Rise of the Decepticons: Prisoners
From Transformers Wiki
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| "Rise of the Decepticons: Prisoners" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 19, 2020 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | August 2020 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Brian Ruckley | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Anna Malkova | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Joana Lafuente | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Jake M. Wood | ||||||||||||
| Editor | David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | 2019 IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
Novastar and her team finally have Quake in custody—now, they have to keep him there.
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Synopsis
In the private safehouse provided by Security Operations, Bumblebee stews in his own guilt and anger...
Out in the badlands, Sixshot proves a formidable foe; shifting from one mode to the next, he singlehandedly holds off Novastar's team with homing bombs and brute force while Frenzy and Rumble free Quake from his paralyzing net. Nothing Novastar's team has can penetrate Quake's thick vehicle mode armor, but Sureshot radios in to tell his commander that they've got some heavy-duty backup on the way—a furious Leviathan! The colossal Transformer contemptuously grabs Quake's vehicle mode like a toy, lifts him above her head and slams him into the ground, upside down. But this doesn't stop the Riser from blasting her in the knee and sending her toppling; this proves Quake's own undoing, however, as her fall winds up pinning him directly underneath her own body. Sixshot quickly realizes that he's outmatched and retreats with Frenzy and Rumble in tow, and Novastar lets him go—as she explains to Windblade, their priorities are taking care of the injured Leviathan and bringing in Quake, who's got a lot to answer for.
First Senator Sentinel Prime, intent on sending a message to the Ascenticons and The Rise, promptly organizes a public spectacle in Iacon where Quake will be marched through the streets for all to see before standing trial at the Senate. Andromeda and Voxpop provide commentary as anxious crowds line the street; in the Senate building itself, Orion Pax fruitlessly tries to convince Sentinel to see sense and warns him his pageantry will only further inflame tensions. Away from Sentinel and Starscream, Orion confesses to Ironhide that Sentinel's learned all the wrong lesson from the crisis—his growing reliance on these pointless theatrics will only play right into Megatron's hands—and asks a doubtful Ironhide to commit the Senate Guard to the streets to try and keep order alongside Security Operations. A call from Nautica brings only more bad news: she and Road Rage have somehow lost track of the Voin asserter. Orion agrees to tell Chromia and Ironhide to keep a lookout... but warns her that they have a great many other problems to worry about.
Seeking closure for Quake's murder of Rubble, Bumblebee observes the proceedings from a crack in the wall of the safehouse and observes the worrying numbers of Ascenticon supporters that line the streets. Overworked and overstretched members of Security Operations struggle to keep the road to the Senate clear, while members of the Senate Guard find that nobody's willing to respect their authority outside of the Senate. Finally, the moment arrives as Novastar, Flatline, Sureshot, and Smokescreen man the carrier transporting both Quake and a wounded Roughstuff, all while angry members of the crowd hurl debris at the killer. Novastar worries that they might not have enough security operatives on hand. Ascenticon Guard leader Skytread, meanwhile, receives a private transmission from Soundwave: Quake cannot be allowed to enter Senate custody. On cue, Skytread executes his contingency plan—when the carrier passes by, a mob of Ascenticon supporters dogpile the floating platform and drag it down under sheer weight of numbers. When the carrier topples, Quake bounds away as Novastar screams for someone to secure their prisoner. Bumblebee sees this all play out from the safehouse's second floor, realizes that they're going to lose Quake again, and races down the stairs, ignoring Stakeout's objections as he goes...
As Smokescreen and Sureshot struggle through the Ascenticon mob, Quake has no such compunctions and simply tramples everyone who gets in his way before ducking into a nearby alleyway. Unfortunately for him, that alleyway is currently occupied by the missing Voin asserter, eager for revenge! The Voin has a numerical advantage, but Quake is a canny fighter and goads the Voin into ripping his hand off and breaking his restraints. Even without his hand, Quake proves a capable warrior; after slaughtering his way through every one of the Voin's bioengineered monsters, he finally pushes directly through the asserter's forcefield and crushes the Voin inside to death. Tired and wounded, Quake's unprepared when Bumblebee charges towards him, shouting to security that Quake's no longer manacled and can freely transform. That's just what Quake does as Bumblebee grabs one of the Voin's discarded weapons, leaps onto the bigger Transformer in mid-transformation, then—without thinking—stabs him through the neck and fatally shears Quake's head and spark chamber from his body.
Smokescreen and Stakeout round the corner to find Bumblebee kneeling over Quake's headless corpse; Bumblebee mumbles that he would've gotten away otherwise, but Stakeout orders Bumblebee to stand down and arrests him on the spot. Smokescreen tells him that he's done, but Bumblebee can't do that—won't do that—not while Barricade is still out there.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Ascenticons | Cybertronians | Others | ||
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Quotes
"You think you get to put a sword through me twice in one lifetime?"
- —Sixshot takes down Windblade
"I mean, Sentinel Prime! How do we even know that Matrix thing passed to him? Did you see it happen? I didn't! He wants us to call them Decepticons, but is that the right way 'round? Is it? Just saying."
- —Voxpop
"The First Senator plans to limit inter-city movement, I heard. Which sounds crazy to me, but I guess he's too late anyway. What's even the point of an intelligence unit if it doesn't give you warning of something like this?"
- —Stakeout
"They're not wrong, Pipes. It's not like we can actually do anything except stand here."
"I know, Roulette. But it's all about how you stand. Look at Brawn there. That's a bot who knows how to stand."
- —Roulette and Pipes
Notes
Continuity notes
- A grieving Bumblebee remembers his conversation with Rubble in issue #4 as they attended Gauge's forging ceremony together—Rubble mused that he, too, was once a spark. Bumblebee found out that Quake had killed Rubble in issue #11 and hopes to find closure by watching Quake on his way to stand trial, but discovers that finding closure is harder than he thought...
- As he backhands Windblade, Sixshot sarcastically asks if she thinks she'll be able to put a sword through him twice; she previously impaled him during a raid on the Rise base beneath Iacon's Memorial Crater back in #9.
- Several characters mention Blades and Beachcomber; the pair go unseen in the issue itself, but are noted to be recuperating from their respective wounds, inflicted by Sixshot and Triggerhappy in the previous issue.
- Andromeda previously appeared as a news broadcaster in issue #20, but this time around she's joined by Voxpop. This beige, two-headed Transformer(s?), based on one of the many unnamed NAILs from the 2005 IDW continuity, had previously appeared in issue #20 as one of the many gamblers at Swindle's, and now after three cameos in eight years, he finally gets an official name!
- Pipes and Brawn both appeared as members of Senate security in issue #16.
- Flatline operates on Roughstuff, the Riser whom Triggerhappy casually shot for fun last issue. #21 left his fate up in the air; this issue confirms that he's alive, but badly damaged.
- The Voin asserter arrived on Cybertron in issue #16 to seek retribution for the death of one of its kind, while Nautica had been in charge of keeping it under control.
- Bumblebee's going after Barricade next—Barricade was conveniently "abducted" by The Rise during a standoff between them and Security Operations in issue #11, and Bumblebee found evidence that Barricade was in on a conspiracy with several high-ranking Risers in issue #13. According to Megatron in #11, Barricade tipped off Soundwave to the existence of the Voin scavenger that had witnessed Brainstorm's murder, setting in motion the chain of events that led to Rubble's murder, and it seems as though Bumblebee has clued into this as well...
Transformers references
- Roulette appears as a member of the Senate Guard... although we'd be hesitant to call her out as one of the many obscure Transformers Brian Ruckley enjoys slipping into scenes, since she did recently enjoy a semi-prominent role back in Optimus Prime as a member of the Colonist Soldiers.
- One of the many Cybertronians in the crowd on page twelve sports Tarantulas's head.
Real-life references
- "Frequent commenter" Voxpop takes his (their?) name from the journalistic concept of "vox pop"; short for "vox populi", literally, "voice of the people", the term generally refers to "man-on-the-street" style interviews with ordinary citizens. Given his heavy-handed, inflammatory rhetoric, it seems as though Voxpop fills a similar niche on Andromeda's show.
Errors
- The opening roll call page mixes up Frenzy and Rumble's names; in this universe, Frenzy is blue.
- On panel three of page twenty, Bumblebee is missing the Ascenticon logo on his chest.
Covers (3)
- Cover A: Dangerous ladies, by Anna Malkova
- Cover B: Quake in chains, by Andrew Griffith and John-Paul Bove
- Retailer incentive cover: Monkey versus robot, by Winston Chan
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Reprints
- Transformers Volume 3: All Fall Down (February 24, 2021) ISBN 1684057396 / ISBN 978-1684057399
Volume 3: All Fall Down – cover art by Cryssy Cheung
