Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #36 »
"Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 17, 2014
Cover date	December 2014
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)

A squad of Lost Lighters led back through time by Rodimus aids Orion Pax's team of outlaws in defending a hot spot against the machinations of the Senate.

Synopsis

Four million years ago, in the Alyon region of Cybertron, Orion Pax, Roller, and their gang of outliers defend a recently ignited hot spot against repeated incursions from Sentinel Prime's Elite Guard. As the Guardsmen flee from their latest failed attempt, Roller decides to help them on their way by transforming to vehicle mode and ramming them—but after doing so, his trailer section unexpectedly erupts with light, and opens to reveal Rodimus, Rung, Cyclonus, Riptide, Tailgate, Chromedome, Whirl, and Rewind!

A short time earlier—relatively speaking—aboard the Lost Light in the present day, Rodimus gathers his team together and explains, with help from Perceptor, that Brainstorm has travelled into the past to kill Orion Pax. After travelling to Messatine as an apparent calibration exercise for his time machine, Brainstorm has now relocated himself to Cybertron; using autobiographical data on Optimus Prime from Rewind's database, the team concludes that he will be in Alyon, and they prepare to depart, with Whirl gleefully raiding Brainstorm's armory for the mission.

After a few moments of tense confusion, Rodimus's team establishes a cover story for themselves, pretending to be reinforcements teleported in to help Pax by Zeta. Recognizing Chromedome from their previous meeting, Pax accepts the team and brings them back to his squad's dugout, where he explains their belief that Sentinel and the Senate are attempting to destroy the hot spot—the first to ignite in a million years, and curiously shaped like a hand—in order to prevent the Functionist Council from exploiting it as proof of Primus and strengthening their waning hold over the public. Cyclonus observes a mysterious platform floating over the hot spot, which Pax explains is apparently a monitoring station that arrived the previous evening; their conversation is chimed in on by Trailbreaker, who has just risen from the camp's recharge slab.

As everyone talks amongst themselves, Rodimus, taken aback by Trailbreaker's appearance, secretly takes him aside and, without telling him anything outright, warns him of the circumstances of his future death on Ofsted XVII in order to prevent it from happening. Rung talks with Roller, tasting the "juicebox" the heavyweight 'bot always carries with him, only to realize Roller has added the circuit speeder C32 to the drink. Roller solemnly claims he requires the boost to keep up with the Outliers, and that Pax only keeps him around because they're friends. Megatron calls via the "time phone" communicator Rodimus has brought with him, but as Rodimus is busy with Trailbreaker, Orion is the one who answers. Pretending to be his younger self, Megatron has a conversation with the young police officer, whose optimism for the future is a mixed source of both affirmation and tragic amusement to Megatron. Rodimus returns from his talk with Trailbreaker and takes up the call, receiving a status update from Megatron that indicates a notable amount of background radiation is leaking through the quantum generators from the past to the present. This causes Rodimus to believe that the senate's "monitoring station" is actually bombarding the hot spot with radiation in an attempt to sterilize it, but when he reveals this to the group, Rewind is able to use his database—altered to contain data from the alternate timeline that Brainstorm has created—to uncover the full story. The Senate are not trying to sterilize the hot spot with radiation: they're trying to mutate it, to find a way to artificially create outliers.

Now aware of the true threat, everyone heads outside, where Orion has Trailbreaker shield the hot spot with a forcefield. In response, the floating platform unveils a weapons array and opens fire on them. While Whirl and Cyclonus take to the air to combat the platform, Roller storms into the middle of the hot spot, risking his life to use a small mobile teleporter to send each spark, one by one, to a safehouse in Nyon. Amid the chaos, Perceptor calls Rodimus with the news that Brainstorm has time-jumped again, further into the past; Rodimus refuses to let his team be sent after the renegade scientist yet, intent on seeing the sparks saved. In preparation, though, he checks with Chromedome on the modifications he has been making to his mnemosurgery needles—which will allow him to wipe the last few sub-cycles of a 'bot's memories via a simple handshake—and orders him not to touch Trailbreaker. Just then, Roller is caught by a blast from the weapons platform, and Orion determines to end things immediately: he has Trailbreaker wrap a forcefield tight around him, then has Windcharger magnetically hurl him into the air, right through the weapons platform, crippling it and causing it to explode.

A short time later, the remaining sparks have all been teleported to safety, but Roller is still missing despite Pax's insistence that they continue searching for him. Their greater mission unable to be put off any longer, Rodimus's team says farewell, with a handshake from Chromedome wiping each 'bot's memory of the encounter. Trailbreaker refuses to let them leave without a handshake of his own, though, so despite the alarmed Rodimus's attempt to stop him, he too loses his memories, including the life-saving warning Rodimus gave him. Rodimus's team are forgotten as soon as they have time-jumped away... but they are not the only ones forgotten, as Trailbreaker picks up Roller's discarded juicebox, and, unable to remember the fate of its owner, suggests they all go for a drink.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Others
Orion Pax (4) Riptide (6) Rung (7) Rodimus (9) Whirl (10) Chromedome (11) Rewind (12) Tailgate (13) Perceptor (14) Megatron (15) Ultra Magnus (16)	Present day Cyclonus (8) Past - 1st Cycle 502 Roller (1) Damus/Glitch (2) Skids (3) Windcharger (5) Trailbreaker (17)

Quotes

"Hold on. Let's be absolutely clear about this. You're just given me permission to take whatever I like from Brainstorm's forbidden toy box? Even the experimental stuff—the stuff that unsettles people?"
"No, I--"
"Shhh. On second thought, let's keep it ambiguous."

—Whirl and Rodimus

"How was Messatine?"
"I worry it changed me."
"I'm sure it did. We're all of us the sum of our experiences."
"Yes, but "the sum" implies an accumulation—an aggregation. What if something gets taken away? And how would you know if it has?"
"I'm not sure I follow."
"I know who I am, Orion, but I don't necessarily know who I was. I find it hard to compare the two."

—Orion Pax and Megatron

"If I may... before you go..."
"What?"
"You sound lost."
"Lost? Oh, it's far worse than that. Ha! No, no. No, I know exactly where I'm going. I don't know if I could turn back now even, if I wanted to."
"You could always join us. Join me. Why is that funny?"
"It's not funny at all. It's tragic."
"Well then? Will you join us?"
"I think so. Eventually."

—Orion Pax and Megatron

"If you're going to kill newborns you'd want to do it discreetly."
"Cyclonus! That's an awful thing to say!"
"I'm not endorsing it!"
"It's still awful."

—Cyclonus and Tailgate

Notes

Continuity notes

• Elegant Chaos is the third part of a trilogy of flashback stories, following Chaos Theory and Shadowplay.
• The past era seen in this issue falls between "Shadowplay" (issues #9-11) and Megatron: Origin. As noted at various points during the issue, Pax is now working with Zeta and on the run from Sentinel Prime following the events of "Shadowplay", while Megatron has been relocated from Messatine (seen in issue #34) to Croteus 12, ahead of the events of Megatron: Origin.
• Empurata victim Glitch (here revealed to have the real name of "Damus") has had his claw-hands replaced with proper ones since we last saw him in issue #11.
• Roller is sucking on a Kremzeek juice box, which we saw him doing back in issue #10; originally an idea for that issue by artist Alex Milne, James Roberts liked it so much he decided to work it into the development of Roller's character.
• The Elite Guardsmen that Pax and Windcharger wrestle with have the same design as the unpleasant fellow that Megatron kills in Megatron: Origin #1 as well as Gasket's killers from Drift #2.
• As restated this issue, we learned last month that Brainstorm's time machine is coded to work only with his spark type. We've never been told Brainstorm's type, but most of the characters assembled are "Vitreous-Positive"; we learned that Rewind, Chromedome and Whirl shared this type in issue #12, and that Riptide shared it in issue #31. Rodimus and Rung's types are unknown, but, as we also learned in issue #31, Tailgate and Cyclonus are "Ferrum-Negative". This means that characters of at least two spark types have somehow used the machine—keep that in mind in Part 3...
• Chromedome and Brainstorm's shared history at the New Institute has been touched upon before in issue #14 and Spotlight: Trailcutter.
• Riptide expresses his dislike of exams, as introduced in issue #31.
• Rodimus makes a crack about "brain bullets"; this was a recurring phrase in Last Stand of the Wreckers, in reference to cerebro-sensitive bullets.
• Upon seeing the Autobot symbol, Pax assumes Rodimus and the others work for the Senate; the Senate's enforcers were using the symbol as their own in Megatron: Origin, though Spotlight: Orion Pax would later retcon it into being a symbol from ancient Cybertronian history.
• Pax met Chromedome in issue #10, though issue #14 would later reveal Chromedome was then known as Tumbler. This issue reveals the cause of Chromedome and Prowl's "break-up", as Prowl decided to join Sentinel's security forces; Prowl was shown to be among the security forces in Megatron: Origin #1.
• The Skids of the past is quick to identify the hand-shaped hot spot as "the hand of Primus, pressing the planet into shape"—further evidence of the young theoretician's religiosity, previously evidenced back in issue #11 by the Matrix tattoo on his cheek, still visible in this issue.
• Pax remembers Megatron as "Megatron with an R"; when they first met in "Chaos Theory Part 1", Pax mistakenly believed his name was "Megaton" and was quickly corrected.
• Tailgate's strong reaction to the subject of killing "newborns" is apt, since he could be considered one himself. He might be one of the oldest members of the crew chronologically, but before joining the Lost Light he'd only spent about two weeks online.
• The plot to artificially create Outliers by irradiating sparks seems like a classic sci-fi insane mass-killing trope. That is, until issue #49!
• The rescued sparks are sent to a clinic in Nyon to be nurtured. Given that Autocracy told us that Rodimus hails from Nyon, and further, that issue #30 told us he was around 4 million years old (4.2, "give or take"), and described him "waking up" in Nyon—an odd way of describing the birth of a spark which now makes more sense—the implication, then, seems to be that Rodimus himself is one of the saved sparks. This would imply the use of the old paradoxical time travel storytelling trick where, in going back to undo a change to their timeline, our heroes perform actions that are and somehow always were part of the established timeline. See our notes about Roller under "trivia", below for more; this is also in-line with both what we saw in issue #34, when Brainstorm's appearance in the past caused the evacuation of Messatine, freeing Megatron from Senate clutches, and Robots in Disguise #10, which saw Orion Pax realise he was powerless to change events that had already transpired.
• The whereabouts in the past of several members of the "Time Team" were addressed above, but in full:
  • Chromedome: Recently split from Prowl over his decision to join Sentinel Prime's security forces.
  • Cyclonus: Trapped in the Dead Universe with the crew of the first Ark Spotlight: Cyclonus
  • Rewind: Unconfirmed, but he and Dominus Ambus may have already left Cybertron to search for Luna 1 Before & After
  • Riptide: A warborn M.T.O., Riptide hasn't been constructed cold yet. Twenty Plus One
  • Rodimus: Unconfirmed (see previous note)
  • Rung: Apparently shortly after Messatine, when he interrupted Froid and Trepan's shadowplay on Megatron Births, Deaths, and Interventions
  • Tailgate: Lying unconscious under the Mitteous Plateau How to Say Goodbye and Mean It
  • Whirl: Imprisoned in Garrus-1 on Luna 2 Patternism

Transformers references

• As noted above, we've seen Kremzeek drinks in IDW continuity before, but they originated with Dreamwave's Generation One comics, specifically issue #4 of the 2004 ongoing.
• The Senate's security forces are named the "Elite Guard" this issue, after the group from Transformers Animated, headed by that universe's Sentinel Prime.

Real-life references

• This arc is named after the Julian Cope song, "An Elegant Chaos" (also part of this issue's soundtrack, see below). The song was part of Cope's album, World Shut Your Mouth, which also lent its title to the opening three-parter of More than Meets the Eye season 2.
• When they originally appeared, the Outliers drew a clear parallel with Marvel's X-Men, being super-powered "mutants" secretly taught to use their abilities at a school. In what is surely another nod this issue, Windcharger "throws" Orion Pax in a manner similar to the classic X-Men manoeuvre, the Fastball Special.

Other trivia

• When Rodimus is discussing the threat to the hot spot with Orion Pax, he refers to "fessile" radiation. Roberts chose the word deliberately.
• A dropped scene would have had Zeta negotiating with Sentinel Prime, with Zeta saying he could get Pax's resistance fighters to stand down in exchange for him getting some influence in the Senate.
• When Chromedome shakes Glitch's hand, there are fewer concentric circles. Without realizing it, Glitch is interfering with the memory wipe. Originally we were to learn Glitch's memories weren't wiped with no one believing him, but this subplot was never elaborated on.
• By this point in More than Meets the Eye's run, fans had come up with the popular theory that, underneath his mask, Tarn of the Decepticon Justice Division was really Roller. There wasn't really any evidence for the theory within the text of the comic; it was based on the circumstantial fact that Roller was a big guy whose present-day status was unknown. But suddenly, this issue is absolutely lousy with not-remotely-subtle hints that indicate the theory was correct—so many that, why, a savvy reader might be inclined to think their leg was being deliberately pulled! But nobody ever accused Transformers fans of being savvy; the truth of the matter would eventually be revealed in issue #55. These hints include:
  • Roller is a Point One Percenter; Tarn was implied to be one in issue #14 (and later confirmed in #39)
  • Roller is seen crushing an Elite Guardman's head with a look of virtual disinterest; Tarn did the same to the alternate Swerve in issue #32
  • Roller has an addictive personality; Tarn is addicted to transforming
  • Roller feels outclassed by the Outliers, a good reason for him to undergo the upgrades that put him on the level of Phase Sixers, as noted in issue #14
  • Orion encourages Roller to read Megatron's works this issue; Tarn is intimately familiar with Megatron's writings
  • Roller is familiar with Megatron's slogan "You are being deceived" which Tarn later quotes when confronted with the Scavengers' "coffin"
  • The left side of Roller's face is noticeably damaged this issue; Tarn has scarring around his left eye visible through his mask in closeups in issue #7 and #8
  • And the big one, Roller is forgotten and "abandoned" by Orion Pax and his friends as a result of them being mind-wiped, setting up the possibility of him falling in with the opposite side.

Soundtrack

• "Fontanelle" by Clem Snide
• "An Elegant Chaos" by Julian Cope

Foreign Localization

Swedish

• Title: "Sofistikerat kaos del 1: Alla dessa vanskliga dagar som flytt" ("Sophisticated Chaos Part 1: All These Parlous Days Gone By")
• The "Sophisticated Chaos" arc title uses the same logo as the 2011 Chaos storyline in this and the following two parts.

Covers (4)

• Regular cover: Roller, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover: Orion Pax broods, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• 30th Anniversary cover: The second half of 30th anniversary celebration image by Alex Milne and Josh Perez, which connects to the 30th Anniversary cover to Robots in Disguise #36 to complete the picture. The full image is a cross-continuity mash-up featuring thirty characters; this cover includes Unicron, Rung, Robots in Disguise Sky-Byte, Animated Hot Shot, Beast Wars Dinobot, Animated Bulkhead, G1 Devastator, IDW Impactor, IDW Galvatron, Generation 2 Megatron, IDW Shockwave, Prime Knock Out, live-action Blackout, IDW Drift, Metroplex, IDW Rodimus, Beast Wars II Lio Convoy, and Prime Ratchet.
• SacAnime Exclusive cover: Generation 1 Optimus Prime arm-wrestles with Beast Hunters Optimus Prime, by Tony Fleecs

• 
  Roller sips his little drink before he bludgeons someone to death.
• 
  Orion Pax does his best Batman.
• 
  This is madness!
• 
  Over the Top!

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Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 7 (May 13, 2015) ISBN 1631403273 / ISBN 978-1631403279
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #34–38.
  • 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: Du sköna nya värld (November, 2022)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #28–38 & #40.
  • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

• 
  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 7 – 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)
• 
  Du sköna nya värld – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente

External links

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