Secrets & Lies issue 2

Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	August 19, 2020
Cover date	August 2020
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Guido Guidi
Colors by	John-Paul Bove
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

With both Optimus Prime and Megatron out of the way, Shockwave continues his machinations, but his activities on Earth draw the unwanted attention of the Dinobots.

Synopsis

Under Megatron's command, the Decepticon assault on the Ark proved swift, brutal, and decisive—but before Counterpunch can tell us that story, he has to tell this one first...

Aboard the Ark, Ratchet and Wheeljack do what they can for the gravely-wounded Dynobots as they load them aboard the ship: Ratchet reports that they'll live, after a fashion, by downloading their individual engrams into the ship's mind bank alongside their other reserve warriors. Ratchet hopes that they'll soon be restored to fighting shape, given enough time... but Prime grimly notes that time is a resource they don't have anymore. Elsewhere on Cybertron, Perceptor reports his findings from his last mission to Ultra Magnus. The mysterious explosion that sent Cybertron hurtling towards Stellae Cimeterium was, Perceptor theorizes, not a random detonation: the chemical composition of the gas vented in the explosion suggests that someone fired Cybertron's planetary turbines deliberately to send Cybertron on its current course.

Behind the Decepticon lines, Shockwave's final contingency plan has multiple moving parts that Counterpunch implements—and one such asset is the ambitious Decepticon Straxus. With Skyfire offline, and Megatron and Shockwave offworld, Counterpunch promotes Straxus to regional liege and offers him the opportunity to rule Polyhex from Darkmount. In exchange, however, Straxus must commit his men to a preemptive strike at a fort in Iacon's Border Regions. As the Ark launches, Magnus takes command, leaving what's left of the stricken Autobot war machine to fend off Straxus's new assault, a maneuver that conveniently allows Perceptor's vital data to slip through the cracks.

Out in space beyond Cybertron, the Nemesis lies in wait for the Autobots to pass by; Shockwave understands that Prime deliberately set up the Ark as a lure for Megatron, aware that the Decepticon leader would blindly follow him offworld. Shockwave is all too happy to let Megatron blunder into the trap, claiming that he'll remain behind as backup... and when Optimus Prime puts his suicide gambit into play and throwing everyone aboard the Ark into stasis, Shockwave's free to return to Cybertron... or so he thinks. Back aboard the Nemesis, the logical Decepticon puts through a call to Counterpunch to report his success—once he's ensured there are no survivors, he'll return to Cybertron to continue Project Dreadnought. Shockwave thinks he's covered every base, but he's momentarily surprised when Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust return to the Nemesis. Megatron assigned the trio to stay outside the Ark to pick off any spaceborne stragglers; when the Autobot ship went down, the three retreated to the Nemesis to tell Shockwave the dreadful news. Unfortunately, Shockwave has no further use for them; once he disables the three with a load of incapacitating scraplets, the scientist transforms and descends to Earth.

Shockwave's arrival does not go unnoticed, however; though damaged, the Ark's damaged AUNTIE computer detects his arrival, downloads five engrams back into corporeal bodies, and rebuilds them with new alternate modes based on fossilized dinosaur skeletons to stop the Decepticon scientist. Grimlock and the other four "Dinobots" board one of the Ark's shuttlecraft to find their foe, eager to settle their score...

Some time later, Counterpunch contacts Shockwave, who's established a geothermal research station on Earth, and demands to know why he hasn't returned to Cybertron yet. But Shockwave has other priorities now: Earth is a young world, brimming with abundant energy sources—sources he can harness, convert to energon, and use to fuel Cybertron for many eons to come. But, as Shockwave expounds on this grand plan, a blast from above heralds the arrival of the vengeful Dinobots, eager to take the scientist down! Beset from all sides, Shockwave proves able to outthink, outmaneuver, and, most importantly, outfight the Dinobots; as Grimlock's comrades fall one by one, Grimlock makes a desperation play and orders Snarl to collapse the entire mountainside on their foe. The ensuing avalanche sends Slag tumbling into a nearby tar pit, where he promptly sinks; despite the high cost, Grimlock's convinced he's won... until Shockwave bursts from the rubble, ready to continue the fight! Swoop assists his leader by tossing him Shockwave's vial of raw, experimental energon; despite Shockwave's protests, Grimlock injects the fuel directly into his system—and the resulting power burst supercharges Grimlock long enough to punch Shockwave directly into the mountain!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Punch/Counterpunch (1)
Gears (13)
Huffer (14)
Optimus Prime (15)
Ironhide (16)
Windcharger (17)
Slag (18)
Snarl (19)
Grimlock (20)
Swoop (21)
Sludge (22)

Straxus (29)
Chop Shop (34)
Scowl (35)
Bristleback (36)
Birdbrain (37)
Wildfly (38)
Shrapnel (39)
Bombshell (40)
Kickback (41)
Slog (42)
Shockwave (43)

Quotes

"Forget the fort! Bring me prisoners! The more the merrier! A warm welcome awaits at Darkmount!"

—Straxus

"Brute force, savagery... these things mean little... weighed against clarity of thought, speed of execution... and the peerless power of nuclear fission!"

—Shockwave

"Hah. Me Grimlock...have last laugh. Dinobots rule!"

—Grimlock speaks too soon...

Notes

Continuity notes

Ratchet and Wheeljack transfer the minds of the Dinobots into the Ark's "mind bank", which Optimus Prime used in Marvel US #14 to download the stored engrams of several Autobots back into physical bodies. This issue introduces a secondary part of the mind bank designed to keep the disembodied spark of a Transformer alive in "magnetic field stasis". But see "Continuity discrepancies" for more on that, however...
The comic gives us a glimpse at a young Straxus, future ruler of Cybertron. His conversation with Counterpunch features a few notable call-forwards to his short but memorable appearance as the main villain of the "Return to Cybertron" arc that began in issue #17 of the US comic. Counterpunch shows him around the Darkmount fortress that he will come to command; Straxus notes that Megatron is "disdainful of his methods", foreshadowing his extremely brutal reign as the nominal ruler of Cybertron, and later enthuses at the prospect of a smelting pool all his own—the torture device which, as per Marvel US #17, will become his preferred method for executing Autobots and Empties alike.
In Marvel US issue #7, Megatron referred to Shockwave as his "military operations officer", which he also uses in this issue. Additionally, as per the flashback in that issue, Shockwave is the only Decepticon not to attack the Ark directly, staying behind on the Nemesis. Megatron's dialogue in #7 had him suspect that Shockwave "craved the power of command"; we now know that, in keeping with Secrets & Lies issue #1, Shockwave deliberately goaded Megatron into making a suicide run on the Ark while he stayed behind, so that he could return to Cybertron and finish Project Dreadnought in peace.
Ultra Magnus leads a group of Autobots into battle that includes several founding members of the Wreckers and their allies, including Springer, Sandstorm, and Impactor, but Impactor has two hands here! Will someone or something take his right hand before we're through? Simon Furman's advice: "watch this space..."
The anomalous trio of Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust return—as we pointed out last issue, these three 'bots specifically didn't travel to Earth aboard the Nemesis in the original US comic. Here, Shockwave incapacitates the three with a scraplet-based virus, then leaves them alive but unconscious aboard the Nemesis while he flies down to Earth. Just what could Furman be planning...?
The Scraplet-based weapon Shockwave uses on the hapless trio takes the form of a pink foam, recalling the composite monster that the Scraplets formed in Marvel US #30. Megatron used a similar weapon on Kup in Regeneration One issue #83.
Aunty, the Ark's onboard computer, was never referenced in the US comic beyond its first issue. Here, her name is rendered "AUNTIE", as per the British spelling, and a footnote reveals that this is an acronym for "Artificial Utility Nexus/Tactical Intelligence Entity."
Panel three of page eleven, which features AUNTIE rebuilding the Dinobots, is based off panel seven, page three from Marvel US #8, although the images on the Ark's screen show fossilized dinosaur remains instead of the living dinosaurs of the Savage Land (but see below for more on that).
Shockwave's volcano base on Earth resembles the power siphon Galvatron constructed in Marvel UK #116, and shares its ability to convert geothermal energy into raw energon.
We're going to remind you now that we never directly "saw" the famous battle between Shockwave and the Dinobots in the Marvel comic: we saw the leadup to the fight from the perspective of one of the Ark's drones in issue #4, and Ratchet used a memory probe on Slag in Marvel US #8 to view events from Slag's perspective. As Ratchet (and by extension us, the readers) only saw what happened up until Slag fell into the tar pit and blacked out, this comic fills in some of the blanks between these two stories, and, for the first time, covers what happened after Slag lost consciousness. As Furman points in his author's commentary, the specific details of the fight don't exactly match up, so any discrepancies between these accounts could be attributed to damaged databanks. Or perhaps Counterpunch himself doesn't know all the facts—hey, it's not called Transformers: Honesty & Truth, after all!
According to Counterpunch's narration, the story behind the reactivation of the Dinobots involves "a lot of apocrypha", and one version even involves "actual, living dinosaurs". This is, of course, a reference to Marvel US #4, where Shockwave and the Dinobots had their big dustup in the anachronistic Savage Land—but since the Savage Land belongs to Marvel Comics, and still sees active use in their stories, it seems as though IDW can't actually reference this part of the backstory; even in Furman's author commentary, he only refers to it as "The Original Location". Of course, the fact that we're hearing about these events "secondhand" could also mean that Counterpunch himself might not know the whole story...

Continuity discrepancies

As Ratchet and Wheeljack work to stabilize the wounded Dynobots, they transfer their sparks into "magnetic field stasis." As the concept of sparks hadn't yet been invented during the Marvel era, the series consistently established the brain module and the data it contained as the "core" of Transformer life. This isn't the first time Furman has retconned the concept back into the Marvel continuity, but it still takes a lot of squinting to work. In Marvel US #37, for instance, the Throttlebots are reduced to nothing but brain modules while their bodies are crushed in a car compactor; in issue #40, Optimus Prime is revealed to have survived the complete destruction of his physical body after Ethan Zachary downloaded a copy of his mind onto a floppy disk. In both cases, other characters simply construct a new body for the Autobot(s) in question, then reinsert the brain module or upload the necessary data to restore them to full functionality; it is difficult to rationalize how a spark as we understand them could survive such traumas.

Transformers references

From The Transformers: The Movie:
- As he charges into battle, Ultra Magnus announces that if the Decepticons are making their "big push", then they need to "shove back", paraphrasing Springer's line.
- When Megatron leads the assault on the Ark, he yells "Let the slaughter begin!"
- The Dinobots leaping out of their shuttle in dinosaur mode to take on Shockwave is drawn to resemble their dynamic entry against Devastator in the first act.
The Dinobots taking on Shockwave to settle a previous score, and the team obtaining their prehistoric alternate modes from scanning fossilized skeletons, are both lifted from 2005's Spotlight: Shockwave—a comic which was, itself, written by Simon Furman as a modern, semi-realistic take on Marvel's Dinobot origin story. Homages all the way down!

Errors

The Pretender Monsters show up as part of Straxus's men making their attack on the Autobots, but they're colored a bit wonky. Bristleback's head and chest are olive green instead of turquoise, while Birdbrain has blue limbs instead of black.
On page 6, "Stellae Cimeterium" is spelt "Stellae Cimiterium".
Just before Shockwave shoots them with the Scraplet virus, Dirge is coloured like Ramjet.
On the first page of the writer's commentary, Furman notes that Shockwave was dutifully aboard the Ark, rather than the Nemesis.

Other trivia

Counterpunch slips in a good old-fashioned Furmanism on page six: "...the die, as they say, was well and truly cast."
Originally solicited for May 13, the comic was intentionally delayed to August as part of IDW's response to the coronavirus pandemic.