Remain in Light 2 of 5: House of Ambus

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #18 »

Don't let them take Skids, or he might do this to you.
"Remain in Light 2 of 5:
House of Ambus"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published June 19, 2013
Cover date June 2013
Story by James Roberts
Pencils by Alex Milne
Inks by Brian Shearer
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Editorial assistant Toni Korde
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2013)

While the Legislators lay siege to the Lost Light, Rodimus's team are imprisoned on Luna 1 with a mysterious cell-mate and are confronted by the mastermind behind their plight.

Synopsis

My First Blaster: Disintegrations are Magic.

A seemingly-unending army of Legislators has invaded the Lost Light, teleporting aboard and striking at the Autobots all throughout the ship simultaneously. Both Swerve and Skids, battling on separate fronts, recognize the robots from their last encounter with them, and while Swerve is able to use the impressive armament built into his bar by Brainstorm—as well as the comical but effective My First Blaster™ the scientist made specially for him—to dispatch his lone attacker, Skids finds his super-learning abilities pushed to the limit by the much larger force he faces...

Down on the surface of Luna 1, while Pharma takes the incapacitated Ratchet prisoner, the rest of Rodimus's team retreat from Lockdown's forces, save for Whirl and Cyclonus, who disobey orders and counterattack. In fleeing, the others discover the awesome sight of a Titan graveyard, and Rodimus orders them to fly inside their giant bodies in hopes of losing their pursuers. Weaving through a Titan's cavernous interior, Rodimus is able to dispatch the Decepticons on his tail... but unfortunately, his comrades are not so lucky and are taken captive by Lockdown's men, forcing Rodimus to surrender.

Rodimus and company are escorted to a prison on the moon's surface, where they discover a silent Ultra Magnus who pays them no attention, a mysterious ancient space bridge, and meet face-to-face with Lockdown's true master: Chief Justice Tyrest, primary lawmaker of Cybertron, failed arbiter of peace, broker of the Tyrest Accord, and creator of the Aequitas computer, who vanished from public view years ago. Tyrest charges them all with "crimes against creation" (prompting a tirade of verbal abuse from Rodimus) and confines them to a cell with another Autobot named Ambus. After Rodimus relates their plight, Chromedome inquires of their cell-mate if he is Dominus Ambus, Rewind's old partner, but the moustachoied 'bot explains that he is Dominus's spark-brother Minimus Ambus, a trader imprisoned for selling enriched nucleon. Rodimus notes Ambus's lack of an Autobot badge, prompting Rung to offer him his, but Ambus politely refuses. Tailgate, meanwhile, is especially eager to find a way to escape, given his impending death by cybercrosis, and hopes Brainstorm or Chromedome can use their special abilities to bust them loose, but Ambus warns that escape attempts will be seen as admissions of guilt, and Rodimus agrees, noting they need to figure out the bigger picture first.

Back aboard the Lost Light, Skids tears into wave after wave of Legislators, fighting with a righteous fury sparked by the blame he assigns himself: there's no question that the Legislators are here for him, and the rest of the ship's crew, who took him in without question, are suffering as a result. Swerve races to the oil reservoir to aid his friend, arriving just as the doors open and a torrent of fuel spills out... followed presently by a battered, weakened, but victorious Skids. Just as Skids steps through the doors, however, another large red, white, and blue robot materializes behind him and stabs him through the torso with a gigantic sword. Swerve opens fire, but fails to land a single shot, and is promptly knocked out by the newcomer.

Elsewhere, Ratchet awakens to see Pharma leering down at him. After showing off his new hands, which can "turn into anything", the deranged doctor gestures to a large yellow box in the middle of the room, and challenges Ratchet to guess what is inside it. Intent on not humoring Pharma, Ratchet claims he does not care and refuses to play the twisted game, so Pharma simply opens it to reveal... Ratchet's body! With great horror, the medic realizes he is nothing but a decapitated head and spark hanging from a med-slab!

I know what you did last night.

Back in the prison, Rung hands out energon sticks to calm everyone's nerves, and tells Tailgate—who remembers Tyrest from Nova Prime's days—about the history of their jailor. Rodimus takes over to recap Tyrest's role in the Aequitas trials, even as both Rung and Ambus try to quiet him, knowing that the trials are top secret and not to be talked about. Ambus conspicuously tries to change the subject, asking questions about Skids, and Rung offers him an energon stick, only to deliberately drop the box as he hands him one. Ambus becomes angry, quickly picking up the scattered sticks... which serves as the last piece of evidence Rung needs. Ignoring Ambus's plaintive requests to stop, Rung explains that he has observed many familiar characteristics in Ambus: a certain way of speaking, an intolerance for mess, and a fixation on the psychiatrist's Autobot badge, which he deliberately positioned at an angle when he reattached it after Ambus turned it down. Rung gives Ambus the chance to tell the others the truth for himself, and he reluctantly agrees. Minimus Ambus is his true name, he explains, but the crew of the Lost Light have always known him as... Ultra Magnus!

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Now, I didn't say it to Fort Max—and I didn't say it to Whirl—and I didn't even say it to Cyclonus when he had his Dead Universe flashback. But you, my friend—to you I say:"
(CH-CHUK)
"Get the hell out of my bar."
(Swerve blasts the Legislator.)
"♪ HOORAY! ♩ YOU SCORED A DIRECT ♫ HIT! ♪"

—Swerve's badass speech is a little deflated by his My First Blaster™


"The last time I danced this dance some piece of scum had just destroyed my memories. I woke up with a blowtorch in my hand and nothing in my head, and your friends were all over me. So you'll forgive me if I put two and two together—and make fist!"
(THWOK)
"Okay, that didn't really work, did it, the whole 'two and two' thing. It should be 'four'—you're expecting me to say 'four,' but I said... 'cos it coincided with me punching you, yeah? Forget it."

—Skids


"Pharma, we really must sit down some time so I can explain why we all hate you. We'll start with your personality and go from there."

—Even Lockdown hates Pharma


"If I still kept a journal of all my moves, that would be on the front cover."
"Excellent, excellent effort. It's just a shame none of your friends are as much of a show-off as you are."
"Yeah, well, none of my friends have flames on their chest. It's a lot to live up to."

—Rodimus and Lockdown


Tyrest: "Any questions?"
Rodimus: "Just one: why are you such a—"
Rodimus, later: "And that's when I started swearing. Hm. Not my proudest moment. Maybe my loudest..."

—Tyrest probably shouldn't have given Rodimus an opening.


"Ah, enriched nucleon...! The magic ingredient! Two drops turns a hand gun into a banned gun."
"You should really stop and listen to yourself sometimes."

—Brainstorm and Perceptor


"Brainstorm! How about cobbling together some kinda superweapon out of—out of the ceiling or something? You're always telling us what a genius you are..."
"I don't respond well to pressure."
"Well, why not open your magic briefcase and make all the naughty people in the universe disappear?"
"Don't. Mock. The briefcase."

—Tailgate appealing to Brainstorm, to no avail


"What about you, Domey? The Legislators round the corner—could you extend the needles in your fingers far enough to reach their necks and brainwash them into letting us go?"
"Short answer: No. Long answer: No, don't be an idiot. And don't ever call me 'Domey'."

—Tailgate and Chromedome

Notes

Continuity notes

  • In addition to being hilarious, Swerve's need for My First Blaster™ reminds us of his poor marksmanship and weapons-handling, established in past instances such as when he accidentally shot Rung in issue #6 and blew his own face off in issue #12.
  • Fortress Maximus's oft-mentioned "guns on his legs" finally see some action.
  • The Titans were introduced in the More than Meets the Eye 2012 annual (in which Rodimus's crew also went on a voyage through the innards of one). That they should turn up in the same place as Lockdown's group is no surprise, since the Decepticon squad were established to be hunters of Titans when they debuted in Spotlight: Trailcutter.
Two motorbikes welded together with a cockpit.
  • After commenting last issue on the oddness of using M.A.R.B.s to get around when they have perfectly good alt modes, Chromedome joins thought to deed this issue, ditching his M.A.R.B. to transform and roll out when being chased. In doing so, he also gives readers their first good look at his alt mode, previously only seen in the distance—miscolored, no less—in the 2012 annual.
  • Chief Justice Tyrest was introduced by Roberts in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5, named after the Tyrest Accord first established in Spotlight: Ultra Magnus, though in-story it's the other way around.
  • Chromedome takes umbrage at Tailgate calling him "Domey"; that was Rewind's nickname for him.
  • Pharma is revealed to have worked with Ratchet at the Deltaran Medical Facility; the facility was first mentioned in "Chaos Theory," Part 1, and the fact that Ratchet worked there was revealed in Spotlight: Orion Pax.
  • Tailgate gets very sarcastic about Tyrest's aspirations as Rung relates his backstory; he did the same thing about Dominus Ambus when Chromedome told his story in issue #12.
  • Tyrest's "judging machine", Aequitas, was the central plot device of Last Stand of the Wreckers.
  • It's fitting that Rung should recognize Ambus as Magnus through observation of traits in his speech; issue #13's "Signal to Noise" featured an exchange between the two characters in which Rung commented on the observations he'd made on Magnus's way of talking over time.
  • The Titan Hunters' employer uses holomatter inhibitors to help subdue his prisoners. Clearly Pharma has learned from last time.
  • Brainstorm shrugs off Rung's question about the attention deflector, saying he wouldn't understand it. A series and many issues later, we find out that Rung himself is practically a walking attention deflector.
  • According to Swerve, Whirl recently got hammered and flipped out when someone asked him the time. Earlier it was revealed that he used to be a watchmaker. Either this is a subtle hint that he is still very haunted by his past, or it's just an innocuous joke... with James Roberts, you never know.
  • In his first fight with a Legislator in this issue, Skids says "The last time I danced this dance some piece of scum had just destroyed my memories", referring to his IDW debut in issue 2. In that issue, Skids notably referred to himself as scum. Indeed, this arc reveals that it was Skids himself who erased his own memories. Cheers, James.

Transformers references

  • It might be nothing more than coincidence, but with Roberts, we'll hedge our bets—Smokescreen and Inferno appear in a single-panel scene together in the midst of the Legislators' attack, recalling their brief but memorable bromantic partnership in Marvel UK's "The Legacy of Unicron!".
  • In-keeping with the Titan Hunters' established trait of having members based on characters from other continuity families (specifically Animated's Lugnut and "Blitzving" in Spotlight: Trailcutter), their ranks in this issue include warriors based on Transformers: Prime's Vehicons (both car and jet versions) and at least one Insecticon.
  • The Legislators are noted to be "copycats" of the Guardian droids, Autobot battle drones that originated in the Marvel UK Generation 1 series, who put in a brief appearance in IDW continuity in a flashback in issue #14.

Real-life references

Ribbed for reasons

Errors

  • When we see an injured Blaster being covered by Fortress Maximus, he's missing the Autobot insignia on his chest.
  • Page 14, panel 2: "Identifier" is misspelled "identifer", this was corrected for the TPB.

Crew manifest

  • Deftwing's corpse appears, having become a victim of the Legislators off-panel.
  • A Medi-Bot is crushed by an attacking Legislator.
  • Rodimus gives the crew count as "three hundred, give or take", which seems on the generous side, given that it was 200-ish at outset.
  • Ultra Magnus is who what now??
  • 12 deaths, one in terminal condition, Ultra Magnus is... what??? ...5 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders), one boxed, and one banishment since the launch.

Soundtrack

For all of "Remain in Light":

For this issue alone:

Foreign localization

Japanese

  • Title: "Hikari no Naka ni Tamarite 2: Ambus no Ichizoku" (光の中に溜まりて2 アンバスの一族, "Gather in Light 2: House of Ambus")

Swedish

  • Title: "Stanna i ljuset 2 av 5: Huset Ambus" ("Stay in the Light 2 of 5: The House of Ambus")

Covers (3)

  • Cover A: Skids battles a throng of Legislators, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
  • Cover B: Gears, Hound, and Huffer defending themselves, by Sean Chen and Tom Chu. In what's probably a slightly embarrassing snafu for Hasbro, Chen has drawn Huffer and Gears based on the unofficial "third party" toys based on the characters, "Rager" and "Cogz". Hound, meanwhile, is largely based on his Alternators toy, with the shoulder launcher and the winch on the front bumper taken from his Generation 1 toy.
  • Cover RI: A Legislator looms over the fallen Ambulon and First Aid, by Nick Roche and Josh Perez.
  • Ten would be crying if he saw this.
    Ten would be crying if he saw this.
  • Do not buy this cover!
    Do not buy this cover!
  • Come with First Aid if you want to live!
    Come with First Aid if you want to live!

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Reprints

  • The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 5 (November 13, 2013) ISBN 1613778023 / ISBN 978-1613778029
    • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #17–22.
    • Bonus material includes art from most covers, and the prose story "The Sound of Breaking Glass".
    • Trade paperback format.
  • Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404741 / ISBN 978-1631404740
    • Collects More Than Meets the Eye volumes 1–5.
    • Bonus material unknown at this time.
  • More Than Meets the Eye Volume 5 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
    More Than Meets the Eye Volume 5 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
  • More Than Meets the Eye Box Set – cover art by Marcelo Matere
    More Than Meets the Eye Box Set – cover art by Marcelo Matere
  • The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 5 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
    The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 5 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
  • The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 57: Remain in Light – cover art by Don Figueroa (Skids) and Alex Milne (Overlord)
    The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 57: Remain in Light – cover art by Don Figueroa (Skids) and Alex Milne (Overlord)
  • Krig och hågkomst – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
    Krig och hågkomst – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://traffic.libsyn.com/moonbase2/interview_alex.mp3 Moonbase2 interviews Alex Milne
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