Nightmare Fuel / The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye

"Run as fast as you can, Chromedome... you're already too late."

"You know, there are some Decepticons who, upon finding themselves in a skin-covered room surrounded by aborted protoforms and mechanoids made of bark, would rub their hands together, marvel at the universe's infinite capacity for surprise and dive right in. I am not one of those Decepticons. I say we run away screaming."

— Misfire

To those that've stayed away from recent Transformers media, The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye may seem like just another kid's comic based on incredibly toyetic robots. Is it?

No.

No, it's not.

MTMTE Issue 1:

• Whirl is talking to somebody, telling them he's not good at speeches and that they've helped him 'express' himself, but it's time to say goodbye. He seems to be pouring liquid Energon all over the floor and lighting a 'match'. It looks like he's about to send the whole place up, himself included. And then Cyclonus interrupts him, we pull out and we see that Whirl has been mutilating corpses as stress relief.
• Tailgate. Stuck in a tunnel in the middle of nowhere, with both his legs completely destroyed, and no one coming to find or rescue him. And he's shown without a chronometer and passing in and out of consciousness, so he had no idea how much actual time had passed...
• When The Lost Light suffered a catastrophic accident which involved an explosion in its quantum engines that forces the ship to quantum jump before its preparation is complete, it is hurled off some far corner of the galaxy, and a fifth of the ship's crew is sucked out into space through the breach, burning up as they enter the atmosphere.
• The very first issue has Prowl recieve an extremely creepy, broken message from the future, trying to warn the crew of the Lost Light not to leave Cybertron. Except they've already left.
  Mystery Future Sender: Don't open the coffin. Don't let them take Skids. Don't go to Delphi. And do not-I repeat, do not-look in the basement. And for the sake of the Cybertronian race itself, please don't-KZZZZZZZZZK
• At one point, the Underbase is mentioned. Sure, a nice Mythology Gag, but that means it exists. An artefact that gives anyone who uses it godlike power and drives them mad. And this is a series where Anyone Can Die.

MTMTE Issue 2:

• Ore gets fused with the quantum generator. The results... aren't pretty. Becomes even worse when we find out that this caused two Lost Lights to spring into existence, opening up the horrifying "Slaughterhouse" arc later down the road.
• Issue #2 features Skids warping in over the same planet the Lost Light landed on, with no memory of his most recent history, an inhibitor claw strapped to his back, and a very definite feeling that he is fleeing from something. He thinks he must have gotten away, completely missing the writing on the wall behind him that reads "YOU HAVEN'T ESCAPED. THEY'RE ALL AROUND YOU." It turns out the shuttle he's on is in fact three giant sword-wielding robots (which can breathe fire, by the way) that end up pursuing him across the planet, all the while repeating "Nineteen-eighty-four..." over and over again. They will NEVER, EVER STOP until they have captured what they need to capture.
  • For the record, those giant robots with swords are named Legislators, as they were given that name in the concept sketches of MTMTE.
• Red Alert telling Rodimus alarmingly that there is a Sparkeater aboard the Lost Light. Beside him, one of the Duobots, more specifically Shock, is dead with his mouth hanging open and a hole in his chest.

MTMTE Issue 3:

• How the Sparkeater kills the duobot Shock. It immobilizes Shock and forces him to regurgitate his own brain capsule, killing him and causing his spark to emerge for the Sparkeater to devour.
• The Sparkeater. Enough said. It consumes Cybertronian sparks and hunts down Cybertronians, specifically for those who have the "brightest spark", and it will NEVER, EVER STOP until it finds what it wants and consumes the "brightest spark". Combine the creepiness and design concept of the Xenomorphs from Aliens with the determination of a Terminator when pursuing a chosen target, that is what a Sparkeater IS.
  • Due to the lack of general knowledge about them and the myths that have sprung up around them, they are sometimes also known as Cybervores, Soulsnatchers, and The Nightmare with a Thousand Names. The sheer mention of them can strike fear even in the most battle-hardened of warriors.
  • And here is a traditional Cybertronian Rhyme about Sparkeaters.
    "Nickel, iron, cobalt, chrome,
    He'll eat your soul,
    Turn your spark to stone,
    Nickel, iron, cobalt, chrome,
    Run, little robot, run away home."
  • At one point, Drift mentions that Sparkeaters are drawn to emotional trauma, and that something nasty must've happened on-board the ship before the Autobots got there. Typical Drift nonsense, right? As issue 31 proves, he might have actually been correct.
  • Even worse, when Whirl tries to kill it, he's told the explosion would've taken out half the ship. Normal methods of killing a Sparkeater don't work, they'd just blow up everything within several miles.
• Issue 33 causes one of this issue's events to be rather creepy in hindsight. Animus's death wasn't a random occurrence, his superspark made the Sparkeater target him. On the alternate Lost Light, he got used as bait instead since Rung was killed in the explosion.

MTMTE Issue 4:

• First Aid creates an Apocalyptic Log that chronicles the hopeless situation at Delphi, the medical center. The bots there are all infected with a disease which causes the fluids of their bodies to cross contaminate and rapidly break down the victim's body. It's most visible with the Tears of Blood-like appearance of red fluid streaming out of a victim's optics, being the first visual sign of it in action. It's spread by touch, but only properly triggers if you transform, causing the aforementioned cross contamination. We get to see this firsthand with Pipes and Drift (with the former's optics completely liquefying).
  • Ratchet ends up weaponizing this against Pharma later by intentionally transforming to catch up to him, and then keeping him talking long enough for Ratchet's rust to leak out and spread to Pharma so he's infected too.

MTMTE Issue 5:

• Fortress Maximus killing Sonic and Boom in a frightening rage.
• That room Pharma and Ratchet are standing in? Look at the hundreds of Transformation cogs shelved on the walls. HOLY PRIMUS. And that grin Pharma had on his face was freaking scary.

MTMTE Issue 6:

• What Fortress Maximus had to endure, and eventually what he became.
• There's also Overlord's torture of Fort Max, which is shown-graphically-in issue #6, both in flashback and in video form by Rewind to distract Maximus after he takes Rung and Whirl hostage. Being shown footage of his own horrific torture, including Overlord's Energon-splattered face is horrifying enough that it causes him to fall to the ground crying.
• The sheer fact that Red Alert discovering a phase sixer Decepticon, or more accurately, OVERLORD is restrained within a hidden chamber at the bottom of the ship when there should have been empty space.
• At one point, Whirl mentions some 'bots came online during the war, Fort Max among them. The Autobots and Decepticons alike were perfectly willing to use their species' equivalent of Child Soldiers. And even worse, no-one bats an eyelash at this, or suggests it might have something to do with Max's breakdown. It's just a fact of life to them.

MTMTE Issue 7:

• The Decepticon Justice Division is just plain walking nightmare fuel. To elaborate:
  • Kaon's alt mode is an electric chair. And no, he doesn't need to turn into it to use his powers of Shock and Awe. One can only assume that he has it for the sheer psychological value of strapping his target into it before electrocuting them! In addition, he has creepy as hell Black Eyes of Evil and a pet Sparkeater. Yeah, that scary-as-all-hell thing that devours your Spark and can make you vomit up your brain without even touching you? He has a smaller one as his pet.
  • Helex has a giant smelting furnace built into his chest. Being stuck in there partially melted Black Shadow, and they only took him out so they could torture him in different ways before they killed him.
  • Vos doesn't reveal his method of torture in this issue, but he talks only in what's described as "Old Cybertronian," which makes him rather eerie. However, close-ups of Black Shadow show lots of holes in his face. The following issue reveals how they got there...
  • Tesarus has a massive grinder/turbine/ built into his chest. A whirling cyclone of bladed death that shreds anything that ends up being shoved into it. Like Black Shadow's legs.
  • Then, there's the leader, Tarn. For starters, he's basically got the Decepticon symbol for a face, leading to gems such as this◊. He's fond of playing fine music as he and his teammates torture/kill you, and he's mastered the art of being Faux Affably Evil to a seriously creepy degree. In addition, he's weaponized his voice. In his own words:
  Tarn: Here's the thing. They say I can talk people to death. "Weaponized conversation," they say.
  "I don't know," I say. "Sounds a bit pretentious."
  "Maybe so," they say, "but you can modulate the timbre of your voice so that it falls into step with the pulse of the listener's spark."
  "Well," I say, "there is that."
  "And then, by gradually lowering your voice," they say, "you can coax the spark into giving up."
  That's what they say. What do you say?
  Black Shadow: I'm so, so sorry.
  (Cue Black Shadow's sudden, explosive death)
  • Immediately before this wonderful exchange, Black Shadow vomits up a giant mouthful of Energon.
• The Decepticon group known as the Scavengers are a bunch of goofy misfits, right? Well, while they're gathered around their campfire, it turns out that said "campfire" is actually an Autobot corpse they set ablaze. Only it turns out that said "corpse" is still alive. Krok is quick to rectify that.
• Fulcrum wakes up to the Scavengers trying to dismantle him for spare parts, having thought he was dead. And spends the next few minutes trying to convince them he's friendly while Misfire is holding one of his internal "organs" (still connected to Fulcrum by a series of cables) the whole damn time. It's Played for Laughs, especially when Fulcrum actually notices that Misfire's holding his fuel pump, but still...
• The Decepticon squad finds a large ship, and in that ship are some very horrific things. Brain Modules are found, along with deformed protoforms (the equivalent of aborted fetuses). There is also a room with skin on it which has bled into the fuel supply, and a (once) functional robot made of wood. The crowning gem is Grimlock, the Autobot notorious for killing Decepticons, being held in stasis. There's a reason why Misfire's reaction is this page's crowning quote, after all.

MTMTE Issue 8:

• The DJD again:
  • Vos's method of torture is finally revealed, and it's arguably the worst of the lot: he takes off his face◊, the interior of which is lined with needles and drills, and makes you wear it. Oh, and his eyes are still in it as you wear it, so you can see what else they're about to do to you. This leaves him with a hugely creepy empty, bowl-shaped hollow with sockets where his face should be. Poor Krok is subjected to the process and though the results aren't shown in great detail, what we do get to see is rendered unrecognizable as a face.
    • While wearing it, he makes a sound not unlike choking on his own blood.
  • Tesarus shreds Flywheels as he did Black Shadow... only headfirst. This leads to an incredibly nasty Gory Discretion Shot as what's left of Flywheels' top half exits the back of Tesarus; if you look closely, you can see his optics.

MTMTE Issue 9, 10 and 11 (SHADOWPLAY TRILOGY):

• The sheer cold-bloodedness of Proteus and Sentinel's plan. Let's recap, shall we? Two closet 'con Senators and a Prime murdered, a planned bombing that would have killed hundreds, and an ultimate endgame of lobotomizing thousands of Decepticons. Oh, and they turn one of the few good 'bots in the system into an emotionless evil mastermind. Remind me why the Decepticons turned bad again?
• Shockwave's origin, told in issue 11. Believe us, we'd definitely like to remember you as you were.
  • And then John Barber expanded on it and made it even more terrifying.
• The manner by which Red Alert chose to commit suicide; removing his own head. Apparently, it's rather easy to do if you're old enough.
• The Institute. Full-stop.

MTMTE Issue 12:

• The look on Swerve's skull-face after he accidentally shoots it off in battle with Decepticons.

MTMTE Issue 14:

• Chromedome delving into Overlord's memories.

MTMTE Issue 15:

• Imagine you're an Autobot onboard the Lost Light. Just a regular, average grunt, nobody important, who's tagging along on Rodimus' quest for whatever reason. You've survived thus far, and you've just had some much-needed shore-leave on Hedonia, and now you're going about your duties on the ship, or maybe you're off-duty and having a drink at Swerve's, or recharging quietly in your hab-suite, something like that. Just a normal day on the ship. Then alarms start blasting, shots are being fired and people are screaming because Overlord, one of the most powerful, ruthless, and sadistic Decepticons to ever exist, capable of razing entire worlds on his own is suddenly inside the ship and he's killing everyone. No one has any idea how he got into the ship, where he came from, how he got repaired, nothing. He's just suddenly there and there's a good chance you're about to die. Even worse if you find out some of your crewmates actually did know he was on the ship but never told anyone or had security measures in place in case he got out.
• How Overlord kills Pipes when the latter accidentally bumps into the former while on his way to watch Rewind's movie. BY STOMPING ON HIM UNTIL HE'S A MESS OF A RUIN. He spends his last few seconds desperately holding his spark in, the Cybertronian equivalent of holding your ruptured heart together, just long enough to sound the alarm before he finally collapses and his Spark gives out. We get to hear his final monologue, but no one else does as he was all alone when it happened.
• Rewind's final fate is terrifying as it is Tearjerking. Being trapped in a cell with Overlord, unable to say your goodbyes to the one you love the most, though your faces are only inches away, before the pod is jettisoned. It's hard to say whether Chromedome blowing the cell up was a relief or just made the whole thing worse.
  • Possibly the scariest part is the fact that all we get to see is Overlord looming over Rewind before cutting over to the outside of the ejected cell. The fact that we have no goddamn idea what is happening in there, especially seeing as this is Overlord we're talking about, makes it much, much worse than if it were directly shown.

MTMTE Issue 16:

• Though it's a lot more low key than previous examples, there's something extremely disturbing about the reveal that Chromedome has erased his own memories of past lovers to avoid the emotional pain.
• Imagine being Tailgate and looking up at the death clock.

MTMTE Issue 17:

• Issue 17 just opened up a can of Nightmare Fuel IN THE READERS' FACES. let's examine them one by one, shall we?
  • Tailgate just discovered he has Cybercrosis, a metaphor for Robot Cancer with no known cure, brought about by nothing more than old age, and apparently it will kill him in a little just over three days. Ratchet, the Lost Light's chief medical officer, explains the details of the various stages of the disease - which includes infection of innermost energon, blindness, loss of transformation ability, paralysis, and memory loss. These wonderful details cause Tailgate to flee the medibay in a panic, racing back to his quarters with tears flooding from his optics.
  • The Crew of the lost light have discovered Cybertron's Lost Moon, Luna 1, and the moon is seething with life... transformers' Sparks, that is.
  • THE LEGISLATORS FROM ISSUE 2 (THOSE CHASING SKIDS AND REPEATING THE NUMBERS "1984") ARE BACK, AND THEY ARE LEGION. Oh, and they are now saying the numbers "1721".
  • The mad doctor from Issue 4, aka Pharma, IS BACK. AND HE HAS A CHAINSAW FOR A HAND.

MTMTE Issue 18:

• Mad Doctor Pharma living up to his new nickname by casually chatting with Ratchet's... head.
  • It should be noted that Ratchet is ALIVE. And doesn't initially realize he's just a head and spark, until Pharma shows him "what's in the box" - "YOU'RE in the box!"
• The Metrotitan necropolis that the away team is forced to hide in.
• Star Saber stabbing Skids in the gut, then knocking out Swerve, for how shocking and unexpected it is.

MTMTE Issue 19

• Ambulon being horrifically sawed in half... lengthwise.
• Tyrest replenishes his Legislator army by having them mass-produced by recycling the smelted remains of prisoners he has executed.
  • Note that it's never said they were dead when they were thrown into the smelting pool.
• Also, Tyrest's kill switch, that will be used to kill everyone that is "constructed cold".
• The issue ends with Tyrest triggering a legislator to reach out and crush Minimus Ambus' head with its bare hands when Minimus protests his plan to use the Universal Killswitch.

MTMTE Issue 20

• The b cover◊ is a real treat.
• The Universal Killswitch works! Even worse, Tyrest activates it at the end of the issue leaving most of the Lost Light crew and Scavengers doubled over in pain as it starts to kill every cold constructed Transformer in existence. We're given several shots of the Killswitch afflicting people over the entire galaxy.
• The reason why Tyrest hunts Titans is so he can cannibalize them for parts, in order to build a patchwork Titan Space Bridge out of the rotten remnants of the Titans.
• Star Saber impales and kills Dai Atlas.
• Fridge Horror: The nudge gun Skids uses is Institute tech, but Brainstorm and Chromedome, both of whom have experience with that sort of thing, didn't know about it. So where the heck are Special Ops getting their weapons? Knowing Prowl, he's got a bunch of Institute scientists stashed away somewhere, still doing and making God-knows-what.

MTMTE Issue 21:

• Skids steps through Tyrest's portal and enters an Eldritch Location with nightmarish scenery and a giant orange spark... thing. Then, when he runs back out and it closes behind him, a mass of tendrils comes out of the portal and drags away Pharma's corpse.
• Cyclonus stabs Star Saber in the eyes.
• A still-comatose Tyrest teleports away in "The Sound of Breaking Glass" prose story. That's right, this bona fide crazed genocidal lunatic escapes to live and think of creative ways to halve the number of the Cybertronian race another day.
  • Star Saber and Lockdown too.

MTMTE Issue 28:

• The list of charges at Megatrons trial finally presents the death toll of the Great War. 4.6 billion Transformers, and at least another hundred billion other lifeforms out in the larger galaxy.
• Megatron's injuries aren't explored in-depth, but the damage is said to be so bad any significant medical procedure would likely kill him. Remember now that these are interdimensional portals inside of him.
• As Chromedome is listening to Rewind's last message again, the final words change. This time instead of ending in "I love you", it ends in a bloodcurdling scream.
• The issue ends with Ultra Magnus calling Megatron up to the bridge because the ship's sensors have just picked up something; a coffin...

MTMTE Issue 29:

• Objects start disappearing more rapidly than in the last issue. This is shown when Chromedome and Nightbeat walk into Nightbeat's room and are nearly sucked into space because the wall disappeared.
  • The one scene where Chromedome is angrily telling Nightbeat to leave and the latter turns around to see Rewind himself.
• At the end of the issue Megatron and Trailcutter open up the coffin. They're greeted with Rodimus' corpse with half of his head cleaved off. The next issue somehow manages to make it both less and more terrifying at the same time.

MTMTE Issue 30:

• The Lost Light literally disappears, forcing the crew to evacuate.
• The autopsy of future!Rodimus' corpse reveals that someone's apparently sliced his head in half with a hot blade. And he was alive when it happened. Whoever prepared his coffin altered his face afterward to remove the scream.

MTMTE Issue 31:

• Every time the lights go out in the Rodpod some more crewmembers disappear. And than it turns out that the same thing has been happening to the other shuttles. The group in the Rodpod only learn this after witnessing Ultra Magnus and his shuttle disappear midway through a desperate call for help.
• As if it wasn't creepy enough that some Autobots and Decepticons were born during the war and used as Child Soldiers, we learn that some Cybertronians are "Made To Order"; this means that they were literally constructed cold for the sole purpose of being soldiers. The birthing process is so slapdash that many of them suffer from neurological disorders and delusions due to their basically newborn senses.
  • While he's being sarcastic, Skids mentions the MTOs had a life expectancy of three minutes.
• Riptide's flashback, when he confronts the previous owners of the Lost Light, and they suddenly beat the crap out of him and left him for dead. And the fact that they knew the Sparkeater was on-board, hence why they beat him up.

MTMTE Issue 32:

• This cover. Lordy!◊
  • Said cover is also a reference to a panel◊ from an equally horrifying issue of The Transformers (Marvel).
• The broken-up version of the Lost Light that the crew encounters. Not only does it look absolutely devastated, but there's quantum foam floating all around it. Quantum foam that looks like blood.
  • In a notably creepy moment the Rodpod group lands in a trashed area of the ship to get their bearings. They stand around for a bit until they realize something. Their landing spot isn't just a random empty room, it's Swerve's bar, only completely trashed and torn apart to the point that it's barely recognizable.
  • What the Rodpod crew find after investigating the ship: everyone is dead, murdered in unspeakably violent ways, some of them in blatant execution styles. And then Megatron figures out how this happened; the Decepticon Justice Division found the ship, and made sure to leave no survivors.
    • Even worse we're shown how MOST of the crew died. It's not pretty. Ratchet, Hound, and Drift all had their brain modules RIPPED OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS AND STUFFED INTO THEIR MOUTHS, Whirl had his arms sliced off before Kaon used Vos to blow his head off, Mainframe's head was torn from his torso, Tailgate was impaled on a girder, Ultra Magnus had his chest armor blown off, and then was dragged off to who KNOWS what fate, Swerve's head was crushed, and Perceptor was shredded ALIVE to mulch by Tesarus. And then they utterly eviscerated Overlord with a chainsaw, and pretty much EVERYONE ELSE was shot through their hearts and had their T-Cogs torn out for Tarn's own sadistic obsession. We don't even see what happens to some of the others but we can utterly tell it was BAD.
    • Also the only way alternate Rewind was able to survive was by crawling into the destroyed Magnus armor and hiding.
    • Worst of all, from Rewind's perspective, when he is finally discovered, after hiding inside the Magnus Armor for Primus-knows-how-long, his rescuers turn out to be Megatron and Ravage. The fact that Megatron's wearing an Autobot symbol probably won't help any.
  • Probably the worst part is the sheer sadistic glee that the DJD shows in slaughtering the crew. As they are preparing to kill Overlord they all have mad smiles and seem to be almost laughing at the carnage they cause.

MTMTE Issue 33:

• This cover (spoilers ahoy).
• We learn some rather creepy things about the alternate Lost Light:
  • We see how alternate Rodimus died. His fight with the Sparkeater went horribly wrong on the alternate ship and half of his head got chopped off by the quantum engines.
  • The DJD forced Rewind to film their massacre of the crew by holding Chromedome hostage. Than after they were done they tried to force Chromedome to Mind Rape himself and erase his memories of Rewind. When he refused, they stabbed him to death with his own mnemosurgery needles.
  • We see more of how the alternate crew members died. Cyclonus had his head exploded by a pointblank headshot from Vos, Pipes was literally torn in half, Cosmos was shoved into Tesarus's grinder head first, Chromedome got stabbed to death with his own needles as stated above, and Red Alert was riddled with bullets by Helex.
• The reveal that Brainstorm is a Decepticon Mole suddenly makes him much, much scarier. And then in the second epilogue he walks into Swerve's and seemingly kills everyone inside by opening his briefcase.

MTMTE Issue 34

• Bluestreak's strange find is chilling to any knowledgable reader.
  Bluestreak: What kind of 'bot has a removable face?
• Imagine for a minute that you're Trailcutter. Your attempt to save a life has revived a sadistic killer and drained your already-inefficient systems considerably. In desperation, you throw up a timed forcefield around yourself as your companion goes for help, which seems to confound your attacker. Then he flashes two fingers at you before pointing at himself and the pile of rubble behind you, at which point one of the chairs trapped under the barrier with you begins to move...
• Trailcutter's demise at the hands of Kaon is horrific. By the time First Aid returns with Bluestreak and Mainframe, Kaon has torn him limb from limb and is busy twirling his brain module around on its stem with the most horrible Slasher Smile imaginable on his face. He then crushes Trailcutter's brain against the still-intact forcefield just to spite First Aid.
• What happens to Megatron in the flashback. Getting knocked out and waking up to find Trepan playing with his brain, ready to remove Megatron's intellect and desire to rebel. And he's only saved by intervention from Rung...

MTMTE Issue 35

• Nick Roche's subscription cover◊, featuring Three-of-Twelve.
  • The normal retail cover◊ isn't much better. EVERYTHING IS FINE indeed.
• The alternate timeline sequences are basically Nineteen Eighty-Four cranked up to eleven. Amongst other things a lunar class bot is casually shot dead for not having a useful alt mode, all Cybertronians have deterrence chips installed in their heads, and cold constructed Transformers have been exiled from Cybertron. Oh and the Primal Vanguard has cameras installed in their eyes. And soon all Cybertronians will have them.
  • And the Vanguard don't know they have cameras in their eyes. The Council came along and installed them while they were sleeping.
• At the issue's climax the Functionist Council detonates all of the chips in the data stick class, wiping out a quarter of the population with the press of a button, not because they are obsolete but because they think they might know too much.
  • Rewind at first thinks that he's safe... until the Council informs him that his back-up chip is still active. POK.
• The Functionist Council themselves are unsettlingly creepy, especially in the way they just arbitrarily call for mass-genocides in their quest for "the perfect shape". And they go about it with the most detached calmness possible.
• Empurata. It was always horrible - you are abruptly stripped of your ability to properly express yourself emotionally, people assume you're a criminal, and they stop taking you seriously... but now they knock it up a notch by taking away your voice so that you can only communicate through texting, and your face is council property. And they can hack your brain too, to take away your vocabulary.
  • Even worse, Dominus reveals that the Functionist Council evolved Empurata because they had been performing the old kind so much that it was losing its shock value.

MTMTE Issue 36

• The crew indirectly cause Orion and the Outliers to lose their memories of Roller disappearing, thus dooming him to whatever happened. There are also increasingly strong implications that Roller is in fact the younger version of Tarn and him being accidentally left for dead is his Start of Darkness. What arguably tops it all off is that, based on the descriptions of issues 37 and 38, this is just the first of a series of tragedies caused by the Lost Light crew travelling to the past in an attempt to stop Brainstorm — it is also, quite possibly, the very last part of the message from the future that was cut off in the very first issue.

MTMTE Issue 37

• The last shot of the comic of Brainstorm leveling a gun at Megatron as he's being assembled, directly at his exposed spark, killing him before he's ever truly born. Worse, in the present, Megatron actually realizes this is what Brainstorm is trying to do.

MTMTE Issue 38

• It turns out that the gun Whirl stole from Brainstorm's lab is a gun that literally turns people into Sparkeaters. Cyclonus is forced to use it on an attacking guard, and the poor bastard gets horribly twisted and mutated into the Sparkeater from issue 3.
• The ending of the issue reveals that Rung may or may not be the trigger of the apocalypse.

MTMTE Issue 39

• The DJD tortures Blip by sawing his scalp off and then making him hold his brain in his mouth.
  Tarn: It's rude to talk with your mouth full.
• It's shown that the DJD apparently pray to Megatron for guidance after missions, almost as if they worship him as a god. They even went through the trouble of having statues of him erected in their ship to which they bow. It's exactly as disturbing as it sounds.
• At one point Tarn is doing performance reviews for Tesarus. It's a very calm and friendly moment, with the two talking in a somewhat bored manner and Tarn enjoying a drink. Tesarus than makes a comment about how Tarn shouldn't have retreated back in the Slaughterhouse arc, implying that he thinks Tarn went against Decepticon ideals. Suddenly Tarn does a complete 180, violently smashing his glass and grabbing Tesarus in a chokehold while threatening to blow him up for even daring to imply that he's "un-Decepticon". Probably one of the most frightening moments of Mood Whiplash featured in the comic.
  • Also, the drink Tarn is enjoying? A refreshing glass of innermost Energon, the fluid found inside the spark casing of Transformers...it's literally a glass of blood harvested straight from the victim's heart.
• During Tarn's near-death experience, we see him being rebuilt in a flashback panel. The disturbing part is the machinery and the scientists working on him are near-identical to those that were used on Shockwave at the end of issue 11. And if Tarn is Roller, that might explain exactly what, or who, happened to him...

MTMTE Issue 40

• A more mundane example which is more disturbing because of how realistic and straightforward it is. Getaway's behavior toward Tailgate has taken a turn from "odd but sort of endearing" to "outright manipulative" as he tries to turn him against Cyclonus. Considering that Tailgate is essentially a child, his weird possessive fixation on the little 'bot —as well as his habit of hurrying Tailgate off somewhere secluded to pour drink down his throat— lends itself to some really, really unpleasant implications. This might not end well for you, Tailgate...

MTMTE Issue 41

• Meet Countdown, everyone! Decorated General, hero of a thousand worlds, and Thunderclash's most famous protégé. The last we see of him alive, he's screaming at an unseen horror in the depths of Thunderclash's trailer, and not thirty-six hours later, this larger-than-life bot is cooling in the morgue. And things only start to become well and truly horrifying when Nightbeat and Getaway accidentally discover the attention-deflecting lesions all over his body...
• Thunderclash's inching shutdown is in fact intentional on his part. By controlling the rate of his expiration, he's able to manipulate the readings of his life support systems and leave the others a warning: Y0 u're a11 3L1N D All DEaD ("You're all blind, you're all dead"). And then we get another knock from his trailer...
• Just as one and a half issues of Breather Episode draw to a close, the horrors begin again in earnest. Nightbeat and Getaway are talking when Ravage comes bolting down the hall, sparking with damage and terrified out of his mind, saying "They're everywhere!" and "They won't stop looking at me!" before fleeing. Now, keep in mind that Ravage is incredibly brave and composed in most situations, yet he's seen something that terrifies him to the point that he can barely shout out a warning in his feral panic. Not a pair to be discouraged by the all giant red flags this raises, Nightbeat and Getaway immediately pursue him to the darkened morgue, where a lucky accident with the Attention-Deflector-Disruptor on Nautica's Wrench reveals not only hundreds of horrific lesions on Countdown's corpse, but a fresh outbreak beginning on Getaway's face. But even that's not the worst the morgue has to offer, and suddenly scores of lesion monsters appear out of nowhere to surround them.

MTMTE Issue 44

• Part of the explanation for what Swerve saw the DJD do all those years ago that shocked him into silence: Slice some poor bastard in half and then force feed him parts of himself (Swerve trails off before he can explain which part). No wonder Swerve was so traumatised.
• As well as being a Tearjerker, it's also Nightmare Fuel - when Megatron stands on top of the hill and looks at all the beautiful blue flowers, a sign of who you've killed. And remember how, all through Season 2 he's been quite happy to put the blame on others - he especially likes to let people blame Whirl for the war, and he lets Whirl blame himself. But there's no getting away from it any more - so many of those deaths are his fault.

MTMTE Issue 45

• It seems that the Lost Lighters may have made a mistake in making Fort Max the new Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord. He seems to have become an incredibly violent enforcer, brutalizing Demus and executing him on the spot before threatening the suitably terrified Scavengers.
  • Remember how Fort Max went nuts and shot people due to undiagnosed trauma? It doesn't look like he's been getting any therapy since he left the Lost Light. That really doesn't bode well.

MTMTE Issue 46

• The reveal of what Demus' "Roboid" toys are, and what their actual purpose is. They're actually beast-mode Transformers who have been lobotomized and mutilated by Demus to be sold to organic races as torture dolls, since they're still aware enough to feel pain. Suddenly, Max blowing Demus away last issue doesn't look so bad, does it?

MTMTE Issue 47

• The cover is pretty horrific, showing Tailgate physically bisected down the middle with Getaway and Cyclonus each holding one half. Yes, it's supposed to be metaphorical, but it brings back really bad memories of what happened to Ambulon.
• Getaway's severe psychological problems and Manipulative Bastard tendencies come into full force here where his scheming almost gets Tailgate killed— turns out that he doesn't feel any sort of affection for Tailgate, as he wasn't grooming the Minibot in a Wife Husbandry sort of way, but rather to use him as a catspaw in order to cause Megatron to lash out and thus get exiled or executed. We learn just how morally depraved this guy is and that he has a truly stunning Lack of Empathy for anyone but himself, and he still deludes himself that he's the good guy. So much for the guy introduced as the lovable Sixth Ranger back in the Season 1 finale...

MTMTE Issue 48

• Skids reveals during psychotherapy that one of his previous jobs was defusing 'anti-personal mines.' That's not a typo. That's a name for a land mine that has a Transformer's still-living decapitated head as the detonator, tied to their life support systems and wired to explode unless their brains are safely disabled as a Mercy Kill. Oh, and the unlucky victim is fully aware of this the entire time. A minor named character from the original toyline is seen as one of these.
  Skids: "They were building mines that begged for mercy."
• Everything about Sunder, a rogue mnemosurgeon who became a serial killer that ate memories... the only way he could be controlled was a combination of very clever lying and having his eyes gouged out to limit his hunger, leaving him scarred and disfigured with the mother of all Nightmare Faces.

MTMTE Issue 49

• The cover features Tailgate nobly defending a cowering Thunderclash from something. If you went into the issue unprepared, fear of the unknown could very well get to you.
• Picking up from where we left off on Sunder, one of his favorite methods of killing his victims—after he's had his fill of their worst memories—is to force them to transform...but only after he's made them forget how to do that properly. The result is a twisted mechanical sphere—the Transformer in question having turned themselves inside out. Rodimus suffers this, and they manage to repair him; so the condition COULD, conceivably, be reversed, but still...
  • And when Tailgate wakes up and starts wandering the ship, there are a LOT of those mechanical balls lying around...
• Skids' memories of Grindcore—the Hellhole Prison run by the Decepticon Justice Division—continue to provide terror, After being conscripted from his cell to fix the teleporters, Skids only agrees to do so because he feels that shipping the prisoners to slave labor camps is the lesser of two evils.
  • And it gets better. After managing to get himself and Quark scheduled as part of the first group of prisoners being teleported off-world, Skids notices something off about the chamber they enter. Cue Skids suddenly being teleported alone to Tarn's office, where the sadistic warden reveals the Awful Truth: the "teleporters" are, in fact, massive incinerators that melt down prisoners en masse! All for the raw materials used to construct Made-To-Order Decepticon soldiers!
  • We get a lovely panel of the prisoners melting alive.◊ It's one of the most horrifying images in Transformers history. "I'm pretty sure Hell exists," indeed.
  • And then, just to twist the knife, Tarn forces Skids to watch his cellmate and the first group of prisoners get horribly melted alive, with "The Empyrean Suite" blaring over the speakers to drown out their screams. This is probably why Chromedome backed off when he was first sifting through Skids' memories when the latter had amnesia—some things should be left forgotten.
• Even though he deserved it, Getaway's punishment is surprisingly brutal: to avoid using his skills or his silver tongue to escape, he has his limbs AND his voicebox torn off!

MTMTE Issue 50

• The issue starts with a series of Apocalyptic Logs from the crew being sent to the non-MTMTE cast, from Optimus on Earth, Starscream and Windblade on Cybertron, the Scavengers, and Fort Max and Red Alert. The crew says their last words and requests for their burials, clearly believing they're about to die in six hours and counting, and the crew have already sustained some physical damage. The DJD are coming. Starscream's reaction says it all, for someone usually so cocky and smug and apathetic.
  Starscream: Look at them. Look at their eyes. That's what fear looks like, Scoop.
  • Optimus immediately orders Jetfire to contact the Lost Light or get him and a team aboard pronto. Jetfire says it's pointless, as even though they received the message today (in which the crew says they have only six hours to live), the messages were sent three weeks ago.
  • Rung's message has him begging that if he's killed in his alternate mode, that he be damaged beyond repair or outright destroyed, hinting back to how Elegant Chaos strongly suggested his alternate mode has something to do with bringing about an apocalypse. The Scavengers are spooked.
• Getaway has engineered a mutiny with the overwhelming majority of the crew, and has thrown the main cast to their deaths at the hands of the DJD.
  • The pure venomous spite Getaway has in every single panel he's in, every word he speaks, is just terrifying. When an Autobot showed sympathy for Megatron he marked them for death when the time would come. He's right to be angered that Megs' judgment was postponed and Rodimus is a poor captain, but it's just plain horrifying that he'd go as far as to surrender them to the DJD. As hateful as he is, Getaway makes Prowl look like Animated Bulkhead!
    • Issue #55 reveals that Getaway actually intended for the outcasts to be surrendered to the Galactic Council, who he believed would treat them fairly. Despite this, it doesn't make Getaway any less cruel or hateful, and while he may not be sending them to their deaths, he is still packing every single word he says with an unbelievable amount of hate.
  • Censere's corpse is found, mutilated and his mouth stuffed with flowers not unlike most of the DJD's victims, making it perfectly clear who murdered him.
  • The arrival of the DJD. Tarn sneaks up on and nearly kills Ravage, who limps back to the others. Megatron has quietly deduced who their company is thanks to Getaway, and he sadly kneels down to the injured Ravage.
  Megatron: They're here, aren't they?
  • And Ravage's reply makes it clear that the situation is much worse, because while the DJD would be bad enough on their own, they've also brought Deathsaurus and his entire army, who have their own grievances against Megatron and his brutal leadership of the Decepticons.
  Ravage: Not just them... hundreds...

MTMTE Issue 51

• After giving Team Rodimus eight hours before attacking for real at sunset, Tarn returns to the Peaceful Tyranny with Deathsaurus and shows his ally his "first editions" of Megatron's Towards Peace; since they were written during his exile to Messatine, Terminus had to get creative in how he smuggled them out of the mines. Namely, he had Megatron's writings inscribed onto the inner workings of dead miners, and Tarn has those same corpses strung up on the walls of his quarters. Deathsaurus is not the least bit perturbed by any of this.

MTMTE Issue 52:

• Megatron's efforts to convince Tarn to let the rest of the team go in exchange for his life—and really, to offer Tarn fresh perspective on the reasons for his Heel–Face Turn—do nothing to curb the latter's brutal assault. Seeing Megatron on the end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown can be rather jarring.
• And because the situation wasn't bad enough already... Overlord is back.
• No one is safe from the DJD's ruthless philosophy. Not even its own members. Just ask Kaon. Or rather, the remains of his head after Tarn crushed it. And why? Because of Kaon's concern for his pet Sparkeater.

MTMTE Issue 53:

• We finally find out what happened to Dominus Ambus - he was domesticated. He'd had his voice box removed and his transformation cog damaged. The Pet wasn't a "sparkeater" - it was a person who'd been tortured into insanity. One of the greatest minds who'd opposed the functionalist council had been reduced to a monster who ate bots alive. And Rewind had to make a choice between his current Conjunx's life or his past Conjunx - and he chose Chromedome, so Dominus is dead now.

MTMTE Issue 54:

• In a brief flashback, we see that when the hour of reckoning had arrived, Tarn began blaring "The Empyrean Suite" full-blast. The gang looks up in horror as they realize the implications that this will be their execution song.
• We learn the final fate of Rewind 1: Chromedome's attempt at a Mercy Kill failed, as Overlord had by that point ripped off three of Rewind's limbs and then bitten through his head to silence his pleas. There's a slight hope that this is false, as with the Slow Cell dilating time in the room, he shouldn't have been able to do so, but it's also possible that the cell had stopped working by then. Or that Overlord is just that brutal.

MTMTE Issue 55:

• The Galactic Council's enforcers have been watching the events on the Necrobot's planet. Because Getaway contacted them, expecting them to send an agent to kill Megatron. The DJD showing up was NOT in Getaway's plan, and the Council considers this a betrayal. So they're going to nuke the whole planet with a Geo-Bomb.
• Megatron's Heroic Second Wind serves as a reminder of why he was such a frightening figure for so long. The sight of him crackling with black anti-matter as he closes in on the DJD—and their ensuing slaughter, one by one—is so fearsome that one almost pities the mass-murdering psychopaths.

MTMTE Issue 56:

• Sentinel Prime's arrival on Luna 2.

MTMTE One-Shot - Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again

• The avatars of the Scavengers as humans - specifically when they take off their helmet. Well, Spinister's isn't so bad - although as Misfire points out, he forgot to create a face and doesn't grasp human dimorphism, using female armour. But when Misfire takes off his helmet... honestly, it's indescribable, but it starts with one eye in the center of his face and goes downhill from there.

Lost Light issue 1:

• The Functionist Universe returns. And it's as horrible as ever.
  • On the last page, two 'bots can be seen who've got black pits where their eyes should be. Given what went down the last time we saw the Functionist Universe, the implications are... unpleasant. Issue 3 confirms that they removed their own eyes to get rid of the Council's eye-cameras.

Lost Light issue 3:

• In the last of the Necrobot's stasis pods, Swerve and Whirl find... KILLMASTER. And he's not happy to see them.
  • That wand of his everyone mentions? It only works on inanimate objects... and apparently Ten counts.
• Cyclonus comes to Swerve and Whirl's aid... and somehow he's got his left arm and a good chunk of his face torn off.
  • Making this worse: Cyclonus has gone through damn near everything so far with barely any injuries to show for it. Even a bomb going off in his face didn't do much more than scuff his paint. So who or what the hell did that to him?

Lost Light issue 4:

• We discover who's been practically tearing Cyclonus apart and why. It wasn't Fangry as Tailgate initially believed. It was Tailgate himself, though not intentionally. It turns out that he's begun suffering from fits where he literally tries to tear out his own Spark whenever he recharges. Cyclonus prevents him from doing so, but gets horrifically mangled during the restraining. Tailgate has absolutely no idea he's been doing this. Worse, Cyclonus forbids Whirl from saying anything about it.
• The revelation as to why Luna-2 has returned to Cybertron despite being sold off to the Black Box Consortia. It was never sold off to begin with; the Functionist Council made that story up (given how isolated Cybertron is from the rest of the universe, it's likely there is no "Black Box Consortia", since that sounds like a bastardization of the "Black Block Consortia" that exists in the prime universe) so they could discreetly transform Luna-2 into a giant Harvester unit. The original plan was to use the Moon-Harvester to gather resources from other worlds and teleport them back to Cybertron, but Nine-of-Twelve believed the plan had been shelved. Not only has it actually gone through, the Council are now using the Harvester to suck up all the cast-offs and undesirables they'd "allowed" Nine to shelter in Adaptica, getting them in one place to make it easier to destroy them all. Nine thought the other Councillors would never act against him because he's needed like the rest of them to form the Key to Vector Sigma, their combined mode. He was wrong.

Lost Light issue 5:

• The Council's plan to use Vector Sigma and Rung's photonic crystals to create a Cybertronian army to spread functionism across the galaxy. The process has the side effect of exterminating any race that has no purpose in the optics of Primus. In layman's terms: Any non-Cybertronian race.
  • Becomes even worse when you remember that Rewind reasoned this universe was better because no innocent races would be killed by Cybertronians.
  • And, as Megatron and Roller realize mid-way through the issue, there's no Optimus Prime to stand in their way. The way Rewind talks about it, it's implied that the Cybertronian race could have done this whenever they wanted to if they had enough numbers or unity towards it.

Lost Light issue 10:

• Issue 10 is a treasure trove of slowly dawning fridge horror. Let's recap:
  • The Cruel Twist Ending of the issue reveals that Thunderclash has been put in a memory loop to keep him docile and prevent him from stopping Getaway, forcing him to relive his memories on repeat... And that First Aid, Hot Spot, Streetwise, Groove, and Blades, and Mirage have been trapped in one. And since the story ends with a loop of their shuttle crashing into the Lost Light, the implication is that they were in the memory loop from the beginning. How long have they been there?!
  • In between First Aid's departure and reappearance, the Lost Light has been down 25 crewmembers. The implication being that Getaway punished them for going against him as well.
  • And for the love of God, whose brain modules (with teeth marks on them?!) were kept in the drink mixers at Swerve's?
• The scene in Visages is just all kinds of skin-crawlingly wrong, as First Aid sits down with Xaaron, and Jackpot, and Mainframe, and all the others, as they casually lie their asses off about how Rodimus left in a huff, and took Team Rodimus with him.
  • However, the next issue reveals that Getaway employed Sunder to use his mnemosurgery skills to ensure that the crew doesn't turn on him. They aren't lying, they truly believe that Rodimus and the others abandoned them, thanks to Sunder altering their memories.
• It's mentioned the security team, who by the way respond to seeing First Aid by openly stating they plan to beat him up for no reason, are firmly in Getaway's pocket. This would be the exact same security team, with the exact same personnel, from issue 47 - the ones who nearly shot Cyclonus to pieces. Makes you wonder just how long they've been in Getaway's pocket...
• The last line of the issue, once it sinks in.
  Getaway: Don't worry. We'll return to this conversation later.

Lost Light issue 11:

• Getaway sinks to ever deeper levels of complete depravity. "Utter bastard" just doesn't quite cover it.
  • Those brains in jars the Protectobots found? Those were the twenty-five crewmembers who weren't on-board with the mutiny. Getaway let Sunder out, and the big guy demanded brains in exchange for nudging everyone's memories.
  • What's in the oil reservoir? Scraplets. Domesticated scraplets, which Getaway has been feeding people to. At the end of the issue, he brings Riptide in, zaps him with the nudge gun so he forgets how to transform, and gives him a shove.
  • It's mentioned every time Getaway and Atomizer have been feeding folk to Sunder, they've been wiping the crew's memories of those bots.

Lost Light issue 12:

• Getaway descends to full-on Caligula status in the issue. No one is safe from his wrath, not even Atomizer. After Getaway realizes Atomizer's loyalty is beginning to waver, he brings his comrade to where the Protectobots and Thunderclash are being kept in their memory loops, and gives Atomizer a choice. In order to ensure the Protectobots won't be able to use their combined form of Defensor against them, he orders Atomizer to kill either First Aid, or Rook. If he doesn't kill one of them, Getaway will just kill him instead. After a few seconds' hesitation, Atomizer shoots Rook, blowing him up. Getaway then smugly informs Atomizer that if he thinks Getaway has gone too far...well, now, so has he, hasn't he?
• Just when it looks like Thunderclash, Defensor, Mirage, and Riptide are going to be able to stop Getaway, the Lost Light's new chief of security makes his appearance by shooting Thunderclash in the back, and everything goes to hell.
  "Star Saber, reporting for duty."
  • Mirage gets sliced to pieces without Star Saber even breaking stride, and then proceeds to break Defensor apart with a single slash of his sword, which allows Getaway's security team to shoot down all the Protectobots save First Aid, who is desperately trying to drag Thunderclash to safety with Riptide's help, with Star Saber bearing down on them.
  Riptide: He's right behind us.
  First Aid: Don't look don't look don't look
  • They do manage to escape, but only because Atomizer has a Heel–Face Turn and stuns Star Saber with the nudge gun long enough for them to abandon ship on his own shuttle.
• Getaway is obviously unhappy with Atomizer's betrayal. So unhappy, in fact, he proceeds to tear Atomizer apart with his bare hands in private, then calls up Froid to get Sunder to make the crew believe Thunderclash murdered him instead. Froid insists the payment for this will be five more lifecords, and when Getaway refuses, Froid immediately raises the price to ten.

Lost Light issue 14:

• Grimlock standing in the chamber with mutilated Scavengers and Nickel. It can be argued whenever they are actually dead or only mauled badly by him, but the depiction of their mutilated bodies is... unpleasant at best.
  • Hell, the events leading up to this, which opens with Grimlock waking up to his body being opened up by Spinster (who was simply searching to see if anyone else tampered with his body). He proceeds to rip Spinster apart limb from limb before turning his attention to the rest of the Scavengers who were locked in a cage with him.

Lost Light issue 18

• We finally learn what Cyberutopia is: It's a mass euthanasia clinic. Specifically, it's one that seems to have Gone Horribly Wrong, and will kill you whether you want to die or not, whether you even meant to go there or not. But first, it heals you of whatever ails you, and gives you whatever you want most to die content.
• That map to Cyberutopia, the one we've been seeing across the series? It's a map to the clinic. The original Knights of Cybertron visited it ten million years ago while dying of a disease they got from meeting organics. The clinic created a group illusion to comfort them, that of a perfect Cybertron, and they carved the map into the Matrix so everyone else could follow them to "bliss". And then they died. Cyberutopia is a great big lie.
• At the end of the issue, Fulcrum notices something falling from the sky, and we learn what's happened to the Lost Light and its crew: It's raining Sparkeaters. Or as we know them, Perceptor, Hound, Grapple and Mainframe.

Lost Light issue 19

• We get a glimpse of the Grand Architect's lieutenants, which include such dangerous individuals as Scorponok and the insane former Chief Justice Tyrest. This, in turn, begs the question...who is the Grand Architect, to be powerful enough to get such major players as these two to work for him??

Lost Light issue 20

• Cyclonus killing Star Saber by transforming in mid-air and slicing the latter lengthwise fully in half.
• Cyclonus, who was helping Hot Rod with putting out the furnace fire, was also unaware that Getaway had rebooted himself and had taken up Cyclonus's Great Sword, and was about to stab him in the back. Thank Primus (no pun intended) for Whirl's scraplets.
• Even though he totally deserved it, Getaway’s death is absolutely horrifying; Whirl’s scraplets, tapping into Medari’s Lotus-Eater Machine tech, take the form of Primus to give Getaway his greatest wish (validation from god)... and then they change back to normal when he touches them and devour him alive, eating him inside out until he’s nothing but a skeleton. And it’s made clear Getaway felt every single moment of it.
• The issue ends with Ratchet calling up Rodimus to look out a nearby window...where a giant rift in the fabric of reality just tore open. Whatever's on the other side, the cliffhanger's building it up to be something bad.

Lost Light issue 21

• The cover page alone has multiple members of the Lost Light staring off-panel at something. The expressions on their faces, including resident badasses like Ultra Magnus or Cyclonus? Pure horror.
• The opening panels have Swerve in a state of shock as he stares at the rift, with Velocity having to drag him away as the energies from the rift start to approach Mederi.
  Velocity: I don't know much about the fabric of reality, but I bet it hates being torn!
• In the med bay, as Ratchet and the others mull over what to do with the comatose telepaths, Rewind notices that a Geo-Bomb just got teleported in - the kind that the Galactic Counsel use to blow up worlds.
  • Later in the issue, it turns out that the Grand Architect sent the geo-bomb, and that it was meant to teleport all of Mederi into another region of space.
• The whole crew gets back to the Lost Light, and Crankcase is able to get them airborne. All clear, right? Wrong - the rift's energies end up pulling them in!
  • And it gets better. What's on the other side of said rift? Five - five - differently-colored, completely-deserted Cybertrons. How did that happen?
  • Oh, and the Black Rock Consortia, who outnumber our heroes.
  • Then, just because the situation wasn't bad enough, the Grand Architect, built up as the Greater-Scope Villain for the series, radios in and identifies Rodimus and his crew as a random element in his plans...then orders the Black Rock Consortia soldiers to kill them. If not for quick thinking by Nautica, the whole team would have been wiped out.
• On the subject of the Grand Architect, he resides in a fleet of Decepticon World-Sweepers.
• As the Lost Lighters await an audience with the Grand Architect, Rung spots the Magnificence hanging off Nickel's neck. Though no one else hears it, he claims it called him by name. A few seconds later, it forcibly converts him to his mysterious alternate mode. No harm's done to him, but how was it able to do that?
• When Froid and Sunder are both escorted to the same chamber as the Lost Lighters, it's revealed that:
  • A) Sunder's been stripped of his ability to perform mnemosurgery - which, once again, begs the question of how powerful the Grand Architect is, to be able to do something like that.
  • B) The Grand Architect's master plan? Preparation for fighting something else - something that, according to Froid, is so horrifying that the Grand Architect tries not to think about it directly. Oh, and it's dangerous enough to threaten the whole universe.
  • C) In order to prepare for said threat, the Grand Architect has turned the region of space that the Lost Lighters are presently residing in into an empty zone. See, it used to be an intergalactic trading center...until the Grand Architect "cleansed" the sector.
  • D) And how? By building "biomech" imposters of the Black Rock Consortia and using them to take over the organization, then using them to drive away the Galactic Counsel and wipe out the population of the sector. Oh, and blow up a few planets and moons to make room.
  • E) Room for what, you ask? The five Cybertrons, which the Grand Architect created via a giant mold...so that they could be used for a function that the main Cybertron is too ravaged by war to access: converting the planet itself into a giant blaster. AKA the "God Gun."
  • F) So why five Cybertrons? To make the ensuing laser powerful enough to rip a hole in reality in order to engage the mysterious threat before it ever enters the main universe.
• Scorponok getting slaughtered by the Grand Architect for his continued insubordination. By a chainsaw through the torso.
  • And on the other end of said chainsaw? None other than the Grand Architect himself...or, should we say, Pharma?!
• Closing out the issue is the sight of a fleet of ships emerging from the rift, presumably the vanguard of the force that the Grand Architect has devoted lifetimes to stopping. And at the helm of the flagship? None other than Megatron.

Lost Light issue 22

• The good news? Despite Rodimus and Ultra Magnus' suspicions, Megatron's very much still The Atoner, and isn't the threat to all life that the Grand Architect was preparing to confront. The bad news? Said threat is on hot pursuit of Megatron's ship...and it's a massive Transformer! The palm of said Transformer is vast enough to make the Last Light look small.
  • Not just any Transformer...an alternate-universe version of Primus. Or rather...the new alt-mode of Functionist Universe Cybertron. It's been given this new mode by the Functionist Council, as Megatron explains, is to purge the universe of any life that isn't Cybertronian.
• Functionist Primus starts going on a rampage...and he's massive enough to grab the planet Mederi and crush it as if it were made of styrofoam.
  • He later turns his attention on one of the other Cybertrons, weakening the "God Gun."

Lost Light issue 23

• Functionist Primus tearing the replica Cybertron in half with its bare hands. Doesn't help that it's drawn the same way as Unicron tearing the real Cybertron half in The Transformers: Unicron.