The World of Tomorrow

« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #33
"The World of Tomorrow"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 24, 2014
Cover date	September 2014
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Sarah Stone
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)

Repaired and reactivated, Wheeljack is faced with a Cybertron unfamiliar to him, and must decide where his loyalties lie in this new world.

Synopsis

After months offline, the fully-repaired Wheeljack awakens at last, unceremoniously toppling out of his stasis tube in front of a waiting crowd. Starscream is legitimately happy to see Wheeljack up and about again; that doesn't immediately endear the scientist to Chromia, but Wheeljack is less concerned with her opinion of him, and more with the startling revelation that Starscream is now the ruler of Cybertron!

After being caught up on the last six months, Wheeljack is shown around a shanty-town being built outside of Metroplex by those who have elected to leave the city after the recent bombing—unfortunately, they are mostly Decepticons, angry at what they see as the failings of Starscream's leadership, and Starscream and Wheeljack quickly find themselves being "encouraged" out of the area by a hail of debris thrown by furious civilians. Unfazed, Starscream proceeds to lead Wheeljack to a facility containing the bodies of Omega Supreme and Superion, explaining the combiner's origins to the shocked scientist and how he came to be injured by Prowl and the Constructicons. Wheeljack swears to do what he can to help save the Aerialbots' lives, but Starscream needs more: in order to protect his Cybertron against any potential threat that the Prowl-controlled Devastator might pose, he requires a combiner that will serve him. Already unconvinced that his friend Prowl could really be as dangerous as Starscream says, Wheeljack further points out that Slingshot seems beyond saving; in response, Starscream introduces him to Alpha Bravo and Powerglide, who have volunteered to become part of Superion in order to ensure the success of the project.

Blurr throws a party to celebrate Wheeljack's return at Maccadam's Old Oil House, but the scientist is distracted throughout, surrounded by strangers and feeling very alone. Rising early the next morning, he pays a visit to Starscream in order to hash the matter out, but finds his way barred by Rattrap. The smaller 'bot lets him pass with noticeably little argument... allowing Wheeljack to overhear Starscream seemingly arguing furiously with himself. Windblade appears, already aware of Starscream's apparent descent into insanity; she and Wheeljack properly introduce themselves to one another, and she takes him to Metroplex's damaged space bridge, telling him a little more about recent events and her attempts to repair the bridge and help Cybertron's colony worlds. They both realize that it is difficult to trust Starscream, but that the current situation means that to help him is to help Cybertron, and that means they are both on the same side.

Seeking perspective, Wheeljack heads out to the badlands to regard the tiny singularity that Crystal City collapsed into when Shockwave's "Dark Cybertron" plot was foiled. There, he meets Ironhide, who has become withdrawn now that the vision of the future he saw has been rendered impossible by Shockwave's machinations. He despairs over the loss of the surety in the future that the vision had granted him, but with good humour, Wheeljack tells him that that state of uncertainty is just called "being alive".

Returning to Metroplex, Wheeljack walks into Starscream's chambers as he is in the middle of another rant... and discovers that he hasn't gone insane, he's simply communicating with Scoop, his agent on Earth, over an undetectable comm channel. Starscream shows Wheeljack a selection of images sent from Earth by Scoop of Devastator on the rampage, and gives one final speech: whatever anyone else may say about Starscream, whatever Wheeljack may think about him, his point is still true, and Cybertron needs a combiner on its side because all its potential enemies have one already. Wheeljack cannot disagree, and gets to work on Superion... because however untrustworthy Starscream may be, Wheeljack knows he has his friends Windblade and Ironhide to watch his back.

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Chromia (1) Windblade (2) Ironhide (3) Wheeljack (7) Megatron (9) Bumblebee (10) Rodimus (11) Omega Supreme (12) Superion (13) Alpha Bravo (14) Powerglide (15) Devastator (22) Kup (23) Optimus Prime (24)	Shockwave (8) Monstructor (25) Menasor (26)	Starscream (4) Rattrap (5) Flatline (6) Waspinator (16) Sky-Byte (17) Swindle (18) Dirge (19) Blurr (20) Scoop (21)

Quotes

"So, ah, should I call you 'glorious leader'? Ha ha."
"Please, just Lord Starscream."
"Uh huh."

—Wheeljack and Starscream

"Slingshot. We used to listen to Nebulon rock operas together. They were terrible. He had terrible taste in music."

—Wheeljack laments

"The future you saw... was it good?"
"I... I don't know. I can't tell anymore. I can't tell what's good or bad... and I don't know what's gonna happen."
"Heh. Pal. You just described bein' alive."

—Wheeljack and Ironhide

"There's a war coming, and you can trust me on exactly one thing: I won't let Cybertron fall again."

—Starscream

Notes

Continuity notes

• Wheeljack mentions his friendship with Ferak, an old relationship mentioned just once before, in Ferak's profile in the Last Stand of the Wreckers hardcover. However, see "Errors", below.
• Wheeljack also recalls the time he built a new body for Orion Pax, as seen in Spotlight: Orion Pax.
• He also brings up a "trip to Las Vegas", which happened in The Transformers: Infestation. He describes the experience as "kinda fuzzy", likely a reference to the story being a crossover with another property, or a gag about Wheeljack's non-presence in the story, as he essentially only ever appears on-panel during it in order to do something science-y, then disappears again. Of course, it could also be a reference to the kind of weekends that the city is well known for providing.
• Wheeljack appeared to die back in issue #14. He was revealed to have survived in issue #20.
• This story takes place a few weeks after the conclusion of the Windblade mini-series; nobody really wants to tell Wheeljack exactly what went down during it, for obvious reasons (seriously, Chromia might want to check her 'tude).
• The Decepticon slums outside Metroplex were seen in the previously-released but chronologically-later Punishment mini-series.
• Omega Supreme has been injured and offline since issue #11; Superion has been out of action since issue #15.
• Slingshot is noted to have a fondness for Nebulon rock operas; Nebulos, homeworld of the Transformers' Headmaster, Targetmaster and Powermaster in other fiction, hasn't appeared in IDW continuity since its early days, when it was ravaged in an attack by Thunderwing during Stormbringer.
• Powerglide was formerly a member of the Lost Light crew; here we see he left the ship to remain on Cybertron after "Dark Cybertron".
• Dirge turns up in Maccadam's, having last been seen back in issue #20. It's nice to see he's gettin' along okay!
• Crystal City was consumed by a black hole in Dark Cybertron Finale.
• The precise specifics of how Shockwave's actions altered the future Ironhide saw aren't gone into on-panel, but we as an audience know that the Decepticon's plan resulted in the destruction of Gorlam Prime, which was the setting for Ironhide's future vision, rendering it impossible.
• Scoop is revealed to be with the Decepticons on Earth; he was last seen among their number on Cybertron in a flashback in issue #31.
• The images Starscream shows Wheeljack are of the Autobots' attack on the EDC's Bikini Atoll base last issue.
• Monstructor is revealed to still be at large; his components were last seen doing battle with the female Autobots during Dark Cybertron Finale.
• Starscream recalls Swindle's creation of Menasor from the first arc of the 2009-2011 ongoing series. The Stunticons haven't combined again since that first story.

Transformers references

• The build-up to Combiner Wars begins here; new Superion component Alpha Bravo, whose toy was debuted at San Diego Comic Con 2014, is introduced, and Powerglide, whose new Generations toy becomes Superion's gun, puts in an appearance.
• Powerglide's got his original Generation 1 cartoon speech patterns, dropping his Jackie Gleason-inspired catchphrase, "Awaaaaay we go!"

Real-life references

• The title of this issue seems to be a reference to Futurama; upon emerging from stasis to find that the world has changed, like Wheeljack does in this issue, series protagonist Philip J. Fry is greeted by a cryogenic scientist who proclaims "WELCOME TO THE WOOOORLD OF TOMORROOOW!"

Errors

• Ferak is misspelled "Ferax".
• On page three, as the water in Wheeljack's tube drains away, it drains upward.
• In the final panel of page 14, Windblade is misspelled "Windblae".
• Menasor appears in his new Combiner Wars design, which he logically shouldn't have yet.

Covers (4)

• Regular cover: Wheeljack's hand emerges as Ironhide, Blurr, Starscream and Windblade look on, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover: Starscream and Rattrap perch on the fallen Superion, by Casey Coller and Priscilla Tramontano
• 30th Anniversary cover: Ironfist declares "Bang", as seen during his showdown with Overlord in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5, by Sarah Stone; the third in September's series of 30th Anniversary covers commemorating moments from IDW history.
• Giant Robot Comics exclusive cover: Optimus Prime, Arcee, Ironhide, Prowl, Jazz and Sideswipe on Angus L. Macdonald Bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove. Exclusive to Giant Robot Comics (who are based in Halifax); a companion piece to their exclusive cover to Regeneration One #0 from the previous September.

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