Things Fall Apart, Part 4: "Enemies of the System"

From MediaWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
« The Transformers #5 »
"Enemies of the System"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published March 31, 2010
Cover date March 2010
Written by Mike Costa
Art by Don Figueroa
Colors by James Brown
Letters by Chris Mowry
Editor Andy Schmidt
Associate editor Denton J. Tipton
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2010)

As Prime and Spike talk (still), things go from bad to worse when Ultra Magnus leads a team to arrest "Rodimus Prime"...

Synopsis

Spike Witwicky and Optimus Prime continue their chat. Prime admits that he felt he was an ineffective leader without the Decepticons to fight. He also tells Spike how he admires the human's wisdom and ability to learn, and he hopes the Autobots will likewise "transform" without him.

Ultra Magnus returns to the Autobots' cave and immediately states his intentions to assemble a team to arrest "Rodimus Prime". Bumblebee questions this, as well as Magnus's choice of the recently traumatized Blurr, but Magnus supersedes Bumblebee's complaints.

Spike takes a ride in Breakdown to clear his head, but is soon attacked by Drag Strip and Wildrider, who had been looking for their fellow Stunticon. Disgusted that he's being driven by a human, they opt to wreck Breakdown to kill Spike. (Breakdown can be repaired later.) Spike retaliates with his own weapon and tries to lead the Stunticons back to Skywatch, but Motormaster appears from the opposite direction and runs Spike into a guardrail, where he dives out of Breakdown and escapes into the river below. As Spike requests a pick up from Skywatch, Breakdown is recovered and brought back to Hot Rod's site.

At the site, Swindle spends considerable time repairing Breakdown, attracting attention from Silverstreak, but Hot Rod dismisses his concerns. Ultra Magnus and his team arrive to arrest Hot Rod, who explains that he isn't committing treason since the war is over. He tries to appeal to Bumblebee, whose concerns are once again dismissed by Magnus. Swindle interrupts the argument and drops his charade to announce his plans kill as many Autobots as he possible before departing in the ship with the other Decepticons. Magnus counters that the Autobots have him outnumbered, but Swindle gives the order for the Stunticons to merge into his newest creation: Menasor. Swindle tells Menasor to kill Magnus first...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"You think there's a way to squash the human and keep Breakdown in one piece?"
"Probably not...but we can always fix him."

—Soldiers often credit support from their teammates for their ability to maintain sanity in war. Breakdown's teammates are Dragstrip and Wildrider.


"How fast do you think I'd have to go to squirt the human out of the window from a broadside? I say 200 mph."

—Wildrider, posing a simple math word problem. And they say education is dull.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Several callbacks mark this issue as happening after the conclusion of The Transformers: Bumblebee:
    • Bumblebee is in his new body.
    • Bumblebee mentions Blurr having been through a severe trauma, referring both to his hitting a mine in issue #3 and being forcibly captured by the other Autobots in the mini-series.
    • Rodimus makes a comment regarding Colonel Horiuchi (As to how Rodimus knows about the dealings with Horiuchi, well...maybe Bumblebee is an avid Autopedia updater?)
  • It also means it took Magnus a week to locate and reach Hot Rod's team and then return.

Transformers references

Real-life references

  • Enemies of the System is a story by Brian Aldiss, as are the subtitles to the other issues in "Things Fall Apart".

Covers (3)

  • Cover A: The Stunticons; art by Don Figueroa and colors by James Brown.
  • Cover B: Ultra Magnus investigating some ruins; art by Andrew Wildman.
  • Cover RI: Concept art of an unused design for Bumblebee (which is also the design actually used for Cliffjumper, minus the head); art by Don Figueroa.
  • Swindle couldn't find Breakdown's personality component. (He didn't think it would matter.)
    Swindle couldn't find Breakdown's personality component. (He didn't think it would matter.)

Advertisements

Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.duckdns.org/index.php?title=Things_Fall_Apart,_Part_4:_%22Enemies_of_the_System%22&oldid=1265012"