The Dying of the Light Part 5: Rage, Rage

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #54 »
"The Dying of the Light
Part 5: Rage, Rage"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published June 22, 2016
Cover date June 2016
Written by James Roberts
Pencils by Alex Milne
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long and Christa Miesner
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2016)

Through the sacrifice of one of their comrades, the Autobots are given the means to fight back... and Megatron takes up arms once more.

Synopsis

On the blasted ground outside the Necrobot's fortress, the Autobots tear into the Decepticon Justice Division and their allies with fire and fervor. As Swerve and Rewind man laser turrets built into the shoulders of Ultra Magnus's new "Maximus Ambus" armor, Rewind tries to tell Magnus of the recent discovery he made about his brother, but the battle has all of Magnus's attention. Cyclonus swoops in low to bear down on Overlord, but the Decepticon sadist punches him into the ground. Chromedome blasts Overlord in the face to draw his attention away, and the grinning monster proceeds to describe in grisly detail how he dismembered the original Rewind before Chromedome blew up the cell containing them both. Chromedome screams a scream of passion and rage, and hurls a punch at Overlord... a punch of such freakish strength that it lifts Overlord off the ground and sends him flying backward! As Nickel proceeds to shoot Chromedome in the arm with Vos's rifle mode, Deathsaurus observes that the Autobots are fighting with unprecedented strength. Tarn assures him it is merely a last-gasp effort, and is more interested in the absence of Megatron, but Deathsaurus is certain that something has happened to the Autobots to give them this boost...

Minutes earlier, as the Autobots engage in their group hug inside the fortress, an off-hand remark by Ratchet about the tightness of Tailgate's super-strength hug causes Velocity to have a brainwave. Reasoning that Tailgate's recent spark spasm released an energy wave that transformed him and, temporarily, those Transformers nearest to him, into super-strong Outliers, it should theoretically be possible to induce such a spasm in someone else, thereby duplicating the effect on those assembled. The prospect of deliberately causing someone to have a nervous breakdown seems untenable, but Skids volunteers for the job and asks Chromedome to finally unlock his forgotten traumatic memories in order to accomplish it. Chromedome is unwilling to use his mnemosurgery needles, but as Tarn begins blaring "The Empyrean Suite" in advance of the DJD's attack, and the memories associated with the music begin to tickle the back of Skids's consciousness, Chromedome agrees to take another tactic: nothing more than a few awful, well-chosen words. Every memory from his time in Grindcore including the horrific, smelting death of Quark comes rushing back to Skids, and his spark erupts with light.

Powered up into Outliers by Skids's sacrifice, the Autobots tear their way through their enemies, with Rodimus even pulling off his old "Flame Out" maneuver to incinerate a dogpile of Decepticons. Unfortunately, no sooner has he sizzled their circuits that he collapses to his knees, suddenly weakened, as the power-up begins to wear off!

Inside the fortress, Ratchet tends to Skids, who has been so badly traumatized by the experience that his spark has shrunk away to almost nothing. Ratchet attempts to stabilize him so that he can join the fight and leave the job of tending Skids to Megatron, but the ex-Decepticon is having some health problems of his own, suffering from cramps caused by Fool's Energon. Ratchet insinuates that they are actually the product of fear and anxiety, but Megatron refutes the allegation, and explains to the medic that he is refusing to fight not because he fears the DJD, but because he fears what he himself will become if he straps a weapon to his arm once more. As far as Megatron is concerned, if he allows himself to commit violence again, he will be unable to stop himself from committing more and more, endlessly. This forces Ratchet into a confession: Fool's Energon is a placebo. It has never sapped Megatron's strength; Megatron only believed that it did, and every time he fought someone since he began taking it, he was—however subconsciously—acting with self-imposed restraint. Just then, Megatron looks at the monitor displaying the fight outside, and sees Ravage being torn in half by Tarn. Ratchet is distracted when Skids wakes up and falls off the med-slab, desperate to find Brainstorm and tell him what became of Quark, and when the medic looks up again, Megatron is gone...

File:Megatron's Return.jpg
Such heroic nonsense.

Outside, the upgrade process has well and truly worn off, as Brainstorm find when his fist crumples against Lugnut's armor. He turns to the Necrobot's holographic statue of Skids to offer his thanks for the temporary advantage, only to find that the statue has been switched off... because Skids's body now lies lifeless on the floor of the fortress med-bay, his spark extinguished. The weakened Autobots seem certain to join him in death, surrounding by the enemy on all sides—until salvation is heralded by the thunderous retort of a fusion cannon. With his newly-built weapon now attached, Megatron strides onto the battlefield, silently obliterating all opposition until he has reached his comrades. Gathering up the two pieces of the still-living Ravage, Megatron orders them back to the fortress to get his feline friend help, while he stands against the Decepticon horde. Deathsaurus is reluctant to follow Tarn's orders to send all their troops in, fearing for the lives of his men, but a well-placed shot from Nickel and Vos soon disables Megatron's cannon and leaves him open to attack. As the other Autobots watch through the monitor inside the fortress, Tarn and Overlord stand over the unarmed Megatron, and level their weapons. Tarn asks Megatron if it was worth it; the once and former Decepticon leader remains silent as he looks up at his would-be executioners, but shock crosses his features... just as three shots ring out...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"The mnemosurgeon! I was hoping we'd meet again—I wanted to tell you something. I'm afraid your skinny little friend died before the missiles hit. I managed to pull off three of his limbs before the pain really drove him over the edge. The noises he made...! And he kept calling your name! "Domey! Domey! Save me!" I had to put his head in my mouth just to shut him up. Just popped it in and—chomp!—bit down 'til he stopped twitching."

—Overlord


"Ask me what I used to do for a living!"
"What?"
"Ask me what I used to do for a living!"
"What?"
"Same thing as I do now, dirtwad—waste disposal!"

—Tailgate tries some action hero banter, but a Decepticon doesn't play along


"You're not a coward, Megatron—or a pacifist, for that matter. At least not in the way I understand the word."
"I'm not afraid of the DJD. I am, however, afraid of rediscovering what I'm capable of. I'm afraid that if I got out there and fight—really fight—I won't be able to stop. Ever. Because I won't want to. Every day is a battle, Ratchet. Every hour. Every second. A battle between me and the real me—and I wish I knew which was which."
"So either way, it's about you. Quelle suprise."
"It's not about me—it's about everyone else."
"Riiiiight."
"If I step outside, that's just the beginning—the first of a thousand battlefields. If I don't keep myself in check, the war could reignite—and if it did, it would make what's gone before seem trivial by comparison. I'd surrender myself completely to my darker impulses—because I'd have to. If I were to avoid another day like this one—another day of being torn in two—I'd have to. I don't give a damn if Fool's Energon has sapped my strength or dulled my mind—I would not be stopped."

—Ratchet and Megatron


"Sleep tight, soldier."

—Ratchet bids farewell to Skids

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Overlord reveals what happened to the original Rewind, after they were trapped in the slow cell together in issue #15. Given the time dilation involved in the cell's function, either he was lying to hurt Chromedome or Overlord works disturbingly fast.
  • Skids recalls the two previous instances in which Chromedome stopped him from remembering his lost memories, in issue #8 and #49. As Tarn blares The Empyrean Suite, Skids starts to feel hot, as memories of the smelting chamber seen in issue #49 start to creep in.
  • If you're wondering why Transformers aren't turning into Outliers as a result of traumatic experiences all the time, recall that it's only the unique mixture of quantum energy that the crew of the Lost Light have been exposed to in their travels that has mutated their sparks to the point that they are capable of this stress-induced evolution, as explained in issue #49.
  • Rodimus uses his "Flame Out" ability for the very first time since it was introduced all the way back in Maximum Dinobots #3. He even remarks on how long it's been since he last did it.
  • Fool's Energon is revealed to be harmless but disgusting; its foul taste was previously evidenced when Trailcutter snuck some in issue #29. Ratchet explains they couldn't give Megatron a real sedative because of the damaged state of his internal organs, caused by Shockwave, which we learned about in issue #28.
  • Ratchet recalls previous instances in which Megatron restrained his strength: fighting Whirl in issue #28, punching Perceptor in issue #38, and lashing out at Tailgate in issue #47.
  • As Skids crawls along the floor after falling off the med-slab, he calls himself "scum" for what he unknowingly helped Tarn do in Grindcore. This hearkens aaaaaall the way back to his first appearance in the book in issue #2, in which, while struggling to remember anything about himself, the last vestiges of this memory caused the amnesiac Skids to briefly think his name was "Scum."

Transformers references

  • When Rewind attempts to tell Magnus about what happened to Dominus last issue, Ultra Magnus paraphrases his most famous line from The Transformers: The Movie: "I can't deal with that now."
  • In a cute touch, Autobot Megatron's new fusion cannon fires orange beams, just like all Autobot weaponry in the Generation 1 cartoon, rather than Decepticon purple. Having been built by Brainstorm, it brings to mind his talk of weapons that could differentiate between Autobot and Decepticon by firing different coloured lasers back in issue #28, but the cartoon color-coding has actually always been in effect for pretty much all weaponry throughout "season two."
  • Ravage getting torn into pieces during a climactic battle? That's happened before.

Real-life references

Errors

  • In the Story So Far recap, Minimus Ambus is said to be the alter ego of Fortress Maximus. Sounds like someone at IDW had Titans Return on the brain when writing that!
  • On page five, panel 1, Ratchet tells Tailgate not to squeeze so tightly as they hug—but his speech bubble's been stuck right on top of Tailgate, making him almost unnoticeable in the panel.
  • On the same page, Ratchet says Tailgate was "taken the brink," rather than "taken to the brink."

Other trivia

  • Vos's sole speech bubble in this issue, spoken when Tarn forgets to credit him along with Nickel for blasting Chromedome, translates to "Bears love sushi." Eh??

Soundtrack

For all of "The Dying of the Light":

For this issue alone:

Covers (3)

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