No Exit: Dark Cybertron Chapter 6

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #25 » « Dark Cybertron Chapter 6 »
"No Exit" Dark Cybertron Chapter 6
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 15, 2014
Cover date	January 2014
Written by	James Roberts and John Barber
Art by	Atilio Rojo, James Raiz, and Livio Ramondelli
Colors by	Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Gilberto Lazcano
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)

The Lost Light crew explore the mysteries within Metroplex, the Necrotitan descends upon Iacon, and two Primes come face to face!

Synopsis

In the wastelands surrounding Crystal City, the Dinobots stand watch over those wounded by the Necrotitan's death-wave. Although badly injured himself, Slag expresses his desire to have gone with the other Autobots and Decepticons into the city; Swoop talks him down, but arguing is certainly something Slag has the energy left to do, including the insistence that his name is now "Slug", after Arcee told him his old name was "offensive". When the Necrotitan suddenly moves, a pair of binoculars donated by Astrotrain lets Swoop get a closer look at the action, as the small surviving crowd of 'Bots and 'Cons comes running towards them, the Titan hot on their trail and heading straight for Iacon!

On an alien world, deep underwater, the Rodpod carries its small crew deeper into the eye socket of the unmoving Metroplex. With Ratchet unsure if Metroplex is either alive or dead, Perceptor scans for lifesigns and finds eight: a positive outcome, as there are only seven 'bots in the pod. Brainstorm analyzes the water on suspicion it may have reduced Metroplex to his sorry state, and, upon finding traces of what he believes to be Admium, has Getaway—struggling to cope with the enormity of the situation—call Swerve for his metallurgical expertise. Swerve is too busy fighting Ammonites to answer his phone, but Ultra Magnus reasons that if they can save Metroplex, he can end the battle. That prospect suddenly looks a lot less likely when the Rodpod enters the Titan's brain chamber, and the crew find his brain module to be gone, surgically removed. The pod heads for Metroplex's spark chamber to investigate further, even as the Titan's internal lights die out around it, his lifeforce ebbing away.

In Iacon, Starscream seeks an update on the wounded from Flatline, though the medic at first misinterprets his request as a report on the spread of the mysterious "deathmark" left on his chest by the Necrotitan's wave. Medical aide Tankor loses patience with Starscream and bellows a stream of insults at him before stalking off; Flatline's immensely obvious observations of the situation do nothing to improve Starscream's mood, but just as he is yelling at the doctor, the Nectrotitan comes stomping into the city, and fiery chaos ensues.

In the Dead Universe, Orion Pax's team remained trapped in a containment field by Nightbeat, awaiting the arrival of Nova Prime. Hardhead tries headbutting his way out, to no avail, but Orion follows his lead, landing a hand-shattering haymaker on the cube wall. Orion appears to lose his composure, and begins screaming threats at Nightbeat, but when Rodimus tries to intercede, Pax punches him too—but only, he quickly explains in whispers, to keep Nightbeat distracted from the small crack he successfully made in the cube with his punch. Rodimus joins in the effort, raising his palms to the detective in an imploring gesture, but with unexpected results: the sight of the mysterious contents of Rodimus's hand affects Nightbeat's mind, bringing him to his knees... just as Nova Prime arrives.

The Rodpod berths at a dry dock within Metroplex (unsurprising, Magnus notes, as he is a city), where the team finds a series of hand-painted arrows drawn on its walls and floors that lead them on a disorienting Escher-esque tour of the Titan's insides. Alas, the final arrow brings them right back to where they started, and when Whirl starts to take out his frustrations on the Rodpod, Magnus stops him... but in the process gets close enough to the pod to hear ticking. Following a length of new cable running from the Rodpod with their eyes, the team spots a stowaway Ammonite—Perceptor's eighth lifesign—standing in a doorway, holding a detonator. Before any of them can move, the tiny 'bot pushes the switch, and the Rodpod explodes!

Nova Prime greets Orion as "Optimus Prime", waving aside Pax's attempted correction and instead musing that they are all trapped in the Dead Universe now, and that the two Primes may go down side by side. Spotting Cyclonus, Nova mocks his status as a perennial "hanger-on"... at which point Cyclonus gives Hardhead the word. The taciturn 'bot barrels into the cracked wall and smashes through, though the cube re-seals before the others can escape. Hardhead tries to take on Nova himself, but the ancient Prime simply catches and crushes his hand, destroying the protective force-field generator. As the others look on in horror, Hardhead is consumed by the Dead Universe, disintegrating and blowing away on the winds. Nova then informs Orion that he is taking him to meet a "friend" of his... a friend who turns into a space bridge... a friend we know as Kup!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Slug (2) Swoop (3) Sludge (5) Arcee (6) Prowl (7) Ironhide (9) Snarl (12) Metroplex('s insides, 13) Getaway (14) Skids (15) Ratchet (16) Perceptor (17) Brainstorm (18) Ultra Magnus (19) Whirl (20) Swerve (22) Nightbeat (27) Orion Pax (29) Hardhead (30) Rodimus (31) Kup (33)	Astrotrain (4) Rumble (8) Ravage (10) Soundwave (11)	Necrotitan (1) Ammonite (21) Starscream (23) Flatline (24) Fat Tankor (25) Tall Tankor (26) Cyclonus (28) Nova Prime (32)

Quotes

"Well, something's not right."
"Easy on the jargon, Ratchet, we didn't all go to medical school."
"Sarcasm: the first sign of a damaged brain module. Other symptoms include me hitting you in the face."

—Ratchet and Whirl

"He's not even the first guy named Tankor to yell at me today."

—Starscream on the quirks of Transformer naming. Like they say, all the good ones are taken.

Getaway: "Weird. Some kind of arrow..."
Ratchet: "Hand drawn. And pointing towards the spark chamber..."
Ultra Magnus: "And another one over there. Pointing in a different direction."
Brainstorm: "What do we do, fearless leader? Follow them?"
Ultra Magnus: "Well we certainly can't ignore them... it'd be like ignoring a traffic sign."
Brainstorm: "And that way anarchy lies..."
(The team sets off.)
Skids: "Come on, Perceptor!"
Perceptor: "No one's locking the Rodpod?"
Skids: "Hopefully someone will steal it."

Notes

Continuity notes

• True to his word, we here see that Swerve has indeed made Orion Pax's distress call his ringtone, as he promised back in Chapter 1.
• Ultra Magnus remarks on a sense of déjà vu when the team finds Metroplex's brain to be missing, presumably a reference to the sparkeater incident from More than Meets the Eye #3, where said sparkeater removed its victims' brain modules first in preparation for harvesting their sparks. Hence, Magnus's decision to check on Metroplex's spark upon noticing his brain was gone.
• To see Beast Machines Tankor appearing in this issue in such a manner is perhaps a little disarming; he is, of course, only here because this issue is packed in with his new Generations toy. But! This is actually not his first appearance in IDW continuity! Given the timings involved, it can only have been an incredibly fortuitous coincidence, but Tankor first showed up in a crowd-scene cameo (as his original toy design) back in the 2012 Robots in Disguise annual in addition to another cameo in Megatron Origin #2.
• The mysterious contents of Rodimus's hand were alluded to back in Chapter 2.
• Kup was last seen in Transformers: Infestation #2, in which he was sucked into the Dead Universe through a magic portal.

Real-world references

• The comic's title is probably a reference to the play of the same name by French philosopher-playwright Sartre.

Transformers references

• The story catches up to the "Roll Call" pages this issue, with Slag officially renaming himself "Slug", the name Hasbro now uses for versions of the character which originated with his Aligned universe counterpart. The full details of his change of heart aren't gone into, merely that Arcee told him that his name was offensive—a double-reference to its status as both a Transformer swear word and a disparaging term for a woman in the United Kingdom, the latter being the reason Hasbro shelved it as the character's name. The story has tactfully avoided actually using "Slag" in dialogue up until now, which is not a problem IDW stories have faced before, but Dark Cybertron is packed in with toys.

Errors

• As has already occurred twice, in chapters three and four, Sludge is among the Dinobots on the first page of the story, despite the fact that he was sent back to the Autobot camp in chapter two. When Swoop speaks to him, though, he calls him "Snarl", and further, dino mode Sludge vanishes on page 3 and is replaced with robot mode Snarl, suggesting that Rojo may be mixing up the characters regularly.
• The harried schedule of "Dark Cybertron" caused some confusion between Tankors. Informed that a new Tankor toy was to be among the Generations assortment the comics would be coming with, it was mistakenly assumed the character was Generation 1 Tankor, aka Octane, and so he was drawn into the medibay scene, with Robots in Disguise having already established suitable precedent for him to want peace. When it was discovered that the toy was, in fact, of Beast Machines Tankor, Octane was replaced in the artwork, and the crack about there being more than one guy named Tankor was added to the script; unfortunately, Octane was accidentally not replaced in the third panel of the scene. For the collected edition, rather than be replaced, Octane's sole appearance was removed from the scene entirely.
• The last panel of the first dry dock page: Presumably, the lines that begin with "Come on, Perceptor!" should not be coming from Perceptor himself. This is corrected in the Dark Cybertron volume 1 collected edition, showing Skids talking with Perceptor.
• James Raiz draws Skids with an inhibitor claw implanted on his back, probably having referenced the character's first appearance for a clean shot of Skids from behind.
• The last page says that the story continues in Robots in Disguise #26; it is actually #25 that comes directly after this issue.
• The Hasbro exclusive cover variant of this issue that was included with the Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Tankor toy has its pages very badly out of order.

Trivia

• Artist breakdown: Per the established pattern, Rojo draws the scenes on Cybertron, Raiz covers the Lost Light crew, and Ramondelli the Dead Universe.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Orion and Rodimus in the grip of Nova Prime, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• Sub cover: Tankor, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
• Cover RI: The Dinobots open fire, by Brendan Cahill and Josh Perez
• Hasbro exclusive cover: Cropped version of the subscription cover, exclusively available with Generations Deluxe Class Tankor.

• 
  Nova's about to break his toys.
• 
  Tankor's a fat dude.
• 
  Dinobots attack!
• 
  Hasbro exclusive cover

Advertisements

• "Dark Cybertron" checklist, highlighting Robots in Disguise #25
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: New Animated Adventures
• My Little Pony Monopoly
• My Little Pony: Friends Forever (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 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

• Preview