The Autonomy Lesson (issue)

This article is about the comic issue. For the mobile game event, see The Autonomy Lesson (Legends).

« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #1 »
"So why's this series called 'Robots in Disguise' when we're never actually in--" "OH LOOK AT THAT INTERESTING THING OVER THERE!!"
"The Autonomy Lesson"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 25, 2012 (1st printing) February 22, 2012 (2nd printing)
Cover date	January 2012
Story by	John Barber
Art by	Andrew Griffith
Colors by	Josh Perez
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2012)

With more and more NAILs arriving on Cybertron every day, his authority being questioned at every turn, and his tenuous control of the Decepticons slipping away, Bumblebee is forced to make a drastic choice.

Synopsis

As a ship carrying the newest group of NAILs to return to Cybertron comes in for a landing over the primordial planet, the substance of the world itself comes to life, reacting primitively to the presence of the "intruders" and lashing out at their craft. Although damaged, they are able to set down, and are greeted by Bumblebee and Metalhawk, though the conversation that follows is a terse one, as Metalhawk takes every opportunity to blame the Autobots for the current situation and foster distrust for them in the new arrivals.

Elsewhere, Tappet is caught in the act of graffitiing a building by Needlenose and Horri-Bull, who are acting as enforcers of the peace following the implantation of inhibitor/deterrence chips in the Decepticons that prevent them transforming or using their special powers. Unfortunately, the pair elect to enforce the peace upside Tappet's head, but are caught before the situation escalates by Prowl, Blurr, and Sideswipe. While Blurr takes Tappet into custody, Prowl and Sideswipe return Horri-Bull and Needlenose to the Decepticons' "home", where self-appointed leader Ratbat makes demands for equal treatment that fall on deaf ears. After the Autobots depart, however, Ratbat turns on the two troublemaking Decepticons for their willingness to serve the Autobots' government, and announces that he has a plan...

While Ironhide and Wheeljack are attempting to map the full extent of the changes to Cybertron, Bumblebee and Prowl clash over the Decepticon problem, and over Prowl's opposition to holding a memorial for the believed-dead crew of the Lost Light, since most of the planet's population are hostile or indifferent towards the idea. Leaving Bumblebee to deal with matters of state, Prowl receives a visit from a mysterious co-conspirator, who is aiding him in carrying out the unpleasant tasks necessary to keep the peace.

Metalhawk arrives and arranges for Tappet's release, following which he and Bumblebee talk about the memorial. Rather than actually give an answer, Metalhawk volunteers the fact that rumours are starting to spread that Bumblebee had the Lost Light blown up, which drives the little yellow 'bot into a fury. Before he can really lay into Metalhawk, though, they are distracted by a scuffle nearby: Horri-Bull and Needlenose are at it again, beating up Zetca. Bumblebee threatens to detonate Horri-Bull's I/D chip if he doesn't back off, but Horri-Bull calls his bluff, preparing to kill Zetca... and Bumblebee doesn't blink, triggering the explosive and blowing Horri-Bull's head off. And watching nearby is Skywarp, who reports Horri-Bull's death, and despite supposedly having an I/D chip, teleports away...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	NAILs
Bluestreak (6) Mirage (7) Omega Supreme (9) Jazz (11) Sky Lynx (16) Bumblebee (17) Sideswipe (20) Prowl (21) Blurr (22) Broadside (45) Sizzle (46) Ironhide (47) Wheeljack (48)	Needlenose (12) Horri-Bull (13) Laserbeak (23) Buzzsaw (24) Blast Off (25) Starscream (26) Acid Storm (27) Mindwipe (28) Triggerhappy (29) Rampage (30) Razorclaw (31) Divebomb (32) Dead End (33) Spinister (34) Wildrider (35) Hook (36) Bonecrusher (37) Shockwave (38) Rumble (39) Skywarp (40) Ravage (41) Ratbat (42) Soundwave (43) Bombshell (44)	Blue, red, and yellow triplets (1-3) Voxpop (4) Tappet (5) Green and yellow NAIL (8) "Green Cy-Kill" (10) Scrambling neon Decepticon‎ NAIL and friend (13-14) Zetca (15) Metalhawk (18) Hipotank (19) Arcee (49)

Quotes

"Autobot. You beg for our help and when we give it—how do you treat us?"
"Like the animals you are."

—Ratbat and Prowl, trading verbal blows.

"Prime never had to deal with this. And he never wanted to. But this is my world and I have to defend it—even if it doesn't want us here. No... Especially if Cybertron doesn't want us here."

—Bumblebee

Notes

Continuity notes

• First appearances: Hipotank
• Needlenose says they want to "do something" unlike Soundwave, Shockwave, and Bombshell. All three will turn out to have their own schemes going on in the background of the series.
• Bumblebee refers to the NAIL protester who killed himself back in "Liars, A to D Part 1".
• The Lost Light's "destruction" in "Liars" hangs over the story, and the series itself.
• "Heard you'd gone soft on Eart", a nod to the previous ongoing and Spotlight where Prowl learned a valuable lesson about being nice.
• Ratbat is livid at Prowl's "like the animals you are" crack. We'll learn from the later "Shockpoint"/"Soundwaves" two-parter that the Transformers 'beasts' were traditionally seen as inferior, improperly sentient robots, including by Ratbat himself. This means Prowl's crack is a lot more barbed than first thought (and Prowl's a bit of a racist).

Transformers references

• Pottering around in opening double spread is a tall, slender NAIL who Josh Perez coloured to resemble the silver, black, and green redeco of the Tonka GoBots character Cy-Kill, though Andrew Griffith hadn't deliberately drawn the NAIL to resemble the GoBots villain. And dead-center is an apparent homage to Beast Machines Scavenger.
• Several 'bots in the opening double spread each have two heads. They may be pairs of conjoined twins similarly to Rack'n'Ruin.
• In the Decepticon crowd scene, Mindwipe and Triggerhappy are seen standing next to each other—a reference to their joint desertion of Scorponok's forces in the Marvel comics.

Real world references

• One of the NAILs in the opening double spread is an homage to Boba Fett.
• The title is likely a reference to "The Anatomy Lesson", a well-known Alan Moore-written issue of Swamp Thing.
• A spaceship seen on page two appears to be a larger version of Cosmos’ UFO alternate mode.

Errors

• In what is presumably a coordination error, Spinister is shown among the Decepticons on Cybertron in this issue, but More than Meets the Eye #7 would show him as being as having been part of a group of off-world Decepticons for some time. Quick, someone make up a name!

Other trivia

And to push people down stairs...

• As with More than Meets the Eye #1, the release of this issue was preceded by a "scavenger hunt" of sorts that began on January 23rd, with one each of a series of fourteen images spotlighting individual characters being released to twelve different websites, both Transformers fansites and popular comic book new sites. These included Bombshell at TFormers, Bumblebee at Comic Book Resources, Ironhide on the official Transformers Facebook page, Metalhawk at the Allspark, Needlenose at the IDW forums, Prowl on John Barber's Twitter, Ratbat at Full Metal Hero, Shockwave at Comic Vine, Skywarp at TFW2005, Soundwave at Seibertron, Starscream at Newsarama, Tappet at Polaris Magazine, Wheeljack at Andrew Griffith's blog, and Zetca on Josh Perez's Twitter.
  • "Bombshell takes control"
  • "Bumblebee wants peace"
  • "Ironhide knows a secret"
  • "Metalhawk is gaining allies"
  • "Needlenose exercises his authority"
  • "Prowl has an accomplice"
  • "Ratbat wants power"
  • "Shockwave is watching"
  • "Skywarp wants vengence"
  • "Soundwave remains silent"
  • "Starscream sees an opportunity"
  • "Tappet wants to be heard"
  • "Wheeljack wants answers"
  • "Zetca wants to survive"

• Sideswipe seems to have abandoned his wicked-sweet Generation 2-colored body after only one issue. This was because Griffith was drawing this issue at the same time Roche was drawing The Death of Optimus Prime and they weren't aware the other was drawing Sideswipe differently.
• Horri-Bull's yellow color stems from the image TFWiki used to have for Horri-Bull's toy and TFU.info's screencap of Horri-Bull. Josh Perez chose to use the yellow to "help him stick out a lot more".
• In the Decepticon crowd scene, Blast Off is standing beside Starscream. However, as this wasn't clear, Josh Perez mistakenly thought it was a generic and colored him like Mister Sinister.

Foreign localization

Japanese

• Title: "Jichi Jisshū" (自治実習, "Autonomy Drill")

Covers (8)

The seven first-printing covers to this issue feature a silver foil-stamped logo.

• Cover A: Ironhide, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
• Cover B: Prowl, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
• Cover C: Bumblebee, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
• Cover D: Wheeljack, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
• Cover E: Bumblebee, Prowl, Ironhide, and Wheeljack, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez
• Cover RIA: Fold-out gatefold cover combining the interlinked covers A–D
• Cover RIB: Hand-drawn sketch covers, by Dan Khanna
• Second printing: Bumblebee and Metalhawk, by Griffith and Perez; taken from the first panel of page 4

• 
  The Dick,
• 
  the Prick,
• 
  the Bee
• 
  and the Jack!
• 
  Hey, I match my toy!
• 
  The Fab Four
• File:RID1 cvrRIB.jpg
• 

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• More than Meets the Eye #2
• Heroic: A Womanthology
• Infestation 2
• G.I. Joe: Cobra Command
• Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye
• Memorial
• Danger Girl: Revolver

Reprints

• The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (July 25, 2012) ISBN 1613772912 / ISBN 978-1613772911
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #1–5.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers and notes on issue #3 by the author/artists.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (Reissue) (May 21, 2014) ISBN 161377964X / ISBN 978-1613779644
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #1–5.
  • New cover by Livio Ramondelli.
  • Bonus material includes cover gallery and notes on issue 3 by Barber, Griffith, and Josh Perez.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 1 (September 3, 2014) ISBN 1631400401 / ISBN 978-1631400407
  • Collects The Death of Optimus Prime, More than Meets the Eye issues #1–3 & #4–5, and Robots in Disguise issues #1–5 & #6.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404261 / ISBN 978-1631404269
  • Collects Robots in Disguise Volumes 1–5.
  • Bonus material unknown at this time.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 54: A Better Tomorrow (April 3, 2019)
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #1–7.
  • Bonus material includes a new interview about the Robots in Disguise by John Barber.
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Robots in Disguise Volume 1 – cover art by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez
• 
  Robots in Disguise Volume 1 – cover art by Livio Ramondelli
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 1 – cover art by Saren Stone
• 
  Robots in Disguise Box Set – cover art by ???
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 54: A Better Tomorrow – cover art by Don Figueroa and Andrew Griffith