Heart of Darkness issue 2

Galvatron and his followers are confronted by Arcee and Hardhead, but a much greater threat from within the Dead Universe soon makes itself known...

1 Synopsis
2 Featured characters
3 Quotes
4 Notes

Synopsis

Heart of Darkness2 HardheadVSCyclonus.jpg

In the caverns of Gorlam Prime, Galvatron lays damaged from Arcee and Hardhead's blasts. Jhiaxus begs the others to keep Arcee away from him while Hardhead beats back Cyclonus and Scourge. When Arcee destroys Jhiaxus' hand, the dazed Galvatron takes notice of his falling soldiers and reaches for the portal, desperate to absorb some of the energy from the Dead Universe. Harnessing its power, Galvatron arises and unleashes a massive blast at the two Autobots. Using the power of the Heart of Darkness, he zaps Hardhead with a terrible energy. Arcee flees at Hardhead's urging to warn the Autobots of Galvatron's power. Cyclonus and Scourge chase after her, following her through the corridors of an ancient civilization - but when they radio back to Galvatron about what they've found, he tells them to deal with Arcee and they'll investigate later. Cyclonus blasts Arcee off a ledge into an abyss.

Galvatron and Jhiaxus ensnare Hardhead in energy bonds and torture him for information. Galvatron taps into the Heart of Darkness to access and project Hardhead's memories. He witnesses Hardhead's memories of the entire population of Gorlam Prime mindlessly marching into the underground lake portal and how Arcee too eventually fell to its lure, only held back by Hardhead's grip. After hours of watching this spectacle, there was a sudden flash of light and the pool had morphed into the floating sphere which now hovered before them. Galvatron questions Hardhead how he could have resisted the lake's powers, but Hardhead does not know; Galvatron speculates that it is due to Hardhead's exposure to the Dead Universe. Using his powers, Galvatron takes over Hardhead's mind and walks into the sphere, telling his troops to get him if he's not back in an hour.

Inside the portal, Galvatron is exposed to a sea of bizarre images - flaming skulls, pyramids of light, alternate universes. Drawn to the very center of the Dead Universe, he is stripped to his endoskeleton and finds the scattered corpses of the dead inhabitants of Gorlam Prime. He hears the chanting of ungodly voices, demanding that "D-Void" be fed. Sensing the unique energy of the Heart of Darkness, the demonic entity at the center of the Dead Universe thrusts its tendrils through his body. Galvatron has an epiphany - the Heart of Darkness has empowered him to fight this being, D-Void, and protect the physical universe against it. By sheer willpower he breaks free of D-Void's hold and pushes through to Gorlam Prime, firing madly at the portal. With his blasts he collapses the chamber; when Cyclonus wonders what is going on, Galvatron declares that D-Void feeds on sparks and consumed the population of Gorlam Prime to wake himself up. Galvatron surmises that D-Void will head for Cybertron and proclaims that an army must be raised to fend off the evil being.

Meanwhile, Arcee crawls from her pit, vowing to warn the Autobots that Galvatron's insanity will destroy them all...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Galvatron's forces	Others
Arcee (5) Hardhead (6)	Cyclonus (1) Jhiaxus (2) Scourge (3) Galvatron (4)	D-Void (7)

Quotes

"G-Galvatron? What the hell have you become? What kind of monster are you?"
"Not a monster, Arcee. Just...the only future that matters."

—Arcee and Galvatron exchange their first words in quite some time.

Notes

Continuity notes

The Galvatron of the 2005 IDW continuity was never Megatron, so the inclusion of Megatrons among his alternate-universe visages is curious. Presumably they all represent Megatrons who became Galvatrons in their own universes, thus still qualifying as incarnations of this Galvatron. This is most significant for the Beast Wars alligator Megatron: Not only does his appearance cement the idea hinted at in early media that he is actually Generation 1 Megatron, but it also implies an event in the future of that media.

Transformers references

The psychedelic Dead Universe imagery on pages 14 and 15 includes a stream of floating representations of several incarnations of Galvatron and Megatron and their voice-actors. Our best guesses as to their identities, from left to right (all of them are disembodied heads unless noted otherwise):
- Frank Welker
- Megatron from the Marvel Generation 1 comic
- Galvatron or Galvatron II from the Marvel Generation 1 comic
- Megatron from the Shattered Glass universe (or just his early Generation 1 design), miscolored yellow
- Megatron from the Generation 1 cartoon
- Megatron's alligator form from the Beast Wars toyline
- Galvatron's Generation 1 toy in cannon mode
- Leonard Nimoy (as Mr. Spock)
- Galvatron from the Generation 1 cartoon
- Galvatron's Generation 1 toy packaging (twice)
- A tiny Galvatron too indistinct to identify
- Galvatron's Generation 1 TakaraTomy reissue toy
- An even tinier and less identifiable Galvatron
- Galvatron from the Henkei! Henkei! toy pack-in comic, even colored in greys like the black-and-white comic
- Galvatron's early character model

Real-life references

One of the Gorlam Prime citizens in panel 5 of page 11 appears to be a Star Wars Imperial Stormtrooper.
Among the wrecked ships floating around in the Dead Universe on the same double page spread is the first Enterprise from Star Trek.

Errors

On the first page, Cyclonus is colored entirely white (or perhaps it's just a very, very light purple with no distinguishing features).
In the Furman stories Cyclonus was able to take on an entire Autobot spacecraft by himself. Here, he and Scourge are both beaten by Hardhead alone.

Covers (3)

Cover A: Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge by Ulises Fariñas, with colors by Andrew Crossley
Cover B: Galvatron in the Dead Universe, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
Cover RI: Pencil sketch version of cover A