Personal tools

Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4

From Transformers Wiki

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye#24 »
« Dark Cybertron
Chapter 4 		»
MTMTE24 cvrA.jpg
"Into the Abyss"
Dark Cybertron Chapter 4
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published December 4,2013
Cover date December 2013
Written by James RobertsandJohn Barber
Art by Atilio Rojo,James Raiz,Nick Roche,Livio Ramondelli,andRobert Gill
Colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr.and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Gilberto Lazcano
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2013)

TheLost Lightdeals with an aquatic Ammonite attack, while on Cybertron, Shockwave puts Megatron's space bridge to use.

Contents

Synopsis

In the depths of an alien ocean, theLost Lightfinds itself surrounded by a huge army of mechanoid lifeforms. Illuminating their mysterious aggressors with a spotlight, the bridge crew are quick to observe that they are armed, havealternate modes,and are combiners, causing suspicion they may beDecepticons.Perceptor—struggling to get the words out over the top of the showoffBrainstorm—deduces that the small 'bots are not natives of the world, but have followed theLost Light's quantum slipstream there.Ultra Magnusattempts to communicate with the strangers, but in response, they open fire on the ship.

OnCybertron,Starscreamrequests a status update fromRattrapon the aftermath of the devastation ofIacon,but all that Rattrap can tell him is that theNecrotitan's energy wave seems to have affected citizens entirely at random. Spying Starscream,Scoopturns on him, reading from the ancient prophecy for all to hear and pointing to a dark blemish that has appeared on Starscream's chest as evidence thatPrimushas marked him for his role in bringing death to the city. Under the auspices of defending Starscream, Rattrap snidely remarks that his "boss" is running out of time...

Back on theLost Light,Magnus and his men evacuate and seal the flooded bridge before meeting up withSkidsandGetaway,the former identifying their attackers as theomnicombinationalAmmonites.The crew decides to take the fight out into the water, deploying all their marine-equipped soldiers and vehicles, including the "Rodpod"—a submersible designed in the shape ofRodimus's head that everyone (exceptWhirl) is a bit hesitant about using out concern for Rodimus's reaction if they damage it. While individual troops take on the enemies at the ship's base (withRunggiving a particularly good account of himself in a staff-fight with one of the combiners), the crew in the Rodpod defend the ship's top-mounted fuel quills against a large swarm of Ammonites. The little 'bots react by combining into a huge, monstrous form, but this proves to just be a bigger target for the Rodpod, which blows it to bits.

In theDead Universe,Rodimus,Hardhead,andOrion Paxdiscuss the progress (or not) of Rodimus's quest, whether or not he would return to Cybertron if needed, Starscream's election, and the sorry political history of the planet. When asked for his opinion onNova Prime,Cyclonuslooks up to reveal fluids leaking from his face, which he attempts to pass off as a product of the heat despite it being freezing. Cyclonus refuses Orion's medical aid...at which pointNightbeatappears, encouraging them not to touch Cyclonus, and to listen to what he's got to say.

Back on Cybertron, at the feet of the Necrotitan, as theAutobotsandDecepticonsrecover from the energy wave and argue over what to do next,ProwlhasSoundwavescan for any chatter from Iacon. With the Titan blocking all transmissions, he can detect nothing... nothing except the sound ofMegatronscreaming from miles away, asShockwavecuts his body open to access thespace bridgewithin. Strapped to a table in Shockwave'sCrystal Citylair, Megatron questions Shockwave's motivations, but the cyclopean Decepticon remains unreadable, merely commenting that Nova Prime andGalvatronare means to an end. Shockwave had hoped to offer Megatron the choice to comply willingly, but it is obvious the Decepticon leader has no intention of doing so, so Shockwave forcibly activates his space bridge, and Nova Prime begins to emerge through a portal that swirls out of Megatron's chest!

Meanwhile, the Rodpod has broken off from the rest of the battle, chased by the Ammonites, which have combined into a colossal marine mollusc to follow them. The pod dives into an abyss to try and shake off their pursuers, but as they dive deeper, they discover that the abyss is metal-plated, with what appears to be a broken pipeline protruding from its depths. A cursory glance fromRatchetquickly confirms the pipe's true nature, however: it is a severed retinal cable. The Rodpod hasn't entered an abyss—it's just entered the gaping optical cavity of a badly-damagedMetroplex!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Underwater! Lucky for us theLost Lightwas built as asubmarine,eh,Perceptor?"
"Is that true?"
"Yep."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Really,though? "
"No."

—BrainstormandPerceptor


"They've got alt modes, they're armed and they can combine. They'reDecepticons,aren't they? Miniature Decepticons. "
"'Minicons,'anyone? No?Suit yourselves."

—Ultra MagnusandBrainstorm


Hardhead:"Hey, I'm not judging!"
Rodimus:"Youarejudging. Orion, heisjudging. "
Orion:"Stop judging,Hardhead."

—Orion and Rodimus tell Hardhead to not be so judgmental.


"Look what thatTitandid to us! How long do you want tostareat it? "
"I'm with thedog— "
"Cat."
"—whatever."

—RavageandProwl.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Ultra Magnus is about to introduce himself to the Ammonites as the Duly Appointed Enforcer of theTyrest Accordbefore stopping himself mid-sentence, following his departure from the position after the events of the "Remain in Light" saga in issues #17-21.
  • Magnus refers to the "Ambus Test",explained in a footnote to be" A universally recognized question-set designed to detect sentience in mechanical lifeforms. "This'll be one of the tests created by Magnus's brotherDominus Ambusthat were described inissue #12.
  • As explained in a footnote, the Ammonites previously appeared inissue #22.
  • Also footnoted is Rodimus's reference to the effects ofTyrest's killswitch, seen inissue #20.Hardhead was indeed shown to be one of the switch's victims in that issue.
  • In contradiction toRobots in Disguise#22,but in keeping with most of theRobots in Disguiseseries up until now, Rumble is once againthe red one.
  • Chronologically, Metroplex last appeared in theIronhidemini-series in 2010, heading off into the depths of space.
  • Getaway has a very unimpressed reaction to the Rodpod, which is actually the stealthy start of his arc which culminates inissue 50.

Transformers references

  • Brainstorm refers to an Ammonite's chest turret as "part of some secondary anatomy", an in-fiction term of whatfanscommonly refer to as "kibble".
  • While listing the aquatically skilled members of theLost Lightcrew, Magnus name-dropsAquastar.The original version of the character was one of the Japanese-exclusive humanMasterforce Warriors,but likeRobots in Disguisebit-parterZetcabefore him, this version of Aquastar would logically be a Cybertronian, rather than an organic Earthling.
  • Prowl mistakes Ravage for a dog, something that's not uncommon in both the fandom and some pieces of fiction.

Real-life references

  • The Ambus Test may also be a reference to the real-lifeTuring Test,designed to test how effectively a machine can imitate a human in conversation.
  • The Ammonites live up to their name by combining into a giantammoniteto pursue the Rodpod.

Edits

(thumbnail)
My name is Rung. I am a robot doctor. I help other robots that have problems with their heads.

Similar to thepack-inversions of various other existing IDW comics, the version of this issue available with theGenerationsDeluxe ClassMini-Con Assault Teamtoy was also subject to some changes:

  • The strangest of them all can be found right on the first page (not counting the "previously" pages): In panel 2, Mainframe gives the count of the Ammonites as "eight hundred and nineteen" instead of "two thousand and twenty six". The speech bubble is resized accordingly to fit the different text.
  • On page 3, Brainstorm's first speech bubble in panel 3 has "I'll be damned" changed to "I'll be darned".
  • On page 8, Skids's third speech bubble in panel 2 doesn't address Getaway by name anymore (with the speech bubble resized accordingly), presumably because the name is currently unavailable to Hasbro as atrademark.
  • On page 9, Skids's speech bubble in panel 2 has "fuel quills" changed to "fuel fronds", presumably because in addition to its textbook meaning, the word "quill" is also an American slang term for a matchbook that is used to store drugs, something British writer James Roberts probably wasn't aware of.
  • Rung's eloquent dialogue on page 10 ismassivelyrewritten in order to simplify both his vocabulary and sentence structures. See the image to the right for a full side-by-side comparison.
  • Another weird change can be found on page 12: Rodimus's first speech bubble in the final panel has the sentence "A little while back, you nearly died" changed... specifically, "a little while back" is replaced with "last month". The word "died", whichwouldhave been replaced with something technical like "destroyed" in other pack-in versions of previous IDW comics, is left unchanged, as is its repetition in the following speech bubble.
  • On page 16, both of Prowl's speech bubbles in panel 1 are edited: "We stop it ordietrying "is changed to" We stop it orfalltrying ", and Bumblebee is no longer addressed by name, presumably because he appears in a body design released as aGenerationstoy under the name "Goldfire", which hasn't been adapted as an actual name change by the comics. This wasn't an issue in the previous three chapters ofDark Cybertron,though, where Swoop, Slag and Ironhide all address him as "Bumblebee", and the Hasbro exclusive pack-in versions left those uses of the name intact.
  • On page 18, Megatron's second speech bubble in panel 2 calls Metalhawk a "resurrected abomination" instead of an "undead abomination".
  • On page 19, Shockwave uses the word "gun" three times in his dialogue. In all instances, it's changed to "cannon" for the pack-in version.
  • On page 21, two speech bubbles in panel 4 were shortened into one, reducing the text from "What is that? Metal? Up ahead—is that gold?" to simply "Metal? Gold—"

Trivia

  • Artist breakdown: As with preceding chapters, Rojo draws the scenes on Cybertron and Ramondelli covers the Dead Universe. The threeLost Lightscenes are divided between Nick Roche, James Raiz, and newcomer Robert Gill, in that order.
  • Ultra Magnus mentions a group of underwater specialists called theHydrobots.

Errors

  • The version of this comic included with theGenerationsDeluxe Class Mini-Con Assault Teamaddsan error that was present in neither the original single release of this issue nor theDark Cybertronvol. 1 trade paperback collection: On page 3 (not counting the "previously" pages in the original single release), all the speech bubbles in panel 3 are semi-transparent, with the artwork behind them being partially visible.
  • Ultra Magnus describes the Lost Light as being fifteen miles long and ten miles wide. For comparison, this would make the Lost Light a little bigger than, say, the entire Bay Area. This isn't necessarily anerror... butit doesn't jibe with pretty much any artwork you could name featuring the ship,and seems seriously oversized even from the perspective of a large ship meant for giant robots.
  • Brainstorm's eyes are blue instead of the usual yellow.

Covers (4)

  • (thumbnail)

    Someone get theRobotic insecticide!

  • (thumbnail)

    Now see, you waited too long and they stared combining.

  • (thumbnail)

    Shockwave should know better than to mess with Megatron.

  • (thumbnail)

    NewMini-Cons!

Advertisements

Reprints

External links

Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Into_the_Abyss:_Dark_Cybertron_Chapter_4&oldid=1693936"
Advertisement
TFsource.com - Your Source for Everything Transformers!