Chasing the Infinite

« The Transformers: Lost Light #9 »
Jenny take my hand, 'cause we are more than friends.
"Chasing the Infinite"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 13, 2017
Cover date	August 2017
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Priscilla Tramontano
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Story consultant	Rachel Stevens
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Nautica and Velocity's friendship is put to the test while Lug and Anode are met with an unsettling mystery that may cost them their lives.

Synopsis

Unable to pay the exorbitant price the Catharsian merchant Mengel asks to use the Resus Cradle to revive Skids from the dead, Nautica begins bargaining, offering innermost energon and body parts in her desperation. Mengel proposes that she sell her "grief"—have it physically extracted from her mind, for Mengel to sell on to races that venerate the emotion. Velocity finds the whole enterprise circumspect, not least of all Mengel's supposed ability to resurrect Skids from just his brain module, without a spark, and tries to talk Nautica out of it, citing her medical expertise—but Nautica is determined, even angrily throwing Velocity's repeated failure to pass her medical exams back in her face. Mengel examines Skids's brain, but discovers that it has "cooled" to a point where resurrection will be difficult enough that the price has doubled... and suggests that Nautica also sell her "friendship" with Velocity.

Across town, in the bar, despite being surrounded and held at gunpoint by the Transformers who have just arrived from the Worldsweeper hovering overhead, Anode happily greets their leader, Flame, mistaking him for the Grand Architect, whom she has never actually met in person before. Corrected by Wipe-Out as to Flame's identity, Anode takes umbrage at the deliberately-enigmatic euphemistic language Flame insists on using to describe the reason for the presence of the Architect's men, when everyone knows full well they're there to kill them. Exasperated, Flame cuts to the chase and orders them executed; Anode stalls by pretending she has something to trade for their lives, but just uses the time she buys to deck Flame. As Flame's men pile onto them, Anode transforms to aircraft mode, and, with Lug and Wipe-Out clinging on for dear life, escapes by flying upward and smashing through the windowed ceiling. Fortunately for our three heroes, Flame and his men do not pursue, as they receive news of a more important quarry: the mysterious coffin-bot Anode and Lug saw the Black Block Consortia shoot dead, which earlier escaped their clutches while they were transporting it, and which Flame calls "the Infinite"...

Back at Mengel's workshop, the Catharsian explains how her "state-of-the-art brainware" works; Nautica will retain her memories of Velocity, but her emotional connection to them will be removed. Velocity continues trying to dissuade her friend, telling her stories she has heard of sadists buying friendship, but Nautica remains resolute... so Velocity sighs and says what she is really thinking: that Nautica is punishing her for Skids's death, since she was the one who came up with the idea for the spark spasm that killed him. Nautica cannot wholly deny this, but she hopes this process will be like a "reboot" for their friendship, as she gets to know her all over again. As Mengel straps Nautica into her siphon, Velocity holds her friend's hand and tells her that, while she does not agree with her choice, she respects her right to choose. Mengel activates the siphon, but a moment after the process begins she is called away to another area of her workshop, its walls lined with pods containing more robots that look like the coffin-bot... where she is greeted by Flame. Mengel believes he is here to congratulate her, as she is the first of the Grand Architect's associates to successfully bring an "Infinite" to term—but Flame has actually come to obtain the Resus Cradle, believing that Mengel could have used it to fake her success. Mengel claims she no longer has the cradle, but Flame can tell she is lying, and orders his men to destroy everything in the lab to find it.

Anode, Lug, and Wipe-Out return to the spot where they saw the coffin-bot gunned down, and find a piece of its metal. Believing that the Grand Architect has been using all the sentio metallico the blacksmiths have been providing for him over the years to engineer a new form of Cybertronian, Anode has Wipe-Out do a "close reading" of the metal fragment; Wipe-Out discovers that the metal contains the genetic blueprints for millions of alternate modes—it can literally turn into anything. The moment of this shocking revelation is undercut by a distress call from Velocity, who is trying to defend Nautica against the Architect's troops. Even as Anode and co. race to help, however, Velocity's salvation comes in the form of Nautica herself, who breaks free of the siphon and blasts the villains. Nautica transforms to vehicle mode and barrels out of the lab with Velocity aboard, rocketing past Anode, Lug, and Wipe-Out, who spin on their heels and flee along with them.

A little later, as everyone calms down, Nautica explains that she didn't break free of the machine because she knew Velocity was being attacked; rather, Velocity's mention of "choice" made Nautica realize that Skids had chosen what had happened to him, and the uncertainty over whether Mengel's resurrection process would even have worked added to that was not enough for her to risk losing Velocity's friendship over. Wipe-Out declines the group's offer to go with them as they rejoin the rest of their crew, but before they part ways, he is able to offer an explanation for why Nautica seems oddly unconcerned about recovering Skids's brain from Mengel's lab: to remove grief, Wipe-Out explains, the siphon removed all the feelings Nautica ever had for him.

Above the planet, Flame and his men return to the waiting Worldsweeper, having recovered the Infinite from the Black Block Consortia. The experiment is a complete success: not merely an infinite multi-changer, the robot has actually managed to heal itself from death. Flame also presents the Resus Cradle to the 'bot in charge aboard the ship... but this 'bot knows it by another name. The Resus Cradle, which told Mengel the secret to resurrecting the dead, is the Magnificence... and the 'bot in charge is Scorponok!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"The Grand Architect sent me here to tie up some loose ends."
"Translation: '...to kill blacksmiths.' Why do people like you always speak euphemistically? What's wrong with being direct? It's like... you're threatening to kill us. I'm more offended by that than by how you say it."
"The point is you're redundant. We don't need any more sentio metallico. Now that the breakthrough's been made, we can sterilize the pathway and enter the final phase."
"Oh, now you're just doing that to wind me up."

—Flame and Anode

"I feel this is a conversation we can have after we've escaped? We are going to escape, aren't we?"
"When have we not? Apart from that one time, when have we not?"

—Lug and Anode

"This is where you stand aside."
"This is where you make me."

—The Grand Architect's troops threaten Velocity, but she's having none of it

Notes

Continuity notes

• Nautica refers to Lug's resurrection from just a spark, and to the indistinct relationship between the brain and spark, seen in issue #7.
• Catharsians are revealed to be "warm-wired", an alternative to spark-based robotic life first mentioned in More than Meets the Eye #24.
• Flame's "many and varied" crimes, and his trial, were seen in his sole previous IDW appearance, in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5.
• Nautica previously indicated she was capable of mass-shifting in alternate mode so that another Transformer can fit inside her cockpit in More Than Meets the Eye #32.
• The ultimate purpose of the Grand Architect and his gear-symbol-wearing followers is revealed at last: the creation of the "ultimate" Transformer, able to transform into anything, and regenerate their body back from death. The "birthing pods" these beings are grown in have been seen before; Flame refers to the decommissioning of the "wards" on Tebris VII (tended by Demus, seen in More than Meets the Eye #46) and a previously unmentioned planet named Corritan, which logically must have been where the shipful of "aborted protoforms" found by the Scavengers in More than Meets the Eye #7 was coming from. He also notes the group's contact on Fortuna was compromised; we don't have the full story on that one, but the Lost Light visited Fortuna in More than Meets the Eye #40, and it was noted that the group had a facility on the planet in issue #46. The Architect's troops all remain unnamed, and specific attention is called to how neither Anode, Lug, nor Wipe-Out recognize them as Cybertronians, and wonder if they might be colonists. At the moment, it's not totally clear how they all relate to the Knights of Cybertron, from whom they've appropriated their insignia.
• Scorponok was last seen over eight years ago, being arrested by Ultra Magnus in 2009's Maximum Dinobots #5. Though it wasn't expressly stated at the time, we all generally presumed he'd been taken to Garrus-9; early plot concepts for Last Stand of the Wreckers placed him there, but he didn't appear in the finished series, and the sacking of the prison left his status a mystery until now. It's still not explicitly stated, but the fact that we know Grimlock was taken to Garrus-9 after being arrested alongside him, only to subsequently disappear from the prison under unknown circumstances, and then be found by the Scavengers in that aforementioned Grand Architect ship from More than Meets the Eye #7... all combines to suggest that Scorponok's escape was connected to Grimlock's.
• The Magnificence was a plot device from the early days of IDW's comics, during Simon Furman's tenure. Introduced in 2006's Spotlight: Hot Rod, it is an incredibly powerful, mysterious object that can answer literally any question posed to it. Like Scorponok, its fate has been a mystery for many years, after Hot Rod used it in its second and until-now final appearance in 2008's Spotlight: Doubledealer.

Real-life references

• To "chase the infinite," as in the story's title, is the romanticized notion of pursuing an impossible goal, typically in the name of the journey, rather than the unreachable destination. That might be applied to Nautica's impossible dream in this issue, or indeed, to the quest at the heart of More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light itself... but more literally, of course, it also refers to Scorponok's actual pursuit of a robot called "the Infinite."
• Mengel is named after Joseph Mengele, real-life Nazi physician, responsible for human experimentation during World War II and primary progenitor of the "Nazi mad scientist" trope.

Errors

• Anode punches Flame with her left hand on page five, but on page six, she's shown cradling her right hand.
• On page 14, Anode refers to the Black Box Consortia, instead of the correct Black Block Consortia. Roberts confirmed this to be a typo.^[1] This was corrected for the trade paperback.
• On page 8, Mengel refers to "Skid's brain". Unless she also has the brain of someone called Skid, that should be "Skids' brain". Or "Skids's brain", if you prefer. This is corrected to “Skids’ brain” for the trade-paperback.
• On page 16, Nautica goes from blasting away with her pistol in one panel, to helping Lotty to her feet with empty hands in the next to a third panel featuring her transforming while holding a smoking gun. Where did that gun go in the second panel?

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for released in August, this issue arrives a few weeks late, in mid-September. The digital version was, in fact, accidentally released in the final week of August through iBooks, but was quickly taken down before many readers had the chance to get it.
• With More than Meets the Eye and subsequently Lost Light being breakout hits that reached an entirely new audience of their own, many fans of the series had not read Simon Furman's prior run, and so this issue's cliffhanger was met with confusion by some. Apparently, it never even occurred to Roberts that readers might just not recognise Scorponok or the Magnificence!^[2]

Soundtrack

• "Sleepy California" by Her Space Holiday^[3]
• "Who Do You Love" by Mojave 3^[4]
• "Goethe's Letter to Vic Chesnutt" by Hefner^[5]
• "The Weakest Shade of Blue" by the Pernice Brothers^[6]

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Velocity pulls away from Nautica, who cradles Skids's body, by Jack Lawrence and Joana Lafuente
• Cover B: Velocity defends a wounded Nautica, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Cover C: The Grand Architect's troops stand over Nautica, with Anode and Velocity strung up in the background, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Retailer incentive cover: The Combaticons by Zerob; one of several variant covers done by Zerob for July and August's Transformers titles, originally intended for Till All Are One

• 

  Start your melodrama engines.

• 

  "Stay away or I'll blow more holes in this cover!"

• 

  Time for fun!

• 

  "Wait, why are we in this comic?"

Advertisements

• Lost Light #10
• Four-page preview of First Strike #1
• Jem: The Misfits TPB
• The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #47 Hall of Fame Edition
• "Portrait of a Hero and his Family": National Prostate Cancer Awareness month
• First Strike

Reprints

• Transformers: Lost Light Volume 2 (February 14, 2018) ISBN 1684051487 / ISBN 978-1684051489
  • Collects Lost Light issues #7–12.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 79: Primeless (November 14, 2018)
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #9–12, and Lost Light issues #9–12.
  • Bonus material includes information about the end of the IDW Universe, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 3 (September 27, 2022) ISBN 1684059070 / ISBN 978-1684059072
  • Collects Revolutionaries issues #5–8, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2: "Upgrade", Lost Light issues issues #8–9 & #10–12, Optimus Prime issues #7–8 & #9–10, Transformers Annual 2017, and Salvation.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Lost Light Volume 2 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 79: Primeless – cover art by Don Figueroa and Livio Ramondelli

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 3 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

References

External links

• Preview