#Issue 37 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thanksjro · 3 years ago

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More Than Meets the Eye #37 — Rung’s Lack of Table Manners Causes a Civil War

After the disaster that was Rodimus attempting to save Trailbreaker’s life retroactively, the Time Travel Team is well into their search for the dastardly Brainstorm in their new timestream location— prewar Rodion to be exact, where Orion Pax was police chief. They’ve split up into pairs and singles, as needed, and Rodimus checks in, despite clearly being bummed about what happened last issue, and also maybe because he’s got to put his readers on in order to see the road below him.

At least someone is having a good time.

Rodimus calls Rewind and commits a microaggression, but Rewind hasn’t seen Brainstorm either, even from his vantage point on top of a blimp promoting Proteus’s Promise. No idea how Rewind got up there, but at least our timestamp has been solidified as being further in the past than we were last issue.

Over in the river, Riptide floats around, horrifically bored. Cosmos is there, which is neat.

On the tram system is Chromedome, who is feeling mighty nervous about not using his alt in Functionist times, while also being nervous about running into his past self. He explains this to Rodimus, through the most conspicuous headset I’ve ever fucking seen.

Over with Cyclonus, the big purple jet is having a quasi-religious experience, as he takes in the view of Cybertron before all the war and Dead Universe and Heart of Darkness and D-Void happened to it. Tailgate covers for his moment of rapture, taking the phone to check in with their team leader, outright lying about what the fuck is happening to Cyclonus. He’s very good at that, lying.

The beauty of Cyclonus’s former home is enough of a proverbial pickaxe in his emotional dam walls to finally let himself apologize for kicking Tailgate in the gut.

Like, two years ago.

Points for making the attempt, I guess, though I’m not sure Tailgate’s really feeling it, as he doesn’t really accept it, but he does at least acknowledge words were spoken.

Over in present time, on the Lost Light, Perceptor spouts off some sci-fi nonsense to Megatron, as Ultra Magnus tidies up in the background.

Megatron posits that Brainstorm may be aiming for moments of historical significance because it’s just easier to do that way, and Perceptor just accepts this suggestion without a fight, I suppose because nobody knows what’s going on at this point. Magnus is making a face, and when Megatron asks him what’s up, we get a reminder of how our dear SIC sees the world around him.

I wonder if Magnus ever has to fight the urge to strangle this man for all the bullshit he’s put literally everyone through.

Perceptor calls Rodimus, explains the current working hypothesis, and Rodimus drops the bomb about Rewind’s database being rewritten. Perceptor’s not thrilled about this new piece of data, but it doesn’t necessarily spell out certain doom just yet— Brainstorm might only be on the track to kill Orion Pax, as opposed to having already done it. He thinks so, anyway; the time machine is an incredibly complex work of scientific breakthrough, so much so that Pereceptor’s got a sapiosexual boner over it.

Rodimus remembers that Rung exists, and ends the call prematurely to check in on the creamsicle man. Rung is currently at Maccadam’s Oil House, trying to keep out of sight of a couple of dweebs hanging out outside the front window. He’s yet to see Orion, and is told to just chill. He complies, pulling an incomplete model out of his kangaroo pouch to keep himself busy.

Unfortunately, someone notices his anachronistic prop.

Brainstorm makes a break for it, now knowing that he’s been followed through time, and then we get a retread of Nightbeat and Quark’s conversation from the “Shadowplay” arc. It is, quite literally, the same pages reprinted for this issue. Same colors and everything. Glad IDW didn’t waste the extra paper redrawing these, it would have been silly to do.

Brainstorm heads in Cyclonus’s direction, who scoops up Tailgate to intercept. Rodimus wants Cyclonus to commit a murder, but then Tailgate’s like “bro what” and he changes his mind. Before Cyclonus can shoot to wound, however, the egg-timer goes off on Brainstorm’s timecase, and he disappears in a cloud of purple smoke.

Perceptor gets called, and tells Rodimus to grab the fellas and head to Maccadam’s so they can follow Brainstorm, and that he can’t teleport them himself because there’s only so much quantum juice in the engines, and once they run out, the gang might be stuck in the past for good. Rodimus asks if Perceptor is mad at him, but follows directions regardless.

The Time Travel Team explodes onto the scene a year prior to where they were a minute ago, Whirl admits to thinking a vast majority of his current peer group is hot, and Riptide forgets that time and space aren’t the exact same thing. Rodimus is very tired at this point, and doesn’t even know why they’ve been brought here— Orion is nowhere near Maccadam’s.

It’s at this point that Ultra Magnus takes the phone (which looks positively silly in his massive hand) and brings up how their theory of “Brainstorm wants to do a murder on the future Optimus Prime” is starting to unravel. However, as I said a moment ago, Rodimus is very tired at this point, and frankly doesn’t care to understand what’s going on anymore. The gang splits in half, one going to Maccadam’s as instructed, the other going to the Rodion police station to keep an eye on Orion’s place of work.

Elsewhere, Rung— not current Rung, but the Rung who belongs to this part of the past— is on his way to work. Turns out his little backpack has multiple modes, because it’s currently being ridden as a Segway.

Past Rung is about to unlock the doors to the clinic, when he gets a nasty little surprise from Brainstorm.

Brainstorm electro-punches Past Rung in the back of the neck and leaves him laying in the alley. Bit rude, that. You could’ve at least tossed him in the clinic, so he didn’t get mistaken for trash by the garbage men.

Over by the Rodion station, Rewind and Chromedome are staring up at the stars playing connect-the-dots-to-grievously-harm-Prowl, not at all paying attention to the task at hand. Rewind remembers that they’re in the past, and that Dominus Ambus isn’t currently missing at this particular point in time. When he mentions this, Chromedome realizes that they’ve never had an actual goddamn conversation about Rewind’s first husband, in all their years of marriage. Cue the awkward silence.

Wow, talk about #relationshipgoals.

Rewind is thinking about using the timecase to go back and find out what the hell happened to Dominus, Though he super promises that he wouldn’t mess with the events of the past. Unless Dominus died, or got hurt, or got a new husband, or caught a space-cold. Chromedome doesn’t like this, more for the fact that Dominus being around would mean that CDRW wouldn’t happen. Also, Chromedome would probably likely be fucking dead, considering how their relationship started in a literal suicide clinic. He doesn’t say that bit, but damn if I’ll let y’all forget how much of a fucking mess these two are.

When Rewind is asked if this is what he wants, he doesn’t have an answer.

Then Whirl pipes up, because he’s also here, and privy to this conversation, not that he cares. No, Whirl’s more interested in the fact that he’s here— Past Him, that is. Turns out that today was the day that Megatron was arrested, though it hasn’t happened just yet.

Speaking of Megatron, guess who’s at Maccadam’s with Impactor? Riptide takes notice of the future warlord as he comes back with the drinks for the table. I suppose Cybertron’s currency hasn’t changed in the last 4 million years. Cyclonus expresses an appreciation for the arts, Tailgate talks about how Getaway thinks he’s really cool, and Rodimus makes a vaguely worried face in the background.

Tailgate’s been wronged, however, as his drink lacks a straw. Seeing as he has a horrible garbage-disposal mouth, this simply will not do. Luckily, Rung— Time Travel Team Rung, not the guy passed out in the alley— is on the case.

Oh, now that’s not proper bar patron etiquette!

The art then gets kicked back to the first issue Roberts ever properly wrote for IDW, as we revisit the first time Rung was ever on-panel. It goes just as well for him this time as it did in The Transformers #22.

The infamous bar fight breaks out, Riptide risks delicate scientific equipment to keep Impactor from getting murdered, and the gang scrapes Rung off the table and skedaddles on out of there. Outside, the cops show up, and Brainstorm wonders why he even bothers.

Over in the present, Perceptor warns Ultra Magnus to not look out the windows that don’t exist in the room they’re currently in, because things have gotten hairy. The Lost Light is now the only thing in the universe that’s experiencing time, likely due to the fact that whatever’s about to happen in the past is coming up soon. Magnus, who seems to have grown an extra five feet since the last time we saw him, may not be a scientist by trade, but he knows that this isn’t good. Megatron takes the opportunity to finally put the pieces of this puzzle together, and figures out what Brainstorm’s really up to.

Lovely to meet you, Mr. Recognized. May I call you Not?

Back in the past, over at the Rodion police station, Springarm and Wheelarch are having a really rough evening, as Rewind and Chromedome fight over whether or not they can intervene. Whirl just sorta stares off into space, until some new folks approach the station, and they’re not here to play games.

Whirl flies into a rage, leaping down from the roof and attacking the large robots with his pointy knees of death. Chromedome restrains him before he can actually kill anyone, as Rewind turns into a data slug and falls off the roof in the background. It turns out, Whirl knows these guys personally, as they were the one who destroyed his watch-making studio after he left the aerial corps.

Bro, what is your lower lip doing?

Of course, that’s not all they did, as the guy on the ground proceeds to tell Whirl, to his own detriment. Turns out that the Senate that had Whirl empurataed was controlled by the Functionists, who invented empurata as punishment for those who would oppose their sense of order.

Whirl takes the news about as well as he can.

In the present, Megatron clarifies for Ultra Magnus what he meant by them having made a terrible mistake. All the points that Brainstorm’s jumped to have been major events in Megatron’s own life. They made the assumption that Brainstorm was going to kill Orion Pax, what with the whole “secret Decepticon affiliation” thing, but it looks like his real target was Megatron himself. And his last stop? The day Megatron was born.