Chaos Theory Part 1
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| "Chaos Theory Part 1" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | July 20, 2011 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 2011 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | James Roberts | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Alex Milne | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Joana Lafuente | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Shawn Lee | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Andy Schmidt | ||||||||||||
| Assistant editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Current era (2011) | ||||||||||||
Why did Megatron surrender...?
Synopsis
On Cybertron, before the Great War, Megatron and Impactor are sitting in Maccadam's New Oil House, discussing Megatron's treatise that calls for non-violent direct action to bring about a revolution. A bar fight involving Rung soon attracts Impactor's violent attention, despite Megatron's protests.
Aboard Omega Supreme's rocket, Perceptor and Ratchet scan the captured Megatron for weapons. A paranoid Ratchet worries about a rumor that Megatron can siphon antimatter from a black hole and release it through his eyes. Perceptor finds his paranoia ridiculous and turns the Decepticon over to Optimus Prime. While Megatron is being investigated by the scientists, Optimus watches with Ironhide and Xaaron, who came from Kimia to see Megatron for himself and offer Wheeljack a position at Kimia. Optimus Prime questions Megatron's motives, wondering if his nemesis wants the war to be over as much as he does. Ironhide offers to handle the interrogation, but Prime considers Megatron as his responsibility and as his greatest failure.
In a police cell, Springarm, a police officer, checks Megatron's information and asks for his name and where he was created. Megatron asks of Impactor's whereabouts, learning that he is in a medical facility. However, the cadets he beat up are in a much poorer condition. Whirl enters with a Communicube to relieve Springarm and warns Megatron that things for him will not turn out well if the cadets expire.
Optimus Prime, alone and blocking out any prying eyes, engages Megatron in a "civilized conversation". After being released of his restraints and taking a seat, Megatron enquires about his troops back on Earth, but Prime tells him to focus on the current topic. Megatron elaborates on the constants of his millions of years of war and conquering: hate, created in his stay in prison thanks to an Autobot, and Optimus Prime. Megatron does not hate Prime himself, just what he represents and the barriers he creates for Megatron's ambition. Megatron asks Optimus if he hates him; the question is first answered with a yes, but Optimus takes it back. "Hate" is too simple a word—it may sustain Megatron, but he is lessened by it. Megatron mocks Prime's rhetoric and claims to know the Autobot leader all too well. Optimus tires of the conversation, but Megatron points out that the war has changed; things are speeding up. Optimus asks him what victory is to him. It is dominion over the lesser species, the Autobots vanquished, and a new Golden Age—peace through tyranny. Optimus attempts to compare the two's desires for peace, but Megatron refuses to accept the parallel. Optimus has done nothing for his goal, while Megatron fought to address the injustice in their society. Optimus asks when the two first met, leading into the two recalling their battles over the years. Optimus wishes for Megatron's help in ending the war, but he refuses.
The Autobot High Command convenes to discuss the situation with Megatron. Xaaron wants to make sure that there is a proper public and independent trial. Prowl agrees and Ultra Magnus suggests Chief Justice Tyrest, seen as neutral by the Galactic Council. The conversation turns to the death sentence, but Bumblebee fears making Megatron a martyr and turning away from the Autobots' principles. The ultimate decision, however, rests with Optimus Prime. Rodimus doubts whether Optimus can make the right decision and points out that, although there was no visual showing of the conversation between Optimus and Megatron, the audio feed was not shut down and everyone heard the cozy recall of memories. Prime is livid, and soon sits alone in despair.
In a police cell, Whirl savagely beats Megatron for supposedly crippling his cadet friends and threatens to kill the prisoner, planning to claim self-defense. He notes his death will mean nothing. Before Whirl can carry out the threat, Springarm stops him, horrified at what Whirl has done. The prisoner is released under orders and Megatron is escorted to see the police captain, Orion Pax. Pax had read Megatron's treatise and surmised that he was not prone to violence and the bartender's evidence backed this up. Orion tells Megatron that, though he doesn't agree with the entirety the treatise, he is glad someone is voicing their concerns and encourages Megatron to keep it up.
Annoyed, Optimus Prime returns to Megatron's cell and demands to know why he surrendered. The Decepticon is obtuse, telling him to rephrase the question. Optimus rants at Megatron, laying singular blame on him for millennia of conflict, the billions of lives ruined, and their race on the edge of extinction. Again, Megatron insists that Prime rephrase his question, and Optimus Prime asks if Megatron feels even the slightest remorse. The answer is "no"; Megatron's only regret is that he didn't do more while he had the chance, that he didn't kill even more. He will always respond by killing on an industrial scale, he will do anything to murder every single Autobot, and doing so will give him great pleasure. Megatron turns the conversation on Optimus Prime, stating that the war made Prime who he is now, and that he should be grateful to Megatron for starting it. Optimus realizes Megatron's attempts to bring out anger, but nevertheless activates the variable voltage harness. From the audience, Rodimus observes sternly. Recovering, Megatron tells Prime that they first met in Rodion and thanks him for what happened back then.
Leaving the cell, Optimus Prime tells Omega Supreme that he should have cut the power to the harness. Omega explains that he did and that, had he not, Megatron would likely be dead.
Outside the Rodion police station, Springarm bids farewell to Megatron and hands back his non-violent treatise on Cybertronian society. Megatron looks at it briefly before smashing it through a large screen. He walks away with fresh determination and a new perspective.
Featured characters
(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"They say he can use this weird inter-dimensional circuity to syphon anti-matter from... from a black hole. You know, in space. So."
"With respect, Ratchet, that sounds—that just sounds stupid."
- —Ratchet and Perceptor
"So. How are we going to play this? Are we going to spend the next hour posturing, or are we going to rise to the occasion and actually have a civilised conversation?"
"'Rise to the occasion'? What is this, a summit meeting? I'm bolted to the wall, I'm riddled with inhibitor chips, and I'm precisely one rash gesture away from being electrocuted to death. It's hardly conducive to a frank exchange of views."
"Fair point. [unbolts] Take a seat."
- —Optimus and Megatron
"I look back over the last four million years and recognize that there have been only two constants: hate... and you."
- —Megatron
"Look me in the eye and say you want it ended, and it will end."
- —Optimus
"Do you even feel the slightest remorse?"
"No."
- —Optimus and Megatron
"Understand this. So long as you stand in my way- so long as anybody stands in my way, I will respond by killing. Murder on an industrial scale. Because in the final analysis, I would happily wade across a river of corpses, chest-deep in rust and grease and engine oil, just to crush the spark of the last Autobot standing. And I would do so not simply as a means to an end, no. I'd do it, Prime, because it would give me pleasure."
- —Megatron
Notes
- JAMES ROBERTS!
- This was originally going to be a one-shot with Chaos as a mini-series. But the ongoing sells more than one-shots and minis, so in they went to the ongoing! (This is why the series ended on #31 and not #25.)[1] Other early plans were that it would be set on Earth, the Decepticon Justice Division were going to attack, and Impactor would turn out to have been visiting Megatron in his cell. [2]
- The flashbacks takes place before Megatron Origin and fill in a lot of details that the miniseries left out: namely, why Megatron is already so angry and willing to turn to violence.
- Impactor and Megatron are sitting in Maccadam's NEW Oil House.
- The "Knights of Cybertron" that are mentioned were going to be in a Mike Costa plot after "Chaos", but he never got into the idea; it was handed over to James Roberts.[3]
- Ratchet and Perceptor are discussing a superpower that Megatron was given in his original bio... and which almost every single G1 story since has ignored. Probably because, as Perceptor notes, throwing a black hole around is a little too silly. Ratchet talking about it as "the thing with the eyes" is apparently a reference to the story "Resurrection!", in which Megatron used said power to channel antimatter through his eyes.
- On a related note, Ratchet worrying about the rumors of said superpower seems at odds with his later establishment in Roberts' More Than Meets the Eye ongoing as a rationalist with no time for myths and legends. Roberts clarified [4] that Ratchet's concern over this particular urban legend was due to its being, to someone with his limited background in physics, relatively scientifically plausible. Perceptor, meanwhile, as a professional scientist, immediately sees it for the nonsense it is.
- Some graffiti in Megatron's cell reads "peace through tyranny", the motto from his original bio.
- Megatron correcting the guard on his name seems to be a reference to how Bob Budiansky came up with the actual name: combining the words "megaton" and "electron."
- The free lab on Kimia that Xaaron mentions is Ironfist's old one.
- That's right, another IDW-created interim Prime! Nominus Prime comes before Sentinel Prime.
- This is the first time we hear of racism shown by forged robots against those 'constructed cold'; this is an idea Roberts came up with in Eugenesis. Cybertron used to have apartheid based on your origin, which was supposed to no longer matter near the end of Nominus' reign (but obviously still does).
- The Transformers are established as a pariah race, shunned by the intergalactic community and Galactic Council.
- The montage of war scenes include: Stormbringer, Infiltration, "Spotlight: Arcee", Drift, Escalation, "Spotlight: Kup", "Spotlight: Shockwave", Ironhide, Devastation, "...For All Mankind", Last Stand of the Wreckers, and Heart of Darkness.
- The battles recalled by Prime and Megatron include one at Sherma Bridge (a nod to the infamous Sherman Dam punchup), the Siege of Massunstrad, their relatively recent battle in Brasnya, the Vorsk Offensive, Rada Mor, and the Battle for Hell's Point.
- The variable voltage harness comes from the original Marvel comics. Also mentioned are Pathblasters, communicubes and Shanix from the Marvel UK comics.
- The Tremorcons mentioned are from Roberts' "Bullets", while Rung is from the "Last Stand of the Wreckers" Autopedia profiles.
- Based on his recollections of near-death experiences, Escalation apparently wasn't the first time Megatron had taken on a gun alternate mode.
- The plot element of Optimus and Megatron having met before the war, and the former agreeing with the latter's ideals, is reminiscent of another Optimus Prime and Megatron. However, Nick Roche has said that Roberts hasn't read Exodus.
- On page 17, a Diagnostic Drone-like drone appears.
- The screen that Megatron throws his treatise through ends up with a hole the shape of the Decepticon insignia.
Errors
- Jazz is seen amongst the Autobots who are viewing the captive Megatron, but issue #25 will establish that he should currently be on Earth.
- Both Megatron Origin and "Spotlight: Blurr" had a pre-Prime Optimus sporting a body clearly inspired by Orion Pax. Here, before either story, Optimus is already in his usual Cybertronian Optimus Prime form. This would later be remedied in Spotlight: Orion Pax.
- Despite Megatron's recollection of being trapped in a gun alt-mode after the Battle for Hell's Point, Prime's recollection of the fight shows Megatron having the Don Figueroa-designed body that transforms into a Cybertronian tank. It is, of course, possible that Megatron was forced to withdraw and swap alt-modes in the midst of that battle, only to return later.
- The notion of Optimus and Megatron having their first (or second) meeting at Sherma Bridge would essentially be retconned away by Autocracy. Chalk it up to Megatron switching the subject, perhaps?
- In the first panel Impactor either has a normal right hand which later transforms or his drill attachment is mis-colored.
Covers (3)
- Cover A: Megatron's current head; art by Alex Milne and colors by Josh Perez.
- Cover B: Megatron's head from Megatron Origin; art by Milne and colors by Perez.
- Cover RI: Both half-heads combined into one time-spanning B&W super head; art by Milne.
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