The Change In Your Nature Part Five
From Transformers Wiki
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| "The Change In Your Nature Part Five" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | February 19,2020 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | January 2020 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Brian Ruckley | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Anna Malkova(pages 1, 8-20)Beth McGuire-Smith(pages 2-7) | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Joana Lafuente(pages 1, 8-20)John-Paul Bove(pages 2-7) | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Jake M. WoodandNeil Uyetake | ||||||||||||
| Editor | David MariotteandTom Waltz | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | 2019 IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
Faced with a rogue Titan, a pair of unlikely heroes must lay everything on the line to defend the Winged Moon.
Contents |
Synopsis
Their raid on the abandonedTitan Netsubsidiary hub complete,Slipstreamand her cadre ofAscenticonoperatives slip away aboardAstrotrain.Although Astrotrain is more interested in taking on some more security 'bots, Slipstream warns him that it won't be needed. There's no way for the Autobots to undo what they've just done; all that matters now is that they go to ground as fast as possible.
In the wreckage of theMemorial CraterbeyondIacon,Cyclonuscontinues to sit and stew in his own anger. He brushes off the ceaseless bickering of his ghostly compatriots, ignoring their ideas as to how he should best deal with his emotions...and whether or not he should getParagoninvolved. Only the arrival ofHot Spotshakes the old warrior from his visions; the rescue specialist tells Cyclonus he needs to leave. Cyclonus obliges, but has one question for Hot Spot: who did this? The way Hot Spot's heard it, it'sSixshotwho's to blame; at this, Cyclonus stalks off, grimly announcing that he has a decision to make.
Above Cybertron, on theWinged Moon,WheeljackupdatesLanceron his investigations intoRisesabotage: someone illicitly installed anenergon siphonand transmitter and diverted a portion of the moon's output to the now-destroyed Rise base beneath the crater.Gearsattempts to disassemble the transmitter, but the explosion accidentally catapults him into space, forcing his mentorWheeljackand a grudgingHufferto leap after him and drag him back to the surface. WhenCosmosarrives a moment later, Wheeljack automatically assumes that he's come to rescue Gears too late, but the Chief of Space Security has instead come to ask why there's aTitanapproaching the Winged Moon. Wheeljack initially believes it to beLodestar,the only currently active Titan in Cybertron's fleet... but Cosmos warns Wheeljack that it'snotLodestar; worse yet, their mystery Titan is coming in fast and picking up speed on a direct collision course with the moon.
Down below, pandemonium reigns in Iacon's central Titan Net hub asBlastertries to ascertain the extent of the damage. Thedata-bombhas scrambled the network, knocking out all communication relays between Cybertron and its fleet of slumbering Titans in orbit... all of them exceptVigilem,who's somehow come back online and is on a direct course towards the Winged Moon. AsGizmoruns diagnostics,Playbackpoints out that there'soneTitan who's still awake and not linked into the network... a Titan who might now be their only chance of stopping Vigilem.
Their tour of Cybertron's colonies cut short, theCityspeakerLightbrightand her Titan Lodestar enjoy some downtime in Cybertron's orbit, until an urgent transmission from Blaster interrupts Lightbright's music. Blaster gets the pair up to speed: with Vigilem's own CityspeakerSkystalkermissing in action, Lodestar and her Cityspeaker are now the only Cybertronians capable of talking him down... or, if necessary, taking proactive measures to protect the Winged Moon. As Lightbright races to her Titan's bridge, Lodestar confesses her own doubts: Vigilem is an ancient Titan, a veteran of many wars during Cybertron'sAge of Expansionwho boasts the heavy weapons and combat knowledge to prove it—and there's nothing in her arsenal capable of matching his firepower. Lightbright remains confident as she patches herself into Lodestar's systems; after all, she'ssurethat this is all some mistake...
Lodestar catches up with Vigilem as the other Titan continues along his course towards the Winged Moon, but her hails go unanswered: Vigilem is preoccupied with his own ramblings, quoting long screeds that Lodestar immediately recognizes as excerpts from one ofCodexa's writings. Interpreting this as an ominous sign that Vigilem may be beyond reason, Lightbright orders Lodestar to stand by and prepare to escalate hostilities. Lodestar's more forceful warningsdofinally pre-empt a response from Vigilem... but his response is to ponderously change course and fire on Lodestar! Lodestar struggles to withstand the barrage; as Wheeljack and his fellow engineers glimpse the deadly lightshow and sound the alarm, Lightbright tries to use Lodestar's masers to burn out his sensors and blind their foe. The desperate last-ditch maneuver doesn't work, and in retaliation, Vigilem fires a barrage of missiles that quickly overwhelm Lodestar's point defenses. Fire erupts across the bridge as Lightbright tries to get Lodestar's propulsion systems back online—it only takes a few seconds for Lightbright to activate Lodestar's auxiliary atmospheric jets... but a second is all it takes for Vigilem to transform and touch down on the surface of the Winged Moon, and Wheeljack watches in horror as Vigilem unleashes the full fury of his weapons on the greatTetherthat connects the moon toCybertron!
Wounded but not defeated, Lodestar regains control... but Lightbright has no other choice but to urge her partner into action for one final, do-or-die attack. Fully aware that she most likely won't survive the battle, Lodestar thanks Lightbright for her companionship as the pair swoop in over the Winged Moon—only for a single blast from Vigilem to rupture Lodestar's hull and knock Lightbright off her feet. The second blows the bridge to pieces... Lightbright is unharmed, but her Titan partner is gravely wounded. Surrounded by smouldering debris, Lightbright is paralyzed by horror—not just at the grisly sight around her, but what she hears as Lodestar musters the last of her strength to give one final, urgent warning.
The Tether is collapsing.
Featured characters
Characters initalic textappear only in hallucinatory form.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Ascenticons | Others | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"What a mess."
"You talking external or internal, Gridlock? I'm picking up alotof anger. Real seething stuff. "
- —GridlockandHighfire
"How long you've been this clunker's mentor now? We two orders of magnitude beyondnormalyet? "
- —Huffer
"Titans built our colonies. They fought our battles. They died for us. Theywereus. All our potential possibilities, abilities, continued out of our deepest past into the present. Expressed. Beautiful. But terrible, too. I understand that now. We were too slow to see that not all of the past belongs in the present. Perhaps we should always have been more afraid of ourselves. "
- —Vigilemquotes Codexa
"I have been grateful for your companionship and guidance through all these megacycles."
"Oh, and I for yours, Lodestar. I for yours. We've seen some things, no? Maybe more to see if theThirteenfly with us. "
- —LodestarandLightbright
"Some say we are lesser for the Titans' absence, and for their sleep. But we should fear what terrible circumstance brings theirwaking.And what terrible circumstance mightfollowit. "
- —Vigilem
Notes
Continuity notes
- Cyclonus's ghostly hallucinations talk about Cyclonus's relationship with the mysteriousParagonand his time withFroid,which had previously been alluded to inissue #8.
- Hot Spot blamesSixshotfor the destruction of theMemorial Crater;this occurred inissue #9as part ofThe Rise's efforts to scuttle a bunker underneath the surface (although if we're being picky we'd point out that it was reallyShadow Strikerwho did most of the demolitions work).
- Wheeljack has found anenergon siphonattached to the Winged Moon, and revealed that it was set to transmit a certain amount of energon to the aforementioned bunker; in issue #9,WindbladeandChromiadiscovered the other end of this operation—several dozen fuelling chambers—although at the time Chromia wasn't sure where they were getting the fuel from.
- Gearsfirst appeared as a worker on the Tether back inissue #2.This issue reveals thatWheeljackis his mentor, althoughHufferflags up the fact that he's been a mentee for longer than is customary.
- Cosmosmakes a cameo in this issue, and Wheeljack assumes that he's there to rescue Gears. Gears and his unlucky habit of drifting off into space (and his need to be rescued by Cosmos) was a running gag in "Open Comms",which came out only a week before this issue.
- Lodestar previously made an appearance in issues#10and#12;although she wasn't named at the time, she was the ship thatSentinel Primeand his diplomatic retinue commissioned for their tour of Cybertron's colonies. Lightbright also put in an appearance in that issue and used her skills to helpNauticaandRoad Ragecapture aThraalsaboteur, though this is the first issue that explicitly confirms that she is aCityspeaker.
- Vigilem's ramblings are derived from a piece of writing byCodexa,entitledThe Way We Were, by One Who Saw It;notably, this work takes a very different look at the past fromTermagax's rosier perspective and reveals that Codexa held a much more critical opinion of theAge of Expansionthat marked Cybertron's heyday.
Transformers references
- Blaster's coworkers at the Titan Net hub includePlayback,drawn to resemble the unnamedParadroniancommunications specialist in theThe Transformersepisode "Fight or Flee"and later named viaAsk Vector Prime,Gizmo,a one-off character from the2005 IDW continuity'sSpotlight: Hot Rod,andWavelength,who appeared inMore than Meets the Eyeas one of the many "Disappeared"bots abducted by a time-travellingNecrobot.
- Lightbright dances along to a song aboutVelocitron,a colony planet that originated in theTransformers: Cybertronfranchise and went on to feature in the"Aligned" continuity family,the original IDW continuity,and theCyberversecartoon. She mentinons the tune as a "richPowerchordbeat ", referencing the one-off original character from the 2015Ask Vector PrimeFacebook column.
- Vigilem's ramblings namedropChelaandTempoas Titans from Cybertron's past, who both appeared in the original IDW continuity. Additionally, the issue introduces a new Titan,Waypoint,whose defeat of theSzorianempire references the race of the same name fromMarvel'sGeneration 2comics.
- Tempo is noted to have carried the "Knights off into legend"; it's a sure bet that Codexa is talking about theKnights of Cybertron,a semi-mythical group that originated in the pages ofMore than Meets the Eye.In that comic, the Knights were prominently affiliated with Titans and left the planet aboard a fleet of the giants. In the previous IDW continuity, Tempo was not one of these Titans, however; he was affiliated withVector Prime,left Cybertron after the Knights, and met with an uncertain fate sometime before the present day.
- As she and Lodestar make their approach to the moon, Lightbright mentions theThirteen;their existence had previously been inferred through a set of stained-glass windows inissue #11and the existence of theEnigma of Combinationover inTransformers: Galaxies,this is the first time that they've been specifically named as such.
Errors
- On page 15, Lodestar's speech bubble reads "The is reciting some of Codexa's writings." This was corrected to "He" in the trade.
Other notes
- Originally solicited for January 22, this issue arrives almost a month late, arriving instead in mid-February.
- Similar to#16,the original solicitation for this issue[1]featured a completely different plot. It focused on Megatron, who doesn't even appear in this issue.
Covers (3)
- Cover A:Megatron and Cybertron, byLivio Ramondelli
- Cover B:Megatron at a tipping point, byBrendan CahillandJosh Burcham
- Retailer incentive cover:Megatron unmasked, byMarcelo Matere
Advertisements
- Transformers: Galaxies#5
- Buffy the Vampire SlayerandAngel
- Locke & Key
Reprints
- Transformers Volume 2: The Change In Their Nature(September 16,2020)ISBN 1684056756/ISBN 978-1684056750
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 CollectionVolume 100: Constructicons Rising(November 4,2020)
- CollectsTransformers(2019) issues #15–17 andGalaxiesissues #1–4.
- Bonus material includes a 2-page afterword on the full Hachette G1 collection series, a tiny cover gallery of the Hachette series, a retrospective on the various G1 publishing companies, a cover gallery of the IDW issues and an intro bySimon Furman.
- Hardcover format.
Volume 2: The Change In Their Nature– cover art byCryssy Cheung
The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 100: Constructicons Rising– cover art byDon Figueroa(Scrapper) andLivio Ramondelli
References
- ↑https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/NOV190598
"Megatron is faced with the ultimate decision. He can forge ahead on the path he's started down, or he can take the last chance at doing things by the book. Either way, Cybertron is on the verge of change, and after this, nothing will ever be the same."
