Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron

« The Transformers: Lost Light #1 »
"Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 14, 2016
Cover date	December 2016
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Jack Lawrence
Colors by	Joana Lafuente (pg. 1-4) and John-Paul Bove (pg. 5-20)
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2016)

The stranded Lost Lighters take stock following their victory.

Synopsis

On Luna 2, Cybertronian treasure-hunters Anode and Lug find themselves under attack by a Decepticon Cybernought. Anode activates a forcefield to protect them while she digs up the artifact they've come looking for, which they intend to sell to a buyer named Techy. Lug is quite convinced they are about to die; fortunately for them, moments before the Cybernought breaks through the forcefield, the Necrobot appears to spirit them away to the future.

Five hundred years later, Anode and Lug awaken from their stasis capsules on Necroworld, just two of the many believed dead 'bots the Necrobot has rescued from throughout time. The last to wake, they belatedly join a "debriefing" held by Ultra Magnus, who gets them up to speed, explaining what has happened to them, and about the Autobots' recent battle with and victory over the Decepticon Justice Division—though he and the energetic Anode immediately butt heads when she complains about his dry delivery. Anode and Lug head out to mingle, where they are intercepted by Swerve, who has allegedly been assigned to carry out "background checks." Anode begins to suspect otherwise as the little bartender's questions become more and more ludicrous, so she changes the subject to ask about his Autobot insignia, now black in color. Swerve explains he and the others are in mourning for Skids; Anode remarks that he doesn't seem very upset, to which Swerve rightly takes umbrage, and stomps off, sarcastically remarking that Anode should have Velocity check her for "timesickness." Anode realizes too late the harshness of her words, but is immediately more concerned to hear Velocity's name...

Elsewhere in the crowd, Rewind introduces Roller to Velocity and Nautica, but the medic has to rush off and drags Nautica with her. Nearby, Decepticons Rapidfire and Fangry watch this exchange, suspicious and discontented with the news that the war is over, and spoiling for a fight. Fangry suggests they pick a fight with the toughest 'bot in the room to establish dominance, and eyes the super-strong Tailgate as he shows off for the crowd, lifting Roller over his head and describing his various feats in the recent battle. As the wary Cyclonus drags Tailgate aside to tell him off for grandstanding, Fangry saunters over and deliberately shoulders Cyclonus as he goes past.

Meanwhile, Drift applies a new paintjob to Rodimus, replacing his reds, yellows, and oranges with black, blue, and purple colors that, in the Spectralism doctrine, express both grief for a fallen comrade, and a "promise to kill." Rodimus implies this dual intent is intentional and that he is quite willing to kill Getaway for everything he has done to them when they get back to the Lost Light, but before he can say it aloud, a tremor shakes the whole fortress.

The quake is also felt out in the Necrobot's flower fields by Megatron, who has been telling his old friend Terminus about the war, much as he might doubt his own objectivity on the matter. Before heading back, Megatron pauses at the plinth of Ravage's now-deactivated holographic statue, and bids his departed friend farewell... whereupon Nightbeat and Rung suddenly burst out of the ground beneath his feet! They all return to the fortress, where Brainstorm explains that he teleported the pair back from the depths of the planet (just not quite all the way to the surface!) using the Necrobot's teleportation chamber, which he has rebuilt back out of the fusion cannon he turned it into. Nightbeat relates what he and Rung discovered, as well as the appearance of the Galactic Council's geobomb—which apparently just burned out without effect, causing the earlier tremor. Rung, meanwhile, learns of Skids's fate from Ratchet, and sorrowfully goes to pay his last respects to his friend. As he grieves by Skids's bedside, however, a shaft of light unexpectedly bursts out of Rung's chest and he retches into his hand...

You're coming with me, online or off.

Tailgate awakens from a recharge to find that Cyclonus has been badly beaten. Suspecting Fangry is to blame, Tailgate storms off to find him, despite Cyclonus's pleas to the contrary. Concurrently, Anode and Lug attempt to use the teleporter; though Lug doesn't know the story behind it, Anode and Velocity apparently know one another, and Anode needs to get away from her as fast as possible. They are caught in the act by Rodimus and Drift, who explain that there's only enough energy for one use of the device... but Anode has already gone off on another tangent, fascinated by Drift's Great Sword. When she attempts to analyze it, he pushes her away, but the instant he makes contact, Drift collapses to the ground, and sees a terrifying vision of Pharma leading an army of sparkeaters and Worldsweepers, all bearing down on himself, Rodimus, and Grimlock, and a mysterious message etched in the ground!

Keeping his vision a secret to everyone except Ratchet, Drift subsequently joins the rest of the selected team—Rodimus ("Rod Squad"), Minimus Ambus, Ratchet, Chromedome, Rewind, Megatron, Terminus, and Roller—in using the teleporter to return to Cybertron so they can obtain a ship and then go back and collect everyone else. The machine appears to function perfectly, though it doesn't survive the trip... but as the group looks out over where Iacon should be and sees a glittering metropolis, rather than the half-rebuilt city they left behind, they begin to suspect that something has gone wrong. A moment later, they are confronted by Twelve-of-Twelve of the Functionist Council and his Functionary enforcers, and Rewind realizes what has happened—they are on Cybertron... but they're in an alternate universe!

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in Drift's vision.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Functionists	Others
Ultra Magnus/ Minimus Ambus (5) Kaput (6) Velocity (9) Rewind (10) Nautica (11) Tailgate (14) Wavelength (15) Syphon (17) Swerve (18) Rodimus (19) Drift (20) Megatron (22) Nightbeat (23) Rung (24) Brainstorm (25) Ratchet (26) Skids's body (28) Pharma (29) Grimlock (31) Whirl (32) Chromedome (33)	Rapidfire (12) Fangry (13)	Multiple Functionaries (34) Twelve-of-Twelve (35) "Flatheaded" enforcer (36)	Main universe Anode (1) Lug (2) Cybernought pilot (3) Censere (4) Miscellaneous unnamed "Disappeared" (7) Roller (8) Cyclonus (16) Terminus (21) Ten (27) Multiple sparkeaters (30) Functionist Universe Functionaries' prisoners (37)

Quotes

"In my experience, no matter how bad the problem, no matter how insurmountable the odds, if you stand around long enough, someone else will sort it out."

—Anode

"I think I speak for everyone here—particularly those of us who've spent the last 50 slides trying to punch ourselves to death—when I say: next time, just skip to that bit. The bit you said just now. The end bit. And maybe a few jokes to spice things up. Because that was so dull it made my life cry."
"Those were statements, not questions. I asked for questions. Do you have any?"
"Does this count?"

—Anode and Ultra Magnus

"Magnus? Last time he gave a speech, people died."
"I know. The only winner that day was medical science. We finally know what happens when the brain is totally deprived of stimulus."

—Rodimus and Drift

"Goodbye, dear friend. The universe is emptier now, but you live on in its echoes."

—Megatron bids farewell to Ravage

Brainstorm: "'kay, so, bear in mind that when you turn something into something else and then reverse the process you have to make some... aesthetic compromises."
(The teleport chamber is revealed to be a ramshackle half-pipe lying on the floor.)
Rodimus: "It's a den, Brainstorm. You've built a den."
Ultra Magnus: "Does it work? As a teleporter, I mean. Not a den. I'm not qualified to pass judgement on a den."

"Whirl, I'm—"
"—putting me in charge? Finally."
"You? I wouldn't put you in charge of your own legs."
"Ouch. Lucky for you I respect people who hurt my feelings."

—Rodimus and Whirl

Notes

Continuity notes

• First appearances: Anode, Lug, Fangry, Rapidfire
• After a five-month gap in real-world time, we rejoin Team Rodimus on the Necroworld directly following on from the end of More than Meets the Eye #55. That issue saw the defeat of the DJD, the death of Ravage, the return of the "Disappeared" Transformers, recovered from throughout time by the Necrobot (including Roller and Terminus), and the apparent detonation of the Galactic Council's geobomb.
  • In-universe, this story is actually the past. This story takes place the day after the characters made the creepy video seen in More than Meets the Eye #50, which #50 told us was three weeks delayed in transit. During the Titans Return crossover, itself set weeks before the other two ongoing series, the characters discussed the broadcasts as a past event during which people had tried to contact the Lost Light.
• Cybernought battle suits were introduced in More than Meets the Eye #8.
• Anode suspects Swerve's questions aren't genuine; of course, he's holding his own self-governed "Crewditions" again, asking silly questions, like he did back in More than Meets the Eye #28. All Swerve's "checks" reference the escapades of his various ship-mates: Brainstorm time-travelled to save someone he loved (Quark); Ultra Magnus is a loadbearer in disguise (in the form of Minimus Ambus); Megatron attempted to take over the universe (on numerous occasions); Skids had a dark secret (that he was responsible for Quark's death, as well as hundreds more); Tailgate had suppressed powers (triggered by a quantum-filled mutation). The reference to "villainous ex-partners" probably refers to the recurring theme of various characters reuniting with old friends and co-workers who are revealed to be traitors, including Getaway, Pharma, Tyrest, and Froid. It also could be Chromedome—whose ex-partner Prowl put Overlord on the ship.
• The crew are all wearing black Autobot insignias in memory of Skids, who died in More than Meets the Eye #54.
• Rodimus' adopting a color scheme in line with Spectralist practices is intriguing, as, in More than Meets the Eye #30, the quantum-duplicate Rodimus' coffin was engraved with Spectralist symbology.
• Rung's reaction to Skids's death is understandable, if due a little more exploration; he and Skids had grown closer over the last year of More than Meets the Eye, and they shared a notably awkward parting for unclear reasons in issue #53.
• Drift's vision features various separate but interlinked components of the primary over-arcing mystery of More than Meets the Eye. Grimlock was found aboard a Worldsweeper in issue #7, and it was revealed in issue #46 that the ships are connected to a group of robots who wear the mysterious gear-like hieroglyph that has repeatedly appeared throughout the series, including on the surface of Luna-2, and on Thunderclash's map to Cyberutopia. This symbol was identified in issue #50 as a coat-of-arms linked to the Knights of Cybertron. Pharma, meanwhile, was last seen in issue #21 when his dead body was dragged through an experimental spacebridge by forces unknown; on the other side of this bridge Skids briefly encountered a giant glowing orb that spoke only in images, which included the symbol. Finally, the message Drift finds etched into the ground (see "Transformers references" below) translates to "PREPARE, CONFRONT, REPEL"—the same message Grimlock was shown to have written under a drawing of the glyph in issue #46.
• Drift refers to the "last time" he had a vision. As of this issue's publication, the only vision we previously knew Drift to have had was detailed in issue #21; it occurred when he stabbed himself with his Great Sword in issue #28 of the 2009-2011 ongoing series, giving him a vague glimpse of the future that inspired his dedication to Rodimus. However, next issue will clarify that this isn't the vision he's talking about here.
• Our heroes have wound up in the parallel Functionist Universe, an alternate timeline where Megatron never lived to start the war, introduced in More than Meets the Eye #35. That issue featured the debut of Twelve-of-Twelve, the Functionist Council's Functionary enforcers, and the advanced form of Empurata that sees a 'bot's head replaced with a screen, as one of the councilman's retinue seen here has been subjected to. A "chest cavity search" is mentioned which was also seen in that issue, consisting of an examination of a 'bot's transformation cog. Rewind recognizes the universe from his previous glimpse of it, granted when his database was slowly overwritten when history was changed.
• The Empurata-afflicted 'bot is holding captive three other smaller robots, who are evidently protesters of the same kind as seen in issue #35—ones who have modified the appearance of their bodies to look like Rung, an individual who the disenfranchised in Functionist society have rallied around for his mysterious, apparently purposeless alternate mode. In issue #39, however, Functionist council member One-of-Twelve told that universe's captive Rung that they had figured out the mystery of his alt mode at last... which, coupled with Rung's intriguing physical reactions to the death of Skids this issue, indicates this long-standing puzzle may soon be solved!
• The two protestors whose faces we can see appear to have black, bleeding, empty eye-sockets. This is almost certainly connected to the Functionist Council's plan to install cameras in the eyes of everyone on Cybertron, detailed in issue #35.

Transformers references

• Lug turns into Anode's backpack. Her transformation scheme is based on that of the Titans Return Rewind toy.
• A few of the generic "Disappeared" Transformers look to have stolen the color schemes of other characters: Adventure Greejeeber, Ricochet, Transmetal Waspinator, cartoon Beast Hunters Smokescreen, and Sky High.
• The sword Grimlock is holding in Drift's vision is the Fall of Cybertron Grimlock toy's, and is also held by Volcanicus in art for Transformers: Earth Wars.
• The message Drift sees in his vision is written in "Ancient Autobot," a substitution cypher/font created by Jim Sorenson, based loosely on the hieroglyphics seen in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Cosmic Rust."
• Upon arrival in the Functionist Universe, the Autobots are met by what Twelve-of-Twelve calls a Sky-Spy, after the Autobot satellite from the Generation 1 cartoon. Rather than share its design with that device, though, (as the Sky Spies that appeared in More than Meets the Eye #11 did), its appearance is that of a Beast Machines Diagnostic Drone, a design previously used by the Lost Light's medical drone, seen in multiple issues.

Real life references

• When Rewind realizes what has happened at the end of the issue, he quotes Arthur Dent from the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel Mostly Harmless when he remarks "Right planet, wrong universe."

Errors

• Ultra Magnus gives the date as "1st Cycle 3041," but that's way off. The present era is something closer to 3819, per the date on the poster for Information Creep in issue #33. In fact, 3041 would predate even the Simanzi Massacre, which took place in 3178, per issue #16.
• Tailgate's insignia is mourning-black on page 9, but red on page 15. Brainstorm and Megatron's, meanwhile, are consistently colored red, even on pages where other characters' are black, so that might be deliberate. We mean, Brainstorm is a bit of an arsehole...
• Rung's eyebrows are coloured orange on the last panel of page 14, as opposed to their usual gray.
• Tailgate's back is coloured white on the entirety of page 15, instead of its usual light blue.
• The overview/recap of the crew's adventures so far blames the events of "Dark Cybertron" on D-Void, not Shockwave. Not even IDW themselves understand what that crossover was about, we suppose....
• The recap also claims that Fortress Maximus was the one to accidentally shoot Rung in issue #6, when it was actually Swerve.
• One of the eyeless prisoners on the final page has "Reduntant" scrawled on their chest. Someone – fictional or real – misspelled "redundant".

Other trivia

• Lost Light takes the place of More than Meets the Eye on the IDW schedule, and remains written by James Roberts, continuing on the story begun in the previous title's pages. This issue's story is followed by a five-page recap of the More than Meets the Eye story so far.
• Would you believe this is Fangry's first appearance in IDW continuity? I know! Talk about overdue!
• Rodimus's new color scheme is very similar to that of e-HOBBY exclusive character Black Rodimus Convoy, as well as to an off-color version of Rodimus who appeared in issue #201 of the Marvel G1 comic as a result of a printing error, but according to Roberts and Lawrence, neither served as inspiration for his new look.
• The tool that Drift uses to apply Rodimus's new color scheme looks very much like a standard wooden pencil.

Soundtrack

For all of "Dissolution":

• "Neither Here Nor There" by Lost in the Trees

For this issue alone:

• "This Is Why We Fight" by The Decemberists
• "Magic In Here" by The Go-Betweens
• "Water From the Same Source" by Rachel's

Covers (9)

• Regular cover: Rodimus, Ratchet, Drift, and Nautica, by Jack Lawrence and Joana Lafuente
• Subscription cover A: Rodimus and the Lost Light, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Subscription cover B: Getaway and the mutineers, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover C: Blank cover for sketches

• 
  Three men and a lady.
• 
  Rodimus trips out.
• 
  It's mutiny, blarg!
• 

• Retailer incentive cover A: Graffiti of Megatron, Rodimus, and Nautica by Sara Pitre-Durocher; part of a series of "graffiti" variants by Pitre-Durocher which combines with covers from Optimus Prime #1, Revolutionaries #1, M.A.S.K. #1, and G.I. Joe #1 to form a complete image.
• Retailer incentive cover B: Megatron by Sonny Liew; one in a series of variants by Liew on the above-mentioned issues.
• Retailer incentive cover C: Megatron by Paul Pope; one in a series of variants by Pope on the above-mentioned issues.
• Bad Wolf Comics exclusive cover: Rodimus and the spectre of Megatron's past self, by Sajad Shah and Juan Fernandez; available exclusively from Bad Wolf Comics.
• Ript Apparel exclusive cover: the cast recreate the movie poster for The Transformers: The Movie, by Timothy Lim. In a cute touch, Rodimus and Magnus's spots are swapped, meaning Rodimus gets to stand front and center while Magnus is way off to the side, in the distance, in vehicle mode. Available exclusively from Ript Apparel.

• 
  Purple Floyd's The Wall.
• 
  DOTM look?
• 
  Feels good.
• 
  "He's nicer now, I swear!"
• 
  Still the best Transformers movie.

Advertisements

• Lost Light #2
• "The Hasbro Tribune" editorial page promoting December's Hasbro Universe Reconstruction titles, including G.I. Joe #1, M.A.S.K. #2, this issue, Optimus Prime #2, Till All Are One #6, Revolutionaries #1, Micronauts #8, and ROM #6.

Reprints

• Transformers: Lost Light Volume 1 (October 25, 2017) ISBN 1631409921 / ISBN 978-1631409929
  • Collects Lost Light issues #1–6.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 77: Dissolution (September 4, 2019)
  • Collects Lost Light issues #1–8.
  • Bonus material includes a sketch gallery by Jack Lawrence, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 2 (April 6, 2022) ISBN 1684058775 / ISBN 978-1684058778
  • Collects Till All Are One issues #9–12, Optimus Prime issues #1–6, and Lost Light issues #1–7.
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Lost Light Volume 1 – cover art by Jack Lawrence and Joana Lafuente
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 77: Dissolution – cover art by Dreamwave (Swerve) and Jack Lawrence
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 2 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

External links

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