on which Wheelie was stranded for millions of years, and where they know Jhiaxus is heading. On approach, they too see a vision, of themselves down on the planet's surface, discovering the wreckage of Turmoil's craft. Both this vision and Reflector's come true in short order, as after setting down, the Autobots discover Viewfinder's dead body in the ship's remains... except that all signs indicate the craft has been there for over seventy years. Orion explores the ship further and discovers the time machine at its core, but when he touches it, he finds himself shunted through time. In the new time period he finds himself in, Orion witnesses Jhiaxus escaping aboard Turmoil's ship, as Monstructor completes a battle with a pair of native creatures before following its master. The confused Pax is confronted by Bludgeon, who baffles him further by explaining that they have followed him there, and speaking of a meeting between the two that has not happened yet...

In a white flash, Orion finds himself thrown back into LV-117's past, where he discovers Turmoil, sent there by Shockwave to gather data on the effect his Regenesis ore has had on the planet, rounding up the planet's native population. Turmoil sees particular promise in the fact that access to Shockwave's missile has made the natives extremely technologically adept, and has begun to enslave them, which naturally prompts Pax to action. The sudden appearance of Bludgeon, who steals a device from one of the natives and quickly departs, distracts Pax long enough that Turmoil is able to grab another of the aliens named Varta and threaten him. Pax's rage proves enough to overpower the Decepticon and save the alien, at which point another time-jolt jumps the pair further into the future. Varta turns on Pax, thinking him one of the Decepticons; some tactful rhyming allows Orion to communicate with and placate the enraged alien, who explains that LV-117 was granted the ability to transcend time by the Regenesis missile, and that his race steers it through the seas of history. The pair's attention is drawn above by the arrival of a ship: Pax recognizes it as Reflector's vessel, and realizes that visitors to LV-117 are transported to random points in time upon arrival. Varta leaves to investigate, against Pax's warnings.

Time shifts around him again, almost imperceptibly, and Orion again finds himself attacked by Bludgeon, who explains that Pax's contact with the time machine has set them both adrift in time. As they battle, the world around them begins to come apart, the planet itself being destroyed by unknown forces. The Wheelie and Varta of this era appear, but Bludgeon promptly kills Varta, at which point Jhiaxus makes his presence known, standing atop the spacecraft Wheelie and his friend had been intending to use to flee the doomed planet. Jhiaxus denies responsibility for LV-117's destruction, and when asked by Pax why he was screaming his name, Jhiaxus corrects him—his screams of "Prime" and "Pax" were screams for Gorlam Prime and "Pax Cybertronia". Like Ironhide, Jhiaxus also saw a vision of the future at the moment of Cybertron's reformatting, of Gorlam Prime as the center of a Cybertronian empire, and recognized it as the fulfilment of Nova Prime's dream. "True chaos" is coming, Jhiaxus warns, but using the mutated soil of LV-117, he plans to teleport the prosperous past-self of Gorlam Prime through time, to replace the dead world the planet has become today... and claims that Orion will help him! To stop Jhiaxus, Wheelie unleashes a Chaosteros and an Arachnosaur from within his ship, which he had planned to take with him, keeping Monstructor busy while Pax and Wheelie try to recover the control device. Wheelie knocks it from Jhiaxus's hand with his slingshot and Pax seizes it... but at that point, everything clicks into place for the former Autobot leader. He and Bludgeon have been travelling in opposite directions in time, encountering each other in the wrong order, meaning that Bludgeon has already gone on to obtain from the past a replacement control device for the one now held by Orion. Using that device, Jhiaxus's team were able to follow Pax to the era he first jumped to... the era where they escaped on Turmoil's ship. And since he has already seen that happen, Pax realizes... he cannot stop them.

One final jump returns Orion to the relative present, outside his ship, as Wheelie, Hardhead, and Garnak run out to meet him. Hardhead explains that Jhiaxus did indeed appear and capture Turmoil's ship after Orion disappeared, and that he has been missing for a month, but that Wheelie would not let them leave without him. Still holding the control device, Orion tells them all he can of his ordeal, and they depart the planet. Orion knows that Jhiaxus must be stopped, but another concern now gnaws at his mind... in that glimpse of the future he saw, what destroyed LV-117?

Featured characters

{{#if:* Orion Pax (4)

Hardhead (5)
Wheelie (7)|

{{#if:* Orion Pax (4)

Hardhead (5)
Wheelie (7)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
Orion Pax (4)
Hardhead (5)
Wheelie (7) }}{{#if:* Spectro (1)
Spyglass (2)
Viewfinder (3)
Bludgeon (8)
Monstructor (10)
Turmoil (12)|

Autobots }}{{#if:* Spectro (1)

Spyglass (2)
Viewfinder (3)
Bludgeon (8)
Monstructor (10)
Turmoil (12)|

Decepticons }}{{#if:|

Humans }}{{#if:* Garnak (6)

Chaosteros (9)
Arachnosaur (11)
Varta (13)
Jhiaxus (14)|

Others }}{{#if:|

Misc }}{{#if:|

Misc }}

Spectro (1)
Spyglass (2)
Viewfinder (3)
Bludgeon (8)
Monstructor (10)
Turmoil (12) }}{{#if:|

}}{{#if:* Garnak (6)

Chaosteros (9)
Arachnosaur (11)
Varta (13)
Jhiaxus (14)|

Garnak (6)
Chaosteros (9)
Arachnosaur (11)
Varta (13)
Jhiaxus (14) }}{{#if:|

}}{{#if:|

}}

What the f—?

A tricky issue, this one. It jumps through many different time periods on LV-117 in a jumbled-up order, so here's a quick chronological list to try and explain what our synopsis struggles to. Aside from the actual galactic-relative "present" that Pax and the Reflectors occupy before setting down on LV-117, the time periods they experience are:

Pages 9–12: Thousands of years ago. Turmoil and his crew arrive on the planet and enslave Varta's people.
Pages 13–14: Reflector arrives on LV-117 in Turmoil's ship.
Pages 3–5: More than seventy years later. Orion Pax and his team arrive.
Pages 6–8: Very soon after Orion's arrival. Jhiaxus seizes control of Turmoil's ship and escapes.
Page 22: One month after Orion's team arrives. They depart the planet.
Pages 14–21: Six years into the future, leading up to the destruction of the planet as eventually referenced in Unicron #0.

Era #6 at first appears to be two separate time periods, given the sudden shift in color to red and the onset of destruction that occurs across pages 15 and 16, but the fact that Bludgeon continues his conversation with Orion across this shift when the pair are supposed to be jumping in opposite directions through time indicates that no jump occurs at this point. We can instead identify the jump as having happened in the last panel of page 14 via the major "landmark" in the background that shifts and changes throughout the story: the number and condition of the creature corpses in the background. A single corpse is visible by Turmoil's ship in era #1 (page 9, panel 3), which has decayed to a skeleton by era #2 (page 13, panel 1), and is still there in era #3 (page 3, panel 1). Monstructor then kills two creatures in era #4 (page 5), whose corpses remain alongside the first skeleton in era #5 (page 22, panel 1), and have decayed significantly by era #6 (page 15, panel 1).

Orion experiences the issue in the following order: 3, 4, 1, 2, 6, 5.

Bludgeon goes through the issue in this order: 6, 1, 4. Presumably he has already travelled through other unseen eras, since he knows they are already jumping through time when he meets Orion in era #6. Monstructor and Jhiaxus do not travel alongside him: they are only seen to jump straight from era #6 to era #4, deliberately brought there by Bludgeon, using the control device he obtains in era #1.

Going back a bit further (see notes below), Spotlight: Wheelie began somewhere between periods 1 and 2, and Wheelie's time on LV-117 extended all the way up to period 6 (the Wheelie and Varta of that era briefly meeting Orion while he was time-jumping), after which he fled the dying planet and relocated to LV-118 prior to the beginning of "Space Opera".

Notes

Continuity notes

This issue picks up the story of Orion and his pursuit of Jhiaxus from where it was left at the end of issue #6.
In large part, this issue revolves around rectifying and significantly building upon a notable continuity error from several years prior. Published in 2008, Spotlight: Wheelie showed the Reflector trio dying on LV-117, only for the characters to turn up alive a few months later in All Hail Megatron #3. The 2009-2011 ongoing series would later explicitly confirm that Spotlight: Wheelie chronologically occurred before All Hail Megatron, ruling out the possibility that Reflector's death happened after their All Hail Megatron appearance. And now we know how it worked out!
The planet with the erratic orbit pointed out by Spectro at the start of the issue is LV-118, the planet Wheelie had relocated to by the time of "Space Opera".
Although not explored any more deeply here than in Spotlight: Wheelie, the Quintesson connection to the planet that the original story implied with the appearance of a hieroglyph of the aliens' Face of Death is reiterated here, as a similar drawing is seen scrawled onto the casing of the Regenesis missile in the distant past.
Turmoil appears in this issue from a point in time between his debut in Spotlight: Drift and return in issue #7. Issue #7 showed that he had replaced his left eye with a patch in the intervening time; this issue shows what happened, as Orion punches out the eye in question.
Varta originally appeared in Spotlight: Wheelie, but was curiously absent when Wheelie reappeared in "Space Opera". This issue reveals what happened to him in between stories.
Further light is shed on issue #7's plot point that Varta's species created Turmoil's time machine; it makes sense that they would be capable of mastering time travel, given their stewardship of a time-travelling planet.
"Space Opera" showed that Wheelie moved from LV-117 to 118 using the ship of Quintesson spiral design that Jhiaxus briefly takes control of in this issue. In addition to finding out why he relocated—the destruction of LV-117—we also find out that he attempted to bring a Chaosteros and an Arachnosaur with him, local fauna that originally appeared in Spotlight: Wheelie and made an illogical appearance on LV-118 in "Space Opera". As these particular examples are time-jumped back to the relative present with Monstructor and proceed to die, we guess he must have rounded up some more.
Jhiaxus is revealed to have seen the same vision during the Chaos event as recent Robots in Disguise issues have established Ironhide did—the glimpse of the far future seen in the last issue of the ongoing series.
Jhiaxus calls Orion the "one true Matrix-bearer", further substantiating the suggestion of recent issues of More than Meets the Eye and the Robots in Disguise annual that none of the Primes prior to Optimus actually carried the Matrix.
In the aforementioned final ongoing issue, a passing reference was made to how Wheelie was the first of the Transformers to see the "great destroyer". That sobriquet, of course, immediately suggested the chaos-bringer himself, the planet-munching Unicron, who had been absent from IDW's continuity thus far... and now we know that something capable of destroying planets is/will be roaming the universe... and that, as Jhiaxus says in this issue, "true chaos" is coming... a threat that would take on greater meaning in the final issue of First Strike, and be entirely clarified in the Free Comic Book Day 2018 special issue...

Transformers references

We don't bring up Unicron lightly; the visuals of LV-117's destruction match those used for Unicron's consumption of Lithone in The Transformers: The Movie, as the planet is bathed in red light and slowly disintegrating, its pieces being sucked up into the air.

Real-life references

John Barber has noted his appreciation for the show [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Lost (TV series)|{{#if:LOST|LOST|Lost (TV series)}}]] in the past, and it'd be remiss of us not to note that the premise of this issue bears many similarities to that of the show's fifth season, where the cast became unstuck in time, bouncing back and forth in the show's timeline and tying up lingering lore questions. Of course, in the case of this issue, the main continuity discrepancy being fixed wasn't an intentional one! The most explicit similarities to the show's time-travel mechanics are the white flash seen on the transition between pages 8 and 9, and the significance of the "angle of approach" to the location.

Errors

On the first page, "hundred years worth" should be "hundred years' worth".
Back in "Space Opera Part 1: The Stars My Destination", Wheelie appeared wearing Varta's translation device from Spotlight: Wheelie around his neck, implying Varta had met an unfortunate fate—as seen here. But during that timeframe in this issue, both Wheelie and Varta are drawn wearing a device around their necks, drawn slightly differently, with Livio Ramondelli evidently having used both issues as reference and failing to pick up on the fact that it's just a single object passed from Varta to Wheelie!

Foreign localization

Japanese

Title: "Syndromica 2" (シンドロミカ2 Shindoromika Tsū)

Covers (3)

Cover A: Bludgeon close-up, by Livio Ramondelli
Cover B: Orion Pax faces off against Monstructor, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
Cover RI: Orion Pax and Wheelie, by Marcelo Matere and Joana Lafuente

Boogabooga!

Reprints

The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 3 (April 17, 2013) ISBN 1613776268 / ISBN 978-1613776261
- Collects Robots in Disguise issues #10–11 and Annual 2012.
- Bonus material includes a cover gallery, and Barber's script notes and Guidi's sketches for the Annual.
- Trade paperback format.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404261 / ISBN 978-1631404269
- Collects Robots in Disguise 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 56: City on Fire (October 2, 2019)
- Collects Robots in Disguise issues #8-14 and Annual 2012.
- Bonus material includes a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

Robots in Disguise Volume 3 – cover art by Brendan Cahill and Josh Perez
Robots in Disguise Box Set – cover art by ???
The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 3 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 56: City on Fire – cover art by Don Figueroa (Sludge) and Andrew Griffith (retro)

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