Editing Enemy of My Enemy Part Two

{{disambig3|Enemy of My Enemy}}

{{Comicstory
|seriesissue=''[[Transformers vs. The Terminator]]'' #2
|prev=Enemy of My Enemy Part One
|next=Enemy of My Enemy Part Three
|image=TFTerminator 2 cvrB.jpg
|title="Enemy of My Enemy Part Two"
|caption=Part metal, part meat. Like a tin of spam.
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]] and [[Dark Horse Comics]]
|date=[[June 24]], [[2020]]
|coverdate=June 2020
|story by= [[David Mariotte]], [[Tom Waltz]] and [[John Barber]]
|written by=[[David Mariotte]] and [[John Barber]]
|art by=[[Alex Milne]]
|colors by=[[David García Cruz]]
|letters by=[[Jake M. Wood]]
|editor=[[Tom Waltz]], [[Riley Farmer]] and [[Megan Brown]]
}}

'''The Terminator battles Megatron's forces while Sarah Connor makes some unexpected allies, but can the T-800 cooperate with the very beings he's been sent to destroy?'''

==Synopsis==
With the ''[[Ark (G1)|Ark]]'' having reawakened [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] and his [[Decepticon]]s, it seems as though nothing can spoil the Decepticon leader's moment of triumph as he levels his [[fusion cannon]] at the still-dormant [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]... but he didn't bargain on the [[T-800]]! Although his first shotgun blast simply bounces off his enemy's armor, Megatron's bemused overconfidence gives the Terminator—armed with superhuman aim and extensive knowledge of Cybertronian weak points—an opening to take out his left optic with one well-placed shot! Wounded and furious, Megatron orders [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] and [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] to destroy the intruder. The Terminator's unwilling companion [[Sarah Connor]] weighs her options and decides to make a run for it before the aliens notice her, but Soundwave detects her presence and dispatches [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]] to eliminate her.

Soundwave and Starscream struggle to pin down the smaller and more maneuverable T-800, but Megatron's chief concern is getting his fellow Decepticons back online, using [[Teletraan I]]'s restorative beam to repair and reactivate the remaining Decepticons before eliminating the [[stasis lock]]ed-Autobots. In the meantime, the Terminator withstands Soundwave's sonic blasts and [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]]'s lasers, then returns fire by hefting a discarded Cybertronian weapon off the ground and using it to send the purple [[Seeker (body-type)|Seeker]] flying. Ravage pursues Sarah Connor as the [[human]] clambers up a nearby cable and the chase takes them onto Teletraan's console. Ravage's pounce knocks the computer's scanner so that the repair beam intended for [[Shrapnel (G1)|Skrapnel]] hits ''Optimus'' instead; as Starscream and Soundwave try to pin down the Terminator, they're caught off-guard when the revitalized Autobot leader promptly catches the two by surprise and sends them both sprawling! The Decepticons promptly break off their attack on the Terminator and turn their attention to Prime; correctly deducing that there might be ''two'' factions at play here, Sarah turns the ''Ark''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s repair systems on another robot who sports Optimus Prime's symbol... and, a few seconds later, [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] joins the fight! 

A panicked Starscream assumes that ''all'' the Autobots are coming back to life and orders a retreat. Despite his low opinion of the air commander, Megatron sees wisdom in Starscream's words, and orders his Decepticons to fall back as he blasts a hole in the side of the ship and flies off. The explosion leaves Prime and Bumblebee shaken but unhurt... but Prime, dismayed, notes the collateral damage has killed many Autobots and left more badly injured. Optimus thanks his strange rescuer for intervening, but the Terminator, now reduced to his metal endoskeleton, informs the pair that they too must be terminated!
 
The Terminator lands a shot on Optimus before Bumblebee wrestles him to the ground, but all three of the robots stop in their tracks when Sarah intervenes, and points out that, as far as she can tell, the Terminator's aggression makes him the ''real'' menace. An intrigued Optimus helps her down from the console while mulling over the prospect of sentient organics. Sarah demands an explanation of the Terminator's mission and whether she should simply let the two bigger machines destroy him. The Terminator finally admits the course that history takes from this point: after the [[Mount St. Hilary]] eruption awakens the Cybertronians, Megatron's war against humanity will prompt the people of Earth to form [[Skywatch]], an anti-Transformer taskforce, and develop the [[Skynet]] supercomputer network to coordinate armies of man-made Terminator robots. But, despite Skynet's efforts, the war will end with total Cybertronian victory, the complete conquest of Earth... and mankind's extinction. Skynet only survives by feigning surrender and secretly constructing a time machine to retroactively win the war, but the Terminator's explanation deliberately omits the ''other'' part of his time-travelling mission—to ensure the creation of ''Skynet''.

Although Bumblebee's unmoved, Optimus mulls over the implications of this story. In the Terminator's future, he eventually concludes, he and the Autobots must have died today, or else they surely would've stood up against Megatron's tyranny. Thus, the Terminator's interference has ''already'' altered the timeline; if that's true, Prime concludes, then they still have a chance to work together, prevent this dire future from ever coming to pass, and ensure the freedom of ''all'' sentient beings on Earth—biological or mechanical. With Sarah's encouragement, the Terminator weighs his options and then, reluctantly, accepts Prime's truce. The strange alliance ratified, Optimus asks for Sarah's help with reviving more Autobots; Sarah accepts, if he'll take her home afterwards... but when the Autobot leader assumes his new [[alternate mode]], based on the truck that the Terminator hijacked to get them to [[Oregon]] in the first place, the reminder causes her to turn down the free ride.

On Oregon's west coast, the Decepticons regroup at a beach, where Starscream explains that their mysterious attacker was a cleverly-disguised machine, not one of the planet's native organic sentients. The fragile humans should give them no trouble, and Starscream illustrates this point by casually annihilating a nearby group of beachgoers. Pleased at the prospect of easy conquest, Megatron turns his attention to [[Reflector (G1)|Refraktor]] and the [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticon]]s as they return from scouting the surrounding area for energy. [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] reports that they've found a suitable power source to fuel their invasion: a nearby robotics laboratory that he suspects might be connected to their mechanical foe. The Decepticons eagerly lay siege to the lab, unaware of the building's portentous position in history... the [[Cyberdyne Systems]] factory!

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
* [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] (3)
* [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] (10)
* [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] (15)
* [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] (16)
* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] (17)
* [[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] (18)
* [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] (19)
* [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]] (20)
* [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]]? (21)
* [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]] (22)

|c2=
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (1)
* [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] (2)
* [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] (5)
* [[Reflector (G1)|Refraktor]] (6)
* [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]] (7)
* [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]] (9)
* [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] (11)
* [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] (12)
* [[Kickback (G1)|Kickback]] (13)
* [[Shrapnel (G1)|Skrapnel]] (14)

|c3=
* [[Sarah Connor]] (8)
* Beachgoers (23)

|h4=[[Skynet]]|c4=
* [[T-800]] (4)

}} 

==Quotes==
"Goodbye, Optimus Prime. You die as you lived... ignorant and useless."
:—'''Megatron'''


"Look, I get that you have your reasons, but right now, I only see '''one''' killer robot. I mean, the yellow one's called Bumblebee. That's ridiculous."
:—'''Sarah Connor''' chews out '''the Terminator'''


"Together, we shall ensure '''both''' your people's survival... for freedom is the right of '''all''' sentient beings."
:—'''Optimus Prime'''

==Notes==
===Continuity notes===
* Refraktor (or, well, ''a'' Refraktor)'s dead body appeared in [[Enemy of My Enemy Part One|the previous issue]]; the T-800's story in this issue shows an army of Terminators gunning him down in the post-apocalyptic [[Los Angeles]] battleground we glimpsed in the first splash panel of issue #1.
* Curiously, this series depicts the three [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticon]]s as stasis-locked Decepticons aboard the ''Ark''. This isn't true for the [[Generation 1 cartoon continuity]], which introduced the trio as having bailed from the ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]'' during its crash in the episode "[[A Plague of Insecticons]]," nor the [[Marvel Comics continuity]], where the three travelled to Earth from Cybertron by [[space bridge]]. 

===Transformers references===
* As he prepares to put down Optimus Prime, Megatron takes a moment to thank Skywarp for waking him first; this sequence of events is consistent with "[[More than Meets the Eye, Part 1]]", where Skywarp was the first Transformer aboard the ''Ark'' to be reformatted and reactivated by Teletraan I, and promptly interfered with the computer's scanning beams to bring Megatron and the other Decepticons back online.
* The Terminator's tactical overlay identifies Starscream as "MODEL 0022^15" in reference to both his traditional {{w|McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle|F-15}} alternate mode and his [[Starscream (Movie)|film counterpart]]'s {{w|Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor|F-22}} form, Soundwave as "MODEL MC^10", a nod to the [[Micro Change|Micro Change "Cassette Man"]] toy and the "MC-10" molded on its door, and, finally, Megatron as "MODEL P38^UNC", an allusion to the [[Micro Change]] "MC-13 Gun Robo Walther P-38 U.N.C.L.E.", named for its {{w|Walther P38}} altmode and accessories inspired by the television show {{w|''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.}}''
* A cocky Skywarp sardonically compares his battle against the Terminator to "shooting [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticon]]s in a barrel."
* It's not clear if [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]] is dead or simply injured after Megatron leaves, but he's shown leaking fire and smoke from a hole on his left side, evoking his death in the infamous opening battle of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''. Other Cybertronians, such as [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] and [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]], are [[Aggressive depigmentation|colored gray]], evoking [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]]'s fate from the film.
* In this universe, [[Skynet]] is revealed to have been created by [[Skywatch|Sky''watch'']]; first a clandestine US government agency, then a full-blown international taskforce, this anti-Transformer organization was an off-again, on-again antagonist during IDW Publishing's [[2005 IDW continuity|first ongoing ''Transformers'' continuity]], before the more famous [[Earth Defense Command]] replaced it during a [[2014]] storyline.
* The Terminator's story shows a victorious Megatron defacing the [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln Memorial]] by turning it into his personal throne, in reference to a similar moment from ''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]'' episode "[[Atlantis, Arise!]]". The scene received a prior shout-out during the second act of ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)|Dark of the Moon]]'' and one of the endings of ''[[Transformers The Game (console)|Transformers The Game]].
* Bumblebee calls Prime "Big Bot," a nickname [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] used for [[Optimus Primal (BW)|Optimus Primal]] in the ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' cartoons.
* The dune buggy on the beach is drawn and colored to resemble [[Beachcomber (G1)|Beachcomber]]'s [[alternate mode]].

===Terminator references===
* As she reactivates Bumblebee, Sarah ruefully notes that it "seems like Judgement Day's coming anyway" in reference to both {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day|the second ''Terminator'' film}} and the [[fandom:terminator:Judgment Day|in-universe event]]—although the latter incident does not actually appear to have ''occurred'' in this particular timeline, with the devastated landscape from issue #1 apparently the result of a protracted Decepticon occupation, not a nuclear apocalypse. 
* The [[fandom:terminator:Cyberdyne Systems|Cyberdyne Systems]] corporation plays a major role in ''Terminator'' lore; the factory that Megatron attacks is based on the location from {{w|The Terminator|the first ''Terminator'' film}}, where Sarah finally outsmarted the killer robot and fatally crushed him beneath a hydraulic press. {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day|The sequel}} then revealed that Cyberdyne had helped ''create'' Skynet's technology after salvaging and reverse-engineering the Terminator's remains in a classic {{w|bootstrap paradox|bootstrap paradox}}. As the Skynet of ''this'' universe, is, at least in part, a creation of Skywatch, it remains to be seen just how Megatron's attack on the facility might change the future...
* After the Terminator's flesh covering is destroyed in its battle with the Decepticons, the endoskeleton still demonstrates the ability to speak -- something demonstrated both in the {{w|Terminator Salvation|the fourth ''Terminator'' film}} and {{w|Terminator Zero|''Zero'', the 2024 Netflix anime series}}.

===Errors===
* On page five, Sideswipe is colored gray instead of red before the fight breaks out—although, given the nature of the scene, it’s possible that he's already dead. 

===Other trivia===
* Originally solicited for an April 22nd  release, this issue was deliberately pushed back to late June due to [[IDW Publishing]] temporarily suspending operations due to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.
* Backmatter for this issue is a four-page "How the Machines Are Made," feature, which feature a behind-the-scenes look at how the first two pages went from script, to layout, to inks, to color.

===Covers (3)===
* '''Cover A''': Optimus Prime and a time sphere, by [[Gavin Fullerton]]
* '''Cover B''': The T-800 triumphant, by [[Casey Coller]] and [[David García Cruz]]
* '''Retailer incentive cover''': Optimus Prime and an army of Terminators, by [[Freddie E. Williams II]] and [[Jeremy Colwell]]

<gallery>
File:TFTerminator 2 cvrA.jpg
File:TFTerminator 2 cvrB.jpg
File:TFTerminator 2 cvrRI.jpg
</gallery>

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==External links==
[http://majorspoilers.com/2020/06/23/preview-transformers-vs-the-terminator-2/ Preview]

[[Category:Transformers vs. The Terminator issues]]

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