Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
Template:Comicnav Ultra Magnus firmly believes in his duties. But how will he deal with violating one to achieve another?
Synopsis
Ultra Magnus apprehends the Decepticon criminal Swindle, blowing away Karzai Lorcha's forces who are protecting him. However, Swindle decides to make Ultra Magnus a deal: his freedom in exchange for Scorponok's location. Magnus realizes that Scorponok's capture would be far more important that Swindle's, and he knows that he would easily be able to catch Swindle the next time he got himself in trouble. But is it enough for Magnus to violate the rules he enforces? Ultimately, Ultra Magnus agrees.
The information leads him to Nebulos, where he finds that Scorponok is using businessman Mo Zarak's corporation, the Zarak Consortium, as a front for his own activities. Using a holomatter disguise, Ultra Magnus penetrates into the very heart of the facility and discovers what appears to be a Nebulan whose body has been almost entirely re-engineered with Cybertronian technology; in short, a transforming Nebulan. Shortly after discovering this, his hologram is detected and destroyed, and Ultra Magnus reenters the facility via less subtle means and confronts Scorponok. In the ensuing battle, Mo Zarak, afraid that all his work will be lost, tries to stop Scorponok and is shot in the crossfire, revealing cybernetic components in his body. Ultra Magnus takes advantage of Scorponok's distraction at having seemingly killed Mo Zarak and shoots the Decepticon the face. Scorponok, distraught over the loss of his research, flees through an artificial wormhole generator.
Twenty-nine stellar cycles later, Ultra Magnus finds himself taking Swindle into custody once more. As Swindle once again tries to bargain his way out of trouble, Ultra Magnus wonders just how many compromises he'll make in order to get Scorponok.
Credits
Script: Simon Furman
Art: Robby Musso
Colors: Kieran Oats
Lettering: Neil Uyeyake
Editor: Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
- Originally published: January 17, 2007
- Continuity: IDW continuity
Major characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Errors
- None yet identified.
Items of note
- When Ultra Magnus re-arrests Swindle on the last page, he is reporting to Optimus Prime; this report is seen during Escalation #1.
- Scorponok's experiments on Nebulos seem extremely close to what the Machination are doing in Escalation and what is known from Devastation. As the Machination are revealed in Escalation to be run by the severed head of a Transformer, they could be another front organization for Scorponok.
- Magnus later reports to Optimus Prime that he has a new lead on Scorponok. Spotlight: Optimus Prime Whether he got the lead by cutting another deal with Swindle remains unknown.
- Magnus' ship shares his color scheme.
- Scorponok is in scale with his Marvel Comics incarnation, rather than the cartoon where he was city-sized.
Covers (4)
- Cover A: Magnus contacting Swindle; art by Klaus Scherwinski
- Cover B: Magnus in front of clouds; art by Robby Musso (colors by Kieran Oats)
- Cover RI-A: cover A, uncolored
- Cover RI-B: cover B, uncolored
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