Secrets & Lies issue 3

With Megatron and Shockwave both out of the picture, things didn't get any easier for the Autobots on Cybertron. In fact, as Counterpunch explains, things only got worse...

When he first appointed him to the role, Shockwave had assumed that Straxus would be a mere placeholder, content to keep Shockwave's seat warm until he returned... but Shockwave underestimated his lieutenant's own ambitions, for Straxus wasted no time in carving out an empire of his own. Straxus and his fellow Decepticon leaders, Thunderwing and Scorponok, each control a portion of Cybertron—but their alliance is an uneasy one. After one unproductive meeting, Straxus confers with Counterpunch at his private smelting pool as they watch the latest round of executions. Straxus asks Counterpunch if he thinks Megatron will ever return, and Counterpunch opines that it isn't likely. Galvanized by this response, Straxus orders the reactivation of Project Dreadnought, ready to turn his sights on the galaxy.

Of course, Punch can't allow this to happen, and the moment the double-agent returns to Autobase he immediately informs Ultra Magnus of this new development. To take out the planetary engines once and for all, they'll need time, resources, and a heavy-hitting team, all assets that Magnus can't scrounge up. As if to underline this point, Magnus receives a desperate transmission from Fortress Maximus as Scorponok's forces overrun his current position. Faced with the enormity of the burden of leadership, and the unenviable task of whipping the faltering Autobot resistance back into shape, Magnus briefly despairs until Impactor and Roadbuster arrive. Impactor points out that, although Ultra Magnus isn't Optimus Prime, that's not a bad thing: if the war's changing, then perhaps Optimus appointed him because the Autobots needed an fresh new leader capable of adapting tactics. And, having overheard Magnus's conversation with Punch, Impactor is interested by Ultra Magnus's talk of a "wrecking crew..."

Auntie activates autobot drones secrets and lies.jpg

Far away, on prehistoric Earth, Grimlock's still juiced up on raw energon as he rampages through the jungle, unaware that Punch is remotely monitoring his progress using one of Shockwave's spare auto-assembly drones. Grimlock storms back towards the Ark; unfortunately, however, the crash has also damaged the Ark's AUNTIE computer and left her unable to distinguish Autobot from Decepticon. As such, AUNTIE identifies the Dinobot leader as a threat to her "cargo" and retaliates by hastily constructing new bodies for five of the Autobot minds encoded into the ship's mind bank, downloading copies of their engrams, but not their sparks, into these forms to create an ad-hoc platoon of emotionless warriors. Meanwhile, Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust recover from their scraplet-induced paralysis aboard the Nemesis; correctly deducing that Shockwave's double-crossed them, the three set out to find and take revenge on the scientist, wherever he might be on the primitive planet below them. Thus, they're the first Cybertronians to stumble across the crashed Ark and run afoul of AUNTIE's team: Tracks, Grapple, Smokescreen, Hoist, and Skids. The three fliers are immediately unsettled by the cold, ruthless attacks of these facsimile "Autobots", and not even Dirge's infamous psychological attacks have any effect on the mindless drones. And, as the battle rages, neither side sees Grimlock barge his way through the crossfire until it's too late. In response, AUNTIE brings a trio of Guardian droids online and sics them on the Dinobot.

Back on Cybertron, Autobots across the planet struggle on against overwhelming odds—Autobots like the brave warrior Star Saber. Alone against an entire Decepticon force, Star Saber refuses to give his nemesis Deathsaurus the satisfaction of surrender, and instead summons his flying battle platform to make a dynamic escape! Once airborne, Star Saber's innermost robot form receives a transmission from Ultra Magnus: the new Autobot leader needs him at Autobase, as part of his new team to stop Straxus. Meanwhile, at Autobase, Impactor introduces his new special operations unit to Punch—a team he's dubbed the "Wreckers"!

Back on Earth, Grimlock tears his way through one Guardian robot after the next, but the exertion quickly drains his power high; as Grimlock gradually comes to, he remembers that he needs to find and rescue the other four Dinobots, casualties of their recent battle against Shockwave. It's unfortunate for him, then, that AUNTIE doesn't intend for him to leave anytime soon... because, in desperation, she's reactivated Megatron!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Others

Grimlock (32)
Tracks (34)
Grapple (35)
Smokescreen (36)
Hoist (37)
Skids (38)
Star Saber (43)
Whirl (45)
Twin Twist (46)
Topspin (47)
Rack'n'Ruin (48)

Bombshell (15)
Triggerhappy (20)
Cyclonus (21)
Slugslinger (22)
Mindwipe (25)
Misfire (26)
Scourge (28)
Dirge (39)
Ramjet (40)
Thrust (41)
Deathsaurus (44)
Megatron (49)

AUNTIE (33)
Guardian drones (42)

Quotes

"Ironic, eh? This all started with Shockwave looking to get his precious planetary turbines up and running at any cost, and his erstwhile replacement just says 'Make it happen.'"

—Punch

"Hhhh. Why me?"
"Because... you're Cybertron's greatest warrior, that's why."
"Whoever coined that epithet, Impactor, did me no favors at all. We're losing this... because I'm just not ready. Not the finished article."

—Ultra Magnus and Impactor

"That monocular logic-chip plugged us fulla scraplets...scraplets!"
"Enh. Yeah. What's he up to?"
"Who cares. All that matters to me... is rainin' fear an' loathin' on his sorry aft!"

—Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge

Notes

Continuity notes

Marvel's US and UK comics featured Straxus, Scorponok, and Thunderwing as Decepticon leaders; here, we see them ruling Cybertron together in Megatron's absence, each controlling a portion of Decepticon-occupied Cybertron. Much like Furman's Regeneration One series, Transformers '84 plays pretty loose with Marvel's UK comics, but for completion's sake we'd point out that this entire sequence of events is at odds with the UK story "Cybertron: The Middle Years!", where Straxus climbed the ranks by himself and succeeded Trannis to become Decepticon leader.
The Pretenders Bludgeon, Octopunch, and Thunderwing all make appearances. In a clever bit of continuity, however, they're all shown in their inner robot forms, since Scorponok won't invent Pretender technology until US #40, four million years from now. Octopunch is still seen wielding the energy-shooting trident that was originally part of his Pretender character model and his signature weapon throughout the series.
Straxus and Counterpunch make a few nods to last year's issue #0: in his meeting with Scorponok and Thunderwing, Straxus mentions a "token search effort" to find Megatron, referring to the reconnaissance team that will eventually land on Earth in the year 1017, the same one that "Counterpunch" will eventually infiltrate and bring down from within. When Straxus asks Counterpunch's opinion if Megatron will ever return, Counterpunch is skeptical; in #0, he learned from Optimus Prime that Prime deliberately sacrificed himself and his troops in a suicide gambit to lure Megatron offworld in the hopes of ending the war. As Counterpunch's narration points out, however, Optimus didn't foresee Megatron's absence creating a power vacuum that would enable the rise of Straxus.
As Straxus watches the latest round of Autobot executions, a legion of harvester units, which first appeared in Marvel US #17, are shown dumping their unfortunate victims into Darkmount's smelting pool. They're drawn a bit differently from their appearance in that issue, however; they sport steam shovel-style buckets instead of mechanical arms.
Fortress Maximus first appeared in the first issue of the Headmasters miniseries as an Autobot commander disillusioned with the war for Cybertron. Here, Maximus is shown fighting alongside the future Headmasters and Targetmasters he commanded in Headmasters #1, and his weariness is already setting in as he openly questions his role in the war to Ultra Magnus.
Maximus and his men battle against the many Decepticon 'masters-to-be who will eventually pursue them to the planet Nebulos. Although their location is not stated in this issue, it's a reasonable guess that they're fighting in the Manganese Mountains, their stated theater of engagement in the Headmasters miniseries.
Impactor refers to Ultra Magnus as "Cybertron's greatest warrior", the title Xaaron gave him in the Target: 2006 storyline in the UK comics.
Punch's narration notes that the crash damaged AUNTIE and left her unable to determine friend from foe; although she never really appeared in the US comics after her brief role in issue #1, this "psychosis" did play a major role in the UK story "Raiders of the Last Ark", in which she appeared using the glowing yellow face she sports in this issue. The Guardian droids she deploys against Grimlock debuted in that story, and later jumped across the pond to play a role in Marvel US #60 when Simon Furman took over from Bob Budiansky. Grimlock going up against the droids also evokes the two-part storyline in UK issues #31 and #32.
To stop Grimlock, Auntie downloads the engrams of five Autobots into new bodies from the ship's mind bank: Tracks, Grapple, Smokescreen, Hoist, and Skids... but the narration specifically notes that these makeshift bodies lack sparks—they're just copies of the genuine article. As Simon Furman's author commentary notes, when Optimus Prime brings them online in Marvel US #14, he'll transfer their frozen sparks back into their bodies and truly bring them back to life (but see our "continuity discrepancies" section from our article on last issue for more on that.)
Make way for the Wreckers! Everyone's favorite special ops unit debuted in the UK continuity and later received an origin story in "Middle Years", though the details between this story and that one don't really match up. There, they were the team Emirate Xaaron had assembled to assassinate Trannis, while in this story they appear to have been handpicked by Impactor instead. Either way, the group consists of their classic lineup from the Marvel UK continuity: Impactor, Roadbuster, Whirl, Twin Twist, Topspin, and Rack'n'Ruin.
The reactivated Megatron leaks crackling energy from his eyes—he's tapping antimatter from a black hole. This ability first appeared in his original, unabridged Tech Specs, but has only ever seen very sparing use through fiction; he used this power once in Marvel UK #20, and again in #104. Younger readers might remember IDW's Megatron pulling off a similar feat in issue #55 of More than Meets the Eye to kill the Decepticon Justice Division.

Continuity discrepancies

In his author commentary, Furman notes that no one ever explained Cyclonus and Scourge showing up as "regular" Decepticons in the Headmasters miniseries. Now, this is true in the US series, where they just showed up along with Scorponok and all the other new Decepticons in that series... but the UK-exclusive "The Legacy of Unicron!", written by Furman himself, did offer an explanation—the pair got involved in a time portal accident that sent them back to the Great War. The trade collection contains a short Addendum, where Furman clarifies that he was referring to the lack of explanation in the US material.

Transformers references

With Fortress Maximus's forces in retreat, Ultra Magnus orders them to fall back to the Omega Point, after Furman's BotCon 1998-2000 storyline, Reaching the Omega Point, although here it's a military staging ground rather than a mythological event.
Star Saber and his foe Deathsaurus didn't appear in the Marvel Comics continuity—they hail from the Japanese-exclusive Transformers: Victory anime. Naturally, his introduction takes the opportunity to squeeze in a few Victory references.
- Star Saber remotely pilots the V-Star battle platform, then uses it to make a quick getaway; in the cartoon, he could combine with this to form a larger "super mode".
- As he remotely controls the V-Star, Star Saber gets the opportunity to sling one of his cartoon catchphrases used during his power-up sequence: "Battle Up!"
- Finally, as he flies away from the battlefield, Star Saber ejects his innermost robot from his robot mode and pilots his jet form from within. If you haven't watched the Victory cartoon, you'd be forgiven for thinking him some kind of Headmaster—he's actually a Brainmaster, an entirely different group of tiny gimmick robots!
During his battle, Star Saber shoots a pair of Decepticons colored to resemble Darkwing and Dreadwind.

Real-world references

Straxus describes his alliance with Scorponok and Thunderwing as an "axis of evil", in reference to then-President George W. Bush's controversial 2002 State of the Union address.
Dirge desires to see the Coneheads "rainin' fear an' loathin' on (Shockwave's) sorry aft!", likely referencing the Hunter S. Thompson novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Errors

On page one, Hun-Gurrr is miscolored to resemble Stranglehold.
On panel one of page five, Counterpunch refers to Straxus as Shockwave's "erstwhile replacement", but "erstwhile" means "former", and "former replacement" makes no sense in this context. Perhaps he meant to say "ersatz"? Although that's not much better.
On page twenty, Punch says that AUNTIE had gone to "Defcon-Ninety". Since Defcon One is the highest threat level, he either has a very low opinion of Megatron, or (more probably) it's another mistake.
Straxus announces he has "other chonrichthyes to fry"; this appears to be a misspelling of "chondrichthyes".

Other trivia

Springer appears pretty prominently in two of this comic's three covers, but nowhere in the actual comic itself. This is likely to account for his role in "Target: 2006," in which he and the other Autobot Triple Changers meet Impactor for the first time and join the Wreckers in the present day.
Originally solicited for May 13, this issue was pushed back to September as a result of IDW Publishing temporarily suspending operations.

Covers (3)

Cover A: Star Saber, by Guido Guidi
Cover B: Springer, Fortress Maximus, Ultra Magnus, and Straxus, by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove
Retailer incentive cover: Heroes and villains, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham