Onyx Interface Part Three: ONoffON

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"Onyx Interface Part Three:
ONoffON"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published January 14, 2015 (iBooks)
January 21, 2015 (print)
Cover date January 2015
Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith
Colors by Josh Perez & Thomas Deer
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era

Unexpected alliances are forged as Prowl and Spike join forces to obtain the Enigma of Combination, and Arcee and Galvatron find some common ground.

Synopsis

At the Earth Defense Command's Bikini Atoll base, Sanjay Bharwaney contacts Marissa Faireborn to let her know that Thundercracker is circling in the sky above. Faireborn is busy dealing with Garrison Blackrock and has little time for Thundercracker's eccentricities, and simply cautions that he not be allowed to discover the army of Ramjet and Thrust drones being manufactured being the base.

In Tokyo, Arcee finds herself caught between Galvatron's Decepticons and the Constructicons... but just as it looks like she's about to pick a side in the fight, she instead takes flight on Sideswipe's borrowed jetpack, Jimmy Pink still in hand. Galvatron pursues her, knocking Jimmy from her hands and into the waiting clutches of Buzzsaw, then dragging her into the upper atmosphere and slamming her into a satellite. Arcee retaliates by grabbing the Decepticon leader and flying at high speed back towards the planet, dropping him on the Australian outback at terminal velocity, but the impact does little to harm Galvatron. As he emerges from the crater his landing has made, it becomes clear that fighting is not his intention: he merely wants to talk to Arcee in private.

Hiding in a wood with Spike Witwicky, Prowl receives an update on the fight from Scavenger—whom he once again accidentally refers to as "Scrapper", only to deny doing so a moment later—and orders him break off the fight and converge on his position. Prowl and Spike's conversation then resumes: Spike believes that Prowl forgives him because he now understands that Spike was fighting for his species' preservation, but Prowl explains his reasons are not so empathetic. In actuality, he understands Spike's actions because he now sees how truly destructive the Transformer race is, and wants Spike's help to recover the Enigma of Combination, which will somehow "stop" their ever-continuing conflict. As a final prod to convince Spike to help him, Prowl reveals that Galvatron killed his father.

As Faireborn, Blackrock and Jones arrive at the Onyx Wanmu facility, Blackrock continues talking about the history of human civilization, going so far as to claim that Gilgamesh, Earth's first hero, is his ancestor, and that his family name derives from the walls of "black rock" he erected to protect the city of Uruk. Civilization was born, Blackrock explains, from the effects of the Enigma of Combination, uniting minds and ideas, just as it would do all throughout history, with his family line always there to reap the benefits. Following the arrival of Cybertronians on Earth, Blackrock realised the Enigma's origin, and began collecting Cybertronian artifacts, which he now displays in a huge "trophy room" that he guides Jones and Faireborn through.

Galvatron talks of the Enigma to Arcee, and of Jhiaxus's attempts to resurrect aspects of lost Cybertronian history—including, he implies, the mad scientist's experiments on Arcee herself. Claiming that Prowl was responsible for Daniel Witwicky's death, and professing such moral degradation is an inevitable result of the process of combination's erasure of mental individuality, Galvatron convinces Arcee to temporarily join forces in order to foil Prowl's plans by destroying the Enigma. Together, the pair head for the top of Mount Fuji, where Jimmy Pink is being held aboard a Decepticon shuttle.

Aboard the Ark-7, Kup chews out Sideswipe for letting Arcee take his jetpack, lamenting the loss of the good old days of clearer morality. Sideswipe shifts blame onto Sky Lynx, who took Prowl and the Constructicons to Earth in the first place, but Sky Lynx whines that Prowl bribed him with high-grade Engex, and believes that he wouldn't do anything really bad.

Concurrently putting the lie into Sky Lynx's words, Prowl, Spike and the Constructicons cross the Wanmu Reservoir, closing on the Onyx facility. The Constructicons lie about Jimmy being safe with Arcee, eager to take their revenge on Spike, but Prowl keeps them in check, and provides Spike with a stealth polymer coating to allowing him to slip into the Onyx base unseen. Sneaking in through the vents, Spike eavesdrops on Blackrock, Faireborn and Jones's conversation, and spies the Enigma in the trophy room below. As news comes in from Cosmos that the Decepticons' shuttle is approaching their position, Prowl has him scramble communications in the area, and then combines with the Constructicons into Devastator to launch a direct attack on the Onyx facility. Tearing into the base, his true intention is made clear: the alliance with Spike has been a sham to get the Enigma, and he's still as determined to kill the human as ever. Blackrock, however, is unfazed by the sudden attack, and at the press of a button, he activates the drone army beneath Bikini Atoll, which rockets into the sky and heads straight for Wanmu!

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans Others

Quotes

"Someday, after you all get yourselves killed, I'll really miss these tête-à-têtes. For now, let's agree to... actually, you know what? None of this is my problem. Have fun, idiots."

—Arcee decides not to help the Constructicons


Jones: "E.D.C. is securing the situation in Tokyo. No fatalities, somehow."
Faireborn: "Gah."
Blackrock: "That bothers you?"
Faireborn: "Only because it means that somehow Prowl might actually be in control."


"You sent the Enigma to Earth? Smooth move, old man. How's that working out?"
"I see why Jhiaxus liked you."
"Well, I hated him."
"We have many things in common."

—Arcee and Galvatron


Faireborn: "You talk to us like a James Bond supervillain and now, what—you expected this?"
Jones: "Is this all your mad scheme to rule the world"?
Blackrock: "No, all that stuff was a relatively lonely trillionaire trying to impress two ladies who aren't impressed by money."
Jones/Faireborn: "Ew."

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Prowl talks about his past as "a cop", referring to his time in mechaforensics seen in More than Meets the Eye's "Shadowplay" trilogy, and after that, his stint as a security officer in Sentinel Prime's forces in Megatron: Origin. Curiously, he mentions recognizing the corruption within the system, and claims to have helped "take down" the system; the extent of the implications here are unclear, but it suggests that he may have actually joined Sentinel's security forces to help taken down the post-Nominus system down from within. At the very least, we do know that Sentinel Prime had a sub-faction of loyalists within the Senate who did not agree with the rest of its members, so perhaps this is the internal revolution Prowl hints at.
    • This might also refer to the overthrow of Zeta Prime as shown in Autocracy. That story takes place after Sentinel Prime has been killed and his successor Zeta Prime has become a brutal tyrant, while a pre-Prime Orion Pax and his Autobot soldiers (Prowl, Bumblebee, Ironhide, etc.) still serve under Zeta Prime's command. Prowl was part of Orion Pax's team when they joined forces with Megatron to remove Zeta Prime from power. Naturally, they were immediately betrayed by Megatron after Zeta Prime was killed, so this could be what Prowl is referring to when he says, "Megatron turned our revolution into a grab for power."
  • Prowl also notes that, in the process, he "lost everything... everyone", which is hard not to interpret as a reference to his failed relationship with Chromedome; his joining the security forces was the impetus for their break-up, as noted in More than Meets the Eye #36. After that, he goes on to say he "almost walked away"—he'd previously detailed a failed attempt to escape the war in The Death of Optimus Prime.
  • Recognizable objects in Blackrock's "trophy room" include: Ramjet's disembodied head, last seen in Megatron's possession after he dismembered the traitorous Seeker in Spotlight: Ramjet; Thrust's charred body, removed from the burning building it was left in in Spotlight: Prowl; the remains of a Mini-Constructicon (probably not the one Spike killed in issue #35, since its head is intact); a white lamborghini that is probably one of the Machination's Sunstreaker clones; and a space bridge which Blackrock says he found in Mesa Verde National Park, which identifies it as the one the Decepticons used to return to Cybertron in Spotlight: Bumblebee. See also "Transformers references", below.
  • While talking with Arcee about Jhiaxus, Galvatron remarks "we lost much from the ancient days", his words implying that the scientist's experiments on Arcee were to "restore" of an element of the Cybertron of old, like combination. This, then, would mean that she did not represent, as she has always been presented up until now, the introduction of gender into the Cybertronian race, but rather, its reintroduction. This revelation likely goes hand in hand with the recent addition of the original thirteen Transformers to IDW continuity, given that a female Transformer, Solus Prime, is counted among their number and was name-checked in issue #34.
  • Galvatron describes how the gestalt process "rots away the individual". It's been clear that the process hasn't been agreeing with Prowl for some time now, after the nosebleeds he's been suffering and the demand for something or someone to "get out of his head" in issue #35, but this explanation goes a little further than that: under John Barber's pen, the five remaining Constructicons have always spoken with a rather unified voice, lacking in any of the individualistic quirks that previously defined them (Hook's snobbishness, Mixmaster's craziness, Scavenger's self-esteem issues, etc). As they have been combining together longer than anyone save Monstructor, this serves as a retroactive explanation for their comparatively recent lack of individuality.

Transformers references

  • As he takes off after Arcee, Galvatron has boot-jets, but he also uses his cannon for propulsion, hearkening back to when he did the same thing in The Transformers: The Movie.
  • Also in Blackrock's trophy room are a car is based on the Decepticon Slicer, who has not appeared in IDW continuity yet, and one resembling a Ford Model T, and is rather evocative of the AllSpark mutation seen in John Barber's earlier Sector 7 mini-series, set in the live-action movie continuity.
  • Though far from an exact match, the Decepticons' shuttle in this issue takes some design cues from their original Generation 1 spaceship, the Nemesis, with its large three rear fins/wings.

Real-life references

  • Like the other chapters of "Onyx Interface", this issue is named after a Mission of Burma album, in this case ONoffON. As is comic book standard, the title is rendered in all-caps as "ONOFFON", but we've taken the formatting of the album title to be the "correct" one for this article.
  • Building upon last issue's references to the city of Uruk, this issue introduces Uruk's king Gilgamesh into the narrative. Though a real historical figure, Gilgamesh is perhaps better known—as Blackrock describes him—as "Earth's first hero", from his starring role in one of the first great works of literature in recorded history, the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which he is depicted as a great hero of strength so prodigious it enabled him to build the city walls Blackrock talks about here.
  • The Enigma of Combination is credited by Blackrock with allowing the scientists of the Manhattan Project to create the atom bomb, and with leading DARPA to develop computer networking technology. This wouldn't be the first time something from Cybertron allowed for advancements in human technology: the live action-movie series Megatron was noted to be the source of many parts of the modern age, including the former, according to the Movie Prequel and aforementioned Sector Seven mini-series.
  • Jimmy Pink tries to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the Decepticons.

Errors

  • This issue is labelled part two of "Onyx Interface", but it's part three. We've taken the liberty of correcting it for this article title, as it'll undoubtedly be fixed for the trade.
  • The errors in the spelling of Uruk's name and the date of its founding carry over from last issue.

Other notes

  • This issue's release was slightly delayed by highway closures in the US, but iBooks evidently didn't get the message to delay their release of the digital version accordingly, as it went up a week early.

Covers (3)

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