Tales of the Fallen issue 4

« Transformers: Tales of the Fallen #4 »
"No, no, no! String section, you've got the tempo all wrong! Pay attention to the cues!"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 25, 2009
Cover date	November 2009
Written by	Simon Furman
Pencils by	Carlos Magno
Colors by	Josh Perez
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor	Carlos Guzman
Associate editor	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	Movie continuity

The Fallen betrays his brothers. Basically, it's the same story as last issue.

Synopsis

A long time ago, the one who will become The Fallen begins to hear the AllSpark speak to him. It anoints him its chosen one, grants him an armada of lesser Transformers, and sends him abroad to find suns for harvesting... all while forbidding him to speak of this to his brother Primes, telling him that, one day, he will need to stand alone.

That time comes when the Primes meet and reach the conclusion that while Cybertron's growth was requiring more energy than they had and they needed to harvest yet more suns, they must be "judicious" and avoid harvesting suns that were supporting other lifeforms. The not-yet-Fallen objects that, as the children of Primus and servants of the AllSpark, it is their divine right to simply take the energy the All Spark required. One Prime, however, demands that they take an oath not to harm other lifeforms.

The almost-Fallen, obviously, ignores this and proceeds to harvest the first system that his Seeker, Jetfire, can find. Jetfire takes the blame for the carnage caused and it is decreed that, in the future, a full congress of the Dynasty must meet before the star harvester is used. The about-to-be-Fallen ignores this, too, finds his own world (an inhabited one) and builds his own harvester, deciding the others were unworthy and he would show his devotion to the All Spark. Unfortunately for him, the Matrix that he built for this job doesn't work very well; he is consumed by primal fires and emerges as a burning, insane figure that blames the Dynasty for driving him to this and swears they will pay!

Burnsauce!

Aware of his transgressions, The Dynasty casts him out and declares him... Fallen.

The Fallen makes an act of contrition and feigns acceptance of their judgement, then begins to tear his way through the galaxy, ravaging inhabited worlds, assimilating any advances in science and methods of warfare he can find, and coming to believe himself beyond the All Spark. Once prepared and armed, he calls the Dynasty from Earth claiming to have found an uninhabited world, and they should come down to harvest its sun, intending to slaughter them and seize the Matrix once they arrive. They can face him or stay in limbo, but either way he wins!

Jetfire tries to stop him and is cast out, but the Dynasty arrives in full force. While they waffle at him to explain himself, the Fallen draws out two of the weapons he's collected on his travels and begins to massacre his way through his brothers. Only one, the Prime who had demanded the oath, remains alive, and he begins to flee across the planet in multiple teleportation bursts. The Fallen follows... not knowing the Prime has, during his jumps, been gathering the sum total of all of the Dynasty's lifeforce, and once the Fallen has run his energies down, he banishes the monster into his sarcophagus!

Imprisoned, The Fallen swears he shall have... revenge!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"We are the Children of Primus, the inheritors of universal spoils. We are neither bound by morality nor burdened by accountability. We simply serve the will of the AllSpark, and the will of the AllSpark... is to feed its transformation!"

—The Fallen

""Show of force"? That, my brothers, was mere preamble, an overture... to a concerto of carnage!"

—Also the Fallen

Notes

Continuity notes

• This issue ties into the previous one. Jetfire's confrontation of the Fallen is shown from new angles here.
• The Fallen claims that they are "Children of Primus". This is the first reference to Primus as opposed to the All Spark in movie fiction, though Furman had previously suggested this over in a Titan character profile.
• The surviving Prime's design is clearly based on Optimus Prime's protoform toy. Which makes it somewhat fitting that he is the one that actually proposes to the Dynasty the "do not destroy the suns from systems with life" rule and names the Fallen, the Fallen.

Errors

• None of the members of the Dynasty of Primes, save The Fallen himself, resemble the designs for them seen in the live-action film.
• The first time the "last" Prime is shown, his head sculpt resembles Generation 1 Optimus Prime's helmet. However, for the remaining of the comic he is drawn with a head sculpt resembling Movie Prime's protoform toy head.
• The Fallen is cast out and disavowed. Yet on the very next page, the Fallen is still part of and working with the Dynasty.
• In the battle, the Fallen kills more than five other Primes... except last issue, the issue this ties into, clearly showed there were only seven! Whoops!
• Jetfire and the Constructicons have colours here, unlike the preceding issue.

Other trivia

• Chronologically, this is the earliest movie-verse story so far.
• IDW is the only fiction to have the Fallen as breaking away from the Primes before Earth and setting up a trap on that planet.
• If we take the first page as literal, the AllSpark is both semi-sentient and evil. If we assume the Fallen is an unreliable narrator, he was delusional bordering on insane from an early age.
• This story clearly establishes the Fallen as the member of the Dynasty responsible for finding new suns to recharge the AllSpark. It also implies that the Dynasty of Primes has previously sacrificed worlds with life, and decrees the rule as a means of atonement for their past actions.
• Originally, the last Prime - meant to be Optimus Prime's ancestor - went unnamed. It was later retconned that this dude is a version of Prima.
• Much like the previous chapter, a Buffalo MPV Decepticon is visible among the Constructicons (see right), however this time it's colored red, leading some to believe it's an Overload unit. Closer inspection reveals that many of the visible pieces of kibble in it's design is based heavily off of the 2007 Bonecrusher toy.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: The Fallen; art and colors by Alex Milne
• Cover B: The Fallen and some crazy shit behind him; art by Carlos Magno and colors by Moose Baumann. This cover can combine with #3's cover B to form a bigger picture.
• Cover RI: Title-free version of cover A

• 

  Think he would sub for Steve Jablonsky?

• 

  New meaning to "death glare".

• 

  He's no Music Man...

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• TBA