Editing Last Light (issue)

{{Comicstory
|series=mtmte|issueno=57
|prev=Ten to Midnight
|next=Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again!
|prev2=Ten to Midnight
|seriesissue2=''[[Titans Return (comic)|Titans Return]]''
|next2=Ping
|image=MTMTE57_regcvr.jpg
|title="Last Light"
|caption="Law and order."
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]]
|date=[[September 28]], [[2016]]
|coverdate=September 2016
|written by=[[James Roberts]]
|pencils by=[[Priscilla Tramontano]]
|colors by=[[Joana Lafuente]]
|letters by=[[Chris Mowry]]
|editor=[[John Barber]] and [[Carlos Guzman]]
|continuity=[[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW continuity]]
|chronology=[[IDW timeline|Current era (2016)]]
}}

'''While Red Alert struggles to overcome Sentinel Prime's brainwashing, Fortress Maximus finds a new way to live up to his name in order to stop Sentinel's fleet of reanimated Titans.'''

==Synopsis==
''On ''[[Lost Light]]'' launch day, [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]] personally reviews every applicant who wants aboard the vessel. After begrudgingly letting [[Brainstorm (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Brainstorm]] on despite his being exempt from a bag check, Red is approached by Swerve, who instructs him to look at the datapad in his hand. On the screen, Red reads the words: "THIS NEVER HAPPENED"...''

In the present day, within a [[Titan (IDW)|Titan]] on [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]], Red Alert—suddenly in the thrall of [[Sentinel Prime (G1)|Sentinel Prime]]—grapples with [[Fortress Maximus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Fortress Maximus]] while Sentinel gloats over the reanimation of the many other Titans in the moon's graveyard, thanks to the efforts of a reluctant [[Sovereign]]. Realizing nobody is listening to his ranting, Sentinel turns and notes with some distaste the way [[Cerebros (G1)|Cerebros]] is cradling [[Prowl (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Prowl]]'s body. Cerebros keeps Sentinel talking; first, the Prime explains how he survived his seeming death by detaching his true [[Titan Master]] form from his larger body, then details how he has been slipping in and out of hibernation beneath [[Kaon (polity)|Kaon]] for millennia as he has slowly attuned himself to the Titans, granting him the control that—through Sovereign—he now has over them. Using the [[quantum foam]] of Luna 1's [[Planetary engine|engine]]s, Sentinel plans to supercharge the Titan's [[Space bridge|spacebridge]], opening it wide enough so that the rest of the giants can travel through and raze [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] in accordance with his wishes. His monologue complete, Sentinel prepares to do away with Cerebros and Fort Max, but is suddenly laid low when the silent Prowl, back on his feet, smashes a [[Mobile Autobot Repair Bay|M.A.R.B.]] across his back. Prowl, Cerebros, and Max escape on the remaining M.A.R.B.s, but Sentinel is content to let them go, certain they cannot interfere with his scheme.

''Years earlier, Red Alert searches [[Rewind (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Rewind]] and [[Chromedome (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Chromedome]]'s quarters aboard the ''Lost Light'', over Rewind's protestations. In a hidden compartment, Red finds a set of data disks Rewind had secreted away. Rewind takes the disks, and, urging Red to not "give in," lays them out in a familiar five-point pattern...''

[[File:LastLight-TitanFight.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Big M! ''SHOWTIME!!'']]

Prowl awakes back in Fort Max's facility, and reacts with some degree of anger upon learning that Cerebros had used his new brain implant—slipped into Prowl's head as he was cradling him—to take control of Prowl's body and strike Sentinel. While Prowl has been out, Fortress Maximus has conceived a plan: transform the base, constructed by [[Tyrest (G1)|Tyrest]] from the parts of many different Titans, into robot mode. Unfortunately, the manual release switch for the base's [[transformation cog]] is stuck... but Prowl's sharply-honed table-flipping skills soon prove exactly what are needed to force it free. The base transforms, and, using Cerebros's implant, Fort Max is able to take direct control of it, flying it into the sky to block the other Titans' path to the giant spacebridge. While Max and his Titan fight to keep Sentinel's Titans from going through, Prowl and Cerebros board their M.A.R.B.s to strafe Sentinel as he stands by the moon's thrusters. Sentinel quickly shoots them out of the sky, whereupon Red Alert appears behind the fallen Prowl, and presses his gun barrel into the back of his former ally's neck...

''Years before, back on the ''Lost Light'', Red Alert talks with [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] about his fear that he may have been brainwashed into being a sleeper agent by the establishment. Though reluctant to indulge what he believes to be a paranoid fantasy, Rung suggests that they exploit Red's fear of and resistance to the very concept by seeding his subconscious mind with triggers that, should he ever be "activated," will alert him to the fact he is not himself. These triggers take the form of "continuity errors" in Red's memory... things that never happened, conversations that never took place. Looking around the room, Red realizes that Rung's shelves are filled with model Titans instead of model ships... and that the room's portholes have moved to take on the form of the five-point pattern—a [[mnemosurgery]] scar—that he has been seeing everywhere...''

At the sight of the mnemosurgery scar on the back of Prowl's own neck, Red breaks free of his conditioning and turns his gun on Sentinel, blasting his [[Titan Master]] self clean off his host body's shoulders. Unfazed, the tiny Sentinel stalks towards Red, explaining Red was just one of a group of brainwashed sleeper agents from before the war, chosen from the ranks of Sentinel's informants to serve as his personal militia if the time ever came. But just as Sentinel begins to reassert control over Red, forcing him to aim his gun at his own head, [[Beak]] comes swooping onto the scene, and knocks Sentinel over the edge of the nearest thruster, sending him on a mile-and-a-half-deep plummet into oblivion. Given that Red's mind is freed, and the spacebridge portal automatically shuts, everyone is left to assume Sentinel has perished. Unfortunately, Fortress Maximus was unable to prevent most of the Titans from getting through—but Sovereign reveals that he has been able to grant Cybertron a reprieve, redirecting the bridge so that it deposited the Titans into deep space. The giants are still heading for the Transformers' homeworld—now, it will just take them longer to get there.

Prowl takes Sovereign back to Earth, then returns to Luna 1 for a sabbatical, joining Cerebros and Red Alert—his mind calmer now that Sentinel's presence on the moon is no longer causing his nightmares—in scrubbing their Titan-base's T-cog. Fortress Maximus is grateful for the company now that all the [[Roboid]]s and [[Outrigger]] have left, and apologizes to Cerebros for doubting him and his implant. Red and Max lament the loss of their friends on the ''Lost Light''; Prowl sympathizes as best he can, equating the loss with fear of change, and of endings. Just then, a buzzer goes off, alerting Red to the fact that a scanner he has searching for the ''Lost Light'' has found something. Alas, that something turns out to just be some gibberish background data. Fort Max wonders if there could be a hidden message within it, but Red refuses to indulge his own worst instincts. "Sometimes," he tells Max, "you just have to stop."

==Featured characters==
Characters in ''italic text'' appear only as part of Red Alert's (unreliable) memories.<br>
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
{{{!}}border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
{{!}}-
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*''[[Brainstorm (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Brainstorm]]'' (1)
*[[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]] (2)
*''[[Perceptor (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Perceptor]]'' (3)
*''[[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]]'' (4)
*''[[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailcutter]]'' (5)
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*''[[Ratchet (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Ratchet]]'' (6)
*''[[Ambulon]]'' (7)
*''[[First Aid (G1)|First Aid]]'' (8)
*''[[Bumblebee (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Bumblebee]]'' (9)
*''[[Ironfist (G1)|Ironfist]]'' (10)
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*''[[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]]'' (11)
*[[Sentinel Prime (G1)|Sentinel Prime/Infinitus]] (13)
*[[Fortress Maximus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Fortress Maximus]] (14)
*[[Prowl (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Prowl]] (15)
*[[Cerebros (G1)|Cerebros]] (16)
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*''[[Rewind (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Rewind]]'' (18)
*''[[Rung (G1)|Rung]]'' (21)
{{!}}}
|c4=
*Luna 1 [[Titan (IDW)|Titans]] (12)
*[[Sovereign]] (17)
*[[Outrigger]] (19)
*[[Beak]] (20)
}}

==Quotes==
"[Prowl] was an '''obstacle.''' I could have crushed the Decepticons '''long''' before Kaon, but he seemed to think it his job to '''rein me in.''' Caution, caution, caution. 'Consider '''this''', consider '''that'''...' Every conversation, a lecture on '''collateral damage.''' He '''blunted''' me—and it's taken me four million years to '''recover my edge.'''"
:—'''Sentinel Prime'''



"Er—don't you need a '''permit?'''"<br>
"A permit?"<br>
"A '''search permit'''. Y'know—something you have to '''show me''' before you go through all my stuff?"<br>
"You're welcome to complain to '''Ultra Magnus'''. You'll have to give it four weeks, mind."<br>
"Four week to process the complaint?"<br>
"Four weeks to fill out the form."
:—'''Rewind''' and '''Red Alert'''



"I think we need a '''Plan P'''."<br>
"You mean a '''Plan B'''."<br>
"I know what I mean."
:—'''Prowl''' and '''Cerebros'''



"Go on, Red Alert... pull the trigger. You'll make a mess, but don't worry. I don't mind getting dirty."
:—'''Sentinel Prime'''



"I miss all of them. All the crew. Well, most of them. At least half of them. A good ten, fifteen percent."
:—'''Red Alert'''

==Notes==
===Continuity notes===
*Red Alert's first flashback is to the events of [[Liars, A to D Part 1: How to Say Goodbye and Mean It|issue #1]]. Panels 2-4 recreate panels 3-5 from page 11 of that issue. As an early clue that things are not what they appear, multiple characters are seen in the queue waiting to board the ''Lost Light'' who were not (and/or ''could'' not) have been there, including [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] (at that time, out in space running missions with [[Guzzle (G1)|Guzzle]]), [[Ambulon]], [[First Aid (G1)|First Aid]] (both stationed on the planet [[Messatine]]), [[Ironfist (G1)|Ironfist]] (''deeeead''), and even [[Bumblebee (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Bumblebee]] (leader of the 'stay on Cybertron' argument).
*The disappearance of Sentinel's head from his corpse was noted in the [[The Last Autobot|''Titans Return'' one-shot]] that began this storyline. It's made clear that in this issue that this happened because Sentinel, in his true form of Infinitus, simply disconnected when nobody was looking.
*Red's second flashback is to a previously-unseen scene that we nonetheless knew about: him finding Rewind's "snuff film" discs, set between [[How Ratchet Got His Hands Back|issue #5]] and [[Interiors|#6]], which we saw the direct aftermath of in ''[[The Reluctant Specialist|Spotlight: Trailcutter]]''.
*Red refers to being a warden in [[Translucentica Heights]], and notes that [[Chromedome (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Chromedome]] and Prowl can verify this; they met him while he was working this job in flashbacks shown in [[Shadowplay, Part 2: Patternism|issue #10]].
*Prowl recalls being "brainwashed" and "shadowplayed"; the latter was perpetrated by Chromedome (as seen in [[Remembrance Day|issue #14]], in a scene set during #1), which opened the door for the former, carried out by [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] in [[Devisive|''Robots in Disguise'' #4]].
*Previously, in [[Remain in Light 4 of 5: Arm the Lonely|issue #20]], it was implied that it was just the spacebridge portal which Tyrest built that had been pieced together from bits of other Titans' bridges. Turns out this issue that the ''base itself'' was a patchwork Titan, made of bits of others.
*Prowl's ability to flip the switch is, of course, a gag based on his history of table-flipping, going back to issue #1. His pose here mirrors the panel from that issue of him tossing his desk.

===Transformers references===
*Transformation cogs are referred to with the abbreviation "T-Cog" in this issue, taken from the [[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|''Transformers: Prime'' cartoon]].
*Though the mechanics of the process are, by necessity of the story, quite different, Fortress Maximus controlling a giant Titan body via a link provided by Cerebros is an adaptation of his ''[[Titans Return (toyline)|Titans Return]]'' [[Fortress Maximus (G1)/toys#Generations|action figure]], and of the classic depiction of the character in Generation 1 media, where Cerebros actually forms the head of the giant Fortress Maximus robot.
*Buried amongst the alphanumeric gibberish code is a dedication to mark the end of the series: "MTMTE 2012-2016".

===Errors===
*Sentinel plans to use Luna 1's engines to supercharge the Titan's spacebridge with quantum foam, but [[quantum generator]]s were only 'invented' 5 million years ago, long after Luna 1 was 'lost'. Another error or an indication of future time travel madness?
*Red's second flashback doesn't fit with what we knew of the scene: Red's words in issue #5 ("I can hear Rewind begging Chromedome to help him look for some missing data disks—he won't find them.") clearly implied he found and took the discs without Rewind's knowledge. Of course, the scene is supposed to be marked with "continuity errors" for Red to spot, but this one feels more like a genuine goof than a hint that the scene is playing out "wrongly."
*As Prowl awakes and he, Cerebros, and Fortress Maximus come up with a plan, he has both eyes intact, when his left eye has been damaged since fighting [[Defensor (G1)|Defensor]] in [[Mistakes and Mayhem|issue #2]] of ''Windblade'' vol. 2. A few pages later, when fighting Sentinel, his eye is missing again. It finally shows as intact again a few days after, when he would have had time to get it repaired.
*Prowl has been a wanted fugitive since before the ''[[The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers|Sins of the Wreckers]]'' series. Yet he's somehow able to return Sovereign to Earth, then return himself back to Luna 1 for a 'sabbatical' and not only does no one remark on the situation, Prowl isn't re-arrested.

===Other trivia===
*This is the final issue of ''More than Meets the Eye''. Following a [[Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again!|one-shot tie-in]] to the ''[[Revolution]]'' crossover, the series relaunches as ''[[The Transformers: Lost Light]]'' in December 2016 and continues from where it left off.

===Soundtrack===
*"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm_rSoL8o18 Who Said This Was The End]" by {{w|Gene (band)|Gene}}
*"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvO6TB5rmC8 Bobby Malone Moves Home]" by {{w|Casiotone for the Painfully Alone}}
*"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxW2moT1ic Something Like You]" by {{w|Mick Head|Michael Head and the Strands}}
*"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifY4v3maKZY The Copper Top]" by {{w|Bill Wells}} and {{w|Aidan Moffat}}
*"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b2EpmBbo8w The Dogs and the Horses]" by {{w|The Divine Comedy (band)|The Divine Comedy}}

===Covers (3)===
*'''Regular cover:''' Prowl stands at the head of a shadowy army of Titans, by [[Priscilla Tramontano]]
*'''Subscription cover:''' Our heroes bid farewell, by [[Nick Roche]] and [[Josh Burcham]]
*'''Retailer incentive cover:''' [[Cyclonus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Cyclonus]], [[Hot Rod (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Rodimus]], [[Megatron (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Megatron]], [[Nautica (G1)|Nautica]], [[Chromedome (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Chromedome]], and [[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]], by [[Alex Milne]] and [[Josh Perez]]
<gallery>
File:MTMTE57 regcvr.jpg|
File:MTMTE57 subcvr.jpg|
File:MTMTE57 cvrRI.jpg|
</gallery>

===Advertisements===
*''[[The Transformers: Lost Light]]'' [[Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron|#1]]
*''[[Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again!|More than Meets the Eye: Revolution]]''
*''[[Revolution]]'' tie-in one-shots
*''Revolution'' checklist
*''[[Secret Raiders: A Revolution Prelude|Road to Revolution]]'' one-shot
*[[Concorde Hymn|''Revolution'' #1]]
*''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'' 30th Anniversary reissue (back page)

==External links==
*[http://www.newsarama.com/31185-transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye-57-marks-the-end-of-an-era-with-final-issue.html Preview]

[[Category:Titans Return issues]]