The Autonomy Lesson (issue)
| This article is about the IDW comic. For the Legends event, see The Autonomy Lesson (Legends){{#switch:{{#sub:The Autonomy Lesson (Legends)|-1}} | != | .= | ?= | .
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|}{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}
With more and more NAILs arriving on Cybertron every day, his authority being questioned at every turn, and his tenuous control of the Decepticons slipping away, Bumblebee is forced to make a drastic choice.
Synopsis
As a ship carrying the newest group of NAILs to return to Cybertron comes in for a landing over the primordial planet, the substance of the world itself comes to life, reacting primitively to the presence of the "intruders" and lashing out at their craft. Although damaged, they are able to set down, and are greeted by Bumblebee and Metalhawk, though the conversation that follows is a terse one, as Metalhawk takes every opportunity to blame the Autobots for the current situation and foster distrust for them in the new arrivals.
Elsewhere, Tappet is caught in the act of graffiting a building by Needlenose and Horri-Bull, who are acting as enforcers of the peace following the implantation of inhibitor/deterrence chips in the Decepticons that prevent them transforming or using their special powers. Unfortunately, the pair elect to enforce the peace upside Tappet's head, but are caught before the situation escalates by Prowl, Blurr, and Sideswipe. While Blurr takes Tappet into custody, Prowl and Sideswipe return Horri-Bull and Needlenose to the Decepticons' "home", where self-appointed leader Ratbat makes demands for equal treatment that fall on deaf ears. After the Autobots depart, however, Ratbat turns on the two troublemaking Decepticons for their willingness to serve the Autobots' government, and announces that he has a plan...
While Ironhide and Wheeljack are attempting to map the full extent of the changes to Cybertron, Bumblebee and Prowl clash over the Decepticon problem, and over Prowl's opposition to holding a memorial for the believed-dead crew of the Lost Light, since most of the planet's population are hostile or indifferent towards the idea. Leaving Bumblebee to deal with matters of state, Prowl receives a visit from a mysterious co-conspirator, who is aiding him in carrying out the unpleasant tasks necessary to keep the peace.
Metalhawk arrives and arranges for Tappet's release, following which he and Bumblebee talk about the memorial. Rather than actually give an answer, Metalhawk volunteers the fact that rumours are starting to spread that Bumblebee had the Lost Light blown up, which drives the little yellow 'bot into a fury. Before he can really lay into Metalhawk, though, they are distracted by a scuffle nearby: Horri-Bull and Needlenose are at it again, beating up Zetca. Bumblebee threatens to detonate Horri-Bull's I/D chip if he doesn't back off, but Horri-Bull calls his bluff, preparing to kill Zetca... and Bumblebee doesn't blink, triggering the explosive and blowing Horri-Bull's head off. And watching nearby is Skywarp, who reports Horri-Bull's death, and despite supposedly having an I/D chip, teleports away...
Featured characters
{{#if: ||(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)}}
- Mirage (6)
- Omega Supreme (8)
- Jazz (10)
- Sky Lynx (16)
- Bumblebee (17)
- Sideswipe (20)
- Prowl (21)
- Blurr (22)
- Broadside (45)
- Sizzle (46)
- Ironhide (47)
- Wheeljack (48)|
| Autobots }}{{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent" | |
|---|---|
|
!! style="background:#ededff" | Decepticons }}{{#if:*Blue, red, and yellow triplets (1-3)
- Tappet (4)
- "Scavenger" (7)
- "Slave Cy-Kill" (9)
- Scrambling neon
DecepticonNAIL and friend (13-14) - Zetca (15)
- Metalhawk (18)
- Hipotank (19)
- Arcee (49)|
!! style="background:#fbefde;" | NAILs }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#ffeeb8;" | Others }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#d5e6d5;" | Misc }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#fedeb5;" | Misc }} |- {{#if:*Bluestreak (5)
- Mirage (6)
- Omega Supreme (8)
- Jazz (10)
- Sky Lynx (16)
- Bumblebee (17)
- Sideswipe (20)
- Prowl (21)
- Blurr (22)
- Broadside (45)
- Sizzle (46)
- Ironhide (47)
- Wheeljack (48)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
- Bluestreak (5)
- Mirage (6)
- Omega Supreme (8)
- Jazz (10)
- Sky Lynx (16)
- Bumblebee (17)
- Sideswipe (20)
- Prowl (21)
- Blurr (22)
- Broadside (45)
- Sizzle (46)
- Ironhide (47)
- Wheeljack (48) }}{{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
|- |style="background:transparent; border-right: 0px" valign="top"|
- Needlenose (11)
- Horri-Bull (12)
- Laserbeak (23)
- Buzzsaw (24)
- Blast Off (25)
- Starscream (26)
- Acid Storm (27)
- Mindwipe (28)
- Triggerhappy (29)
- Rampage (30)
- Razorclaw (31)
- Divebomb (32)
- Dead End (33)
|style="background:transparent; border-right: 0px" valign="top"|
- Spinister (34)
- Wildrider (35)
- Hook (36)
- Bonecrusher (37)
- Shockwave (38)
- Rumble (39)
- Skywarp (40)
- Ravage (41)
- Ratbat (42)
- Soundwave (43)
- Bombshell (44)
|}| | style="background:#ededff;" valign="top" |
|
- Tappet (4)
- "Scavenger" (7)
- "Slave Cy-Kill" (9)
- Scrambling neon
DecepticonNAIL and friend (13-14) - Zetca (15)
- Metalhawk (18)
- Hipotank (19)
- Arcee (49)|
| style="background:#fbefde;" valign="top" |
- Blue, red, and yellow triplets (1-3)
- Tappet (4)
- "Scavenger" (7)
- "Slave Cy-Kill" (9)
- Scrambling neon
DecepticonNAIL and friend (13-14) - Zetca (15)
- Metalhawk (18)
- Hipotank (19)
- Arcee (49) }}{{#if:|
| style="background:#ffeeb8;" valign="top" |
}}{{#if:|
| style="background:#d5e6d5;" valign="top" |
}}{{#if:|
| style="background:#fedeb5;" valign="top" |
}}|}
Quotes
"Autobot. You beg for our help and when we give it—how do you treat us?"
"Like the animals you are."
- —Ratbat and Prowl, trading verbal blows.
"Prime never had to deal with this. And he never wanted to. But this is my world and I have to defend it—even if it doesn't want us here. No... Especially if Cybertron doesn't want us here."
- —Bumblebee
Notes
Continuity notes
- Needlenose says they want to "do something" unlike Soundwave, Shockwave, and Bombshell. All three will turn out to have their own schemes going on in the background of the series.
- Bumblebee refers to the NAIL protester who killed himself back in "Liars, A to D Part 1".
- The Lost Light' "destruction" in "Liars" hangs over the story, and the series itself.
- "Heard you'd gone soft on Eart", a nod to the previous ongoing and Spotlight where Prowl learned a valuable lesson about being nice.
- Ratbat is livid at Prowl's "like the animals you are" crack. We'll learn from the later "Shockpoint"/"Soundwaves" two-parter that the Transformers 'beasts' were traditionally seen as inferior, improperly sentient robots, including by Ratbat himself. This means Prowl's crack is a lot more barbed than first thought (and Prowl's a bit of a racist).
Transformers references
- Pottering around in opening double spread is a tall, slender NAIL who Josh Perez coloured to resemble the silver, black, and green redeco of the Tonka GoBots character Cy-Kill, though Andrew Griffith hadn't deliberately drawn the NAIL to resemble the GoBots villain. And dead-center is an apparent homage to Beast Machines Scavenger.
- Several 'bots in the opening double spread each have two heads. They may be pairs of conjoined twins similarly to Rack'n'Ruin.
- In the Decepticon crowd scene, Mindwipe and Triggerhappy are seen standing next to each other—a reference to their joint desertion of Scorponok's forces in the Marvel comics.
Real world references
- One of the NAILs in the opening double spread is an homage to Boba Fett.
- The title is likely a reference to "The Anatomy Lesson", a well-known Alan Moore-written issue of Swamp Thing.
Errors
- In what is presumably a coordination error, Spinister is shown among the Decepticons on Cybertron in this issue, but More than Meets the Eye #7 would show him as being as having been part of a group of off-world Decepticons for some time. Quick, someone make up a name!
Other trivia
- As with More than Meets the Eye #1, the release of this issue was preceded by a "scavenger hunt" of sorts that began on January 23rd, with one each of a series of fourteen images spotlighting individual characters being released to twelve different websites, both Transformers fansites and popular comic book new sites. These included Bombshell at TFormers, Bumblebee at Comic Book Resources, Ironhide on the official Transformers Facebook page, Metalhawk at the Allspark, Needlenose at the IDW forums, Prowl on John Barber's Twitter, Ratbat at Full Metal Hero, Shockwave at Comic Vine, Skywarp at TFW2005, Soundwave at Seibertron, Starscream at Newsarama, Tappet at Polaris Magazine, Wheeljack at Andrew Griffith's blog, and Zetca on Josh Perez's Twitter.
- "Bombshell takes control"
- "Bumblebee wants peace"
- "Ironhide knows a secret"
- "Metalhawk is gaining allies"
- "Needlenose exercises his authority"
- "Prowl has an accomplice"
- "Ratbat wants power"
- "Shockwave is watching"
- "Skywarp wants vengence"
- "Soundwave remains silent"
- "Starscream sees an opportunity"
- "Tappet wants to be heard"
- "Wheeljack wants answers"
- "Zetca wants to survive"
- Sideswipe seems to have abandoned his wicked-sweet Generation 2-colored body after only one issue. This was because Griffith was drawing this issue at the same time Roche was drawing The Death of Optimus Prime and they weren't aware the other was drawing Sideswipe differently.<ref>Post by Andrew Griffith on The Allspark</ref>
- Horri-Bull's yellow color stems from the image TFWiki used to have for Horri-Bull's toy and TFU.info's screencap of Horri-Bull. Josh Perez chose to use the yellow to "help him stick out a lot more".<ref>Post by Josh Perez on The Allspark</ref>
- In the Decepticon crowd scene, Blast Off is standing beside Starscream. However, as this wasn't clear, Josh Perez mistakenly thought it was a generic and colored him like Mister Sinister.<ref>Post by Andrew Griffith on The Allspark</ref>
Covers (8)
The seven first-printing covers to this issue feature a silver foil-stamped logo.
- Cover A: Ironhide, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
- Cover B: Prowl, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
- Cover C: Bumblebee, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
- Cover D: Wheeljack, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
- Cover E: Bumblebee, Prowl, Ironhide, and Wheeljack, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez
- Cover RIA: Fold-out gatefold cover combining the interlinked covers A–D
- Cover RIB: Hand-drawn sketch covers, by Dan Khanna
- Second printing: Bumblebee and Metalhawk, by Griffith and Perez; take from the first panel of page 4
-
The Dick, -
the Prick, -
the Bee -
and the Jack! -
Hey, I match my toy! -
The Fab Four -
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