Liars, A to D Part 2: Hangers On

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #2 »
"Liars, A to D Part 2: Hangers On"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published February 15, 2012(1st printing)
March 21, 2012 (2nd printing)
Cover date February 2012
Story by James Roberts
Art by Alex Milne
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

The recovering crew of the Lost Light are joined by Skids, a bot on the run... but on the run from what?

Synopsis

On the barren planet where the Lost Light has put down, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus and others go about gathering up the Autobots who have been scattered across the world's surface. Brainstorm radios in that he has discovered the source of their explosive mishap: the Duobot Ore was standing too close to the quantum generator when it activated, and wound up being "totally mashed" into it. Perturbed by Brainstorm's general tone of levity, Rodimus orders him to start helping with the search, then takes a call from Chromedome, who is with Rewind and Hoist, hauling Cyclonus out of a lake.

Meanwhile, in the skies above the planet, a small ship materializes. Its sole occupant is Skids, who awakens with an inhibitor claw on his back and the knowledge that he is running from something... but cannot remember what, finding that all of his recent memories are missing. Spotting a mode lock on the shuttle's console and realizing that it is trying to transform into something, he sets the ship on collision course with the planet and bails out. He watches the ship crash, but from the flames, its remnants transform into a trio of gigantic robots; one was killed, presumably in the crash, but the others are quite alive and quite hostile, advancing on Skids while wielding giant swords and repeatedly intoning the cryptic phrase: "nineteen eighty-four". Apparently lacking in any weapons, Skids improvises with the nearby corpses of Polaris and Hyperion: he magnetizes the former to one of the giant robots, then uses the latter's gun to blow Polaris up, taking the monstrous mechanoid with it.

Aboard the Lost Light, Ratchet tends to the wounds Rung received before take-off, startling the timid psychiatrist by smashing his own hand with a hammer to loosen his joints. They discusss Tailgate, who is being carbon-dated by Swerve, and Ratchet grumbles about Drift's newfound sense of unbearable positivity before half-heartedly turning his attention to the unconscious Whirl. Suddenly, Whirl awakens, seizes Rung, and begins throttling him, heedless of Ratchet and Swerve's attempts to calm him. The maddened Autobot only stops when Rung chokes out the warning that if he kills him, he'll go back to prison. Whirl snaps out of it and stalks off, the ruckus having awakened Tailgate, who is relieved to find out he did not kill the unhinged Autobot. Realizing that Tailgate is a 'bot out of time, Swerve begs Ratchet to allow him to be the one to tell him, and the "gentle" manner in which Swerve relates the information elicits a horrified bellow from Tailgate that is heard outside the Lost Light.

I'm a vampire!!!

Elsewhere on the ship, Rodimus meets with Cyclonus, who explains that he attached himself to the hull of the Lost Light to join in its mission. Though unapologetic for his past actions, he pleads his case for being allowed to stay and manages to sway Rodimus to his side, though Ultra Magnus is less than convinced. Having found Whirl skulking around, Magnus brings him into the room, and orders him to settle his argument with Cyclonus. Whirl does so without admitting any guilt, and is surprised when Cyclonus hugs him... only for him to whisper during the embrace that Whirl should watch his back, because he's going to kill him.

Swerve and Tailgate go for a walk outside, with Tailgate rebuffing Swerve's request to see his alternate mode on the basis that Ratchet told him to take it easy. They meet up with Chromedome and Rewind for some proper introductions, when Skids suddenly falls out of the sky with the last of the giant 'bots on his tail. Recognizing the Autobot—and noting that he has long been thought dead—Chromedome removes Skids's inhibitor claw for him, allowing him to deploy his weapons and finish his pursuer off with impressive ease. As things calm down, though, Chromedome points out that Skids has been holding a handgun all along, which Skids somehow never realized...

Skids returns to the Lost Light with the other Autobots, quickly discovering he's earned himself a fan in Swerve, who artfully balances proposing that he and Skids team up and badgering Tailgate into transforming. Rodimus addressed the assembled Autobots on recent issues, but Whirl pipes up with a "pressing issues"—unimpressed with just about everyone else on the ship, he thinks the group should at least have a cool name. Swerve proposes "The Crusadercons", but Rodimus and Skids take issue with the -con suffix. Before any further discussion can be gone into, Rodimus gets a call from Red Alert, who has been investigating reports of noises on the lower decks with Shock... who is now lying dead by Red's side, his spark ripped out. Panicked, Red Alert relates his fear to Rodimus... that there's a Sparkeater on board!

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Others

Quotes

"Why are you—aak!—doing this?"
"It's your eyebrows! He's jealous of your capacity for self-expression!"

—When Rung is throttled by Whirl, Swerve proves to be little help.


Rewind: "Wow. It's time like this I'm glad I have a camera bolted to my head..."
Swerve: "Nice moves! Who are you? An ex-Wrecker? One of the Warriors Elite? An old pit fighter?"
Skids: "I'm a theoretician."

—That last line kinda feels like it's missing a "...motherf@#!er!" at the end.


Rodimus: "Look at them all. What do I tell them?"
Ultra Magnus: "The truth. We've lost contact with Cybertron, we can't find ourselves on the map, Ore is dead, Hyperion and Polaris are dead, but Cyclonus is happy, so that's okay".
Rodimus: "See, this is why you're not a public speaker."
Drift: "I think you should accentuate the positive. We've got the quantum generators working again—big tick. We're ready to resume our quest—big tick. And we've managed to save virtually all of the Autobots who got pulled outside—that's more of a little tick, but it's still a tick!"
Rodimus: "Hmm. I think I'll go for a mixture of depressingly gloomy and offensively upbeat. Thanks, guys."


"So, you gonna show me your alt mode or what?"
"Ooh, alright then. But I'm taking it slow, okay?"
"Tell you what: I'll speak to Skids and pop back in about six million years' time, okay?"

—Swerve only teases Tailgate because he loves him.


"'The Crusadercons.' The more you say it, the cooler it sounds."
"Someone hears that, they're gonna think we're Decepticons."
"What, so it has to end in 'bot'?"
"Well... yeah. Omnibots, Monsterbots, Duobots... it's kind of an unwritten rule, isn't it."
"Forget the rules! The war's over—it's time to reclaim the suffix!"

—Swerve is just a really quotable 'bot, okay? Skids doesn't share our enthusiasm for him.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • This is the start of an arc about Tailgate's background, which will carry on until #13 (with one last slight twist in #21).
  • It's also the start of the Skids arc which gets resolved in #19 and #20.
  • The answer to the question Skids asks himself when he wakes up ("Scum! Why is my name Scum?") is revealed to the reader in #49 and remembered by Skids in #54.
  • The Legislators keep saying "nineteen eighty-four": this will be significant in the Skids arc and has a different meaning to what you think it does.
  • Whirl is loathed by the other Autobots, with Ratchet openly hoping that something would prevent him from repairing him.

Transformers references

Trivia

  • If you don't get the double-meaning that British writer James Roberts has hidden in the Duobots' names, try saying "Shock and Ore" out loud with a British accent.
  • The last page includes a summary of the crew members already introduced, with short introductions beneath. These include factoids such as Swerve's weapon of choice is his mouth, Whirl was twice voted "Autobot most likely to defect", and Ultra Magnus once smiled, and has regretted it ever since.

Crew Manifest

  • The fifty or so crew members lost during the quantum jump are all recovered. The only deaths were Polaris and Hyperion.
  • Shock and Ore are killed by the Sparkeater and quantum jump, respectively.
  • Skids and Cyclonus join the crew.
  • 4 deaths, 2 new arrivals since the launch.

Errors

  • The story so far page is missing a space between "peril" and "an".
  • Ratchet says he's asked Swerve to "carbon-date" Tailgate to find out how old he is, but carbon dating is neither useful for anything older than a few ten thousand years, nor anything that isn't composed of organic matter.
  • When Skids is telling Chromedome to remove the inhibitor claw from his back, his gun is missing from his right hand.
  • (And on Roche's cover, the gun is in his left hand, but whatevs.)
  • On page 22, when Drift is giving the communicator device to Rodimus, he has two right hands.

Soundtrack


Foreign localization

Japanese

  • Title: "Usohappyaku Part 2: Koshiginchaku" (嘘八百 パート2：腰ぎんちゃく, "Pack of Lies Part 2: Hangers-On")

Swedish

  • Title: "Lögnare, Från A till D Del 2: Fripassagerare" (Liars, From A to D Part 2: Stowaways")

Covers (4)

  • Cover A: Rodimus amongst injured Autobots; art by Alex Milne, colors by Josh Perez.
  • Cover B: Skids gets blown out of the ship; art by Nick Roche, colors by Josh Burcham.
  • Cover RI: Sketch (uncolored) version of cover A by Alex Milne.
  • Second printing: Wraparound cover of Rodimus and Magnus surveying the Lost Light crew by Milne and Burcham, taken from panel 2 of page 19
  • "Quit lying down on the job, ya bums!"
    "Quit lying down on the job, ya bums!"
  • Skids gets a helluva intro.
    Skids gets a helluva intro.
  • "I TOLD THEM I WANTED COLOR!"
    "I TOLD THEM I WANTED COLOR!"
  • Second printing cover
    Second printing cover

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Reprints

  • The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 1 (June 13, 2012) ISBN 1613772351 / ISBN 978-1613772355
  • Contains issues #1 to #3, as well as the preceding The Death of Optimus Prime one-shot.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers, 12 promotional images, "Meet the Crew" page, design sketches from Alex Milne for various characters and ship locations, and a 2-page editor's comment with "behind the scenes" information about the series.
  • The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 1 (reissue) (May 21, 2014) ISBN 1613779658 / ISBN 978-1613779651
  • Contains issues #1 to #3, and The Death of Optimus Prime one-shot.
  • New cover by Livio Ramondelli.
  • Bonus material UNKNOWN
  • Includes "The Death of Optimus Prime", More than Meets the Eye #1–5 and Robots in Disguise #1–6.
  • Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404741 / ISBN 978-1631404740
  • Contains The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volumes 1 to 5.
  • Bonus content UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.
  • Hardcover collection of Robots in Disguise #25 to #27, More than Meets the Eye #1 to #6, Spotlight: Trailcutter and Spotlight: Hoist.
  • Bonus content includes an all-new interview with James Roberts, rare archive material from the dawn of More than Meets the Eye, and Alex Milne's sketchbook.
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