Shattered Balance
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| "Shattered Balance" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Fun Publications | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #53 | ||||||||||||
| Writers | Benson Yee & Pete Sinclair with Matt Frank | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Evan Gauntt | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Evan Gauntt | ||||||||||||
| Colors | Thomas Deer | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Managing editor | Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Shattered Glass | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Earth prehistory | ||||||||||||
The Maximals' hunt for the Origin Matrix reaches its goal.
Synopsis
At the Graviton, Depth Charge has the computer lock on the coordinates of Origin Matrix, and tells it to inform the others that he's gone hunting for it. Blasting off, Depth Charge finds a hatch, and descends down it into an underground chamber. Unfortunately, Depth Charge activates the security systems when he reaches the bottom, bringing numerous turrets online and ready to fire. Back at the Graviton, Prowl has managed to come up with an alternative source of energy: organic food. Pleased, Ultra Mammoth prepares to move out to Depth Charge's location. Silverbolt is still worried about what Megatron plans to do with the energy purifier his troops stole. Mammoth shares his concerns, but the Origin Matrix takes priority. As they move out, however, the spying Seawing transmits their conversation to Megatron, who has him return to base in preparation for their attack...
Back at the chamber, Depth Charge has managed to take out most of the turrets. Unfortunately, as he takes out two more, the finale turret manages to clip him, and prepares to blast him in the head. Depth Charge is saved, however, when Ultra Mammoth takes it out with his cannon; Mammoth admonishes the extra-dimensional Maximal for going off on his own, much to Depth Charge's chagrin. Heading forward, the Maximals are soon confronted by strange bio-mechanical bat-like creatures, who attack them. Depth Charge tells Mammoth to head forward while he and the others keep the bats busy, as only a leader can recover the Matrix. Reluctantly pushing forward, Ultra Mammoth finds the Origin Matrix, and is confronted by a seemingly-familiar face: Primus! The construct explains that he is not Ultra Mammoth's god; rather, it is based on a figure of authority from his memory banks. The hologram proceeds to explain that this planet is part of "the Experiment," studying the chaos that this universe is based on. Mammoth pleads with the construct to give him the Matrix so he can restore order to this world; the construct tells him that chaos is the natural order of this universe...but the Matrix does not hail from this world, and only it can decide if Mammoth is worthy...
The Maximals are soon surrounded by the creatures, who have shifted into humanoid form, ready to destroy the intruders. Fortunately for the Maximals, Mammoth has managed to recover the Origin Matrix, and uses its light to scare off the creatures. The threats aren't over yet, however; the ground begins to rumble, and the ceiling to the chamber is vaporized, reveal the Predacons led by Megatron, encased in a massive, reptilian mecha. Megatron demands that they hand the Matrix over, or be annihilated!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
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Quotes
"Did you get all that, Megatron?"
"Indeed Seawing... You've proven yourself to not be completely inept. Return to base - it's time to teach these Maximals how to roll over... and stay dead."
- —Seawing and Megatron keeping tabs on the Maximals.
"You have entered The Experiment, an exercise in chaos, the very nature of the universe."
"My soldiers... my friends are dying out there! We need the matrix to fight against the chaos. To restore order!"
"Chaos is the natural order of this universe, something you shall learn in time."
- —"Primus" and Ultra Magnus
Notes
Transformers references
- Depth Charge's reference to "sneaky death-faced creeps" suggests the Vok are involved in hiding the Origin Matrix.
- The hatch Depth Charge finds has a number of years engraved on the side of importance to Transformers.
- 2010 — the year season 3 of The Transformers is set in the Japanese continuity.
- 2005 — the year The Transformers: The Movie is set.
- 1984 — the year the franchise began, and when the Autobots and Decepticons woke from their four million year sleep.
- 1887 — which appears to be a reference to Infestation 2: The Transformers.
- Ultra Magnus can't deal with that now.
- The cloud of bats appear to be loosely based on Sonar's beast mode.
- The use of a giant Primus hologram echoes the Vok using a similar hologram of Unicron in "Other Voices, Part 1".
- Megatron's giant mech resembles Gigastorm from Beast Wars II as was hinted in the previous issue.
