The Possible Light

« The Transformers vol. 2 #40 » « Combiner Wars Part 2 »
"The Possible Light"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 15, 2015
Cover date	April 2015
Story by	Mairghread Scott and John Barber
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

As Optimus Prime plays political games with Starscream during the clean-up on Caminus, word of recent events reaches Prowl on Earth... and he is not happy...

Synopsis

The shuttle O Fortuna is on its way back to Cybertron from the Lost Light, carrying the ship's chosen ambassador, Mirage, and his doctor First Aid, along with Hot Spot, Groove, Streetwise, and Blades on security detail. Unfortunately, Mirage is currently suffering from a resurgence of an old ailment: a build-up of gamma-Cybrobuteric acid in his brain, causing him to experience hallucinations. His unconscious mumblings about a vision of "Cybertron burning" are the reason Rodimus chose him to return to their homeworld... a vision Mirage sees again even now, a vision that expands to encompass the Earth and Caminus... a vision in which Ironhide rushes to his side, as giant figures of fire tower over the landscape...

Ironhide awakes with a start in his quarters on Cybertron, having experienced the same dream as his distant comrade. He refrains from telling Optimus Prime this as he knows his old friend has much bigger things to worry about today—chiefly, the press conference to formally announce the alliance with Caminus to the Cybertronian populace, which the pair head out to attend alongside Wheeljack and Windblade. With Circuit broadcasting live, Starscream opens the conference by showing off both his new body and Superion, but the Camien representatives quickly make clear that it is Optimus Prime they are looking to for guidance and aid. Biting his tongue, Starscream suggests Circuit and Longtooth accompany Prime and Windblade to Caminus; there, they are met by the Mistress of Flame, who expresses some concern over Starscream's leadership and Prime's willingness to accept it, thereby essentially denigrating his own title in the Camiens' eyes, which she see as borderline-blasphemy.

Aboard the Ark-7, orbiting Earth, Prowl reveals the space bridge he and the Constructicons obtained from Onyx to a confused Jetfire. They begin discussing ways to use it, but are interrupted when someone contacts Prowl over his secure comms channel, and the news he receives causes him to storm off in anger.

On Caminus, the clean-up operation is under way, with a few Decepticons even pitching in as a show of good faith; Ironhide is a bit condescending to them, making them somewhat grumpy, so they are surprised when the Camiens warmly receive them. Meanwhile, Superion and Optimus Prime discuss the wisdom of trusting Starscream, a talk which segues into Superion struggling to explain to Prime what the sensations of being a combiner are really like. Their conversation is interrupted when Optimus receives a call from a furious Prowl, who has learned through "sources" of what has been going on on Cybertron and is appalled that Prime has allowed combiner and space bridge technology to fall into Starscream's hands. Prowl accuses Prime of once again refusing to take the big picture into account—the danger Starscream poses to the entire galaxy, not just Cybertron—but Prime has no time for his questioning attitude, and brusquely terminates the call. Windblade observes that Prime has made a lie of omission, refraining from telling Prowl anything about the Enigma of Combination... but Prowl knows all about it already, recognizes Prime's lie, and seething with rage, resolves to deal with the situation himself.

At a secret detention facility on Cybertron, Starscream, Scoop, and Rattrap watch as Swindle is locked up to keep the truth behind Menasor's attack on Caminus hidden. Rattrap reminds his leader that the delegates from Caminus will be arriving soon; not wanting to leave them alone with Prime, Starscream heads off with Scoop to greet them as they, Prime, Windblade, and the news team return through the space bridge. With the eyes of two worlds on him, Prime beats Starscream at his own game by announcing the formation of a council of representatives from the colonies, crediting Starscream with the idea and giving the Seeker no recourse but to agree.

Sometime later, after the space bridge has been deactivated, Rattrap sneaks into the chamber and reactivates it, allowing Prowl and the Constructicons to use their captured bridge to travel through. Rattrap, it turns out, is Prowl's "source"; he is unwilling to see Starscream turn the colony worlds into a new empire, but grows concerned when it becomes apparent that Prowl intends to prevent contact with the other colonies from ever happening. Rattrap is concerned what that will mean for the future of Cybertron, but Prowl—eyes now glowing red—smiles and informs his stool pigeon that, if it means the galaxy will be saved, he has no problems with Cybertron being destroyed...

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks, visions, or news footage.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Hot Spot (1) Groove (2) Grotusque Streetwise (3, see "Errors") Mainframe Blades (4, see "Errors") First Aid (5) Mirage (6) Megatron (7) Rodimus (8) Ironhide (9) Optimus Prime (13) Windblade (14) Devastator (18) Wheeljack (19) Superion (20) Prowl (27) Jetfire (28)	Menasor (17) Waspinator (33) Fat Tankor (34) Tall Tankor (35) Sparkstalker (36)	Rook (10) Lightbright (11) Hot Shot (12) Starscream (15) Circuit (16) Rattrap (21) Strafe (22) "Red Leader" (23) Longtooth (24) Mistress of Flame (25) Long Haul (26) Scavenger (29) Hook (30) Bonecrusher (31) Mixmaster (32) Swindle (37) Badgeless officer (38) Sandstorm (39) Scoop (40)

Quotes

Starscream: "Eons ago, we lost millions of our Cybertronian brothers and sisters to the winds of space."
Wheeljack: "Space ain't got—"
Rattrap: "Shhh!"
Starscream: "Windblade was the first representative of these lost colonies to wash up on our shores..."
Wheeljack: "Water either, plus that's a mixed—"
Rattrap: "SHHHH!!"

"Enough talk. I came here because I have hands to lend."
"Wait—this is a task for your Cybertronian giant. Surely The Prime cannot risk his own life without a great cause."
"The opportunity to save a life is the greatest cause, Mistress."

—Optimus Prime and the Mistress of Flame

"Disgusting."
"Oh, you love it, Scoop. It's what your Chosen One chooses."
"It's worse than the cell you kept me in."
"Well, yeah. It's a secret prison. You don't make those nicer than the not-secret ones."

—Scoop and Starscream on Swindle's imprisonment

"You're Prowl. You prob'ly got an elaborate plan with a gazillion movin' parts and Starscream won't ever see it comin'."
[The Constructicons emerge through the space bridge]
"Six moving parts is all I need."

—Rattrap and Prowl

Notes

Continuity notes

• The Protectobots are the only one of the "big four" Scramble City combiner teams who have never actually been a unit in IDW continuity before now. They were finally all together on the Lost Light as of More than Meets the Eye #28 in what was pretty obviously preparation for the Combiner Wars storyline, and here gain their team name for the first time. Hot Spot and Groove appear with the new body designs Alex Milne created for them for More than Meets the Eye, but the others... well, see "Errors", below.
• First Aid refers to Hot Spot, Groove, and Streetwise's time spent serving on Earth together, which took place during the "Police Action" storyline at the climax of the 2009-2011 ongoing series.
• In a moment of continuity nobody saw coming, we are referred back to the seven-year-old Spotlight: Mirage—a story never mentioned again anywhere else after it was published—as part of Mirage's medical history of hallucinations.
• The connection is not specifically drawn on-page, but like Mirage, this is not the first time that Ironhide has seen a vision either: originally seen in the final issue of the 2009-2011 ongoing series, it was first addressed in-story as a vision in issue #5 of Robots in Disguise.
• Prowl appropriated the space bridge from Onyx in issue #38.
• Sparkstalker appears without his fellow Firecons because they got pretty badly beat up (and stabbed, and impaled, and gored...) by the Dinobots in Punishment, which chronologically took place only days before the events of this story.
• Fat Tankor is referred to as a "Decepticon helper" along with Waspinator, Sparkstalker, and Tall Tankor, which is odd, as he has otherwise always been presented as an unaffiliated NAIL. It might just be Circuit generalizing.
• Windblade remembers when Optimus told her that he never lies, in the final pages of Punishment.
• Scoop recalls that time Starscream kept him in a cell, back in More than Meets the Eye #23.
• Sandstorm is visible in the secret prison, in the cell above Swindle's. He was arrested at the end of Punishment.
• This issue marks the first time that Lightbright and Hot Shot are identified by name, on panel, in fiction.

Transformers references

• As Mirage's vision moves to Caminus, Rook, the newest addition to the ranks of the upcoming Combiner Wars Protectobot toys, appears among the fleeing crowd. He's rather off-model and lacking in any kibble, but then he wouldn't have an Earth alternate mode here.
• Starscream's new body is, as previously mentioned in our notes for last issue, his upcoming Leader Class Combiner Wars toy.
• The Ark-7 is revealed to have a Teletraan computer, a reference to the quintessential Autobot computer series from across the Transformers franchise. At the time of this issue Teletraan had only been mentioned once before in IDW continuity, in Monstrosity #6.

Real-life references

• The Autobot shuttle O Fortuna is named after the medieval Latin poem of the same name, a lament against the vagaries of fate, famous in popular culture for denoting "dramatic or cataclysmic situations".
• "Gamma-Cybrobutyric acid" is a Transformery version of the mammalian neurotransmitter, gamma-Aminobutyric acid.

Errors

And you thought Rook as a new member of the Protectobots was an odd choice...

• The last caption on the recap page lacks ending punctuation.
• On the opening page, the captions identifying Groove and Hot Spot are swapped. This was corrected for the trade paperback.
• In the very same panel, two captions identify Blades and Streetwise, but Mainframe and Grotusque have been drawn in their places, respecively. Likewise, the subsequent panel, which is specifically supposed to pull in tight on "Streetwise" while pointing out that he is the one who first named the new "team", instead depicts Grotusque. Artist Livio Ramondelli blamed this on the fact he was sent incorrect reference material by IDW; the error continues into the next chapter. This was corrected for the trade paperback, with new artwork of Streetwise and Blades being added to the relevant panels. Curiously, Streetwise (as well as Hot Spot) did appear on Cybertron in part 3 of Punishment (also drawn by Livio Ramondelli!), which was chronologically set either shortly before or concurrently with this story. Huh.
• On page 6, "Starscream" is misspelled "Starcream". This was not corrected for the trade.
• On page 8, "Cybertron" is misspelled "Cyberton", and on page 14, "Cybertronian" is misspelled "Cybertonian." Neither instance was corrected for the trade. Darnit!
• Hot Spot is accidentally drawn in place of Hot Shot on Caminus on page 16, despite being in a sequence carried over from the previous page with a properly-placed Hot Shot —and in his new Combiner Wars toy design, to boot! This also went uncorrected for the trade.

Other notes

• While More than Meets the Eye is reduced from 22 pages of story to 20 from this month onward, this issue of The Transformers still clocks in at 22, probably because it was produced some time ago as part of the Combiner Wars toyline tie-in.
• Optimus Prime is sleeping on Ironhide's couch. Just think about that image for a moment.

Covers (4)

• Regular cover: Ironhide holds up Devastator's foot to prevent him crushing Circuit and Longtooth, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• Subscription cover: Defensor by Livio Ramondelli; combines with subscription cover to Windblade #2 to form a complete image
• Retailer incentive cover: Combiner Wars Menasor package art by Marcelo Matere, "courtesy of Hasbro"
• Hasbro exclusive cover: Artwork of Trailbreaker by Ken Christiansen and Volta, based on his Generations Combiner Wars Deluxe Class toy, available with said toy in the United States, Australia, and Asia. Rebranded as Combiner Wars #17.

• 
  "Okay guys, this thing is getting heavy."
• 
  Where's the other half of this image?
• 
  Menasor packaging art.
• 
  Hasbro exclusive comic included with Trailbreaker toy.

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Reprints

• The Transformers: Combiner Wars (August 12, 2015) ISBN 1631403869 / ISBN 978-1631403866
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–41, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–3.
  • Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 65: Combiner Wars (October 31, 2018)
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–42, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–4.
  • Bonus material includes an article on the Prime Wars Trilogy.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 (June 19, 2019) ISBN 1684054842 / ISBN 978-1684054848
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–41, #42–43, Windblade (2015) issues #1–3 & #4–5, and More than Meets the Eye issues #41–44.
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Combiner Wars – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 65: Combiner Wars – cover art by Don Figueroa (Defensor) and Livio Ramondelli (retro)
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

External links

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