Arcee/Greenlight: Run

« Transformers #18 »
"Arcee/Greenlight: Run"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	March 11, 2020
Cover date	February 2020
Written by	Brian Ruckley
Art by	Umi Miyao (pages 1-5, 10-13, 18) Beth McGuire-Smith (pages 6-9, 14-17, 19-20)
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity	2019 IDW continuity

In the face of unimaginable catastrophe, Arcee and Greenlight make a crucial decision... one that will define the future of the youngest Cybertronian.

Synopsis

Since her forging, Gauge has happily settled into life on Cybertron with Arcee and Greenlight and begun exploring all the different professions available to her. Today, Gauge is trying her hand at architectural design under Grapple's supervision, and so engrossed in her work that she's completely oblivious to the terse conversation between Arcee and Greenlight just out of earshot. Worried about rising tensions and an increasingly uncertain future on the planet—and remembering what happened to Rubble—Greenlight wants to up stakes and leave the planet completely aboard an outbound Reversionist starship that'll be leaving soon... but Arcee wants to stick it out, arguing that their mentee is already beginning to find her own talents; uprooting her at this vulnerable stage might undo all of her progress.

When Greenlight asks why Gauge looks so upset at the end of her shift, Gauge reveals she overheard a conversation between two of her coworkers, suggesting that she's only alive because Brainstorm died—a comment that immediately incenses Arcee. While Arcee stalks over to chew out the 'bot responsible for the remark, Greenlight tries to soothe hurt feelings: there is some truth to the remark, she admits, and Gauge concedes that she should keep the comment in mind for the future. Arcee reassures Gauge that she's sorted the problem, but Gauge's attention is distracted by the shadow of something huge, blotting out the light and looming over Iacon's skyline... a shape that Arcee immediately recognizes as the Tether, severed from the Winged Moon and toppling onto Cybertron!

The massive space elevator levels block after block as it crashes into Iacon; Arcee grabs Gauge and the three take shelter in a nearby doorway to weather the first shock wave of dust and debris that buffets the city. As the dust settles, Arcee orders Greenlight to get Gauge to safety while she helps with the rescue effort, but Gauge refuses: she wants to help as well. With no other option, the three of them join in the ad-hoc operation to do what they can, as they help to shift rubble, dig out stranded 'bots, and tend to the wounded.

Amidst the chaos, however, Gauge's curiosity gets the better of her when a stray sound catches her attention; ignoring Arcee's warnings to be careful, she dashes off to the remains of an energon storage facility to investigate. Officer Strongarm shouts for her to get down—but Gauge doesn't listen, and is promptly knocked off her feet by a blast of energy! Strongarm explains that a group of opportunistic looters have taken advantage of the chaos to steal some extra fuel for themselves, and although Bumper assures Arcee and Greenlight that the perps are only packing nonlethal weapons, Arcee doesn't care: they shot Gauge, and Gauge's safety comes first.

Determined to make the criminals pay, Arcee singlehandedly storms the enemy position, jumps the first looter, and quickly drops him... but not quickly enough, as he's able to shout a warning to his partner-in-crime Gutcruncher, who shoots Arcee in the face while she's distracted! The pair trade shots before Gutcruncher can make his escape, throwing some empty energon cubes at his opponent and then bolting just before Strongarm and Bumper burst into the ruined facility. Bumper arrests the first looter, and Strongarm heads off in pursuit of Gutcruncher... but the experience has emphatically changed Arcee's mind: they're all leaving Cybertron with the Reversionists immediately.

With Gauge still unable to transform, Arcee carries her atop her own alternate mode as she and Greenlight race through the ravaged vistas of Iacon, outrunning more shock waves and swerving around collapsing buildings as the Tether continues its lethal fall. Their path takes them through the energon storage fields, where Red Alert and Inferno work to extinguish the flames that threaten to ignite the city's vast fuel reserves, but Red Alert's shouted warnings for them to get off the street go unheeded. Instead, the pair simply swerve around him and race directly into the danger zone, moments before the energon itself ignites and explodes!

Only just managing to clear a falling girder, the pair arrive at the takeoff site for the Exodus... only to learn that they're far from the only Cybertronians to have had this idea: the ship is surrounded by frantic refugees trying to get aboard as the ship prepares for take-off, while security officers desperately try to keep the mob at bay. The three push their way through the crowds to the security perimeter, and although the officers immediately tell them to get back, that kind of thing has never stopped Arcee. Arcee promptly tackles the first security guard and is promptly rushed by the entire security staff. Though she's pinned down, electrocuted and stunned for her pains, she's also distracted the staff long enough for Greenlight and Gauge to slip through the cordon and race onto the ship's boarding ramp, where they're greeted by a Reversionist crewmember who informs them that they need to leave now before the Autobots close down system space entirely—no time to wait for Arcee.

It's a somber moment as Greenlight watches the ramp slowly close, acknowledging Arcee's own sacrifice for her mentee... until a battered but still-functional Arcee squeezes through the narrowing gap and slides down the ramp into Greenlight's waiting arms! Greenlight confesses that she could never have left Cybertron without Arcee by her side, and as the ship lifts off the three of them gratefully embrace. No matter what happens to them as they begin this new life, they'll face it as they've faced everything... together.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Cybertronians
Gauge (1) Lug (2) Grapple (3) Arcee (4) Greenlight (5) Strongarm (6) Bumper (7) Singe (8) Gutcruncher (9) Fixit (10) Red Alert (11) Inferno (12)

Quotes

"My first deployment! Isn't it incredible?"
"Well, my first deployment was that immersant Titan, and if you'd been there, you'd not call getting shot at 'incredible,' Bumper."

—Bumper and Strongarm

"I don't think we can make it!"
"This would be so much easier if I'd tried a few alternate modes before."

—Greenlight and Gauge

"Warms my inners whenever I see yer authority so thoroughly respected, Red Alert. Really does. Warms them right up."

—Inferno

"We get to start our new life together. Just the three of us."

—Arcee probably speaks too soon...

Notes

Continuity notes

• We last saw Gauge almost a year ago, when Bumblebee and Rubble watched her forging ceremony in Iacon back in issue #4. As she points out here, Bumblebee believed that her forging was a political move, one that aimed to distract Cybertron's attention from the then-recent murder of Brainstorm.
• In addition to following up on the events of the previous issue from a different perspective, this comic also serves as a prequel to the third arc of Transformers: Galaxies, which focuses on Gauge and her adopted family after their escape from Cybertron. Gauge also appears in the My Little Pony/Transformers: Friendship in Disguise! crossover miniseries, which released a few months later, so it seems like somebody has high hopes for the character...
• Much like the previous two interstitial issues, this comic features an excerpt from a work of Cybertronian literature. The passage, "How to be a Good Mentor" by head archivist Proxima, reveals some more details about the mentoring process, noting that prospective mentors need the approval of both a "nominator" and an "assessment council" to care for a newly born Cybertronian. The document describes that the process of mentoring a new Titan is very different from caring for a normal Transformer, although it does note that the Well of All Sparks has not produced a "Titanspark" for millennia.
• Greenlight alludes to "what happened to Rubble"; she saw Rubble's dead body in issue #7 as part of a police investigation regarding his murder.
• In her conversation with Arcee, Greenlight refers to the destruction of the Memorial Crater, which occurred in issue #9, and the decapitation of an immersant Titan, which we saw in issue #14.
• The ship that Greenlight has found is (presumably) owned by Heretech; leader of Cybertron's Reversionist faction, he had previously announced his intentions to abandon Cybertron with his devout followers in issue #16. In the interim, he's either built or obtained a massive starship shaped like the Matrix of Leadership, although the actual talisman has yet to appear in this particular universe.
• Strongarm was last seen in issue #14 as one of the many officers called in to deal with Ruckus's group of Risers; this issue confirms that it was her first deployment.
• Like several other characters in the series, Arcee is revealed to be a veteran of the War of the Threefold Spark, and was apparently responsible for assassinating one of Exarchon's many iterations during the conflict.
• Rubble visited Iacon's energon storage fields in issue #5. Issue #6 noted that these energon reserves would always need to be kept up above a certain level to supply Cybertron in case of emergency... so the destruction of at least two such facilities probably doesn't bode well for anybody.

Transformers references

• As a reminder, Arcee in this continuity uses her design that debuted in a Synergy anthology strip, recognizable by the square on the sternum and twin hexagons inset on the front of her backpack. Appropriately, this interpretation was created by none other than Umi Miyao, one of the line-artists of this issue.
• Umi Miyao gives Lug, a supporting character from Lost Light, a cameo as an architect under Grapple's supervision.
• Our first real glimpse of Arcee's characterization reveals that she hews fairly closely to her counterpart from the 2005 IDW continuity; much like her, this iteration of Arcee is established to be a fierce warrior and a veteran of a prior war, with a volatile temper and preference for up-close physical combat.
• Inferno is drawn in a somewhat-Cybertronized version of his Power of the Primes Voyager Class toy.
• Bumper returns to comics since his last appearance almost thirteen years ago in the pages of Megatron: Origin. He's working as a member of Security Operations here, just as his original IDW and "Aligned" counterparts served Cybertron's pre-war law enforcement divisions.
• One of the robots in the crowd on page eighteen sports Whirl's head from More than Meets the Eye.
• On page 19, the crewmember who greets Greenlight and Gauge is wearing a Matrix of Leadership necklace like Galvatron did with the real Matrix in The Transformers: The Movie.

Real-world references

• Among the many Cybertronian refugees trying to board the Exodus on page 18 are a pair of robots based off Crazy Diamond and Rohan from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Errors

• On page nineteen, the "the" in "The Exodus" is erroneously italicized (unless the starship is called "the The Exodus"... but, uh, we doubt that). This was fixed in the trade.

Other notes

• Originally solicited for mid-February, this issue arrives three weeks late and lands in the second week of March instead. Unfortunately, this delay also meant that future Galaxies solicits would spoil the ending of this comic by revealing that Gauge and her family successfully escaped Cybertron.

Covers (5)

• Cover A: Greenlight and Gauge reach for Arcee, by Umi Miyao
• Cover B: Gauge and the Winged Moon, by Bethany McGuire-Smith
• Retailer incentive cover: Arcee and Greenlight amidst the ruins, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham
• Convention exclusive cover A: Megatron stands triumphant, by Livio Ramondelli, produced for San Diego Rocket-Con 2020
• Convention exclusive cover B: Cyclonus and friends cosplay as My Little Pony characters, by Priscilla Tramontano, produced for the cancelled WonderCon 2020

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• Transformers: Galaxies #5
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
• Locke & Key

Reprints

• Transformers Volume 2: The Change In Their Nature (September 16, 2020) ISBN 1684056756 / ISBN 978-1684056750
  • Collects Galaxies issues #1–6 and Transformers (2019) issues #13–18.
  • Bonus material includes alternate covers.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Best of Arcee (October 5, 2022)
  • Collects Combiner Hunters #1: "An Uneventful Night", The Transformers (2012) #55: "All Hail Optimus Part 6: No Fair Fights", Optimus Prime #9: "The Life of Sideswipe", Excerpt from Optimus Prime #21: "The Falling, Chapter 6: Unforgivable", The Transformers (1984) #224: "Aspects of Evil!", and Transformers (2019) #18: "Arcee/Greenlight: Run".
  • Bonus material includes an art gallery.
  • One-shot format.

• 
  Volume 2: The Change In Their Nature – cover art by Cryssy Cheung
• 
  Best of Arcee – cover art by James Biggie

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