Drift - Empire of Stone issue 4

Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	February 25, 2015
Cover date	February 2015
Written by	Shane McCarthy
Pencils by	Marcelo Ferreira (pages 5-10)
Breakdowns by	Guido Guidi
Finishes by	Stephen Baskerville
Colors by	John-Paul Bove
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Together with Ratchet, Grit, and Gigatron, Drift faces down Hellbat and the Stone Army in final battle.

Synopsis

Fighting side-by-side, Drift, Ratchet, Gigatron, and Grit force their way through the Stone Army and back into the chamber it originated from, where Hellbat waits for them. Loathe to destroy too many of the soldiers, lest he deplete the army before he can take control of it, Gigatron abandons his allies to take the fight directly to Hellbat, but the traitor activates a gigantic stone warrior which he had specially prepared to fight his former commander. While Hellbat is distracted watching this giant pummel Gigatron, Drift tries to rush him, but Vanquish appears and bars his way. A moment later, Grit tackles Vanquish, and as the pair grapple, Drift calls for Gigatron to help him. Granted a moment's respite while his stone foe rights itself, Gigatron proposes "maneuver seven" from the old days, and bodily hurls Drift onto the dais on which Hellbat stands. Vanquish tries to toss Grit aside and go to Hellbat's aid, but Grit presses their fight... and is stabbed through the abdomen by Vanquish. The Decepticon flier mocks Grit's decision to turn on the Decepticons, but with the last ounce of his strength, Grit stands by his choices, pulls Vanquish close and rips his head off, before collapsing himself.

As Drift looks around at the worsening situation, the nihilistic Hellbat declares that it is a kill-or-be-killed situation, trying to goad the ex-Autobot into breaking his vow to never take another life. Drift insists that Cybertronians are meant for more than killing, closing on Hellbat and tearing the control device for the Stone Army out of its mount in the Decepticon's forearm. Unfortunately, Gigatron has just defeated his stone foe, and turns on Drift in order to obtain the control for himself, even as Drift continues his attempt to convince Gigatron of the pointlessness of carrying on the Transformers' war. Forced to defend himself, Drift drops the control device, which is swiftly recovered by Hellbat and used to send every single stone warrior after Gigatron alone. With stone soldiers clinging to him, Gigatron stomps toward the laughing figure of Hellbat, who spreads his arms wide and demands that Gigatron slay him—a wish Gigatron gladly grants, as he slices Hellbat's body in two without compunction. Unfortunately, his blade also sinks into the computer console behind Hellbat, causing an explosive chain reaction that threatens to collapse the temple. Forced to leave Gigatron even as he vanishes under a throng of stone warriors still carrying out Hellbat's last command, Ratchet and Drift outrun the escalating explosions and escape the citadel moments before it crumbles to rubble.

As they regard the remains of the temple, Ratchet again asks Drift if he will return to the Lost Light with him. Drift explains that he has spent his whole life struggling to belong, and that regardless of what allegiance he claimed, all he ever seemed to be able to offer was the talents of a killer; having seen something of himself in Hellbat, he feels the whole experience has offered him clarity, if nothing else. Ratchet tells him that he is not asking him to come back to the Lost Light as an Autobot... but as his friend.

Some time later, after Ratchet and Drift have departed and the sun is setting over the ruined temple, the rubble shifts, and a still-living Grit hauls himself from the wreckage. Clutching his wound, which runs through his Decepticon badge, he pauses for a moment, and then discards the disfigured insignia before carrying on his way.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Ratchet (4)	Gigatron (1) Grit (2) Hellbat (5) Vanquish (7)	Drift (3) Stone Army soldiers (6)

Quotes

"Hellbat's distracted... Now. This is my chance. If I can just—"
"Not gonna happen."
"Boy, do I really hate this guy."

—Drift is out-ninja'd by Vanquish.

"You are weak, you are nothing! You turn against your own kind, and for what?!"
"You're not... My... Kind."
"I'm going to slice your spark in two. Then I'm going to do the same to your Autobot friend. If you were smart, you would have left when you had the chance."
"We all make choices. I made mine."
Grit tears off Vanquish's head.
"And I don't... Do... Smart..."

—Vanquish talks too much as Grit proves.

"Here we are again, you and I. Agents of death. Either I kill you. Or you kill me. What else is there?"

—Hellbat

"You asked me before, whether being kicked out of the Autobots really had that big of an impact on me. A lot of my life has been about trying to belong. I didn't belong in the Decepticons. Then it seemed I didn't belong in the Autobots either. I honestly wasn't sure what I was after that. It felt like until then my only purpose was to be a killer for one side of the other. That all I could offer the universe was death. That's no way to live. Hellbat was so twisted by years of killing that death was something he thought he deserved. In some ways I know how he felt."
"That's pretty stupid."
"You're pretty stupid."

—Drift and Ratchet

Notes

Continuity notes

Drift remembers Wing, the Circle of Light member who showed him the way to a better life back in the original Drift mini-series.

Real world references

Drift's frequent comparisons to X-Men frontman Wolverine in his early appearances makes it very hard to see "Maneuver Seven" and not think "Fastball Special". In fact, the Fastball Special was originally called "Maneuver Seven" by Wolverine and Colossus in its first few appearances.

Errors

In all the previous issues of this miniseries, Vanquish has been portrayed with a visor. Here, he is sometimes drawn with separate optics.
Grit's speech bubble right before he rips off Vanquish's head should have a semicolon instead of a comma.
As mentioned in our notes for issue #1, it must be repeated here for increased relevance that the More than Meets the Eye prose story "The Sound of Breaking Glass" established that Drift voluntarily agreed to take the blame for the Overlord situation in order to prevent the great destiny he had foreseen for Rodimus being threatened by any potential repercussions the captain would suffer. As such, he shouldn't be struggling with any feelings of uncertainty as to his purpose as a result of that, because his action was the product of complete dedication to, and self-sacrifice for, the greater good, not the wishy-washyness this issue has him profess he's suffering from, unless he suddenly changed his mind.

Covers (2)

Regular cover: Drift, Ratchet, Gigatron, and Grit, by Guido Guidi, Stephen Baskerville, and John-Paul Bove
Subscription cover: Drift by Saren Stone; links up with the subscription cover to issue #3 to form a larger image