Spotlight: Megatron

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« The Transformers: Spotlight: Megatron »
File:SLMegatron cvrA.jpg
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published February 6, 2013 (1st printing)
May 1, 2013 (2nd printing)
Cover date February 2013
Written by Nick Roche
Art by Nick Roche
Colors by Len O'Grady
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor John Barber
Assistant editor Thomas Boeing
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology "Ongoing" era, post-#13

Freshly reborn in his new body, Megatron confronts Starscream over the failure of his leadership.

Synopsis

Led through the Decepticons' meagre base complex by Soundwave, Megatron takes stock of both his new form, and the deplorable conditions the Decepticons have succumbed to in his absence, stranded on an asteroid with so little energy that they have resorted to cannibalizing each other's bodies. Parading before what remains of his troops, he attempts to reinvigorate them with an impassioned speech, but meets with little enthusiasm from the disheartened mechs. Shockwave proposes further testing of the space bridge nodes integrated into Megatron's new body, stolen from Metroplex, but Megatron rebuffs him, quietly suspicious of his motives, but also with a more important task in mind: confronting Starscream.

Approaching Starscream in his darkened throne room, Megatron finds that their meeting does not go as expected, with a timid, broken Starscream seizing Megatron's cannon and pointing at himself, ready to be killed by his reborn leader. Eager for the traditional sport he has come to expect from his treacherous lieutenant, Megatron continues to needle and taunt Starscream over his failures as a leader, his inability to employ the Matrix, and his spectacular destruction of the Decepticon infrastructure. At last, Starscream can take no more and opens fire on Megatron, but immediately realizes his mistake and flees, blasting his way out of the base and taking wing in jet mode. Having eked what he desired out of Starscream, Megatron transforms and pursues, engaging his subordinate in a dogfight across the asteroid. Starscream leads Megatron into a tunnel and collapses it on top of him, but this does little to stop the Decepticon leader, who bursts through the rubble and seizes the Seeker. Megatron asks if Starscream truly wishes to die, and Starscream replies in the positive, but Megatron refuses to grant him even that and taunts him further, causing Starscream's anger to flare and the battle to continue. The Decepticons assemble below to watch the fight as Megatron accuses Starscream of desiring punishment for his failures, and Starscream retorts that Megatron cannot possibly know what it was like for him: after desiring leadership for so long and finally gaining it, his dream was destroyed when he found he could not make the Decepticons obey him. This is the last straw for Megatron, however, who knows entirely too well what it is like to have a dream destroyed—the Decepticons, his dream, have been destroyed... by Starscream. Beaten to within an inch of his life, Starscream lays before Megatron's primed cannon and begs for the end, but Megatron will not deliver it, explaining the simple reason he has kept Starscream around all these years: in his greatest moments, Starscream's presence reminds him of his need to watch his own back. He offers Starscream the chance to return to the Decepticon ranks, and Starscream weakly accepts.

The battle done, the other Decepticons gather around the two combatants, and Megatron addresses them once more with bombast and rhetoric, promising retribution against the Autobots for their sorry state. As the cry of "All Hail Megatron!" rings out, Megatron looks upon his troops. Soundwave lurks, Shockwave plots, Starscream lives to scheme—the Decepticon house is in order once more, everything is as it should be, and victory is assured.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons

Quotes

"This Matrix, Starscream... was it everything we hoped it would be, all those years we pursued it? Did planets fall before you as you brandished it? Was victory a mere formality after tilting it back-and-forth under a strong light? Did your followers respect you simply by dint of you prancing around with it tassled to your neck? Of all the treachery you've peddled over the eons, Starscream... this spark-quenchingly wretched mess you've made of leadership is the most affronting."

—Megatron


"This is not you, Starscream! I don't expect a backbone, but I expect a viciousness, an acidity... some self-preservation! You want me to destroy you?"
"Yes..."
"You really want me to end this all, don't you?"
"Yes!"
"Well, think back on the last thing you really wanted, Starscream, and remember what an utter failure that was, too."

—Megatron and Starscream


"What a mess... should we stop them?"
"If you do, I'll teleport my fist inside your abdomen and wave."

—Windsweeper and Skywarp


"I free slaves. Implant ideology. I build them up. I liberate cities. I topple worlds. It takes eons. Then I slumber for three. Tiny. Years. And when I wake up, this is all I have left. Say it again. Say that I have no idea what it's like to see a lifetime's work destroyed and made mockery of. You and I have one thing in common... the person responsible for leaving both of our lives in tatters... is you."

—Megatron, to Starscream


"The Decepticons. A million years to create them. A thousand days to destroy them. A hundred words to rebuild them. Everything is as it should be."

—Megatron

Notes

  • This issue takes place during IDW's ongoing Transformers series. Chronologically, it would appear to occur right after Megatron's return in issue #13; that issue ended with Megatron requesting the Decepticons be assembled so he could address them, as at the start of this story, and also saw Starscream lose the Matrix, which he no longer has in this issue.
  • Like any good Marvel UK-er, Roche includes a reference to Megatron's rarely-seen ability to link up interdimensionally to a black hole, only ever used in-fiction in the Marvel UK stories "Raiders of the Last Ark" and "Resurrection!". It did get a previous mention in IDW continuity, though, in issue #22 of the ongoing, when Ratchet and Perceptor discussed it as an implausible rumor.
  • Continuing the common thread linking this new run of Spotlights, the space bridge technology that Megatron's new body contains is revealed to have been derived from Metroplex, who Megatron was shown to be searching for in Spotlights Orion Pax and Thundercracker. When and how the Decepticons obtained the tech, we do not yet know, but this probably explains why, when he appeared before in Spotlight: Metroplex and the Ironhide mini-series, Metroplex had to fly through space, instead of space bridging away as he did in Spotlight: Thundercracker—because the Decepticons have stolen the technology that allows him to do so.
  • A passing reference is made by Megatron to Soundwave's sneakery and general untrustworthiness, something that originates with the character's original bio, but never got a lot of face-time in fiction outside of, again, the Marvel UK comics. This side of Soundwave was actually a big part of his early portrayal in IDW continuity, back in Spotlight: Soundwave; Roche has brought it back to the fore after it fell by the wayside in All Hail Megatron and the ongoing, which opted to present the slavish Megatron loyalist of the Generation 1 cartoon.
  • Starscream's model in the comic appears to be based on his first Masterpiece series figure, as there are parts of his tailfins and fuselage are kibble hanging off of his hips.

Errors

  • Skywarp ought to be on Earth at this point in time, having chronologically last been seen at the end of the Bumblebee mini-series. Whether or not he was captured by Skywatch at the end of that story was left unclear, but it seems unlikely he could have reached this asteroid. Of course, he can teleport, and he was later seen with Megatron in part 5 of Revenge of the Decepticons.

Covers (4)

  • Cover A: Megatron amid space debris, surrounded by bits of Starscream, by Nick Roche and Len O'Grady
  • Cover B: Megatron illuminated by the light of his cannon, by Livio Ramondelli
  • Cover RI: Megatron by Clayton Crain
  • Cover RE: Megatron standing proud as Soundwave and Shockwave look on, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez, exclusive to Stadium Comics.
  • Second Printing: Cover A with a purple-tinged background

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