Loose Ends, Part 2: Difference between revisions
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|penciler=[[Andrew Wildman]] | |penciler=[[Andrew Wildman]] | ||
|inker=[[Stephen Baskerville]] | |inker=[[Stephen Baskerville]] | ||
|colorist=[[ | |colorist=[[John-Paul Bove]] | ||
|letterer=[[Chris Mowry]] | |letterer=[[Chris Mowry]] | ||
|editor=[[John Barber]] | |editor=[[John Barber]] | ||
Revision as of 23:41, 9 August 2012
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| "Loose Ends" Part 2 | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 1, 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | August 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Penciler | Andrew Wildman | ||||||||||||
| Inker | Stephen Baskerville | ||||||||||||
| Colorist | John-Paul Bove | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Chris Mowry | ||||||||||||
| Editor | John Barber | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
The Wreckers face Megatron on Earth, while Grimlock has troubles on Nebulos.
Synopsis
As Megatron fires upon their ship, Kup and the Wreckers are able to bail out in escape pods at the last minute, and crash-land on the ruined Earth in the middle of the Mojave desert. They quickly depart their landing site, but with Topspin injured and Broadside's neural circuits scrambled by the crash, things are already off to a bad start, and they only get worse then Whirl reports back from recon that Megatron is hot on their tail with a pack of Decepticons. What the Wreckers do not realize is that these Decepticons are virtual zombies, brought back from death and lobotomized by Megatron into loyal, brain-wiped servants, with only two allowed to retain a fragment of consciousness: Starscream, as punishment for his legacy of treachery, and Ratchet, whose decapitated but still-living head now adorns Megatron's battle-sled!
Across the galaxy, Grimlock arrives in the vicinity of Nebulos on his quest to find a cure for the effects of Nucleon. On approach to the planet, he reviews a science log on "Project Lazarus", an attempt by Nebulan senior scientist Borx to reconnect the Autobot Headmasters' original heads to their bodies following the deaths of their Nebulan partners during the Unicron war. After some initial difficulties, the process is coming along, and Grimlock figures that his head—and those of the other Nucleon-afflicted Transformers—could thus be transplanted onto new, transforming bodies. Given that he has broken so many rules already, Grimlock is unconcerned with the fact that the planet has been declared out of bounds by Optimus Prime, but upon setting down in Koraja, he finds the city deserted. When he is attacked by mesmerized Nebulans in jet fighters, he cannot bring himself to cross that final line and fire back on the organics, and so he is defeated and knocked out. As he falls, he is approached by something that walks on rows of spindly green legs.
On Cybertron, Trailbreaker informs Ultra Magnus that Kup and the Wreckers are missing, having stolen a shuttle. Assigning Trailbreaker the task of finding out who helped them in getting away from the planet, Magnus waits until he is gone before exploding with fury, punching out a monitor screen and howling that he wants to join Kup in his efforts, but that he has to obey the rules of their new society if they want it to work.
Back on Earth, the Wreckers target the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, intending to use its dish to broadcast a message to Cybertron. While Sandstorm, Leadfoot and Roadbuster draw off most of the pursuing zombie-cons, Kup, Whirl and Springer make for the dish. When more pursuers appear, Kup peels off to deal with them, urging Springer and Whirl to get the message through. Although he is able to take down Tentakil, Kup is felled when Skywarp teleports out of the path of his blasts and appears behind him to gun him down. Kup is brought before Megatron, who explains with maniacal glee that his destruction of Earth is not in the name of conquest: he simply did it to get some attention! He wants the Wreckers' message to get through to Cybertron, so that Optimus Prime will finally come and face him!
Back in the relative safety of the desert, where Rack 'n' Ruin watch over the injured Topspin and Broadside, a small group of humans passes by, and immediately flee at the sight of the robots. Attempting to talk to the humans, Rack 'n' Ruin are forced back by a bolt of energy... a bolt fired by the humans' protector — the cybernetic superhuman Circuit Smasher!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Nebulans |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Ah, instant, unquestioning obedience! I should have lobotomised the lot of you centuries ago!"
- —Megatron believes individuality is overrated.
Notes
- Megatron's zombified troops are casualties of the Underbase Saga, all save Ratbat having been felled by Starscream while he was high on Underbase power. Apparently, we are to assume from this that the Decepticons never bothered to gather the bodies of their fallen, and that they have lain on Earth all this time until Megatron got his grubby fingers on them. Ratbat, though, was killed while aboard the Ark, so presumably his body was kept there by the Autobots and removed from the wreck by Megatron.
- When last seen at the close of the original Marvel series, Megatron and Ratchet were mentally linked in a way that required both to live, or neither would. This, then, is why Megatron is keeping Ratchet alive.
- The fate of the Autobot Headmasters' original heads was one of the great dangling plot threads of the Headmasters mini-series, with it being repeatedly stated that unlike other depictions of the Headmaster process, the heads were kept intact and alive and in remote contact with their bodies. Resolution at last!
- The Grax Communications Facility on the Plains of Thok puts in a brief appearance.
- Grimlock specifically singles out Slag as an especially badly-afflicted victim of Nucleon. Back during the writing of the original series, it was Furman's intention that Slag would be driven insane by the Nucleon, and it sounds like we're still heading in that direction.
- Grimlock refers back to the period when Transformers were not welcome on Nebulos, seen in "People Power!"
- While the narration in "Counterpoint" made reference to protective stasis aboard the Ark maintaining each Transformer's "spark of life", here Megatron unequivocally talks about snuffing out the Autobots' sparks, cementing the concept's retroactive inclusion in Marvel canon.
- Skywarp's teleporting makes a "VVOP" sound effect—previously used by Furman in IDW's -ations series.
Errors
- Trailbreaker's hood-chest is colored like a windshield.
Covers (3)
- Cover A: Grimlock being attacked by Nebulans, by Andrew Wildman and Jason Cardy.
- Cover B: Grimlock in dinosaur mode, by Guido Guidi.
- Cover RI: Dinosaur-mode Grimlock crushing robot-mode Grimlock, by Geoff Senior and Josh Burcham.
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Cover A: Me, Grimlock am kinder, gentler Grimlock and look what happens. -
Cover B: Me, Grimlock go all Jurassic part on you! -
Cover RI: Me, Grimlock!
No! ME, GRIMLOCK!
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