The Change In Your Nature Part One

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"The Change In Your Nature Part One"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 16, 2019
Cover date	September 2019
Written by	Brian Ruckley
Art by	Angel Hernandez (pages 8-11, 13-18), Alex Milne (pages 1-7, 12, 19-20)
Colors by	Joana Lafuente, Josh Perez
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Mariotte and Tom Waltz
Continuity	2019 IDW continuity

As Sentinel Prime and his allies push back against The Rise, a suspicious Bumblebee finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy within the Ascenticon ranks.

Synopsis

One by one, the Ascenticons step up to receive their new insignias: first Acid Storm, then Skytread, then Bumblebee, who gazes uncertainly at his new look, despite Jhiaxus's cheerful attitude about the makeover. Bumblebee's doubts are momentarily eclipsed when he spies Skytread on the other side of the room, and immediately storms over to confront his fellow member of the Ascenticon Guard on what happened during The Rise's recent attack on Ascenticon headquarters. The thuggish Skytread isn't so intimidated by the little yellow 'bot, however, and sneers that Bumblebee should be thanking him... but he soon finds the smile wiped off his face when Bumblebee blinds him with his headlamp, then easily decks his compatriot.

As the other Ascenticons gawp at the sight of the two fighting, Elita-1 disentangles the pair, and instructs Bumblebee to follow her at once. As the two head down a nearby corridor, Elita warns the yellow 'bot not to push his luck—as ill-mannered as Skytread is, she points out that Bumblebee stood no chance against Sixshot during his recent assault on the Ascenticon building. Bumblebee retorts that he saw Soundwave sending Barricade right where Sixshot attacked, and points out the suspiciously fortuitous circumstances that surround the terrorist attack. Does Elita-1, Bumblebee accuses, even know what's going on in the Ascenticon Guard she professes to run?

Not far away, in Iacon's medical center, Ratchet touches base with Chromia, happy to report that Windblade will soon be up and about. Chromia inquires about the list of names that Windblade recovered in the Memorial Crater, and if any one of them could be responsible for Rubble's murder. The problem is, Ratchet explains, that there are too many suspects on the list in order to properly narrow it down into something workable: the Rise is full of heavy-hitting brutes, any one of them capable of easily offlining a little 'bot like Rubble. Brainstorm's death, however, remains a mystery: Ratchet points out that his injuries don't seem to have been inflicted by a weapon: if anything, the wounds are closer to machinery. Rumors are continuing to fly as the situation continues to deteriorate, and Chromia muses on how the recently-returned Sentinel Prime has been handling things...

Sentinel, as it turns out, has not been having a good few days, continually besieged by reports of one crisis after the next as tensions continue to flare across Cybertron; Crosshairs reports that members of The Rise have seemingly obtained weapons from Cybertron's armories; another 'bot informs the Prime of civil unrest in Tarn, where Cybertronians have been demanding more energon; Prowl keeps Sentinel updated on Reversionist protests outside the Tether... but it's Soundwave's suggestion for immediate elections that finally pushes Sentinel over the edge.

Sentinel's hamfisted attempts to rein in The Rise results in an increased police presence all across Cybertron, a show of force designed to intimidate Risers. Security teams, made up of hastily recruited rookies and veterans alike, arrest 'bots left, right, and center, illegal establishments are raided for any information regarding The Rise and its whereabouts, and patrols are even dispatched into the remote badlands in the hopes of tracking down any errant Riser bunkers. One such patrol consists of Sideswipe and Springer, sweeping the regions beyond Crystal City. Their monotonous patrol is interrupted when a police transmission warns them that someone's set off an alarm at an energon processing station, and the pair head off to investigate, even though the always-impetuous Sideswipe grumbles at Springer using his helicopter form to race to the crime scene ahead of him.

That "someone", it turns out, consists of a group of Risers led by Ruckus, on a mission to siphon valuable energon from the facility. Kaskade worries about what happened to the last group of 'bots who tried this stunt, noting that they had to kill the scientist who ran the station... though Ruckus quickly shoots down their concerns and barks at them to get the job done. By the time Wirespike has finished attaching the device, however, the trio finds Springer blocking their way. Ignoring Ruckus's shouts for backup, the Triple Changer warns them to come quietly, but he's thrown off-balance when a massive, heavily-armored drillbot bursts through the ground beneath his feet! Hurled into the energon grid, overexposure nearly shorts out Springer, and by the time Sideswipe finds him and brings him round, the four Risers have already made a run for it.

Back at Ascenticon headquarters, Elita-1 has made an unwelcome discovery: Bumblebee hasn't been listening to her, and has been snooping through some of Soundwave's encrypted files. Ignoring Elita's repeated protests to keep his head down and be her reliable second-in-command, Bumblebee tries to convince her to use her security clearance to open the files: something is up with Soundwave and Barricade, Bumblebee insists, and that something might just be the tip of this new conspiracy. Elita grimaces at the prospect, but—just this once—decides to humor Bumblebee.

Out in the badlands, Ruckus's team have evacuated to a nearby "Immersant", the crumbling remains of a gigantic, dormant Titan. They're far from cornered, however, as Ruckus excitedly digs through the rust-eaten floor to procure an Ascenticon weapons cache and reveals a massive railgun. As Springer tries to breach the Titan's superstructure, he finds himself pinned down by Ruckus's devastating barrage, and when his three compatriots try to scuttle out the back door, they're jumped by Sideswipe; although Sideswipe nicks one of them with his blaster, they're bogged down in an ensuing firefight, neither side able to outpower the other without reinforcements...

Back in Iacon, Elita and Bumblebee are making some disturbing discoveries: Barricade's file has been completely deleted, the day he was "abducted" by Sixshot; some more digging reveals that Quake's profile has also vanished, deleted on the same day Rubble was killed... and that the 'bot responsible for those deletions was none other than Soundwave himself. Before either of them can begin to figure out just what this means however, a figure darkens the door behind them: Soundwave! Elita is able to bluff Soundwave long enough to allay his suspicions, and the Ascenticon recruiter informs them that the Ascenticon Guard will be needed at the immersant Titan, informing them that they have an opportunity to assert the new Ascenticon philosophy. Elita sighs a breath of relief, but warns Bumblebee that they got lucky—this time.

And, just outside of Iacon's security station, Ratchet hurries over to Chromia, who's more concerned with mobilizing every security 'bot in the city to deal with the burgeoning situation beyond the city. Ratchet has analyzed the names that Windblade has recovered, and informs her that, while the vast majority of Risers are made up of ex-miners, ex-soldiers, ex-intelligence operatives, and the like, there's one 'bot on the list who's both a miner and an intelligence operative, who's gone missing along with the rest of The Rise, and is notable for his drill-based morphology—all signs that point to him being a possible culprit in Brainstorm's murder. What, asks Ratchet, does Chromia know about a 'bot named Frenzy?

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Ascenticons	Others
Sentinel Prime (11)	Acid Storm (1) Skytread (2) Bumblebee (3) Jhiaxus (4) Deadlock (5) Elita-1 (6) Ambulon (7) Soundwave (15) The Rise Ruckus (20) Wirespike (21) Kaskade (22) Conspicuously unnamed drillbot (23)	Ratchet (8) Chromia (9) Windblade (10) Crosshairs (12) ? (13) Prowl (14) Nightbeat (16) Damus (17) Sideswipe (18) Springer (19)

Quotes

"Welcome to the new look, Ascenticons! Time to get your angry face on."

—Jhiaxus

"Told you not to go solo! Told you!"
"I'm a total convert to the wisdom of that idea. Call in everyone. Those clunkers haven't got much of a start on us, and we are taking them down."

—Sideswipe and Springer

"I knew I couldn't trust you to stay out of trouble! These are secured data! I really wanted you to be the one bot in the guard I could rely on to not be a complete idiot!"

—Elita-1

"I'd be in pieces if whoever's behind that railgun could aim. This is not awesome, Sideswipe."

—Springer

"Senior intelligence operative for kilocycles. You never hear him coming, you never know when he's listening. We got far luckier than we deserved."

—Elita-1 on Soundwave

Notes

• First appearances: Deadlock, Wirespike, Kaskade, conspicuously unnamed drillbot, Crosshairs, Nightbeat, Springer

Continuity notes

• Elita points out that Bumblebee and Skytread don't get along; 'Bee previously clocked the Duocon back in issue #7, and very nearly came to blows with him in issue #11 during the staged Rise attack on Ascenticon headquarters, before Skytread deliberately knocked out Bumblebee from behind with an electric stun baton.
• Bumblebee uses his cranium-mounted headlamp for the first time since issue #1.
• Sixshot is described as having played a role in the Expansion, an era previously mentioned by Termagax in issue #8, and notes that he was responsible for freeing hostages in the Dremden system; presumably, this is the home system of the Occulted Dremden, who were first namedropped in the previous issue.
• Windblade secured the list of Risers (and sustained the injuries that she is still recovering from here) in issue #9; along with known Risers Quake and Sixshot, Ratchet also namedrops Lugnut as another Riser.
• A frightened A'ovan appears during the montage of arrests across Cybertron.
• Nightbeat's dialogue reveals that Sixshot, like many other Ascenticons, was another veteran of the War of the Threefold Spark.
• This issue reveals that the various energon transmission stations, the first of which appeared back in issue #1, have been upgraded with heavier security measures, presumably as a response to Brainstorm's unexpected death.
• The "mountain range" of dormant Cybertronians first appeared all the way back in the very first installment of the comic; this issue confirms that they are "immersant," presumably having chosen to undergo the same fate as Codexa and her compatriots.
• Frenzy was previously namedropped in issue #11 as a member of The Rise alongside Rumble.

Transformers references

• This issue marks the return of popular More than Meets the Eye artist Alex Milne to the rebooted series. As a result, this issue features a particularly high number of cameo returnees from the prior IDW continuity—although this early on, it's hard to judge how many of them will actually go on to play a major role in this new universe! Cameos include:
  • On page two, panel one, a screen to the right of Jhiaxus shows a computer readout featuring the faces of several IDW-original characters: in addition to Deadlock and Ambulon (see below), there's also Fulcrum, and Decepticon Justice Division member Tesarus.
  • Page four, panel one features both Deadlock, the Decepticon identity assumed by the Autobot Drift, and a purple bot who's unmistakably based on Ambulon, who was established in More than Meets the Eye to have once been a purple Decepticon before he changed both his faction and paint job. His appearance on the screen, however, has him in his red Autobot colors.
  • Page seven, panel two features Damus as a patron of some kind of den of substance abuse. In More than Meets the Eye, this humble 'bot went on to become the dreaded "Tarn," Outlier leader of the Decepticon Justice Division. Whether the same will hold true here is anyone's guess...
• Damus' appearance in a den of substance abuse could be seen as a nod to Tarn's reputation for having major addiction problems; one of the most notable things about him was that he was so addicted to transformation he burned out his transformation cog fairly quickly and required a steady supply of replacements.
• Ratchet is assisted by two Diagnostic Drones; originally introduced in Beast Machines, they showed up occasionally in the previous IDW continuity as assistants to that continuity's Ratchet and First Aid onboard the Lost Light in More than Meets the Eye.
• In a non-IDW reference, the two security troopers seen on the top of page 7 are based on the Autotroopers from the Transformers: Animated cartoon, who are themselves a reference to the Autoroopers from the Kiss Players manga.
• Elita describes Sixshot as a "solo assault team," a reference to his original bio function designation as a "S.T.A.G.", or "Solo Transformer Assault Group".
• Crosshairs makes his first comic appearance in a good while; his characterization as a stodgy, bureaucratic stick-in-the-mud was first established in his Marvel Universe profile, though this is the first time in a while where it's actually come to the fore.
• Ratchet notes that the vast majority of the Cybertronians who make up The Rise are gladiators or miners, hearkening back to the origins of the Decepticons as a working-class revolution in both the "Aligned" universe and IDW's original Generation 1 universe.
• And, of course, there's the mysterious drill-bot, who may or may not be the as-yet-unseen Frenzy; although this beefy bruiser bears no resemblance to the little cassette-bot, it's possible that he might downsize somewhere along the line—a similar fate befell Ratbat in IDW's Megatron Origin miniseries. Likewise, Frenzy's affinity for drills isn't something that's ever been explored too much in media, though IDW's All Hail Megatron and The Transformers comics did briefly interpret him as a creepy lunatic who killed organic beings with his various drills.

Real-world references

• Another robot seen assisting Ratchet appears to be based on the titular character from the 2008 film, WALL-E.
• Among the bots hanging out in the den of iniquity raided by Nightbeat is one who's drawn and colored to resemble the "Lagann" mech from the anime series Gurren Lagann. Funnily enough, that series also has quite a fixation on drills.

Other notes

• Designated for a September release, this issue slips into the middle of October.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Prowl and Chromia race through the city of Iacon as the specter of Starscream looms overhead, by Winston Chan
• Cover B: Springer, by Umi Miyao
• Retailer incentive cover: Prowl and Chromia—they fight crime, by Blacky Shepherd and Josh Burcham

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