Escalation # 2
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by EJ Su
Colors by Zac Atkinson

Summary:

Nine months ago in Washington DC, an anonymous US senator and army general meet outside the White House.  The senator is seeing pressure from oil companies that fund him, and notes that talk of ceasefires and troop withdrawals from a disputed area in the Gulf is bad for their business.  The general assures him that the troops will remain in the Gulf for some time.  Unbeknownst to both men, they are being watched.  Not by human eyes, but rather Decepticon ones.  The US senator is scanned and targeted, and the Decepticon prepares to acquire his prey.  Flash forward to present time as Optimus Prime, Jazz, and Wheeljack drive along a busy highway east of St. Louis.  Prime is on the radio with Ironhide, who is giving him a rundown of what just went down at the end of last issue while parked at a gas station.  He reports that humans with sophisticated weaponry specifically ambushed, targeted, and destroyed Sunstreaker.  Ironhide doesn’t believe that Sunstreaker survived the attack, after he saw the wreckage.  Jazz breaks in on the line and asks what became of the remains, and Ironhide tells him that they were brought to a police impound lot and he was unable to step in and retrieve them without breaking cover.  Jazz asks about the humans, and Ironhide sadly confirms that Hunter must have instantly died when Sunstreaker was hit and Verity and Jimmy are extremely upset.  Angered, Ironhide tells Prime that he believes the Decepticons were involved with the attack, due to the weaponry used, and suggests they take the fight to them immediately.  Optimus shoots this idea down though; he doesn’t want the situation to escalate any further.  He’s not sure it was the Decepticons, but he orders Ironhide to bring Verity and Jimmy back to Ark-19 just in case.  In the meantime, Prime, Jazz, and Wheeljack will secure Sunstreaker’s remains before the humans examine him and realize what he is.  Ironhide is unhappy with this, but acknowledges and signs off.  Nearby, Verity has locked herself in the gas station bathroom and refuses to come out as Jimmy talks to her from outside.  Both of them are still reeling from Hunter’s apparent death.  Meanwhile in the Decepticon command bunker in Oregon, Megatron supervises the initiation of phase two of the infiltration plan.  In some Middle Eastern country, Skywarp and Thundercracker fly along in jet modes as Megatron radios them and tells them to proceed.  Skywarp is a bit apprehensive about working directly under Megatron now, feeling the Decepticon commander-in-chief has it in for him.  Thundercracker points out that Skywarp DID try to fight Megatron (in Infiltration # 5), and he should consider himself lucky that he’s still alive after that.  The duo proceeds to bomb a human power plant somewhere in the desert, destroying it and causing a large mushroom cloud.  Skywarp admits that things could be worse; he could have suffered Starscream’s fate.  Back at the Decepticon command bunker, Megatron says that the Americans will be blamed for the attack on the power plant and tensions will escalate in the area.  He turns to Runamuck and Runabout and tells them to see that their “puppets dance to the tune they were taught”.  Megatron ruminates on the situation here on Earth; with phase two progressing smoothly, he should simply leave and install a new unit commander.  However, he wants to try out his new Earth mode and decides to stay on the planet a bit longer.  He turns his attention to a global holographic display and begins looking for a suitable testing ground.  Elsewhere on a highway, Ironhide is driving Jimmy and Verity back to the Ark.  Jimmy wants to know why Ironhide thinks the Decepticons were behind the ambush in Lebanon.  Ironhide explains that the Decepticon use facsimile constructs; bio-technological organisms bred to look and act, in this case, like humans.  In some cases these facsimiles don’t even know they are fakes, as they are given memory implants and sent back to their normal lives to be “activated” when the Decepticons choose.  Verity asks if what she saw in the Nebraska bunker was a facsimile.  Ironhide says it was probably the original human they grew a facsimile from.  The Decepticons keep the originals around since the facsimiles are prone to breaking down; they can always grow new ones from the source.  Jimmy inquires about what the Decepticons’ goal could be.  Ironhide speculates that they may be trying to provoke the Autobots into retaliation.  The Decepticons’ usually operate in this way while undergoing phase two of their infiltration; provoking and agitating global hotspots until the natives erupt and destroy each other.  Meanwhile, later on at night in Springfield, Philadelphia, Jazz and Wheeljack seem to have discovered where Sunstreaker’s remains are being kept; an impound lot.  Wheeljack prepares a localized EMP to knock out security measures while Jazz sneaks in from a blind spot in the perimeter.  The two circle around from different directions, and Jazz transforms and begins cutting a hole in the fence that surrounds the main building.  Wheeljack reports in that he’s found a human sentry, lying unconscious or dead and a dead security dog that was shot.  This probably means someone is still within the main structure; someone who doesn’t belong.  Inside the main garage, Machination agents led by Mr. Drake are securing Sunstreaker’s remains on a flatbed truck, when the main door opens, revealing a displeased Jazz and Wheeljack.  Not missing a beat, Drake orders his troops to blast the Autobots with scramblers.  Two soldiers quickly respond, commenting on how arrogant the Autobots are for thinking that they can’t be hurt by the humans.  Wheeljack and Jazz both get struck with the same scrambler device that Sunstreaker was shot with last issue; it begins shocking them into submission as Wheeljack identifies the devices as “some kind of neural agitator”.  As the two Autobots struggle, the humans begin to deploy a stationary rocket launcher to finish the job.  Wheeljack, with some effort, manages to shoot the neural agitator off Jazz’s frame.  Jazz reaches to do to the same for his friend, but just as he manages to crush the device on Wheeljack’s chest, the Machination agents blast him with a rocket.  The blast is sufficient enough to knock Jazz over and onto Wheeljack.  As the two Autobots fall to the ground, the flatbed carrying Sunstreaker’s remains drives off.  Drake orders the other Machination agents to scatter and meet up again in Oklahoma and they disappear under the cover of a smoke bomb.  Wheeljack helps his comrade up, as Jazz comments that he hopes for the sake of his pride that those weren’t really humans that beat them.  Suddenly, the two Autobots realize the Machination agents have left in a hurry and they also realize why.  Jazz and Wheeljack get out of the garage, transform and drive away, as the whole building violently explodes.  Wheeljack quickly radios Optimus Prime, telling him that he has one hostile headed in his direction.  Outside the city limits, the Machination agent driving the flatbed truck regards the impound lot explosion in the distance with some appreciation.  However, he isn’t looking where he is driving and as he turns to put his eyes back on the road, two giant robot legs are what he sees directly in front of him.  The truck violently crashes against Optimus Prime’s legs, badly injuring the agent.  Prime leans down and coldly regards the human, who is barely conscious, then looks up and watches the impound lot burn in the distance.  Sometime later in Ark-19, Ratchet examines the supposed remains of Sunstreaker, and concludes that they are fake.  It is simply a car made rather cleverly to look like Sunstreaker.  Ironhide and Prowl are stunned at this; it means that the ambush in Lebanon was simply a set-up.  Prowl wonders aloud why the humans would go to this trouble, and Prime concludes that they wanted it believed that Sunstreaker was dead so the Autobots would stop looking for him.  Optimus actually hopes that the Decepticons are behind this, because if humans knew this much about Transformers already, the Autobots’ whole operation on Earth is in jeopardy.  A short time later in another part of the Ark, Jimmy and Verity watch TV in their makeshift living quarters, both of them clearly still depressed.  Ironhide’s holo-avatar enters and tells them that there still might be a chance that Hunter is alive somewhere.  On the television, we see one Senator Holt, arguing that firm action needs to be taken in the area that was earlier bombed by Skywarp and Thundercracker.  This senator is the same man that was targeted and scanned by the Decepticons nine months ago (as we saw at the beginning of the issue).  TO BE CONTINUED!


Slagged!:

-In one of their less-than-stellar showings, Jazz and Wheeljack get it handed to them by Drake and his Machination agents.  They both survive, but are dinged-up quite a bit.

-A Machination agent inadvertently drives his truck directly into Optimus Prime’s legs at a reasonable fast speed.  He’s hurt pretty bad afterward, but Prime doesn’t seem to care overmuch.


Sightings:

-The Decepticon than scans Senator Holt at the beginning is obviously one of the Battlechargers.  I can’t tell if it’s Runamuck or Runabout though.

-Megatron is revealed to have reformatted his body to have an Earth alt-mode, probably somewhere in-between this issue and the last.  He now clearly turns into a pistol; although it seems to be a more modern gun than the Walther P38 he originally transformed into.  And with the intro of holo-avatars and facsimiles in this universe, Megatron can now carry himself around!  Okay, that just sounded wrong.

-So it appears that the whole Lebanon ambush was an elaborate bait-and-switch.  The wreckage that Ironhide saw was a mock-up of Sunstreaker.  A big hint to this little set-up in last issue is the fact that the “Sunstreaker” that the Machination agent targets with his bazooka doesn’t have the neural scrambler on the door that was shot earlier onto the real Sunstreaker’s door.


Hearings:

-Prime uses the phrase “more than meets the eye”.  GET IT?

-Thundercracker mentions that Skywarp spent time in a CR chamber after being slagged by Megatron in Infiltration # 5.  The term and concept of a CR chamber originated in the Beast Wars TV series and has since been cozily retconned into Gen 1 continuity by Furman and others.

-Obviously Starscream’s in much worse shape after his failed power-play in Infiltration, which Skywarp notes.

-Wheeljack compares the Machination’s neural agitators to his “gyro-inhibitor”.  Said-gyro-inhibitor is a specialized balance-disrupting shell that Wheeljack normally fires from his shoulder cannons, and it has been mentioned in his tech spec profile and the original cartoon as well.

-The female television reporter than Jimmy and Verity are watching at the end is named “Arcee Arthur”.  A namedrop homage, or is Furman trying to tell us something?  Most likely the former.


Wreck and RULE!:

-The story unfolds, and the revelations continue to hit; Furman’s script is engaging and his dialogue is still sharp as ever.  We also get some very nice characterization from Megatron, Skywarp, Ironhide, Jazz, Wheeljack, and Prime.  EJ Su’s art and design work in particular also continue to impress as he debuts the new Earth-style Megatron.

-It’s refreshing to see the Decepticons actually use DECEPTION to accomplish their goals.  We get an in-depth look this issue on how they prepare a planet for conquering, and it’s quite a good idea, actually.  The use of facsimiles is explained and some questions left over from Infiltration are answered.  Megatron continues to be his pragmatic, badass-self and it seems we’ll get to see him in action again soon.

-We get to see Prime be a little more brutal than usual; letting that Machination agent drive into him with little regard to the human’s safety.  It’s actually a nice change-of-pace from the usual “goody-two shoes” portrayal of Prime.  This Optimus is probably a bit steamed that these humans attacked his soldiers and appropriately treats them like enemy combatants.


Wreck and ROT!:

-Most of this issue is dedicated to the revelation that last issue’s cliffhanger wasn’t what it seemed.  But most fans already had seen the hints and figured this out for themselves.  So there’s really not much surprising about this issue, it mostly confirms what many of us suspected in the first place.

-Runabout is drawn with an Autobot symbol on page six.  Whoops!


Final Judgment:

This is a stellar continuation of the story, with a nice look at the workings of the Decepticon modus operandi.  It might not have been particularly surprising to some people in regards to the revelation about the Lebanon interception, but thankfully great character moments and plot development easily make up for that.  This story arc is already showing the signs of greatness in the works, and one can only hope Furman and Su keep it up.  Peace.


A Thunderwing review