Iron in the Blood

« The Transformers: Ironhide #2 »
"Do robots bleed?" "I don't know? Let's find out!"
"Iron in the Blood"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 2, 2010
Written by	Mike Costa
Art by	Casey Coller
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor	Carlos Guzman
Associate editor	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2010)

Ironhide meets some of Cybertron's remaining inhabitants...

Synopsis

As Ironhide walks around Cybertron, memories of the past flood back:

Cybertron during its pre-war golden age was a beacon of prosperity and achievement. On race night, all eyes on Cybertron, from the working class miners to the researchers on Cybertron's science satellites, were glued to the raceway, in what promised to be an event that would last forever!!

The reality of the present hits Ironhide as the memories fade and he sees the crumbled, ruined raceway. As he looks around his old haunts, he remembers:

One night when Ironhide was working security at the raceway, the infamous Drag Strip made his return to the races. While the fans were mobbing him, somebody had different ideas, suddenly pulling out a gun. Ironhide tackled and apprehended the would-be assassin, who angrily spat that Drag Strip (whom Ironhide worked for by protecting him) was in league with somebody named "Megatron". Ironhide stated that he worked for the Cybertronian Raceway, professed ignorance for this Megatron character and said Outback could drop Nova Prime's name and it would still not get him out of this crime. After Outback was handed over to colleges, the attempted assassin jeered at Ironhide for being one of the blind, ignorant fools who didn't know trouble was coming until it was too late, and that this complacency would cost them everything. Ironhide's boss congratulates him for a job well done and they mock Outback's warning.

In the present, reflects upon the condition of Cybertron. The surface is ruined, the atmosphere gone, radiation off the scale. Realising that he's talking to himself, Ironhide wonders if being the last Cybertronian alive on the planet means he's also going crazy. Suddenly hearing noises in an alley, a hopeful Ironhide rushes over to see if there were any other survivors. Seeing nothing, the old Autobot wonders if he was hallucinating, until a big, ugly robot insectoid attacks. Though horrified, Ironhide's instincts come into play and he kills the creature, before being attacked by another one. Gaining the advantage, a furious, confused Ironhide relentlessly hammers his opponent's face until it is a bloody pulp, yelling that this isn't how everything is supposed to be. Shocked by the blood on his hands, Ironhide transforms and drives away, emotions in turmoil, trying to rationalise that there must be somebody else left alive on Cybertron, somebody other than these monsters. Distracted, Ironhide loses control as he rounds and corner and crashes.

Waking up, Ironhide is pleased to see the familiar faces of Ratchet and Wheeljack, who tell him to get up, everybody is at his funeral, which only confuses Ironhide, as he is obviously very much alive. A horribly damaged Outback appears, telling him that Optimus Prime is not happy that he let Drag Strip, and thus the Stunticons, get away. Ironhide tries to protest that he never worked for Drag Strip, but Outback says the Stunticons have only become more dangerous now, so nobody recognises Ironhide anymore. At the end of a hallway, Prowl and Optimus Prime appear, and Ironhide asks why wouldn't they recognise him? He would sacrifice himself for any one of them. Prowl curtly replies that it was stupid, and it was just a mistake. Wheeljack grabs Ironhide and tells him that that the old Autobot had also fixed things, too. Before Ironhide could ask further questions, it seemed as though Wheeljack was shouting.

Waking up in the alley where he crashed, Ironhide finds a strange mech looking down at him, repeating the same phrase over and over: "You-must-come-now!" Realising the strange 'bot was seemingly not aware and didn't have any function other than leading Ironhide to somewhere, Ironhide is forced to follow. Ironhide tries to make small talk as they travel, but all the strange robot would say is "Follow." Ironhide says that if the stranger didn't mind, he would just keep talking, because there was nobody else here.

But before he can finish his sentence, surrounded by the ruins of a dead planet, Ironhide sees an undamaged, glittering city in the distance...

Featured characters

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

Notes

Continuity notes

• Generics accompanying Drag Strip include: the Decepticon who shot Perceptor in Spotlight: Drift, one of Starscream's Decepticon troops from Spotlight: Blurr, and one of the Decepticons hunting down Cliffjumper in Spotlight: Cliffjumper.
• Fasttrack and Blurr appear in Ironhide's flashback, set around the same time as their racing days from Spotlight: Blurr.
• The half-destroyed Outback seen in Ironhide's hallucination is a visual reference to the character's fate in Spotlight: Kup.

Errors

• In pre-war Cybertron, Ironhide is depicted as a civilian security member of the Cybertronian Racetrack and claims that he had never heard of Megatron before. However, in the previously published Megatron Origin, Ironhide appeared to be a member of the military-like Autobot security services under Sentinel Prime, and he was aware of the crimes Megatron had committed. One could claim that this is set before Ironhide joined the military, but in that case, Megatron would still have been a simple miner.
  • It is notable that it is not until issue 3 of Megatron Origin that Ironhide is shown as a member of the Autobot security services (after Megatron has risen to prominence as a gladiator, and killed two Autobots). It could be argued that this issue's flashback takes place during the events of issue 2 of Megatron Origin, in which Megatron commits the previously described acts.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: by Marcelo Matere and colors by Priscilla Tramontano.
• Cover B: by Casey Coller with colors by Joana Lafuente.
• Cover RI: Text-free "virgin" version of Cover A.

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• Transformers Ironhide 2 CoverRI.jpg

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