Rules of Disengagement (issue): Difference between revisions

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*Reference is made to "Nova Peak", which is prrrrrobably the same thing as [[Nova Point]].
*Reference is made to "Nova Peak", which is prrrrrobably the same thing as [[Nova Point]].
*Grimlock was last seen at the close of the ''[[The Transformers: Maximum Dinobots|Maximum Dinobots]]'' mini-series, over three years before the publication of this issue. Since then, all we've heard is that he had left [[Garrus-9]] after it was sacked by the Decepticons under unrevealed circumstances, as detailed in [[Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 4|''Last Stand of the Wreckers'' #4]].
*Grimlock was last seen at the close of the ''[[The Transformers: Maximum Dinobots|Maximum Dinobots]]'' mini-series, over three years before the publication of this issue. Since then, all we've heard is that he had left [[Garrus-9]] after it was sacked by the Decepticons under unrevealed circumstances, as detailed in [[Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 4|''Last Stand of the Wreckers'' #4]].
*Roberts had previously created a Decepticon named Fulcrum in his fan-published Transformers: Eugenesis novel. Whether these are meant to be iterations of the same character (as was the case with Rung) or just a name reuse is unclear.


===Errors===
===Errors===

Revision as of 17:32, 25 July 2012

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #7 »
"Rules of Disengagement"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 25, 2012
Cover date July 2012
Story by James Roberts
Art by Alex Milne
Colors by Josh Burcham and Joana Lafuente
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

A mismatched group of Decepticons find themselves in the crosshairs of the deadliest team of killers there is... the Decepticon Justice Division!

Synopsis

As a phase sixer, Black Shadow is one of the most feared Decepticons, having tackled the Wreckers single-handedly, defeated the entire 113th Batallion, and massacred the population of Rigel IV. But when he accepted a bribe to blow up a fleet of War Worlds, he landed himself in the sights of the Decepticon Justice Division, a team of vicious killers fanatically dedicated to Megatron and charged with destroying all who cross him. It's not a pretty sight when the D.J.D. catch up to Black Shadow: melted by Helex, crushed by Tesarus and electrocuted by Kaon, he is explosively finished off when D.J.D. leader Tarn uses his ability of "weaponized conversation" to stop the pulse of his spark. Their task done, the D.J.D. set off to find their next target on the planet of Clemency—a target guilty of simply living.

On the Lost Light, Ratchet, First Aid and Ambulon combine their medical expertise to save the life of the wounded Rung, though the psychiatrist remains comatose. A few hours later, Red Alert visits Rung in secrecy, believing—in his increasing paranoia—that the attempt on Rung's life was a deliberate one after Red told him about the voice he heard from beneath the ship. Certain that he is next, Red hides a data slug containing video he has taken of the voice's owner—Overlord—on Rung's body and bids him goodbye. But a medical Diagnostic Drone has observed the entire thing, and soon, a shadowed figure arrives in the medibay and recovers the slug...

On Clemency, a band of Decepticon scavengers consisting of Misfire, Spinister, Krok, Crankcase and Flywheels are in the process of draining fuel from the vast array of Transformer corpses that litter the war-torn world when one of them, a chipper fellow named Fulcrum, proves to be still alive. After a slight panic over the possibility that he might be a zombie, the six 'cons settle down around a fire to talk about the great battle in Clemency's past, and the grim reality of war and how it reduces lives to statistics. Fulcrum is shocked to discover that the war is over, barely able to comprehend such a thing, and the other Decepticons mumble about how meaningless it all turned out to be and how unclear their goals had been anyway. In spite of this, though, when one of the Autobot bodies stoking the Decepticons' fire proves to still be alive, Krok casually kills the poor 'bot.

Back on the Lost Light, Chromedome visits Brainstorm in his lab to get the scientist's analysis of Skids's mysterious gun, which Chromedome palmed from the theoretician when he was distracted. The weapon immediately blew up when Brainstorm tried to examine it, but he was able to recognise at least some of the engineering, and has concluded that as impossible as it may seem, the gun may have come from somewhere known as "The Institute"...

As dawn breaks on Clemency, the Decepticons resume their scavenging, only for Misfire to suddenly break away from the group, thinking that he has spotted the Necrobot, a mythical Grim Reaper-like figure in Cybertronian culture. Instead, what he has discovered is a P-6 Worldsweeper, a famous model of gigantic Decepticon spaceship cast in the image of the faction's insignia. Investigating the vessel, the Decepticons make some horrifyingly strange discoveries: a ceiling covered entirely in brain modules, tanks of warped, malformed protoforms, a non-functional robot made entirely of wood, and a corridor composed of organic flesh that proves to have been responsible for causing the ship to crash, having bled into the fuel supply and polluted it. Misfire in particular is aghast and advocates immediate departure, but Fulcrum, coming around to the idea of new horizons, is eager to investigate. All emotions on the ship quickly turn to terror, however, when Krok receives a communication from the D.J.D., announcing that one of their number is on the Division's list. Tarn signs off with the promise that if the guilty party is handed over, the other six will be allowed to watch. The numbers don't add up, and Fulcrum assumes the D.J.D. simply miscounted their life-signs... but Krok soon discovers that there is indeed a seventh party on the ship, unconscious and sealed in a stasis tube... Grimlock!

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

Autobots Decepticons

Quotes

Fulcrum: "Ah! Now! Just—just wait a second! Just— The thing about me—my big thing is this: I'm really not keen on dying. Now survival—oh wow, huge fan. Put me down for some of that. Besides, we don't even know each other! You might like me! You might find me—disarming! Yes! I'd disarm you!"
Spinister: "You'd what me?"
Flywheels: "Careful—he's using words to confuse and frighten us."


"Go away. I'm busier than you've ever been and I'm going more important things than you've ever done."
"It's Chromedome."
"So?"
"So you have to be nice to me, I'm your only friend. Why are you—?"
"Building weapons whilst hanging from the ceiling? Because no one else can. I was hoping Perceptor would walk in."

—Brainstorm and Chromedome


"Chromedome, you're looking at is a bona fide Binary Gun."
"What's a Binary Gun?"
"I'm not sure—I've only just made up the name. But I called it that because inside there's only room for two cartridges, here and here."
"So what does it do? Where'd Skids get it? Why'd he carry it around with him all the time?"
"I don't know! I've done my bit...!"
"You made the gun blow up and then you gave it a name! I could have done that and I'd have come up with a better name!"

—Brainstorm and Chromedome again


"But there's always been a war! That's like saying there's no more blue or—or the weather's stopped!"

—Fulcrum catches up on recent history


"I always dreamed of captaining my own P-6—Followin' the likes of Shockwave and Sixshot and the other big guns. I'd have called it something noble and majestic, like Mega Starpuncher or Mighty Spaceship."

—Crankcase


"You know, there are some Decepticons who, upon finding themselves in a skin-covered room surrounded by aborted protoforms and mechanoids made of bark, would rub their hands together, marvel at the universe's infinite capacity for surprise and dive right in. I am not one of those Decepticons. I say we run away screaming."
"I am one of those Decepticons, Misfire, and I say we stick around—because frankly, this is amazing."
"What's amazing?"
"This! Us! Now! Who owns this ship? Where are they now? Where will we be an hour from now, or tomorrow, or next month? The answer to all those questions is "Who knows?" And that's a great answer! That's the best answer ever! All our lives we've followed orders—all our lives someone else has always told us what to do next! Well, not anymore! For the first time in forever, we can do whatever we like! We're free!"

—Misfire and Fulcrum

Notes

  • Black Shadow's design is based on his Generations toy. He was established to be a phase sixer in his sole previous IDW appearance in Last Stand of the Wreckers #2.
  • The 113th Battalion is another use of the number 113 by James Roberts, referring to the issue of the UK comic that got him hooked on the series.
  • This is the first appearance of Rigel IV in a Transformer story, but other planets that orbit the same star have shown up before.
  • Black Shadow's bribe is in Shanix, a little-referenced Cybertronian currency that first appeared in issue #113 of the Marvel UK series. It's seen some previous mentions in IDW continuity in "Chaos Theory", Part 1 and "Stick Together".
  • The Warworld was the Decepticon mothership in the Marvel Generation 2 comic. The idea of a fleet of multiple Warworlds originated with the non-canon Alignment.
  • The Decepticon Justice Division were first mentioned in one of Roberts's earliest IDW works, Last Stand of the Wreckers #1, and have come up on occasion since them. They are named after cities on Cybertron; specifically, the "First Five Cities" to fall to the Decepticons in the war, which were listed in issue #4.
  • Helex has a Turbofox on a leash.
  • Vos's dialogue, referred to as the "Primal Vernacular", is written using the Cyberglyphics symbol language from the live-action movie continuity. Employing the substitution cypher regularly used by Titan in their UK Transformers comic shows that most of his speech bubbles are nonsense, however, save for the first, which reads: "So tired me go night xth".
  • This is not the first time Roberts has written a character has having been "talked to death", though this version is a lot more literal than the reference made in Bullets to a Decepticon who killed himself rather than listen to Prowl drone on!
  • Kol was previously seen in Generation 2 #9, but where there it was a planet, here it is referred to as a system. Perhaps it was named for its star?
  • That Flywheels should freak out so seriously at the prospect of a zombie is fitting, given his prominent role in the greatest Transformers zombie story, Marvel UK's "City of Fear!" (indeed, his only prominent role in anything before now).
  • A device or creature looking like a horseshoe crab can be seen in a cannister on Brainstorm's desk, which might be supposed to be a small version of the Madmachine from the Headmasters episode, "The Great Cassette Operation".
  • Hydrus 4 is the planet of origin for Nucleon, seen in the original Marvel series. Its sister world Hydrus 5 was created by James Roberts and first mentioned in "Bullets".
  • Chromedome palmed Skids's gun between pages 4 and 5 of issue 4.
  • The planet Elpasos is mentioned in passing, a world that debut in—you guessed it, issue #113 of the Marvel UK series. It got a previous IDW mention in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5.
  • Reference is made to "Nova Peak", which is prrrrrobably the same thing as Nova Point.
  • Grimlock was last seen at the close of the Maximum Dinobots mini-series, over three years before the publication of this issue. Since then, all we've heard is that he had left Garrus-9 after it was sacked by the Decepticons under unrevealed circumstances, as detailed in Last Stand of the Wreckers #4.
  • Roberts had previously created a Decepticon named Fulcrum in his fan-published Transformers: Eugenesis novel. Whether these are meant to be iterations of the same character (as was the case with Rung) or just a name reuse is unclear.

Errors

Crew Manifest

  • The "Story so far" segment on the inside front cover notes that "a number of Delphi's patients" were brought to the Lost Light, which is the first mention that anyone other than Fortress Maximus came back with Ratchet and the medics.

Covers (3)

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