The Origins of Evil, Part Three: A Little Bit of Mayhem
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| "The Origins of Evil Part Three: A Little Bit of Mayhem" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| Published in | First Strike #3 | ||||||||||||
| First published | September 13, 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | September 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | John Barber | ||||||||||||
| Pencils by | Netho Diaz | ||||||||||||
| Inks by | Walden Wong | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | David García Cruz | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Tom B. Long | ||||||||||||
| Editor | David Hedgecock | ||||||||||||
| Assistant editor | David Mariotte | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | 2005 IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Current era | ||||||||||||
Miles Mayhem is next on Joe Colton's list of potential recruits.
Synopsis
[edit]Joe Colton enters the hideout of Miles Mayhem, easily overpowering Sly Rax in the process. Miles barely turns to look at Colton, instead preferring to continue working on the captive Blitzwing; he is, in fact, rather put out that Joe did not come to him first, which prompts Colton to remind him that the last time they saw each other, in the "Dolphin's Bay incident," Mayhem tried to kill him. Nonchalantly smashing open Blitzwing's visor to get at the optic sensors beneath, Mayhem remarks that he thought he and Colton had moved beyond that, since Colton had been the one who renewed contact with him and handed Blitzwing over to him—though now he realizes that was Colton's Dire Wraith doppelganger. Colton reminds Miles that he went on to make deals with two alien races, but Miles brushes it off as "the past," and inquires as to what has brought Colton to him. Colton explains that he and Garrison Kreiger are planning to use the Talisman against the Transformers—but Colton does not particularly trust Kreiger, so he has come to Mayhem, a man whose pragmatism and obvious disregard for Transformer life make him a more reliable ally. Wrenching the screaming Blitzwing's eyeball from its socket, unsettling even Colton, Mayhem strolls over to his Switchblade helicopter and sets about installing the eye on the front of the vehicle's cockpit, confirming with a grin that he can imagine big things for the Talisman, and will be delighted to join Colton's crusade.
Featured characters
[edit]Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Decepticons | Humans |
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Quotes
[edit]Blitzwing: "RAAAGH!!!"
Colton: "Is there some way of shutting off the robot's pain circuits or something?"
Blitzwing: "Noooo! Primus—it keeps getting worse!"
Colton: "Or at least turn down the screaming."
Mayhem: "Oh, I'm sure there is."
"Lucky for you, expertise is my middle name."
"It's your last name I'm after, Miles."
- —Mayhem and Colton
Notes
[edit]This four-page story is the third in a series of back-up strips published in the First Strike mini-series.
Continuity notes
[edit]- Colton's Dire Wraith impostor turned Blitzwing over to Mayhem in Revolution #0. Colton also refers to Mayhem's alliances with "two different alien races"—the Dire Wraiths and Baron Karza—which took place over the course of the rest of Revolution.
- Mayhem flashes back to the events of Revolutionaries #3, in which the Adventure Team first encountered the Talisman, and recalls the "death" of Atomic Man, as seen in Revolutionaries #7. He notes the Talisman wound up "among the Queen's jewels," alluding to British Special Intelligence taking custody of it, which early issues of Revolutionaries have told us happened... but the continuity gets really fuzzy around here, as we still don't really know when or how.
Transformers references
[edit]- Dolphin's Bay was the setting for the first Find Your Fate Junior storybook, "Dinobots Strike Back."
Errors
[edit]- Atomic Man's real name is given as "Michael Powers"; that should be "Power," singular. In addition, while "Mike" is often used as a diminutive form of "Michael", Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1 had given Atomic Man's real first name as just "Mike"—but it would be just like Mayhem to refer to someone with the full form of their name anyway.
- Mayhem's dialogue regarding the Talisman and Kreiger is written in such a way as to suggest he has had no contact with Kreiger (he asks Colton "how the old boy is doing"), and only recently come to the conclusions about the Talisman's abilities on his own, when First Strike #0 established he and Kreiger had been colluding some time between Revolution #0 and #1, using Blitzwing as a guinea pig in Talisman experiments
