Editing O Ship of State

{{comicstory
|seriesissue=''[[Revolution]]'' #3
|prev=The Divine Source of Liberty
|next=Revolution issue 4
|image=Revolution3 regcvr.jpg
|caption=
|title=Revolution Chapter 3:<br>"O Ship of State"
|caption=
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]]
|date=[[October 12]], 2016
|coverdate=
|written by=[[John Barber]] and [[Cullen Bunn]]
|art by=[[Fico Ossio]]
|colors by=[[Sebastian Cheng]]
|letters by=[[Tom B. Long]]
|editor=[[David Hedgecock]]
|continuity=[[IDW Generation 1 continuity]]
|chronology=[[IDW timeline|Current era]]
}}

'''The Transformers once again clash with Rom, and with fate of their home dimension hanging in the balance, the Micronauts must join the action.'''

==Synopsis==
In the subatomic dimension of [[Microspace]], the rag-tag gang of freebooters known as the [[Micronauts]] have ventured deep into the heart of the mysterious [[entropy cloud]] that is destroying their reality. They have been pursued by their enemy, the tyrant [[Baron Karza]], but the flow of time and space within the cloud is in flux, so when they cross paths again, it has been only days for the Micronauts, but ''years'' for the Baron. In those years, Karza has found what lies at the center of the cloud: the seemingly-lifeless form of [[Micronus Prime]], creator of Microspace itself. As the Micronauts' ship, the ''[[Heliopolis]]'', now comes within range of Micronus's planet-sized body, Karza explains to them via holographic communication that the robot is a gateway to another dimension, through which he is transporting the [[Ore-13]] that he has discovered is capable of counteracting the entropy cloud. But progress is slow, and to save Microspace, Karza says he will need the Micronauts' help.

At [[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]] headquarters, [[Matt Trakker]] angrily confronts [[Scarlett]], furious that she and [[Miles Mayhem|Miles Manheim]] hid the fact that the Transformers are living beings from him. Scarlett is a little disarmed to hear that [[M.A.S.K.]] have captured [[Kup (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Kup]] without her knowledge, but Manheim himself suddenly appears to redirect the conversation, and leads Matt away to talk to him in private. Elsewhere in the base, Kup tries to explain to [[M.A.S.K.]] operatives [[Vanessa Warfield]] and [[Sly Rax]] that he has friends in the [[Earth Defense Command]], and that he has important information on the Ore-13 situation. Warfield tells him she will relay the intel for him, so Kup tells her what he has learned, only to realize that the woman has tricked him and has no intentions of setting him free.
 
Meanwhile, having made peace with [[Rom]], [[Optimus Prime (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Optimus Prime]] brings the space knight back to [[Autobot City (G1)|Autobot City]], where they exchange notes on the [[Dire Wraith]]s and their interest in Earth's Ore-13, and Microspace, which [[Windblade (G1)|Windblade]] has, through her own investigations, discovered is somehow linked to the [[Titan (IDW)|Titan]] who makes up the city. Windblade believes that aiding the disintegrating Microspace should be their paramount concern, but Optimus Prime insists that, lacking the knowledge or resources to help Micronus's universe at present, they must remain focused on solving the Ore-13 situation on Earth. Just then, the damaged Aileron bursts into the room, with news of the humans' new identity-cloaking M.A.S.K. vehicle technology, and of Kup's discovery that the Ore-13 is being sent into another universe. [[Soundwave (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Soundwave]] draws the obvious connection to Microspace, and argues that Windblade's view is the correct one and that everything currently happening must be connected, but Optimus is firm, refusing to allow his team's attentions to be divided. But Rom's attentions are drifting towards Autobot City's [[space bridge]]...

Back at Joe headquarters, Scarlett is discussing her suspicion of Manheim's motives with [[Mainframe (G.I. Joe)|Mainframe]] when [[Doc (Carla Greer)|Doc]] comes rushing in. The medic has completed her examination of the remains of the Joes slain by Rom... and has discovered that they were not human! Realizing that the entire military command structure could be likewise compromised by alien infiltrators Scarlett puts in a call to an old friend for help.

In Microspace, it is revealed that Karza is not operating alone: he has unknown allies in the macro-verse and converses with one now via comm link, who urges him to pause his operations for fear of further danger to [[Earth]]. Once his co-conspirator has signed off, however, an enraged Karza refuses to heed his words, and activates Micronus's space bridge. Just as he does so, the Micronauts receive an unexpected visitor aboard the ''[[Heliopolis]]''—a "[[Time Traveler]]," a highly-evolved member of team leader [[Pharoid|Oziron Rael]]'s species, the Pharoids, with the power to walk across time and space. To save Microspace, the Time Traveler urges the team to travel ''through'' the bridge. Before they can reach a decision, however, huge chunks of Ore-13 suddenly start flying ''out'' of the bridge and detonating wildly in the space around them. This was not Karza's plan, and he interprets it as an attack by his Earth-based ally...

...unaware that it is really the work of Rom! Upon Karza's activation of Micronus's bridge, Autobot City's own bridge has also sprung to life, and though he does not understand how or why, Rom has found that his armor resonates with both the bridge and the Ore-13 crystals beneath the city. Using this link, Rom is hurling the crystals through the bridge to put them beyond the reach of the Dire Wraiths. Realizing the danger he is wantonly putting Microspace in, Optimus Prime, Windblade, and Soundwave attempt to stop him, but Rom holds them off, insisting that stopping the Wraiths' plans is the most important thing. Realizing how harshly he treated Windblade and Soundwave's concerns, Optimus tries to make the space knight understand that, while saving Earth from the aliens is their goal, it must never be accomplished at the expense of another world. Made to see the monomaniacal nature of his actions, the repentant Rom relents, and Optimus resolves that both Earth and Microspace will be saved. But as they talk, nobody notices a tiny spaceship come flying out of the space bridge...

Unaware of their diminutive size in this new universe, the Micronauts fly the ''Heliopolis'' through the corridors of Autobot City, thinking they have arrived on a world made entirely of metal. Suddenly, a colossal black figure appears in their flight path, and the crew believes that they have been betrayed by Baron Karza—for to them, the figure that now bars their way looks like a huge version of Karza himself... when in reality, it is Scarlett's "old friend," [[Snake-Eyes]]!

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Kup (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Kup]] (12)
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Optimus Prime]] (15)
*[[Windblade (G1)|Windblade]] (17)
*[[Aileron]] (20)
*[[Victorion]] (24)
*[[Arcee (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Arcee]] (25)
*[[Jazz (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Jazz]] (26)

|c2=
*[[Soundwave (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Soundwave]] (16)

|h3=[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]|c3=
*[[Scarlett]] (9)
*[[Mainframe (G.I. Joe)|Mainframe]] (21)
*[[Doc (Carla Greer)|Doc]] (22)
*[[Snake-Eyes]] (27)

|c4=
{{{!}}border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
{{!}}-
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*[[Biotron]] (1)
*[[Acroyear (Micronaut)|Acroyear]] (2)
*[[Space Glider|Phenolo-Phi]] (3)
*[[Pharoid|Oziron Rael]] (4)
*[[Orbital Defender|Larissa]] (5)
*[[Microtron]] (6)
*[[Baron Karza]] (7)
*[[Micronus Prime]] (8)
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*[[Matt Trakker]] (10)
*[[Miles Mayhem]] (11)
*[[Sly Rax]] (13)
*[[Vanessa Warfield]] (14)
*[[Rom]] (18)
*[[Dire Wraith]] (projection, 19)
*[[Time Traveler]] (23)
{{!}}}
}}

==Quotes==
"You '''lied''' to me!"<br>
"You're gonna have to be '''specific'''. I lie a '''lot.'''"
:—'''Matt Trakker''' and '''Scarlett'''



"Scarlett, you '''okay?'''"<br>
"Why '''wouldn't''' I be?"<br>
"Well, we watched our friends '''die''' in front of us, and '''I'm''' not doing okay—so I '''extrapolated.'''"
:—'''Mainframe''' and '''Scarlett'''



"Stop, '''please'''—'''think''' about what you're doing!"<br>
"I think of '''nothing else!''' The '''Space Knights''' know what '''Cybertronians''' do when worlds '''stand''' in the '''way''' of victory. Your '''Primes''' have '''ended civilizations.''' You plant your '''flag''' on '''Earth''' and declare '''you''' know what is '''best''' for it. And now your '''hypocrisy''' leads you to stand before '''me''' and demand '''another reality''' is off-limits when it comes to saving '''this''' one?"<br>
"It's '''not''' hypocrisy, Rom. I just don't want you to become '''us.'''"
:—'''Windblade''' and '''Rom'''



"I have been where '''you''' are, Rom. We compromise our principles for '''expediency'''... we tells ourselves we do what is '''necessary'''... that '''we alone''' guard the '''precipice''' of ultimate destruction..."<br>
"But we are '''not''' alone, Rom. Not any '''longer.'''"
:—'''Soundwave''' and '''Optimus Prime''' 

==Notes==
===IDW continuity notes===
*The beginning of this issue flows directly out of the end of the ''Micronauts: Revolution'' one-shot, which concluded with the team being contacted by Karza and coming across Micronus Prime's body.
*Kup remembers when he was locked by the [[Earth Defense Command]], from [[The Nothing Man|''The Transformers'' #45]]-[[Conquerors Part 4: Perihelion|#49]].
*A footnote points readers toward the ''Rom: Revolution'' one-shot to see how the Dire Wraiths use Ore-13 to enhance their powers. In that story, the Wraiths merge Ore-13-powered technology with their black magic to successfully disguise their true forms from Rom's analyzer.
*Windblade already has knowledge of [[Metrotitan (Zone)|Metrotitan]]'s link to Microspace, which a footnote tells us she gained in the ''[[Til All Are One: Revolution]]'' one-shot. At the time of this issue's publication, that issue had not yet been released.
*Snake-Eyes is noted to have been out of contact with the Joes for some time. He was last seen in the final issue of his self-titled mini-series, ''Snake-Eyes: Agent of Cobra''—the last IDW-continuity ''G.I. Joe'' issue published, in fact—released about a year and a half prior to this issue, in which he was carrying out a mission for [[Destro]].
*The group name of the six components of Victorion has only been given as "the Torchbearers" in-story up to now, but as we learned in [[Conquerors Part 1: Aphelion|''The Transformers'' #46]], that was their ''job title'' on [[Caminus]], and a new group of Torchbearers has taken up their positions since they vacated them. The group has had no formal name since, but Victorion's bio in this issue finally uses the name featured on their toy packaging, the "Rust Renegades", noting it is a nickname for the "former Torchbearers."

===Other franchise references===
*As with ''M.A.S.K.'' last issue, all the ''Micronauts'' characters are based on toys from the original franchise, though with more liberal adaptation. Karza, Biotron, and Microtron are pretty straight imports; the rest of the characters' codenames—"Pharoid," "Space Glider," "Orbital Defender," "Acroyear," and "Time Traveler"—were all used in the original toyline as group names that referred to particular toy molds (humanoid action figures with interchangeable parts) representing "generic" characters which were all each available in a variety of different colors that buyers could [[army-building|army-build]]. Thus, in IDW continuity, Oziron is merely ''a'' Pharoid, Phenolo-Phi shares her "Space Glider technology" with several others, and Acroyear is just one of many identical genetically-engineered super-warriors. Larissa, meanwhile, simply wears armor styled after the "Galactic Defender" toys (but renamed "Orbital Defender," presumably for trademark reasons). 
*Mayhem refers to the Transformers as "the ultimate weapon"—a fairly ordinary expression, but one whose use here seems intended to refer to the ''M.A.S.K.'' advertising slogan, "Illusion is the ultimate weapon."
*Matt Trakker and Miles Mayhem's profiles explain how Matt's physicist father Cornelius worked with Mayhem on the earliest version of the M.A.S.K. technopathic technology, only to be "mysteriously murdered." This little story nugget is based on the original ''M.A.S.K.'' franchise backstory, as told through the mini-comic packaged with the first wave of toys, in which it was Matt's ''brother'', Andy, who designed the M.A.S.K. tech and who perished (the ''M.A.S.K.'' cartoon would also later use "Andrew" as the name of Matt's father, which might also be influencing this reimagined version of the story). Mayhem was, of course, responsible for killing Andy—which serves as a very likely hint toward the identity of Cornelius Trakker's murderer in IDW continuity!

===Real-life references===
*Like all chapters of ''Revolution'', this issue takes its title from a poem: in this case, "O Ship of State" by {{w|Henry Wadsworth Longfellow}}.

===Errors===
*In the closing scene of ''Micronauts: Revolution'', Micronus's corpse had its forearms pointed forward, but in the opening scene of this issue, Micronus's arms are flat against his side.
*As in the previous issue, [[Gloria Baker]]'s image is incorrectly used to represent Vanessa Warfield on the cast page.

===Other trivia===
*Backmatter for this issue consists of more full-page character profiles, this time for Mainframe (written by [[Aubrey Sitterson]], art by [[Steve Kurth]] and [[Simon Gough]]), [[Roadblock (G.I. Joe)|Roadblock]] (written by Sitterson, art by [[Robert Atkins]] and Gough), Miles Mayhem and Matt Trakker (both written by [[Brandon M. Easton]] with art by [[Marcelo Ferreira]] and [[Jordi Escuin]]), and Victorion (written by [[John Barber]] with art by [[Guido Guidi]]). Victorion's bio was missing from digital versions of the issue upon release.

===Covers (8)===
*'''Regular cover:''' Optimus Prime peers over Rom's shoulder at Acroyear and Biotron, in the palm of Rom's hand, by [[Tradd Moore]] and [[Felipe Subreiro]].
*'''Subscription cover A:''' Optimus Prime and the Micronauts by [[Brandon Peterson]]
*'''Subscription cover B:''' Wraparound cover of [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]], [[Victorion]], [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]], [[Doc (Carla Greer)|Doc]], Sly Rax, [[Shazraella]], Baron Karza, [[Bryce Chan]], [[Destro]], [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]], Acroyear, [[Quick Kick]] and [[Kwinn|Kwinn the Eskimo]] charging into action, by [[John Byrne]] and [[Len O'Grady]]; part of a series of interlinking covers that homage Byrne's original covers to the ''{{w|Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe|Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition}}'' from the late 1980s.
*'''Subscription cover C:''' Propaganda poster of Rom by [[James Biggie]] 

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File:Revolution3 subcvrC.jpg|
</gallery>

*'''Subscription cover D:''' Acroyear, Space Glider, and Matt Trakker action figures by [[Adam Riches]]; part of a series of "action figure" variant covers by Riches.
*'''Retailer incentive cover A:''' Micronus Prime, Optimus Prime, Baron Karza, and Autobot City, by [[Ken Christiansen]]
*'''Retailer incentive cover B:''' Rom and Acroyear by [[Guido Guidi]]; part of a series of "retro" covers by Guidi.
*'''Retailer incentive cover C:''' Biotron, Rom, and Microtron, by [[Art Baltazar]]; part of a series of interlinking covers.

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==External links==
*[http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/10/preview-of-idws-revolution-3/ Preview]

[[Category:Revolution issues]]