Shadowplay, Part 1: Post Hoc

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #9 »
"Shadowplay (A Totally Epic Story Based On Real Events That Definitely Happened) Part 1: Post Hoc"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 26, 2012
Cover date	September 2012
Story by	James Roberts
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2012)

A group of Autobots are gathered by Rewind to tell a story of corruption, conspiracy, and murder from long ago on Cybertron.

Synopsis

A wretched hive of scum and villainy.

On Cybertron, before the war, Nightbeat and Quark meet outside Maccadam's New Oil House to discuss the increase of violence in the face of the Clampdown and the rise of the Decepticon movement. Nightbeat is sympathetic to the worker class cause, while the science-class Quark fears for the future... but their argument ends when a drop of energon lands in Quark's drink, and the pair look up to discover the dead body of Senator Sherma, suspended from the Interstate Bridge!

In the present day, aboard the Lost Light, Ratchet arrives late to a meeting called by Rewind in Swerve's: the archivist has called him, Drift, Chromedome, Whirl and Skids together (with Swerve and Tailgate as an audience) to help him tell a story that will aid in Rung's mental recuperation. The true-life tale is set shortly after the instigation of the Clampdown, beginning with the assassination of Senator Sherma, and reveals how, thanks to one Autobot, all those present played a role in a greater story than they ever realized...

Chromedome begins the story by recalling how he and his partner in Mechaforensics, Prowl, were called in to investigate Sherma's murder, easily deducing the Decepticons as the culprits from the presence of their insignia, graffitied on Sherma's back. Skids interrupts to ask for some clarification on Prowl, who he doesn't remember; Swerve has a few choice words to describe him, and Rewind tries to emulate his fondness for flipping tables over, but can't quite manage it. Drift, receiving some messages from Rodimus, tries to hurry the story along, so Rewind turns narration over to him, asking about his time as a homeless circuit booster addict in the Dead End. Drift recounts how he was attacked by Sonic and Boom and was saved by decorated police officer Orion Pax and brought to a medical drop-in center run by Ratchet. Ratchet takes issue with Drift's embellishment of the facts, as he jokingly claims the atheist medic was praising Adaptus and Primus as he worked, but what he begrudgingly is unable to deny is that he told Drift that he was special. Drift tells of how he lied to Ratchet about going to a local Relinquishment Clinic, prompting Tailgate to ask exactly what the clinics were; Rewind plays an infomercial for one, which explains that they were used in the days of functionism to give 'bots the chance to experience life in bodies with other alternate modes via Sparkswap technology.

"But enough about electing the new Space Pope..."

Never a fan of the clinics, Ratchet picks up the story, remembering the news broadcast that played immediately after he had repaired Drift: the broadcast that announced the death of Nominus Prime, with its claim that he was the victim of a rust infection that Ratchet, having operated on Nominus following the attempt on his life, knew was a lie. His part in the story complete, Drift leaves to respond to an increasingly irate Rodimus, while Ratchet goes on to summarize how he accompanied Orion to a rendezvous with his senator friend. The senator confirmed Orion's suspicions that Nominus was killed by the Senate after the Matrix of Leadership within his chest was revealed to be a fake, and revealed his fears that the Senate's head of security, Sentinel, was planning something involving the Decepticons. For the sake of drama, Rewind has Ratchet stop there, turning things back over Chromedome to have him carry on with the story of Sherma's murder. Having discovered through autopsy that the senator was shot to death, Chromedome describes how he and Prowl traced fragments of cerulean glass found in Sherma's boots and treads back to the privileged community of Translucentica Heights and headed there on Skydarts. They discussed Prowl's upbringing in the strict town of Petrex and the existence or not of the Institute along the way, but upon their arrival, a corpse came flying out a high-rise window and landed in front of them, sporting another graffitied Decepticon symbol...

Meanwhile, down in the Lost Light's oil reservoir, Drift arrives to answer Rodimus's call. The reason is anything but pleasant... dredged out of the oil by Grapple, they have discovered the remains of Red Alert, and Rodimus blames Cyclonus for his death!

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Others
Rung (4) Drift (6) Chromedome (7) Rewind (8) Swerve (9) Skids (11) Whirl (12) Ratchet (13) Orion Pax (20) Grapple (24) Rodimus (25) Red Alert (26)	Scrounge (1) Nightbeat (2) Quark (3) Sherma (5) Tailgate (10) Nominus Prime (14) Proteus (15) Blurr (16) Prowl (17) Boom (18) Sonic (19) Slamdance (21) Conspicuously-unnamed senator (22) Momus (23)

Quotes

Ratchet: By the vaulted heights of—
Drift: You had him hidden behind the bar?!
Chromedome: So embarrassing.
Skids: —not seriously telling me that he's been here the whole time?!
Whirl: Cool.

—Reactions to Rewind pulling Rung's catatonic body out from behind the bar in Swerve's.

"The Decepticons are behind this."
"What makes you say that? Does the upside down corpse reference the Decepticons' plans to upend societal hierarchies? Is the position of the body such that at sunset, the shadow will point to the Functionalist council building where the first Decepticon activists were arrested?"
"There's all that, obviously. But for me the real clincher is the massive Decepticon symbol graffitied on his back."

—Chromedome and Prowl

"It's Prowl! 'Prowl the Pragmatist!' You know—Prowl!"
"Oh! Turns into a Predabot? Posted at Delphi? Likes a hug?"
"No! Prowl with the head spikes and the cruel mouth and the--cross all the time! Epically, pre-emptively, existentially cross. And cold! Supercilious and cold! Imagine Ultra Magnus without the warmth and people skills."

—Swerve and Skids, tossing foreshadowing riiiight over our heads.

"How many times has he flipped a table?"
"Prowl? Ooh, four times."
"Y'know, when we left his office for the Lost Light I swear I heard-"
"You're right! Five times."

—Rewind and Chromedome

"So I'm laying on a circuit slab in Ratchet's Dead End workshop—and he says: 'Primus guide me, Primus protect me, I beseech you, oh mighty Primus, please—' MMMPH!"
"Unreliable narrator alert! Do not, I repeat do not listen to what he says!"

—Drift and Ratchet

Notes

Continuity notes

• This story is essentially a direct sequel to Roberts's "Chaos Theory" two-parter from the ongoing series, published a little over a year before this story began. It follows up on events established by that story, like the injury of Nominus Prime by a suicide bomber, the establishment of the Clampdown, Orion Pax's reconstruction with a new chamber in his chest, and his dalliance with an enigmatic senator who conspicuously continues to go unnamed. The window of Maccadam's is even still cracked from where Rung collided with it in the first few pages of "Chaos Theory Part 1".
• Furthermore, the issue's opening line, "What am I looking at again? Not more violence?" is a call back and deliberate contrast to Chaos Theory's opening line, "What am I looking at again? Not more poetry?"
• This issue gives us our second mention of the Primal Vanguard, the unit to which Tailgate was supposedly attached, as he mentioned back in issue #2.
• Several references are made to "Proteus's Promise", an unspecified political promise made by Senator Proteus from "Chaos Theory". This was the title of the public information film shown by Rewind in issue #8.
• A billboard reading "Everyone's Shape Serves A Purpose" can be spotted outside Maccadam's; this slogan was repeated by Rewind in issue #1.
• Ratchet comments that he spray-paints his hands red; and well he should, as they're replacements gained from Pharma in issue #5 which are actually blue. Some paint even transitions onto Drift's face when Ratchet tries to gag him during the storytelling.
• Red Alert's name is also present on Rewind's hotspot diagram, yet unlike the others, he is not present at the storytelling meeting. With the last page's cliffhanger, the reason for that becomes graphically clear.
• Sherma Bridge has cropped up in several places in Roberts's stories, starting with "Chaos Theory Part 1". Here we learn it was formerly the "Interstate Bridge", and was renamed (formally or colloquially, it's not specified) after the dead senator hung from it.
• Skids confuses Prowl with Dent, who we met back in issue #4, where it was explained that he used to be named "Prowl" as well. His suggested animalistic alternate mode is confirmed (as a "Predabot"), and humorously, the reason he was shambling towards Pipes in that issue despite being infected with Red Rust is because he "likes a hug".
• Skids’ memories of Prowl are amongst those he had lost prior to the series start, accounting for why he appears to be the only Autobot unaware of Prowl and his reputation.
• Drift's time as a homeless drifter (snort, giggle) was previously shown in issue #2 of his self-titled mini-series. (A deleted scene would've had him bump into Gasket on the way out of the clinic)
• Ratchet was antagonistic to Drift earlier in the series, which appeared to be a clash of science VS religion: now we see that Ratchet saved Drift and gave him advice, which he'd ignore to become a notorious blood-soaked killer.
• Sonic and Boom previously appeared in issues #4 and #5, where they were likewise enjoying the upper hand on would-be victims before getting quickly and thoroughly trounced by a new arrival.
• Mentioned several times but perennially silent and off-screen is an allegedly chatty, teasing cohort of Orion's named "Roller". James Roberts confirmed in an interview that this is not Orion's future component but someone for whom that component would be named in honor.
• We first got a glimpse of a Relinquishment Clinic in issue #6, where one was implied to have some link to Chromedome and Rewind's shared history.
• A few of the names on the memorial for the Ark-1 are obscured by Ratchet's hand. While "Cyclonus" can be easily figured out from what we can see of it, the final name, starting with "Hype...", raises more questions. Could this be a reference to the obscure Transformer seen only in Skyquake's Megavisor, Hyperdrive?
• A name beginning with "Tail" is also on the memorial. Issue #13 reveals that this is not short for Tailgate.
• Pax's unnamed senator friend has had his color scheme tweaked a little in this issue compared to "Chaos Theory", with some more blue added to his chest.
• Sentinel Prime's involvement in Nominus Prime's unfortunate fate was implied in a montage of images in issue #3, and made explicit here.
• The Senator's comment that he wanted to tear Sentinel Prime's head off is somewhat prescient!
• The revelation that the Matrix within Nominus Prime was a fake ties in to Optimus Prime's discovery of the real talisman in the Underworld in Autocracy. When and how the Matrix went missing is eventually revealed in issue #19.
• "Chaos Theory" and Megatron Origin are bridged with the revelation that Megatron was shipped off-planet after the earlier story to Messatine, previously established to be home to Nucleon mines and future home of both the Delphi medical facility and the Decepticon Justice Division. This presumably placed Mining Outpost C-12 from Megatron Origin on that planet too, but the later "Births, Deaths, and Interventions" has C-12 as a separate place.
• In a big retcon, the Decepticons exist before the events of Megatron Origin, inspired by the early datalogs published by Megatron.
• The mysterious "Institute" gets another mention this issue, one of several that have been peppered throughout Roberts's works.
• Chromedome's name appears in quotation marks on the Sociotemporal Hotspot diagram, alluding to this not being his original name, before it is actually addressed within the story itself.

Transformers references

Not actually a toy commercial.

• Roberts previously used "Quark" as the name for an Autobot in his Eugenesis fan-novel, but that's about as far as similarities between the two characters go. This Quark's head is based on Animated Perceptor, as they both turn into microscopes.
• Speaking of Animated, the luckless Scrounge makes a cameo in the first panel with an appearance based predominantly on his Animated counterpart, carrying a bundle of energy conductors (though probably not enough to last a quartex). Also visible is Beast Machines Rattrap.
• The model ship Rung is building on page 2 is the Lost Light itself. Issue #37 reveals the full circumstances of the scene of Rung in the past.
• A jug on the bar table has the same unique shape as the chemical flasks seen in the Lithone scientist's workshop at the beginning of The Transformers: The Movie.
• Chromedome is sporting a body based on his original Generation 1 toy in the flashback sequences. He notes that he was not called "Chromedome" at this point in his life, but for clarity's sake Rewind just has him use his current name while telling the story. His old name would be revealed in issue #14, and was not some crazy secret conspiracy, thank you very much internet forums.
• The images used in the Relinquishment Clinic's infomercial are redrawn from the original Generation 1 toy instructions for the Drill Powerdasher and Blurr (with the specific coloring specifically coming from his 1987 Targetmaster version's instructions).
• The image of Orion Pax taking out Boom is a reference to a panel fromLast Stand of the Wreckers issue 5, with Pax's pose being identical to Overlord's.

Real-world references

• "Post hoc" analysis, from the Latin meaning "after this", is the examination of data in search of patterns after the fact. As Rewind explains, this is the purpose of his story: to reveal to the gathered characters' how their exploits all crossed over with one another without any of them knowing.
• On page 1, a small robot resembles a mouse droid from Star Wars.
• The Primal Vanguard shooting took place somewhere called "Apophenia". The word means the experience of seeing connections in meaningless or random data, a fitting title given what Rewind and this story are doing.

Other trivia

• "Shadowplay" was in Roberts's original plans but came about after "one of the rare" requests by Hasbro; they were concerned Optimus was going to be absent from the comics for over a year and asked for him to make a few appearances. As he did not want the Lost Light running into "Orion Pax-slash-Optimus-Prime", Roberts used it as an excuse to go back to Cybertron's past and tell a "Lost Light [characters] origin story".
• "Shadowplay" runs through three related genres in each of its three parts: this one is the police procedural. The opening scene was the obligatory CSI-style pre-credits sequence where two unimportant characters find the body.
• Chromedome's flashback body that first appears in this issue would go on to inspire his 2017 Titans Return toy.

Crew Manifest

• Red Alert's headless body is recovered from the oil reservoir.
• 6 deaths, 5 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders) since the launch.

Errors

• In the last panel of the first page, Nightbeat is missing a vent on the side of his helmet (his right, our left).
• In the panel where Nightbeat and Quark first see Sherma's hanging, dead body, Sherma's hands are drawn backwards.
• On page 7, Prowl refers to "the Functionalist council"; the council's ad on the same page, and page 2 before it, says "Functionist" and that's what Quark called them on the second page. This was corrected for the TPB.
• On page 16, panel 3, "understanding" is misspelled as "undersanding", this was corrected for the TPB.
• On the same page, on a subsequent panel, "someone" is misspelled as "somone", this was corrected for the TPB.
• Mechaforensics recovers glass from Senator Sherma's traction treads, but his body is not depicted as actually having any treads. We can't even argue that they're folded on the inside when he's in robot mode because we don't see any at the autopsy either.
• Ratchet mentions spray painting his hands on page 4, and later on page 13, panel 6, the wet paint is shown as residue on Drift's face following Ratchet holding his mouth shut in the previous panel. However, when it cuts back to Drift on page 14, the wet paint is nowhere to be seen without mention.

Soundtrack

For the three-part "Shadowplay" story:

• "Comforting Sounds" by Mew

For this issue:

• "Our Hearts Burn Like Damp Matches" by The Leisure Society
• Theme from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Jon Brion

The title is also a song, by the 1980s English band Joy Division.

Foreign localization

Japanese

• Title: "Shadowplay Jijitsu ni Motodzuita Saikō no Monogatari Part 1: Jigo" (シャドウプレイ 事実に基づいた最高の物語 パート1: 事後, "Shadowplay, an Excellent, Based on Reality Tale, Part 1: After the Fact")

Swedish

• Title: "Skuggspel, en helt episk berättelse baserad på verkliga händelser som verkligen hände Del 1: Post Hoc" ("Shadowplay, A Truly Epic Story Based on Real Events That Really Happened Part 1: Post Hoc")

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Many key characters in fractured panels that together make up a close-up of the Decepticon insignia, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Cover B: Orion Pax in a shadowed alley, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Cover RI: Optimus Prime, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano

• 
  That broken glass looks very familiar!
• 
  Just what are you playing at, Prime?
• 
  You just messed with the wrong Prime!

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Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 3 (March 27, 2013) ISBN 161377592X / ISBN 978-1613775929
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye Annual 2012 and issues #9–11.
  • Bonus material includes "Meet the Crew", variant covers, and designs for the Guiding Hand.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404741 / ISBN 978-1631404740
  • Collects More Than Meets the Eye volumes 1–5.
  • Bonus material unknown at this time.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 3 (February 24, 2016) ISBN 1631405403 / ISBN 978-1631405402
  • Collects Spotlight: Thundercracker, Bumblebee & Megatron, More than Meets the Eye Annual 2012, issues #9–11 & #12–13 & "Signal to Noise", and Robots in Disguise Annual 2012 & issues #10–11.
  • Bonus material unknown at this time.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 55: Shadowplay (January 9, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #7–13 and Annual 2012.
  • Bonus material includes the second of a new three-part interview with Roberts, early pages of scripts, design sketches from Alex Milne, a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Kaos och skuggor (November, 2020)
  • Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #22–24, #26, #28 & #30, The Death of Optimus Prime, and More than Meets the Eye issues #9–13.
  • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

• 
  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 3 – cover art by Alex Milne and Joana Lafuente
• 
  More Than Meets the Eye Box Set – cover art by Marcelo Matere
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 3 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 55: Shadowplay – cover art by Don Figueroa (Whirl) and Alex Milne (retro)
• 
  Kaos och skuggor – cover art by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham.

External links

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