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Finest Hour: Dark Cybertron Chapter 5

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"Finest Hour"
Dark Cybertron Chapter 5
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published December 18, 2013
Cover date December 2013
Written by John Barber and
James Roberts
Art by Robert Gill and
Livio Ramondelli
Colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2013)

Things go badly when the united Autobot and Decepticon forces take the fight to Shockwave, while in the Dead Universe, Orion Pax's team joins up with Nightbeat.

Contents

Synopsis

As Nova Prime and Galvatron slowly squeeze themselves through the narrow space bridge in Megatron's chest, the united forces of Bumblebee's Autobots and Soundwave's Decepticons come blasting into Crystal City. Soundwave tackles Shockwave, disgusted to see him allied with a Prime, but Shockwave summons Metalhawk to his aid, shocking the assembled Autobots with his living presence and evident desire for revenge. While Ironhide gets proactive, straddling Megatron and trying to shove Nova Prime back through the portal, Skywarp tries to shut down the machinery controlling the space bridge to free his leader. Unfortunately, he finds that his teleporting power has started to malfunction, leaving him stuck in mid-phase-out and unable to touch anything—though that does at least provide him some protection against Dreadwing's attempt to stop him. Arcee and Blitzwing, meanwhile, are trying to harvest some of Shockwave's resurrection ore to heal the wounded when Rumble is knocked into their midst by an attack from Waspinator. Spotting the two, Waspinator is about to zoom in to stop them when Shockwave instead calls him to his side, and orders him to hand over his stinger-gun—the device which he used to inadvertently forge his connection with the Necrotitan. But where Waspinator has never been able to fathom the depths of the Titan's vast consciousness through this link, this is no challenge for the focused, emotionless mind of Shockwave. Jettisoning the barrel of his gun-arm, Shockwave attaches Waspinator's weapon in its place, granting himself control over the Titan, which comes crashing into the cavern at his command. In the chaos that follows, Skywarp dematerializes completely, and Ironhide manages to punch Nova back through the portal just before the Titan's fist comes crashing down.

In the Dead Universe, Orion Pax's team express their skepticism at the appearance of Nightbeat, but a quick recounting of the circumstances of his death (at Hardhead's hands, at his own request, after he discovered he had been brainwashed into a sleeper agent for Nova Prime) seems to convince everyone. When Pax introduces Nightbeat to Cyclonus, Nightbeat is able to carry out an impressive cold-reading of the ancient 'bot that allows him to deduce that a friend of Cyclonus's is unwell but recovering. Cyclonus is furious at this invasion of his privacy, but Orion calms him and the team gets back on track, with Nightbeat now leading them toward the Dead Universe's contraction point.

Back on Cybertron, the remaining Autobots and Decepticons extricate themselves from the rubble of the collapsed cavern. Bumblebee tries to take stock of the fallen, but from the smoke, Megatron emerges, carrying Ironhide, expressing the hope that the Autobots have something they can actually effectively throw at the Titan. No sooner has Megatron appeared, however, than another figure steps from the clouds—Galvatron has made it through the portal, and immediately tears Megatron in half! And over all, the Necrotitan looms, as Shockwave stands at its feet and calls for it to obliterate everyone!

As Orion's team continue their trek through the Dead Universe, Rodimus tries to make sense of Nightbeat's return to life; Nightbeat opines that he has not returned to life, but merely survived death. Hardhead wants to know why, when he appeared before them, Nightbeat told them not to touch Cyclonus, and the detective explains that he had discovered a piece of Cyclonus's forcefield generator at their landing site. The device broke when Cyclonus "landed badly" on it, and without its protection, the Dead Universe has infected him once again. At that moment, a containment cube suddenly springs up around the group, trapping them all save Nightbeat. In horror, Orion realizes that Nightbeat has led them here and allowed this to happen: he is still under the control of Nova Prime, who, elsewhere in the Dead Universe, comes tumbling down out of the heavens in a fiery rage!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Shockwave—I have never thought highly of you—but to betray our cause for the sake of a Prime is beyond comprehension."
"Every stage of my plan is beyond your comprehension, Soundwave."

—Soundwave gets a little smack-talk from Shockwave


"Cretin! You presume to lay hands on the carapace of Nova Prime?!"
"Yeah, well—that's a mouthful fer somebody I thought was dead. I guess ya got better."
"No—I got worse."
"Aw, come on. You been at this world-conquerin' nonsense fer millions o' years—an' that's the level o' discourse I gotta deal with?"

—Nova Prime and Ironhide


"If you ever discover you've been brainwashed into being a sleeper agent for Nova Prime, ask Hardhead to take care of the problem—he's brilliant at it! Sorry, Hardhead. Thank you for murdering me."
"Huh. Don't mention it. Least I could do."

—Nightbeat and Hardhead


Nightbeat: "Judging from his accent, Cyclonus was forged in Upper Tetrahex, a borough monopolized by members of a religious order called the Clavis Aurea. His left horn clearly home-made. The Clavis Aurea are notoriously superstitious about replacing inessential body parts, so it must've been made by a friend—a good friend. But that's incidental. For the truth, look at the eyes. The right corneal lens is slightly darker than the left—the result of an imbalance in his internal fluids attributable to a recently depleted stock of innermost energon. And you only make a donation—"
Rodimus: "When someone is at death's door! Got it! But... how did you know Tailgate hadn't died already?"
Nightbeat: "There are three scratches on Cyclonus' left cheek. They've been patched up, but you can still see traces. The pattern of the scratches—not to mention Cyclonus' fingertips—suggests that they were self-inflicted. You clearly struggle to express yourself—you've barely said a word since I arrived and you rarely make eye contact. I think you scratched yourself rather than tell Tailgate you were worried about him. The fact you've patched up the scratch suggests Tailgate is okay. If he'd died, fixing your face would've been the last thing on your—HRK!"
Cyclonus: "You're lucky I don't kill you. You're lucky I don't kill all of you!"

Notes

Continuity notes

  • It turns out that the entire face part of Bumblebee's "Goldfire" head is a mask, rather than just the obvious faceplate, meaning he was being particularly literal back in Robots in Disguise #17 when he reached up and said he couldn't feel his face.
  • Skywarp's loss of control of his teleportation power occurs very suddenly, but is apparently the result of the injuries he sustained during issue #16, when Arcee stabbed him as he was in mid-teleport. Blitzwing later noted in issue #21 that he was "barely hanging together".
  • It wasn't discussed in detail in past issues, but Robots in Disguise #19 did clearly show that Waspinator's link to the Titan was made through his stinger-gun when he stabbed the giant using it in the past.
  • Nightbeat is still sporting the headshot wound Hardhead gave him when he shot him back in Spotlight: Hardhead.
  • Nightbeat's reading of Cyclonus flags up a few continuity points from the last year of More than Meets the Eye: Cyclonus's Tetrahexian accent from issue #13, his replacement horn, made by Tailgate, from issue #21, the concept of donating innermost energon from issue #12, and Cyclonus's facial self-mutilation from issue #17.
  • Galvatron notes that he "remembers" Megatron; the characters have never had any direct interaction in the IDW continuity before this point, but Galvatron briefly aided the Decepticons during their battle with the Reapers and saw Megatron in action aaaaaall the way back in Devastation #6.

Real-life references

  • Nightbeat's cold-reading of Cyclonus is clearly inspired by fellow fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, who was capable of such amazing feats of abductive reasoning. In particular, the detached way he carries out the reading, without regard for Cyclonus's feelings, and Cyclonus's enraged response, seem especially evocative of the modern reimagining of Holmes as seen in the Sherlock TV series.
  • We learn from Nightbeat's deductions that Cyclonus belongs to the religious order of the Clavis Aurea. "Clavis aurea" is a 16th-century theological term that refers to the means by which hidden meanings in texts may be discovered; it means "golden key" in Latin. With this in mind, think back to the character-specific promotional images released for the launch of More than Meets the Eye #1... and recall that Cyclonus's read: "Cyclonus is key." Hmmmmmm...

Trivia

  • Artist breakdown: Having previously illustrated a Lost Light scene in the last chapter, Robert Gill here provides artwork for all scenes set on Cybertron, while Livio Ramondelli continues to render all the Dead Universe scenes.
  • This is the first issue in the event to feature no Lost Light scenes.
  • This issue is packaged with the Transformers: Generations Rattrap toy, but given the character's failure to even appear in this chapter, it seems likely that a reshuffling of the toyline forced it to be swapped with Chapter 3. That was Skywarp's pack-in issue, but it's this issue which gives him his most prominent role in the crossover.
    • The pages of the pack-in version of this comic are also extremely out of order, making it nigh impossible to read properly. It even includes a page from the previous issue!
  • The toy of Fall of Cybertron Shockwave, used in the IDW continuity as this Shockwave, is actually capable of detaching most of its cannon barrel leaving a triple barreled gun behind. Generations Waspinator's weapon, as discovered by some, fits wonderfully between the barrels of the gun.

Errors

  • Laserbeak and Rumble are drawn with their standard Generation 1 cassette bodies, rather than the data disk and tank bodies they've had since issue #13.
  • Arcee has two arms again, but still only one leg.
  • Metalhawk has a left arm again too.
  • On the double page spread with the Necrotitan, Buzzsaw has been drawn on the left-shoulder mounted guns of the Necrotitan, but has not been colored, perhaps mistaken by the colorist as simply a "smudge" on the Necrotitan.

Covers (4)

  • (thumbnail)

    Insert evil laugh here.

  • (thumbnail)

    What the cheese?

  • (thumbnail)

    Time to GTFO!

  • (thumbnail)

    Hasbro exclusive Rattrap toy cover

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