Uneasy Lies the Head
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 Cue trumpet fanfare and roaring Autobot hordes. | |||||||||||||
| "Uneasy Lies the Head" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | July 22, 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Mike Costa | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Chee Yang Ong | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Moose Baumann | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Chris Mowry | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Andy Schmidt | ||||||||||||
| Associate editor | Denton J. Tipton | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | 2005 IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | All Hail Megatron | ||||||||||||
Starscream shoulders the burden of his newly acquired (and likely temporary) leadership.
Synopsis
As the Decepticons flee from Earth on Astrotrain, a brooding Starscream is summoned by Shrapnel, who bears news. In front of the other Decepticons, now low on energon and demoralized, Starscream announces that Megatron has ceased to function, and that they must forge a new path of their own. He is slightly premature, as the 'news' is actually that the badly damaged Megatron, guarded by Soundwave and the cassettes, is beginning to show increased brain activity. An infuriated Starscream attempts to convince Soundwave to let Megatron die, and to use the energon he is using for the rest of them, but he refuses and Starscream stalks out.
Angry, Starscream reflects that as long as Megatron lives, he will never take power. Shrapnel suggests assassination, but Starscream vetoes this, noting that Megatron would probably come back more powerful than before. Now alone, Starscream muses on the looming chaos. With Megatron gone, the Decepticons will fall apart through infighting. With little more than the troops from Earth, he will be unable to force the issue, and Razorclaw will certainly challenge him. With Megatron's leadership having led them to the disaster he always foresaw, Starscream is left with grudges... and the Matrix of Leadership.
Believing the Matrix to be of little more than symbolic value, with any power it might have had used up, Starscream attempts to throw it out an airlock, but is stopped by a returning Shrapnel. Shrapnel reminds him that the Matrix chooses the Autobot leaders, and is amazed that Starscream has it. Realizing the potential, Starscream rouses the Decepticons, claiming that he now wields the power of the Matrix and will use it to lead them to victory once more. His delighted troops chant 'Hail Starscream!' as Starscream leaves, but once out of view, the new Decepticon leader puts his head in his hands, fully aware that his leadership now rests on the seemingly powerless Matrix...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Decepticons | ||
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Quotes
"I'd just ceremoniously jettison his body out the airlock if I didn't have a nagging feeling he'd somehow return, even more powerful than before."
- —Starscream has apparently seen the movie.
Notes
Continuity notes
- More unexplained redesigns: Blitzwing is back to his Generation 1 model and Starscream no longer appears to be in Masterpiece form. This can be chalked up to the art style, but Astrotrain's previously unmentioned mass-shifting cannot.
- Starscream does pretty much nothing after this setup: no big scheme, having the Matrix goes nowhere, all a big anticlimax. As Mike Costa wrote both this story and those later ones, and they appear less than a year later, this is entirely deliberate. Starscream is just a busted flush.
Transformers references
- Starscream's quote above about tossing Megatron out of the ship is, of course, what actually happened to him in The Transformers: The Movie. Apparently lampshading that you're not referencing the Movie is the new version of referencing the Movie.
Errors
- Remember how Starscream was doing his duty and protecting a wounded Megatron, claiming leadership must be taken? All Hail Megatron issue 12 He sure changed his mind quick!
