| This article is about the real-world issue. For the unrelated in-universe holiday, see Remembrance Night.
|
Chromedome signs the death warrants of all aboard the Lost Light as he enters Overlord's memories.
Synopsis
Prologue: "A Functionist Calls"
4.2 million years ago, before the war, on Cybertron's second moon, Thymesis Energon mining facility workers Frak and Rushcut uncover a spark beneath the moon's surface that flares to life before their eyes. Mine boss Momus contacts the Functionist Council, who send an authenticator, Three-of-Twelve, to examine the discovery, confirming Momus's suspicion that the unusual green hue of the spark marks it as the first "Point One Percenter" discovered in ten generations. Momus is declared exempt of the role his alt mode carries as reward, but when the two miners request a reward of their own, they are informed that exposure to the first flash of energy from the spark has left them only six hours to live...
"Remembrance Day"
Chromedome has entered the mind of Overlord, imprisoned in the bowels of the Lost Light within a time-dilating "slow cell" in which time moves at a reduced rate, and acclimates himself to the murderous Decepticon's headspace by exploring the memories of his defeat at the hands of the Wreckers at Garrus-9. When Overlord notices him, Chromedome introduces himself, explaining Overlord's predicament and noting that they've actually met once before. With Overlord silent save a request to be killed, Chromedome sets about rummaging through the Decepticon's memories, first visiting one of his bouts with Megatron in the gladiatorial pits four million years ago, then jumping forward to a vicious training bout between the two after Overlord had joined the Decepticon faction. One further jump, to three million years ago, takes Chromedome to what he is looking for: the Foundry, the facility where especially powerful Decepticons selected by Megatron were rebuilt into the devastating super-weapons known as the Warriors Elite, from whose ranks the "Phase Sixers" would later be drawn. As Chromedome watches, scientist Rossum details his concerns that the circumstances of Overlord's birth—on Luna 2, rather than Cybertron itself—mean he will reject the infusion of ununtrium essential to the process, and that if he does survive, he will turn on Megatron. Megatron assures Rossum that Overlord's status as a Point One Percenter will ensure success, while modifications made by Shockwave will make sure Megatron is safe. Rossum begins the process, which quickly reaches successful completion, climaxing with Overlord smashing out his capsule and crushing Rossum's head.
Successful in his mission, having obtained information on how to create "Phase Sixers", Chromedome prepares to pull out, thanking Overlord for giving them the key to finally defeating Megatron. Overlord's eyes flare at the mention of Megatron as still-living, and Chromedome notices the smile that appears on his lips as the Decepticon remarks that he has remembered where he and Chromedome met before. The pair visit Overlord's memory of when he led a Decepticon attack on the "New Institute" secretly set up by Zeta Prime, where Chromedome—then named "Tumbler"—studied mnemosurgery under Trepan and performed Shadowplay on dissidents. He had been about to lobotomize Soundwave when Overlord's forces staged their rescue, tearing through an army of Guardian droids, shooting Chromedome, and abducting Trepan into the bargain. However, as the memory continues to play out, and Pharma works on Chromedome's wounds, the cerebroscientist realises that they are seeing and hearing things Overlord could not possibly have witnessed, as he had already left by the time they occurred. Horrifying realization dawns: they are now in his own memory of the event. The shared nature of the memory has allowed Overlord to usurp control, having learned the basics of mnemosurgery from the captured Trepan, and he now begins searching through Chromedome's head for mentions of himself...
Overlord first views a meeting between Chromedome and Prowl shortly before the launch of the Lost Light, during which the police-bot revealed that Overlord was still alive and requested that Chromedome perform mnemosurgery on him in order to learn the secrets of creating a Phase Sixer. Chromedome refuses, having promised Rewind he was giving up the practice, but when Prowl goes too far, warning Chromedome that there are secrets in his past that he would not want Rewind to know, a maddened Chromedome assaults him, forcibly entering Prowl's memories and removing the unknown knowledge of his past misdeeds. Jumping to the next memory, Overlord watches as Chromedome meets with Brainstorm and Drift, who explain that Prowl had Overlord placed aboard the Lost Light with the intent that they wait until Chromedome was at his lowest point and talk him into doing what Prowl wanted. They provide Chromedome with the code needed to access the slow cell... and that's just what Overlord wants.
Bursting free from his restraints, Overlord explains that he could have done so at any time, but had no motivation to escape until Chromedome informed him Megatron still lived. With Chromedome briefly paralyzed following the prolonged mind-merge and unable to stop him, Overlord types in the code and opens the cell, then closes it behind him, reactivating the time dilation field. While Chromedome may only take a few seconds to recover and exit the cell, a much longer amount of time will have passed outside, with Overlord loose on the Lost Light...
Featured characters
(All characters other than Overlord and Chromedome appear in flashbacks and memories.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
"Hey—stay conscious. This is important. The Foundry, three million years ago: unless I'm getting ahead of myself. It's the day you became a Phase Sixer in all but name. And provided you can remember what happened next, it's the day-three million years later-when you tell us how we can finally defeat Megatron"
"Megatron's alive?"
- —Chromedome tells Overlord something... and the universe screams WHY?!
Rossum: "Okay—now push! PUSH! Keep pushing... and... we're good! Life signs are holding steady. He's going to be fine. Congratulations, Megatron—it's a superwarrior."
(Overlord crushes Rossum's head)
Megatron: "He takes after me."
"You took your time."
"If that's your way of saying, 'I'm sorry I got myself captured and had to rely on my betters to save me,' there's really no need."
- —Soundwave and Overlord
"Cover stories and half-truths. When was the last time you played anything straight?"
"Probably just before I realized it gets you nowhere."
- —Chromedome and Prowl
"Hey, Brainstorm, it's—why is there a giant naked human in your workshop? And who'd have thought I'd have to ask you that question twice in one lifetime?"
"I'm beta testing these new holomatter avatars. I thought I just had to fix the scale, but—you definitely think they need clothes...?"
"I thought you just did weapons."
"Yeah, weapons and 500-foot nude holographic decoys. Postwar diversification. You've gotta plan for the future."
- —Chromedome and Brainstorm
"I've just told him about the project."
"Hey, remember the rules—you've gotta say the name in full."
"(Sigh) 'Project: Total Insanity.'"
"I came up with the name. Project: Asking for Trouble was a close second."
- —Drift and Brainstorm
"Brainstorm loaded a speech recognition program into the security cameras and the medibots—I'm alerted if anyone on board mentions him by name."
"...which explains why you burst into my hab suite last month, in the middle of Rewind's story about Overload..."
"Yes, well, maybe if he enunciated properly."
- —Drift and Chromedome
"You're welcome to follow me and raise the alarm. I won't hurt you or restrain you or put any obstacles in your way. What I will do is close this door behind me, reactivating the temporal dilation field. And you? All you have to do is cross the floor and open it. It should take you—oooh—five seconds? Five seconds your time. From my perspective—and from the perspective of everyone else on board—it might as well be five years. Run as fast as you can, Chromedome... you're already too late."
- —Overlord
Notes
Continuity notes
- Momus previously appeared—as a corpse—in issue #10. His role as a Decepticon sympathizer is given more meaning here, as he is shown to have risen to senatorship from humble beginnings among the menial classes, from which most of the first Decepticons were drawn.
- The Wreckers defeated Overlord back in the final issue of Last Stand of the Wreckers. Following that, he next appeared imprisoned in the "slow cell" in issue #6 of this series. The attributes of the slow cell detailed in this issue explain why Red Alert's recording of his voice heard in issue #6 was so drastically slowed down.
- Overlord's memories of his defeat in Last Stand are a little embellished. The scene of Springer declaring "fists-in-face time" as he leaps at Overlord was not in the original comic, but evidently occurred during a cutaway, since the original story returned to the fight after Springer was already in Overlord's grip. More notably, Ironfist was not heard to say "'Til all are one" in the original version of the scene; we also see Megatron whispering the phrase to Overlord when he bests him in their training match. The meaning of this will be revealed next issue.
- Overlord was previously glimpsed among the attendees of the gladiatorial matches in Megatron: Origin #2; here we see that, unsurprisingly, he fought in the matches too. During his training bout with Megatron, we also get another callback to Megatron: Origin #2: Megatron is fighting without his familiar bucket-helmet, which he was shown to remove in that issue, exposing hair-like protrusions on his head in a scene we'd all rather not remember.
- Rossum is evidently the fellow who coined Rossum's Trinity, first mentioned in issue #3. Probably didn't do too much coining after this.
- The Warriors Elite were first mentioned by Swerve in a rapid-fire list of famous fighters back in issue #2. The incongruous nature of their first mention belied their rather horrific true nature!
- In addition to Overlord and previously established Phase Sixers Sixshot and Black Shadow, Megatron names a fourth, unseen super-warrior: Heretech. He and Black Shadow were the first to be upgraded into Warriors Elite, but the precise order isn't specified.
- In addition to the Achilles virus we already knew he had (mentioned in Last Stand of the Wreckers #3), this issue reveals that Overlord also had a killswitch like Sixshot, as seen in the Devastation mini.
- Overlord's forces are pointed toward the New Institute by the Decepticon Secret Service, a little-seen institution introduced through its director, Banzaitron, back in Spotlight: Hot Rod.
- Brainstorm is shown to be among the staff of the New Institute, explaining why he was able to identify Skids's gun as Institute technology in issue #7.
- Trepan previously appeared in issue #10; he evidently joined the Autobots after the outbreak of the war, or was at least conscripted.
- It was noted that Chromedome had a different name earlier in this life in issue #9. This issue reveals that it was "Tumbler".
- This was a sneaky move by James Roberts: conning the readers into thinking the secret past name must have some significance, when it's actually boring and it's the current name that's significant, relating to the fact he worked at the Institute.[1]
- As Chromedome recalls having altered the minds of "certain high-risk individuals" on the Autobot side, we are shown Mirage (traditionally noted for his wavering loyalties to the Autobot cause) and Pharma (who would eventually sell out the medical facility at Delphi.) Hmm...
- In fact, every one of Chromedome's colleagues we see stationed at the New Institute is an individual of a morally murkier disposition than your typical Autobot. This makes sense given the ethically compromised nature of their work, which most Autobots would balk at.
- Based on their conversation, the meeting between Prowl and Chromedome must occur at some point before "The Death of Optimus Prime".
- Just a scant week before this issue's release, Robots in Disguise #14 made mention of damaged memories within Prowl that made it easy for Bombshell to control him. Looks like we know who did the damage now!
- Prowl notes that "there's no such thing as a whiteout vacuum", but Chromedome recalled seeing them during the pair's discovery of The Institute millions of years prior.
- Chromedome's meeting with Drift and Brainstorm evidently occurs before issue #13, since Brainstorm is still testing the new holomatter avatars the Autobots would go on to use in that issue.
- Brainstorm, who has repeatedly been shown as having a case of Perceptor envy, is seen here sporting a patch-like targeting device over one eye. A similar ocular piece is worn by none other than, yep, Perceptor.
- Drift is revealed to have been the Autobot who spoke to Chromedome from the other side of his hab-suite door in issue #12.
- As long-speculated by readers, "the cargo" that Prowl ordered the Duobots to load on board the Lost Light in issue #1 is revealed this issue to indeed have been Overlord.
- Drift says that "the three of us" were supposed to keep an eye on Chromedome; "three" is presumably himself and the two Duobots, indicating Brainstorm was only brought in on the plot later, presumably to program the cameras and medibots with the program Drift mentions that would alert him to any mention of Overlord's name. We saw a medibot doing just this back in issue #7, its optic flashing from blue to red as Red Alert said Overlord's name to the comatose Rung. It is therefore likely that scene of First Aid tinkering with a medibot in issue #10 following Red's wounding was a red herring.
- It's not said explicitly that Drift took the data slug from Rung's body in issue #7, but odds-on at this point.
- Brainstorm has code-named the slow cell "Project: End In Tears". Oh, Brainstorm.
Transformers references
- As seen before during the "Shadowplay" storyline, mining vehicles in Constructicon-green-and-purple can be spotted outside the Thymesis facility.
- Momus summons Three-of-Twelve by calling in a "code 113", another of James Roberts's references to the number.
- Overlord's imperfect memory of the gladiatorial match rendering most of the crowd the same dull purple color references the block coloring sometimes seen in the original Marvel series, where it was commonly used on crowds and background characters.
- The army of Guardian droids that spills out of the New Institute is made up of tweaked versions of the three different designs used by the Guardian series back in the Marvel series: the original design from "Raiders of the Last Ark", the sleeker, pointier model from "Under Fire!", and the heavily armed "Mark V" from "Yesterday's Heroes!". This is the Guardians' first appearance in IDW continuity; they have had only one mention previously, in "Zero Point".
- Among the scientific gee-gaws on Brainstorm's desk are small versions of Generation 1 Perceptor, one in its microscope alternate mode and the other one in its "tank" alternate mode. Their colors are inconsistent, however (see "Errors"). In addition, there is a giant Perceptor shaped scope hanging from the ceiling (as seen on the second to last page)
Real-life references
- The prologue's title may be an homage to the socialist play "An Inspector Calls". "Remembrance Day" is a holiday on November 11 in the United Kingdom and Canada, used to commemorate the countries' war dead.
- Similar to the place-name double-meaning gag with Apophenia back in issue #9, "Thymesis" is the Greek word for remembering.
- Ununtrium was a real thing, prior to being given the proper chemical name Nihonium. In addition to its name literally meaning one-one-three-ium, y'know what its atomic number is? Oh, Roberts.
- Real ununtrium is less likely to make you super tough, and more likely to give you radiation poisoning.
- Zeta's habit of re-branding everything as "New" may be a reference to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who marketed the Labour Party as "New Labour" in the mid-90s.
- Rossum's imploring Megatron to keep pushing and his subsequent congratulations during Overlord's Phase Sixer conversion are clearly meant to evoke a human baby's delivery.
Errors
- The title of this story does not appear in the issue. It was revealed in a forum post by James Roberts.[2] The prologue to the issue has a separate title, noted above.
- On page 11, "Guardian" is misspelled "Gaurdian." This was corrected in the TPB.
- The two tiny scientific devices based on Generation 1 Perceptor's alternate modes (see "Transformers references") are colored inconsistently: On page 19, the one in microscope mode is colored white or light gray, while the one in "tank" mode is colored black, like Magnificus; on page 20, however, both are colored red, like the real Perceptor.
Other trivia
- The secret from Chromedome's past would never be revealed in the course of the series. At TFCon USA 2018, Roberts explained that he originally intended for the secret to have been that Chromedome was involved in the disappearance of Dominus Ambus (the story of which would eventually be revealed in issue #53), but decided against implementing it in the comic as he had decided that he didn't want to put another relationship through the wringer, leaving the idea as expressly "non-canon." In the original vision for the story, Rewind would have found out when reviewing footage recorded by his head-camera while he was unconscious in the medibay during issue #12, discovering that Chromedome had confessed the truth when he thought Rewind was going to die.
Crew manifest
- 5 deaths, 5 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders), and 1 boxed since the launch.
- 1 uninvited guest.
- Some people gonna diiiiiiieee...
Soundtrack
Foreign localization
Japanese
- Title: untitled
- "Prologue: Kinōshugisha no Shōkan" (プロローグ: 機能主義者の召喚, "Prologue: Functionist's Summons")
Swedish
- Title: "Minnesdagen" ("Remembrance Day")
- "Prolog: En Funktionist kommer på besök" ("Prologue: A Functionist Comes to Visit")
Covers (3)
Lips? What about that smile?!
Overlord performs at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater.
Smirk to rival Starscream's.
Advertisements
Reprints
- Transformers: Krig och hågkomst (July, 2021)
The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 4 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 57: Remain in Light – cover art by Don Figueroa (Skids) and Alex Milne (Overlord)
Krig och hågkomst – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.
References
