No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #50 »
"No Guns, No Swords,
No Briefcases"
Publisher IDW Publishing
Published in More than Meets the Eye #50
First published February 24, 2016 (digital, parts of Europe and Asia)
March 9, 2016 (rest of world)
Cover date February 2016
Written by James Roberts
Art by Brendan Cahill
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2016)

A hole in time gives the Lost Light crew a chance to honor the departed.

Synopsis

Several years ago, Duobots Shock and Ore wander the darkened halls of the Lost Light before its launch, sent to plant a tracer by Prowl. Shock, however, is convinced that the ship is actually the Unitrex-1, a vessel they were assigned to five million years prior, but which disappeared before its maiden voyage. While Ore takes a call from Prowl, directing them to move Overlord on board, Shock checks the underside of the counter in the ship's canteen, and finds a message he scratched into it all those millions of years ago. Ore is not terribly interested, though, and urges him to hurry up so they can complete their mission. Unseen by either, however, the discolored figure of Skids watches them...

Soon after the ship's launch, at the secret opening of the bar now known as "Swerve's", Pipes has a drink with Drift, toasting absent friends, and lamenting his lack of luck in love. Drift suggests introducing him to Tailgate... who is right next to the pair, invisibly listening in.

Not long after joining the crew, First Aid and Ambulon get a drink in "Swerve's" and take in all the new faces. When First Aid makes a joke about Ambulon's alternate mode—the leg of an experimental combiner—the senior medic requests that he keep information about his second shape to himself, worried about the jokes that will start flying if the rest of the crew finds out. Unfortunately, the ever-curious Swerve chooses that moment to bonk Ambulon on the back of the head, reflexively triggering his transformation into a giant leg. And, across the bar, Velocity and the med-bay's Diagnostic Drone observe.

After hours in "Sweve's", Rewind finishes a phone call with Chromedome and sets up for the second of the storytelling sessions he hopes will reactivate the comatose Rung's brain—so that he can finally ask him about Dominus Ambus. As he turns to write on his "whiteboard," the invisible Chromedome appears behind him and reaches out to touch him, but is stopped by a second, equally invisible Rung, who tells him it is "time to go."

As Overlord cuts a swathe of carnage across the ship, Perceptor comes running into "Swerve's" with the badly-injured body of Tripodeca. The bar has been repurposed as a triage center as the med-bay is inaccessible, and Hoist goes to work on the wounded little 'bot... as a second Perceptor silently takes in the scene.

When Swerve's bar is in ruins after the attack by Tyrest's Legislators, a group of crew members arrive to help the tiny metallurgist clear up if he promises to re-open. As they shift debris, Swerve tells them to be on the lookout for an intact Legislator that he can reprogram as a bouncer... and that very Legislator, Ten, watches as Jackpot pulls his body out of the rubble.

As the Lost Light prepares to leave Cybertron after its return to the planet, Crosscut finishes giving the new crewmembers a tour of the vessel, ending the journey in "Swerve's," which he describes as being pretty much the most important place on the ship, where everyone ends up sooner or later. As Trailcutter has some fun with his magnawheels and everyone laughs... invisible doubles of more than a dozen crewmembers watch the scene and smile. Then, the bar shifts around them, and they are back in the present time, as Perceptor and Minimus Ambus look on. Minimus has been busy and isn't clear on what has been going on; Perceptor explains that he recently discovered that the activation of Brainstorm's time case inadvertently opened a fissure in space-time in "Swerve's", which allows the crewmembers of today to look through a "window" into the past, undetected. Minimus remarks that everyone's been very well behaved, and Perceptor and Megatron explain that that is because everyone has been taking the chance to revisit special moments in the past to see those who are no longer among them one last time. Rodimus urges Minimus to take a look himself if he wants to, as the fissure will soon close up, but Perceptor corrects him: the fissure is contracting, but some day in the future, it will widen enough to be looked through again. Rodimus starts to ask when that might be, but stops, preferring instead to be surprised...

...all the while unaware that, from that unknown point in the future, Getaway is already back looking through the fissure at them, paying silent tribute to the dead...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"So, does Pipes of Helex have a type?"
"Triple Changers. Same height as me, ideally. Aquatic alt-mode, minimal kibble, big chest plate..."
"I'm thinking more personality, character, temperament..."
"Yeah, they're all good too."

—Pipes and Drift


"For what it's worth, I think you're a living legend."
(...)
"Wait. That looked better written down."

—Swerve makes a crack about Ambulon's alternate mode


"So forget the bridge, forget the oil reservoir and forget the rec deck. This is where everything happens. If you're looking for someone, they're bound to turn up here eventually. Heck, some people are here all the time. Some people come here when they feel happy. Others come here when they feel sad. But most people? Most people come here when they feel both."

—Crosscut sings the praises of "Swerve's"


"Every time Rodimus attempts to use layman's terms, a scientist dies of embarrassment."

—Perceptor

Notes

Continuity notes

  • The first sequence of this issue occurs concurrently with issue #1, showing us the other end of the phone conversation Prowl had with unseen parties in that issue, who we learned in issue #3 were the Duobots.
  • The Duobots reference the disappearance of the Lost Light five million years ago, which took place when the present-day crew travelled back in time and caused it to quantum jump off into the depths of space, unmanned, in issue #38. In both that issue and issue #31, we saw that the ship's original name was the "U1"; Shock reveals that this stands for "Unitrex-1," after the city of Unitrex where it was built, as seen in #38.
  • Reference is also made to the Duobots being Skids's handlers, which was revealed in issue #20. Shock hopes that Skids wants to "meet [them] on Hedonia," which sounds like it's just wishful thinking, but the Duobots were always half-planning to get off the ship when it reached Hedonia (circa issue #13) anyway, as Ore mentioned in the 2012 Annual.
  • Shock's tag—"You flare, you flicker, you fade"—was previously heard being quoted by him in issue #3.
  • Ore leaves a glass on the bar before the Duobots leave, which will be seen still sitting there when Swerve and Skids find the room in issue #3.
  • The issue's second sequence takes place between issues #3 and #4.
  • Pipes mentions his friendship with Hubcap, which we learned about in issue #15, and notes that he stayed on Debris, setting up the character's role in Sins of the Wreckers. He also comments on the absence of Riptide, the reasons for which we learned in issue #31, and the recent deaths of the Duobots, whom he says he had only just met; we learned in the 2012 Annual that Pipes and the Duobots met on the Lost Light launchpad.
  • While describing his "type" (quoted above), Pipes also adds that if Drift turned into a boat, he'd probably have a "massive crush" on him—a blackly comedic nod to Pipes's eventual fate in issue #15.
  • The "type" also implies that Riptide, a boat-changer, was someone Pipes wanted to more than just friends with.
  • Sequence number three falls between issue #5 (because Ambulon and First Aid are now on board), but before issue #9 (because Red Alert is still up and about). Specifically, Red is seen with datapad in hand, examining some spilled engex, indicating that this was the first time he discovered the bar, before he would immediately go on to rat Swerve out to Ultra Magnus, as seen in issue #6.
  • Crosscut is seen drinking with Smokescreen in something of a retcon; when the character was introduced to the IDWverse in "Dark Cybertron" to coincide with the release of his Thrilling 30 toy he was established as a previously unseen member of the Lost Light's crew, making this his first chronological appearance. Amusingly, this means that by the events of "The Dead Are Not Enough" he's been drinking in Swerve's for years and he still doesn't know who the bartender is.
  • Swerve bonks Ambulon on the head to trigger his transformation, the same way he tried to do to Rung in issue #22. He's always been "alt mode curious," as First Aid puts it; we first saw him display the trait in issue #2, when he tried to get Tailgate to show him his alt mode.
  • The fourth sequence also falls before issue #9, and shows Rewind prepping for his second story session, which we only saw in flashback in issue #11. Turns out Red Alert was supposed to be part of that session, but... well, we know what happened there.
  • "I'm sorry things didn't work out," says Chromedome to the past version of Rewind. These were the last words Rewind said to him, in issue #15 (though he didn't hear them).
  • Sequence five is set concurrently with issue #15, as Overlord rampages on the ship.
  • This sequence offers us another look at Tripodeca, a popular crew member who was killed by Overlord off-panel and whose funeral we saw in issue #16. His alternate mode is revealed to have been a tripod.
  • Other lesser-spotted 'bots seen in this sequence include Skater, Flex, and Borer, the trio who saved the day (off-panel again!) in issue #42.
  • Sequence The Sixth falls between the end of the main strip from issue #21, but before the issue's back-up prose story. It features the unexpected reappearance of Doubletap, a 'bot who only previously appeared to be shot by Fortress Maximus in issue #6.
  • Jackpot is the one who finds Ten. Back in issue #40, Ten had drawn Jackpot into his mural of favourite crew members and we never knew why until now!
  • The seventh and final flashback sequence of the issue takes place after new crew members have signed up to the Lost Light, but before the ship has left Cybertron (Sandstorm is present, and he would remain on Cybertron after the ship left, as seen in Punishment). The heavily-obscured banner hanging in Swerve's is implied to read, ahem, "F**K OFF MEGATRON," Swerve's eloquent response to the news that the ex-Decepticon is the ship's new co-captain.
  • Getaway and Atomizer are seen cozying up to Mainframe, foreshadowing the events of the main story in issue #50.
  • Mirage is unimpressed with Swerve's, alluding to his decision to later set up his own bar, as seen in issue #40.
  • Swerve is shown hanging up the picture of Ultra Magnus and Orion Pax that he took in issue #23, which we saw hanging up in issue #30. As he does so, he discusses Community with Bluestreak, indicating that he has already begun his intake of all of Earth's arts and culture.
  • Brainstorm is shown drinking at Swerve's, indicating that at this time, he has not yet begun poisoning the bar's engex supply, as we learned in issue #35. He's got his faceplate off, but that's no big thing; we know from issue #40 that the Decepticon symbol on its reverse can be electronically concealed.
  • In that same sequence, Brainstorm is looking over at Perceptor as he talks about Quark. Brainstorm was revealed to have a crush on Quark in Predestination: An Expert's Guide.
  • Trailcutter shows off his magnawheels, seen before in his self-titled Spotlight. One of the 'bots amused by his antics is Fervor, who makes his first appearance chronologically here, having been introduced as a member of the Lost Light's crew in issue #48.
  • The "present day" part of this issue falls after the Holiday Special story, but, obviously enough, before the main story of this issue. The "Christmas lights" from the holiday story are still hanging up in Swerve's, and Magnus remarks that his armor "still smells of Scraplets" after it was briefly "worn" by the little buggers in that story.
  • Back in Slaughterhouse Ravage tells Nautica never to touch him again after she pets him, but in the final panel she can be seen passing him an Energon cookie under the table, so it looks like they might be getting along a little better now.

Transformers references

  • Ambulon's got a Combiner Wars-style connector peg in leg mode.
  • Sitting on the counter of "Swerve's" during Overlord's attack is a toaster with an Autobot symbol on it. Believe it or not, this is a character—it's Toaster, Blaster's "brother," a character mentioned as a gag in a letter's page in Marvel UK comic, which went on to be conflated with artist Andrew Wildman's fondness for occasionally slipping a toaster into the background of his Transformers work. James Roberts joked years ago in a Q&A on the IDW Forums that Toaster was on the ship. Who's joking now?

Errors

  • Blades is looking awfully Combiner Wars-ish in his appearances in this story, complete with missile racks on his forearms, which isn't how he look in his few sparse appearances in More than Meets the Eye prior to getting his new combiner overhaul. He's also got an uncharacteristic mouthplate, which is how he appeared in the Combiner Wars comic (er, after the original round of art errors were fixed), which seemed to be the product of the Alpha Bravo toy being used for reference instead of Blades's own.
  • Drift gives Pipes's full name as "Pipes of Helex," but we learned in issue #44 that it's supposed to be "Pipes of Pescus Hex."
  • Joyride is shown being tended to by Hoist during Overlord's rampage, but Joyride wasn't part of the crew at this stage: he only joined up after the ship returned to Cybertron for "Dark Cybertron". With all these 'bots to keep track of, there was bound to be at least one slip-up!
  • Hoist is prominently sporting a very large Rodimus Star during the fifth sequence. This isn't outwardly an error, but kinda feels like a mix-up; it seems like it's supposed to be a callback to Spotlights Trailcutter and Hoist, but in those, it was Trailcutter who was desperate to earn a Rodimus Star, and who would logically be the one to wear it openly and proudly like Hoist is doing here (since nobody else ever does that), while Hoist received a gigantic Rodimus crest that looks different to the star.
  • Gears is drawn based on his Thrilling 30 toy, a new-head retool of the IDW-inspired Swerve figure, rather than his regular More than Meets the Eye design, which is similar to but distinct from Swerve's.
  • Brainstorm has his briefcase in the bar! What's Rule #3, Brainstorm?

Other notes

  • "No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases" are, of course, the "three laws" of Swerve's, as introduced in issue #18.
  • We learn the names of Ambulon's other combining partners: Kicker, Swing, Abdominus and Arm-Or. Collectively, they're the Combicons. These may be the best combiner member names ever.
  • While discussing Community, Bluestreak remarks that "season 2 is when most series hit their stride," but then mutters "'course that's not a universal rule..."—a wry comment on the response to the last year of More than Meets the Eye, which has been the subject of harsher criticism than any other period in the book's history.
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