The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four

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« Transformers #10 »
"The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published August 7, 2019
Cover date July 2019
Written by Brian Ruckley
Art by Angel Hernandez (pg. 1-3, 6-13), Anna Malkova (pages 4-5, 19-20), Beth McGuire-Smith (pages 14-18)
Colors by Joana Lafuente and Josh Burcham
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor David Mariotte and Tom Waltz
Continuity 2019 IDW continuity

The divides in Cybertronian society grow ever larger as tensions boil over in the Cybertronian Senate.

Synopsis

Outside Ascenticon headquarters, Elita-1 and Bumblebee join Megatron for their latest assignment: as members of the Ascenticon Guard, they'll be providing security as they escort their leader to the Senate. Their route takes them over a bridge, however, and, below, the streets swarm with Cybertronians of all shapes and sizes as they march on the Senate. Elita explains the situation to their leader: this is a silent protest, a march to honor the memories of Brainstorm and Rubble. A downcast Bumblebee says nothing in the face of Megatron's token condolences except for a brief "thank you;" as the trio arrive at the doors of the Senate, Megatron orders his two bodyguards to remain outside. Elita watches the march, and explains to Bumblebee that this is but one of many marches, all across Cybertron, and while Bumblebee worries that some of the marchers will be blaming the Ascenticons for the recent unrest, Elita remains steadfast in her convictions: the Ascenticons are, at their core, a peaceful movement, and violent extremists like The Rise cannot be allowed to hijack their message. If the leaders of Cybertron listened to the Ascenticons, she continues, then groups like The Rise would have no reason to exist, and vanish. Of course, Elita admits, that's what she hopes will happen... but, it seems, nothing in this world is quite so simple—a statement that Bumblebee can only grimly agree with.

Elsewhere in Iacon, Froid bustles down the hallway of a medical facility, passing Windblade's unconscious body and Flatline tending to the decidedly more lively Sideswipe before he reaches his patient of interest: the sullen Cyclonus, still recovering from his injuries sustained in the Memorial Crater. The old warrior isn't happy to be there, and even less happy to see Froid again, despite the psychiatrist's best attempts to mend fences with his former patient. When Froid asks why Cyclonus regularly "talks" with his dead friends, but refuses to do the same with Paragon, the 'bot who was far more than his friend, Cyclonus snaps at Froid that Paragon did not merely die, he was killed by Pyra Magna—and with that, he stalks out of the room.

In the Senate building, the latest meeting of the Senate begins poorly; while both Orion Pax and Reversionist leader Heretech call for peace and harmony, Megatron brushes them off, snarling that "harmony" is just a word: even under the restrictive terms of the Nominus Edict, you cannot force people with different views to agree... and, he points out, the Ascenticons have also been the victims of politically-motivated violence in recent days. Orion fires back; Rubble and Brainstorm are both dead, Windblade was badly wounded in a recent investigation, and Megatron continues to hurl fiery rhetoric, his words providing the fuel for further and further violence across a divided Cybertron.

Senator Crisscross agrees: if Megatron cares at all about the future of the planet he purports to love, then Megatron needs to help create a united front, the only way to possibly calm the increasingly volatile political situation on Cybertron and quell the looming threat of The Rise. Megatron growls that his love of Cybertron should not be questioned—Orion agrees with this, but reminds his opponent that the Autobots hold the majority in the Senate, and that, until the next election, First Senator Sentinel Prime's will holds, and the Nominus Edict will not be overturned. All Megatron needs to do is suspend his rallies and disband the Ascenticon Guard—and then, when Sentinel Prime returns, every member of The Senate will denounce The Rise and give its followers a new name, a more accurate moniker that properly brands them as the deceitful liars and killers they are... but before Orion can finish his sentence, Megatron rises from his seat, having heard enough. Tired of Orion's rhetoric, Megatron stalks from the Senate, warning his fellow Senators that bad ideas can be just as dangerous as an improperly handled weapon—neither know friend from foe.

Outside, Megatron rejoins his two subordinates, but finds that the situation has turned ugly. The protest march has grown into a restless crowd, milling in front of the main Senate building... and, on spying Megatron, that crowd turns into a mob, breaking pieces from a nearby statue and hurling the masonry at the Ascenticon leader. Megatron bellows a warning to the crowd, while Bumblebee's ineffective protests fall on deaf ears. Elita-1 performs crowd control while Bumblebee escorts Megatron to safety... but there are too many for one 'bot to handle, and Bumblebee is forced to join the melee alongside Elita-1. Though they have numbers on their side, the crowd isn't prepared for a full-on fight, and the mob quickly disperses—and when Bumblebee asks Elita if this level of violence feels right to her, Elita admits that she doesn't know...

As night falls, Megatron races through the badlands of Cybertron until he reaches a remote location, protected by a shimmer field.... a shimmer field that dissolves to reveal Shockwave, leader of The Rise! A furious Megatron lays into his ambitious subordinate. Megatron deliberately put him in charge of The Rise in order to bring some much-needed organization to the rabble-rousers; under Shockwave's command, the group would inflame preexisting societal tensions and spread disorder—but outright murder was not part of the deal, as Megatron reminds Shockwave of his place. Megatron was the one who smuggled Shockwave back to the planet after his exile at the hands of Nominus Prime, and if things get out of control, then it'd be all too easy for Megatron to simply hand Shockwave back over to the authorities. The Ascenticon leader gives Shockwave his marching orders: take The Rise underground for a while, keep the most violent 'bots out of sight, and only cause the kind of trouble Megatron wants him to cause—but, as Megatron transforms and heads out, Shockwave murmurs that he has other ideas...

Back in Iacon proper, Prowl and a team of rookie Security Operations bots find themselves at an impasse outside of Ascenticon headquarters, their way barred by Soundwave and his followers. Prowl requests to see Barricade for questioning... and is furious when Soundwave calmly refuses.

That's not the only conflict brewing, however. At a nearby spaceport, a Titan touches down and disgorges her occupants... and while Ironhide welcomes them back to Cybertron, there's no time for pleasantries: Sentinel Prime has arrived, and he is not happy!

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Ascenticons Others

The Rise

Quotes

"And then she called me Slowswipe! Can you believe that?"
"The attempt to kill you seems a touch more injurious."

—Sideswipe and Flatline


"Since Nominus exiled everyone who might cause trouble, you insist on pretending there is some eternal, unquestionable consensus. Silence is not consensus when it is enforced, and when you are not listening."

—Megatron says so much for the tolerant left


"Every distortion, every exaggeration you propagate, The Rise adopt. They turn your grievance into fuel."

—Orion Pax retorts


"Ideas are like shrapnel. They do not know friend from foe."

—Megatron


"Welcome back, Sentinel Prime. Starscream, Naut-"
"Never mind all that, Ironhide. We are going to the Senate. There are some heads I want to smash together. Now."

—Ironhide discovers that Sentinel Prime is in a mood

Notes

Continuity notes

  • The protest march is held in honor of both Brainstorm and Rubble; the former was killed shortly before the events of issue #1, while the latter died in issue #5.
  • Cyclonus is recovering from the injuries that he sustained in issue #8; in that same issue, Froid alluded to Paragon, though it wasn't clear at the time that Paragon had been dead for a while.
  • During the Senate meeting, Megatron refers to the attack on his rally, which occurred in issue #2... though the reveal in this issue definitely suggests that it may have been staged.
  • Megatron claims that the Nominus Edict was responsible for the exile of various 'bots, a view that he had previously espoused in issue #5, though Orion and the other members of the Senate deny this. Then again, Megatron does also claim later in the issue that Shockwave had been banished from Cybertron by Nominus Prime.... so who's telling the truth here?!?
  • Among the many rioters in the crowd outside the senate is a 'bot who sports the distinctive green-and-red livery of the Torchbearers. They're not the first Cybertronian to have this color scheme, however: another 'bot with a similar colour scheme appeared in issue #2; issue #8 , meanwhile, revealed that Pyra Magna was a political prisoner of sorts, while this issue reveals that she was responsible for killing at least one Transformer... so we're wondering if there's some kind of connection here...
  • Organic creatures that Megatron passes by while travelling the wasteland include a skitter, an invasive species that first appeared in issue #2, and one of the unnamed pterosaur-like aliens that Prowl had as a pet in issue #5, which were established to eat skitters in the same issue.
  • As first revealed in issue #3, Sentinel Prime was revealed to be on a tour of Cybertron's colonies; Nautica and Starscream were said to have been among his retinue in issue #7.

Transformers references

Errors

  • On page 10, a comma is missing from Elita-1's dialogue "Time to move along I think."
  • On the second-to-last page, Soundwave's dialogue is written in the normal white word balloons, rather than the distinctive blue "electronic" speech bubbles that he's previously used.

Other trivia

  • Both this issue and the previous must have been shuffled around very late in production; the solicits for both issues describe the events of the other, and the covers more or less fit better the other way around.
  • The gender of Sentinel's Titan was not specified in the script, but rather was chosen by artist Anna Malkova, who deliberately gave her a design which was as overwrought as possible.[1]

Covers (3)

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References

  1. ↑ Anna Malkova at TFNation 2019
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