Lord of Misrule: Swindle's II

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"Lord of Misrule: Swindle's II"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published August 4, 2021
Cover date July 2021
Written by Brian Ruckley
Art by Beth McGuire-Smith
Colors David García Cruz
Letters by Jake M. Wood
Editor David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity 2019 IDW continuity

A mission to rescue an old ally forces Bumblebee to make a difficult choice: avenge the past, or look to the future?

Synopsis

Ever the opportunist, Swindle has pounced on the opportunities afforded by Megatron's coup and turned his casino into the number one watering hole for off-duty Decepticons. While Decepticon Guard leader Sixshot observes his improvised wrestling arena from the skybox, and takes in the sight of Crasher piledriving Tentakil into the floor, Swindle uses the match as an example of the many recreational opportunities available to his customers; despite his contempt for these theatrical bouts, Sixshot grudgingly tells him that he can stay open, so long as he caters to Decepticons and Decepticons only. The moment Sixshot leaves, however, Trickdiamond tells her boss that she's identified a number of particularly rowdy customers, loose-lipped types who might say anything under the influence.

At a remote energon transmission station, Windsweeper grumbles to himself as he fills up a load of energon cubes, until a strange noise catches his attention. When the fussy Decepticon sees Skywarp approaching, begging him for a drop of energon, he initially mistakes Skywarp for a civilian and tells him that this energon is for Decepticons only... at which point Skywarp teleports on top of him, drops him with a single punch, and steals an energon cube. Gutcruncher arrives just in time to see Skywarp disappear, and groans that Skywarp couldn't have picked a worse time to return.

Trickdiamond climbs down the ladder into Swindle's secret basement and tells Roughstuff to keep watch while Swindle greases up his "special guests" with some complimentary samples of his private engex blend. Although Refraktor can't hold his drink and promptly collapses, Swindle narrows in on Twirl and Nautilator, and asks them to repeat what they were saying about the Enigma of Combination...

As Swindle pumps his clients for information, Trickdiamond has a talk with Bumblebee about his recent behaviour—he's grown increasingly fixated on mentorship and his questions have made Roughstuff uncomfortable. Trickdiamond notes that her mentor, Big Wing, was a laid-back sort who let her find her own path in life; when he went off to travel the galaxy, however, a freak asteroid impact killed him and everyone else on the planet Mayalx. Trickdiamond muses that this was his final lesson: everyone's got an asteroid heading for them, so make the best of the time you have and don't take things too seriously. When Bumblebee points out that that probably wasn't what Big Wing meant to teach her, Trickdiamond asks why someone would've nominated him as a mentor; Bumblebee admits that he doesn't know for sure, but grimly muses that whoever nominated him probably regrets their decision.

Skywarp rematerializes just outside the city of Iacon, and muses just how little Cybertron has changed since his exile in unspace—once more, the planet teeters on the brink of collapse, and his old enemies the Seekers have returned to the skies. Still, he's intrigued by the "Decepticons", and teleports toward the city to see what fun can be had in this brave new world.

After hours, Swindle approaches Bumblebee from some new information he's gleaned from his customers: tonight, Elita-1 will be transferred to the prison inside the old Senate building. Although his top priority is still finding Barricade, Bumblebee knows that he's responsible for getting her into trouble in the first place and realizes that he has to do something. Fortunately, Swindle's already thought that far ahead and called in his heavy-duty contractors Charger and Fire Beast. They don't come cheap, however, and Swindle warns that if Bumblebee goes through with this he'll owe Swindle a lot more than he already does. That evening, as Ravage, Jolt and Barricade move Elita from her holding cell to the Senate, Bumblebee and his new allies are already in place to intercept them—and take the trio completely off-guard when Charger uses his combined mode to crash through the wall and knock the guards flat! Elita punts Ravage into the wall and suplexes Barricade flat, and while Bumblebee didn't know that Barricade was here, he'll take any opportunity he can get to avenge Rubble. As Barricade begs for mercy, pinned and helpless, Bumblebee advances, gun in hand...

On the day of Rubble's forging, a nervous Bumblebee speaks with Orion Pax moments before the customary forging ceremony begins. Bumblebee's sure that Orion was the one who nominated him to be chosen for mentorship, but the Senator evades the question and reminds Bumblebee that he was chosen from the pool on the strength of his own merits. All he has to do is be his best self, and as he steps forward to receive his new charge, Orion tells him to "be exemplary".

Struck by this sudden memory, Bumblebee abruptly lowers his pistol and turns away: the last time he chose violence, his decision only made things worse. As he tells Elita, Bumblebee might not know what his best self looks like these days, but he's sure that this isn't it; he and Elita walk off, and Charger follows after first melting Barricade's hand off to ensure he won't shoot them in the back. Back at the bar, Bumblebee confronts Swindle over his willingness to rub elbows with the Decepticons, but Swindle retorts that he's in the business of staying alive and informed, even if that means trading Decepticon secrets with third parties like the Voin: secrets like how many troops Megatron has, how much energon he controls, and even information regarding the lost Enigma of Combination. Those last words give Bumblebee an idea: if he serves as an intermediary, Swindle can expand his network by telling Optimus Prime about the Enigma.

After surveying the ruins of Iacon from the wrecked Tether, Skywarp teleports to a Decepticon checkpoint, and informs Offroad that he'd like to speak with their leader...

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Threefold Spark Others

Quotes

"You'll like us fine when you get to know us. Huh. Joking. We're unknowable."

—Fire Beast


"Barricade. You adding yourself to the list of those I'm never going to forgive or forget?"
"Sure. Why not? List's probably long enough that you'll never work your way down to little me."

—Elita-1 and Barricade


"Remember, we're not trying to kill anyone. I just want Elita-1, and Swindle wants minimum provocation."
"Swindle also wants us to kill you if it looks like you might get captured. So you don't talk."
"What?! Wait—you're supposed to be good at keeping secrets. Why are you telling me that?"
"Motivate you not to get captured."
"I think I liked Treadshot more than you two."

—Bumblebee and Charger


"Where are you, Ravage!"
"Think he ran off. Which just leaves you, Barricade."
"No, no-yerk!"
"And look at me, working through that list of mine like a professional!"

—Barricade versus Elita-1


"Aah, Cybertron. What's become of you? All this chaos, all this destruction. I love it. I know we didn't part on the best of terms, dear Cybertron... but let's give it another go, you and me."

—Skywarp

Notes

Continuity notes

  • After his arrest in issue #20, Swindle escaped from prison in issue #28 and hired fellow inmates Roughstuff and Bumblebee to come work for him, and promsied the latter that he'd use his connections to find Barricade. Over the course of the forty-cycle timeskip between issues #30, and #31, he's reopened his casino and turned it into a Decepticon hangout.
  • Crasher had previously alluded to her brief stint as a gladiator back in #28, back before Sentinel Prime closed down the arenas. Headlock notes that he could've made something of her back when he was a trainer; he'd previously been shown coaching Lugnut during a flashback in issue #15 in reference to his Robots in Disguise counterpart. Despite Crasher's bravado in the ring, Sixshot notes that Cyclonus easily trounced her when they crossed paths in the prologue to #28.
  • Twirl, Tentakil, and Nautilator must be regulars down at Swindle's; they'd previously appeared in issue #20, gambling on a skitter race. Other returning Decepticons in the crowd include Treadshot, Catgut, and Apeface.
  • Though Trickdiamond notes that her mentor Big Wing was killed by a freak asteroid impact on the planet Mayalx, the next panel makes it very clear this is a cover story meant to conceal Devastator's destructive rampage in Galaxies #4, which wiped out the entire colony and everyone in it. Presumably, Big Wing is the bronze-colored 'bot being squeezed in Devastator's fist—a similarly colored generic did appear in issue #4 as one of Devastator's victims, but the details and color arrangement are slightly different.
  • Elita-1's been in jail since #19—after she conspired with Bumblebee in #13 to break into Soundwave's private records, he removed her from the Ascenticon Guard and confined her to quarters. She's set to be moved to the Senate building, which has been repurposed into a prison as per an exchange between Megatron and Strika in issue #26.
  • Bumblebee's vendetta against Barricade goes back to issue #11,where he learned that Barricade played a role in Rubble's murder. However, Bee talks himself out of killing Barriacde by reminding himself that it'll likely only land him in deeper trouble, just as his killing of Quake in #22 got him arrested.
  • Upon seeing a flight of Seekers, Skywarp dismisses them as "spoilers of fun"—as per Escape #3, we know that the vast majority of Seekers were purpose-built clone troopers designed to hunt down Skywarp's drone army during the War of the Threefold Spark.
  • Charger and Fire Beast are revealed to be members of the infamous "Iron Hope hundred", Cybertronians who lost their ability to transform after overexposure to nucleon. Bumblebee asks them if they're friends with Treadshot, another Iron Hoper who tried to kill him in issue #19. The comic hasn't confirmed or denied this interpretation. but it's possible if not outright likely that all of the characters who originated as Action Masters or Action Master accessories—Charger, Treadshot, Catgut, Fire Beast, Gutcruncher, Powerflash, and Mainframe—are survivors of the Iron Hope.
  • Proxima makes a cameo during Rubble's forging ceremony; issue #18 revealed that she'd written a book for new mentors, and this issue expands on that by revealing that part of her job involves training prospective mentors for their new duties.
  • In issue #28, Megatron forced Starscream to confess everything he knew regarding Titansparks and the Enigma of Combination. Swindle notes that Megatron's plans regarding the artifact have somehow "leaked". It might not be a coincidence that Starscream's mole Refraktor, who deliberately fed information to the Autobots to throw Megatron off his game, was in the audience...
  • To send a secure message to Optimus Prime, Swindle digs up a "rocket-communicator thing" that used to belong to Soundwave. Megatron previously utilized one of these secure, untraceable drones to contact Shockwave in issue #11.

Transformers references

  • Bumblebee's current position as a neutral drifter with ties to Cybertron's criminal underworld likely owes something to his role in the War for Cybertron cartoon, which depicted him as an amoral energon scrounger who frequently dealt with Soundblaster's criminal empire.
  • Windsweeper previously appeared in issue #29 using a slightly stylized version of his original 1988 toy. His second appearance here has him sporting an updated form based on his most recent Generations toy.
  • Charger's arsenal of fire-based weapons owes something to his original toy bio, which described him as a Decepticon flame-thrower. His partner Fire Beast incorporates the toy's original gimmick by transforming into a helmet-backpack-thing for Charger.

Errors

  • On page one, Tentakil's squid mode is miscolored; his entire mantle is black instead of being mostly white with black highlights.
  • Throughout the comic, Swindle's eyes are mistakenly colored red instead of purple.
  • Sentinel Prime is shown attending Rubble's forging ceremony. However, as per dialogue in issue #4, Sentinel Prime was off-planet at the time and Orion Pax filled in for him at both Rubble and Gauge's forgings.

Other trivia

  • Originally solicited for July 21, this issue lands just two weeks late, in the first week of August.

Covers (3)

  • Cover A: Bumblebee's new friends, by Ed Pirrie
  • Cover B: Barricade triumphant, by Lane Lloyd
  • Retailer incentive cover: Swindle and the gang, by Alex Milne

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Reprints

  • Transformers Volume 5: Horrors Near and Far (May 22, 2022 **scheduled**) ISBN 1684058066 / ISBN 978-1684058839
    • Hardcover.
    • Collects Transformers issues #31–36, Wreckers: Tread & Circuits issues #1-4, Transformers Annual 2021, and the Transformers Halloween Special.
    • Bonus material currently unknown, most likely alternate covers.
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