#2 - "Betrayal" / "Primeval Dawn," part 2

"Betrayal"

Credits

Story and Script - Rob Gerbracht / Art - Dan Khanna / Inks - Chuck Gibson, Terry Pallot, Hi-Fi Design / Colors - Hi-Fi Design / Letters - Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Story

Prologue: After the destruction of Unicron, Autobot Leader Rodimus Prime initiates a program to send Autobots in space exploration, both to gain new knowledge and to give early warning against future dangers. The first ship is the "Sojourner's Passage," but it is soon shot down over the planet Archa-9...

Presently: Following the Oracle's orders (see last issue), Magmatron's team of Dinobots are searching a ruined alien city for a "sleeping giant"; as they prepare to leave, however, they are ambushed by hordes of zombie robots and a transorganic worm.

Elsewhere, Icebird and the Mutants visit a Quintesson Judge for help to cure their mutated forms, but are found in contempt and attacked by an army of Sharkticons. Watching the carnage from above are the Quintesson Derodomontatus and the Predacon trader Cryotek. Cryotek flares angrily at a perceived slight, but the Quintesson calms him to discuss business. Cryotek admits he had set traps for all of the Oracle's teams, and assures the judge that "the necessary acquisitions" will continue, even with the Wreckers' escape (last issue).

The scene then cuts to the Wreckers -- the last team sent by the Oracle -- who are being attacked by the invading Devcon. He beats off Spittor and Arcee, but stands down when he sees Rodimus and Apelinq. Devcon introduces himself as Cybertron's last surviving Peace Marshal and explainations are traded, even as Devcon has harsh words against Packrat and the Wreckers' Decepticon members.

Meanwhile, Fractyl's collapse in the fight with Devcon warrants a trip to sickbay. He is diagnosed with a severe laser core misalignment, but the medical computer cannot perform the repairs itself -- it merely reports. Apelinq uses his transfer interlink to combine its software with data from a "former research associate" to produce a medical drone called CatSCAN, who tends to Fractyl.

Suddenly, there is an explosion in the rear of the ship! Ignoring Primal Prime's orders, Packrat begins emergency separation; the Wreckers in the front save themselves while Spittor and Sonar die in the exploding rear. Primal Prime orders Cyclonus to escort Packrat to confinement, then checks up on Fractyl's repairs. After being introduced to CatSCAN, Primal Prime receives a vision from the Oracle, where Alpha Trion gives a directive to "recover the lost."

Approaching their destination planet, Archa-9, the Wreckers pick up a faint distress signal, and Rodimus explains his earlier plans for deep-space exploration. Skywarp notes that their damage might prevent them from taking off after a landing, but Primal Prime orders them to go down regardless. As the ship begins its descent, Ramulus fetches Tigatron, and Cyclonus and Devcon have a testy chat that fails to mend any fences.

Once planetside, the ship's damaged sensors force Primal Prime to dispatch some reconnaissance teams, while others work on repairing the ship. Eager to explore a nearby forest, CatSCAN runs ahead, but is quickly surrounded by primitive humanoids. Before CatSCAN can attack, Tap-Out jumps into the scene and declares the aliens to be under his protection. Wishing to minimize injury, CatSCAN knocks out Tap-Out, then is joined by the other Wreckers and Tap-Out's partner, Glyph.

Glyph explains that she and Tap-Out crash-landed on Archa-9 three hundred years ago, and have been stranded since. The primitive Akalouthans sustain them with an artifact called the "Divine Light," which generates enormous amounts of energy. Primal Prime wonders if that is the object of their quest, and Glyph tells of the Akalouthan prophecy that a protector will guard it from being taken by "five-faced demons." The Wreckers then go see the Divine Light, which turns out to be a jagged piece of crystal. As they return to Glyph's library for further research, Packrat sneaks away from the group, and Cyclonus orders Rotorbolt to silently follow him.

Analyzing the energy from the Divine Light, Apelinq determines that it's a battery of some kind with an unfamiliar energy. When Packrat and Rotorbolt's absences are noted, Devcon volunteers to find them. He soon finds Rotorbolt pinned to a wall, and Rotorbolt warns of a traitor before falling into stasis lock. Alerting the others, Devcon rushes to check on the Divine Light -- only to find Cyclonus leaving with it! Gloating how his mission has been accomplished over Packrat's dead body, Cyclonus shields himself with the Light and flies off, even as Devcon swears to hunt him down.

Later, CatSCAN uses a retrofit procedure to restore Devcon to his original body, restoring the peace marshall's spaceflight capabilities. Devcon then sets off to pursue Cyclonus, leaving the other Wreckers to finish repairs. Cryotek, meanwhile, is pleased to hear that Cyclonus has the Divine Light, and muses at how he's outsmarted the Oracle and is now poised to conquer time itself...

"Primeval Dawn," part 2

Credits

Story and Script - Simon Furman / Art - Dan Khanna / Inks - Chuck Gibson, Terry Pallot, Hi-Fi Design / Colors - Blond / Letters - Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Story

On prehistoric Earth, after the "Beast Wars" era, Primal Prime, Airazor, and Tigatron search the planet for downed stasis pods. Finding one, Tigatron activates its initiation program to produce Ramulus, even as Primal Prime admits to apocalyptic visions of being responsible for the destruction of all reality. Ramulus has a fit when he believes they've been abandoned by Optimus Primal, but Primal Prime orders him to save his strength, even as Tigatron detects a second stasis pod nearby.

They quickly find the pod and discover that it's empty -- just as they're attacked by the Predacons! Airazor saves Tigatron from being infected by Spittor's cyber-venom, but gets shot down by Ravage in return. Before Primal Prime can join the fight, he gets blasted in the back by Tarantulas! Despite a valiant return from Prime, Tarantulas uses his Vok-augmented power to take him down. And as the other Maximals remain pinned down, Tarantulus triumphantly tears the Matrix from Prime's body!

Notes and Comments

• The comic book was published by 3H Productions, the organizers of BotCon. It was available exclusively to attendees of BotCon 2002.
• The comic also includes character profiles for CatSCAN Cryotek, Cyclonus, Devcon, Glyph, and Tap-Out.
• The offhanded ease with which characters are killed in this issue is enough to place this comic among the greatest slaughters in Transformers history. Between the Mutants, the Dinobots, and the Wreckers, almost two dozen characters are extinguished with little effort. Sure, it helps streamline the story, but wasn't there another way?
• The techno-organic worm which attacks the Dinobots is identical to the Quintessons' techno-organic creature from the original cartoon episode, "Dweller in the Depths."
• The emergency separation of the Wreckers' shuttle is a direct parallel to the Autobot shuttle separation from Transformers: The Movie -- minus the body count, of course.
• So, Rodimus used to send Autobot survey missions into deep space, and nobody's heard from some of them since. Shouldn't that have prompted him to send a follow-up team on those surveys, to see why they weren't reporting in on a regular basis? Maybe they were eaten by the next Unicron-style intergalactic menace they were supposed to be watching for, after all...
• Cryotek's monologue at the end of the issue suggests that the Oracle was created by the Quintessons, for reasons unknown.