Rules of Disengagement (issue)

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"Rules of Disengagement"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	July 25, 2012
Cover date	July 2012
Story by	James Roberts
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Josh Burcham and Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2012)

A mismatched group of Decepticons find themselves in the crosshairs of the deadliest team of killers there is... the Decepticon Justice Division!

Synopsis

"No one cared who I was until I put on the mask."

As a Phase Sixer, Black Shadow is one of the most feared Decepticons, having tackled the Wreckers single-handedly, defeated the entire 113th Battalion, and massacred the population of Rigel IV. But when he accepted a bribe to blow up a fleet of War Worlds, he landed himself in the sights of the Decepticon Justice Division, a team of vicious killers fanatically dedicated to Megatron and charged with destroying all who cross him. It's not a pretty sight when the D.J.D. catch up to Black Shadow: melted by Helex, crushed by Tesarus, and electrocuted by Kaon, he is explosively finished off when DJD leader Tarn uses his ability of "weaponized conversation" to stop the pulse of his spark. Their task done, the DJD set off to find their next target on the planet of Clemency—a target guilty of simply living.

On the Lost Light, Ratchet, First Aid, and Ambulon combine their medical expertise to save the life of the wounded Rung, though the psychiatrist remains comatose. A few hours later, Red Alert visits Rung in secrecy, believing—in his increasing paranoia—that the attempt on Rung's life was a deliberate one after Red told him about the voice he heard from beneath the ship. Certain that he is next, Red hides a data slug containing video he has taken of the voice's owner—Overlord—on Rung's body and bids him goodbye. But a medical Diagnostic Drone has observed the entire thing, and soon, a shadowed figure arrives in the medibay and recovers the slug...

On Clemency, a band of Decepticon Scavengers consisting of Misfire, Spinister, Krok, Crankcase, and Flywheels are in the process of draining fuel from the vast array of Transformer corpses that litter the war-torn world when one of them, a chipper fellow named Fulcrum, proves to be still alive. After a slight panic over the possibility that he might be a zombie, the six 'cons settle down around a fire to talk about the great battle in Clemency's past, and the grim reality of war and how it reduces lives to statistics. Fulcrum is shocked to discover that the war is over, barely able to comprehend such a thing, and the other Decepticons mumble about how meaningless it all turned out to be and how unclear their goals had been anyway. In spite of this, though, when one of the Autobot bodies stoking the Decepticons' fire proves to still be alive, Krok casually kills the poor 'bot.

Back on the Lost Light, Chromedome visits Brainstorm in his lab to get the scientist's analysis of Skids's mysterious gun, which Chromedome palmed from the theoretician when he was distracted. The weapon immediately blew up when Brainstorm tried to examine it, but he was able to recognise at least some of the engineering, and has concluded that as impossible as it may seem, the gun may have come from somewhere known as "the Institute"...

As dawn breaks on Clemency, the Decepticons resume their scavenging, only for Misfire to suddenly break away from the group, thinking that he has spotted the Necrobot, a mythical Grim Reaper-like figure in Cybertronian culture. Instead, what he has discovered is a P-6 Worldsweeper, a famous model of gigantic Decepticon spaceship cast in the image of the faction's insignia. Investigating the vessel, the Decepticons make some horrifyingly strange discoveries: a ceiling covered entirely in brain modules, tanks of warped, malformed protoforms, a non-functional robot made entirely of wood, and a corridor composed of organic flesh that proves to have been responsible for causing the ship to crash, having bled into the fuel supply and polluted it. Misfire in particular is aghast and advocates immediate departure, but Fulcrum, coming around to the idea of new horizons, is eager to investigate. All emotions on the ship quickly turn to terror, however, when Krok receives a communication from the D.J.D., announcing that one of their number is on the Division's list. Tarn signs off with the promise that if the guilty party is handed over, the other six will be allowed to watch his execution. The numbers don't add up, and Fulcrum assumes the D.J.D. simply miscounted their life-signs... but Krok soon discovers that there is indeed a seventh party on the ship, unconscious and sealed in a stasis tube... Grimlock!

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"'My weapon is my burden: a reminder of the path I was forced to take. When the word 'weapon' is emptied of meaning; when the purpose of a weapon is impossible to grasp; when the rejection of my weapon is of significance to no one other than myself... only then shall I remove it from my arm. Because only then will I have earned the right to rid myself of my burden.'"

-Tarn recites a passage from Megatron's Towards Peace

"Nice to meet you, loser! They call me Misfire. Long story. Actually, you know what? It isn't. It's a very short story involving a machine gun, a misunderstanding, and a dozen dead Decepticons."

—In the IDW-universe, Misfire actually managed to hit something!

Fulcrum: "Ah! Now! Just—just wait a second! Just— The thing about me—my big thing is this: I'm really not keen on dying. Now survival—oh wow, huge fan. Put me down for some of that. Besides, we don't even know each other! You might like me! You might find me—disarming! Yes! I'd disarm you!"
Spinister: "You'd what me?"
Flywheels: "Careful—he's using words to confuse and frighten us."

"Go away. I'm busier than you've ever been and I'm doing more important things than you've ever done."
"It's Chromedome."
"So?"
"So you have to be nice to me, I'm your only friend. Why are you—?"
"Building weapons whilst hanging from the ceiling? Because no one else can. I was hoping Perceptor would walk in."

—Brainstorm and Chromedome

"Chromedome, you're looking at a bona fide Binary Gun."
"What's a Binary Gun?"
"I'm not sure—I've only just made up the name. But I called it that because inside there's only room for two cartridges, here and here."
"So what does it do? Where'd Skids get it? Why'd he carry it around with him all the time?"
"I don't know! I've done my bit...!"
"You made the gun blow up and then you gave it a name! I could have done that and I'd have come up with a better name!"

—Brainstorm and Chromedome again

"But there's always been a war! That's like saying there's no more blue or—or the weather's stopped!"

—Fulcrum catches up on recent history

"I always dreamed of captaining my own P-6—Followin' the likes of Shockwave and Sixshot and the other big guns. I'd have called it something noble and majestic, like Mega Starpuncher or Mighty Spaceship."

—Crankcase

"You know, there are some Decepticons who, upon finding themselves in a skin-covered room surrounded by aborted protoforms and mechanoids made of bark, would rub their hands together, marvel at the universe's infinite capacity for surprise and dive right in. I am not one of those Decepticons. I say we run away screaming."
"I am one of those Decepticons, Misfire, and I say we stick around—because frankly, this is amazing."
"What's amazing?"
"This! Us! Now! Who owns this ship? Where are they now? Where will we be an hour from now, or tomorrow, or next month? The answer to all those questions is "Who knows?" And that's a great answer! That's the best answer ever! All our lives we've followed orders—all our lives someone else has always told us what to do next! Well, not anymore! For the first time in forever, we can do whatever we like! We're free!"

—Misfire and Fulcrum

Notes

Continuity notes

• Black Shadow was established to be a Phase Sixer in his sole previous IDW appearance in Last Stand of the Wreckers #2.
• Tarn quotes a passage from Towards Peace, which will later be established as Megatron's autobiography.
• In addition to obvious members Impactor and Rack (pre-Ruin), the version of the Wreckers that Black Shadow fights is made up mostly of characters mentioned and briefly glimpsed in past James Roberts works which he specified in the script.^[1] None are named on-panel but Hyperion is recognizable from his corpse's role in issue #2, while Valve has never been seen before, but shares a body-type with his brothers Wheelarch and Springarm from "Chaos Theory". Crest was mentioned in "Bullets" (and can be recognized by his large chest-crest), while the unfortunate Piston is a new character, separate from the earlier IDW character of the same name.
• The Decepticon Justice Division were first mentioned in one of Roberts's earliest IDW works, Last Stand of the Wreckers #1, and have come up on occasion since then. They are named after cities on Cybertron; specifically, the "First Five Cities" to fall to the Decepticons in the war, which were listed in issue #4.
• Chromedome palmed Skids's gun between pages 4 and 5 of issue #4.
• Reference was previously made to the mysterious "Institute" by the nameless senator in "Chaos Theory", Part 2, and as part of Red Alert's paranoid delusions in issue #5.
• The Necrobot was previously mentioned by Trailbreaker in issue #3 among other things that don't exist like the Shimmer or the Seething Moon. All of these turn out to exist in some form...
• Grimlock was last seen at the close of the Maximum Dinobots mini-series, over three years before the publication of this issue. Since then, all we've heard is that he had left Garrus-9 after it was sacked by the Decepticons under unrevealed circumstances, as detailed in Last Stand of the Wreckers #4.

Transformers references

• Black Shadow's design is based on his Generations toy.
• Whilst other planets that orbit the same star have shown up in Transformers fiction before, this issue is the first mention of Rigel IV. It's also known as being the home of a pair of pesky space aliens from The Simpsons.
• Surprisingly, this isn't the first time that wooden robots have shown up in a G1 continuity.
• Black Shadow's bribe is in Shanix, a little-referenced Cybertronian currency that first appeared in issue #113 of the Marvel UK series. It's seen some previous mentions in IDW continuity in The Transformers #22 and Robots in Disguise #3.
• The Warworld was the Decepticon mothership in the Marvel Generation 2 comic. The idea of a fleet of multiple Warworlds originated with the non-canon Alignment.
• Vos's dialogue, referred to as the "Primal Vernacular", is written using the Cyberglyphics symbol language from the live-action movie continuity. Employing the substitution cypher regularly used by Titan in their UK Transformers comic shows that most of his speech bubbles are nonsense, however, save for the first, which reads: "So tired me go night xth".
• Kol was first seen in Generation 2 #9, where it was a planet. It became the name of a system in Stormbringer #2 with the introduction of Varas Centralus, which is located there.
• Roberts had previously created a Decepticon named Fulcrum in his fan-published Transformers: Eugenesis novel. Whether these are meant to be iterations of the same character (as was the case with Rung) or just a name reuse is unclear.
• That Flywheels should freak out so seriously at the prospect of a zombie is fitting, given his prominent role in the greatest Transformers zombie story, Marvel UK's "City of Fear!" (indeed, his only prominent role in anything before now).
• Amusingly, to go by the original tech spec numbers, Krok is actually the lowest ranking Decepticon of his group. But since when was fiction accurate to the tech specs?
• Hydrus 4 is the planet of origin for nucleon, seen in the original Marvel series. Its sister world Hydrus 5 was created by James Roberts and first mentioned in "Bullets".
• The planet Elpasos is mentioned in passing, a world that debuted in—you guessed it, issue #113 of the Marvel UK series. It got a previous IDW mention in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5.
• Reference is made to "Nova Peak", which is prrrrrobably the same thing as Nova Point.

Trivia

• Although "Rules of Disengagement" is the only on-page title for this issue's story, the following issue was labelled "Scavengers (Part 2)", identifying this as an unmarked Part 1.
• The 113th Battalion is another use of the number 113 by James Roberts, referring to the issue of the UK comic that got him hooked on the series. On the same page, Black Shadow is seen battling the 11th iteration of the Wreckers, with 3 kills.
• This is not the first time Roberts has written a character as having been "talked to death", though this version is a lot more literal than the reference made in "Bullets" to a Decepticon who killed himself rather than listen to Prowl drone on!
• Krok's ship is named the Weak Anthropic Principle, which is a philosophical postulate which basically states that only a universe capable of supporting intelligent life is able to be noted by said life, whereas a universe incapable of supporting such life will go unbeheld.

Errors

• "Halt" is misspelled "hault" on page 3; this was corrected for the TPB.
• Spinister was previously shown to be among the Decepticons who had already returned to Cybertron in Robots in Disguise #1. Quick, someone make up a name!
• Spinister's name is misspelled as "Spinisther" during the search of the Symbol Ship; this remained uncorrected in the TPB.
• Krok spends most of the issue in a new set of colors, only appearing in his toy's colors in one panel on page 20.

Crew Manifest

• The "Story so far" segment on the inside front cover notes that "a number of Delphi's patients" were brought to the Lost Light, which is the first mention that anyone other than Fortress Maximus came back with Ratchet and the medics.
• 5 deaths, 5+ new arrivals since the launch.

Soundtrack

• "Easter Parade" by Emmy the Great
• "My Year in Lists" by Los Campesinos!

Foreign localization

Japanese

• Title: "Tettai Kitei" (撤退規定, "Withdrawal Rules")

Swedish

• Title: "Skrotletarna, Del 1: Den som ger sig in i leken..." ("The Scavengers, Part 1: You've Made Your Bed...", lit. "He who joins the game...")

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Tarn, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Cover B: Misfire, Crankcase, Spinister, Flywheels, and Krok, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Cover RI: Shockwave and Laserbeak, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano, the second quarter of a combined image formed with the RI cover to Robots in Disguise #7, #8, and More than Meets the Eye #8.

• 

  The last image in Black Shadow's mind.

• 

  Hi, can I have your heart?

• 

  Cover RI

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• More than Meets the Eye #8
• Robots in Disguise #8
• Regeneration One #82
• Sergio Aragones' Groo: Artist's Edition
• Autocracy
• Regeneration One #81
• IDW's Mars Attacks comic (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 2 (October 17, 2012) ISBN 1613774982 / ISBN 978-1613774984
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #4–8.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers, "Meet the Crew" and "Meet the 'Cons" pages.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 (August 12, 2015) ISBN 1631403648 / ISBN 978-1631403644
  • Collects Autocracy issues #1–12, Spotlight: Trailcutter, Hoist & Orion Pax, Robots in Disguise issues #7 & #8–9, and More than Meets the Eye issues #6–8.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Box Set (December 2, 2015) ISBN 1631404741 / ISBN 978-1631404740
  • Collects More Than Meets the Eye volumes 1–5.
  • Bonus material unknown at this time.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 55: Shadowplay (January 9, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #7–13 and Annual 2012.
  • Bonus material includes the second of a new three-part interview with Roberts, early pages of scripts, design sketches from Alex Milne, a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Mer än ögat kan se (June 15, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #1–8 & Annual 2012, Spotlight: Trailcutter & Hoist, and a special illustrated edition of "Bullets".
  • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

• 

  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 2 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 – cover art by Saren Stone

• 

  More Than Meets the Eye Box Set – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 55: Shadowplay – cover art by Don Figueroa (Whirl) and Alex Milne (retro)

• 

  Mer än ögat kan se – cover art by Alex Milne and Joana Lafuente.

References