Shadowplay (Conclusion): An Intimate Beheading

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #11
"Shadowplay (Conclusion)
An Intimate Beheading"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published November 21, 2012
Cover date November 2012
Story by James Roberts
Pencils by Alex Milne
Inks by Juan Castro, Alex Milne and John Wycough
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

Rewinds tale reaches its climax, as Orion Pax leads a daring heist for the Matrix.

Synopsis

On Cybertron, before the war... Orion Pax and his team prepare for their attempt to steal the explosive replica of the Matrix of Leadership hidden within the body of Nominus Prime in the Primal Basilica. Incredulous, Prowl refuses to get involved, but promises not to blow the whistle on Pax if he keeps Prowl's parter Chromedome out of the action. As Prowl departs, Chromedome and Roller return from the Academy of Advanced Technology with three of its students selected by Pax's senator friend to help in the heist, all "outliers" possessed of special powers: the technology-disrupting Glitch, the magnetic Windcharger and the super-learner Skids.

Aboard the Lost Light, Rewind's story takes a short break so Ratchet can check on the progress of the still-unresponsive Rung. Swerve pilfers some especially hard "Nightmare Fuel" liquor from Trailbreaker and begins dishing it out, jokingly getting Rung's name wrong and being warned by Ratchet that he particularly hates that. Everyone settles down as Chromedome gets back to his part of the story, describing his visit to the workshop of Iacon Mechaforensics ballistics expert and Primal Vanguard fanboy Ironfist, from whom he obtained a replica Matrix they could swap the bomb out for. Ratchet interrupts for a moment to recount an exchange between him, Roller and Pax that followed, as Roller attempted to warn Pax of various questionable activities his senator friend was involved in, including the recruitment and modification of other Autobots in addition to Pax himself, but Pax would not hear it.

In the Lost Light medibay, Rodimus balks at First Aid's diagnosis of Red Alert's comatose state as the result of attempted suicide. Ultra Magnus attempts to restrain him as he grows angrier, accidentally gouging large dents in his arms that shock him into relaxing. Magnus proposes putting Red Alert in cold storage until their circumstances are more conducive to his mental well-being, and with Drift's agreement, Rodimus sadly does so.

The story of the heist continues, with Ratchet describing how each of the outliers used their special powers to help penetrate the Primal Basilica while Chromedome and Roller remained behind to guard the senator. Their approach hidden from the Sky Spy network thanks to Roller's hacking skills, Windcharger magnetically levitated the team over the heads of the Triorian Guard of Triple Changers standing watch at the Basilica, while Glitch deactivated the security systems so that Skids could (indignantly) lower Pax into position with his grappling hook. Discovering that the Matrix-bomb was locked in place, Pax switched places with Ratchet, whose incredible hands picked the locks with ease. Things almost went south when Glitch patted Skids on his back, jamming his winch and causing Ratchet to drop the bomb, but Windcharger saved the day by magnetically preventing its fall. The theft successfully completed, the team departed, but, having not been contacted by Roller at the appointed time, Pax sped on ahead to investigate; Chromedome takes over the story to describe Pax's return, just in time to find that Senate thugs Kroma, Macabre and the Heavies had attacked their safehouse. Pax took out one of the Heavies, but when Kroma held his gun against Roller's head and proposed an exchange, the senator agreed to go with him. The remaining Heavy, Anvil, remained behind to finish off Pax, but Pax used the Matrix-bomb to destroy his attacker, then unearthed Chromedome from the rubble to lead him to The Institute, figuring Kroma had taken the senator there. Alas, they discovered it was deserted—because despite its name, it was not unique. The senator had potentially been taken to any one of hundreds of hidden facilities, lost to them.

Such is the end of the story: not a happy one, but an ending nonetheless. Tailgate has a few remaining questions, which Rewind answers: Proteus did not keep his promise, and much to Tailgate's surprise, Orion Pax became Optimus Prime. Sadly, Rung remains non-responsive, but when alarms suddenly begin blaring throughout the ship, and everyone heads for battle stations, Skids decides to try one last thing: he leans close to Rung, and deliberately mispronounces his name several times. Quietly, the psychiatrist awakens and corrects him.

On Cybertron, before the war... Orion Pax is approached by another of the senator's recruits, Zeta. And elsewhere, in one of the many Institutes, two staffers talk about the newest victim of Shadowplay: a senator who is also being subjected to the head-and-hand replacement ritual known as empurata. A senator...

...named Shockwave.

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

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Sorry, Swerve, I need the secret password."
"Sigh. 'Whirl is a million billion times tougher than Cyclonus.'"
"You may enter."
"Jeez, Whirl, even I think that password's immature, and I glued Tailgate to his recharge slab the other day..."

—Whirl and Swerve


"Okay, they've wired it in like a tamper-proof fuel pump. A 440—the mother of all fuel pumps. If I put a finger wrong, it'll explode."
"In that case don't do anything. Not even you can disable a 440 by hand."
"Pax, I think you're amazing, but that is the most ham-fisted attempt at reverse psychology I've ever heard."

—Ratchet and Orion Pax


"Ooh! Ooh! What about Orion Pax? What happened to him?"
"Orion Pax...?"
"He was great! I really liked him. 'I trust him, Roller. End of conversation.' I'm gonna start saying stuff like that."
"Tailgate—Orion Pax became Optimus Prime. They're the same person. I thought you knew that."
"What?! (holds up picture of Prime) You mean this is Orion Pax? Well, I'm floored. I did not see that coming."

—Tailgate and Rewind

Notes

  • The heist this issue is about was alluded to in a conversation between Skids and Chromedome back in issue #8.
  • Notice how Chromedome is never referred to by name on the first page; from part 1, we know he had a different name before he was "Chromedome", and here, he's only referred to as Prowl's "partner" (in turn indirectly furthering the obvious "romantic" implication between the two characters). This is because it's an impartial flashback, not part of Rewind's story (since it's a conversation between two characters not on the Lost Light); he is called "Chromedome" elsewhere during the story since Rewind asked him to minimize confusion by doing so back in part 1.
  • Trailbreaker is among the outliers, unnamed but rather obviously identifiable from his description as a truck who generates forcefields. When talking about Trailbreaker on the following page, Swerve calls him "Trailcutter", an alternate name developed by Hasbro after the loss of the trademark to the original, and noted in the More than Meets the Eye annual to be an alternate name the character uses in-universe.
  • "Nightmare Fuel" is a term coined by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and popularized by the website TV Tropes to describe horrifying scenes in fiction. The Liege Maximo is pictured on the bottle's label.
  • Chromedome remarks that he is unable to make the derisive "Pfft" noise Swerve utters. Logically, that'd be because he doesn't have any lips!
  • Tailgate has to make a "who's who" page to keep track of everyone in the story, just like the "Meet the Crew" features in the back of every issue of More than Meets the Eye.
  • In his younger days, Skids had a miniature Matrix "tattooed" on his cheek, just as Springarm did in "Chaos Theory". Pax remarks on the similarity.
  • The power booster rod was an Autobot tool famous for being stolen by the human criminal the Mechanic in issue #26 of the original Marvel comic. Chromedome can be seen idly using it for its intended purpose of easily lifting heavy items.
  • The Primal Vanguard is the detachment to which Tailgate belonged, which has been mentioned a few times in More than Meets the Eye. The user of the bomb disposal kit Ironfist is so excited about is not named, but is almost certainly Tailgate himself.
  • Ironfist's looking a little different that he will when we chronologically see him next in Last Stand of the Wreckers. Based on the helmet we can see in the background of his lab, he obviously modified his own noggin to look like a Primal Vanguard helmet.
  • Ironfist shows Chromedome the image of a robot named Crosscut, trapped in the Forever Glass of Moldavite VI. This could be potentially the fourth Crosscut to exist—there's the Japanese-original Autobot, the Marvel Decepticon, a member of the Decepticon Justice Division that the Decepticon Crosscut is often mistaken for (according to his profile in the Last Stand of the Wreckers hardcover), and now this guy. It is, of course, extremely possible that this Crosscut could be one of the others; being that this is Roberts, who doesn't toss this stuff around casually, it's almost a certainty.
  • Among Ironfist's memorabilia is a spare drill belonging to Borebit.
  • We see that Ironfist has always had a fondness for writing about his heroes; his Wreckers: Declassified datalogs had a predecessor in his monographs about the Primal Vanguard. We couldn't possibly imagine what it's like to write endlessly about our hobbies in minute detail, no sir.
  • Pax's senator friend is noted to be on speaking terms with the Omega Guardians, the enigmatic protectors of the Magnificence who have only previously appeared in Spotlight: Hot Rod.
  • The Primal Basilica is decorated with statues of the Guiding Hand and the Aligned continuity family design of Prima.
  • In addition to Blitzwing himself, one of the Triorian Guard is another guy sharing Blitzwing's body, coloured like his Diaclone toy.
  • The Heavies, previously seen in Whirl's flashback in issue #6, reappear, along with their multi-coloured handler, whose name is revealed to be Kroma. One of the Heavies is named "Anvil"; we'd hazard a guess the other's "Hammer".
  • Kroma and the Heavies are accompanied by Decepticon assassin Macabre, made famous by his one-shot appearance in the Marvel UK epic, Target: 2006. We've already seen, through Last Stand of the Wreckers, that he'll go on to lead Squadron X in IDW continuity.
  • Following a crack made early in the issue by Skids about the Academy of Advanced Technology never being referred to by its fully name, we find out at the end of the story that it's the Jhiaxian Academy, after Jhiaxus. This indicates that it's the "J.A.A.T." mentioned last issue, and is a big clue to the true identity of the senator, as we've known since Spotlight: Doubledealer that Shockwave was a student of Jhiaxus's, obviously having studied under him at the academy before he left Cybertron.
  • "Empurata", first mentioned in issue #6 and a few times since, is at last revealed to be a process by which criminals have their heads and hands removed and replaced. Whirl's reference to its persuasive power in issue #6, coupled with his lament about the loss of his hands last issue, now make a horrifying amount of sense. Glitch would also appear to have suffered through the process.

Crew Manifest

  • The still-living Red Alert is put into cold storage.
  • 5 deaths, 5 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders) since the launch.

Errors

Covers (3)

  • Skids and Ratchet are in the original art, but are hidden under the logo.
    Skids and Ratchet are in the original art, but are hidden under the logo.

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