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New Cybertron Part 2: A Lonely Pillar on the Plain

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"New Cybertron Part 2:
A Lonely Pillar on the Plain"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published January 4, 2017
Cover date December 2016
Written by John Barber
Art by Kei Zama
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era

In the present day, Optimus Prime's negotiations with the newly-arrived Junkions are not made easy when G.I. Joe show up—while in the past, Prowl joins Orion Pax's investigation into police corruption.

Contents

Synopsis

At Optimus Prime's request, the Torchbearers form Victorion and stand ready for whatever threat might emerge from the gigantic spaceship that has arrived. Fortunately, the occupants of the vessel turn out to be the cheerful Junkions, whose leaders Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj explain that they have come to Earth in hopes of trading their technological secrets for Ore-13 they can use to rebuild their destroyed world. Optimus Prime is hesitant to enter into any deals, believing that Junkion technology is of no use to Cybertronians, and that sharing it with Earth would be a further breach of the Tyrest Accord. Rum-Maj asks if Prime actually even speaks on behalf of the planet, and before Prime can give a proper answer, some real Earth representatives turn up in the form of a G.I. Joe unit led by Zilong Qian (codename "Talon"). When a curious Wreck-Gar grabs hold of their Sky Hawk, the Joes retaliate by opening fire, blasting Wreck-Gar to pieces... but he's perfectly fine, his head continuing to chat merrily as Junkion "operators" rebuild his body. Talon orders the Transformers to withdraw, and Optimus and Rum-Maj both agree to reconvene at another time.

Four million years in the past, Orion Pax arrests Jetfire following the scientist's attempt on his life and drags him to police headquarters to meet with Orion's old acquaintance Prowl. Now driving a desk rather than pounding a beat, Prowl has no interest in helping Pax investigate Hefter's death... until Pax explains that he wants to investigate corruption in the system. Having already dealt with such problems during his time under Sentinel Prime, Prowl is a great believer in closely monitoring those in power, and agrees to help.

Sky Lynx transports Prime's group back to Autobot City, where the eager young colonist recruits greet them with a flurry of questions about Junkions. Soundwave roars at them to be silent with uncharacteristic anger; after apologizing, he explains that he is the only one present who actually knows who the Junkions are, having been present for a battle that took place on their homeworld early in the war, after Megatron involved them in the conflict. That battle, led on opposing sides by Prowl and Shockwave, resulted in the destruction of the planet, setting the Junkions on the path that has now brought them to Earth. Eager to resolve the situation, Prime decides to invite Rum-Maj and Wreck-Gar to Autobot City to talk.

Down on the Matterhorn, G.I. Joe establishes a base camp to study the Junkions' ship. Spike is unsatisfied with Talon's decision to send the Autobots away, as it means they will now be talking to the Junkions in private, but Talon still remembers with horrific clarity his experiences during the Decepticon invasion of Earth and is determined to keep the matter of defending the planet a human-led concern.

Prowl's interrogation of Jetfire starts poorly when a brief fistfight breaks out between the two, but slowly, Prowl manages to convinces the scientist that he and Pax genuinely want to uncover the truth behind Hefter's death. Jetfire admits that nobody ordered him to attack Orion, that it was a move he made on his own, so Prowl asks who told Jetfire about Orion in the first place...

Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj arrive at Autobot City, though Aileron observes that the two don't seem to be getting along too well. As they are escorted through the city, Wreck-Gar's attention is caught by the medi-bay, where Arcee has been keeping a vigil over Sideswipe as Jetfire tries in vain to repair the spark corrosion that is slowly killing him. Wreck-Gar shocks everyone by revealing that, among their detritus, the Junkions have just the device that will cure Sideswipe: a legendary positron core, unheard of since the days of the Thirteen. It seems, Optimus observes, that the Junkions and the Cybertronians have something to offer one another after all.

The Joes attempt to monitor the Junkions' and Autobots' meeting, but can detect nothing, a development that further frustrates Talon, who is plainly uncomfortable leading Joes given their and the E.D.C.'s history of Americentrism. Hi-Tech and Mainframe update him on their attempts to pierce the cloaking field around the Junkion's ship; although they are making process, they require more detailed Cybertronian technical specifications that they have no access to thanks to the departure of their resident Cybertronian tech expert, Garrison Blackrock. Talon refuses to ask Optimus for help, so Spike suggests an alternative—which Talon also shoots down.

In Egypt, Spike's alternative source of intel, Thundercracker, is lounging beside the Sphinx, on vacation with Marissa Faireborn and Buster. When a call comes through on his comm, Thundercracker tells Marissa that it is a wrong number, but as she walks off, he replies to the caller in a whisper, agreeing to help them on one condition...

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Junkions G.I. Joe Others

Quotes

"We used that space junk to rebuild ourselves, and live forever! Do you ever die? I don't. At least not yet. This can all be yours! Operators are standing by!"

—Wreck-Gar


"I've paid attention to your career. I know why they moved you behind a desk. You believe police should be held to a higher degree of scrutiny. You believe the system is corrupt."
"Wrong, Pax. I don't believe anything. I know facts. The fact is, the system is corrupt."

—Orion Pax and Prowl


Slide: "Too bad the Prime wasn't there. He'd have gotten through to [Shockwave and Prowl]—put 'em both in their places, like he did later on."
Gimlet: "By Primus, you two. Shockwave and Prowl both used to be Prime's friends before they turned evil."
Optimus Prime: "Prowl did not turn evil. He merely..."
(awkward pause)
Optimus Prime: "...disagreed with my tactics."


"We want to uncover who killed the Decepticon."
"A cop killed him. Same as happens every day."
"Then you know we can kill you. That's not a threat. I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you to think. If we wanted to kill you, we would have. I want to get all the lies out in the open. All of them."
"Fine—tell the world cops murdered Hefter! And he was innocent!"
"I don't want to tell them. I want to prove it. I want to make sure they can't deny it."

—Prowl and Jetfire


"Oooooh yes, yes, yes indeedy, this is a Titan, a Titan oh me oh my-o. Wonderful creatures, hard to shop for—almost impossible to find hats in their size."

—Wreck-Gar reacts to Autobot City


"No, I'm just at some old... cat thing. I mean, it's supposed to be old, but I've had the same junction circuits for longer than 5,000 years. I'm more of a dog person, anyway."

—Thundercracker on the Sphinx

Notes

Continuity notes

  • First appearances: Delta Seeker, X-Gunner, Greatshot, Wreck-Gar, Rum-Maj, Chameleon (in Transformers comics)
  • Earlist chronological appearances: Hardhead, Hot Spot, Manta Ray, Silverbolt, Octopunch, Fangry, Weirdwolf
  • Wreck-Gar and the Junkion species first appeared in IDW continuity in the Monstrosity mini-series, in which Megatron was briefly exiled to their planet. The origins, including the collapse of their bountiful empire, were detailed in Monstrosity #5. Wreck-Gar has come around a bit since those cannibalistic days; Rum-Maj, a new character, notes that he was "wounded in the heart" back then.
  • Prime recognizes the design of the Quintesson cruiser the Junkions are using, and recalls Megatron's use of one during the Monstrosity sequel Primacy, which Megatron recovered from Junkion when he recruited the Junkions to aid the Decepticons in fighting the Autobots. Prime doesn't mention, however, his having encountered another one in Robots in Disguise #10.
  • Half of the new G.I. Joe team appearing in this issue is made up of the pre-existing human supporting cast of the series from before its relaunch. Spike and Talon have been working as part of G.I. Joe since the book's Titans Return tie-in and appeared in that capacity in the Action Man: Revolution one-shot. Bharwaney—now "Hi-Tech"—is a new addition to the Joe ranks, and has taken up the codename of one of the Joes revealed as a Dire Wraith and killed by Rom in Revolution #1.
  • Flint's a classic major Joe character who's crossed over with the Transformers loads of times and Revolution has featured Mainframe heavily, but you're not likely to be familiar with Chameleon unless you've read IDW's various Cobra books. Based on an action figure from 2000 that consisted of a re-released Baroness with a new bio that presented the character as a Joe spy impersonating the Cobra femme fatale (thanks to trademark issues at the time), she has been a major character in all of Mike Costa's Cobra series, starting out as the aide to Tomax and Xamot in the first Cobra mini-series before being helped to escape Cobra by Chuckles in Cobra II. She subsequently joined Flint's intelligence unit in Cobra vol. 2 (during which she and Flint became involved, a past that is briefly alluded to in this issue) and gradually proved herself to G.I. Joe, but disappeared when the unit was shut down in The Cobra Files and vanished for five years in-universe. She was last seen in the final series published before the Joe books went on hiatus, Snake Eyes, Agent of Cobra, in which the titular ninja tracked her down to help him on a mission. Evidently, she decided to stick around this time.
  • Talon recalls the Decepticon attack on Beijing, recounted in All Hail Megatron #6. Wonder how he feels about the 'bot who carried out the attack, Skywarp, now actually being a member of G.I. Joe...?
  • Wreck-Gar quotes a poet named Symfanius of "Auduria", whose planet was annihilated by Cybertronians. This might be a typo, referring to the world of Arduria, which we saw destroyed in Robots in Disguise #6.
  • Prowl remembers meeting Orion during "the Senator Momus investigation", as seen in More than Meets the Eye #10 and #11.
  • Sideswipe is still recuperating from injuries sustained in The Transformers #49.
  • Arcee mentions in passing that "everybody feels like a kid to her", an allusion to the rarely-mentioned fact that she is actually super-old, hailing from the era of Nova Prime before the vast majority of modern-day Transformers were born. She also tells Jetfire that she is talking to the unconscious Sideswipe because she "heard it helps". She probably has the example of Springer waking from his comatose state after Roadbuster and Kup did the same in mind.
  • Talon notes that the mecha used by the People's Liberation Army Mecha Force all "stopped working"; he must be referring to the events of Revolution #1, when Soundwave knocked out all of the Joes' machinery, which included the mecha. Evidently, the robots were among the devices he did not restore functionality to at the issue's close.
  • Hi-Tech notes that Garrison Blackrock is "gone." Abducted by Sentinel Prime in The Transformers #56 and returned to Earth by Prowl in More than Meets the Eye #57, Blackrock's current exploits are featured in the new Revolutionaries series, which was running late and had not debuted by the time this issue was released.
  • Thundercracker, Buster, and Marissa have gone on vacation following the events of the The Transformers: Revolution one-shot.

Transformers references

  • Two Transformers in Cyberjet designs appear in the flashback to the Battle of Junkion, but are hard to identify as they're off in the distance and block-colored. Given artist Kei Zama's Generation 2 fondness one might assume they're some of the original Cyberjets, but a close look at their decal markings identifies them as Robotmasters characters Delta Seeker and X-Gunner, a pair of rivals who were sold together in a box set.
  • Also part of the flashback is Fangry, who just made his IDW debut a few weeks before this issue's publication in Lost Light #1. He is colored here using his Marvel Generation 1 comic color scheme, with pale purple used for many of the parts that are black on his original toy.
  • The smaller ship the Junkions use to travel to Autobot City is based on the Junkion ship from The Transformers: The Movie.
  • Sparks were established to consist of positrons in the Beast Machines episode "Spark of Darkness", hence the use of a positron core to repair them in this issue.

G.I. Joe references

  • The vehicles the Joes show up in are both taken from the classic G.I. Joe toyline; Talon and Flint are manning a Sky Hawk, while everyone else rides in a Tomahawk.

Real-life references

  • As with all chapters of "New Cybertron", this issue's subtitle is taken from the lyrics to the Covenant song, "Babel".
  • The plaque outside the office Prowl works in reads "Mutatis Mutandis", a Latin phrase meaning "the necessary changes have been made." Used in English to refer to obvious, unstated differences between two things being compared, it feels here like it might refer to the reform of the police force that's supposed to be happening under Zeta Prime.
  • Wreck-Gar describes the positron core as "a floor polish and a desert topping", a reference to a 1976 Saturday Night Live sketch where the fictitious product "Shimmer" is both "a floor wax and a dessert topping."

Errors

  • On page 3, Rum-Maj says "Ore-13 give us... an opportunity to build a new world". She probably means "Ore-13 gives us..."
  • On page 7 when referring to Prowl, Jetfire's line "This guys a stooge." is missing an apostrophe of contraction.
  • On page 21 when introducing the positron core, Wreck-Gar claims that it's "a desert topping" rather than a dessert topping.
  • Chameleon's surname is misspelled as "La Tene", rather than "Le Tene". This was corrected in the trade.

Other trivia

  • Originally solicited for release in December 2016, this issue slipped a little, arriving on the first week of January 2017.
  • Wreck-Gar breaks the fourth wall as he introduces himself, asking if Optimus Prime can read his identification caption.
  • Victorion wields the sword which comes with her toy for the first time.

Covers (4)

  • (thumbnail)

    "I'm screwed."

  • (thumbnail)

    Someone just emptied out their toybox.

  • (thumbnail)

    Hey, they're partners. They can do that!

  • (thumbnail)

    Sexy and deadly.

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