Dark Dawn: Dark Cybertron Chapter 1

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"Dark Dawn" Dark Cybertron Chapter 1
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 6, 2013 (regular edition) November 20, 2013 (deluxe edition)
Cover date	November 2013
Written by	John Barber and James Roberts
Art by	Phil Jimenez (layouts) Andrew Griffith (finishes) Brendan Cahill (prologue)
Colors by	Josh Perez (main story) John-Paul Bove (prologue)
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2013)
Price	$3.99 (standard) $7.99 (deluxe)

While Orion Pax's team joins up with the Lost Light crew, Shockwave unleashes his undead Titan on Cybertron.

Synopsis

Six million years ago, the Ark-1 comes upon a mysterious swirling vortex on the fringes of the Benzuli Expanse. Jhiaxus is left baffled by the cosmic anomaly, but Cyclonus is reminded of a legend that spoke of a parallel reality of unlife—a Dead Universe. Jhiaxus scoffs at the superstitious notion, but there is no denying that whatever the vortex is, it is indeed a gateway to another universe. At Nova Prime's command, Galvatron sets the ship on a course toward the anomaly, but as it grows near, the anomaly reaches out and begins to pull the ship in. Nova Prime remains calm, but a distressed Jhiaxus quickly beams a final message back to Cybertron, to his student Shockwave, urging him to carry on his work...

Attack of Titan.

In the present day, beneath the surface of Cybertron in Crystal City, Shockwave gloats over the imminent fruition of long-germinating plans. Jhiaxus, reporting in from the vicinity of Gorlam Prime, lets Shockwave know that the Titan awoken on the planet by Orion Pax is presently in mid-teleport to Cybertron, guided by Waspinator, while Dreadwing, at Shockwave's side, reports on the energy fluctuations that herald the Titan's arrival. As the colossal Transformer materializes, the Ore-2 in its body begins to react with the Ore-14 that lines the cavern walls, and the giant howls in agony.

In Iacon, a worried Rattrap interrupts Starscream with some news, while the former Decepticon is busy familiarizing himself with his new body. Before Rattrap can share his fears, though, Starscream sees the source of his concern for himself: the sun, which had apparently risen some time ago, has not moved from its position in the sky since Starscream last saw it. Realizing that dawn is, in fact, hours away, Starscream scans the mysterious ball of light, and with a suspicion that he recognizes its energy signature growing, has Rattrap put in a call to the Lost Light.

In the vicinity of Gorlam Prime, Orion Pax and his team aboard Pax's ship the Skyroller struggle to escape the gravity well of the collapsing planet as the expanding Ore-2 destroys it. Fortunately, responding to a distress call put out by Pax, the Lost Light quantum jumps onto the scene directly overhead. The Skyroller docks with the larger ship—which easily outpaces the pull of Gorlam Prime's collapse—and Pax's team are welcomed on board by Rodimus, who, it turns out, specifically responded to the distress call because it was warning him away. As members of the two crews quietly comment on how weird the others are, and Garnak has a happy reunion with his old captain Rodimus, Ultra Magnus inquires if Orion will be taking command of their ship. Orion haltingly confirms that he won't, and asks for a tour of the Lost Light instead; this takes the group to the bridge just as Starscream's transmission comes through. Studying the readings Starscream provides, Cyclonus confirms his fears: the light in the sky over Cybertron is a portal to the Dead Universe.

Back on Cybertron, Bumblebee, Prowl, Arcee, Ironhide, and the Dinobots venture closer to the mysterious light, in which Arcee can sense Jhiaxus's hand. The Dinobots roar ahead into action despite the presence of no visible enemy to battle, but just as Prowl is starting to come around to their viewpoint, the ground beneath the Autobots' feet quakes... and the Titan emerges, transformed by the fusion of ores into an undead behemoth!

A vision of the future assails Shockwave: he sees Galvatron battling Megatron... Starscream disintegrating... Rodimus being crushed... Kup in chains... Alpha Trion... the Lost Light crashing... and Orion Pax staring down... himself? Though he reels from this premonition, Shockwave rights himself as Dreadwing continues to provide updates, informing him that the Titan is functioning as a "conduit", but that a complication has arisen. This seems of little import to Shockwave—as does Dreadwing's disrespectful tone, which Waspinator chides him for—as he turns instead to bow deeply before a viewscreen that delivers a transmission from the other side of the Titan's link: Nova Prime and Galvatron yet survive within the Dead Universe, and soon they will return to conquer all universes!

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks or flash-forwards.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Cliffjumper (17) Bluestreak (18) Sideswipe (19) Sludge (20) Arcee (21) Prowl (22) Ironhide (23) Bumblebee (24) Orion Pax (25) Wheelie (26) Hardhead (27) Ultra Magnus (29) Whirl (30) Swerve (31) Skids (32) Brainstorm (33) Rodimus (34) Ratchet (35) Perceptor (36) Hound (37) Slag (38) Swoop (39) Snarl (40) Kup (42) Alpha Trion (43)	Dreadwing (8) Shockwave (9) Waspinator (11) Megatron (41)	Galvatron (1) Jhiaxus (2) Grindcore (3) Nova Prime (4) Scourge (5) Cyclonus (6) Tailpipe (7) Necrotitan (10) Swindle (12) Jazz (13) Blurr (14) Rattrap (15) Starscream (16) Garnak (28)

Quotes

"Hey Pax—your distress call was so epic I've got it as my ringtone."

—Swerve

"You remember last year, when Rodimus gave his big speech about a quest to find the Knights of Cybertron? I was this close to signing up."
"Made-up knights impossible to find—and so you decided to stay behind."
"No... I made the mistake of looking at the crew manifest. Rodimus has got some reeeeeal weirdos on board..."

—Hardhead and Wheelie

"...And this is where we spend most of our time, fine-tuning strategy, reflecting on our progress to date... and debating the pedagogical constraints of logic, grammar, and rhetoric."
...
"Has someone been drawing on the navicomp?"

—Ultra Magnus

"Ironhide, keep your lunkheads in line."
"They ain't lunkheads, Prowl, they're just brave."
"Most lunkheads are."

—Prowl and Ironhide on the Dinobots

Notes

Continuity notes

• The Ark's approach to the Benzuli Expanse anomaly was previously seen in Spotlight: Galvatron. That issue gets a bit of a soft retcon here; it implied that Galvatron had sent the Ark-1 into the anomaly of his own accord, but here we see Nova Prime order him to set their course. The setting is also different—here, Galvatron is shown at the helm surrounded by the bridge officers, but there he was shown alone at a side console.
• Tailpipe was revealed to be among the crew of the Ark-1 in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #13.
• When asked to examine the anomaly, Cyclonus remembers an old legend that mentions "stars burning black". Those words will become very important some way down the line.
• It wasn't clear if the presence of an Autobot symbol on Blurr's chest was an error when he last appeared in Robots in Disguise #20, but that puzzle seems to have been solved with this issue as it's now gone.
• The mysterious "sunrise" appeared at the end of Robots in Disguise #18, #20, and #22.
• Orion Pax and company are escaping Gorlam Prime directly following on from the end of Robots in Disguise #19.
• We join the Lost Light after the ship's departure from Luna 1 in More than Meets the Eye #21; Rodimus notes that they're looking for Thunderclash, who they met in the earlier-set issue #22 - presumably because, with the destruction of their Matrix-half/map in #21, they have no way to search for the Knights of Cybertron.
• Garnak served under Rodimus in the "Space Opera" storyline that ran from issues #19 to #21 of the 2009-2011 ongoing series.
• The Lost Light and Starscream previously made contact with each other in "The Sound of Breaking Glass", the prose back-up story in More than Meets the Eye #21.
• Nova Prime last appeared in Heart of Darkness #4, in which he was reanimated by the D-Void and last seen being forced back through a portal to the Dead Universe. Likewise, Galvatron's last appearance—in issue #30 of the ongoing series—saw him disintegrate when a portal to the Dead Universe began to open before him. These two have historically not gotten along too well; Galvatron turned on Nova back in "Revelation", and Nova battled Galvatron at the D-Void's command in Heart of Darkness. With the destruction of the D-Void and its Heart of Darkness in "Chaos", however, it seems this pair have been freed of the dark lusts that have pit them against each other in the past—perhaps most obviously evinced by the fact that Nova Prime has dropped the "Nemesis Prime" moniker he went by after taking the Darkness into himself and reverted to his original color scheme.

Transformers references

• Tailpipe is based on the Dark of the Moon character of the same name.
• Rattrap professes to have a "ninth sense", the way a human would claim to have a sixth. This seems to hearken back to the "standard seven senses" that Transformers are constructed with (according to Streetwise's profile in Marvel's Transformers Universe), but that would mean there's an eighth going unmentioned. This could be taste, something most Transformers are shown to have nowadays, as it is not listed among the seven. Also Bumblebee claimed to have nine senses, in Marvel UK's Dinobot Hunt!, perhaps suggesting a degree of variation between individuals.
• Starscream's new body is, of course, the new Transformers: Generations toy based on Armada Starscream.
• The first panel of page 10 homages panel 2, page 22 of The Death of Optimus Prime.

Real-world references

• Rattrap describes himself as a "stainless steel rat", after the title of the 1961 Harry Harrison novel. The same reference was also made in the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda (Part III)".
• Whirl describes Cyclonus as "sworn to reject a world that hates and fears him." A very similar turn of phrase, "sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them," has been commonly used by Marvel Comics' X-Men books for the past few decades.

Errors

• The Titan's color scheme has changed from the white, orange, and blue deco it had in Robots in Disguise #19 to a desaturated white, blue, and magenta, as a result of Andrew Griffth's mistaken belief while designing the character that it was supposed to be the same Titan that appeared in the Robots in Disguise 2012 annual, which had those colors.
• Back in Robots in Disguise #22, the Metrotitian and Waspinator had been drawn to arrive to an entirely different piece of Shockwave's dialogue not repeated in this issue, making their appearance here confusing at best.
• Shockwave's vision foreshadows the content of "Dark Cybertron", but as what was presumably the result of late-term changes to the plot, Alpha Trion never appears in the story, nor does the scene of Rodimus being crushed between the Necrotitan's teeth.
• Between pages 5 and 6, Shockwave switches from having a left hand to having a right hand.

Trivia

• The inside-front cover of an IDW Transformers comic normally contains a "previously" text blurb, credits, and a list of variant covers, but for this one-shot special, the "previously" section is expanded to two full pages, and is made up of re-used artwork from Robots in Disguise #17, #18, #19, and #22, and More than Meets the Eye #21 and #22. The credits and cover list come on page 3.
• While the Titan's transformation into an undead horror seems like it's a reference to the old fandom misconception that Zone Metrotitan was a zombie, it's actually a total coincidence.
• This issue's story is followed by a "Roll Call" page listing off the major players, a checklist of issues for the full "Dark Cybertron" event, and a "Thank You" to the VIP Attendees who visited the IDW studios at BotCon 2013.
• In the "Roll Call" segment, Slag's name is given as "Slug", the controversy-dodging alternate name given to the character's Aligned continuity family counterpart. Whether this change bleeds over into the story itself remains to be seen...
• Two weeks after this issue's publication, a stitch-bound "Deluxe Edition" was released. This version omits the "previously on" section, the "Roll Call", the "Thank You" and all adverts, and instead includes a 26-page supplementary section that showcases Phil Jiminez's thumbnail layouts for the issue next to Andrew Griffith's finished lineart, along with design sketches and alternate compositions, complete with commentary from Barber, Roberts, Jiminez, Griffith, Shearer, and Guzman.

Covers (7)

• Regular cover: Orion Pax, Rodimus, and Bumblebee charge forward, at the fore of a collage of characters from the story with Shockwave looming overall, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• Sub cover: Shockwave's shadow is cast across Cybertron in front of a montage of the cast, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente. Retailers could order as many of this variant as they wished, with the notional intent that it only be available to customers with in-store subscriptions to the book.
• Cover RIA: Starscream in his new body, by Jiminez and Fajardo Jr.
• Cover RIB: Blank white cover for hand-drawn sketches by Andrew Griffith. The example sketch used to illustrate the cover in this issue's checklist is one of Flatline, drawn for fan Jasmine "Jazzfox" Smith at Auto Assembly 2013.
• Cover RE: Orion Pax in an homage to New Mutants #87, by Rob Liefeld, who drew the original cover being homaged, with colors by Fajardo Jr. Available exclusively at Virginia Comicon 2013.
• Deluxe Edition: Embossed version of the regular cover with a foil-stamped logo
• Hasbro exclusive cover: Cropped version of cover RIA, exclusively available with Generations Deluxe Class Armada Starscream.

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• Transformers: The Art of Prime (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: Dark Cybertron Volume 1 (April 16, 2014) ISBN 1613778910 / ISBN 978-1613778913
  • Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–25, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–24.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers.
  • 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 26-page "Behind the Scenes of Transformers: Dark Cybertron #1" by John Barber, with additional commentary by James Roberts, Brendan Cahill, Phil Jiminez, Andrew Griffith, and Carlos Guzman. This in-depth page-by-page breakdown includes script extracts, various stages of lineart, character/location/ship designs, and more!
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 59: Dark Cybertron, Part 1 (June 14, 2017)
  • Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–25, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–24.
  • Bonus material includes a bio on the Titans, the making of Dark Cybertron with John Barber and James Roberts, a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • 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.

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  Dark Cybertron Volume 1 – cover art by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• 
  Dark Cybertron – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 59: Dark Cybertron, Part 1 – cover art by Guido Guidi (Ratchet) and Phil Jimenez/Andrew Griffith (retro)
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long

External links

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