« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #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)

Wheeljack investigates when a squad of suspiciously beneficent Decepticons mysteriously return to Cybertron.

Synopsis

While in the process of testing a new personalized containment field generator, Wheeljack is summoned to the Autobot command centre by Bumblebee with news of a newly arrived ship flying Decepticon colours, which has materialized about the planet seemingly out of nowhere. Fearing a potential invasion fleet may be lurking in waiting, hidden by similar cloaking devices, the Autobots cautiously watch as the ship sets down and opens, revealing itself to be captained by Turmoil. The Decepticon enigmatically claims that they have no cloaking device, but rather something much more interesting and beneficial to Cybertron, which they will share if they are allowed to peacefully return to the planet. Well-acquainted with Turmoil's brand of villainy from a campaign on Dabola that convinced him to abandon the war, Metalhawk surprises all assembled by foregoing his normal altruism and proposing the Decepticon be killed where he stands, but Turmoil turns the tables on the Autobots by explaining that Dabola was not his work, but that of his turncoat lieutenant... the once-Decepticon, now-Autobot Drift.

Angry at having this truth kept from him, Metalhawk is taken by Starscream to Maccadam's Old Oil House to talk the matter out, explaining his genuine desire to see the new Cybertronian government work out and asking bar owner Blurr to tell Metalhawk of his own experiences with Turmoil and Drift.

Back at their base, lacking Metalhawk's conviction in Turmoil's evil, the other Autobots discuss what to do. To discover the truth of Turmoil's claims, Wheeljack sneaks about the Decepticon ship, evading the troops on board and taking them out where necessary, and eventually discovering that rather than a cloaking device, what the craft is actually equipped with is a time machine. Knowing that neither Turmoil nor his men could have built it, Wheeljack uses the device to access a portion of the ship's security footage that has been deleted, and learns that it was built by organic alien slaves, who Turmoil then had executed to hide this fact from the Autobots. No sooner has Wheeljack finished watching the footage than he is attacked from behind by Turmoil, who blasts a giant hole through his torso. Although the scientist is able to strap a containment field generator to the Decepticon warlord and seal him in bubble, he is surrounded by Turmoil's men before he can make his escape, only to be saved by the sudden appearance of Metalhawk. Metalhawk holds the attackers off, cleaving them with his wings, as Wheeljack activates another containment field around both of them, providing them with protection as they make their way out. As they go, Metalhawk confesses that when he abandoned the war, it was not out of cowardice: it was a product of the incredible anger that Turmoil made him feel, a killing rage that he refused to let take hold of him. It is because Bumblebee, Starscream, and even Drift genuinely seek to find a new path in life, as has Metalhawk done, that he has sided with them and believes in their plan for Cybertron's future.

After escaping Turmoil's ship, Wheeljack and Metalhawk call in Prowl's forces to storm the craft and capture the Decepticons. Wheeljack realises that the lesson of this entire experience is that he must be ready for anything, and that despite the fact the time machine was built using slave labour, the advantage it can conceivably provide means that there may not be room to let guilt over its origins determine his course of action...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I was just, uh, messing around with science."

—Wheeljack

Notes

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.

Foreign localization

Japanese

• Title: "Kanshōha" (干渉波, "Interference Wave")

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Wheeljack surrounded by Decepticons, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez.
• Cover B: Prowl and Sideswipe train their guns on Turmoil as he emerges from his ship, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente.
• Cover RI: Megatron, Soundwave, and Ravage by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano, the first quarter of a combined image formed with the RI cover to More than Meets the Eye #7, #8, and Robots in Disguise #8.

• 

  Jack's on his back — wack!

• 

  Holee slag!

• 

  Wait, what is Soundwave ejecting?

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Reprints

• The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 2 (January 2, 2013) ISBN 1613775415 / ISBN 978-1613775417
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #6–9.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 (August 4, 2015) ISBN 1631403648 / ISBN 978-1631403644
  • Collects Autocracy issues #1–12, Spotlight: Trailcutter, Hoist & Orion Pax, Robots in Disguise issues #7 & #8–9, and More than Meets the Eye issues #6–8.
  • Bonus material unknown at this time.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404261 / ISBN 978-1631404269
  • Collects Robots in Disguise Volumes 1–5.
  • Bonus material unknown at this time.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 54: A Better Tomorrow (April 3, 2019)
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #1–7.
  • Bonus material includes a new interview from by John Barber.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Robots in Disguise Volume 2 – cover art by Andrew Griffith and Joana Lafuente

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 – cover art by Saren Stone

• 

  Robots in Disguise Box Set – cover art by ???

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 54: A Better Tomorrow – cover art by Don Figueroa and Andrew Griffith