Things are looking incredibly bleak for the fledgling post-war Cybertronian society. All of the political shenanigans and attempts to bury old enmities have been rendered pointless by the return of Megatron, who has immediately insisted on bringing back the old war in force. Having mastered gestalt technology – that is, the ability to merge several Decepticons into one massive robot, in this case known as Devastator – he’s unleashed an assault on the city with full intent on subjugating everyone to his will. The end of last issue saw the Autobots’ own gestalt, known as Superion, completely torn in half by Devastator, who is no longer answering to Decepticon control, either. Looks like everything’s going to be destroyed.
Transformers: Robots In Disguise #16 shows us the the darkness before the dawn, but even that dawn ain’t lookin’ so bright.
First of all, Megatron hardly cares that Devastator’s gone mad, because he assumes the scrambling Autobots will deal with that while he goes about the business of asserting his power. Bumblebee, whose head Megatron only slightly crushed for some reason, is lamenting how bad a leader he was to let all this happen while struggling to mount a counterattack. Metalhawk, the spokesperson for the “NAILs” – Non-Affiliated Indigenous Lifeforms, aka Neutrals – is struggling to survive this attack long enough to rescue his friend Starscream, whose attempts to distance himself from the Decepticons in order to gain political power have blown up in his face. When Metalhawk finally finds him, the brutal Turmoil blows his arm off for his trouble.
The tide begins to turn when Starscream, insultingly labeled an ‘opportunist,’ shows us his sniveling cowardice is a thing of the past, and reminds us why he was second in command behind Megatron all those years – by kicking the diodes out of Turmoil with Metalhawk’s arm. Then we’ve got the gutsy, cantankerous Ironhide jumping right up on Devastator’s face to bring him down – by appealing to the part of him that was once Prowl, an Autobot enslaved and forced to become a part of the monster. We even see Swindle, the most self-serving ‘Con ever, showing a sense of responsibility to save the Autobots who saved him, and Dirge, the most sullen ‘Con, willing to sacrifice himself to stop Megatron from becoming Devastator himself.
None of that is enough to defeat him, though. Megatron came out of the Cybertronian wilds with a shattered body, and was rebuilt by the Autobots out of a sense of wartime responsibility to POWs. Of course, they weren’t dumb enough to do that without some failsafes, as Bumblebee realizes at the last moment. Tech-jockey Wheeljack, the awesome guy whose ears light up when he talks, got his head blown off a couple of issues ago – much to all Transfans’ chagrin – but not before he reminded Bee to “remember what’s important.” It’s only at this point, when it’s almost too late, that Bee remembers that was a callback to several issues back, when ‘Jack told him “the three most important words in the Cybertronian language.”
“Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack.” Which happens to be a system bypass code that completely disables Megatron.
It’s a great move by John Barber. If he HAD to take Wheeljack away from us, it’s pretty badass that he can still beat the supreme Decepticon commander from the afterlife. That gives us the breaking of dawn… but Starscream then makes a selfish, underhanded yet brilliant power play that finally puts the crown upon his head. All the fears we had that this might revert back to war-business as usual for Transformers have been put to rest, and Starscream’s got the power he’s always wanted, with Megatron at his mercy. That’s what we want to see.
At least until the “Purple Reign” comes to pass. Shockwave may have a thing or two to say about Starscream’s leadership.
IDW’s licensed properties tend to be a little hinky when it comes to the art, but not the Transformers books. Andrew Griffith does a fantastic job rendering these giant mechs, and I hope he and TF: More Than Meets The Eye’s Alex Milne never stop. If MTMTE didn’t exist, Transformers: RID would be the best Transformers comic of all time. As it stands, these two books together make fans of legit, non-Bay Transformers pleased as freakin’ punch. They’ve raised the bar, and here’s hoping they both keep going at this level ad infinitum.
