Secrets & Lies issue 4

« Transformers '84: Secrets & Lies #4
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 28, 2020
Cover date	October 2020
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Guido Guidi
Colors by	John-Paul Bove
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Grimlock and Megatron clash on prehistoric Earth, while the Wreckers embark on their first mission to foil Project Dreadnought.

Synopsis

Punch wraps up his tale...

In the halls of the Ark, Grimlock squares up for a fight against a Megatron—but what Grimlock doesn't know is that Megatron is a mere puppet of the damaged AUNTIE computer, bent on protecting the slumbering crew of the Ark from the out-of-control Dinobot using the most powerful weapon in her makeshift arsenal. And at first, it seems as though AUNTIE has the upper hand; "Megatron's" flying tackle sends Grimlock straight through the ship's hull, through Mount St. Hilary's magma chamber, out of the mountainside, and straight into Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet. Relentlessly logical and willing to use every weapon at her disposal, AUNTIE's control over Megatron's motor functions is such that she can even tap into his little-used ability to channel antimatter from the heart of a black hole, exponentially increasing his power. Determined to find the other Dinobots, Grimlock pounds away at the Decepticon leader; when he runs Megatron through the chest with his energo-sword, he only creates a crackling torrent of deadly antimatter—and, lacking Megatron's natural self-discipline and mental training, there's nothing AUNTIE can do to close that connection. As the three fliers get to safety, Dirge takes a moment to warn Grimlock: someone else is pulling Megatron's strings, and if he wants to get out alive he has to either shut down whoever it is... or run while he still can. As Grimlock makes his decision and squares up for round two, AUNTIE struggles to keep Megatron's antimatter breach under control...

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Impactor and the other members of his new wrecking crew prepare for their first mission: get to Stanix, locate the planetary turbines, and prevent Straxus from reactivating Project Dreadnought. Their inside man Punch explains the nature of the engine in greater detail as they crest the vast borehole: to effectively shut down the project, the Autobots must first destroy the surrounding infrastructure. Punch directs Whirl and Rack'n'Ruin to a massive pylon that powers the entire facility. But before Punch can finish his explanation the three run afoul of the first, and most potent, line of Decepticon security when a gigantic hand reaches up and nearly swats Whirl from the sky—a hand that belongs to the mighty combiner Abominus! With an off-the-cuff, ad-libbed cry of "Wreck and rule!", Impactor orders his team to swing into action, and while Twin Twist and Topspin drill towards the subterranean Project Dreadnought facility, the rest of the team do what they can to topple the monster.

Back on Earth, Grimlock continues losing ground against Megatron. Indeed, the harder he hits the mindless Decepticon, the more antimatter spills from his systems—and, as that antimatter begins to catalyze and create a devastating gamma ray wave, the Dinobot decides to take a different tack. Remembering Dirge's advice, Grimlock charges straight into the Ark to take out AUNTIE, and gets inside just before the artificial intelligence cuts her losses, powers Megatron down, and raises the starship's shields in anticipation of the explosion. Using his dinosaur mode, Grimlock ploughs right through her automated defenses and breaches the central mainframe, vowing that once he's dealt with the machine and saved the planet he'll go find the other Dinobots. Although the gamma ray buildup destroys the auto-assembly drone Punch had been using to keep an eye on Earth, Grimlock nevertheless shuts AUNTIE down for another four million years by ramming his fist right into her central processor, and in the process deactivates Megatron where he stands and dissipates the antimatter.

As Grimlock saves one planet, the fight for another rages on as Impactor's team takes on the individual Terrorcons. Amid the chaos, Sinnertwin pins down Impactor and bites into his weapon hand, but Impactor remains just enough motion to squeeze the trigger of his harpoon gun and impale the Decepticon by shooting the barbed spear into one of his dragon heads, sacrificing his own hand in the process. Underground, Twin Twist gives a status report as he holds off the Decepticon security teams and Topspin plants explosives. The moment the charges are in place, the Wreckers retreat—and the mighty explosion that consumes the Stanix facility ensures a permanent end to Project Dreadnought. Even without Optimus Prime and Megatron, the war will grind on for millennia, but Ultra Magnus, Star Saber, and Fortress Maximus have scored their first victory in the long war to come.

Having returned to the stranded Nemesis in Earth orbit Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust put through a call to Straxus to request a rescue mission. The new Decepticon leader has no intentions of bringing Megatron home, and cuts them a deal: he'll rescue them, and even reward them with high-ranking positions in his new empire... if they never speak of the Ark again, a bargain that all three eagerly accept.

And, down below on Earth, Grimlock finally returns to the site of the battle against Shockwave, and finds nothing but a ravaged landscape and a bubbling tar pit. Unable to find his comrades, cursing his own bravado for bringing about the fall of the Dinobots, Grimlock voluntarily deactivates himself in the hopes that—perhaps—he too can finally find an ending.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Got respect for you, Grimlock. So listen up—pretty sure that Megatron's not in the driver's seat. Someone else is. Find out who... or get out while you can!"

—Dirge

"Sure, you're thinking, half his mind there, half elsewhere—how does that work? Well, being in two places at once...is kind of what I do."

—Counterpunch and... uh... Punch?

"Whirl, what you got?"
"Big hole in the ground is what I got. Dull doesn't even begin to describe it."

—Impactor and Whirl

"I suppose if there's a moral here, it's that while technology is prone to go awry... you can always rely on brute force."

—Tech support with Punch

Notes

Continuity notes

• Initially, the Marvel continuity treated combination as a comparatively recent invention; Marvel US #10 had all of the Autobots flabbergasted by the appearance of Devastator, and the later Aerialbots, Stunticons, etc. were all built on Earth. Of course, 1986's Headmasters miniseries introduced both Computron and Abominus as participants in the war for Nebulos, so this isn't really an error on Furman's part. In the author's commentary, Furman suggests that perhaps combiner technology did exist on Cybertron in the pre-Earth days, but just might not have been used very often due to energy concerns.
• The comic features Impactor coining "Wreck and Rule!" as an ad-hoc slogan for his new team; this is, of course, the now-famous rallying cry of the Wreckers, and has appeared across multiple continuities since its debut in Marvel UK's famous "_target: 2006" storyline.
• This comic depicts the origins of Impactor's famous hook-hand by revealing that Sinnertwin was the 'bot responsible for ripping off his original hand during their battle in Stanix. Although Impactor harpooning him through one of his dragon heads looks pretty darn fatal, we know he'll be fine, as he and the other Terrorcons will join Scorponok's crew in The Headmasters #1.
• The final showdown between Grimlock and AUNTIE fills a number of gaps in the traditional Marvel storyline. Grimlock takes the rogue machine out of commission by smashing it; not only does this explain why the Ark made no further efforts to awaken its crew between 4 million BCE and 1984, it also provides a justification as to how the now-damaged AI could correctly identify organic dinosaurs in the past, yet later mistake cars and trucks for Earth's dominant species.
• The penultimate scene of the issue explains the three "Coneheads" showing up as high-ranking Decepticons in Marvel US #17; here, it's revealed that Straxus deliberately cut a deal with them, a promotion in exchange for keeping the location of the Ark and its occupants a secret.
• Although Punch is not privy to the final scene in the comic, his narration presupposes a sequence of events based on "Ratchet's description of the scene", alluding to how the Autobot medic will eventually dig up the five in Marvel US #8 to fight Shockwave.
• And so, the new status quo on Cybertron takes shape: the Autobot alliance of Ultra Magnus, Star Saber, and Fortress Maximus versus Straxus, Scorponok, and Thunderwing. We know, however, that this phase of the war won't last long: Fortress Maximus and Scorponok leave for Nebulos in The Headmasters, and by 1984 Straxus has consolidated the Decepticon army, crushed the remaining Autobots, and risen to become the sole dictator of Cybertron. If Regeneration One is any indication, Ultra Magnus will make it through to the end of the war as a member of the Wreckers, but Star Saber's absence from the rest of the Marvel universe does not bode well for his long-term survival...

Continuity discrepancies

• After Grimlock puts his fist through AUNTIE, Megatron shuts down outside the Ark in the middle of the jungle. Assuming that we take Furman's author commentary at his word—that AUNTIE will not awaken for another four million years, nor will anyone disturb the Ark or its occupants in that timeframe—this does not line up with the scene in Marvel US #1, where Megatron reactivated with all of the other Decepticons inside the starship's passenger bay. It's possible Grimlock simply tossed Megatron's inert frame back inside the Ark before deactivating himself, but this is not made apparent in-story.
• Likewise, the other reactivated Autobots from last issue are seen here still outside the Ark, but their fates are never disclosed.

Transformers references

• Punch's narration on page one pokes fun at one of Simon Furman's well-trod sayings: Punch remarks that "it's true what they say—there are no endings." The very last narration box then turns the phrase on its head by suggesting that, in deactivating himself, Grimlock has finally found the ending he'd been looking for all this time. (Of course...)

Real-world references

• Whirl's reaction upon spying Abominus "We have met the opposition... and it is super-sized!" which might be a reference to Oliver Hazard Perry's famous proclamation during the Battle of Lake Erie: "we have met the enemy and they are ours."
• As Rack'n'Ruin attack Abominus, Ruin cries "it's hammer time!" which is definitely a reference to the oft-quoted refrain of MC Hammer's famous "U Can't Touch This".

Errors

• On page twelve, Grimlock remembers Ramjet's warning that Megatron is not in control of his own body... however, on page five, it's Dirge who tells him as much.
• Impactor's helmet and mohawk have their colours swapped from page sixteen onwards.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for June, this comic was deliberately delayed as part of IDW Publishing suspending operations, then slipped from an early October release date to the last week of the month.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Megatron's frickin' pissed, by Guido Guidi
• Cover B: Grimlock versus Megatron, by Casey W. Coller and John-Paul Bove
• Retailer incentive cover: The Wreckers pose in homage to the cover of Last Stand of the Wreckers #1, by Nick Roche

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