Escalation # 5
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by EJ Su
Colors by Zac Atkinson

Summary:

In a Machination facility in Tampa, Florida, the mysterious Mr. Dante confers with a shadowy mechanoid conspirator.  He reports that the latest “subject” is recovering nicely and the implants were successfully added.  Dante’s mechanoid benefactor is pleased with this news and hopes to proceed with a full test “transformation” soon.  Dante notes that they are going as fast as is safely possible, and he also is waiting for a new lease on life.  The mysterious mechanoid, who appears to be only a severed head hanging from the ceiling, is amused by the human’s self-interest and comments that they will make a great “team”.  Meanwhile over in the Russian state of Brasnya, Megatron and Optimus Prime begin their battle.  Megatron unleashes blasts from his arm cannon as he informs his ancient enemy that he can expend as much energy as he wants thanks to the Ore-13 that is currently powering his systems.  Prime rolls backwards in truck mode and transforms as Megatron’s shots explode all around him.  As he draws his rifle, Optimus comments that the new power has seemingly gone to Megatron’s head; the Decepticon leader was never so boastful and willing to expose their presence to the natives of another planet.  Still, if Megatron is willing to go all-out, Prime will respond in kind and the Autobot leader fires a burst of shots back.  As they exchange blasts, Megatron tells Prime not to worry about the humans in the area; he will leave no witnesses.  Optimus responds to this threat by landing a shot from his rifle directly into Megatron’s cannon barrel.  The cannon explodes and Megatron tears the remains off his arm in frustration, resolving to kill the Autobot commander with his bare hands instead.  However, Prime is one step ahead of him in the bare hands-department.  Optimus uses the time it takes for Megatron to remove the remains of his cannon to rush up and deliver an earthshaking two-fisted blow that sends the Decepticon leader flying into the air and then crashing down to the ground.  Nearby, Skywarp emerges from a portal, only to find himself immediately under fire from Jazz and Wheeljack on the ground.  The two Autobots have gotten wise to the teleporting Decepticon’s pattern and the battle is quickly going their way.  Skywarp radios Astrotrain for a status report, and the Triple-Changer notifies him that another Autobot has entered the fray; Hardhead.  Realizing that the Autobots have gotten themselves some reinforcements, Skywarp opens another portal to return to base and do the same.  Wheeljack and Jazz regroup and radio Prowl, who informs them that he missed snagging the Georgi Koska facsimile thanks to Hot Rod’s interference.  Hot Rod transforms to vehicle and assures Prowl that Koska won’t get far.  But Prowl counters that the facsimile is under orders to terminate himself, and they need to reach Koska before the Russian army kills him.  Meanwhile in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Ironhide and Ratchet are still waiting outside of Custom Wheels for word from Jimmy and Verity.  Knowing it’s been too long since they’ve checked in, Ironhide decides to go in and get them.  He drives straight through the front of the store and all the way to the back room where the kids found the secret entrance (last issue).  Ironhide deploys his holo-matter avatar as Ratchet urges him to hurry; the police are on their way to investigate the break-in.  Ironhide’s avatar goes down into the secret room and finds Jimmy and Verity lying unconscious in an office.  He also spies the timer display on the computer, which is just over three minutes now and counting down.  Back in Brasnya, Optimus and Megatron continue their fight, with Optimus getting the worst of it.  Megatron admits he once respected Prime and considered the two of them equals, but now there is a marked gap in their power levels thanks to Ore-13.  Optimus ignores Megatron’s boasting and tackles him into a mountainside, but the Decepticon commander opens his mouth and emits a blast of pure energy directly into Prime’s face, blinding and burning the Autobot leader.  As Optimus clutches at his optics, Megatron decides to end the fight and dashes in to deliver a devastating blow through the left side of Prime’s chest.  Megatron then rears back and delivers a second punch that shatters the right side of Prime’s chest.  The Decepticon commander then cruelly sends his hand slamming deep into Optimus’s now-exposed inner workings.  Megatron notes that he’s going to grab Prime’s spark core and “squeeze”.  Nearby, the Koska facsimile stands before the entire regiment of Russian troops shouting and screaming at them.  Hot Rod and Prowl quickly move to prevent the facsimile’s death.  The Russian commander orders his men to execute the apparently-crazed Koska, but Prowl drives in and shields the facsimile with his own frame.  As Koska tries to get around Prowl, Hot Rod drives up and runs into the facsimile, knocking him unconscious.  Prowl transforms to robot mode in front of the stunned Russian troops and tells them to stand down and go home.  Hot Rod transforms and adds that it isn’t the real Georgi Koska anyway, as he lifts the unconscious facsimile off the ground.  Although frightened and astonished at what they’ve just witnessed, the Russian commander manages to order his troops to fall back.  As Prowl and Hot Rod watch them leave, Prowl attempts to radio Prime to let him know that they have the facsimile in their possession, but he gets no response.  That would be because Megatron has Prime on the apparent brink of death at the moment, with his hand dug deep into the inner workings of the Autobot commander’s chest.  Megatron admits that he prefers combat up close like this and is savoring Prime’s apparent last moments of life when suddenly a shot hits the Decepticon commander in the head.  He drops Prime for the moment and sees Roller attacking from the side.  Megatron spares the drone little thought and smashes the nearby hillside with a fist, causing a small avalanche that buries Roller and incapacitates it.  He turns his attention back to Optimus and Megatron sees that the Autobot leader has apparently fallen into stasis lock already.  Megatron mockingly laments that Optimus didn’t even say anything “enlightening” before going off-line.  Meanwhile in Eureka, Nevada, an archeological dig is being disrupted.  A student informs his professor that their dig has been shut down and placed under official jurisdiction by a bunch of mysterious black-suited individuals.  Under the tent that protects the dig site, the mysterious officials identify themselves as part of the Skywatch organization and begin to directly oversee the dig.  We see that the long-lost Decepticon Shockwave and the Dynobots are finally being unearthed!  TO BE CONTINUED!


Slagged!:

-Prime and Megatron have it out, and it’s fairly memorable.  Prime destroys Megatron’s arm-cannon with some precision shooting and clocks him so hard that it launches the Decepticon leader skyward.  But Megatron’s got the power advantage, and punches holes in Optimus Prime’s chest with little effort.  Roller tries to go to Prime’s defense (To his own defense?), but Megs buries the drone under an avalanche.  Things are not looking good for Big Red.


Sightings:

-The mysterious “head” that Dante talks to on the opening page is likely the head of Decepticon Scorponok, last seen in the Ultra Magnus Spotlight.  The head is damaged in the same place Magnus shot Scorponok in that issue and some of the repair arms in the background of the scene resemble accessories that came with Scorponok’s toy.  Plus this Machination complex in Florida quite suspiciously resembles the Zarak Consortium on Nebulos from the outside.  Now we just have to find out what happened to Scorponok to reduce him to just a head hanging from the ceiling.

-You can see Optimus Prime’s rifle eject and unfold from a small compartment on his back when he transforms.  A nice touch and another showcase of EJ Su’s stellar design work.

-When Ironhide crashes through the storefront, you can see a poster for Kiss Players, a reference to a sub-line of the Japanese Binaltech toys.

-The archeological dig that is taken over by Skywatch is the very same one at the end of the Shockwave Spotlight.  Some time has obviously passed since the last glimpse we saw of it there, as Shockwave is nearly half dug out in this issue whereas only his hand was sticking out at the end of the Spotlight.  You can also see parts of the Dynobots slowly being uncovered, notably Snarl’s armor plates.


Hearings:

-The mysterious “head” notes that he and Dante will “make a great team”.  If this is indeed Scorponok, it looks like we’ll be seeing IDW’s take on Headmasters very soon.

-Once he sees that Prime is apparently off-line, Megatron mockingly laments that the Autobot leader didn’t spout any “quasi-mystical nonsense”.  This is possibly a sly poke of Mr. Furman at his own tendency to have Prime speechify a bit, most notably and recently in Stormbringer # 4 while fighting Thunderwing.

-The Skywatch organization appears to be governmentally-funded, unlike the Machination.  They were just introduced into the game in the Soundwave Spotlight, and seem to have just as much or more knowledge of the Transformers than the Machination.  One Skywatch agent claims their goals are “in the national interest”.  This could be a subtle nod of Furman’s to one of his old Marvel UK stories titled, of course, “In The National Interest”.


Wreck and RULE!:

-We get down and dirty this issue and Su’s pencils quite ably render the extent of damage to both combatants as Prime and Megatron tussle.  The colors are still a little bland, but I guess changing the style at this point would be too jarring.  Still, a superbly-drawn fight by Mr. Su, and also compellingly written by Mr. Furman.  Although I had figured it was bound to go down this way, that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to read.  Prime gets some impressive hits in along the way, but he just can’t stand up to Megatron’s new juiced-up form.

-The other plot points continue to unravel nicely, as well as some new ones thrown into the soup.  I especially enjoyed Prowl and Hot Rod’s interactions, as these are two characters that have NEVER interacted to any serious extent in the past.  Ironhide shows his compassionate side as he barges in to retrieve Verity and Jimmy, although it would seem that he should have plenty of time to get them out of the building before it explodes.  The “infiltration” aspects of this continuity appear to have gone out the window now, as Prowl is forced to reveal himself fully to some humans, but the Transformers are apparently well-known already by certain human organizations as we have been seeing of late.

-We get another solid cliffhanger as the plot of the Shockwave Spotlight begins to fully converge with the main story now, and another cliffhanger in the end result of Prime and Megatron’s battle.  With Skywarp likely to return with Decepticon reinforcements, how will the Autobots pull out of this one?


Wreck and ROT!:

-Sometimes I wish this, Infiltration, and Stormbringer were just one big ongoing series, instead of a string of minis.  I know they are supposed to be that, but it just seems weird when Furman introduces a plot thread that he intends to follow up in the next mini-series, which is likely the case with the Dante/maybe-Scorponok discussion that leads off the issue.  I understand their reasoning in just doing mini-series, but sometimes ya just want everything to be neatly wrapped up at the end of an arc, ya know?

-I think a “radio transmission” bubble should have been colored differently when Skywarp radios Astrotrain, to show that Astrotrain is talking.  It comes across as Skywarp talking to himself.

-If Megatron has ordered him to “self-decommission”, why doesn’t the Koska facsimile just, I dunno, stop breathing or jump off a cliff?  I guess, as Arnold once put it, “Auh cannoht self-turhminate”.


Final Judgment:

We get our Prime/Megs throwdown and it does not disappoint.  Since there was one issue left after this one, I kinda figured Prime wasn’t going to neatly wrap this up and put a bow on Megatron, but still the violence is appreciated.  Some more solid plot advancement and enjoyable character development, and we’ve got ourselves another winner.  Only one more part to go; let’s hope Furman can continue to deliver!

A Thunderwing review