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The Transformers - Robots in Disguise Issue 7: Interference Patterns
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 4, 2012
Cover date July 2012
Story by John Barber
Art by Brendan Cahill
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)
Our issue begins with Wheeljack sneaking around a Decepticon ship. He's doing his best to stay hidden and he's doing quite well, honestly. He knows if anyone spots him he's dead. He's looking for something and if what Bumblebee suspects is true, it's going to be hard to hide it. He finds a particular cable running through the corridors of the ship and follows it. He thinks it's a device that can make things invisible and as he hides from more troops, he can't be sure if any of them might be invisible as well. It makes evading them somewhat harder.
We go back in time a little where Bee's contacting Wheeljack, who's late on reporting back. Bee sends him an image of Cybertron, to the scientist's confusion, until the next image shows a ship appearing out of nowhere. Wheeljack asked if it quantum jumped, but Bee wouldn't be calling him if that was the case. Wheeljack thinks he's worried about a cloaking device until the next image shows the Decepticon insignia on the side of the ship. Bee's worried that there's a potential invasion fleet around Cybertron with cloaking devices.
Wheeljack's always up to something interesting. We go forward in time to see Wheeljack has followed the cable to a locked chamber. He thinks that peace on Cybertron is a tenuous thing, hence him and this mission. They rounded up all the Decepticons they could find and made a frail agreement with them. However, he thinks the Decepticons have run out of goals and have no place to direct their anger. They had been fighting for so long and had lost so much of their population that everything they were fighting over went away. But there are a lot of Decepticons out there that they haven't seen in a while. What might they want? As he ponders this he watches as some Decepticons but the only thing that happens is one of them gets decked by another one. He leaves before they can spot him.
We go back in time to when Wheeljack joins the others in High Command to assess the situation. Broadside reports they have nothing on the ship, but it may be some kind of experimental vessel. If it has a ghost shield of some kind then it's the best Broadside's seen. Metalhawk posits that this could be nothing since the last Decepticon that arrived only wanted to recite poetry. Starscream suggests that they should be cautious. He knows Decepticons. The door to the ship starts to open and Prowl says they'll start shooting when Bee gives the word. Metalhawk protests, saying Cybertron should be a safe haven for all Cybertronians.
Hi, Turmoil. You all remember Turmoil right? Drift's old boss with a reputation for extreme violence and mayhem, but ultimately didn't get a chance to strut his stuff? Anyway, Prowl asks Bee for orders and the Boss Bee sighs and says Metalhawk's right. They'll give Turmoil a chance. But Metalhawk solemnly declares that Turmoil should be killed where he stands. Wow, what a Bot of principles and conviction. Don't like following your ideals when they might protect people you don't like?
Anyway, we go forward in time again to Wheeljack's infiltration. His narration tells us that Turmoil's one of the worst Decepticons around. He was assumed dead in a raid right before All Hail Megatron, where the Autobots met Drift. Broadside and Blurr are the only assumed survivors of that raid, given that they think everyone else died on the *Lost Light*, and they were not happy to see Turmoil. That should have given Wheeljack a clue as to what was up, but he thinks he was too naive or hopeful. If Drift could change his ways, why not Turmoil? (Pause for laughter... okay, moving on.) Wheeljack slips into a particular chamber on the ship, where all the conduits and wires connect, and thinks about how Turmoil's claims made him hard to trust. Still, Wheeljack wonders if he was telling the truth, because this giant bronze orb he found isn't a cloaking device.
Turmoil wants a deal. He and his men get to live on Cybertron without issue and he'll tell them what makes his ship so special. Metalhawk protests again, telling them of how Turmoil pummeled the Autobots on Dabola for months before moving in for the slaughter. Metalhawk watched his brothers die all around him. Turmoil's the reason Metalhawk left the war and followed the teachings of the Crystal City. Starscream groans and Bee snaps at him, but Starscream insists that Bee should have told Metalhawk the truth. Turmoil decides to give Metalhawk the details, that being Drift's the one responsible for slaughtering the Autobots on Dabola. Against Turmoil's direct orders.
We move forward in time again to see Wheeljack tinkering with the device he found. He can't quite figure out what it is yet but it can't be a cloak. And it definitely isn't Cybertronian technology. Turmoil and his crew don't strike Wheeljack as geniuses, let alone scientists so who built this for them? The conduits for it run all through the ship so he knows this thing caused the effect, but there's nothing in it to suggest it cloaks or hides a ship. It looks like something he'd use to detect faster-than-light particles, tachyon pulses, or quantum signals... That's when it hits him and he leaves to find out who built it. See if anything points in the direction of who built Turmoil a *time machine*.
Be it a truth or a lie, Starscream's words have some layers here. The fact he says most Decepticons aren't brothers makes me wonder how the IDW1 Decepticons would interact with the Skybound Decepticons. No doubt it'd be violent. Anyway, Starscream doesn't want Turmoil to roll on in and ruin things (that'd no doubt interfere with his own plans) and they have a chance to do something do. If this turns into Decepticons versus Autobots they'll never have this chance again. He also doesn't want this mess to turn Metalhawk against the Autobots. (Pause for laughter... okay, moving on.)
Starscream agrees that Bee shouldn't have hidden the information from Metalhawk (this never came up before and they were busy with more important things, but whatever) but he hopes Metalhawk won't take this the wrong way. Turmoil isn't innocent, after all. Blurr concurs as he hands them their drinks. With a little prodding, he shares his thoughts, such as how Turmoil mistreated the Autobot prisoners they rescued. They all thought Turmoil went down with his ship, but the thought of him being alive and doing who knows what for so long grinds his gears. As for Drift, that was the mission where they met him. They didn't know who he was at the time, but Blurr considers him to be valiant and honorable. If that's the case, Metalhawk asks why they hid this information from him. Because this never came up before, good Lord! We leave them to their mess and move forward in time to see what Wheeljack's up to. He can't imagine anyone would help Turmoil considering how legendary his brutality was in the war. He and his men would devastate inhabited systems, or systems that were inhabited when he started. Who would give him a time machine?
Oh right, Wheeljack's sections on the ship are formatted like this. A square of illustration with a bit of narration beneath it, with some squares forming a greater whole. Interesting choice, but I imagine it's not a popular way of telling the story. As for the science, I assume it makes sense to those to have a greater grasp of theoretical time travel. But yes, it seems like whoever built this thing for Turmoil was organic. We move back in time to see the Autobots planning on how to deal with this mess. Wheeljack asks what they'll do if he's telling the truth, and Prowl bluntly tells him they'll apologize later, but it won't come to that. Turmoil may have dozens of cloaked soldiers around the city by now. Wheeljack does think they should have trusted Metalhawk with the truth. (What has he done to earn such trust?) Prowl, as you can imagine, doesn't think that'd change anything since Metalhawk already hates Autobots as much as he hates Decepticons. Wheeljack thinks that they can't deny that they made it seem like the Decepticons were the untrustworthy ones. Prowl shouts that they are and asks if Wheeljack's crazy. He's not, but he does have a plan. And thus, the infiltration. (Where is Mirage, anyway? Did he leave with Rodimus?)
We move forward in time to see Wheeljack hacking into the ship's computer systems. He finds the logs and gets a video of Turmoil's troops enslaving some organics. They're the same species as Varta from Wheelie's spotlight issue, natives of LV-117. You might remember Varta as a shapeshifting, rhyming, technopath Wheelie rescued from some Decepticons. It seems Turmoil found out about them and forced them to use their abilities to make his time machine. However, once Turmoil had what he needed and received the signal from Cyberton that it was alive again, he tossed them out of the airlock. Wheeljack can only watch in horror, before someone interrupts him. He's tired of Autobots boarding his ships...
Don't worry, he'll live. Somehow. Turmoil supposes that a modicum of trust was too much to ask for. And since Wheeljack knows about the time machine, peace is out of the question. Wheeljack tries to reach for his communicator but Turmoil stomps on his arm. But that does give Wheeljack the chance to wrap the harness he was messing with earlier around Turmoil's leg. The genocidal Con is trapped in a containment field and tries shooting his way out. Wheeljack's too injured to verbally warn him so Turmoil's blast gets reflected back to him. Don't worry, he'll live. Wheeljack gets up and tries to figure out a way to get free, but more of Turmoil's soldiers show up to ruin his day. They smack him around and ask if he has any last words.
At least he can still fight if nothing else. Wheeljack tells him to grab onto the harness and hold on tight. The two of them are protected by the containment field and bash the Decepticons aside as they roll towards freedom. Wheeljack asks why Metalhawk's even here and he reveals that he didn't run after Dabola. He wasn't scared. He was overcome with anger and a lust for vengeance. War makes them into killers and he doesn't want that. Turmoil turned Drift into a killer but he found a new path. But he believes in Wheeljack and Bumblebee (funny way of showing it), even in Starscream. They found a new path and he'll stand with them. As they burst free of the ship's hull, Wheeljack calls him an alright guy. Metalhawk got him out in time to call for help and the Decepticons were captured. Wheeljack's thoughts stray towards the time machine built on slave labor.
To Be Continued...
The fact they even bothered entertaining Turmoil, a Decepticon with a ruthless reputation and far too much blood on his hands, makes me roll my eyes a little. If nothing else they should have made him land on Luna-1 and keep their guns trained on him while they tried to figure out what his angle was. Have him come to Cybertron alone and answer questions, if need be. But I might be speaking with the benefit of hindsight or just SB competence nonsense. This issue annoyed me every time Metalhawk opened his mouth. Wheeljack should also know better considering how long he must have been fixing Decepticon messes and deactivating their doomsday weapons, but I imagine he tries to stay positive as a means of retaining sanity in this mess. What do you think, lads?
Continuity
- Turmoil's ship is of the same design as the crashed Decepticon craft that appeared in Spotlight: Wheelie and starts a story that continues on into "Syndromica (2)".
- Broadside recalls Turmoil's first appearance and apparent death, from Spotlight: Drift.
- Wheeljack's internal monologue indicates that, out of the Autobots who were part of that story, only Broadside and Blurr remain on Cybertron, with "most of the rest" having left on board the Lost Light, which is believed to have exploded by everyone on Cybertron at this point (as seen at the end of issue 1 of More than Meets the Eye). The obvious exclusions to this are Topspin and Twin Twist, who both died in Last Stand of the Wreckers, and Springer, who has been offline since that same mini-series and will remain so until Sins of the Wreckers. Additionally, Punishment would later suggest that Sandstorm (last seen in Chaos) might have actually spent some time off-world on his own, as the exact wording in that story is unclear on whether he was part of the Lost Light's crew or not (he was never seen in More than Meets the Eye prior to issue #28, by which point the ship had already returned to Cybertron).
- The campaign led by Drift was seen in the opening pages of Drift #1, in which Metalhawk did indeed appear, making his only IDW appearance prior to the post-ongoing relaunch. The planet was not named in the issue, though, and is here identified as Dabola, a previously-unseen world that had only been spoken of in the Armada episode "Awakening" as—presumably not coincidentally—the site of a hugely successful Decepticon campaign.
- Metalhawk notes that his pacifistic outlook was inspired by the teaching of the Circle of Light, also featured in the Drift mini-series, though here, he calls them "the Crystal City", after their old home.
- The aliens used by Turmoil to build the time machine are members of the same race as Varta from Spotlight: Wheelie, suggesting that Varta's technological aptitude was not a unique trait, but rather an ability of his people.
Other trivia
- Jazz appears to have formed a music/poetry double act with Sky-Byte, playing a Cybertronian equivalent of a double bass. Nice.
Please join me next time for Robots in Disguise Issue 8!
