After Megatron (A Dissolution Epilogue)

As the Autobots recuperate in the wake of their parallel universe adventure, Ultra Magnus must come to terms with the loss of Megatron, while Cyclonus and Tailgate finally have to talk their relationship out.

1 Synopsis
2 Featured characters
3 Quotes
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links

Synopsis

Following their return from the Functionist Universe, the Autobots take a moment to relax and reflect. Chromedome and Rewind tell Rung the story of his alternate universe counterpart; Anode reveals her secrets to the reborn, now-fully-grown Lug—who retains all her memories of her old life—and the pair reconcile; and Nightbeat tries to question the plausibility of the methods used by Brainstorm to get them home, but the scientist isn't interested.

Eventually, after seven days have passed since their arrival on Necroworld, Rodimus calls everyone together to announce a plan to get off the planet: a small group will use the spaceship alternate mode of the dead Decepticon Skip, forcibly mass displaced to accommodate them, to pursue the Lost Light and re-establish contact with Cybertron, while the rest remain behind on Necroworld to await pickup. After a bit of joking (and some concern over the ghoulish nature of the plot from Nautica) everyone sets about preparing for departure, and Drift observes that everyone seems a little "skittish"—the result of the absence of Megatron, and the release of the unconscious tension his presence caused.

As Tailgate puts his super-strength to use reconfiguring Skip's enlarged body into alternate mode, he is approached by Cyclonus, who expresses concern that Tailgate is avoiding him. Tailgate seems uncharacteristically curt as he brushes off Cyclonus's concerns; he does speak to other people, he says. Cyclonus reminds him of how his open-ness with others led to the trouble he got into with Getaway, but Tailgate reassures him that he won't be falling under anyone's influence ever again... then invites Cyclonus to leave him alone as he returns to his work...

If only...

In the medibay, Minimus Ambus arrives to request the help of Kaput in donning his Magnus Armor, which does not seem to be functioning properly. Kaput excuses his new assistant, the Decepticon Fangry, then examines Minimus for any injuries that might be preventing him from interfacing with his armor. As Kaput works, Velocity makes small talk, idly observing how odd it is that Megatron is no longer around. She, of course, only ever knew him as co-captain; Minimus knew him as much more, but comments with respect on the focus and discipline he brought to the Lost Light. Rodimus then buzzes Minimus over his communicator, reminding him he is supposed to conduct an inspection of Skip's ship mode.. something Minimus is actually late for!

While Roller and Lug goof around, Nautica praises Anode for her above-and-beyond efforts in restoring her partner to life. Emboldened, Anode asks Nautica about the eyepatch she's now wearing; Nautica explains that the injury she sustained in the D.J.D.'s attack is playing up. Their conversation is brought to an end by a bellow from Rodimus, alerting everyone to the fact that they leave in five minutes. Cyclonus goes to collect Tailgate for departure... only for Tailgate to haltingly inform him that he has decided to stay behind, and that Cyclonus should go on without him. Cyclonus seems to greet the information with his typical stoicism... but a moment later, at long, long last, he finally gives in to his emotions, refusing to accept Tailgate's decision. Tailgate tells him that he no longer believes they have a future together, and even tries to return the innermost energon Cyclonus gave him, but Cyclonus refuses to take it and knocks it from Tailgate's hands.

Meanwhile, following his ship inspection, Minimus has donned his Magnus armor again, but still cannot make it move, and has to be physically carried onto the ship. Rodimus comments on the half-heartedness of the inspection; Magnus glumly responds that that's because there was no point in being thorough and writing a report, since Rodimus would never read it like Megatron would have. Rodimus admits he has been re-thinking his stance on Megatron, and has concluded that his post-war penitence was proof enough that he was a good 'bot at heart. Magnus is momentarily speechless, then launches into a tirade decrying Rodimus's judgement and denouncing Megatron as a monster. In the heat of the moment, the Magnus armor suddenly reactivates, and Magnus stomps off to conduct a proper inspection. A call from Kaput subsequently verifies the hypothesis Rodimus was working on: the Magnus armor required a recognizable neural signal to function, and it wasn't reading Minimus's thanks to the cognitive dissonance he was experiencing as a result of his friendship with Megatron. Rodimus has, in fact, not forgiven Megatron in the slightest; he just pretended to in order to get the necessary contrary response out of Magnus that would snap him back to himself.

And elsewhere aboard the ship, Cyclonus sits alone, solemnly tearing gouges into his face with his claws in grief... until Whirl appears, places a hand on his to stop him, and sits down beside him in silence.

Here I go, burying any chance of a happy ending.

After watching Skip take off, Tailgate and Kaput discuss Tailgate's recent spate of destructive sleep fits. Kaput was informed of them by Cyclonus, while Tailgate reveals that Whirl told him the full story behind them too, how he was hurting Cyclonus during them, and that is why he forcibly separated Cyclonus from him. Kaput offers to find a way to de-power Tailgate's super-charged spark in order to cure him, and Tailgate gleefully accepts. After several days of study, Kaput believes he has the answer: concentrated exposure to neutronic radiation. Unfortunately, Tailgate must be sealed in a small subterranean isolation chamber to keep the radiation contained, and the process will take six months. Despite this, and the inherent risk of death involved, Tailgate doesn't hesitate in deciding to go through with it. However, no sooner is he installed within the chamber than Fangry sneaks up behind Kaput and kills him on the spot. In revenge for the beating and humiliation Tailgate subjected him to, Fangry resets the chamber's timer for six million years, then buries it. Thus is Tailgate once more buried alive... long enough for grass to grow over the chamber, long enough for flowers to bloom...

Featured characters

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

Autobots

Decepticons

Others

Rung (1)
Rewind (2)
Chromedome (3)
Brainstorm (6)
Nightbeat (7)
Kaput (8)
Tailgate (9)
Swerve (10)

Skip's corpse (17)
Fangry (21)
Rapidfire (22)

Anode (4)
Lug (5)
Roller (14)
Cyclonus (16)
Ten (17)

Quotes

"What if, just this once, you stopped trying to invent mysteries for the sake of it?"

—Brainstorm indirectly addresses the comic's readership via Nightbeat

"Permission to start a petition to leave Swerve behind."
"Don't be ridiculous. What a ridiculous thing to say. You don't need to bother with a petition."

—Whirl and Rodimus

"I suppose I'm lucky—I was able to take him at face value. I didn't know the old Megatron."
"You didn't know the old me, either. I used to be a lot more uptight."
"I find that genuinely hard to believe."

—Velocity and Minimus Ambus

"I don't want you to leave me."
"But Cyberutopia..."
"...is nothing without you."

—Cyclonus and Tailgate

"It's okay to miss him, you know. I've been thinking about this a lot since we got back. During the war, he did awful things. Awful things. And yes, in the end, even after we'd given him a second chance, he screwed us over and did a runner. But in between he felt bad, and surely that's enough. We need to respect his pain and how he chose to process it. At the end of the day, he was a good person. He just kept forgetting how to be good."
"I— What? No. A good person who forgot how to be—? No! Feeling bad doesn't magically erase millions of years of warmongering. He used us, Rodimus. We trusted him and he abused that trust—because that's what he was: a serial abuser. He tricked us. He tricked me. His repentance was a sham, his guilt an affectation. The tortured soul, the killer's remorse—it was all a lie. He wore his contrition like a shining crown because he knew it would distract us. A good person who forgot how to be good? Wake up, Rodiumus. He was evil. He was always evil. I hope he rots. I hope he burns."

—Rodimus and Ultra Magnus, on Megatron

"You know, when it comes to other people, you can be so insightful... and yet you don't really know yourself. You're your own blind spot."
"Oh, I know what I'm like. That's the trouble. I know exactly what I'm like—I just can't stop myself."
"I suppose that's why you need people like me around."
"Well... it's certainly why I need people like Ultra Magnus."

—Drift and Rodimus

Notes

Continuity notes

Rodimus laments the destruction of the Rodpod, which occurred in More than Meet the Eye #50. It was in its destruction that Nautica's eye (and indeed, much of the rest of her face) was injured; she was repaired off-panel between the end of More than Meets the Eye and the start of Lost Light.
Rodimus is making his speech while standing on the empty plinth for Megatron's statue. Taken at face value, this would imply that Megatron was killed immediately after his final scene in issue 6! But given how narratively unsatisfying that would be, we may as well assume that "Alive, well, and leading a pacifistic revolution, but still in an alternate timeline" counts as dead by the criteria of the statue sensors.
Kaput talks about "discredited spark types" such as "Estriol Positive"—an in-joke reference to More than Meets the Eye #31, which originally identified it as Nautica's spark-type, before Roberts thought the better of it and had it removed for the trade paperback collection of the issue. "Discredited", indeed!
As referenced in a footnote, Fangry received his beating from Tailgate in issue #2. Kaput mentioned he'd found the Decepticon left for dead in issue #5; so much for gratitude...
Cyclonus was previously shown to express grief through self-harm, cutting gouges into his face, way back in More than Meets the Eye #17.
Tailgate doesn't let on to Cyclonus that he knows, but given that he's able to tell Kaput about it, it's obvious that issue #4's cliffhanger resolved off-panel with Whirl telling Tailgate about his dangerous fits and the damage he had caused Cyclonus, the effects of which we saw in issues #2 and #3.
Ultra Magnus and Megatron had been getting pretty chummy since Megatron joined at the start of season 2, something Rodimus has even noted and disapproved of on occasion.
Cyclonus gave Tailgate some of his innermost energon while he was recuperating off-panel between the events of More than Meets the Eye #47 and #49, in accordance with the traditions laid out in issue #12.
Thus does Tailgate's story reach an... end? ...the way it began, all the way back in More than Meets the Eye #1, with him buried alive for six million years...

Errors

On page 14, panel 5, Ratchet's left shoulder is miscolored as white.

Other trivia

If the joke surrounding Skip's name (in which it is suggested he might turn into "a skip") falls flat for you, it's probably 'cause you're not from the UK, where a "skip" is a rubbish container; "dumpster" in the USA is a genericised trademark for skips.
Velocity's line “speaking of the F.U. - anyone finding it strange, Megatron not being around?" is nicely ambiguous - on the surface a reference to the Functionist Universe, but also, “F-You” is what the Lost Lighters believe Megatron has, in effect, said to them.
A caption on page 4, panel 2, explains Fangry's "stifled laughter" after Minimus says he is having trouble getting dressed is done in the style of UK comic book The Beano, presumably to reflect the childish immaturity of Minimus's issue.
In his vehicle mode, Skip loses the green colour that his robot mode clearly displayed. His chest obviously becomes the roof of the spaceship...

Soundtrack

For all of "Dissolution":

"Neither Here Nor There" by Lost in the Trees

For this issue alone:

Covers (4)

Regular cover: Ultra Magnus in repose, by Jack Lawrence and Joana Lafuente
Subscription cover A: A photo strip of Ratchet, Drift, and Rodimus, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
Subscription cover B: Ultra Magnus and Megatron shake hands, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
Retailer incentive cover: Ultra Magnus by James Raiz and John-Paul Bove

Gray herring.
Ratchet shows off his many expressions.
Magnus can't quit Megatron.
To me, he'll always be the duly appointed enforcer of the Tyrest Accord.

Lost Light #8
"The Hasbro Tribune" editorial page promoting June's Hasbro Universe titles, including this issue G.I. Joe #7, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2, Optimus Prime #8, Revolutionaries #7, Salvation one-shot, and Till All Are One #11.
Jem and the Holograms: Infinite
The Transformers: Salvation
Optimus Prime Vol. 1 TPB
IDW Clue comic

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 77: Dissolution (September 4, 2019)
- Collects Lost Light issues #1–8.
- Bonus material includes a sketch gallery by Jack Lawrence, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 2 (April 6, 2022) ISBN 1684058775 / ISBN 978-1684058778
- Collects Till All Are One issues #9–12, Optimus Prime issues #1–6, and Lost Light issues #1–7.
- Hardcover format.

Lost Light Volume 2 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 77: Dissolution – cover art by Dreamwave (Swerve) and Jack Lawrence
The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 2 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher