Issue: #2
Released: February 15th, 2012
As Rodimus and Ultra Magnus finish up what crashed crewmembers they can, a call comes in from Brainstorm, who's guessed as to what caused the explosion: One of the Duobots (and he's not sure which) has been "totally mashed into the generator". Chromedome, meanwhile, calls in with a report from Hoist, who's fishing Cyclonus out of a lake.
High above this, a spaceship appears out of a portal. And as per any Cybertronian ship, it's crashing, much to the concern of its amnesiac pilot, Skids. Acting quickly, as the craft begins to transform around him, he sets its landing and bails out... only for two large, unfriendly looking robots to emerge from the wreckage, chanting "Nineteen Eighty Four" repeatedly.
In the Lost Light's sickbay, Ratchet and Rung talk about hands, Tailgate, Ratchet's opinion of Drift, and Whirl, who Ratchet really doesn't want to fix. Regrettably, the helicopter-bot wakes up at that moment, and tries to strangle Rung, who manages to talk him down by mentioning he'll go back to prison, mentioning he has one last chance after something to do with a "Sparkeater". Tailgate wakes up after Whirl storms off, and Swerve gently and carefully informs him exactly how long he was out of action.
Meanwhile, Skids continues trying to fight the mysterious, sword-wielding robots, evidently unaware of the gun in his hand. Quick use of the recently deceased Polaris and Hyperion (two members of the Lost Light's crew sucked out of the ship), allows him to deal with one of the robots. But there's still one left.
Back on the Lost Light, Rodimus confronts Cyclonus, and makes it clear that he's not about to forgive him for what he did on Kimia, not helped by Cyclonus' refusal to apologise. However, Rodimus and Ultra Magnus make it plain he's got one chance anyway. On the way out, Cyclonus passes by Whirl, and promises he will kill him later on.
Outside, Swerve and Tailgate are out for a walk, running into Rewind and Chromedome as they do. Conversations are interrupted by the sudden arrival of Skids, and his repetitive friend. Fortunately, Chromedome's presence means Skids can do something about the inhibitor claw on his back, allowing him to unleash the large arsenal of guns Skids had hidden on his person, reducing his pursuer to shreds. Skids is equally confused as the others. As far as he recalls, he's a theoretician.
Later on, once everyone's back on board, Rodimus's attempts to bolster the crew's morale is interrupted by a frantic call from Red Alert. He's standing over a corpse with a massive hole in its chest. Apparently there's a Sparkeater on board...
This issue contains examples of:
- BFS: The Legislators come armed with swords the height of their body.
- The Big Guy: Cosmos appears in the background, and he's the same size, if not larger, than Ultra Magnus. Fitting, given he turns into a spaceship.
- Black Comedy: Brainstorm cracks wise, stating it'll be easy to tell the Duobot apart from his fellow now that one is dead. Rodimus calls him on it. He's actually kind of wrong, because it turns out that they still got mixed up.
- Body Horror: Ore's death looks incredibly unpleasant, mashed halfway through a wall. Lengthways, at that.
- Broken Record: The Legislators (the robots chasing Skids) can only say "Nineteen Eighty Four". Skids mocks them for it.
- Bullying the Dragon: Face it, however you interpret Whirl at this stage, Cyclonus threatened to kill him when he least expected it - and does so in several other issues. He really should have known better...
- Call-Back:
- One of the crew is named Hyperion, noted in The Last Stand of The Wreckers to be one of their members. As is typical for that group, he's suffering a bad case of the dead.
- Cyclonus's attack on Kimia, and his turning on Galvatron, are brought up. Rodimus states the latter doesn't forgive him for the former. Cyclonus doesn't give a damn.
- Tailgate mentions the Ark, and Nova Prime. He later claims to be a member of the Primal Vanguard, last mentioned in Chaos Theory.
- The Cameo: A lot of crewmembers appear in crowd scenes at the very end.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The faded "osal" on Tailgate's arms. He says it's supposed to say "bomb disposal".
- In a more literal case, Skids' gun.
- Living Relic: Ratchet mentions Tailgate is so old, design-wise, he's got pulleys, levers and pendulums inside
- Mythology Gag: Skids finds the ship has been equipped with a Mode Lock, and he's stuck with an Inhibitor Claw, both methods of preventing transforming from The Transformers (Marvel)
- Never My Fault: Whirl claims Cyclonus is the one who started the fight last issue, when it was all Whirl.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Whirl identifies the Lost Light crew as one, noting that he barely recognises half of the people present.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Brainstorm identifies himself in a phone-call as the "Ship's Genius". Rodimus thinks he's talking about Perceptor.
- Title Drop: Whirl calls the Lost Light crew "a sorry bunch of hangers on" towards the end.
- Undignified Death: Hyperion, who's found having apparently fallen head-over-ass on the way down. Not a great death for a former leader of the Wreckers.
- Walking Arsenal: Skids has guns hidden all over his body (wrists, shoulders, wheels, his back), all locked away by the Inhibitor Claw.
- Yes-Man: Ratchet's theory as to how Drift got to be third in-command, by telling Rodimus what he wants to hear.
