Dark of the Moon issue 4

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« Transformers: Dark of the Moon #4
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 6, 2011
Written by John Barber
Pencils by Jorge Jimenez Moreno
Colors by Romulo Fajardo
Letters by Shawn Lee
Edits by Andy Schmidt
Continuity Movie continuity

The final battle begins!

Synopsis

Outside of Chicago, Sam and Epps have assembled a strike team and are heading in to rescue Carly. Epps considers giving up, but then a Decepticon protoform attacks them. The protoform is then blown up by the arriving Autobots, who reveal that they had separated from the ship just before Starscream destroyed it. The Autobots then reveal that they plan to defeat the Decepticons once and for all. Sam then asks Bumblebee if he can use the ship the protoform was piloting...

Sam and Bumblebee soon find Carly in an apartment with Dylan Gould, but they are attacked by Laserbeak. Despite this, they still manage to rescue Carly. They meet up with the other Autobots, with Optimus getting attacked by the Driller, separating him from his trailer. Sam, Carly, and Epps' team then climb a building in an attempt to destroy the Control Pillar, but they are ambushed by Starscream. After a long chase, Starscream is killed when Sam puts a boomstick in his mouth. The Driller is also killed by Optimus, who then gets shot at by Shockwave.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee, Mirage, Sideswipe, Wheeljack, and Ratchet are captured by Soundwave, who rips Mirage's head off. Before Soundwave can kill Bumblebee, Wheelie and Brains hijack a Decepticon ship and sabotage it. This distracts Soundwave long enough for Bumblebee to kill him, avenging Mirage. The ship then crashes into the water, with Wheelie and Brains swimming away from it as it sinks.

Optimus kills Shockwave and deactivates the Control Pillar before fighting Sentinel. Dylan then reactivates said Pillar, but Sam pushes him into it, electrocuting him to death. Carly convinces Megatron to side with Optimus, and the pair kill Sentinel as a pair of missiles destroys the Control Pillar, sending Cybertron back through the Space Bridge. Megatron watches the planet disappear, then turns to face Optimus. The two former brothers-in-arms stare at once another through the flames, and Megatron wonders to himself if they could ever work together to restore Cybertron, ever trust one another again. But what happens next between them goes unseen...

Sam and Carly are reunited, and the Autobots make Earth their new home. And somewhere far away, Igor wonders what has become of his master...

'Til all are one.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Notes

  • This issue also includes Convergence chapter 4 as exclusive bonus back-up material.
  • Megatron's tarp-cape varies in length. It varies between short (going down to his neck) and long (going over his shoulder, like how it's mostly seen).
  • This issue was planned to be released on June 29, but after the movie date was pushed to that same date, the adaptation was delayed to July 6.
  • Hardcore Eddie is inexplicably drawn as a muscular, Caucasian male with a red Mohawk.

Differences with movie

Several pieces of the film are trimmed out and/or pared down, but purely for page-space reasons, rather than due to the issue being based on an early script. These include:

  • We never see Sam and Epps finding the soldiers, unlike the film.
  • Lennox shows up after Starscream is dead.
  • Bumblebee doesn't save Sam when Starscream dies.
  • The Wreckers don't tear apart the Decepticon pilot.
  • Most of the scenes with the NEST soldiers during the battle are omitted.
  • Topspin speaks!

Other script-based differences include:

  • The Decepticons are shown tearing a building apart and making a fortress out of it, something that was only alluded to in the film.
  • Carly does not change her clothes while she is trapped with Dylan Gould. She still wears her white dress from last issue.
  • Shockwave speaks in the final battle.
  • Starscream attacks Sam and the others when they are in the building about to shoot at the pillars, something that never happened in the movie.
  • Simmons is still sans wheelchair.
  • The boomstick that ends Starscream's life is stabbed in his mouth instead of eye.
  • The Autobots are in chains during the execution scene, as opposed to simply being restrained.
  • Wheeljack lives, and instead Mirage has his head ripped off by Soundwave.
  • Bumblebee kills Soundwave with one shot to the chest, and the two do not have an extended battle.
  • Wheelie and Brains live as opposed to the movie where their fate was merely ambiguous.
  • Optimus' rampage is omitted. Shockwave stands with Sentinel as he triggers the pillar, and is simply stabbed in the chest as opposed to having his throat ripped out.
  • The final fight between Optimus Prime, Sentinel Prime and Megatron takes place up in a large, destroyed building. Megatron helps Optimus in killing Sentinel Prime, providing a distraction so Optimus can use Sentinel's rust cannon against him.
  • The main control pillar is destroyed by a cruise missile strike ordered by Lennox, instead of up-close blasts from Bumblebee.
  • The final confrontation between Optimus Prime and Megatron is left ambiguous. Unlike the movie, where Megatron dies before Sentinel, here, Sentinel dies first, and the last we see of Megatron is him staring down Optimus as Cybertron fades away following the bridge's deactivation. Megatron does not actively offer a truce, as in the film; he merely wonders, in his internal monologue, if such a thing would even be possible. The final scene from the comic, with Igor wondering what became of his master, is not in the movie, and furthers this ambiguity.

Errors

  • The Wreckers' are colored rather inconsistently. In some panels they have the right colors, and in others Roadbuster is blue, Topspin is red, and Leadfoot is green.
  • In the panel before Mirage dies, Soundwave has his head model. Yeah.

Covers (2)

  • Cover A: Megatron and Soundwave, by Jorge Jimenez Moreno.

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