Defiance issue 4

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Here's Meggy!
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 8 2009
Cover date	April 2009
Written by	Chris Mowry
Pencils by	Dan Khanna & Andrew Griffith
Inks by	Andrew Griffith & John Wycough
Colors by	Josh Perez
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Edits by	Denton J. Tipton & Andy Schmidt
Continuity	Movie continuity

The seeds of the first movie's plot are planted.

Synopsis

Far from Trypticon, Captain Ironhide wanders through Burthov, his thoughts occupied elsewhere. Suddenly, he is ambushed by Cliffjumper. When Ironhide readies his ion cannons, four more Autobot soldiers surround him. Ironhide lowers his weapon, saying that he doesn't want to fight, that there's nothing for him back at Trypticon, and that the tide has changed. Jazz reports this to Prowl, who responds by asking him to bring Ironhide to Optimus Prime.

Inside a hidden base, Optimus requests to Prowl to make the base isolated, with Prowl agreeing to this. Ironhide enters, repeating his word about not wanting to fight. Optimus asks Ironhide why he's at the base, to which he replies that he wants to join Prime's forces. Ironhide then fills in Optimus about Megatron forming his large army. Ironhide is a soldier made for war, and Optimus' group isn't. Optimus corrects him, saying that everyone are brothers born from the AllSpark. Ironhide counters that some Cybertronians believe in chaos and destruction, and that some of the troops that used to serve with Ironhide are now with Megatron's Decepticons. Optimus asks why he left and how he found them. Ironhide says that he has no desire to kill innocents, and that Prime's group is innocent. The Autobot leader dismisses being referred to as a "Prime", but Ironhide said that his Autobot team called him that. Optimus asks Ironhide how he knew, to which he replied that he had been listening to Prime's group for solar cycles. Ironhide asks Prime to trust him, as he isn't all punch and no processing.

On Trypticon, Megatron oversees the progress of the Nemesis, then later on, enters his quarters. Megatron reports the Nemesis' progress to the mysterious "relic". The "relic" promises that once they find the Matrix, the power of the AllSpark will be theirs, and that the entity inside the relic will return. Megatron promises to free him, but the relic replies "only after it has been found". The "relic" notes that there are parallels in their existence, and tells Megatron not to make the same mistakes that he made, and that he must strike swiftly with no hesitation, because it drives the Decepticons into conquest and destruction, all for the sake of power...

...of the AllSpark. It held tremendous power, the same one that created the entity's kind. As the AllSpark energy gave the "creatures" life, they soon realized that its power wasn't limitless and had to be replenished and restored. As if on cue, an exploding star recharged the AllSpark. But when the planet's landscape changed due to the AllSpark, the "creatures" realized that they need to find another energy source. Though the creatures possessed the ability to jump between dimensions, they were helpless in locating a star, but as before, the AllSpark had the "solution": it created workers, but they were not like the "creatures". They were special, in that they were the first breed of Transformers, in which they had the ability to transform into different forms.

Some of these Cybertronians were able to travel across space. They were called "Seekers", and when they found a star, they led the "creatures" to it. Once a star was found, the entity and his "brothers" traveled by "dimension-hopping", but they needed help harvesting the star. In response, the workers built a "harvester" and activated it, which would give the AllSpark the power it needed. But then, the entity decided to have the power to himself, and decided to act. When preparing to claim the AllSpark, he tried to erase the existence of his "brothers", but when his strength was nearly gone, he made his mistake. The "brothers" survived, but sacrificed themselves to seal the entity in his sarcophagus. And so he has remained in his "tomb" until the Harvester is located again, and then, the entity will have his revenge.

Megatron promises to help him. Once the Nemesis is built, he will travel the galaxy to look for the last Harvester. The Decepticons will find it, conquer other planets, and crush anyone standing in their way. The entity decides to come along to ensure this. Megatron tries to say that they both will, but the entity says that only he will go, and that Megatron will remain on Cybertron and await his return. Megatron tries to ask for his help, but the entity forcefully and angrily quiets him. The entity orders Megatron to gather his crew once the Nemesis is built, and compliments him on his large army, while also ordering him to kill anyone opposing Megatron. Megatron says that he has scattered them, and will make them pay for their betrayal. The entity suggests that if they don't wish to serve the most powerful army on Cybertron and in the galaxy, then they may find a different side.

Outside Trypticon, Bumblebee and Arcee manage to take pictures of the Nemesis, and report this to Optimus. After looking at the images, Optimus ponders about why the Decepticons wanted to build something that would hold thousands of Cybertronians. Ironhide doesn't have a clue, while Prowl thinks that Megatron is using it to abandon Cybertron. Optimus believes that Megatron will use it himself, and that Megatron is intentionally doing it to send his troops out to the galaxy. Jazz asks if the Autobots should have their own ship. Optimus considers it, but thinks that it will be used to hide his group. Ironhide chimes in, stating that it doesn't have to be a transport ship, and that there's one hidden somewhere that was salvaged a long time ago. If they repair it in secret, it would help them.

As the Nemesis nears completion, Megatron surveys the ship, then asks Soundwave to join his troops as they enter the ship. Once inside the ship, Megatron has a private conversation with the "relic". The "relic" is pleased at Megatron's progress, and tells him that once he locates the Harvester, he will return... and Megatron will be rewarded while remaining full rule of Cybertron. And as the group of Decepticons gather inside the ship, Arcee and Bumblebee are taking notice of this.

As the Nemesis left Cybertron, the Transformers were left at a disadvantage. The Decepticons' recruitment became smaller, while the Autobots' ranks swelled. Just as Megatron traveled across Cybertron looking for soldiers to recruit to his cause, Optimus did the same, discovering brave citizens wanting to be free from Megatron's rule. With the Autobots ready, they fought back against the Decepticons, raiding munitions and storage facilities. But as the frequency of their battles grew, so did the scale of battle, and over time, casualties mounted.

As time went on, Cybertron was devastated by the endless fighting between the two factions, with both sides never gaining the advantage. Optimus realized that he will never know when the war will end. After many, many stellar-cycles of fighting, Optimus does the unimaginable. He makes the decision to capture the AllSpark, saying that Cybertron is being destroyed by their actions, and that it must end. The ship which they had repaired in secret has been ready. Now it is time for the Autobots to take their destiny. However, the ship cannot hold all Autobots, so Optimus asks fore volunteers to enter the ship. Those that remain must come up with an alternate escape plan. With that, Optimus readies the Autobots for their final move.

In the sequence of events that soon followed, the AllSpark was shot into space. Megatron, seeing the AllSpark flying out of Cybertron, believes that with this action, Optimus Prime was showing cowardice, and with no time to spare, follows the Cube. Unable to use a space bridge, Megatron followed the AllSpark, but just as he closed in on it, he picked up a distress signal from the Nemesis. Entering, he finds it abandoned and Megatron calls for his master. The "relic" appears from below and asks Megatron if he found it yet. Megatron proceeds to tell the "relic" that the AllSpark has sent into space, and that it continued to travel when he received the signal.

The "relic" is furious, saying that if he had his strength back, he would kill him, but instead, the "relic" orders him to resume pursuing the AllSpark. If it is freed from Cybertron, it will lead to where the Harvester is. Megatron continues to chase the AllSpark, while Optimus and his crew are inside their ship. Light years away, the AllSpark's journey will come to an end, its energy like a beacon for anyone within its range. Megatron follows, weak but determined to claim the AllSpark, as his master ordered. However, Megatron doesn't have the strength to survive his landing and ends up lost in Earth's cold elements, trapped in a frozen tomb. All Megatron can do is wait... after all, freedom is only a matter of time.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Don't move, Ironhide. Don't move or I'll shoot."
"With that? I've got these."
"But that's all you have. You see...I've got them."

—Cliffjumper lets Ironhide know he's outgunned and surrounded.

Notes

One shall stand, one shall fall. Now en garde!

Continuity notes

• You're probably thinking "that's a very complicated backstory and neither it nor the Fallen being a talking relic mesh with the film". So pity poor Mowry, who based this story off the early drafts of the film's script and didn't know until he watched it that the relic bit was being dropped. "I jaw dropped so fast, I nearly spilled my coffee all over the place." [1]
  • Subsequent IDW material like Tales of the Fallen has stuck to its guns, continuing to present the Fallen as being trapped in his sarcophagus by the Primes. Nothing has, as of yet, attempted to explain this disparity with the film, nor the fact that it renders the entire "Seekers sent to Earth to find the Matrix" plot unworkable, since nobody was around to send them.
  • A profile for The Fallen published in Titan's UK Transformers comic took a stab at smoothing a bit of this over, by explaining that Megatron freed the Fallen when he found the Nemesis while searching for the AllSpark. Of course, he's seen finding the Nemesis in this issue and does no such thing...
  • For the Dark of the Moon comics writer John Barber said the only way to reconcile the issue for him was that the sarcophagus morphed into The Fallen by the events of the film. [2] however later in Convergence chapter 4 The Fallen freed himself by using Sentinel Prime's space bridge pillars.
• Due to the return of Dan Khanna and Andrew Griffith, the character designs are once again similar to the first and second issues. Unfortunately, this also meant the ground vehicle modes have returned to being featureless hover-blobs rather than the distinct Cybertronic vehicle modes Don Figueroa gave the characters in issue #3. Also, the pencils are often vague and unclear, making some characters, even prominent ones, look almost unrecognizable in certain panels.

Transformers references

• Jetfire's alternate mode bears more than a passing resemblance to the Axalon, the Maximal starship from Beast Wars.

Errors

• Optimus Prime is shown always with his mouthplate, while he was previously shown without his mouthplate. In fact, only in the last issue did Prime use the mouthplate and that was when he was fighting Starscream and the assassins.

Other trivia

• Like Josh Nizzi's covers for "Defiance #3" and "Alliance #4", his cover for this issue was changed before the book was published. However, unlike the aforementioned books where the covers were just modified, his previous cover for this book depicting Optimus Prime and Megatron locked in battle was discarded entirely, and a new cover was created. It is speculated that the reasoning behind this was because Megatron was once again depicted in his Revenge of the Fallen body, which conflicted with director Michael Bay and Paramount Pictures' desire to keep Megatron's return a "surprise". This cover (albeit slightly modified) finally found a home in issue #4 of IDW's Revenge of the Fallen adaptation comic.
• The Nemesis as seen in this issue recycles the design of the Decepticon battlecruiser seen in IDW's previous Movie comic series, "The Reign of Starscream". According to designer Alex Milne, he did not intend for this ship to be any iteration of the Nemesis.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: Optimus Prime about to strike Megatron; art & colors by Josh Nizzi.
• Cover B: Fiery close-up of Megatron; art by Alex Milne & colors by Josh Perez.

• 

  Don't move, or I'll stab you right in the neck!!

• 

  This is Decepticons!

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