Finis Temporis: Dark Cybertron Chapter 9

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"Finis Temporis" Dark Cybertron Chapter 9
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	February 12, 2014
Cover date	February 2014
Written by	James Roberts and John Barber
Art by	Andrew Griffith and Livio Ramondelli
Colors by	Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)

It's Metroplex versus the Necrotitan as the crew of the Lost Light are reunited with their allies on Cybertron, and the tainted legacy of the Primes reaches a turning point in the Dead Universe.

Synopsis

With Iacon in flames, Starscream watches the joint Autobot/Decepticon attack on the Necrotitan, while Scoop gathers up the last of the wounded and Rattrap leads the survivors out of the city to the Autobot camp. With his spreading death-mark now visibly taking a toll on his health, Starscream couldn't be less interested in Scoop's blame-throwing or Rattrap's self-interested motives, and turns to self-pitying, lamenting the fact that everyone is against him, and that the only 'bots who aren't have failed to respond to his call for help. Suddenly, however, a flash of light puts the lie into Starscream's words... as the Lost Light and Metroplex materialize above the city! Even with the battle between the Autobots and the Ammonites still going on inside his body, Metroplex immediately engages the Necrotitan, while the Lost Light crashes nearby. Bumblebee and Prowl, amazed by the return of comrades they believed dead, head out to the crash site with Megatron and Soundwave, where the Lost Light crew, led by Hound, greet them. Both sides get each other up to date on recent events, including how the Lost Light was drawn to Metroplex by a fragment of his thumb; observing an attempt by Metroplex to reach for the ship, Megatron has an idea, and has Bumblebee carry him on board. There, in the cargo hold, Megatron's familiarity with the power of Ore-13 allows him to sense that Metroplex's thumb has at some point been infused with another of Shockwave's Regenesis ores. As he prepares to use his internal space bridge to teleport the thumb out of the ship, Bumblebee expresses his concern that he will take it to Luna 2 and leave Iacon to its fate... to which Megatron offers only a silent smirk, before vanishing in a flash with the giant digit.

In the Dead Universe, Orion Pax clashes with Nova Prime, while the rest of his team keeps Nova's "robozombies" busy. Nova uses his control over the fabric of the Dead Universe to shift his form, appearing first as Sentinel Prime, then as Zeta Prime, psychologically intimidating Orion with the legacy of the Primes and his part in it. Nova then assumes the shape of Orion himself, professing that he is showing Orion what he could be if he stopped resisting. Cyclonus steps in to occupy Nova while Rodimus tries to rally the emotionally-defeated Orion; Pax has tried to separate himself from the corrupted lineage of the Primes by rejecting his title and taking on his own name, but Rodimus argues that it is because of Optimus Prime and his great deeds that the title "Prime" still means something great and noble today despite the misdeeds of his predecessors. A shot from Nova fells Rodimus, and a galvanized Pax returns to the fray, fighting not with anger but with confidence in himself for the first time in a long time. Tearing Nova's arm off, Orion anoints himself Optimus Prime once again, and punches through Nova's chest, slaying the tyrant.

Nova's defeat is felt by Galvatron back on Cybertron through his own link to the Dead Universe. Shockwave, however, merely sees this as a cue to put the final phase of his plan into motion, ordering Metalhawk to dispose of Waspinator, and instructing Jhiaxus to prepare "his machine".

Bumblebee rejoins his allies and shares the bad news of Megatron's disappearance, but stands by his decision when Prowl questions him, earning a quiet, satisfied smile from the police-bot. All around them, the tide of battle turns in their enemy's favor, as the Necrotitan overpowers Metroplex, the Ammonites gain the upper hand in their battle inside the titan, and Scoop recites the "Dark Cybertron" prophecy all the while. At the last moment, however, Megatron materializes in the palm of Metroplex's hand, returning his thumb to him. Energized by the Regenesis ore in his reclaimed body-part, Metroplex begins to heal, giving him the strength to defeat the Necrotitan with one mighty punch; even his immune system comes back online and eradicates the Ammonites. As the sun dawns over Cybertron at last, the light of the ore shines down on all those in sight—Starscream included—curing the effect of the Necrotitan's death-wave, and a ravaged Megatron proclaims that the "good guys" have won.

Not too far away, Shockwave and Galvatron emerge from Crystal City to watch this display. A despondent Galvatron believes their plan is thwarted, but as he removes Waspinator's weapon from his arm, Shockwave makes it clear that this has never been about restoring Nova and Galvatron to power. This has always been about his Regenesis ores... and now, thanks to his machinations, all those ores which successfully took root have been gathered on Cybertron. As Metalhawk—with a still-living Waspinator in his clutches—listens from the shadows, Jhiaxus confirms that, with Nova Prime's control of the Dead Universe now removed, they are free to use its energies to power their endgame. Energies that they will channel through Galvatron himself...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Metroplex (8) Swoop (10) Swerve (13) Mainframe (14) Hound (15) Blaster (16) Prowl (18) Bumblebee (19) Windblade (22) Ultra Magnus (23) Chromia (24) Ratchet (25) Perceptor (26) Skids (27) Getaway (28) Whirl (30) Hoist (31) Trailcutter (32) Rung (33) Chromedome (34) Orion Pax (35) Rodimus (37) Nightbeat (38) Kup (39) Brainstorm (41) Nautica (48) Slug (55)	Laserbeak (9) Blitzwing (11) Buzzsaw (12) Soundwave (20) Megatron (21) Waspinator (43) Dreadwing (44) Shockwave (46) Astrotrain (49) Hook (50) Scavenger (51) Bonecrusher (52) Mixmaster (53) Long Haul (54) Frenzy (56) Bludgeon (57)	Necrotitan (1) Flatline (2) Blurr (3) Scoop (4) Landfill (5) Zetca (6) Starscream (7) Rattrap (17) Ammonites (29) Nova Prime (36) Cyclonus (40) Galvatron (42) Metalhawk (45) Jhiaxus (47)

Quotes

"Oi Magnus, pick up! Your plan worked! You said that when Metroplex teleported us home he'd leave the Ammonites behind! You're a genius! P.S... I'm being sarcastic."

—Whirl, master of wit

Hound: "You captured Megatron?!"
Bumblebee: "I, uh, rescued Megatron."
Megatron: "You assisted me."
Soundwave: "This is not important."

—Hound, Bumblebee and Megatron all have a difference in opinion on Megatron's daring escape.

"When you became Optimus Prime—when you assumed the title—the world didn't know the truth about Nova and Nominus and the rest. Back then, being a Prime meant demonstrating—no, actually—embodying certain standards of behavior... it meant decency and integrity and—and morality—and all sorts of things that chancers like me pretend are unfashionable because deep down they scare us... and they scare us because we try to live our lives by them but we can't. Well, guess what? You can. You can and you do—every day. Thanks to you, the word Prime still means decency and integrity and morality. Listen. The world will always need a Prime... but only if that Prime is you."

—Rodimus to Orion

"Listen to reason! Orion, please!"
"My name... is OPTIMUS PRIME!"

—Nova Prime sets Optimus Prime up for a hell YEAH moment

"A fretful sky
An absent sun
A distant heat
A deathly hand
City against city
While the planet turns from gold to gray
And gray to black
No yesterday
No tomorrow
Just an everlasting now
Fleeting and forever
Circle, cycle, scythe.
And the six-sided architect
Freethinking
Unblinking
Holds the fate of all things
In the palm of his hand."

—Scoop recites the "Dark Cybertron" prophecy

"Hey, where's my fistbump, Brainstorm? We won!"
"I know! Thumbs up, eh? 'Thumbs up?' Because Metroplex was missing his— Am I the only one with a sense of humor around here?"
"I'm not even laughing on the inside."

—Nautica, Brainstorm and Perceptor celebrate the Necrotitan's defeat at Metroplex's newly whole hand

Notes

Continuity notes

• The casts of More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise meet each other for the first time since More than Meets the Eye #1, in which the apparent destruction of the Lost Light mentioned by Bumblebee here occurred.
• Galvatron refers to Optimus as "the true Prime", a notion that Robots in Disguise has hinted at several times going back to issue #6.
• Ever the maestro of good taste, Whirl calls the Ammonites "deader than a Duobot", hearkening back to the ill-fated Shock and Ore, who both met their ends in More than Meets the Eye #2.
• Prowl grins after Bumblebee briefly throttles him, clearly quietly happy to see the little 'bot find his bearings even if his throat suffers a little in the process. We saw him express similar sentiments after Bumblebee got proactive in Spotlight: Bumblebee.
• Hook believes Prowl is responsible for the happy ending; he and the other Constructicons became Prowl fanboys back in issue #18.
• As Shockwave describes his ores, screens show glimpses of the various worlds they hail from, reusing art from past issues. Visible are Ore-14 in the Crystal City Cavern from Dark Cybertron #1, the frozen landscape of Arduria and Monstructor clutching the Ore-6 missile from issue #6, the city beneath Gorlam Prime and its Ore-2 from issue #19, the surface of LV-117, the Ore-1 missile and Turmoil's time-ship from issue #10, the Ore-8 crystals on Tsiehshi from Spotlight: Kup, and intriguingly, the scarlet alien ocean in which Metroplex took refuge during the middle act of this crossover, represented by a panel of art from issue #23. After the conversation shifts to the subject of the Dead Universe, the second-to-last panel of the issue reuses a shot of its landscape from issue #24.
• The spherical machine that Jhiaxus and Bludgeon stand before on the final page is the time machine within Turmoil's ship, introduced in issue #7 and last seen in issue #10. Jhiaxus's remark that they will be drawing on the Dead Universe's energies "from the dawn of creation to the end of time" implies the machine is going to be involved.

Errors

• While only seen from a distance, both Chromia and Nautica have switched character models between issues to match those seen on the Alex Milne cover to Chapter 8.
• Back in Chapter 5, Shockwave removed the gun barrel from his arm and replaced it with Waspinator's weapon. In this issue, however, Waspinator's weapon is drawn as being attached to the side of Shockwave's intact gun-arm.
• Slug is seen at the Autobot camp as the death wave victims are cured. Considering he was fighting the Necrotitan in Iacon last issue, it's likely this should be Sludge, who was sent there in Chapter 2.
• The last speech bubble on the first panel of the last page lacks punctuation.

Edits

Similar to the pack-in versions of various other existing IDW comics, the version of this issue available with the Generations Deluxe Class Nightbeat toy was also subject to some changes:

• On page 1 (not counting the "previously" page), Starscream's second speech bubble in panel 5 has "Look at me. I'm dying, too." changed to "Look at me. I'm hurt, too."
• On page 4, Bumblebee's second speech bubble in panel 6 is changed from "...they died." to "...they were destroyed.", with the speech bubble resized accordingly.
• Likewise, Megatron's counter in the very first caption in panel 1 on page 5 is changed from "...since when does anyone stay dead?" to "...since when does anyone stay destroyed?", with the caption resized accordingly to accommodate three instead of two lines of text.
• On page 8, Hound's second speech bubble in panel 3 is changed from "He's dying." to "He's injured.", with the speech bubble resized accordingly.
• On page 10, Brainstorm's first speech bubble in panel 4 has "the risk of imminent death" changed to "the risk of imminent destruction", with the speech bubble resized accordingly.
• Most bizarrely, on page 12, the caption in panel 1 that contains Optimus Prime's line "...I endorse it." is changed from having a black outline to a red outline.
• No less than three edits on page 18:
  • In panel 2, Prowl's speech bubble is missing the word "dammit"; the speech bubble itself retains its size.
  • In panel 3, Bumblebee's speech bubble is changed from "Prowl, you smug piece of..." to simply "Prowl, you smug...", with the speech bubble itself also retaining its size.
  • In panel 6, the first caption is changed from "A distant heat/A deathly hand..." to "A distant heat/A dreadful hand...", with the caption itself slightly enlarged.
• Two edits in the final panel on page 20: Getaway's speech bubble has the name "Ammonites" changed to "Minicons" (like in the previous chapter), and Whirl's speech bubble that says "They're deader than a Duobot." is omitted entirely.

Real-world references

• Finis Temporis is Latin for "the end of time", a phrase Jhiaxus then uses at the issue's climax, quote above.

Trivia

Gotta love those last-minute changes.

• Artist breakdown: Regular Robots in Disguise artist Andrew Griffith returns to the series, drawing all scenes except those set in the Dead Universe, which remain illustrated by Livio Ramondelli.
• As with the previous chapter, this issue's Jimenez/Fajardo cover—which served as the indicator of which Generations toy the Hasbro exclusive cover would be included with, up until chapter 8—features package art of a character whose Generations toy is not a Deluxe Class figure; in this case, Whirl. The Hasbro cover was included with Generations Nightbeat and depicts the titular character in a completely inaccurate design, as the toy was originally intended as a retool of 2010 Transformers Reveal the Shield Special Ops Jazz, whereas the final toy is a retool of Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Bumblebee instead.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Orion Pax versus Optimus Prime, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• Sub cover: Whirl, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• Cover RI: Metroplex battles the Necrotitan, by Livio Ramondelli
• Hasbro exclusive cover: Nightbeat in an unused toy design, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr., exclusively available with Generations Deluxe Class Nightbeat.

• 
  Optimus is getting in touch with himself.
• 
  I get a toy, too!
• 
  Clash of the Titans!
• 
  Jazz's body was too cool for me so he took it back.

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Reprints

• The Transformers: Dark Cybertron Volume 2 (June 11, 2014) ISBN 1613779984 / ISBN 978-1613779989
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #25–27, More than Meets the Eye issues #26–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
  • Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: Dark Cybertron (February 11, 2015) ISBN 163140072X / ISBN 978-1631400728
  • Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–27, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 (October 18, 2017) ISBN 1684050855 / ISBN 978-1684050857
  • Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–27, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–27, Dark Cybertron Finale, and Windblade (2014) issues #1–4.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 60: Dark Cybertron, Part 2 (February 21, 2018)
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #25–27, More than Meets the Eye issues #26–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
  • Bonus material includes a "blow-by-blow account of Dark Cybertron's hidden secrets", a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Dark Cybertron Volume 2 – cover art by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• 
  Dark Cybertron – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 60: Dark Cybertron, Part 2 – cover art by Mark Brooks (Brainstorm) and Andrew Griffith (retro)

External links

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