Births, Deaths, and Interventions

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #34
"Births, Deaths, and Interventions"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 29, 2014
Cover date	October 2014
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Atilio Rojo
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)

In the present day, an attempt by a small group of Autobots to save the life of a wounded Transformer goes horribly wrong, while in the past, the exiled Megatron comes under mental assault from Senate agents.

Synopsis

Following the disappearance and reappearance of their shuttle and some of their group, a small handful of Autobots set down on the planet Ofsted XVII to await word from Rodimus. Bluestreak admires the spectacular sunrise—a product, Mainframe explains, of atmospheric distortion caused by extreme warp gate activity in the area following a battle between the Galactic Council, the Black Block Consortia and others over a wrecked spaceship—but Trailcutter is too busy reading Towards Peace to pay attention. Presently, a call from the fourth member of their group, First Aid, summons them to a nearby lecture theater, ruined in the battle, where the medic has discovered a gravely wounded Transformer of indeterminate faction. As First Aid goes to unload medical equipment carried by Trailcutter, Bluestreak and Mainframe study the wounded 'bot and try to figure out what he turns into.

Millions of years ago, the Senate's chief psychopathologist Froid arrives on the desolate mining world of Messatine. He is met by facility head Rolt, who provides him with a datapad on one of the mine's hardest workers: Megatron. Studying the document briefly, Froid "diagnoses" Megatron with a severe mental illness, and introduces Rolt to his colleague, who will help enact a "cure"... Trepan.

First Aid returns to find that Bluestreak and Mainframe have moved the injured 'bot, drastically reducing his chances of survival. To ensure his patient lives, First Aid requests a donation of two fluid drams of active energon from each of the Autobots, but Mainframe is a little unsure, having heard that such a donation risks inducing spark failure. While First Aid tries to talk him around, Bluestreak gets a nasty surprise when he finds the wounded robot's face on the foor—little do the group realise, their patient is Decepticon Justice Division member Vos!

In the mines of Messatine, Megatron is hard at work on his latest piece of writing when a cough from his roomate demands his attention. Terminus—Megatron's friend, proofreader, and the 'bot who somehow smuggles his works back to Cybertron—has been dismembered in a mining accident, and will die if he is not repaired. Sadly, the Functionist council has deemed him replaceable, and Megatron now keeps him alive with donations of his own energon. Terminus tries to convince Megatron that, while his words are important, it may become necessary for him to take violent physical action to ensure his message is heard; sensing a change in his friend's tone, Megatron asks him what has happened to alter his viewpoint, and Terminus reveals that he has been visited by Senate agents who suspect that Megatron is still writing. Megatron proposes that he stop, just for a while, but Terminus insists that he redouble his efforts, as his writings are more necessary than ever. Megatron is prepared to argue, but suddenly, a taser strikes him, knocking him out.

The weakened Vos chants repeatedly in Old Cybertronian, prompting Mainframe to try using some of the theater's translation equipment to decipher his words. Bluestreak continues to examine Vos's detached face, accidentally releasing the multiple stabbing spikes hidden within it—a ghastly revelation that convinces Mainframe to opt out of donating his energon. Bluestreak also refuses, and First Aid orders the two out of the room, but Trailcutter is still willing, even when First Aid gives him the option to bow out by admitting that he knew from the start that Vos was a Decepticon. First Aid begins transferring some of his own energon first, but as he does so, Trailcutter reads off the translated version of Vos's words: "Find. Kill. Cleanse." Recognizing the motto of the Decepticon Justice Division, the horrified First Aid rips the transfer tube out of his chest, refusing to save the life of such a prolific murderer, even at the cost of his own peace of mind. Trailcutter insists on going through with the procedure and plugs the tube into himself, but the re-energized Vos then attacks. Trailcutter saves himself by blasting Vos with his leg guns, then throws his "panic bubble" forcefield around himself while First Aid reluctantly runs off to get Bluestreak and Mainframe's help. Unfortunately, Trailcutter soon discovers he has made a horrible mistake, as part of the pile of wreckage inside his bubble begins to transform: he has locked himself inside his own field with a second DJD member, who now drains energy from his forcefield in order to repair himself: Kaon!

Megatron awakens on Trepan's operating table, helpless to resist as the mnemosurgeon inserts his finger needle into his brain and prepares to delete his anarchic thoughts. Before he has done little more than scratch the surface of Megatron's mind, however, a call from Froid comes in instructing him to stop: Froid's contemporary Rung, an opponent of personality adjustment except in the most extreme cases, has arrived on Messatine. Rung has actually come to inform Froid that the Senate has amended the requirements for personality adjustment, with two 'bots now required to sign off on the procedure, but before he can even discover who the patient in question is to determine whether or not he will be the second signee, a sudden energy surge from within the mine sets off alarms throughout the facility. So severe is the surge that planetary evacuation is commenced...

First Aid, Mainframe and Bluestreak return to a grisly scene: Kaon has torn Trailcutter limb from limb, and is holding his brain module in his hands. First Aid tries to explain that the war has been formally ended by Megatron to the unconvinced DJDer, begging him to study Trailcutter's datapad and see the speech for himself. Kaon agrees, but first crushes Trailcutter's brain against the forcefield; he then picks up the datapad, and radios Helex to beam him and Vos out.

Freed from Trepan's clutches, Megatron fights against the throng of evacuees to get back to his chamber and save Terminus. Shoving his way past a guard, he finds their room empty, and nobody can tell him what has become of Terminus. Grabbing up as many of his datapads as he can carry, he runs...

...while deep in the deserted mine, the mysterious energy surge peaks, erupts... and Brainstorm materializes, briefcase in hand. Looking around, he wonders to himself... "Where to start?"

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Mainframe (1) Bluestreak (2) Trailcutter (3) First Aid (4)	Vos (9) Kaon (11) Brainstorm (13)	Froid (5) Rolt (6) Megatron (7) Trepan (8) Terminus (10) Rung (12)

Quotes

""Postwar Edition"? Don't tell me—there's a new chapter at the end: "Ignore everything I just said.""

—Bluestreak on Towards Peace

"Maladies of the mind are easily hidden. We don't want to see them. They remind us of our fragility."

—Froid

"You have two weapons at your disposal: your brain and your fists. You must be prepared to use both."

—Terminus

"Perhaps I should stop writing—just for a while."
"On the contrary—write more. Write quickly. Write while you still can. Pin your thoughts to the page like—like wraith-flies, so that others may study the patterns on their wings. The people are hungry, Megatron. You need to keep feeding them."

—Megatron and Terminus

"It's Old Cybertronian—and it sounds like a prayer."
"Do you speak...?"
"No. Unless swearwords count, in which case I'm a <Old Cybertronian> expert."

—Bluestreak and Trailcutter

"Protest is a form of sickness, Megatron. But don't worry... I'm here to cure you."

—Trepan

Notes

Continuity notes

• Mainframe explains that a battle has recently occurred above Ofsted XVII between the Galactic Council (an organization introduced in the 2012 More than Meets the Eye annual and oft-mentioned since) and the Black Block Consortia (another non-Cybertronian organization mentioned in the same breath as the council in issue #24). The "buncha mechs" they battled is obviously the DJD, and the derelict ship the wrecked duplicate Lost Light.
• It's also noted that a large number of warp gates were deployed during that conflict, providing an explanation for Nautica's observation last issue that local space had been worn down by warp gate activity.
• Bluestreak alludes to what happened to the other new additions to the Lost Light crew when the original crew and shuttles began disappearing—they were just left floating in space!
• The Autobots don't recognize Vos because, as was previously established in issue #29, he's a new Vos, who has since replaced the one seen in the footage of the DJD played at Megatron's trial.
• Froid here receives his first pictorial appearance, after being mentioned in issue #13's "Signal to Noise" and issue #28.
• Rolt mentions a soon-to-be-automated mining outpost by the name "Croteus 12", clearly referring to Mining Outpost C-12, the mine Megatron works in by the time of Megatron Origin and the automation of which triggers his rebellion.
• Rolt's datapad includes the numerical string "071-980", previously used in reference to Megatron in issue #29, where it appeared on the side of his fuel cannister. It's not clear what this code represents; we know from "Chaos Theory" that Megatron has no known batch code.
• Trepan previously appeared in issues #10 and #14.
• This issue introduces us to Terminus, who was mentioned before in issue #28 as the 'bot Megatron originally dedicated Towards Peace to.
• Vos chants "Primus spare my Spark" as he clings to life; we heard Flywheels utter the same prayer back in issue #8.
• Trailcutter gets to use the leg-guns he had installed way back in issue #12.
• Trailcutter's "panic bubble" was introduced in issue #29.
• Issue #28 showed us that Megatron had a pronounced fear of mnemosurgery, and with Trepan's aborted operation seen here, we now know why.
• In issue #14, we learn that Trepan was captured by Overlord during the early (Pre-Optimus Prime) stages of the war and forced to teach Overlord about mnemosurgery...until Megatron had Trepan killed. In this issue, we learn that Trepan tried to perform mnemosurgery on Megatron to prevent him from spreading his ideas before the war. Trepan's failure here lead to his death.

Transformers references

• On the cover, Ultra Magnus references "sub-section 11 (3) of the Autobot Code", another of James Roberts's regular references to the number.
• Megatron's writings refer to Cybertron leaving orbit as an impossibility, but that's exactly what happened due to the war in the Marvel Comics.
• When Kaon crushes Trailcutter's brain module, the action is accompanied by a "KRIK" sound effect—the same sound effect that accompanied Death's Head's destruction of Shockwave's brain module in issue #147 of the original Marvel UK series.

Real-life references

• The lecture theater in which the Autobots find Vos is named the "Tamizdat" lecture theater. A derivation of "Samizdat"—a Russian loanword referring to the spread of censored publications previously used to describe Megatron's writings in issue #9—"Tamizdat" specifically refers to such literature published abroad, via smuggled manuscripts. This issue shows us that this is how Megatron's writings reached Cybertron from Messatine, via Terminus; just another example of the Russian political parallels James Roberts has often evoked in describing the growth of the Decepticon movement.

Crew manifest

• Trailcutter is apparently killed by Kaon.

Soundtrack

• The Devil, You + Me by The Notwist
• Don't You Forget by Micah P Hinson
• Knowing The Ropes by Michael Nyman

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: Ultra Magnus, warning the reader that he's not actually in the comic and that by purchasing the issue with this cover they're complicit in an act of false advertising, by Brendan Cahill
• Subscription cover: Megatron at his writing desk, the shadow of his future self looming large over him, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• 30th Anniversary cover: The third in October's series of three 30th Anniversary covers by Ken Christiansen, which combines with the covers to Primacy #3 and Robots in Disguise #34 to form an image depicting the major eras of the Generation 1 cartoon. This cover encapsulates the events of the post-movie era.

• 
• 
• 

Advertisements

• More than Meets the Eye #35
• Robots in Disguise #34
• Primacy #3
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #4
• IDW Transformers graphic novel library
• IDW Angry Birds hardcover (back cover)

External links

• Preview