tfwiki.info

Natural Selection, Part Five - Transformers Wiki

As subterfuge from within brings his plan crashing down, Scorponok faces off against Grimlock in final battle.

Synopsis

(thumbnail)

Deep within Cybertron, Hot Rod holds the Sword of Primus above the head of a cowering Demon, and announces that the will of Primus decrees he use the blade to exterminate all of the creature's kind so the next step in the evolution of the Transformer race can begin. But after a moment's hesitation, Hot Rod concludes that Primus' will is not his will, and he will not further the grievous wrong their creator committed, on which their race is built. Taking the Covenant of Primus as well, Hot Rod exits the chamber—the gashes on his chest healing closed as he does so—and, vowing to return, heads back to the surface, the Demons all parting before him, genuflecting in fear of the light of Primus's artifacts.

In Iacon, Grimlock and Grapple's united teams storm the Civil Defense Hub. Grimlock catches Roadblock and Guzzle unaware and stomps them flat, prompting Crosshairs to insist that they be careful to disable, rather than destroy, the guards, since many of them are Gene Key-reprogrammed Autobots. Blurr's speed allows him to prevent the sealing off of the hub's lower levels, and the team bursts into the control room, where Wingspan and Pounce wisely surrender immediately. A quick scan of the computer by Grapple reveals that the data on Scorponok's new technologies is intact, which will allow Nucleon sufferers to be cured, but also that the planet's orbital defenses have targeted the approaching Valiant cruiser, returning from Earth, and that the clones have locked the system. Grimlock and the Dinobots leave to confront Scorponok at the Sonic Canyons, while Blurr puts his speed to use racing through all possible passcodes for the computer... but even his prodigious pace is not fast enough to stop the missiles launching. Crosshairs demands the abort code from Pounce at gunpoint, but the clone does not believe his threats... until Crosshairs shoots Wingspan dead. The terrified Pounce immediately hands over the code, allowing the missiles to be safely detonated before they strike the Valiant.

On Earth, in the Yukon, Galvatron monologues on the bridge of the Ark, as the craft grows nearer and nearer to being spaceworthy. Down in the lower decks, meanwhile, the lobotomized Starscream sits slumped by Shockwave's immobile body. Starscream is shocked to hear a voice suddenly speak to him.. and even more shocked to discover that he can speak again! The voice is that of Shockwave, speaking through the Ark, who explains that he has removed the blocks Megatron placed in Starscream's mind. Awoken by the destruction of Auntie, Shockwave is one with the ship now, but does not have complete autonomy: the Ark still requires a pilot, and that role would be much better filled by Starscream than by Galvatron...

At the Sonic Canyons, Scorponok rages as Perceptor announces another delay caused by a minor technical difficulty, and knocks Roadblock into the canyons in anger. The other Decepticons watch with silent concern as Scorponok continues to rant, until Grimlock arrives on a sky-sled and opens fire, lecturing Scorponok on loyalty, and how it must be won through action. Glad of a target, Scorponok transforms and blasts Grimlock out of the sky, subduing him with his failsafe crystal and ordering Perceptor to activate the Gene Key. Scorponok continues to pontificate about the true unification of Cybertron and his role in it as the key hums to life... but when its effects tear through all present, the result is highly unexpected: everyone is back to normal! It is revealed that Grimlock never used the Gene Key on Perceptor, and that the scientist has been the Autobots' "inside man" all along, pretending to work with Scorponok in order to sabotage the Gene Key. Scorponok turns on Perceptor, but Grimlock tackles him from behind before he can fire, and calls for the other Dinobots, in hiding nearby, to strike. The remaining few Decepticons quickly flee, leaving Scorponok to face Grimlock alone on the bridge over the canyons. As they battle, Swoop blasts out a support strut, and the structure begins to collapse. Snarl flies in on a sky-sled and offers Grimlock his hand, but the Dinobot leader refuses: thanks to Scorponok, he went too far over the line, and knows there can be no going back. Locked in battle, both Scorponok and Grimlock tumble into the bottomless darkness of the canyons as the other Dinobots look on in horror.

Back on Earth, Optimus Prime arrives at the Ark site... just as the giant vessel takes off! Looking up at the bridge window, Optimus sees Galvatron staring back, and believes that Megatron has returned!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Pounce?! Whaddawe Do?"
"What do you think?"
"We surrender!"

- Wingspan and Pounce, surrounded by Autobots.


"Well played, Perceptor - a truely inspired performance, but you have simply delayed my plans, nothing more. I'll inscribe that on your tomb..."

-Scorponok hides his anger.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

  • On page 13, Highbrow is colored like Needlenose.
  • Skyquake is colored like Machine Wars Starscream.
  • The Ark is drawn to match its cartoon appearance instead of its unique Marvel shape, but is still colored in traditional Marvel silver.

Continuity errors

Continuity notes

Roadblock guzzle natural selection.jpg

  • Guzzle and Roadblock are chatting about the Mecannibals when Grimlock so rudely interrupts them.
  • Sky-sleds make a reappearance in Marvel continuity after debuting in issue #75.

Real-life references

  • The passcode Pounce provides is in Japanese: "juu-kyuu-hachi-juushi-nijuu-juu-yon" ("10-9-8-14-20-10-4"). At first glance, this seems meaningless (especially considering that "juushi" is completely wrong since it should instead be "juuyon"). But when read as "juukyuu hachijuushi nijuu juuyon", it becomes "19-84-20-14", suggesting the intent was to reference both the year the Transformers brand began (1984) and its 30th anniversary (2014) that was, at the time, just one year away.
    • However, while the names of those years when spoken in English as "nineteen eighty-four" and "twenty fourteen" do match how the names of the numbers 19, 84, 20, and 14 are spoken in Japanese (minus the erroneous "juushi"), the numbers 1984 and 2014 are actually spoken in Japanese as "senkyuuhyaku hachijuuyon" and "nisen juuyon", respectively. And to denote these numbers as specifically referring to years, an additional "-nen" (年) is needed at the end of both, meaning that the full passcode should have been something like "sen-kyuu-hyaku-hachi-juuyon-nen-nisen-juuyon-nen" for the reference to have better matched the language it was trying to imitate.

Other trivia

  • Shockwave says he has "destricted" Starscream's blocks. "Destriction" is in fact a word, from "striction", meaning "binding", but is marked as both obsolete and rare by the Oxford English dictionary.

Transformers references

Furminated

  • Roadblock, bashed into the Sonic Canyons by Scorponok in a fit of rage.
  • Wingspan, shot by Crosshairs to coerce Pounce into giving up a missile abort passcode.
  • Scorponok and Grimlock tumble into the Canyons. Grimlock is later revealed to have survived.

Covers (3)

  • RG1 90 cvrA.jpg

  • RG1 90 cvrB.jpg

  • RG1 90 cvrRI.jpg

  • Cover A: Grimlock vs. Scorponok on the bridge above the Sonic Canyons, by Andrew Wildman and Jason Cardy.
  • Cover B: Grimlock in scorpion mode Scorponok's grip, by Guido Guidi.
  • Cover RI: Scorponok fires on Grimlock's sky-sled, by Geoff Senior and Josh Burcham.

Advertisements

External links