Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4

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"Into the Abyss" Dark Cybertron Chapter 4
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 4, 2013
Cover date	December 2013
Written by	James Roberts and John Barber
Art by	Atilio Rojo, James Raiz, Nick Roche, Livio Ramondelli, and Robert Gill
Colors by	Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Gilberto Lazcano
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2013)

The Lost Light deals with an aquatic Ammonite attack, while on Cybertron, Shockwave puts Megatron's space bridge to use.

Synopsis

In the depths of an alien ocean, the Lost Light finds itself surrounded by a huge army of mechanoid lifeforms. Illuminating their mysterious aggressors with a spotlight, the bridge crew are quick to observe that they are armed, have alternate modes, and are combiners, causing suspicion they may be Decepticons. Perceptor—struggling to get the words out over the top of the showoff Brainstorm—deduces that the small 'bots are not natives of the world, but have followed the Lost Light's quantum slipstream there. Ultra Magnus attempts to communicate with the strangers, but in response, they open fire on the ship.

On Cybertron, Starscream requests a status update from Rattrap on the aftermath of the devastation of Iacon, but all that Rattrap can tell him is that the Necrotitan's energy wave seems to have affected citizens entirely at random. Spying Starscream, Scoop turns on him, reading from the ancient prophecy for all to hear and pointing to a dark blemish that has appeared on Starscream's chest as evidence that Primus has marked him for his role in bringing death to the city. Under the auspices of defending Starscream, Rattrap snidely remarks that his "boss" is running out of time...

Back on the Lost Light, Magnus and his men evacuate and seal the flooded bridge before meeting up with Skids and Getaway, the former identifying their attackers as the omnicombinational Ammonites. The crew decides to take the fight out into the water, deploying all their marine-equipped soldiers and vehicles, including the "Rodpod"—a submersible designed in the shape of Rodimus's head that everyone (except Whirl) is a bit hesitant about using out concern for Rodimus's reaction if they damage it. While individual troops take on the enemies at the ship's base (with Rung giving a particularly good account of himself in a staff-fight with one of the combiners), the crew in the Rodpod defend the ship's top-mounted fuel quills against a large swarm of Ammonites. The little 'bots react by combining into a huge, monstrous form, but this proves to just be a bigger target for the Rodpod, which blows it to bits.

In the Dead Universe, Rodimus, Hardhead, and Orion Pax discuss the progress (or not) of Rodimus's quest, whether or not he would return to Cybertron if needed, Starscream's election, and the sorry political history of the planet. When asked for his opinion on Nova Prime, Cyclonus looks up to reveal fluids leaking from his face, which he attempts to pass off as a product of the heat despite it being freezing. Cyclonus refuses Orion's medical aid...at which point Nightbeat appears, encouraging them not to touch Cyclonus, and to listen to what he's got to say.

Back on Cybertron, at the feet of the Necrotitan, as the Autobots and Decepticons recover from the energy wave and argue over what to do next, Prowl has Soundwave scan for any chatter from Iacon. With the Titan blocking all transmissions, he can detect nothing... nothing except the sound of Megatron screaming from miles away, as Shockwave cuts his body open to access the space bridge within. Strapped to a table in Shockwave's Crystal City lair, Megatron questions Shockwave's motivations, but the cyclopean Decepticon remains unreadable, merely commenting that Nova Prime and Galvatron are means to an end. Shockwave had hoped to offer Megatron the choice to comply willingly, but it is obvious the Decepticon leader has no intention of doing so, so Shockwave forcibly activates his space bridge, and Nova Prime begins to emerge through a portal that swirls out of Megatron's chest!

Meanwhile, the Rodpod has broken off from the rest of the battle, chased by the Ammonites, which have combined into a colossal marine mollusc to follow them. The pod dives into an abyss to try and shake off their pursuers, but as they dive deeper, they discover that the abyss is metal-plated, with what appears to be a broken pipeline protruding from its depths. A cursory glance from Ratchet quickly confirms the pipe's true nature, however: it is a severed retinal cable. The Rodpod hasn't entered an abyss—it's just entered the gaping optical cavity of a badly-damaged Metroplex!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Mainframe (2) Ratchet (3) Ultra Magnus (4) Blaster (5) Brainstorm (6) Perceptor (7) Skids (14) Getaway (15) Whirl (16) Chromedome (17) Trailcutter (18) Waverider (19) Cosmos (20) Sunstreaker (21) Swerve (22) Rung (23) Atomizer (24) Hoist (25) Rodimus (26) Hardhead (27) Orion Pax (28) Nightbeat (30) Swoop (32) Ironhide (35) Sludge (37) Slag (38) Prowl (41) Bumblebee (42) Arcee (43) Metroplex (49)	Rumble (33) Frenzy (34) Skywarp (36) Soundwave (39) Ravage (40) Megatron (44) Shockwave (46)	Ammonites (1) Rattrap (8) Starscream (9) Scoop (10) Tracer (11) Holepunch (12) Sky-Byte (13) Cyclonus (29) Necrotitan (31) Metalhawk (45) Galvatron (47) Nova Prime (48)

Quotes

"Underwater! Lucky for us the Lost Light was built as a submarine, eh, Perceptor?"
"Is that true?"
"Yep."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Really, though?"
"No."

—Brainstorm and Perceptor

"They've got alt modes, they're armed and they can combine. They're Decepticons, aren't they? Miniature Decepticons."
"'Minicons,' anyone? No? Suit yourselves."

—Ultra Magnus and Brainstorm

Hardhead: "Hey, I'm not judging!"
Rodimus: "You are judging. Orion, he is judging."
Orion: "Stop judging, Hardhead."

—Orion and Rodimus tell Hardhead to not be so judgmental.

"Look what that Titan did to us! How long do you want to stare at it?"
"I'm with the dog—"
"Cat."
"—whatever."

—Ravage and Prowl.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Ultra Magnus is about to introduce himself to the Ammonites as the Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord before stopping himself mid-sentence, following his departure from the position after the events of the "Remain in Light" saga in issues #17-21.
• Magnus refers to the "Ambus Test", explained in a footnote to be "A universally recognized question-set designed to detect sentience in mechanical lifeforms." This'll be one of the tests created by Magnus's brother Dominus Ambus that were described in issue #12.
• As explained in a footnote, the Ammonites previously appeared in issue #22.
• Also footnoted is Rodimus's reference to the effects of Tyrest's killswitch, seen in issue #20. Hardhead was indeed shown to be one of the switch's victims in that issue.
• In contradiction to Robots in Disguise #22, but in keeping with most of the Robots in Disguise series up until now, Rumble is once again the red one.
• Chronologically, Metroplex last appeared in the Ironhide mini-series in 2010, heading off into the depths of space.
• Getaway has a very unimpressed reaction to the Rodpod, which is actually the stealthy start of his arc which culminates in issue 50.

Transformers references

• Brainstorm refers to an Ammonite's chest turret as "part of some secondary anatomy", an in-fiction term of what fans commonly refer to as "kibble".
• While listing the aquatically skilled members of the Lost Light crew, Magnus name-drops Aquastar. The original version of the character was one of the Japanese-exclusive human Masterforce Warriors, but like Robots in Disguise bit-parter Zetca before him, this version of Aquastar would logically be a Cybertronian, rather than an organic Earthling.
• Prowl mistakes Ravage for a dog, something that's not uncommon in both the fandom and some pieces of fiction.

Real-life references

• The Ambus Test may also be a reference to the real-life Turing Test, designed to test how effectively a machine can imitate a human in conversation.
• The Ammonites live up to their name by combining into a giant ammonite to pursue the Rodpod.

Edits

My name is Rung. I am a robot doctor. I help other robots that have problems with their heads.

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

• The strangest of them all can be found right on the first page (not counting the "previously" pages): In panel 2, Mainframe gives the count of the Ammonites as "eight hundred and nineteen" instead of "two thousand and twenty six". The speech bubble is resized accordingly to fit the different text.
• On page 3, Brainstorm's first speech bubble in panel 3 has "I'll be damned" changed to "I'll be darned".
• On page 8, Skids's third speech bubble in panel 2 doesn't address Getaway by name anymore (with the speech bubble resized accordingly), presumably because the name is currently unavailable to Hasbro as a trademark.
• On page 9, Skids's speech bubble in panel 2 has "fuel quills" changed to "fuel fronds", presumably because in addition to its textbook meaning, the word "quill" is also an American slang term for a matchbook that is used to store drugs, something British writer James Roberts probably wasn't aware of.
• Rung's eloquent dialogue on page 10 is massively rewritten in order to simplify both his vocabulary and sentence structures. See the image to the right for a full side-by-side comparison.
• Another weird change can be found on page 12: Rodimus's first speech bubble in the final panel has the sentence "A little while back, you nearly died" changed... specifically, "a little while back" is replaced with "last month". The word "died", which would have been replaced with something technical like "destroyed" in other pack-in versions of previous IDW comics, is left unchanged, as is its repetition in the following speech bubble.
• On page 16, both of Prowl's speech bubbles in panel 1 are edited: "We stop it or die trying" is changed to "We stop it or fall trying", and Bumblebee is no longer addressed by name, presumably because he appears in a body design released as a Generations toy under the name "Goldfire", which hasn't been adapted as an actual name change by the comics. This wasn't an issue in the previous three chapters of Dark Cybertron, though, where Swoop, Slag and Ironhide all address him as "Bumblebee", and the Hasbro exclusive pack-in versions left those uses of the name intact.
• On page 18, Megatron's second speech bubble in panel 2 calls Metalhawk a "resurrected abomination" instead of an "undead abomination".
• On page 19, Shockwave uses the word "gun" three times in his dialogue. In all instances, it's changed to "cannon" for the pack-in version.
• On page 21, two speech bubbles in panel 4 were shortened into one, reducing the text from "What is that? Metal? Up ahead—is that gold?" to simply "Metal? Gold—"

Trivia

• Artist breakdown: As with preceding chapters, Rojo draws the scenes on Cybertron and Ramondelli covers the Dead Universe. The three Lost Light scenes are divided between Nick Roche, James Raiz, and newcomer Robert Gill, in that order.
• Ultra Magnus mentions a group of underwater specialists called the Hydrobots.

Errors

• The version of this comic included with the Generations Deluxe Class Mini-Con Assault Team adds an error that was present in neither the original single release of this issue nor the Dark Cybertron vol. 1 trade paperback collection: On page 3 (not counting the "previously" pages in the original single release), all the speech bubbles in panel 3 are semi-transparent, with the artwork behind them being partially visible.
• Ultra Magnus describes the Lost Light as being fifteen miles long and ten miles wide. For comparison, this would make the Lost Light a little bigger than, say, the entire Bay Area. This isn't necessarily an error... but it doesn't jibe with pretty much any artwork you could name featuring the ship, and seems seriously oversized even from the perspective of a large ship meant for giant robots.
• Brainstorm's eyes are blue instead of the usual yellow.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Ratchet, Skids, and Rung fend off the Ammonites, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente. The three components of Centuritron are actually visible in this cover - Runway is above Ratchet's right fist, Heavytread right between his legs, and Windshear next to his left forearm.
• Sub cover: Centuritron, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• Cover RI: Shockwave torments Megatron, by James Raiz and Josh Perez
• Hasbro exclusive cover: Cropped version of the subscription cover, exclusively available with the Generations Deluxe Class Mini-Con Assault Team.

• 
  Someone get the Robotic insecticide!
• 
  Now see, you waited too long and they stared combining.
• 
  Shockwave should know better than to mess with Megatron.
• 
  New Mini-Cons!

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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 unknown at this time.
  • 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.

• 
  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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