Before the Dawn: Difference between revisions
m →Notes |
|||
| Line 110: | Line 110: | ||
==Quotes== | ==Quotes== | ||
"Remember whats most important..." | |||
:-Wheeljack's last words | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Revision as of 03:04, 28 June 2013
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| "Before the Dawn" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | February 27, 2013 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | February 2013 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | John Barber | ||||||||||||
| Pencils by | Andrew Griffith | ||||||||||||
| Inks by | Brian Shearer | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Josh Perez | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Shawn Lee | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Current era (2012) | ||||||||||||
The depth of Megatron's scheme is revealed, and it proves... devastating.
Synopsis
Metalhawk's broadcast to the denizens of Iacon is cut short as Circuit departs to cover a "bigger story", and moments later, Bumblebee contacts Metalhawk to let him know exactly what that story is: the Decepticon mob has stormed the prison where Megatron was being held. Metalhawk fears that Starscream was instrumental in this, but at that moment, Blurr arrives with evidence to the contrary—backed up by testimony from Dirge, he identifies Prowl as Megatron's co-conspirator. Bumblebee refuses to believe this, but the other Autobots begin to see the possibility as they think over Prowl's recent actions, and when Broadside discovers that Prowl's quarters do not appear on the city's security network, they decide to confront Prowl directly.
Bumblebee, Blurr, Sideswipe, Dirge and Swindle meet up with Metalhawk en route to Prowl's quarters, only to be suddenly attacked by Astrotrain, Blitzwing and Soundwave's cassettes. Metalhawk is wounded, and he, Bumblebee and Sideswipe are herded to Prowl's quarters, where a most unwelcome sight greets them: Prowl, side-by-side with a small army of Decepticons believed dead, with Wheeljack and Starscream kneeling before him, gun barrels pressed to their heads. Wheeljack attempts to remind Bumblebee of "what's most important", prompting Prowl to pull the trigger, reducing the scientist's head to particles. Horrified and furious, Bumblebee demands an explanation, and Metalhawk opines that Prowl has been working against them from within all along, preventing them from working together and forming a functional community. Prowl refutes the claim: everything they did, or failed to do, was of their own making. All he and the Decepticons did was make sure they stayed together, through the mysterious signal that caused madness in those who left Iacon. At that moment, Megatron enters, now outfitted with a new body, carrying the remains of his old stealth bomber form as a visual aid for the explanation he proceeds to deliver to his captive audience...
The combined properties of Ore-13 and the space bridge technology within his old body allowed Megatron to harness the energies from within Cybertron that D-Void used to briefly fuse the Decepticons together, seeing in them the way to perfect the gestalt process via the total elimination of individual will. When the Aerialbots left Iacon, Megatron found them and experimented upon them with the energies, successfully combining them, but at the cost of their sanity. The information gleaned from this, however, allowed Bombshell to perfect the process through experimentation on Sunstorm, at which point he took himself off the radar so he could work in secret by having Prowl fake both his death and those of the Constructicons. However, the return of the Metrotitan to Cybertron forced the Decepticons' hand, requiring them to act before Starscream gained enough of a public foothold to undo their plan. The stunned Bumblebee asks why Prowl, of all 'bots has sided with the Decepticons, and the last penny drops: Prowl has been under the control of Bombshell since their confrontation in the tunnels beneath the city.
Explanations done, Bombshell briefly releases Prowl from his control so that the other Autobots can say goodbye to him. The police-bot plaintively wonders how Bumblebee could not have realized that he was not himself all this time... but no time is given for the issue to be discussed, as Megatron issues a terrifying command to both the Constructicons and Prowl: "become one". Mind and body transfigured by the energies Megatron commanded, Prowl merges with the Constructicons into a new version of Devastator, with the Autobot as his head, which immediately embarks on a rampage throughout Iacon, tearing Autobot High Command asunder as the Decepticons mass together under Turmoil and Skywarp for the big push that will claim them victory. As Devastator heads off to eliminate the Autobots gathered in Fixit's med-center, Bumblebee demands to know what Megatron plans to do with them... and Megatron responds by seizing the little yellow 'bot and crushing his head.
And outside the city, watching as a beacon flares up and projects the Decepticon insignia against the moon... Ironhide, the Dinobots and Superion get ready to fight back.
Featured characters
(Characaters listed in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | NAILs | Others | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Remember whats most important..."
- -Wheeljack's last words
Notes
- This issue was accidentally released through iBooks a week early, at the discounted price of $1.99 no less, before quickly being taken down.
- Dirge finally gets his moment in the sun and tells Bumblebee and the others about what Prowl has been up to. Except... he tells them about his alliance with Megatron and the assassination of Ratbat, which are not the secrets Dirge has been living with up until now (it was the apparent deaths of Bombshell and the Constructicons he was privy to). Presumably Arcee shared these far more salient facts with him in between grabbing him and dropping him off with Blurr in Maccadam's.
- Megatron's body is evocative of his pre-Earth forms from Megatron: Origin and Stormbringer, but is otherwise a new design.
- Megatron mentions that the space bridge technology in his old body was derived from the Metrotitans, a factoid just recently revealed earlier in the same month in Spotlight: Megatron.
- In addition to many images taken from previous issues of Robots in Disguise, the illustrations for the Decepticons' pages of evil exposition include the Deceptigod from ongoing #31, Monstructor from the Robots in Disguise annual, Devastator from All Hail Megatron #2 and Menasor from ongoing #6.
- Shockwave and Bombshell are credited with giving the Constructicons the ability to combine, which they first displayed without in-depth explanation in All Hail Megatron #2. This probably supports the idea that Shockwave was indeed the "new favourite" of Megatron's mentioned in Spotlight: Orion Pax who was involved with the technology.
- Megatron describes the "Decepticon way" as "infiltrate, hide in plain sight, and conquer"—the essential basics of the long-abandoned infiltration protocol from way back when.
- Soundwave's beefed-up new body has obviously come with a repaired voicebox, as he is speaking again after having lost the ability thanks to Optimus Prime shooting him in the face back in the ongoing issue #17.
- It is mentioned that Prowl was particularly open to being manipulated by Bombshell because his memories were "already damaged". What's going on there, hmn?
- Bombshell's eyes flash yellow as he releases Prowl from his control, and Prowl's eyes do the same in response, harkening back to issue #4, in which his victims all had yellow eyes while controlled. Though the spottiness of the coloring made it hard to tell if it was on purpose at the time, the Dinobots' eyes all turned yellowish while out in the wilderness in issues issue #8 and #9, an evident indicator of the fact the controlling energies involved were the same.
- With Prowl as Devastator's new head, Hook takes the deceased Scrapper's role as the combiner's right leg.
- Standing alongside Turmoil on page 18 is a new face: a blue and teal Decepticon who's clearly a recolored version of Megatron's IDW stealth bomber bodyform. His colours and obvious alternate mode mark him as that three-in-one villain that's chillin' himself, Generation 2 Dreadwing; given the announcement of a Generations toy for IDW Megatron at Toy Fair 2013 a few weeks before this comic's release, this seems an implicit confirmation of a planned redeco for the figure. His standing by Turmoil is likely no coincidence, either, since Dreadwing was shown to be under his command in his sole previous IDW continuity appearance in Drift #1.
- Megatron remarks that he hoped Starscream would one day lead the Decepticons, a sentiment he expressed back in All Hail Megatron #11 which... just sort of hasn't come back up since.
Errors
- On page 4, panel 5, Bombshell is missing the vents on his faceplate.
- On page 17, Broadside is supposed to be calling Fixit at the med-center, but the art shows Circuit in the Autobot medic's place, and outside, to boot. Jazz, Sky-Byte, Tappet and Zetca are still present in the background, though, having been noted to be on their way to the med-center earlier in the issue.
- Throughout this issue, the Decepticons are wearing the narrower, diamond-eyed Decepticon insignia usually found on movieverse Decepticons. Cover A of this issue depicts Megatron with the more traditional triangle-eyed insignia. This might not be an error for those who have recently upgraded their bodies, but characters like Turmoil, Apeface, and Needlenose have not upgraded recently, and were previously shown with G1 insignia.
Transformers references
- Shockwave mentions Swindle's failed "Stunticon job," which is the name of the BotCon 2011 story.
Real-world references
- In response to Bumblebee's startled cry that all of the Decepticons in the Black Room had died, Bombshell says, "Somewhat ...exaggerated, reports were," a variation of a quote attributed to Mark Twain.
Covers (3)
- Cover A: Prowl and Megatron, by Andrew Griffith and Joana Lafuente.
- Cover B: An injured Wheeljack lies at Arcee and Prowl's feet, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
- Cover RI: Bust shot of Prowl by Marcelo Matere, continuing the previous month's "bust" theme for the RI covers but in full color this time, paralleling the RI cover to More than Meets the Eye #14.
Advertisements
- More than Meets the Eye #14
- The Transformers: Regeneration One #88
- Spotlight Megatron
- My Little Pony Friendship: Is Magic Micro-Series
- G.I. Joe #1
- King of the Nerds
- Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror (back cover)
