The Sensuous Frame

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👁 MTMTE41 subcvr.jpg The idea of a "Thunder Clash Pre-Memorial Hospital" is not out of the question either.
"The Sensuous Frame"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	May 27, 2015
Cover date	May 2015
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long and Chris Mowry
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2015)

The crew of the Lost Light is invited to the "pre-wake" of the soon-to-be-deceased Thunderclash, but Nightbeat and Getaway soon learn there is quite literally more than meets the eye going on aboard the Vis Vitalis.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Featured characters 3 Quotes 4 Notes 4.1 Continuity notes 4.2 Transformers references 4.3 Real-life references 4.4 Errors 4.5 Other trivia 4.6 Soundtrack 4.7 Foreign Localization 4.8 Covers (3) 4.9 Advertisements 4.10 Reprints 5 References 6 External links

Synopsis

Decorated space-faring hero Countdown arrives on the Vis Vitalis to see his ailing mentor Thunderclash—at last, the famous Autobot's old war wound has apparently gotten the better of him, and he now lies at death's door. Escorted by the ship's first officer Firestar to the side of the mute, unmoving Thunderclash—trapped in alternate mode by rigor morphis—Countdown is left alone with his former teacher... at which point, he hears a knocking coming from within Thunderclash's trailer. Peering inside, Countdown only has time to scream...

On the Lost Light, Brainstorm, Getaway, and Skids are all hanging out in Nautica's room, but the Camien bibliophile would rather read about the Froidian Classification System than indulge their silly antics. Mention of the psychologist's name leads Skids and Getaway to talk about Rung, while Brainstorm manages to convince Nautica to try out his upside-down harness, which she ends up enjoying. Brainstorm has also completed an upgrade to Nautica's wrench at Getaway's request: the addition of a torch that counters attention deflectors, which Getaway plans to use to keep an eye out for the stealthy Ravage. Just then, an unfamiliar ringing is heard throughout the ship...

Simultaneously, in "Swerve's", Ravage and Bluestreak observe as Swerve—introverted following Ratchet's recent departure—finishes up his four-week viewing of every piece of human art and entertainment ever created. Just as he is describing the lessons he has learned, Swerve is interrupted by the ringing noise, which turns out to be a giant gong that Rodimus is ringing in order to summon the crew together. The gong signifies that the crew have "accomplished something": they have caught up to the Vis Vitalis, and Rodimus can barely suppress his glee when he announces the news that his long-hated rival Thunderclash is on his deathbed, and that the crew are invited to a "pre-wake" in his honor. After giving the crew the news, Rodimus and Megatron privately reveal to one another that they will not be attending the party, and their attempts to make excuses for not doing so lead to them scheduling a meeting for themselves during which they will "plan".

Later, the pre-wake party is in full swing aboard the Vis Vitalis, and the Lost Lighters are all enjoying themselves... except for wallflowers Rung, Nautica, Nightbeat, and Cyclonus. While Nightbeat takes Nautica's wrench and goes off to snoop around the ship, Nautica is approached by Firestar, who it turns out is her old room-mate and Amica Endura from Caminus, and who joined the Vis Vitalis crew when she and some other Camiens picked up a distress call and helped fix some damage the ship had taken. As she and Nautica swap stories, however, it soon becomes clear that Firestar is more "frenemy" than "friend", her catty remarks about Nautica's abilities and insistence on using the hated nickname "Naughty Nautica" soon mounting up, culminating in an awkward silence and an uncomfortable parting of the ways.

In Thunderclash's quarters, Camien crewmember Velocity shows Minimus Ambus the supposed map to Cyberutopia that Thunderclash has carved into the room's wall, drawn from his dreams. First Aid completes his examination of Thunderclash, which yields surprising results: whatever is killing Thunderclash, it is not his old spark injury, which has been miraculously healed around six months prior. Velocity explains that a passing medic was responsible, but cannot remember anything about her. Unable to deduce what has left Thunderclash in his current sorry state, First Aid opens his trailer to carry out an internal examination... but finds nothing.

A little later, after the party has wound down and most of the crew have returned to the Lost Light, Nautica hems and haws about staying for the funeral. A tired, out-of-sorts Skids tells her a few others are staying too, and will be picked up by Rodimus on his way back from a supply run; others such as Nightbeat, who has just found a strangely exhausted Getaway napping in the middle of a corridor. Just as Nightbeat rouses him, Ravage runs screaming down the hallway, his attention deflectors sparking, claiming that something is "everywhere" and "won't stop looking at him". Immensely intrigued, the pair set off after the frightened feline.

In Thunderclash's quarters, First Aid gets as surprise when he hooks the dying 'bot up to a monitor desk, and Thunderclash begins voluntarily, selectively shutting his systems down in order to make his life-signs on the monitor resemble words. First Aid, Velocity, and Minimus read his message: "You're all blind, you're all dead" ...and then turn when they hear the sound of knocking coming from within his trailer...

Nightbeat and Getaway follow Ravage into the ship's morgue, where they find the body of ex-racer-turned-public-speaker Photon, and the still-warm corpse of Countdown. Shining the light of Nautica's torch onto Countdown exposes a horrible sight: a mass of technorganic eggs, clinging to his frame, invisible to the naked optic. Under the light, Getaway realizes they are on his body too... at which point, the pair suddenly find themselves surrounded by clawing alien creatures whose bodies are covered with the mysterious growths!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"This is wonderful! And look! Reading! I can read upside down! I've always wondered if I could!"
"You never thought to, I dunno, turn a book upside down?"
...
"I'm not here and you can't see me. I'm hiding behind my wall of shame."

—Nautica tries out Brainstorm's upside-down harness with some help from Skids

"Finished! One upgraded wrench! Where's that one Shanix you promised me?"
"I fear I may have exploited your ignorance of monetary value. Tell you what: if that thing works, I'll pay you two Shanix! Whaddya say?"

—Brainstorm strikes a hot deal with Getaway.

"Having devoured 30,000 years' worth of stories and songs—and having read and watched and listened to everything from The Maxims of Ptahhotep to Infinite Jest—it's only now that I've come to realize three things—three bold and shining truths that I'll carry with me forever.

One: Life is inherently tragic—and over far too quickly.

Two: All art thrives on conflict. We valorize fiction because it helps us make sense of ourselves.

Three: Season 4 of Community was a serious misstep."

—Swerve

"Have you met him?"
"Not as such. I've tried to kill him several times..."

—Rodimus and Megatron on Thunderclash

"You've been sulking in your quarters ever since we went back in time and created you and yes I'm aware how that sounds."

—Rodimus to Megatron

"I'm gonna plan you into next week."
"Maybe. Or maybe after five minutes you'll get bored and start carving pictures onto your desk."
"Wrong, actually! Utterly, demonstrably, villainously wrong. I ran out of space ages ago."

—Rodimus and Megatron on their joint planning session

"What. Is. The. Matter. With. You."
"I'm resting, I'm not—why are you talking to me like I'm a broken vending machine?"
"I'm trying to show concern. I've seen other people do it."

—Nightbeat and Getaway

Velocity: "He's killing himself to send us a message...?"
Minimus: "A grammatically correct message. Look at that apostrophe..."
First Aid: "He had to reduce his lifespan by six hours to generate that 'apostrophe'."
Minimus: "I know that's not supposed to impress me, but..."

"Aren't you going to look? Dead bodies. They're your favorite."
"Murders are my favourite. A dead body's just a statement. A murder is a question: whodunit?"

—Getaway and Nightbeat in the morgue

Notes

Continuity notes

• The presence of Mirage and the Protectobots on the Lost Light places this story before the Combiner Wars storyline, already well underway in the book's sibling titles by the time this issue was released.
• Copious amounts of innermost energon have been donated for Thunderclash; we were introduced to this practice back in issue #12.
• Rigor morphis debuted waaaay back in the very first issue.
• Brainstorm's ability to work while hanging upside was previously seen in issue #7.
• Nautica notes that Rung lent her the book she is reading; it was implied in issue #28 that the pair had been exchanging books.
• Skids defends Rung, which indicates he's taking to heart Ratchet's request from last issue to be a friend to the psychiatrist.
• During Rodimus's announcement, Xaaron and Dipstick stand together in the audience, marking the third time the two have been spotted hanging out with one another in the series. It's perhaps safe to say at this point that the two are pals.
• Megatron and Rodimus's argument about "sulking" and "taking stock" echoes the one they had in issue #30, with the roles reversed.
• Rodimus's habit of carving pictures into his desk was introduced in "Signal to Noise", back in issue #13.
• Nautica mentioned having an Amica Endura back in issue #32.
• Firestar is the new first officer of the Vis Vitalis, which the ship was in need of since the last one turned out to be an Ammonite in issue #22.
• Thunderclash's map includes multiple uses of a familiar symbol: a gear-like hieroglyph seen engraved on the surface of Luna 1 and in the speech bubble of a mysterious ball of energy, both from issue #21.
• Minimus Ambus mentions that the Lost Light's version of the map was "memory-resistant", which was discovered in issue #15.
• The fatal injury that Thunderclash has lived with is revealed to have been received after the fall of Grindcore prison, an infamous location previously mentioned in issue #39 and "Bullets".
• Nightbeat makes a disparaging remark about Alpha Trion's supposed wisdom. We previously witnessed his distinct lack of awe towards the elder Autobot in Spotlight: Orion Pax.
• Countdown is famous for his heroism in the Simanzi Massacre.

Transformers references

• Firestar was one of the original Female Autobots, who first appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Search for Alpha Trion". This is her first major role in G1-based fiction since then; she's mostly shown up in cameos since her original debut, partially due to Hasbro's inability to trademark her name, requiring she be replaced in most stories with her lookalike, Flareup. Only the Aligned version has had any significant role in her continuity's fiction.
• Generation 1 Micromaster Countdown is a similarly little-seen character, having received his biggest fictional role in Dreamwave's Micromasters mini-series. His being a legendary, highly decorated space hero comes directly from his original bio. Alex Milne gave him a redesign based on said toy.^[1]
• Rodimus's quarters are numbered "077"; the original Rodimus Prime toy's Japanese ID number was C-77.
• Swerve notes that Ratchet would have loved the party on the Vis Vitalis; it almost never factors into his characterisation in any fiction, and certainly the current old-and-grumpy IDW incarnation of the character seems well past enjoying this sort of thing, but Ratchet's original Generation 1 bio does mention that he loves to party.

Real-life references

• We don't really need to point out that this issue takes its title from a line in the Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem In Memoriam A.H.H., since the poem opens this issue (or more accurately, the 50th of the poem's 133 sub-sections). We previously saw Verity Carlo with a book of Tennyson's poems in Last Stand of the Wreckers issue #5.
• As Swerve watches television, the narration from the opening sequence of Quantum Leap plays.
• Specific works Swerve mentions having experienced include The Maxims of Ptahhotep and Infinite Jest.
  • The publisher's summary of the latter describes it as "Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy". Sound familiar to anyone?
• As quoted above, Swerve references TV show Community, but gets cut off before he can finish complaining about the firing of series creator Dan Harmon.
• The "next issue" box promises "murder on the dancefloor", a reference to the Sophie Ellis-Bextor song of the same name.

Errors

• Nautica says that Rung "leant" (past tense of "lean", chiefly British) her a book, but it should say "lent" (past tense of "lend").

• The script, through Nautica's dialogue, makes the common mistake of mixing up "to infer" with "to imply." She says Rung "inferred" something to her, but the context makes it clear she means "implied."
• The 'bot at the centre of the dancefloor in our first look at the pre-wake is Sureshot, but he's been coloured in pale blue, lavender and white instead of his normal yellow, red and orange. Given the coloured disco lightball and that Whirl is coloured red behind him, this could just be a stylistic choice.
• While listing Camiens on board, Firestar mentions a "Skystalker", but a few pages later, Nautica talks about a "Skystriker". It's hard to say how this came about; Roberts had made a habit of throwing in obscure characters who had yet to appear in IDW continuity, and Skystalker's opposite number Countdown appears this same issue. Fellow Camien Firestar is another existing character, but the rest are brand new. In the next issue, artist Alex Milne gives the character a totally original design, but colorist Joana Lafuente gives him Skystalker's classic colours. "Skystriker" might be a reference to the G.I. Joe vehicle of the same name. In the trade paperback, "Skystriker" is chosen as the correct name.
• On Thunderclash's wall map, a black line to the right of the re-charge socket is miscolored as part of his drawings.
• As Getaway and Nightbeat watch Ravage flail around, one of Ravage's speech bubbles ("They won't stop looking at me!") is misaligned—it's supposed to be touching the edge of the panel, but has been placed a little higher, leaving visible the flat edge of the bubble without an outline. This is corrected in the trade paperback.
• In the same sequence, some of the sparks flying off of Ravage are miscolored as part of his body, making him appear somewhat tattered.

Other trivia

• In addition to Javelin, Velocity, and the above-mentioned Skystriker, new Camiens named but not seen in this issue include Proxima (who appears on the cover), Acceleron, Exocet, and Skimmer. Acceleron and Proxima are both female, while Skystriker is male; Skimmer and Exocet's genders are not mentioned.
• And speaking of which, Acceleron and Proxima are a couple, making them the first-ever official female same-gender couple in Transformers history!
• An additional female Camien, Roadmaster, appears on the cover but is not seen or mentioned in the story. She would, however, appear in the next issue.

Soundtrack

• "Last Night I Nearly Died (But I Woke Up Just In Time)" by Duke Special^[2]
• "Sweetest Decline" by Beth Orton^[3]
• "Cannonball" by The Breeders^[4]
• "Call Me Ishmael" by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly^[5]
• "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron & Wine^[6]

Foreign Localization

Swedish:

• Title: "Den sinnliga inramningen" ("The Sensous Framing")
  • The narration from Quantum Leap remains in English since it, like most live-action media, was not dubbed when released in Sweden. (Also, its only Swedish release was a VHS of the pilot episode, but that's beside the larger point.)

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: Nautica reunites with Firestar and her other old Camien friends, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover: Thunderclash's huge pre-memorial statue, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Retailer incentive cover: Drift and Ratchet, by Kotteri

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  Nautica resolved to never have another girls' night out with Firestar after she caused a major wildfire by simply walking past a couple of trees.

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  They apparently built the damn thing in front of the Ruby Crystal Mines of Burma.

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  Y'all come back now, ya hear?

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• More than Meets the Eye #42
• "Combiner Wars"
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #6
• IDW Jem and the Holograms comic
• Godzilla: Rulers of Earth trade paperbacks
• Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 8 (October 21, 2015) ISBN 1631404520 / ISBN 978-1631404528
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #39–44.
  • Bonus material includes covers of each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 63: Elegant Chaos (June 12, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #35–42.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 (June 19, 2019) ISBN 1684054842 / ISBN 978-1684054848
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–41, #42 & #43, Windblade (2015) issues #1–3 & #4–5, and More than Meets the Eye issues #41–44.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Några av mina bästa vänner är Autoboter (November, 2025)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #39 & #41-46, Drift: Empire of Stone issues #1-4 and the Revolution one-shot.
  • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 8 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 63: Elegant Chaos – cover art by Don Figueroa (Trailbreaker) and Alex Milne (retro)

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 👁 (thumbnail)
  

  Några av mina bästa vänner är Autoboter – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

References

External links

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