The Permanent Revolution

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #39
"The Permanent Revolution"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published April 8, 2015
Cover date March 2015
Written by James Roberts
Art by Hayato Sakamoto
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2015)

A wearying Tarn finds himself granted new life when the Decepticon Justice Division discovers that Megatron has abandoned the cause.

Synopsis

(1) Troika

Times have been tough for the Decepticon Justice Division. Eighteen months ago, when deep cover Decepticon agent Brainstorm alerted them to Overlord's imprisonment on the Lost Light, they had initially agreed not to kill anyone else on the ship, only to lose control and go back on their deal when they discovered Drift was on board. After slaughtering the entire crew, they went on their way, until a month ago, when their newest member—diminutive female medic Nickel—insisted that they return to salvage the vessel's quantum generators. Upon returning to the wreckage, floating above Ofsted XVII, the DJD found themselves in the middle of a battle between the Galactic Council and the Black Block Consortia, who proceeded to join forces against them. Kaon and Vos took the fight to the planet's surface, but Tarn was forced to abandon them when enemy reinforcements arrived.

Now, Tarn, Helex and Tesarus are continuing in their duties, working their way through their list of Decepticons who have betrayed "the cause". Their present victim: Blip, condemned for practising religion by deifying sparkeaters. Blip catches Tarn off-guard when he uses his last words to ask him to remove his mask, accusing him of cowardice, so the DJD leader decides to refrain from killing him with his "weaponized conversation" ability, and lets Helex and Tesarus get their hands dirty. But secretly, Tarn looks away, tiring of violence and unwilling to watch.

Their job done, the team return to their ship the Peaceful Tyranny, where Nickel gives them all a check-up and relentlessly criticizes their poor hygiene and maintenance habits. The DJD turns out to be exceptionally bureaucratic; Tarn orders performance reviews for the team, but he and Tesarus nearly come to blows during the latter's appraisal when Tesarus accuses him of being "un-Decepticon" for leaving Vos and Kaon behind. Calming himself, Tarn reveals that he has already ordered a return to Ofsted to collect their bodies... at which point Helex comes running in to tell them that their comrades are still alive, and have returned with a datapad containing some shocking news: Megatron has renounced Decepticonism and joined the Autobots!

(2) Troska

Returning to the DJD headquarters on Messatine to ponder the world-shattering implications of this news, Tarn recharges himself with "Nuke"—the DJD's secret stash of super-fuel, found only in the planet's mines, created when the native nucleon was exposed to chronal energy millions of years go. Pushing himself to the limit of overdose on the fuel, Tarn finds his life flashing before his eyes, and, realizing he is on the brink of death and disappointed by the experience, smashes his way out of the fuelling capsule and announces a "change of plans" to his team-mates.

(3) Perestroika

The rest of the DJD are confused when Tarn arranges a meeting with noted Decepticon Deathsaurus, who is on their list for removing himself from Megatron's command and stealing of a Warworld. Deathsaurus welcomes them to his disorganized planet-ship, handing Tarn a crate of equipment to carry for him and apologizing for the mess with the explanation that their hyperdrive is being repaired. Tarn requests a conversation in private, but Deathsaurus isn't interested—having assumed that he DJD were coming to take him down, he immediately fires upon the crate in Tarn's arms, which turns out to be full of explosives that detonate right in Tarn's face. Though rocked by the blast, Tarn is still able to defend himself, insisting as he grapples with Deathsaurus that he is just here to talk. Deathsaurus deactivates his audio receptors to protect himself from Tarn's deadly voice, but Tarn simply speaks directly to him—and all his troops—through inter-Decepticon radio, their private frequency having been hijacked by Vos. Tarn waxes lyrical on the history of the Decepticons and what he sees as their true cause: the ongoing mission to eliminate every threat to Cybertron, chiefly the "anti-mechanical bias" of a predominantly organic universe. He then introduces Nickel to Deathsaurus, explaining that she is the last of a her kind, from a Cybertronian colony world settled by the Titan Prion, her entire planet scoured of life by the Black Block Consortia. It was she who was truly Tarn's salvation: one who heard the Decepticon word and became a believer, and proof that the cause is so great that no one 'bot can embody it—and certainly not Megatron, the betrayer. Tarn invites Deathsaurus and his men to join him in return for being taken off the DJD's list, but Deathsaurus has one condition—that Tarn kill the rest of the DJD. Tarn refuses, only for the request to turn out to be a test from Deathsaurus, who cites his distaste for a commander who uses his men as fodder as the reason he split from Megatron. Deathsaurus agrees to the alliance and suggests they launch an immediate attack on a nearby Galactic Council facility together, but Tarn informs him that first, the Decepticon house must be put in order: priority number one is to find and kill Megatron, and the shipful of Autobots he now calls his allies.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Now then your Sparkeater cult.. It's—(sigh)—it's spectacularly at odds with Decepticon doctrine. Surely you know this. Surely this doesn't come as a surprise to you. Even someone with the most rudimentary grasp of Megatron's teaching must realizes that a Decepticon utopia cannot accommodate any form of religion."
"W-why?"
"Why? Because religion is a form of control. It offers succor in return for docility and bestows power unto an authority other than Megatron. So when a Decepticon starts a new religion, it's... well... you say it's an attempt at finding pece of mind. I say it's an attempted coup.

—Tarn and Blip


"Not precisely sure what she means by that gesture, but I imagine it tilts towards the obscene."
"Disgusting! You fix Decepticons with those hands?!"
"And... we seem to have an extended version of the first gesture. I— Goodness, now that really does leave no room for doubt."

—Tarn and Helex bust Nickel's chops


"Tsk! Health and safety gone mad..."
"Black mark!"
"Aw, for— All I 'said was—"
"Two black marks! One more and it's a written warning!"

—Tesarus is reprimanded by Tarn for questioning bureaucracy


"I thought you'd be wearing an Autobot mask. I thought—heh—I thought you'd be running around the galaxy wearing an Autobot mask and apologizing to everyone on Megatron's behalf."

—Deathsaurus to Tarn


"Let battle be joined, eh?"
"Oh, this is more than a battle, Deathsaurus... we're going to war."

—Deathsaurus and Tarn

Notes

Continuity notes

  • This issue's first chapter, "Troika", takes place roughly concurrently with issue #34, and details the exact timeline of the DJD's attack on the quantum duplicate Lost Light, seen in issue #32 and #33, and the subsequent battle with the Galactic Council and the Black Block Consortia that issue #34 alluded to.
  • "The Empyrean Suite" has been mentioned several times at this point throughout More than Meets the Eye, noted to have a sinister connotation that was common knowledge among Cybertronians. At last, as many fans had previously deduced, it is revealed to be the DJD's "theme". The song's composer is said to be Eucryphia, who wrote it as an ode to Prima's Citadel of Light; Eucryphia appeared, and was revealed to be a member of Primus's tribe and an inhabitant of the citadel, in Robots in Disguise #34.
  • Blip was first mentioned in issue #3. He appeared in issue #12 and had a tiny cameo in issue #30, where he sported a body based on the Terrorcon Blot; he looks completely different here.
  • Helex has put Blip's brain module in his mouth, which we learned was a trait of his in issue #32.
  • The two statues of Megatron in the DJD's ship depict him in his original miner body, and in the Earth body he took on in Escalation; Sakamoto has drawn them in recreations of Atilio Rojo and Guido Guidi's art style, respectively. Though quite an old body from our perspective as readers, the Earth form would be the last form the DJD knew Megatron in; comments later in the issue confirm that they never made contact with him after he returned from apparent death in his stealth bomber body in the 2009-2011 ongoing series.
  • Borebit is listed among Helex's kills—he was a former member of the Primal Vanguard mentioned in issue #11.
  • Former Warrior Elite Heretech, who previously appeared in issue #16, was captured by the DJD at one point.
  • The "burst of temporal energy" that turned nucleon into "Nuke" occurred in issue #34, when Brainstorm travelled back in time to Messatine.
  • Though previously implied in issue #14, we get explicit confirmation that Tarn is a Point One Percenter, as he refers to his spark being green.
  • As Tarn reflects on his life, we see an image of a young Skids. Back in issue #8, we learned that Skids had "The Empyrean Suite" running through his head for unknown reasons, and with this issue's confirmation that the song is associated with the DJD, the idea that Tarn would have some connection to Skids does not come as a great surprise.
  • The colony Titans were introduced in the Windblade mini-series. With the introduction of Nickel, it's established that female Transformers have evolved on other worlds in addition to Caminus. Nickel is, of course, the first female Decepticon in IDW continuity.

Transformers references

  • Deathsaurus's Warworld is based directly on the design of Bludgeon's Warworld from the Marvel Generation 2 comic.
  • Deathsaurus's ranks include almost all his troops from the Victory cartoon—the Dinoforce are all present and correct, and the only absent member of the Breastforce is Hellbat, because he's been busy with his own stuff over in the Drift - Empire of Stone mini-series. In his place is Deathcobra, an additional member of the Breastforce featured in the Victory episode "Unite! Liokaiser", who was brought in to replace Hellbat even then!
  • Also among Deathsaurus's men is Victory character Blue Bacchus, while on the crowdfiller side of things, there's a Transformer version of the "King Solon" mecha from the Victory manga (piloted by Deathsaurus's human son Solon in that story). As for the rest of the crowd... well, we don't want to commit to saying that the others are just new generics, 'cause Hayato Sakamoto drew this, so they probably originate from somewhere, but that fuchsia guy below Deathcobra looks like he's based on the Sixshot mold.
  • While describing the Decepticons' early successes, Tarn says: "Victory after victory, Deathsaurus", which seems a lot like a sly nod to the franchise that Deathsaurus originated in.

Real-life references

  • "Troika" is a Russian word meaning a "group of three", referring to Tarn, Tesarus and Helex following their separation from Vos and Kaon.
  • "Troska" is a Czech word meaning "wreckage" or "ruin", referring to the state of Tarn's beliefs after he learns of Megatron's defection.
  • "Perestroika" was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party, another of the multiple analogies Roberts has drawn between Communism and the Decepticon movement, here referring to Tarn forging his own path and reshaping the movement separate from its founder. In Russian, the word means "restructuring".

Errors

  • There's an unnecessary comma when Tarn talks about his "sea green, spark".

Other trivia

  • Starting this month, More than Meets the Eye and all of IDW's other Transformers titles are reduced from 22 pages of story to 20.

Soundtrack

Covers (3)

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