The Permanent Revolution

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #39 »
Tarn realized that sometimes the novel is just as bad as the movie adaptation.
"The Permanent Revolution"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 8, 2015
Cover date	March 2015
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Hayato Sakamoto
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2015)

A wearying Tarn finds himself granted new life when the Decepticon Justice Division discovers that Megatron has abandoned the cause.

Synopsis

(1) Troika

Times have been tough for the Decepticon Justice Division. Eighteen months ago, when deep cover Decepticon agent Brainstorm alerted them to Overlord's imprisonment on the Lost Light, they had initially agreed not to kill anyone else on the ship, only to lose control and go back on their deal when they discovered Drift was on board. After slaughtering the entire crew, they went on their way, until a month ago, when their newest member—diminutive female medic Nickel—insisted that they return to salvage the vessel's quantum generators. Upon returning to the wreckage, floating above Ofsted XVII, the DJD found themselves in the middle of a battle between the Galactic Council and the Black Block Consortia, who proceeded to join forces against them. Kaon and Vos took the fight to the planet's surface, but Tarn was forced to abandon them when enemy reinforcements arrived.

Now, Tarn, Helex, and Tesarus are continuing in their duties, working their way through their list of Decepticons who have betrayed "the cause". Their present victim: Blip, condemned for practising religion by deifying sparkeaters. Blip catches Tarn off-guard when he uses his last words to ask him to remove his mask, accusing him of cowardice, so the DJD leader decides to refrain from killing him with his "weaponized conversation" ability, and lets Helex and Tesarus get their hands dirty. But secretly, Tarn looks away, tiring of violence and unwilling to watch.

Their job done, the team return to their ship the Peaceful Tyranny, where Nickel gives them all a check-up and relentlessly criticizes their poor hygiene and maintenance habits. The DJD turns out to be exceptionally bureaucratic; Tarn orders performance reviews for the team, but he and Tesarus nearly come to blows during the latter's appraisal when Tesarus accuses him of being "un-Decepticon" for leaving Vos and Kaon behind. Calming himself, Tarn reveals that he has already ordered a return to Ofsted to collect their bodies... at which point Helex comes running in to tell them that their comrades are still alive, and have returned with a datapad containing some shocking news: Megatron has renounced Decepticonism and joined the Autobots!

(2) Troska

Returning to the DJD headquarters on Messatine to ponder the world-shattering implications of this news, Tarn recharges himself with "Nuke"—the DJD's secret stash of super-fuel, found only in the planet's mines, created when the native nucleon was exposed to chronal energy millions of years go. Pushing himself towards lethal overdose, his life flashes before his eyes, and he finds himself disappointed by the experience. Opening his eyes to see a tearful Nickel banging on the fuelling capsule window, Tarn finds something stirring within him, and he smashes his way out of the capsule to announce a "change of plans" to his team-mates.

(3) Perestroika

The rest of the DJD are confused when Tarn arranges a meeting with noted Decepticon Deathsaurus, who is on their list for removing himself from Megatron's command and stealing a Warworld. Deathsaurus welcomes them to his disorganized planet-ship, handing Tarn a crate of equipment to carry for him and apologizing for the mess with the explanation that their hyperdrive is being repaired. Tarn requests a conversation in private, but Deathsaurus isn't interested—having assumed that the DJD were coming to take him down, he immediately fires upon the crate in Tarn's arms, which turns out to be full of explosives that detonate right in Tarn's face. Though rocked by the blast, Tarn is still able to defend himself, insisting as he grapples with Deathsaurus that he is just here to talk. Deathsaurus deactivates his audio receptors to protect himself from Tarn's deadly voice, but Tarn simply speaks directly to him—and all his troops—through inter-Decepticon radio, their private frequency having been hijacked by Kaon. Tarn waxes lyrical on the history of the Decepticons and what he sees as their true cause: the ongoing mission to eliminate every threat to Cybertron, chiefly the "anti-mechanical bias" of a predominantly organic universe. He then introduces Nickel to Deathsaurus, explaining that she is the last of her kind, from a Cybertronian colony world settled by the Titan Prion, her entire planet scoured of life by the Black Block Consortia. It was she who was truly Tarn's salvation: as one who heard the Decepticon word and became a believer, she is proof of the power and rightness of their cause—a cause so great that no one 'bot can embody it, least of all Megatron, the betrayer. Tarn invites Deathsaurus and his men to join him in return for being taken off the DJD's list, but Deathsaurus has one condition—that Tarn kill the rest of the DJD. Tarn refuses, only for the request to turn out to be a test from Deathsaurus, who cites his distaste for a commander who uses his men as fodder as the reason he split from Megatron. Deathsaurus agrees to the alliance and suggests they launch an immediate attack on a nearby Galactic Council facility together, but Tarn informs him that first, the Decepticon house must be put in order: priority number one is to find and kill Megatron, and the shipful of Autobots he now calls his allies.

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Megatron (5) Drift (11) Ratchet (12) Skids (14) Optimus Prime (30)	Blip (1) Helex (2) Tarn (3) Tesarus (4) Nickel (7) Brainstorm (8) Kaon (9) Vos (10) Lobe (15) Lobe's assistant (16) Gairyu (17) Yokuryu (18) Deathcobra (19) Guyhawk (20) Jallguar (21) Killbison (22) Leozack (23) Goryu (24) Rairyu (25) Blue Bacchus (26) Drillhorn (27) Deathsaurus (28) Soundwave (29) "King Solon" (31) Bikecross (32) Browning (33) Strikesoldier (34) Kakuryu (35) Doryu (36) Greatsix (37)	The Pet (6) K'gard (13)

Quotes

"Now then. Your Sparkeater cult. It's—(sigh)—it's spectacularly at odds with Decepticon doctrine. Surely you know this. Surely this doesn't come as a surprise to you. Even someone with the most rudimentary grasp of Megatron's teaching must realize that a Decepticon utopia cannot accommodate any form of religion."
"W-why?"
"Why? Because religion is a form of control. It offers succor in return for docility and bestows power unto an authority other than Megatron. So when a Decepticon starts a new religion, it's... well... you say it's an attempt at finding peace of mind. I say it's an attempted coup."

—Tarn and Blip

"Not precisely sure what she means by that gesture, but I imagine it tilts towards the obscene."
"Disgusting! You fix Decepticons with those hands?!"
"And... we seem to have an extended version of the first gesture. I— Goodness, now that really does leave no room for doubt."

—Tarn and Helex bust Nickel's chops

"Tsk! Health and safety gone mad..."
"Black mark!"
"Aw, for— All I said was—"
"Two black marks! One more and it's a written warning!"

—Tesarus is reprimanded by Tarn for questioning bureaucracy

"I thought you'd be wearing an Autobot mask. I thought—heh—I thought you'd be running around the galaxy wearing an Autobot mask and apologizing to everyone on Megatron's behalf."

—Deathsaurus to Tarn

"Let battle be joined, eh?"
"Oh, this is more than a battle, Deathsaurus... we're going to war."

—Deathsaurus and Tarn

Notes

Continuity notes

• This issue's first chapter, "Troika", takes place roughly concurrently with issue #34, and details the exact timeline of the DJD's attack on the quantum duplicate Lost Light, seen in issue #32 and #33, and the subsequent battle with the Galactic Council and the Black Block Consortia that issue #34 alluded to.
• "The Empyrean Suite" has been mentioned several times at this point throughout More than Meets the Eye, noted to have a sinister connotation that was common knowledge among Cybertronians. At last, as many fans had previously deduced, it is revealed to be the DJD's "theme". The song's composer is said to be Eucryphia, who wrote it as an ode to Prima's Citadel of Light; Eucryphia appeared, and was revealed to be a member of Prima's tribe and an inhabitant of the citadel, in Robots in Disguise #34.
• Blip was first mentioned in issue #3. He appeared in issue #12 and had a tiny cameo in issue #30, where he sported a body based on the Terrorcon Blot; he looks completely different here.
• Helex has put Blip's brain module in his mouth, which we learned was a trait of his in issue #32.
• The two statues of Megatron in the DJD's ship depict him in his original miner body, and in the Earth body he took on in Escalation; Sakamoto has drawn them in recreations of Atilio Rojo and Guido Guidi's art style, respectively. Though quite an old body from our perspective as readers, the Earth form would be the last form the DJD knew Megatron in; comments later in the issue confirm that they never made contact with him after he returned from apparent death in his stealth bomber body in the 2009-2011 ongoing series.
• The innermost energon that Tarn is drinking (eww!) comes from a Cybertronian born at Rivets Field, 1st Cycle 006 – the same hot spot that Tailgate came from. It can't have come from the quantum duplicate Tailgate that the D.J.D. recently killed, however, as by this point it would have presumably disappeared along with everything else from the other Lost Light, plus his was curdled green anyway.
• Borebit is listed among Tesarus's kills—he was a former member of the Primal Vanguard mentioned in issue #11.
• Former Warrior Elite Heretech, who previously appeared in issue #16, was captured by the DJD at one point.
• The ending of the 2012 More than Meets the Eye annual had captain K'gard suggest a change to the Galactic Council's strategy in response to news of Cybertronian forces being divided, hence the Council's aggressive stance on Prion's planet seen in this issue.
• The "burst of temporal energy" that turned nucleon into "Nuke" occurred in issue #34, when Brainstorm travelled back in time to Messatine.
• Though previously implied in issue #14, we get explicit confirmation that Tarn is a Point One Percenter, as he refers to his spark being green.
• As Tarn reflects on his life, we see an image of a young Skids (we know he's young because he still got the Matrix tattoo he had in the past, seen before in issues #11 and #36). Back in issue #8, we learned that Skids had "The Empyrean Suite" running through his head for unknown reasons, and with this issue's confirmation that the song is associated with the DJD, the idea that Tarn would have some connection to Skids does not come as a great surprise. Issue #48 would expand upon this.
• The two 'bots rebuilding Tarn's body in his flashback are Lobe and his as-yet unnamed assistant, who previously appeared on the last page of issue #11 where they were performing empurata and shadowplay on a certain senator. Though the characters have been positively identified by Roberts, the designs don't really match between issues, and Lobe has changed color from yellow to brownish-red.
• Inter-Decepticon radio appears to be the Decepticon equivalent of Inter-Autobot radio, seen in the IDW continuity in the More than Meets the Eye 2012 Annual.
• The colony Titans were introduced in the Windblade mini-series. With the introduction of Nickel, it's established that female Transformers have evolved on other worlds in addition to Caminus. Nickel is, of course, the first female Decepticon in IDW continuity.

Transformers references

• Deathsaurus's Warworld is based directly on the design of Bludgeon's Warworld from the Marvel Generation 2 comic.
• Deathsaurus's ranks include almost all his troops from the Victory cartoon, and several crowdfillers who are all pre-existing characters, also mostly connected to Victory.
  • The Dinoforce are all present and correct, sprinkled throughout various scenes and grouped together on the final page.
  • The only absent member of the Breastforce is Hellbat, because he's been busy with his own stuff over in the Drift - Empire of Stone mini-series. In his place is Deathcobra, an additional member of the Breastforce featured in the Victory episode "Unite! Liokaiser", who was brought in to replace Hellbat even then!
  • Victory character Blue Bacchus. His Crossformer partner Black Shadow is absent, having died in this continuity in issue #7.
  • In the top left of the final page, a generic from the Victory episode "Rescue! Guyhawk" who perished when he fell into a molten stream.
  • To the right of that guy, a Transformer version of the "King Solon" mecha from the Victory manga (piloted by Deathsaurus's human son Solon in that story).
  • On "Solon's" right is a character from some early Victory concept artwork, a proposed Decepticon retool of Autobot Mega Pretender Vroom that was never made. Slides shown at BotCon 2015's "Japanese Perspective" panel gave him the placeholder designation "Bikecross".
  • On Bikecross's left, a 'bot based on an early design for Liokaiser. This design had never been seen by the public before; Sakamoto tweeted the original artwork shortly after the issue's publication (pictured, right), and when it was shown at BotCon 2015, it was named "Strikesoldier".
  • On Strikesoldier's shoulder is Masterforce mini-Decepticon Browning.
  • Lastly, in the bottom right, another 'bot from the early Victory artwork who was evidently a prototypical version of the character who would become Greatshot. His color scheme here is based on Shadowmaru, a redeco of Greatshot from the Takara series Brave Police J-Decker. At BotCon 2015, he was named "Greatsix".
• While describing the Decepticons' early successes, Tarn says: "Victory after victory, Deathsaurus", which seems a lot like a sly nod to the franchise that Deathsaurus originated in.
• Deathsaurus's motivations for splitting from Megatron might not match his depiction in the Victory cartoon, where he was happy to leave the Dinoforce to die at his moment of triumph, but it jibes very well with the Victory manga, in which it turned out all the fighting he had done had been to protect his and the other Decepticons' families.
• Deathcobra's design is based on Generations Deluxe Class Ratbat.
• Kakuryu is holding the weedy little six-shooter he wielded in "The Brave Hero of the Universe - Star Saber".
• Doryu's design incorporates some large protruding plates on his shoulders that aren't a typical feature of the character; they're based on the foot pieces of the team's combined mode, Dinoking, and it's possible to attach them to the shoulders of Doryu's original toy like this.

Real-life references

• This issue takes its title from the Marxist term "permanent revolution", which refers to the strategy used by a revolutionary class to continue pursuing their goals despite the political strength of their opposition—essentially, what Tarn enacts for the DJD.
• "Troika" is a Russian word meaning a "group of three", referring to Tarn, Tesarus, and Helex following their separation from Vos and Kaon.
• "Troska" is a Czech word meaning "wreckage" or "ruin", referring to the state of Tarn's beliefs after he learns of Megatron's defection.
• "Perestroika" was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party, another of the multiple analogies Roberts has drawn between Communism and the Decepticon movement, here referring to Tarn forging his own path and reshaping the movement separate from its founder. In Russian, the word means "restructuring".
• Tarn's conversation with Blip mirrors the 1928-1941 religious persecution campaign in the Soviet Union.

Errors

• There's an unnecessary comma when Tarn talks about his "sea green, spark".
• Vos's dialogue has been consistently written using Cyberglyphics thus far. However, on the first page of Perestroika, it appears to be written in a completely different cipher with far less ornate characters. His only other line of dialogue still uses Cyberglyphics.

Other trivia

• Originally, Helex was to move Blip's brain module out of his mouth and back into his head with his own mouth in a sort of grotesque "kiss." This was deemed a bit much and changed to him just using his fingers—but Helex can still be seen spitting out cranial fluid in the following panel of the finished comic, and is later chastised by Nickel when she finds traces of it in his mouth.
• Starting this month, More than Meets the Eye is reduced from 22 pages of story to 20.

Soundtrack

• "The Village Green Preservation Society" by Kate Rusby
• "The S.A.S. and the Glam that Goes with It" by Earl Brutus
• "I Giorni" by Ludovico Einaudi

Foreign Localization

Swedish:

• Title: "Den permanenta revolutionen" ("The Permanent Revolution")
  • The spellings of parts 1 and 3 have been localized to the Swedish transliterations "Trojka" and "Perestrojka".

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: Deathsaurus amid a field of corpses, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover: Tarn reflected in a datapad, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Retailer incentive cover: The DJD in Communist propaganda poster style, by Sara Pitre-Durocher

• 
  Well, let's hope John Hammond doesn't try to breed clones of him for a biological preserve.
• 
  Such peaceful nonsense!
• 
  We... Are the DJD!
  We'll torture you all day!
  And if you think we can't, we'll always find a way!
  That's why the people of this world fear us!
  Helex, Vos, Tarn, Kaon, Tesaurus, and Nickel!

Advertisements

• More than Meets the Eye #40
• "Combiner Wars"
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #6
• The Powerpuff Girls Super Smash-Up
• IDW Jem and the Holograms comic
• IDW Skylanders comic
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection Vol. 1 (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 8 (October 21, 2015) ISBN 1631404520 / ISBN 978-1631404528
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #39–44.
  • Bonus material includes covers of each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 8 (December 5, 2018) ISBN 1684053722 / ISBN 978-1684053728
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #35–38 & #39–40, The Transformers (2012) issues #35–38, Punishment issues #1–5, and Drift - Empire of Stone issues #1–4.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 63: Elegant Chaos (June 12, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #35–42.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Några av mina bästa vänner är Autoboter (November, 2025)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #39 & #41-46, Drift: Empire of Stone issues #1-4 and the Revolution one-shot.
  • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

• 
  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 8 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 8 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 63: Elegant Chaos – cover art by Don Figueroa (Trailbreaker) and Alex Milne (retro)
• 
  Några av mina bästa vänner är Autoboter – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.

External links

• Preview