Black Cybertron

« Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10 »
"Black Cybertron"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10
First published	December 23, 2015
Cover date	December 2015
Written by	Tom Scioli and John Barber
Art by	Tom Scioli
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

To resurrect his fallen brother Soundwave, Shockwave must visit the land of the dead.

Synopsis

Shockwave is unaccustomed to experiencing emotion, but cannot help but feel... something over the death of his brother, Soundwave. True death is an uncommon thing on Cybertron, where metal bodies can be rebuilt and parts replaced, but thanks to the G.I. Joe's Coltonbolt, Soundwave's head has been shattered, an injury that cannot be easily repaired. The pieces of Soundwave's head have been collected by Shockwave's nephew Rumble, who, along with Laserbeak, now prepare to join him on his mission bring their father back to life by voyaging into the land of the dead: the Cybertronian city of Kalis. Shockwave despairs over the fate of Ravage, the most intelligent and useful of Soundwave's cassettes, who was last seen in the custody of G.I. Joe...

Elsewhere on Cybertron, Snake Eyes rides Ravage across the metal landscape toward Trypticon, having tamed the brainwashed cyber-cat with a combination of Arashikage mind-control techniques. Suddenly, Ravage bucks beneath the ninja and swerves off the path he is on into a cavern. Ravage has heard Soundwave's voice, he explains to his rider, calling him to Kalis; intrigued, Snake Eyes decides to see the detour through.

Shockwave and his nephews bring the remains of Soundwave's head to the citadel of the Autobot apostate Flame in Kalis, where his dark sciences pierce the veil of life and death and bring the spymaster back to life. But Soundwave returns... incomplete. His once melodious voice is replaced with an electronic monotone, and all trace of emotion has been drained from him, as he demands only to know what his next mission will be, and finds no meaning in the word "brother" any more.

Ravage and Snake Eyes arrive in the necropolis of Kalis, where they immediately come under attack from undead zombie Transformers, reanimated through the unholy miracles that Flame has worked upon the city. Snake Eyes reflects that these unliving hulks are far more like typical "robots" than the all-too-human Transformers, but as he thinks on this, he is almost struck by a missile. Evading the projectile, he spots his attacker, the restored Soundwave, and returns fire on him with a missile launcher of his own. The shots do little damage, but as Snake Eyes is readying for another barrage, Ravage lunges at his father. Soundwave is shocked at this betrayal and seizes Ravage, knocking Snake Eyes from his back, and then manually—gruesomely—transforming him back into cassette mode and inserting him into his chest compartment for reprogramming. Shockwave steps from the shadows, having observed the unnerving display. It will take some time, he thinks, before he becomes accustomed to being the "kind one" of the brothers.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You must've loved this Soundwave to have placed so much effort in the reclamation. Love has no place in my domain."

—Flame

"WHAT ARE THE PARAMETERS OF THE MISSION?"
"What?!"
"WHAT IS MY TARGET? WHAT ARE THE PARAMETERS OF THE MISSION? ONLY THEN WILL I ABLE TO CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE CASSETTE AGENT AND CALCULATE THEIR PRESCRIBED OPERATION."
"Soundwave, don't you recognize me?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. YOU ARE SHOCKWAVE, SERVANT OF MEGATRON."
"I'm your brother."
"THOSE ARE EMPTY WORDS. UNAPPLICABLE. WHAT IS A 'BROTHER' TO A BEING FORGED BY UNKNOWN HANDS? WHAT ARE THE PARAMETERS OF THE MISSION?"
"Oh Soundwave, what's become of you?"

—Soundwave and Shockwave

Notes

Continuity notes

• Soundwave's head was destroyed in issue #1.
• Ravage appeared under the control of Doctor Venom in issue #6. The specifics of how he (or indeed, how Soundwave's body) got back to Cybertron are left vague, with the narration noting that Venom's brainwashing and reprogramming attempts have left his mind addled and open to control by Snake Eyes.
• Flame turned from the Autobot path when he discovered ancient, forgotten texts that spoke of "Metatron". This figure—an archangel from real-life Rabbinic literature—was previously mentioned in issue #6, in which it was alleged that Megatron inspired the legend among humanity. Here, it turns out that Metatron is known as a holy being by Cybertronians too, and Megatron claims to actually be an incarnation of this "Angel of Light", a concept vaguely evocative of his relationship with The Fallen the Aligned continuity family.
  • Coincidentally a few months before, the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime established a character named Metatron as well. This Metatron, however, was apparently one of the multiverse's great villains, opposed by another biblically-inspired character named Enoch during the "Age of Miracles".
• Ultra Magnus is referred to as Metatron's nemesis and the "Autobot god of death", casting some light on his enigmatic last-page appearance in the main story from this issue.

Transformers references

• Flame originally appeared in the Marvel UK "City of Fear!" story arc. It was in that adventure that he was shown using Kalis as a base of operations, turning it into a "land of the dead" as he resurrected a zombie army, inspiring the concepts in this story.
• The resurrected Soundwave has the emotionless, robotic voice of his original cartoon counterpart. It may or may not be intentional, but his resurrection—involving his repaired head being attached to a newly forged body—is certainly evocative of his return to life as "Soundblaster" in The Headmasters anime. He's even colored in Soundblaster-black in the illustration that accompanies the story, even though the text says he's still blue!

Real-life references

• The prose refers to Ravage as a "ro-beast", a term lifted from Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
• In a world where Transformers and G.I. Joe are real, it turns out '80s lesser-light franchises GoBots and M.A.S.K. are the ones that wound up with a blockbuster movie series pitting them against one another: "Gobots vs. M.A.S.K." Remind you of anything?

Other trivia

• This four-page story (three pages of prose and a full-page illustration) appeared in Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10 in place of the creator commentary that normally runs in each issue of the series.
• In the Quintessential Collection, the story is printed totally out of order: the illustration appears in the cover gallery, the first two pages of the story are placed at the very end of the book, while the last page of prose remains between the commentaries for issues #9 and #11. Whoops.

Reprints

• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Volume 3 TPB
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Quintessential Collection Hardcover

• 

  Volume 3; cover art by Tom Scioli

• 

  Quintessential Collection; cover art by Scioli