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The Dead Are Not Enough: Dark Cybertron Chapter 7

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"The Dead Are Not Enough"
Dark Cybertron Chapter 7
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published January 22, 2014
Cover date January 2014
Written by John Barber and
James Roberts
Art by James Raiz, Atilio Rojo and Livio Ramondelli
Colors by Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2014)

The Lost Lighters have a close encounter of the unexpected kind deep within Metroplex while old allies are found and won back in the Dead Universe. All this, plus: Megatron versus Galvatron!

Contents

Synopsis

The battle between the Lost Light crew and the Ammonites continues, with Hound leading his crewmates in the fight. Swerve comes to the aid of Crosscut, but is mildly affronted to learn that the former-senator-turned-playwright doesn't know who he is. Moments later, the Ammonites appear to retreat, but Waverider, observing from above, realizes they are actually heading for the dormant Metroplex. Within the Titan, meanwhile, Ultra Magnus's team discover that they have been protected against the explosion of the Rodpod by a wall that sprang up to shield them. Just as Skids is deducing that Metroplex's constantly-shifting interior was the reason for the confusing pattern of arrows they followed earlier, Brainstorm shushes him to point out that Whirl has vanished. When Getaway's communicator rings, they think Whirl is contacting them, but it's actually Swerve responding to Getaway's earlier message with some alarm. The metallurgist explains that the Admium flakes found in Metroplex's interior indicate he has contracted a contagious alchemical virus that is breaking down his metal... but that even this "death plague" is the least of the team's worries with the Ammonites bearing down on them!

In the Dead Universe, Nova Prime uses his control over the collapsing reality to bring Orion Pax's captive team to his citadel, crafted in the image of his own head and protected by an army of undead Sweeps. He presents them with Kup, on the verge of death, who Nova has sliced open and transformed into a fledging space bridge. Mocking Rodimus's suggestions for how they could overpower him and escape, Nova orders Nightbeat to take them to a cell. As he locks them up, Nightbeat explains that Nova intends to take their sparks to strengthen the space bridge and allow him to cross over. Remembering his previous reaction, Rodimus shows Nightbeat the mysterious contents of his palm once more, explaining that in order to break Nova's control over him, they must force the detective to engage the part of his brain that Nova has shut off: the part that represents his true nature, the part that loves mystery. Rodimus challenges Nightbeat to solve the mystery of what lies in his hand: the numbers "89/101", carved into his palm. Rodimus permits him to ask one question, and Nightbeat struggles to think the conundrum through, finally succeeding in breaking Nova's control by deducing that the sum of the numbers represents the 190 active crew members of the Lost Light. Nightbeat releases them, but Orion remains confused, and Rodimus grimly prepares to explain the truth to him...

In Crystal City, Galvatron angrily advocates pursuing the escaping Autobots and Decepticons, his ancient warrior spirit disgusted by Shockwave's passive, big-picture attitude. Jhiaxus soon arrives in his stolen timeship, and while he and Shockwave prepare to discuss their plan, Galvatron brusquely takes up Waspinator's given task of taking Megatron's body back to Shockwave's lab, distrustful of the current generation of Transformers. On the way, Galvatron and Waspinator find their way barred by Bumblebee, who demands they hand Megatron over. Galvatron is highly amused, and proceeds to beat the stuffing out of Bumblebee... until Megatron revives, takes down Waspinator despite lacking his own legs, and knocks Galvatron out with a barrage of fusion cannon fire. Bumblebee carries the Decepticon leader out of the city, and while the sight of Iacon burning in the distance affords Megatron no pleasure, he does smile at the thought of Starscream's suffering. And life is indeed hard for his traitorous lieutenant right now, as he sits in the ruins of Iacon and endures Scoop's vitriolic fire-and-brimstone pontifications.

Back inside Metroplex, Whirl rejoins the team, having tracked down their Ammonite stowaway and given him a savage pre-emptive beating until he agrees to hand over information to the others. The Ammonite discloses that the Ammonites were recruited by Shockwave in case "the dead were not enough". The Ammonite further explains that the Decepticon ordered them to track the Lost Light and prevent the crew from interfering with his plans in exchange for his bringing an end to the Ammonite/Terradore war; this confession triggers a failsafe that causes the little 'bot to involuntarily self-destruct. Deducing the connection between "the dead" and the Dead Universe and realizing Shockwave is behind everything, the Autobots are planning what to do next when a hooked cable suddenly drops through a hole in the ceiling and clocks Ultra Magnus on the head. Two figures slide down the cable, warning (with some uncertainty) the Autobots not to move: two figures that reveal themselves to be Nautica and Chromia, a pair of female Transformers!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

Brainstorm: "Something's not right."
Skids: "What it is, Brainstorm? Trouble?"
Brainstorm: "The opposite. There's a sudden lack of tension in the room. I can't explain it."
Ratchet: "It's Whirl. Where's he gone?"
(Getaway's communicator rings.)
Ratchet: "I bet that's him, and I bet he's done something."
Brainstorm: "If he needs help disposing of a body, tell him I'm not bailing him out. Not again."


"In my time, being a warrior meant something. How do you stand it, Shockwave? This planet, and the cowards who live here."
"I am a scientist, not a warrior. I suppose other principles govern my actions."
"Hmpf. A world ruled by scientists..."

—Galvatron and Shockwave


"This scratch? I've had worse."

—Megatron, on getting his legs ripped off


"Alrighty, then—stand still, face front, hands on heads, noses where I can see 'em. If any of you speak, shrug, or sniff in a way that says "Have-A-Go-Hero," I will—I will.... <whisper> Help me out here, I haven't threatened anyone in years".
"That's why we agreed to leave the tough talk to me..."
"I know, but I was first to hit ground! I had to say something, Chromia!"
"Tell you what—ignore what Nautica's saying—and just imagine what her wrench will do to your face if you don't surrender immediately."

—Nautica and Chromia debate whose turn it is to be a badass

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Given that Hound has spent the last five years in IDW continuity filling out crowd scenes and little else, it may be surprising to see him taking charge of the Lost Light crew in Rodimus and Magnus's absence, but he was actually a unit commander back during Simon Furman's tenure, first seen in Spotlight: Galvatron.
  • Swerve is wielding his My First Blaster, previously seen in More than Meets the Eye #18.
  • Unable to recall Swerve's name, Crosscut wonders if he's Rung, the gag being that nobody outside of the "main guys" ever seems able to remember the psychiatrist's name.
  • Back in More than Meets the Eye #10 and before the war began, Ironfist showed Tumbler the image of a robot called Crosscut trapped in the Forever Glass of Moldavite VI. Whether that was this Crosscut, his Decepticon namesake or another (as yet unseen) character remains to be seen.
  • Swerve's lament that he's supposed to be one of the "main cast" seems like a funny side scene but "The One Where They Go to Earth" will later reveal that Swerve is going to become deeply depressed at the thought that he's ceased to be important.
  • When Getaway asks Skids about the arrows in Metroplex's corridors, he nudges Skids on the chin, a physical action that was established as a quirk of their partnership back in More than Meets the Eye #20.
  • And speaking of Skids and distinctive acts of non-verbal communication, at one point when he's speaking, Brainstorm interrupts him by jabbing an index finger against the guy's mouth. Brainstorm did exactly the same to Ultra Magnus in Chapter 3 of Dark Cybertron.
  • The presence of the Sweep army in the Dead Universe implicitly confirms that when Galvatron and his army were thwarted at the climax of "Chaos" and disintegrated, they were just being sucked back into the Dead Universe.
  • Crew Manifest guest note! Rodimus unequivocally states that the Lost Light has 190 crew members up and walking around. This again contradicts his previous whimsical assessment of "300 give or take" from More than Meets the Eye #18, but seems to match the 230 crew members quoted from More than Meets the Eye #19's Letters page, assuming the larger number includes the Faders and other injured.
  • Ammonite Paddox referred to the Terradores potentially teaming up with the "Dark Cyclops" back in More than Meets the Eye #22. Looks like the Ammonites decided to beat their enemies to the punch.
  • At one point, Ultra Magnus exclaims, "What in the blue blazes?" Between this and the "Holy moly" of four issues back, it would appear a tendency towards quaint, old fashioned expletives is one by-product of his attempts to loosen up his speech.
  • Oh snap! Lady-types! Readers who haven't been following the IDW universe since its inception and aren't up on the history may not fully grasp the significance of Chromia and Nautica's introduction, since it's been a while since the relevant backstory has been touched upon: that being, per Spotlight: Arcee, that Arcee is supposed to be the only known female Transformer to exist, having been created by one of Jhiaxus's experiments. As an added bonus, the potential embodied by the introduction of multiple new female Transformers is realized quite nicely by having the pair pass the Bechdel Test out of the gate (something only accomplished once before in IDW continuity, by Verity Carlo and her social worker in Infiltration #4).

Errors

  • Consistently throughout the issue, Waspinator's stinger gun is colored purple and silver as if it's part of Shockwave.
  • Both Shockwave and the two sections of Megatron change position between panels while the group wait for the arrival of Jhiaxus.
  • When Shockwave orders Waspinator to move Megatron's body, Waspinator's "zztoped" should be "zztopped".
    • The very next speech bubble is missing punctuation.
  • Nautica's line in the second-to-last page is attributed to Chromia's silhouette. This is corrected in the trade.
  • Just like with the previous chapter, the Hasbro exclusive cover variant of this issue that was included with the Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Crosscut toy has its pages out of order. Specifically, the story begins with page 5, and pages 1–4 are placed between pages 20 and 21 instead.
  • The title of this chapter was accidentally left out of the finished issue, but is included in the Dark Cybertron vol. 2 trade paperback collection. It's also missing from the version packed with Generations Crosscut, possibly because of the word "dead"... but then the phrase itself is uttered twice in the dialogue without changes (see also "edits" below).

Edits

Similar to the pack-in versions of various other existing IDW comics, the version of this issue available with the Generations Deluxe Class Crosscut toy was also subject to some changes:

  • In the first panel on page "20" (page 4 in the correct page order), both instances of Ultra Magnus saying "We should be dead" omit the word "dead", first replacing it with "in pieces" and the second time with "debris".
  • In the second panel on page "2" (page 6 in the correct page order), Swerve's first mention of "death plague" is changed to "decay plague". Subsequent used of the term in panels 3 and 4 are simply shortened to "plague". Another, inexplicable change in panel 4 drops the boldfaced emphasis on "That was a different get out of there!".
  • On page "4" (page 8 in the correct page order), both of Nova Prime's speech bubbles in panel 5 are edited: "If you so much as nudge him, he'll die" gets changed to "If you so much as nudge him, he's done for", and "I'm not above killing him" gets changed to "I'm not above destroying him".
  • On page "8" (page 12 in the correct page order), Orion Pax's speech bubble in panel 3 is changed from "Nova said if we tried to free Kup he'd die. Is that true?" to "Nova said if we tried to free Kup we'd destroy him. Is that true?"
  • On page "9" (page 13 in the correct page order), Nightbeat's false starts at solving the mystery presented to him by Rodimus in panel 5 omit a speech bubble in which he refers to his own false starts as "stupid".
  • On page "11" (page 15 in the correct page order), Bumblebee's speech bubble in panel 3, "... and get the hell out of my way.", was shortened by "the hell", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly.
  • On page "15" (page 19 in the correct page order), Scoop's first speech bubble in panel 3 omits the words "shut up" and is resized accordingly.
  • On page "16" (page 20 in the correct page order), Ultra Magnus's fourth speech bubble in panel 1 is shortened from "And where the hell is Whirl?!" to simply "And where is Whirl?!"

Similar to previous pack-in comics, however, the edits are rather inconsistent:

  • Not only is the term "Dead Universe" left unchanged (as was also the case for pack-in versions of previous issues), but so is the term "deadly infestation" on page "3" (page 7 in the correct page order).
  • On page "5" (page 9 in the correct page order), Galvatron's first speech bubble in panel 3 is left unchanged, despite containing the sentence "If they believed in their cause, they would have stood and died for it!"
  • Even though the title of this story is still missing (just like in the original single release of this issue), a variation of the phrase "the dead are not enough" is used twice in the dialogue, first on page "16" (page 20 in the correct page order) and again on page 21, and each time, the word "dead" is left unchanged.

Trivia

  • Artist breakdown continues as normal this issue, with Rojo on Cybertron, Ramondelli on the Dead Universe, and Raiz on the Lost Light crew.
  • Nautica and Chromia were originally planned to look less visually 'female' and more like "the default Cybertronian design", so that readers "wouldn't have clocked" they were female until the dialogue. James Roberts had to "shelve" this idea because IDW wanted to make it clear immediately that female Transformers were in the series.[1]

Covers (4)

  • (thumbnail)

    I always feel like somebody's watching me!

  • (thumbnail)

    Never seen character on cover = new toy

  • (thumbnail)

    A battle millions of years in the making.

  • (thumbnail)

    Hasbro exclusive cover for the Crosscut toy.

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Reprints

  • The Transformers: Dark Cybertron (February 11, 2015) ISBN 163140072X / ISBN 978-1631400728
    • Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–27, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
    • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
    • Hardcover format.
  • Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 60: Dark Cybertron, Part 2 (February 21, 2018)
    • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #25–27, More than Meets the Eye issues #26–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
    • Bonus material includes a "blow-by-blow account of Dark Cybertron's hidden secrets", a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
    • Hardcover format.

References

  1. ↑ Women Write About Comics: "James Roberts on IDW’s Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye" 10:00 - 11:21

External links

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