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The One Where They Go to Earth

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye#43 »
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Red Alert took one look at these guys andran like hell.
"The One Where They Go to Earth"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 29,2015
Cover date July 2015
Written by James Roberts
Pencils by Alex Milne
Inks by Alex Milne andBrian Shearer
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2015)

A dying Swerve's mind retreats to a holomatter replica of Earth constructed out of sitcom tropes, and his friends must transmit their own avatars down to the planet in order to find him and save his life. Can theLost Lighters survive... Swearth?

Contents

Synopsis

Swearth the one where they go to earth.jpg

Today is an even weirder day than usual for theLost Light,as the ship has suddenly found itself being chased by the planetEarth.Attempting to make contact, the only response the ship receives is a catchy song about "Swerve's",soMegatrontries to call the bartender to the bridge, with no success. The reason why is soon made horrifyingly apparent: just asTailgateis givingFirst Aida going-away present for his trip back toCybertron,Skidsbursts into the medibay with the comatose Swerve in his arms. A quick examination by First Aid andVelocitycan detect no surface wounds, but Swerve is so weak that exploratory surgery to find the cause of his condition will kill him. Everyone recalls that Swerve was fine just the previous day at his bar, butNightbeatdeduces that the Swerve they all saw there, who disappeared, was actually aholomatterprojection—and morever, so is theentire Earth,all somehow being impossibly generated by Swerve, where his mind has taken refuge. Tailgate, Skids,Cyclonus,Rung,andBluestreakproject their own avatars down to "Swearth"(asRodimusdubs it) to set up a base of operations and begin searching for Swerve so he can tell them where he is injured, and his life can be saved.

The team finds that the facsimile Earth is constructed out of tropes from Earth sitcoms, a product of Swerve's recent consumption of the entirety of Earth's arts and literature. Setting up base in aNew Yorkapartment, Rung, Bluestreak, and Skids go out searching, but get waylaid dealing with the escapades of their wacky neighbours. Tailgate, meanwhile, busies himself reading the only piece of literature on the planet,More than Meets the Eye,a comic book version of theLost Light's adventures. Just as he reaches a part of the story unfamiliar to the others—the fact that Swerve openedBrainstorm'sbriefcaseinissue #21—neighbours Ted the priest, Sheldon the dermatologist, and Jerry the stand-up comedian pay a visit to meet Cyclonus and Tailgate. They soon start bickering about past episodes, and Skids is grateful of the chance to shut them up when Rodimus calls in to check up. He, Megatron, Nightbeat, andNauticahave also projected their avatars into the city to help with the search, and after getting up to speed with the farcical ways the planet functions—including its own laugh track—they begin searching nearby bars for any leads to Swerve's location.

TheOneWhereTheyGoToEarth-table.jpg

Ted, Sheldon, and Jerry, it turns out, have locked themselves out of their apartment, and as Bluestreak works on opening their door for them, Skids confides to Rung that he did not even know what room Swerve lived in on board the ship; he had only found him by remembering which hab-suite Swerve's old roommateRed Alerthad lived in. Swerve had, he reveals, actually been locked in his room formonths,his body slowly degrading, interacting with others only through avatars, and nobody ever came to visit him. Hoping for a clue, Tailgate jumps to the newest issue ofMore than Meets the Eye,where the recap page narrated by Swerve explains what happened: exposure to the energies of Brainstorm's time-machine briefcase have created a time-loop in Swerve's holomatter systems, giving him the notionally impossible ability to project something as complex as the planet, which has been shaped into a world of fiction-made-real due to the metafictional awareness Swerve has been increasingly suffering from since he was hit with Brainstorm'smeta-bomb.Realizing that the comic is a case of Swerve's subconscious trying to reach out to them, Rung looks for more such subtle clues... and finds one staring him right in the face, as Ted, Sheldon, and Jerry's apartment turns out to have the same number as Swerve's hab-suite. Rung speaks Swerve's name aloud, and the three menallturn around, then suddenly blur together, condensing into Swerve's familiar—if very surprised-looking—avatar.

Rodimus's team is in a nearby bar, talking about Earth and humans; Megatron is struggling to get to grips with the human condition, never having used an avatar before, and is struck by the fragility of the body when he cuts his hand on a broken glass after Nautica tries to tickle him. Rodimus gets an update from Cyclonus's team, but it's not good news: Swerve is unable to tell themwherehis real body is injured, so that the life-saving surgery can be performed. Rung theorizes that the three avatars were a program glitch that split the different facets of his personality into separate individuals while Tailgate realizes that Swerve is suppressing his pain because he's found his "happy place" and doesn't want to leave. Swerve glumly explains that he has been thinking a lot about sitcoms lately, and how the "sitcom" of his life has changed since the beginning of "season 2", with him no longer playing the role of a "main character", causing him to retreat into isolation. Cyclonus saves the day by revealing that theentire crewof theLost Lightis actually helping to search "Swearth" for him—that while Swerve may not feel like a "main character", he is important toeveryone.Elated with this news, Swerve finds that his shoulder is suddenly beginning to bleed in the shape of an Autobot symbol, denoting the location of his real-life wound.

A little later, "Swearth" fades away after everyone has returned to theLost Lightand Swerve's injury—an infection in hisenergonstream from a years-old shoulder wound—is treated. Velocity reports on the successful surgery to First Aid over a radio, as the medical officer has already departed for Cybertron aboarda shuttle.As they talk, First Aid looks through his present, a datapad of photos and other media put together byRewind,but stops when he finds a picture of Swerve in an older body design, standing withIronfist.Suddenly putting two and two together, First Aid realizes that Swerve's infection was caused by a foreign object that still remains inside his body, which he has Velocity remove with all due haste: a message bullet fromAgent 113,the Autobot mole within theDecepticon Justice Division,fired years ago into the Autobot symbol thatusedto be on Swerve's shoulder!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Others

Quotes

"I suppose there's always theWiki.Or Tumblr... "
"I told you to stay off Tumblr."
"You're right: spoilers."

—TailgateandCyclonusgrapple with resources to understand the continuity ofMore than Meets the Eye


"TALK 2 ME. WHAT R U DOING? TIME IS RUNNING OUT. THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE OBV. HASHTAG PISSED."
"EvenIknow you don'twritehashtag. "

—Rodimussends a text, butTailgatecritiques his form


"'sup?"
"We're being chased by a planet."
"Cool."
...
"Sorry, what?"

—RodimusandMegatron


"Makin' your way on a quest today takes everythin' you got
Takin' a break from all thatwar stuffsure has helped a lot
Maybe one day we'll find the knights
But 'til then you wanna go
Down toD Deckand toSwerve's
You'll have more fun than you deserve
You wanna go where Megs won't go
Where the drinks all taste the same
You wanna go where Ten can't even say your name. "

—The Swearth theme song


Brainstorm:"Please bear in mind that" Earth "is 400 miles away. Projecting over that sort of distance is likely to result in a ratherdisagreeablesensory experience. "
Rung:"Might this type of sensory experience be better described as 'pain'?"
Brainstorm:"Pain, agony, torment, take your pick. Plus there's a slight risk of(cough cough)"
Skids:"A slight risk of...?"
Brainstorm:"Excuse me?"
Skids:"Just then, you said there was a slight risk of..."
Brainstorm:"Of feedback-induced spark burnout."
Skids:"Death,in other words. A slight risk of death. "


"I heard people laughing. Lots of people. Are you having a party?"
"Oh wait—that'll be thecanned laughter."
"The what?"
"'Swearth' isn't like normal planets. It's... how can I put this? It's got its ownlaughtertrack. "
"There it is again! I didn't even say anything funny!"
"You probably made a face.Reactionsget big laughs too. And don't be freaked out if you walk into a room and there's a round of applause and cheering. "
"Eh. That's what happensnormally."

—RodimusandBluestreak


"They're all out there, spread out across the city, across the world, desperate to find you."
"Really?"
"Yes. They need to know where you keep the keys to the bar."
...
"Tetrahexian humor. Very dry."

—CyclonusandSwerve

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Rung is using the holomatter avatar design from the cover ofissue #13,rather than the less-glamorous version from inside the issue itself. The earlier design appears in the "title sequence". On the other hand, Ultra Magnus uses the avatar based onVerity Carlo'sInfiltration-era design he used in issue #13 andissue #31,instead of theLast Stand of the WreckersVerity design used on the issue #13 cover. Swerve's avatar is now wearing a white shirt instead of a red one, but that's for plot purposes so the bloodstain can show up properly on it.
  • And speaking of Rung, poor ol' fella... even the title sequence spells his name "Rong"! This particular misspelling is a callback toissue #22and Rung's old I.D. card, where we first learned his full name...which is spelled wrong.
  • Tailgate's avatar is abiggerbaby than last time (bordering on toddler), reflecting that he's aged up a few years.
  • Rodimus and Bluestreak discuss that the former sounds different "in human mode", indicating that Transformers will alter their voices to fit their avatars. This hadn't been stated either way before, raising questions; for example, if IDW Bumblebeesounded like Lindsey Lohanor ifDan Gilvezan's voice came out of her holo-mouth.
  • First Aid is departing to go and be in the "Combiner Wars"crossover over inThe TransformersandWindblade,which took place a couple of months before this issue was published. Though not mentioned in dialogue, we also see the sick Mirage go with him, and Groove is sitting on the shuttle too; the otherProtectobots-to-be are off-panel.
  • Tailgate references the departures ofFortress MaximusandRed Alert(both inissue #21),Drift(issue #16),Ratchet(issue #41), and evenBob,who left in the big reshuffle after "Dark Cybertron".
  • Swerve opening Brainstorm's briefcase never happened on panel, but in issue #21's prose story "The Sound of Breaking Glass", Brainstorm did express concern (towards Swerve himself, of all people) that someone had opened the case after it had been blasted off his wrist theprevious issue(the spring-loaded clasps had previously been removed byGetawayto create makeshift tools for escaping the cell they had been trapped in). Swerve had previously vowed to see what was inside the case in issue #16.
  • Ted, Sheldon, and Jerry (see "Pop-culture references", below) each reflect a fact of Swerve's personality: Ted the priest is an embodiment of his intermittently-mentioned religiosity (most prominently featured inissue #31), Sheldon the dermatologist refers to his function as a metallurgist, the equivalent of "skin" for a Transformer (Tailgate knew the job by the title "skin specialist" all the way back inissue #2), and Jerry the stand-up comedian is his joking slacker side. Jerry really lays into Ted and Sheldon, accusing the former's faith of not being strong enough and the latter of not doing anything important with his skills, encapsulating Swerve's self-worth issues.
(thumbnail)
Foreshadowing galore.
  • Swerve activated Brainstorm's meta-bomb back inissue #15.
  • Nightbeat mentions having been to Earth's orbit, back inEscalation.However, see "Errors", below.
  • Swerve has been used for the "Previously" recaps sinceissue #29.We now learn these pages are not just a joke but that Swerve has actually been delivering these in the world of the comic, a side effect of the meta-bomb. This would also explain the two pages of recap last issue: not just reminding us about them, but subtly telling us Swerve is getting worse. As an aside, these recap pages have usually been left out of the trade paperback collections, but the second story in volume 8 (which is issue #40) keeps its recap page, so that people who are only reading the trades still get the joke.
  • Tailgate realizes that Swerve has used "Rungian Re-Experience Therapy" (aka "finding your happy place" ), first mentioned in a discussion between the pair inissue #12.
  • First Aid learned about Agent 113 and his method of delivering messages in "Bullets".
  • Okay, step back a second. ALL THE WAY BACK in frigging "Chaos",thefirst timeRoberts wrote Swerve in a comic scene (he'd written him earlier in the prose-only "Bullets" ), Swerve's left shoulder had a piece of metal riveted over it. Nothing was made of it at the time, but later references were made to him having an "old injury" inissue #21and issue #29—the issues, you'll note, in which we now know he opened Brainstorm's briefcase, and in which the "Swerve recap page" first appeared, respectively. We now know that metal patch was his own quick-and-dirty fix job for this wound. In addition tothat,back inissue #13,Swerve mentioned (in response to Ultra Magnus asking where his badge was) that his insignia "got damaged". And on top ofall that,we were made aware that Swerve had encountered the D.J.D. inissue #4whenPipesmentioned it to Ratchet offhandedly. Phew.Pheeeeeeeeeeeew.
  • What's more, in issue #4, Pipes claimed that Swerve hadn't been able tospeakfor a whole six months following his encounter with the D.J.D. (a fact which Swerve had described to Pipes as "the worst thing that had ever happened to him" ), yet inissue #30of the 2009-2011 ongoing, Swerve was pretty chatty with everyone, despite still sporting a patched-up shoulder. No wonder he contracted a rust infection if he didn't have his wound properly treated for that long!
  • As a side note, Swerve's design throughoutMore than Meets the Eyehas precluded him from having a symbol on his shoulder, since his shoulders are wheels. Milne makes sure to draw his old body with a distinct design of its own in the picture we see of it this issue, which tips First Aid off to the exact nature of his injury; whenGuido Guididrew a much younger Swerve in flashback in issue #13, it appears that the script for that issue specifically asked for the scene to be laid out so Swerve's shoulders would be subtly obscured when seen from the front, so the symbol's presence (and hence, present-day absence) wouldn't be obvious at the time. However, it further appears Guido was not fully aware of the exact significance of Swerve's shoulders, since he drew him in the same design as his present-day self (a view from the back even shows wheels on his shoulders!), rather than a design that would allow for an Autobot badge to be present on the left shoulder like the one Milne drew for this issue (or, for that matter, the design we saw back in issues#28and #30 of the old ongoing, the one that depicted Swerve with the patched-up shoulder as mentioned above).
  • When she first arrives on Swearth, Nautica waves directly at the reader; this is because she's a terrible actor as established in the previous two issues and doesn't know that TV actors aren't supposed to look at the camera.


Pop-culture references

(cracks knuckles)

  • The title of this issue uses the same naming scheme as the TV showFriends,where nearly every episode was "The One..." in which something happened. The apartment Cyclonus's team use as a home base is also the mainFriendsset, recreated with some stunning accuracy by Milne. While the street name and number ( "495 Grove Street" ) is taken from the show, theapartmentnumber is not.
  • Swerve's apartment number and room number on the ship, 43, is the same as the number of this issue.
  • The apartment used by Cyclonus's team is numbered 42, necessary for it to be opposite Swerve's apartment. It's also the number used forThe AnswerinThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • One of the neighbors' outrageous activities sees settling an argument with a game of paintball, a reference toCommunity,in which huge paintball games that got out of control were a running gag. Jerry wears a shirt emblazoned with the logo of the college from the series, Greendale.
  • When last we saw it, Skids's avatar resembled theEleventh incarnationof theDoctorfromDoctor Who.In this issue, it's based on theNinth.
  • The font used on the "title sequence" is based on that used from the opening sequence ofCheers,while the "theme song" transmission is based on theCheerstheme tune.Cheerswas about a bar, so it's especially fitting.
  • While listing off his knowledge of Earth, Bluestreak mentions the movieInception,the internet memeDouble Rainbow,beliebers,andmansplaining.
  • Confused over the expression "Humanity 101" (the number being used in the manner of a university course, meaning "introductory" ) in reference to the "bluffer's guide" that Rewind puts together for them, Rung believes it refers to "Room 101" from the novelNineteen Eighty-Four,while Cyclonus thinks it's about the British TV seriesRoom 101,which took its name from the novel. Bluestreak insists it comes from101 Dalmatians(which he calls "101 Damnations", perhaps getting it confused with thealbumbyCarter the Unstoppable Sex Machine); Tailgate isn't quite sure what a dog is.
  • Each of Swerve's three personalities is a reference to a famous sitcom character in name and occupation, though not physical appearance. Ted the priest isFather Ted CrillyfromFather Ted;Sheldon the scientist (a bit of a push, but the comic lampshades it, as Sheldon corrects Bluestreak's claim that he is a scientist with a "Kind of." ) isSheldon CooperfromThe Big Bang Theory;and Jerry the stand-up comedian isJerry SeinfeldfromSeinfeld.
  • The clients that Sheldon and Ted refer to while arguing with Jerry are also references to sitcom characters; Sheldon mentions a "Mrs. Simpson", alluding toThe Simpsonswhile Ted brings up "The Bluths", the family fromArrested Development.
  • Rodimus's avatar isungodly1980s, a kind of mash-up of John Bender fromThe Breakfast Club(played byJudd Nelson,who voiced Rodimus inThe Transformers: The Movie) andMarty McFlyfrom theBack to the Futureseries (specifically, Marty's orange-red down vest).
  • Rather than the Benedict Cumberbatch you may have expected, Nightbeat's avatar is based on Idris Elba's eponymous detective inLuther.
  • The bar Rodimus's team visits is named "The Jumping Shark", after the phenomenon ofjumping the shark,the point at which a piece of entertainment begins a decline in quality, appropriately derived from TV showHappy Days.Perhaps something of a meta-commentary joke on the outlandish nature of this issue?
  • The table (well, two tables pushed together) that Ultra Magnus, Chromedome, and Rewind's avatars are shown standing around when Cyclonus tells Swerve that everyone is looking for him is the table used by the study group fromCommunity.Magnus and Rewind are pretty deliberate choices for this scene, being a straight-laced rule-follower likeAnnie Edison,and a media-buff film-maker likeAbed Nadir,respectively.

Other real-life references

  • On page 2, the mugs hanging on the shelves are decorated with a caricature of coloristJosh Perez!
  • Just above the mugs are boxes of "Jii Puffs" and "Andy-Os", references to Transformers podcastersJii DeeandAndy Millmanof theMoonbase 2 Podcast.

Errors

(thumbnail)
Fixing one error, adding a new one. Net result: Breakeven.
  • First Aid claims he's going to "Earth and back"; he's actually going toCybertron.This is corrected for the trade paperback.
  • In the very same panel, the tradeaddsan error, as Tailgate's "photos" inexplicably becomes "photots ".
  • In panel 5 on page 8, the caption box reads: "The Earth is a made of holomatter too?!" This is also corrected for the TPB.
  • Nightbeat says that he's only been to Earth's orbit, but he actually spent some time on the planet's surface inDevastation.
  • Ambulon's photograph in First Aid's "leaving present" shows him with blue eyes, not their proper yellow.


Crew Manifest

Other trivia

  • The first page of the issue (Cover E fromissue #1,with a speech balloon from Tailgate remarking that he is "lost already" ) was missing from at least some regional copies of the digital version. Comixology updated the issue later on the day of release to include the missing page.
  • Being made up entirely of re-used art, the first page of the issue, the two-page "title sequence", and the mid-story Swerve recap page all come in addition to the comic's 20 standard story pages.
  • This issue's story is, fittingly, structured like a standard sitcom teleplay: a brief cold open, a title sequence, three basic 4-8 page acts (act one being the flashback to theLost Light,and act 2 culminating with the "ad-break cliffhanger" of Swerve's avatar consolidating), and a short "credits scene".

Soundtrack

Covers (4)

  • (thumbnail)

    You weren't expecting this, were you?

  • (thumbnail)

    Guess what? Now you get to hunt down countless Swerve toys on eBay and Amazon to recreate this scene! Yay!

  • (thumbnail)

    Now, if you lookoverhead,folks... * gets booed*

  • (thumbnail)

    "Digital!" "Paper!"

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Reprints

References

  1. ↑"Okay! First song for/from MTMTE #43 is Ben Lee's 'I Love Pop Music':https://t.co/J1360kjxNO"—James Roberts, Twitter, 2015/07/22
  2. ↑"This is a more appropriate video for the second song to accompany MTMTE #43:https://t.co/f3w3wgE5Jo"—James Roberts, Twitter, 2015/07/22
  3. ↑"Final song for MTMTE #43: 'There Will Always Be' by Adem. Lump-in-throat, this one.https://t.co/D9x4onxM71"—James Roberts, Twitter, 2015/07/22

External links


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