Omega's Conundrum

	"Omega's Conundrum"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 12, 2012
Cover date	December 2012
Written by	James Roberts
Pencils by	Steve Kurth
Inks by	Juan Castro
Colors by	Jesus Aburtov and Graphikslava
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Post-Megatron: Origin, pre-Autocracy

On a mission to carry out a prisoner exchange, Orion Pax puts his new body to the test against Bludgeon.

Synopsis

Four million years ago and ten thousand miles above Cybertron's surface, Orion Pax is bound to a shuttle on a crash-course with Iacon, with no doubt in his mind that he should have gone with Plan B...

Some time earlier, at Autobot headquarters, Wheeljack, Kaput, and Rung oversee the mechanical, medical, and psychological aspects of Orion Pax's hasty refit into a new, tougher body in preparation for a dangerous mission he is about to embark on. Although a little disappointed to have lost his "lucky faceplate", Pax is happy with the new form, and eager to carry out the duty assigned to him by Zeta Prime: escorting a Decepticon prisoner to a rendezvous point within the treacherous Rust Spot, there to exchange him for the captured Ratchet. Pax is joined on his mission by hostage negotiator Nightbeat, who provides a detailed briefing of the dangers of the Rust Spot, and the venerable Alpha Trion, leading expert in Cybertronian topography. As they prepare to leave, Nightbeat quickly loses patience with the elderly Transformer's pearls of wisdom, as he muses on the foundling Autobot faction's adoption of a longstanding cultural emblem called the "First Face" as their insignia, and applies the old logical paradox called "Omega's Conundrum" to the locked trailer containing the prisoner for transport: how can they be sure there's anything in there if they don't open it?

113 kliks into their journey through the Rust Spot, Pax inquires how Alpha Trion knows so much about it, and the old sage reveals that he explored it, and the rest of the planet, with the fabled Metroplex in ages past. The trio are attacked mid-sentence by local monstrosities known as Slicers, but the gung-ho Pax charges into action and they soon have the creatures in retreat (though Pax takes one of their blades to the face and blames the lack of his faceplate for the injury). The trailer is sprung open in the fight, but the prisoner doesn't get far... or rather, prisoners. The captives turn out to be a pair of spark-bonded Decepticon twins named Rack and Ruin who were responsible for a bombing at the G'th Semane spaceport. Puzzled at Megatron's willingness to turn over an important figure like Ratchet in exchange for these two grunts, Pax talks with the pair, who prove even more harmless than expected when they reveal they can't even transform, having pushed their transformation cogs too far practising the high-speed process of "instantaneous conversion". Pax talks about the Decepticon philosophy with them, and they admit to fear that Megatron will kill them. Moments later, a trio of Seekers led by Thundercracker arrive to escort Prime's team to the location for the exchange.

Presently, the group arrives at the Decepticons' bolthole, where Bludgeon welcomes them. With the unarmed Autobots surrounded, the Decepticons seize Alpha Trion: capturing him has been their true objective all along, so that he may lead them to Metroplex, whose dimension-transcending abilities will be used to create a space bridge. Allowed to go free by Bludgeon on Megatron's order, Orion poses Omega's Conundrum to the skeletal Decepticon with a wry twist: sometimes, a box can be both empty and full, as he demonstrates by triggering the release of a cache of concealed weaponry from within his trailer. A firefight erupts, during which Rack and Ruin offer to lead the Autobots to safety; Pax covers their escape, but is captured himself and promptly tied to a shuttle by Bludgeon with intent to be fired at the nearest population centre by Bludgeon for no reason other than sheer theatricality. Thundercracker is angry at the killing of civilians, but Bludgeon brushes off his concerns, patiently listens to Pax's stalling tactics as the Autobot foresees a future for him as a figure of failure, then shoots him into the sky. "Fortunately", Pax deduces that the shuttle is going to crash clear of any cities... until it collides with another passing craft and is deflected onto a trajectory that points it straight at Iacon. Remembering Rack and Ruin's advice, Pax shuts down his transformation cog safeties and tries instantaneous conversion, snapping his bonds with the speed of his transformation. Pax takes control of the shuttle and crash-lands it clear of the city, his new body taking the experience in stride, leaving him battered but still intact. It's a good body, Pax thinks, as he sits among the wreckage—it's just missing one thing. Scooping up a piece of metal from the debris, he silently fixes it over his face in emulation of his old faceplate.

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Orion Pax (1) Rung (2) Kaput (3) Wheeljack (4) Zeta Prime (5) Nightbeat (6) Alpha Trion (7) Ratchet (16)	Rack (10) Ruin (11) Thundercracker (12) Acid Storm (13) Skywarp (14) Bludgeon (15)	Metroplex (8) Slicers (9)

Quotes

"If you're changing shape and your body resists, don't force it—it probably isn't meant to bend that way."

—Kaput

"See, you're a big picture guy. For me, it's all about the details. Look closely at something and it'll make sense. If it doesn't, look closer."

—Nightbeat

"You know, for a public intellectual, you're pretty handy with your fists."
"I've been—urgh—involved in some very heated debates."

—Nightbeat and Alpha Trion

"Hmm. You're not combiners, are you? I've heard Megatron's newest favorite is obsessed with gestalt technology..."
"We're not combiners. Can you imagine combining with him?"
"It's bad enough being locked up in a trailer together!"

-Orion Pax, Ruin and Rack. Oh, Roberts.

"Pax still chatting?"
"It appears so."
"Waste. Of. Time."
"Sometimes, time wasted is time well spent."
"See, if that's supposed to be profound, it's just—you know what? I don't care."

—Nightbeat and Alpha Trion

"I've hurt him in ways that only a doctor would understand."

—Bludgeon on his treatment of Ratchet

"This is madness. I demand to see Megatron."
"He's busy—but I'll tell him you dropped by. He... talks about you sometimes. When he's tired."
"What does he say?"
"Best not ask. It would make both of us feel uncomfortable."

—Orion Pax and Bludgeon utter some grade A fanfic bait

"I may not be as smart as Alpha Trion... but I can say "bring it on" in 4,000 languages!"

—Orion Pax

Notes

Continuity notes

I'll take "characters designs which look ridiculous in drastically-different artistic styles" for $500, Alex

Orion Pax previously appeared with the new body he receives in this story in Spotlight: Blurr, published four years prior to this issue. A continuity error arose nearly three years later when Pax appeared in author James Roberts's "Chaos Theory", set earlier than Spotlight: Blurr, with an entirely different body that was not hugely different from his Cybertronian Optimus Prime form as seen in 2006's Stormbringer. This story, taking place between the two, patches that hole, explaining how Pax switches from his "Chaos Theory" body to his Spotlight: Blurr body, and notes his intent to switch back in the near future.
- Getting in the "Spotlight: Blurr" body had bothered Roberts for a while: he'd originally scripted him as looking that way in the flashback parts of "Chaos Theory!" ^[1]
Kaput puts in his first pictoral appearance, having previously been mentioned in Roberts's prose stories "Bullets" and "Zero Point".
Kaput is the latest character to have trouble remembering Rung's name, something which has been a running gag since More than Meets the Eye #1.
Zeta Prime seems to be a friendly, reasonable guy and changes are happening—he namedrops the "New Senate", an example of his obsession with rebranding things as "New" seen in More than Meets the Eye #14, released a few months later. Note, however, the little glimpses of a nastier personality, like how annoyed he is that Orion doesn't immediately call him "Prime".
Nightbeat is given the profession of hostage negotiator here; this likely means he was the unnamed hostage negotiator friend of Chromedome's mentioned in More than Meets the Eye #10.
Alpha Trion appears to transform into the "Tumbler", from Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy of films. The model sheet for him in the back of The Transformers: Ironhide depicted a different, flying altmode. Additionally, this marks the first time Alpha Trion has ever changed modes in his 25-year history.
The G'th Semane spaceport was previously mentioned in "Zero Point", where the Biblical allegory of its name was more relevant.
Pax refers to Killmaster (with the wand), first heard of back in More than Meets the Eye #5.
While wondering about combiners, Pax remarks that the technology is an obsession of Megatron's "newest favorite." Whoever this might be goes unsaid; later stories, however, would make it clear he meant Shockwave.
Rack and Ruin used to be triplets, but their third, unnamed sibling was destroyed years before the events of this issue. This calls into question the previous assumption that Rack'n'Ruin were fused to one another because of complications with a branched spark like Topspin and Twin Twist or (allegedly) Sonic and Boom. It seems unlikely that two robots in a set of triplets could share a branched spark with each other and not with the third member, but the Jumpstarters' fate makes it equally unlikely that the third brother could've died without taking Rack'n'Ruin with him. Obviously, there's more to their condition...than meets the eye.
The fate of the shuttle that Pax collides with would later be detailed in Spotlight: Hoist.

Transformers references

Nightbeat appears in the same design as he did waaaay back in his original Spotlight issue. Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Acid Storm appear in their modern bodies, despite being seen in different bodies in stories set near this one. We'll probably need another Spotlight series to clear this up.
The Toxic Sludge Swamps originate with Snaptrap's bio. "Zero Point" was their first mention in IDW continuity, where they were noted to be the home of the Slicers, who get to appear in this story.
Pax's team travels 113 kliks into the Rust Spot, another of the many uses of the number by Roberts.

Real world references

Trion refers to the Diaclona Tribe, named, of course, for the Transformers' progenitor toyline, Diaclone.
"Omega's Conundrum" plays off of two real world thought experiments, "Schrödinger's cat" and the classic "If a tree falls in the woods but nobody hears it..." All three are basically about to what extent the unobserved is knowable. As the story's title, besides the direct use of the paradox to refer to the contents of Pax's trailer, it also appears to thematically allude to Pax's desire in the final scene to have a faceplate, which—surely not coincidentally—hides much of his face from view and makes his expressions as "unknowable" as a closed box.
- Also, given Omega Supreme's role as a noted scholar of metaphysics, as revealed in More than Meets the Eye #5, he's likely the "Omega" in question.

Errors

Page 4, panel 1: The word "the" accidentally appears twice. This error wasn't fixed for the trade paperback.
On page 14, "bodyguards" is spelled "bodygaurds". This error wasn't fixed for the trade paperback either.
When the trailer deployed the hidden weapons, five were shown to be launched. However, the Autobots were armed with six weapons in a following panel. It's entirely possible, though, that one of them (most likely Pax) had a hidden pistol on his body.

Soundtrack

As with More than Meets the Eye, writer James Roberts offered up a "soundtrack" for this issue on the IDW Publishing forum.

Soft Light by Frausdots

Foreign Localization

Swedish

- Title: " Omegas Enigma" ("Omega's Enigma")

Covers (4)

Cover A: Orion Pax old and new, by Steve Kurth, Jesus Aburtov, and Graphikslava
Cover B: Orion, locked and cocked, by Livio Ramondelli
Cover RI: Orion with an axe, by Clayton Crain
Hasbro exclusive cover: Cropped-in version of cover RI, exclusively available with Generations Deluxe Class Orion Pax

Orion has some big shoes to fill, and he will!
"It's O-RI-UN, not ONION!"
"Why yes, I do have a toy."
Hasbro exclusive comic available with Orion Pax toy.

Reprints

The Transformers: Dark Prelude (August 14, 2013) ISBN 1613777167 / ISBN 978-1613777169
- Collects Spotlight: Orion Pax, Thundercracker, Megatron, Bumblebee, Trailcutter and Hoist.
- New cover art by Nick Roche and Josh Perez.
- Each of the characters receiving the Spotlight also had new Deluxe Class toys as part of the 2012–2013 Generations line, 'Thrilling 30'.
- Cover gallery.
- Trade paperback format.

Micro-Comic Fun Pack (July 9, 2014)

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 (August 12, 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 includes alternate covers.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 33: Megatron Origin (November 1, 2017)
- Collects Megatron Origin issues #1–4, and Spotlight: Blurr & Orion Pax.
- Bonus material includes a discussion of the production stages on Megatron: Origin by Eric Holmes.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: Krig och hågkomst (July, 2021)
- Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #14–22, a special illustrated version of "The Sound of Breaking Glass", and Spotlight: Orion Pax.
- Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

Dark Prelude – cover art by Nick Roche and Josh Perez
Micro-Comic Fun Pack – cover art by Livio Ramondelli
The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 – cover art by Saren Stone
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 33: Megatron Origin – cover art by Don Figueroa and Alex Milne
Krig och hågkomst – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.