Shadowplay, Part 2: Patternism

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Act Like A Prick To Catch A Prick.
"Shadowplay, Part 2: Patternism"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published October 31, 2012
Cover date October 2012
Story by James Roberts
Art by Alex Milne
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Chris Mowry
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

As Rewind's tale of the past continues, the senator murders lead Chromedome and Prowl to uncover the truth behind an urban legend, and Orion Pax to discover just how deep the corruption in the Senate runs.

Synopsis

On Cybertron, before the war, Roller flips between the latest news bulletins covering the murder of Senator Sherma and the death of Nominus Prime. Tensions are high as the deadline date for "Proteus's Promise" draws near, the vow made by Senator Proteus that the Decepticons will be recognised as a legitimate political party if 10,000 sign up with the Decepticon Registration Act. Then, an update on the missing Pious Maximus is interrupted by breaking news of a high-speed pursuit in Translucentica Heights...

In the present day, said pursuit is now the subject Rewind's story, with Chromedome describing how he followed the killer of Senator Momus in an aerial chase, which ended when the murderer collided with one of the reinforced glass walls of the region and exploded against a billboard. On his way back to the crime scene, Chromedome met the warden of Translucentica Heights, Red Alert, who was able to provide evidence that Momus was not killed by Decepticons—he was killed because he secretly was a Decepticon. Prowl's study of the crime scene quickly determined the involvement of a second killer, who then made himself known by opening fire. Pinned down and with Prowl never having seen combat before, the trio seemed doomed until the surprise appearance of Orion Pax, who brought the killer down, only for his Spark to collapse before he could be questioned.

Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus returns to the Lost Light from a reconnaissance mission, and is filled in by Rodimus on the mysterious attack on Red Alert, whose spark is faint but still pulsing. In a makeshift interrogation room converted from Perceptor's lab, Drift is trying to get a confession out of Cyclonus, but when things turn violent, Rodimus and Magnus have to step in. At that point a communique from First Aid clears Cyclonus, as the medic reports that he has discerned the killer's identity.

Before handing the story over to Whirl, Rewind explains that the ex-watchmaker was, at the time, incarcerated in Garrus-1 on Luna 2. When Ratchet points out that Whirl was in prison for assaulting Megatron, the event allegedly responsible for turning him "bad", Whirl furiously interrupts and quickly picks the story up, describing how he summoned Orion away from investigating the senator killings to give him a message. In hopes of revenge against the Senate for ruining his life, Whirl shared with Orion information from a cellmate about a Senate plot involving the death of Pax's senator friend and a bomb "hidden in plain sight". Orion left to act upon this information (leaving Whirl to be viciously beaten by his new cellmate Impactor just a few minutes later), sending Ratchet and Roller to the Academy of Advanced Technology, where trainee theoretician Skids watched them take Orion's senator friend into protective custody.

Narration returns to Chromedome, who prepares to recount how he and Prowl investigated the nearest Relinquishment Clinic, suspecting that the killers had been using borrowed bodies. Rewind is dissatisfied at Chromedome's decision to preface this with a recollection of how he and Prowl stopped to watch a Decepticon protest and talk about what they would do if war broke out on the way, hurrying him along to the events that took place in the clinic itself. While waiting in its lobby, Chromedome remembers how the pair saw a news report based on their findings that cleared the Decepticons of the murders, which left Prowl frustrated as the results were only preliminary. They were then met by clinic tech Trepan, who they easily pegged as squirrelly and promptly cuffed so they could investigate. The pair eventually found a secret facility beneath the clinic that Chromedome was horrified to realize was The Institute, a supposedly-fictitious government facility that practises a forbidden science—brainwashing so heinous it is known only as "Shadowplay". Accessing its mainframe and verifying it as the source of the bodies their killers were using, the pair took the data and absconded without incident, prompting Rewind to resume the position of storyteller and sum up how the pair met back up with Orion, Ratchet, Roller and the senator in Rodion. When the senator identified the list of names from The Institute as all those currently signed with the Decepticon Registration Act, Pax was able to put all the evidence he and his friends have gathered together. Proteus arranged the murders so that the Decepticons could expressly not be found guilty, thereby demonstrating his fairness and leading to a surge in registrants. The bomb mentioned by Whirl would then be pinned on the Decepticons as supposed proof of their "true colors", giving Proteus and Sentinel the excuse needed to use The Institute to brainwash all those registered. Chromedome lamented their lack of knowledge at the bomb's location, but a news report immediately provided the answer: it was the fake Matrix of Leadership in the chest of the deceased Nominus Prime, whose body was to be lain in state the next day. The course of action for Orion's team was clear: they had to steal the Matrix!

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

Autobots Others

Quotes

"You do read my memos, don't you, Rodimus?"
"If there's a reason not to, I've yet to find it. I read all your memos. And every one of your many, many reports. And since you're finally here, you can read one of mine."
"'We found Red Alert in the oil reservoir. No head. Pretty sure Cyclonus is to blame—obv. watch this space.'"
"'Obv' stands for obviously."
"No, I, er—I guessed that."

—Ultra Magnus and Rodimus


Tailgate: "No. Frikkin'. Way. Orion Pax landed on the guy's back? Where'd he even come from?"
Chromedome: "I always assumed he jumped off the roof, Tailgate. He did that sort of thing quite a lot."
Tailgate: "Pax is so cool."
Swerve: "More of this, please. More jumping off roofs. Rooves. Roofs. More jumping off things."


"Well, I hope I never get as jaded and cynical as you, Orion Pax."

-Prowl


Whirl: "It was Pax's fault I was in prison—"
Ratchet: "Rubbish! It was your fault you were in prison! Pax was the one who arrested you!" <to Tailgate> "Whirl attacked Megatron in his cell."
Tailgate: "But wasn't Megatron the main bad guy? Or... have I missed something very important?"
Ratchet: This was before he went bad. In fact, many say that the reason he went bad was—"
Whirl: HEY! Can I just tell my part of the story? It's only a frikkin' cameo as it is! Yeah? Yeah? Right."


"Five minutes. Ten if I hear him screaming."

—Garrus-1's warden, on letting Orion Pax visit Whirl


"The Senate mutilated me, got me to do their dirty work, and abandoned me. I want you to hurt them. I want you to crush them. I want—I want—I want my hands back."

—Whirl


Rewind: "Impactor?! Impactor was your cellmate?! That's how you met?! And—and I bet he promptly added your name to the list of warriors who would one day become... The Wreckers!"
Whirl: "No—he promptly beat me to the brink of fade-out and left me in a critical condition—and years later we met again."
Swerve: "But that's a whole other story. Sorry—I always wanted to say that. That, and 'Impossible! Our laserfire is just making him stronger!' Ahem. Go on..."

Notes

  • Kremzeek drinks reappear—in "juice box"-style this time.
  • We've linked Roller to his Generation 1 self in this article for convenience, but whatever relationship this character may or may not have to Prime's longstanding buggy-companion, we don't know it yet.
  • "Proteus's Promise" has been referenced in issues #8 and #9; here, we finally learn what it was.
  • The robot speaking out against Nominus's policies at the J.A.A.T. lectures on page 1 appears to be the placard-carrying NAIL protester from "The Death of Optimus Prime", who transformed himself to death in issue #1 of this series.
  • The speaker mentions racism based on whether you're forged or 'constructed', something Roberts first introduced in "Chaos Theory" (and is an idea he first came up with in Eugenesis).
  • And speaking of the J.A.A.T. lectures, the "A.A.T." part of the name refers to the Academy of Advanced Technology seen in this story. What the J stands for, we won't find out until next issue.
  • Fallout's alternate mode is a Thunderbolt fighter from Babylon 5.
  • The classic Generation 1 "tetrajet"—Cybertronian alternate mode of the Seekers in the Generation 1 cartoon—can be seen on the billboard "Fallout" crashes into.
  • Red Alert's body in Rewind's story is a Cybertronic adaptation of his original Generation 1 look, quite far removed from the bulky, rounded form he's wearing in the modern day.
  • One of the Decepticon tracts Red Alert finds is titled "The Illusion of Progress: Revisited", evidently a sequel to Megatron's earlier work, "Nominus Prime and the Illusion of Progress", mentioned in "Chaos Theory".
  • When the ultraviolet light is on in Senator Momus's suite, a small panel shows five puncture marks on the back of Red Alert's neck. As Chromedome explained in issue #8, mnemosurgery marks only show up under UV light, and the ideal entry point is from the back of the neck. As Trepan is later seen with the spiked finger-extrusions Chromedome has been shown to use in mnemosurgery in issues #8 and #3, it seems obvious this was the work of the Institute, presumably using Red in order to feed Chromedome and Prowl the required evidence. Seems Red Alert's paranoia about the organization as mentioned in his sessions with Rung from issue #5 was justified. All that from one inset panel, folks! Roberts, take a bow.
  • Speaking of Senator Momus, whilst his name could well be a reference to the ancient Greek deity, given James Roberts' noted predilection towards indie music it's more likely to be a reference to the eccentric Scottish musician who also uses the name.
  • Prowl's ability to "observe 800 moving objects and compute their direction of travel" is an ability from his original Transformers Universe profile.
  • A small statuette, plaque or screen-projection of some kind (it's tiny, it's hard to tell!) can be seen in Perceptor's lab, sporting the likeness of Nijika, the tiny female geisha droid that Perceptor's mind was transferred into in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Face of the Nijika".
  • Cyclonus mentions Rossum's Rule of Thirds in regards to Red Alert's survival. This would have to do with Rossum's Trinity, the designation for the three parts of the Cybertronian body (the brain module, spark, and transformation cog) that are interlinked such that damage to one can damage the others, mentioned in issue #3.
  • First Aid is seen working on a Diagnostic Drone, likely the same one that watched Red Alert visit Rung in issue #6.
  • Momus lived in hab suite 113, yet another of Roberts' references to issue #113 of the UK Marvel comic.
  • Whirl's cellmate is one of the trio of Senate enforcers who pay Pax a visit in "Chaos Theory Part 2". That story previously established Whirl's connection to that band of nogoodniks, as did the appearance of the trio's apparent leader in his flashback in issue #6.
  • Scrawled on the wall of Whirl's cell is the Wreckers' catchphrase, "Wreck 'n' Rule". However, since the Wreckers don't exist yet at this point in time, the implication might be that this is where Impactor picked up the phrase for later use.
  • Also written on Whirl's cell wall, and on a wall near the Decepticon protest, is "Free in 63", a similar message to one seen on Megatron's cell wall in "Chaos Theory," "Free in Cycle 63".
  • Whirl's brutalization of Megatron was previously chronicled in the first part of "Chaos Theory". Left unsaid in the comic itself, the fact that Impactor immediately beats Whirl up upon meeting him is obviously because of the fact that Impactor and Megatron were once friends.
  • Orion Pax's still-unnamed senator friend has had his color scheme completely overhauled in this issue, going from white, blue and gold to red, white and blue. We're not calling it an error, though, because like his namelessness, this is surely intentional for reasons we are not yet privy to...
  • The helmet Glitch is wearing in the scene of Roller and Ratchet arriving at the Academy is Doc Brown's brain-wave analyzer from Back to the Future.
  • Prowl's pacifism, and his promised attempt to leave Cybertron to escape a potential war, were alluded to back in "The Death of Optimus Prime", where it was revealed that he did try to leave, but didn't make it.
  • The main speaker at the Decepticon protest is the same 'bot seen getting branded with the Decepticon insignia in issue #3's montage of the war's beginnings. The vehicle he is standing on is in Constructicon green-and-purple; logical, given that the Decepticon movement at this time is largely made up of menial-class characters like them.
  • The Institute has been referred to several times in Roberts's work, stretching back to "Chaos Theory". At last, the mystery revealed!
  • All the 'bots we see working in the Institute can be divided into two general body types: Ones visually similar to Rung/Trepan/the Necrobot (possibly a neurologist/psychologist body type) and ones who resemble Quark, with microscope cylinders on the tops of their heads. This makes sense, as who else would a brain experimentation facility employ but mind specialists and scientists?
  • Pious Maximus, noted as having disappeared 18 months ago, shows up in one of the rooms of the Institute. Guess we know what happened to him.
  • The Institute also contains the bodies of numerous Empties from the Dead End. This seems to imply that Sonic and Boom from last issue, who were paid by a mysterious "them" to attack homeless residents of the Dead End, were actually hired by The Institute to bring them guinea pigs.
  • In the bottom left panel of page 19, Artist Alex Milne leaves a shoutout to series Colorist Josh Burcham: the glyphs beneath Fallout and Streaker's pictures spell out 'DCJOSH', Josh Burcham's chosen online handle.

Crew Manifest

  • Our bad. Red Alert's headless corpse but still functional body was recovered from the oil reservoir last issue.
  • 5 deaths, 5 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders) since the launch.

Errors

  • On page 11, panel 1, the word "foment" is misspelled as "forment." This was corrected in the TPB.
  • As Whirl mocks Chromedome for his history with Prowl on page 12, it's Skids who gets offended by it. The speech bubble was correctly assigned in the TPB.

Soundtrack

For the three-part "Shadowplay" story:

For this issue:

Covers (3)

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