Revenge of the Fallen issue 3

« Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen #3 »
"Who rules the skies, Starscream?" "Y-you do, Optimus."
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 3, 2009 (scheduled)
Screenplay by	Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Ehren Kruger
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Josh Perez
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Edits by	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	Movie continuity

An adaptation of the summer blockbuster of 2009.

Synopsis

ME ALAN MOORE.

Under threat of physical harm, Wheelie reveals to Mikaela Banes that he recognizes the Cyberglyphics but does not know how to read them. He went on to say that Seekers would be able to read them, then leads them to the Smithsonian Institute where one can be found. While Sam Witwicky, Mikaela, Leo Spitz, and Seymour Simmons search the museum, the AllSpark fragment Sam was carrying jumps from his hand and attaches itself to a SR-71 Blackbird on display. This rouses the Seeker from his slumber. He reveals his name to be Jetfire but does not remember what planet he is on or what he is doing there. He states his dislike of Decepticons and says that he had defected to the Autobots some time ago.

Jetfire displays no interest in dealing with the humans until Sam mentions The Fallen. This seems to jog his memory and he becomes suddenly serious and insists that Sam tell him what he knows. Sam then reveals the Cyberglyphics that have been racing through his head. When he hears enough, Jetfire transports himself, the four humans, Bumblebee, Skids, and Mudflap to Egypt via trans-dimensional space bridge. The humans don't know why Jetfire needed to go to Egypt so they ask him to explain. Jetfire then holo-projects some of the relevant historical footage to explain.

The AllSpark created the Dynasty of Primes for the protection of Cybertron. The Matrix of Leadership was also created as a key to the harvesters and entrusted to the Primes. The Primes were not to harvest the power of a sun from a star system with life. The Fallen defied that rule and destroyed all but one of his fellow Primes. The last of the twelve created a tomb from the chassis of his deactivated brothers. He sealed himself and the Matrix inside using the last of his own life essence. The tomb is hidden somewhere in Egypt.

Jetfire also reveals that only a Prime can stand against The Fallen. While the wars on Cybertron destroyed the Prime Dynasty, one orphan was left with no knowledge of his history. Optimus Prime.

In New Jersey, Director Galloway informs William Lennox and Ray Epps that, by order of the President, the Autobots have to stand down and return to Diego Garcia.

Back in Cairo, Egypt, the humans ride in Bumblebee trying to figure out the clues to the location of the Prime crypt that were obtained when Jetfire translated the Cyberglyphics. Local authorities spot Sam and try to detain him. Bumblebee and the Twins lose the police, but not before Soundwave is able to pinpoint Sam's location from intercepted communications.

Sam decided he needs to get a message to Lennox and Epps, but knows that calling them directly would give himself away, so he comes up with a plan to deliver the message indirectly. He gives the message to William Lennox's wife Sarah who then tells Ray Epps's wife Monique who then calls her husband on an insecure line. While she makes the call appear to be about ordinary husband and wife chit-chat, Monique is able to get the true message through. Sam wants them to deliver Optimus Prime to Egypt.

The clues from the Cyberglyphs lead Sam and the others to an ancient tomb of human origin. This appears to be a dead-end until the Twins get into an argument that becomes physical. Mudflap shoves Skids into a wall which crumbles, revealing the tomb of the Primes. They find the remains of the Matrix of Leadership. After thousands of years, the Cybertronian artifact turns to dust, which Sam collects in his sock.

Lennox, Epps, Galloway and the Autobots arrive in C-17s. The pilot feigns engine trouble as an excuse to jettison the cargo over Galloway's objections. The Autobots and humans aboard parachute out of the plane. Sam and company are then attacked by Megatron and Starscream while at least 11 cometary Decepticons rain down into the action. Human communications are disrupted by an EMP burst from the Decepticons while Soundwave alters satellite imagery so that the United States military will not see anything out of the ordinary happening in Egypt.

While Simmons, Bumblebee, and the Twins draw the Decepticons' fire, Sam and Mikaela try to get to Optimus Prime in hopes that the Matrix of Leadership dust could still revive him. Starscream is in pursuit of Sam and Mikaela when The Fallen appears atop a pyramid (via Space Bridge).

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Errors

• On page 10, Mudflap is slightly miscolored, with a lot more black parts in vehicle mode than he should have.
• The Egyptian police cars on pages 10–13 sport a generic American police car deco. Police cars in Cairo are entirely black, with blue police lights.
• On page 11, the police car in the first panel has the blue police light on the left and the red light on the right... even though it's seen in Bumblebee's rear view mirror and should therefore have the lights swapped. Also, Mikaela's speech bubble is coming from Sam.
• On page 15, when Sam is explaining the three kings, he should say "then—the pyramids", instead of "them—the pyramids".
• The spy satellite Admiral Morshower gets his live feed of the battle in Egypt from is somehow capable of gathering images almost from a ground level.
• All of the humans (except Epps and Mikaela) have longer hair in this one issue due to the artist change.

Items of note

• As Jetfire's dialogue shows, Furman appears to have problems adapting the movie-style humor into comic book dialogue. It appears like it's intended to come across as funny, it just doesn't really work.
• Two of the Decepticons on page 8 sport the color schemes of Generation 1 Banzai-Tron and Bludgeon.
• Megatron can still turn into a Cybertronian jet.
• At least eleven incoming comet Decepticons enter the battle.
• Simmons' nicknames for Skids and Mudflap, "Huey and Dewey", have made it into the adaptation, one of very, very few of the movie's humorous elements to do so.
• The cover image of combined Jetfire and Optimus beating up Starscream never happens.
• On page 7 Jetfire states that The Fallen killed all of his "brother Primes". "Brother Primes" must refer to only the original Primes since on the next page Jetfire states that the Prime Dynasty was destroyed in a subsequent war on Cybertron, where all of the rest of the Primes were slaughtered except one orphan.

Differences with the movie

• Wheelie's speech is imperfect in a Generation 1 Dinobots kind of way, whereas in the movie, he merely talks with a Brooklyn accent.
• Wheelie disappears a lot earlier than in the movie, right after Jetfire transforms. As a consequence, he never defects to the Autobots.
• In the film, six Primes sacrifice themselves to create the Tomb of the Primes. Here, 11 Primes have already been killed by The Fallen, and the 12th creates the tomb from their bodies, killing only himself to seal it up.
• The Autobots are walking onto the cargo plane in robot mode rather than being loaded onto it in vehicle mode.
• Jolt doesn't appear, due to being a last-minute addition to the film.
• Instead of Simmons calling Lennox, Sam calls Lennox's wife. She and Epps' wife then call their husbands and give them a very poorly disguised hidden message. In the movie, the wives are never seen.
• The fight between Skids and Mudflap inside Petra is the only time they fight in the adaptation. In fact, it's one of the very few instances where the two have any dialogue.
• Galloway is still talking after he has been thrown off the plane. Gotta love those comic book standards.
• Admiral Morshower is monitoring the battle in Egypt via a satellite feed (with the feed coming from a camera that somehow manages to take images almost from a ground level), rather than sending Predator drones.
• Scavenger and Overload are shown in robot mode, instead of only appearing in vehicle mode. It also seems the Constructicons act as the foot soldiers for the Decepticons here, as no Protoforms are seen.
• The Fallen teleports himself directly to the top of the pyramid, making this the first scene in the adaptation where he is seen outside his sarcophagus.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: Optimus Prime combined with Jetfire by Josh Nizzi
• Cover B: CGI render of Starscream

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• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Adaptation (back cover)