Tales of the Fallen issue 2

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« Transformers: Tales of the Fallen #2 »
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 10, 2009
Cover date September 2009
Written by Simon Furman
Pencils by Carlos Magno
Colors by Moose Baumann & Josh Perez
Letters by Chris Mowbry
Editor Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor Carlos Guzman
Associate editor Denton J. Tipton
Continuity Movie continuity

Sideswipe risks becoming the very thing he's fighting against.

Synopsis

Demolishor could have hit any Autobot colony, but he chose the one that Sideswipe was tasked with defending. Sideswipe failed to stop him, and is now determined to get brutal revenge on the Decepticon... leading him to Earth, where he tears his way through the highways of Montevideo to reach his foe!

Admiral Morshower is distinctly unimpressed when Optimus Prime informs him that this vicious new arrival is an Autobot: the deal with the Autobots was there would be no grey areas. Optimus tells him that they'll handle it, and NEST's techies pinpoint the new arrivals crossing into Argentina. A joint strike team is ordered to ready itself, and Optimus makes it clear that if Sideswipe won't stand down he'll be... dealt with. Ironhide speaks up when he hears this, requesting to have first crack at trying to bring him into line: he trained Sideswipe, he used to be like him once, and he knows he's an asset NEST can use. Optimus gives him one hour's grace...

On his way to reach Sideswipe, Ironhide remembers a time when the two of them were locked in combat... and his student broke rank despite an order to fall back, declaring his teacher had become conventional and he'd grown beyond him. Meanwhile, Sideswipe enters Ezeiza International Airport, Buenos Aires: he's tracked Demolishor to this location, but has no idea why the Decepticon would be hiding here. Deciding the Decepticon is waiting for reinforcements, he charges into the airport and storms about the hangers looking for him...

And Demolishor attacks! But while the Decepticon is both fast and strong, Sideswipe is faster and deliberately makes his foe mad, knowing anger will make him careless and that will make him more vulnerable. However, while the hangers gets trashed, Sideswipe is unable to land the finishing blow... and then Ironhide arrives, and Sideswipe realises the Decepticon was waiting for more Autobots to arrive so he can achieve a greater kill-count! This achieved, the Decepticons rolls out into Buenos Aires; Sideswipe moves to pursue, not caring when Ironhide points out the Decepticons wants a battle in the city so it will cause massive collatoral damage. They both yell at each other, Ironhide pointing out Sideswipe is too reckless and Sideswipe accusing him of just having wounded pride... but it leaves a mark when the older Autobot points out Sideswipe's crossing the line into becoming just like the enemy.

Demolishor is tearing up Buenos Aires to goad the Autobots and Sideswipe takes the bait, leaving Ironhide to try and shelter civilians as best he can. The two rivals come at each other with intent to kill... but the Argentine Air Force is entering the fray, and thanks to Sideswipe all three Transformers are seen as hostiles! The missile salvo stops the battle and downs all three Transformers, and Sideswipe finally recognises—and respects—the humans.

Luckily, Optimus Prime and NEST have arrived, calling in for the Air Force to back off. Demolishor hobbles off declaring there'll be another battle of his choosing, and Sideswipe fights off his urge to pursue and gets medical aid for Ironhide instead. His teacher was right: he'd stepped over the line. There are lessons still to be learned...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"The enemy cares nothing for the local lifeforms or their fragile world. Neither do I."

—Sideswipe, one of the heroic Autobots. Seriously.

Errors

  • In his first appearance in the comic, Demolishor is drawn pains-takingly toy-accurate, with wheels formed from his folded out treads and no fingers on his shovel-hands. However, when he shows up again later, he's instead drawn the way he appears in the movie, with fingers and separate tires.
  • It is a bit odd that Sideswipe has been given a massive rivalry with the guy he didn't kill at Shanghai.
  • The entire incident here makes the idea that the government is still able to cover up the existence of Cybertronians on Earth by the time of Revenge of the Fallen even less convincing.

Items of note

  • Occurs before the film. The specific date given is November 17, 2008. As Morshower is Chairman at the time, he must have been appointed to the role by Obama's anonymous predecessor.
  • This is the first mention that, following the loss of Cybertron, the Autobot diaspora set up colonies to live on.
  • The idea of a colony's protector being the only one left standing following its destruction, driven by it to get vengeance, has been used in Transformers fiction before.
  • Optimus is clearly prepared to terminate Sideswipe for the sake of human relations.
  • Similarly, with all those cars he's smashing about, we can safely assume Sideswipe's killed someone.
  • Hey, is that a colourless Devastator in the flashback on page 9?
  • Now that we know Demolishor deliberately hides so large forces will come looking for him and he can kill them, the film's opening scene is a bit more sinister...
  • NEST is able to contact the Argentine Air Force and get it to stand down because it has men on the ground, which is strange (all the Argentines can see are big robots in their capital!) unless the Argentine military has some awareness of the Autobots and what NEST does.
  • When NEST arrives after Demolishor has left, Bumblebee is with them, even though he left NEST to go back to Sam before Sideswipe came to Earth.

Covers (3)

Let's see what you can see...

This article is in need of images.

  • Cover A: Sideswipe and Ironhide by Alex Milne
  • Cover B: Sideswipe & Ironhide in action by Carlos Magno and colors by Josh Perez
  • Cover RI: Virgin cover of cover A


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