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The Verge

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« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #13 »
Combiner Wars #5
RID13 cvrA.jpg
"The Verge"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published January 9, 2013
Cover date January 2013
Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith
Colors by Josh Perez
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

The Decepticons are in revolt, and secrets unfurl as the streets of Iacon burn.

Contents

Synopsis

In Megatron's cell within the Iacon prison, Starscream talks his paralyzed former leader through recent events. Megatron remains silent throughout, as Starscream grows angrier and more impassioned, explaining that he is sure to win the impending elections, thereby securing a legitimate victory for the Decepticons without the use of violence and killing, if Megatron doesn't ruin everything. All the Seeker's passion drains away, however, when Megatron moves just enough to curl his lips into a smile, and the panicked Starscream screams to be let out of the cell. The chuckling Autobot jailors comply, but as Jetfire points out, they have very little to laugh about, with the Decepticon mob nearly at the prison's front door...

Out in the midst of the mob, the newly upgraded Prowl cuffs the Decepticons who were attacking Wheeljack, then leads the scientist through the throng to his mysterious "Black Room". Prowl explains that up until now he has used Bumblebee as a public face for their government, but that he has known events would eventually come to this from the beginning and has been pulling strings all along in preparation. As they enter the Black Room, Prowl tells Wheeljack he needs to stop allowing his guilt to guide his actions, and asks his friend to join him in putting an end to the Autobot/Decepticon war once and for all.

TheVerge-Arcee.jpg

Even though there are Decepticons banging on the shutters of Maccadam's New Oil House, the patrons who have holed up inside are far more worried about the sudden appearance of Arcee, who has descended from the ceiling with an offer. Blurr holds a gun on her, but she is able to stay his hand by revealing that she was the one who saved him from the Constructicons. She also knows the enmity Blurr is currently carrying for Prowl, and so presents him with her two latest acquisitions: Dirge and Swindle, who are willing to give testimony indicting Prowl for the assassination of the Constructicons and Bombshell. Arcee cuts a path for them through the mob outside before leaving to deal with some other undivulged business, and Blurr sets off speeding through the chaos, carrying the two Decepticons and their testimony straight to Bumblebee.

TheVerge-Jetfire.jpg

Bumblebee, meanwhile, is not having a good night, with no amount of shouting and waving his arms proving enough to dissuade the mob outside High Command. Metalhawk's calming words make him grasp that shouting is all he's ever done since taking command, and comes to accept the NAIL leader's viewpoint that, even if they can make it through the night, he cannot continue to hold power and must call for elections immediately. Given Starscream's recent fall from grace, this would mean that Metalhawk will win an election—a realization that reminds Bumblebee that the NAILs outnumber the Decepticons. With this in mind, he has Metalhawk make straight for the burning Maccadam's, from which Circuit is newscasting, there to speak over the news service to all of Cybertron with the news that elections are coming, and to hopefully quell the rioting.

Back at the prison, the Decepticons mob makes an explosive entrance, immediately felling Bluestreak and Jetfire. Warpath holds the line and calls to Starscream for aid, but the Decepticon hesitates, and Warpath is lost. Needlenose strides past Starscream and opens Megatron's cell, and the Decepticon leader rises... and issues an order for his troops to follow him to the Black Room. The stunned Starscream can do little but follow through the burning streets as Megatron leads his men to Prowl's mysterious hideaway... where they are met by all the Decepticons Prowl has allegedly either captured or killed, very much alive and in fighting form, while Prowl himself stands at their side, a captive Wheeljack at his knees! Starscream is horrified as Megatron thanks him for all he has done: tonight, Cybertron belongs to the Decepticons!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons NAILs

Quotes

"I'm faster than you. Much, much faster."
"Yeah, sure you are, but I'll kill everybody in this room and never give it a second thought. That gives me a little bit of an advantage if we start fighting."

—Blurr is trumped by Arcee in a stand-off.


"Follow me...and shoot anything that isn't pink."

—Arcee


"Are you going to aid your Autobot allies? Or do you think the Decepticons will have mercy on you? It must be tough to be a coward."

—Turmoil taunts Starscream from behind prison bars.

Notes

  • WHAT THE FFUUUUUUUUUUUU--
  • It's all hitting the fan now! Prowl "executed" Bombshell and the Constructicons back in issue #4, and captured the other Decepticons seen here in issue #11.
  • When Metalhawk's appeal is broadcast across Cybertron, among those seen hearing it is a shadowy figure out in the wilderness, watching it on a datapad. Ironhide was last seen out in that region of the planet, with that datapad, in issue #9, but we left him at quite the cliffhanger...
  • All the Decepticons (sans Megatron himself) in the Black Room have, like Prowl, been beefed up. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, Soundwave, Bombshell, and Ravage have brand new bodies, although Soundwave retains many of the distinguishing features of the War for Cybertron design. Shockwave and the Constructicons, meanwhile, have simply had extra guns attached to their existing bodies. Rumble and Frenzy are now sporting their tank bodies from the United toyline, and Laserbeak is in the "data disk" form of his Aligned continuity counterpart from the Generations toyline.
  • Sadly, not every death we've seen in the course of Robots in Disguise proves a fake-out, only those who have seemed to die directly by Prowl's hand. Those Arcee killed—including Sunstorm and poor old Ratbat—still appear to be permanently offline.
  • According to Andrew Griffith, the design of the door in the background of the double page spread on pages 4–5 was based on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' album cover for Show Your Bones.

Transformers references

  • The scrambling neon NAIL's tentacled barrel-shaped buddy appears, being hit by Apeface. The neon guy himself, however, is nowhere to be seen.
  • The NAIL from issues #1 and #2 with a color scheme based on Beast Machines Scavenger appears among the wounded NAILS, being helped by Tappet and Zetca.

Errors

  • On the double page spread, with the revelation of Megatron's upgraded team, Prowl's left hand is mis-colored white.

Edits

Similar to the pack-in versions of various other existing IDW comics, the version of this issue available with the Generations Combiner Wars Deluxe Class Breakdown toy was also subject to some changes:

  • Two changes on page 2: Starscream's third speech bubble in panel 1 has "And I did it without shooting." changed to "And I did it without war." Since the speech bubble itself is not resized, this results in a lot of blank space at the lower end. Furthermore, Starscream's third speech bubble in panel 3 has "Autobots shooting at Decepticons" changed to simply "Autobots versus Decepticons".
  • On page 5, Bluestreak's speech bubble has "hell" changed to "hey".
  • On page 7, Wheeljack's second speech bubble in panel 2 is shortened from "Kept 'em locked up? Executed 'em?" to simply "Kept 'em locked up?", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly. Inexplicably, his first speech bubble in the same panel, "What could ya have done?", has the word "ya" moved from the third line (in front of "have") to the second line ("after "could"), resulting in a rather uneven use of the available space inside the speech bubble.
  • Four edits on page 9: Blurr's speech bubble in panel 3 is changed from "What do you want from us, you psycho?" to "What do you want from us, Arcee?"; Starscream's caption in the same panel has "who'd watched Prowl go kill-crazy" changed to "who'd watched Prowl take down the Constructicons", with the caption itself resized accordingly; his caption in the subsequent panel has "Dead Decepticons are one thing" changed to "Destroying Decepticons is one thing"; and Arcee's speech bubble in the same panel has "Put your guns down" changed to "Put cour blasters down".
  • On page 10, Arcee's first speech bubble in panel 1 has "I'll kill everybody in the room" changed to "I'll destroy everybody in the room", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly.
  • Two edits on page 11: Dirge's second speech bubble in panel 1 has "and it wasn't to let Autobots kill and get away with it" changed to "and it wasn't to let Autobots wreak havoc and get away with it"; and Arcee's second speech bubble in panel 6 is changed from "…and shoot anything that isn't pink" to ...and blast anything that isn't pink".
  • On page 14, Bluestreak's speech bubble in panel 4 has "Let's just hurry up and kill some Decepticons." changed to "Let's just hurry up and blast some Decepticons."
  • On page 15, Bluestreak's first speech bubble in panel 2 has "guns" changed to "weapons".

Foreign localization

Japanese

  • Title: "Gakeppuchi" (崖っぷち, "Cliff Edge")

Covers (4)

  • (thumbnail)

    Prowl will kill 'em all and let Primus sort them out.

  • (thumbnail)

    The Decepticons go nutzo!

  • (thumbnail)

    Purplely Megs

  • (thumbnail)

    Breakdown toy cover

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Reprints

  • (thumbnail)

    Robots in Disguise Volume 4 – cover art by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez

  • (thumbnail)

    Robots in Disguise Box Set – cover art by ???

  • (thumbnail)

    The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 4 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long

  • (thumbnail)

    The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 56: City on Fire – cover art by Don Figueroa (Sludge) and Andrew Griffith (retro)

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