Homecoming (IDW)

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« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #19 »
"Homecoming"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 3, 2013
Cover date July 2013
Written by John Barber
Art by Dheeraj Verma
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Chris Mowry
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2013)

On Gorlam Prime, Orion Pax's band crosses paths with Jhiaxus and his newest ally, Waspinator.

Synopsis

In a dingy bar somewhere in the universe, Waspinator is drowning his sorrows when he is approached by Jhiaxus and Bludgeon. He relates his tale to them, recounting his past as a Titan Hunter alongside Bludgeon, and how, long after Bludgeon had left the group, they finally succeeded in locating a Metrotitan. The ever-unfortunate Waspinator was the one to land the final blow on the Titan, causing it to panic and open a space bridge in an attempt to escape. Pulled along through time and space, Waspinator was set adrift when the Titan went offline in mid-transit, but after some time, he managed to gain control of the Titan's space bridge generation mechanism and returned to reality. Jhiaxus invites Waspinator to join his group, seeing a use for his Titan-controlling ability...

Following Jhiaxus's last taunting remark, Orion Pax and his group make their way to Gorlam Prime. Hardhead leads the team underground, filling them in on the planet's odd, sad history as a victim of Jhiaxus's experiments, and showing them an ancient subterranean city that he assumes Jhiaxus built. Pax, however, recognizes the architecture as being from the era of the Titans, before Jhiaxus's time. When Wheelie reaches out to touch one of the buildings, his arm immediately begins decaying and crumbling away, forcing Hardhead to blow his little buddy's arm off to stop the spread of the corrosion.

A proximity alarm from their ship brings the team back to the surface, where they find Waspinator being pursued by the Monstructor Six and quickly come to his aid. The six merge into Monstructor, who crushes their vessel, and as battle begins to rage, Waspinator explains that he was kidnapped by the six and brought to Gorlam Prime to help they take control of something dwelling beneath the planet. At Waspinator's prompting, Pax realizes that the buildings below are actually a Metrotitan in its city mode, and he is able to reactivate it as he once did with Metroplex in ages past. As the titan bursts out of the ground, however, Jhiaxus's ship suddenly appears in the sky overhead, and the scientist thanks Pax for awakening the giant for him. Gorlam Prime begins to disintegrate all around them, its equilibrium disrupted by the Metrotitan's transformation, as the decaying effect that struck Wheelie earlier is loosed to begin consuming the planet: the product of another of Shockwave's Regenesis ores, this one having been responsible for creating the portal to the Dead Universe that allowed Jhiaxus and his comrades to return all those years ago. Waspinator—actually Jhiaxus's willing servant—links himself to the Metrotitan and takes control of its space bridge, teleporting it away... to Cybertron. Jhiaxus and Bludgeon depart in their ship, leaving Pax's group to apparently face their end as Gorlam Prime crumbles... until Pax reveals that he hid his own ship, the Skyroller, under a ghost shield. With a vessel to carry them to safety, and an understanding of the components of Jhiaxus's plan, Pax tells the team that the time has come to return home.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Boss, we're about to get disintegrated. You got a Denuvian geri-rabbit to pull out of your servo-helmet?"
"What?"
"I dunno. You guys say stuff like that."

—Garnak and Hardhead


"And the, uh, the spreadin' death that's gonna, uh, death us ta death in a minute, boss?"

—Garnak

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Waspinator previously appeared among the Titan Hunters alongside Bludgeon in Spotlight: Thundercracker.
  • Optimus Prime awoke Metroplex from beneath Cybertron in Autocracy #10.
  • Gorlam Prime was a fixture of Simon Furman's time in charge of the IDW universe. Its complicated past is touched on in the most straighforward of terms; Hardhead recounts how Jhiaxus transformed its inhabitants into "little versions" of the Transformers, as seen in Spotlight: Nightbeat, and it is merely noted that the planet "fell" as a result of the war (specifically, its population was consumed by the D-Void during the events of Heart of Darkness).
  • It was in Heart of Darkness #2 that the mysterious city beneath Gorlam Prime's surface first appeared, here revealed to be a slumbering Metrotitan. A similar city was shown to exist on the planet Dykayra later in the series, but given that much of what went on there was later revealed to all be a farce constructed by the D-Void to trick Galvatron into doing its bidding, we can probably write that city off as part of said trick, and not another napping Titan.
  • The idea that Shockwave's Ore-2 is responsible for creating the portal to the Dead Universe on Gorlam Prime featured in Furman's stories seems to owe something to the events of "Chaos", in which it was established that regions of death could be used as crossover points between the dimensions (there, Cybertron itself was to be used to create portal big enough for the D-Void to use, viable for the task because the entire planet was dead). It is not that Ore-2 is specifically connected to the Dead Universe, but rather that its effect is to simply cause decay, thereby making the formation of a portal possible.
  • Hardhead attempts to tell Pax what the inhabitants of Gorlam Prime began calling the planet as their evolution continued, but Pax cuts him off. As mentioned in Spotlight: Sideswipe, they called it "Cybertron", in an all-but-forgotten nod to the potential parallel evolution Furman had hinted at between Gorlam Prime and the Transformers' homeworld early on. Where you goin' wit dis, Barber?
  • Optimus Prime is again referred to as the "true Matrix-bearer", as he was in issue #10.
  • Optimus notes that he tries to teach all his friends that a trap isn't a trap if you know you're walking into it. Indeed, Bumblebee mentioned having learned this lesson from him in #14.
  • Garnak had previously lost an eye in Syndromica (2), requiring an eyepatch. His possessing two eyes in this issue previously seemed to be an error, but John Barber revealed on his twitter account that Garnak has healing abilities and the eye patch aided in the healing process.

Transformers references

  • Waspinator calls the Monstructor Six "monsters", in a nod toward their original sub-group name, the Pretender Monsters.

Errors

  • Dheeraj Verma didn't seem to have access to much of a character model for Hardhead when drawing this issue, as he's really just a collection of rounded shapes, not looking much of anything like he has in the past.
  • When the Monstructor Six appear "pursuing" Waspinator, Birdbrain is colored like Bristleback.
  • On the following page, as the six combine, Icepick is colored like Slog, Birdbrain is colored like Icepick, and Slog is coloured like Bristleback.
  • The Metrotitan doesn't appear to be more than just a little taller than Monstructor when it should, of course, be absolutely colossal.

Covers (3)

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