Some Of My Best Friends Are Autobots

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #45 »
"Some Of My Best Friends Are Autobots"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 30, 2015
Cover date	September 2015
Written by	James Roberts
Pencils by	Alex Milne
Inks by	Brian Shearer and Alex Milne
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2015)

They're ba-aack!

Synopsis

It's been a funny old time for the Scavengers. Ever since learning that Megatron has defected to the Autobots and that Starscream now rules Cybertron, their plans to return home have been abandoned, and they have been pottering around the galaxy having wacky adventures: being cursed to speak only in song, accidentally raising eldritch horrors, dealing with the image of Shockwave coming alive from a datapad, holomatter escapades on Magisteria VI, playing Jenga against a giant space jellyfish for the fate of the universe, falling into a perspective trap, and even, somehow, getting turned into toys! Today, though, the crew are just enjoying a simple game of "Shoot Shoot Bang Bang", hunting each other around their ship, the Weak Anthropic Principle, with dart guns. Misfire lets his internal monologue run away with him, allowing Spinister to get the drop on him, but Crankcase jumps in at the last second to score the winning shot. Unfortunately, in order to do so, Crankcase has left the bridge unmanned, and the ship promptly crashes into Tebris VII.

Four hours later, the battered Krok wakes up to find Crankcase and Fulcrum lounging around watching television—specifically, the stand-up routine of Krok's old shipmate Skullcruncher, who has made a mint in the post-war era by rebranding himself as a "self-hating Decepticon" comedian. Heartily cheesed off to see Skullcruncher and so many other Decepticons finding new jobs and new successes while he and the rest of the Scavengers are just bumming around the galaxy living hand-to-mouth, Krok chucks a Skullcruncher souvenir through the television, and starts lecturing his crewmates about taking control of their lives... only to be almost immediately interrupted when a rampaging Grimlock comes tearing into the room, with Misfire holding onto his back for dear life. Misfire has been attempting to "house-train" the mentally-damaged Dinobot, but after his biggest success to date—managing to write the first letter of his own name—Grimlock has had another in an escalating series of "fits" that forces the Scavengers to blast him into submission. Tiring of Krok's bossy tone, Misfire is about to rip into him about the "clicker" in his hand, but before anyone says anything they can't take back, Spinister enters to inform the team a communication is coming through.

The communication is from Demus, a Decepticon scrap merchant on Tebris VII, who Krok knows from the Triple M sub-group on the Decepticon social networking site, The Big Conversation. Demus invites the Scavengers to his scrapyard, and, thinking they are going to be offered jobs, they even agree to inject themselves with temporary inhibitor chips upon arrival due to Demus's condition—he is so militantly monoform that the very sight of transformation makes him sick. The group are led by the noticeably skittish Demus through his stockyard, full of merchandise from his profitable side-business making "Roboid" toys, before arriving at his office, where it turns out he does not want to employ them: he wants to buy Grimlock from them. He steps out to take a call while the Scavengers talk the proposal over amongst themselves; the obscene amount of money on offer all it takes to sway Krok, Crankcase, and Spinister into selling, outvoting the more compassionate Misfire and Fulcrum, the latter also healthily suspicious of Demus's motives. And it seems Fulcrum is right to be suspicious—out in the stockyard, Demus talks on his communicator in a panicked whisper about being on a list, and needing help from the caller... but he realizes that such concerns have become moot when a huge shadowy figure appears in front of him. Demus is hurled back through his office window and then has his brains blown out right in front of the Scavengers... as the Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, Fortress Maximus, steps through the door and inquires which of them will be next!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Crankcase! That was my shot! You're not even playing!"
"True. But I can't listen to someone else's party without wanting to pop their balloons."

—Spinister isn't happy that Crankcase has stolen his win

"—and we used to say to him, 'Megatron, mate, why not get all the Phase Sixers and throw 'em at the Autobots?' Like, 'Forget the planets! You can cyberform as many planets as you like once you've killed all your enemies! You're not making the best use of your assets.'"

—Skullcruncher likes to claim he spoke truth to power, but somehow, we doubt it

"Are you sure you won't let Spinister fix your head? He's a brilliant surgeon."
"He's a brilliant surgeon who classifies random objects as 'goodies' or 'baddies' based on the sound they make when he punches them. I don't want him anywhere near my brain."

—Krok and Crankcase

"When we found you on Clemency, we didn't know what was going on. Now we do, and it's worse than we thought. The Autobots have won, Megatron's flipped, and Starscream's in charge of Cybertron! Starscream! At least the Autobots were upfront about wanting to kill us! I wouldn't trust Starscream to tell me my own name!"

—Krok

"You must be the Scavengers."
"It's pronounced SCAVENGERS."

—Demus and Misfire

"Are we gonna kill him and steal his money? HA! Joking. But seriously, are we gonna kill him and steal his money?"

—Crankcase, on dealing with Demus

Demus: "I'd like to buy [Grimlock] off you."
Misfire: "You what?"
Crankcase: "Buy him?"
Fulcrum: "Bizarre."
Spinister: "WHAT AM I REACTING TO AND IS ANGER APPROPRIATE?!"

Notes

Continuity notes

• The single panel that shows the Scavengers' holomatter adventure on Magisteria VI has one of them remark that the holomatter program is struggling with the native species's gender; Rung had the same problem back in issue #13.
• The Scavengers were seen playing Jenga when they last popped up in issue #20.
• Misfire highlights the mystery of Grimlock's current condition; found by the Scavengers on Temptoria in issue #7, the last time he had appeared before that was when he was being taken to Garrus-9 at the climax of the Maximum Dinobots miniseries.
• Misfire also mentions that he has a 'contact' within the Autobots who told him what happened on Garrus-9, informing us that Grimlock "went missing". It's likely that he's talking about Brainstorm, who worked as an insider for the Decepticons, but never divulged any information that was actually useful.
• Krok mentions that the Scavengers sometimes vandalize Autopedia, the Autobots' free-to-edit database.
• During his stand-up routine, Skullcruncher talks about his having been part of infiltration squads during the war. We know he's speaking from experience, as he was last seen way back in Stormbringer as a member of one such squad—alongside Crankcase, no less—on the planet Nebulos where they were both apparently killed by Thunderwing, though obviously not.
• The "clicker" in Krok's hand was last seen in issue #7, or rather, it was heard. He claimed it was a device that he clicked to keep rebooting the ship's continually failing communications systems, but in issue #8, Misfire strongly implied that whatever the device was, it wasn't that. The way Fulcrum takes Krok's hand to stop him clicking it as he rants this issue certainly indicates it's an uncontrolled expression of anxiety like a nervous tic, and Misfire is just about to broach the clearly-taboo subject of what the thing is, but they get interrupted by Demus's communication.
• Krok makes reference to the planet Troja Major, first (and last) heard of in issue #28. This was the world on which Nautica picked up the original, unedited version of "Towards Peace"; perhaps the Decepticon antiquarian, Agonizer, who Krok notes set up shop on the planet, had something to do with that.
• Demus previously served under Deathsaurus, who gave him an honorable discharge after the war. Surprising to hear about a Decepticon, perhaps, but we saw in issue #39 that Deathsaurus is the sort to treat his men right.
• Crankcase is swayed into selling Grimlock by the possibility of using the money to buy his own spaceship, something we know from issue #8 that he always wanted to have.
• We last saw Fortress Maximus in issue #21, in which he took on the position of enforcer of the Tyrest Accord following the defeat of then-current holder of the title, Star Saber.

Transformers references

• We see the Weak Anthropic Principle for the first time, and it turns out to be a Decepticon-purple version of the Ark's Generation 1 cartoon animation model. The sequence of it crashing, complete with "Four Hours Later" caption, is styled directly after the scene of the Ark crashing from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1"; the shot of the post-crash bridge, with rocks bulging in through the windows, is likewise styled after the interior of the cartoon's Autobot Headquarters.
• When Spinister places his gun against Misfire's head to end their game of "Shoot Shoot Bang Bang", he paraphrases Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie: "I would've waited an eternity for this. It's over, Misfire."
• Krok is revealed to be a Monoformer—the IDW continuity term for a Transformer that does not transform—referencing the fact that his original Generation 1 toy was a non-transforming Action Master.
• According to Skullcruncher's routine, Krok named himself after "his dead pet", an allusion to Krok's Action Master parter Gatoraider—who was, of course, a crocodile.

Real-life references

• As mentioned in the plot synopsis, one of the situations featured in the fake "recap" section at the beginning of the issue depicts Fulcrum playing Jenga against a giant space jellyfish for the fate of the universe. Jenga is, of course, a popular game of skill, the rights of which currently belong to Hasbro. Grimlock was previously seen playing Jenga back in issue 20.
• The Decepticon website "The Big Conversation" (established by an M.T.O. named Biteback, Krok says) is likely named for the (now defunct) real-life website of the same name, launched in 2003 by the Labour government of the United Kingdom.
• The comment about killing off the name Scavengers because it is too close to the word "scroungers" is a reference to the 2015 Tory government of the United Kingdom's policy on the use of the word in their political rhetoric.

Errors

• On page 2's final panel, Misfire thinks that "all hell broke lose". This should be "all hell broke loose". This was not corrected for the trade.
• On page 11, panel 4, Krok's second speech bubble ("We should be taking control of our lives!"...) is coming from Crankcase. This is corrected in the trade.
• On page 19, panel 1, Misfire says, "Bear my frikkin' soul?" This should be "Bare". Not corrected in the trade.

Other trivia

"Poor Fulcrum. Missing out on such an awesome scene."

• The final panel on the "recap" page, showing the Scavengers turned into toys, was taken by Maziar Shahsafdari using the original Generation 1 Spinister, Crankcase, Krok, and Misfire toys.Read about the photo shoot here!
• Skullcruncher's routine involves pointing out that nobody actually knows what phases 3 through 5 of infiltration protocol are, a joke based on the fact that they were never detailed back during Simon Furman's "-ations" era on the IDW books, and that it's a little tricky to imagine what three distinct stages between "Instigating conflict" and "killing everything" would actually be.
• Crankcase mixes up the concepts of copyright and trademark and is promptly made fun of for it by Fulcrum, a common occurrence in online discussions among the Transformers fandom.

Soundtrack

• "Loaded" by Primal Scream^[1]
• "Fool's Gold" by The Stone Roses^[2]
• "Shake Your Money" by Black Grape^[3]

Covers (4)

• Regular cover: Scavengers group shot, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover: The other Scavengers don't appreciate whatever Misfire is laughing about, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham.
• Retailer incentive cover: Tyrest, Pharma, and Star Saber, by Kei Zama and Josh Perez; one of September's series of retailer incentive covers by Zama.
• Giant Robot Comics exclusive cover: Wraparound cover of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Wheeljack, Arcee, and Omega Supreme battle Megatron, Soundwave, Rumble, Swindle, Onslaught, and Devastator at Peggy's Cove Lighthouse in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove. Available exclusively from Giant Robot Comics, who are based in Halifax; third in a series of exclusive covers for the retailer by Coller and Bove, which all feature Halifax landmarks.

• 

  "Who loves ya, baby?"

• 

  Misfire is the Jerry Lewis of the Scavengers.

• 

  What have these guys been up to?

• 

  For Primus's sake, save the lighthouse!

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Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 9 (May 4, 2016) ISBN 1631406159 / ISBN 978-1631406157
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #45–49.
  • Bonus material includes covers of each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 66: Speak, Memory (December 25, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #43–49.
  • Bonus material includes a one-page article about the Scavengers, a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 10 (January 1, 2020) ISBN 1684055849 / ISBN 978-1684055845
  • Collects Windblade (2015) issues #6–7, The Transformers (2012) issues #44–45, Combiner Hunters #1, Sins of the Wreckers issues #1–5, More than Meets the Eye issues #45–47 & #48–49, and The Transformers Holiday Special: Choose Me & The Thirteenth Day of Christmas.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 9 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 66: Speak, Memory – cover art by Dan Khanna (Getaway) and Hayato Sakamoto (retro)

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 10 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

References

External links

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