Rise of the Decepticons: We Have Deceived You

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"Rise of the Decepticons: We Have Decieved You"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 16, 2020
Cover date	September 2020
Written by	Brian Ruckley
Art by	Anna Malkova
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity	2019 IDW continuity

Sentinel Prime's controversial speech at the Senate gives Megatron the opening he needs... and Cybertron will never be the same again.

Synopsis

For the first time, Sentinel Prime intends to convene the Senate without Megatron or the Ascenticon party he represents, and his decision has only further strained tensions on a Cybertron pushed to the breaking point. In the Senate, a grim-faced Ironhide briefs the Senate Guard on their posts; on the streets, overstretched members of Security Operations struggle to keep the peace as supporters, protesters, and demonstrators surround the building, while Prowl cracks down on another interview between Andromeda and Voxpop. Just as Prowl warns a hesitant Bumper to keep his head down and do his job, the crowd silently parts to reveal a far more ominous problem: Megatron, Strika, and Ratbat have arrived.

Orion Pax watches them approach, but advises caution: the three are still elected Senators, regardless of Sentinel's rhetoric. Megatron demands they let him in, and Orion makes one last attempt to get his former friend to stand down. Though Megatron protests that chaotic change is inevitable if measured change is impossible, Orion delivers his final warning: if he continues down this path, then his means and his message will become the same—one of violence and death. Megatron disregards Orion and stalks inside the Senate building to meet his destiny, snarling that Orion should've stayed a lowly archivist as he leaves. Orion apologizes to the head archivist Proxima, but she has other concerns: no matter what happens, Megatron will inflame his supporters, who even now gather around the Senate building. Orion takes Groove and Flareup with him into the Senate to keep an eye on Megatron; Ironhide protests that this move will weaken their final line of defense, but Orion doesn't care: Megatron is the greatest threat to Cybertron, and he might just be on the cusp of victory. Indeed, as the Senate convenes and Sentinel Prime begins his thunderous condemnation of the deceitful Ascenticons, Megatron arrives, demanding the right to address the Senate and refute these charges!

Elsewhere, Starscream pays a visit to Bumblebee's cell. As Head of Cybertronian intelligence, Starscream has his fingers in many pies; one of his informants has tipped him off that today will mark the birth of a new Cybertron. Starscream's connections will let him ride out the storm in comfort—he knows what Bumblebee's been up to, and that's why he wants to propose an alliance. Caged and resentful, Bumblebee says nothing...

As Prowl does his best to keep the crowd outside the Senate at bay, he finds Cyclonus, who wants to ask Chromia for information on Sixshot. As Megatron's supporters take up a chant, Prowl tells Cyclonus to leave; Cyclonus does so, musing that this fight won't be his... but the ghosts in his mind feel otherwise.

Orion, Flareup, and Groove arrive in time to see Megatron take the pulpit and begin his speech, but this is no attempt to defend himself, or parley as equals. Megatron's fiery speech condemns the Autobots and everything they stand for: in response to widescale civil unrest and the loss of the Winged Moon, the Autobots only tighten energon rations and impose curfews. Sentinel Prime may have denounced the Ascenticons as "Decepticons", but Megatron smiles: it is an apt name, for they have deceived Cybertron. For too long, he and his followers had concealed their desire for change, convinced the Senate that they would work within the system to get what they wanted—but that lie ends today. Already, the Decepticons have done what the Autobots and the Senate could not: today marks the end of The Rise, who have already surrendered to the Decepticons. If the bloated, complacent Senate could not achieve such a simple task, then what could they possibly do for the people of Cybertron? Today, he announces, marks the end of the Senate—and, right on cue, Megatron's concealed warriors begin their attack. Outside, Clench, Apeface, Runamuck and Runabout overwhelm Pipes and Chainclaw and bash right through a side door; on the roof, Nova Storm, Ion Storm, and Acid Storm take out Subsea. Chaos reigns in the Senate Hall as Strika pins Sentinel and senators rush the podium, while Orion shouts for Flareup to seal the doors... but doesn't get far before Acid Storm uses his powers to eat right through the Senate's roof, allowing Ion Storm to incapacitate the Senators with a devastating electromagnetic blast. Clench breaches the loading bay and disgorges a squadron of Infiltration Troopers, who overwhelm Roulette, Grotusque, and Flareup. As the dust settles, Megatron orders Strika to secure the building and tell all of Cybertron of their triumph. When Ironhide, Brawn, and Backstreet breach the building, they don't get far before Strika, Apeface, and Clench bulldoze right over the three and blast them right back out the door with a single missile barrage.

Confident that they've taken the Senate, Strika and her compatriots activate the Senate's built-in projectors and pose triumphantly in front of the crowd. Backlit by their insignia, Strika announces the good news: the crisis is over, Megatron has triumphed, and the Decepticons are here to open the way!

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in hallucinatory form.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I do not know what ends you are pursuing, but the means will consume the ends. How a thing is done becomes the thing itself. You will become the means you employ, Megatron."
"We must become what the times require of us."

—Orion Pax and Megatron

"We have concealed the true extent of our determination. We have concealed the extremity of our hunger for renewal. We have pretended to a patience, a tolerance for failure that we do not possess. We have allowed you to believe that we would wait forever for this Senate, for the Autobots to awaken. No more. While you have stagnated, we have worked. We have imagined."

—Megatron

"Hey, aren't you Clench? I saw you and Apeface fight in the arena! Long time ago, but—"
"Yeah. Long time ago. But if you're a fan, guess I should pretend to be sorry about—THIS!"

—Never meet your heroes, with Pipes and Clench

"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. So let us have done with you! I say you are no Senate worthy of the name! In the name of Primus, go!"

—Megatron

"We have no need for your Senate Guard in here, Ironhide! We have no need for a Senate!"

—Strika

"A new horizon opens, and Megatron and the Decepticons have come to show you the way! Cybertron! The crisis is over! Order and freedom are within reach!"

—Strika

Notes

Continuity notes

• After first denouncing their deceptive ways in issue #15, Sentinel coined the appellation "Decepticon" in issue #20. He had previously threatened to outlaw the Ascenticons and convene the Senate without them in issue #21.
• Ever the conspiracy theorist, Voxpop wonders if the alien Thraal were the ones responsible for destroying the Tether. We learned about the fraught political situation between the Thraal and the A'ovan in issue #12—and, to be fair, this does seem like the kind of terrorist attack that the Thraal hardliners Nautica mentioned in that issue might plan.
• In a nice bit of artistic consistency, the steps to the Senate feature the same spherical statue that appeared in issue #10.
• Proxima makes her visual debut in the comic, although Starscream mentioned her in issue #16, and issue #18 featured an excerpt from one of her books.
• Cyclonus learned about Sixshot's destruction of the Memorial Crater in issue #17.
• Bumblebee was arrested last issue after he killed Quake.
• Starscream mentions an informant who's tipped him off about the impending attack on the Senate building, but advises Bumblebee not to "reflect for too long" on who this might be. It's a sure bet that Starscream's being coy about Refraktor, his mole in the Ascenticon Guard, while also playing on how the character is traditionally named "Reflector."
• Pipes recognizes gladiators Clench and Apeface; Frenzy owned an old poster of one of Apeface's bouts in issue #20. Before that, we saw the tail end of Apeface's career in the Transformers Valentine's Day Special as he performed in front of a bored crowd alongside Tap-Out. That issue had Pipes walking on the street past Tap-Out soon afterward.
• Megatron recruited the trio of Nova Storm, Ion Storm, and Acid Storm directly from The Rise in issue #19. In that same issue, Megatron sent Ratbat to ready the "Infiltration Troopers" seen here—it wasn't clear what he was talking about at the time, but this issue reveals that Megatron was talking about the future members of the Decepticon Mini-Cassettes.

Transformers references

• Subsea debuted in Marvel UK story "Underworld!" as a hi-and-die generic; more recently, he showed up in issue #22 of Optimus Prime as... uh, well, a hi-and-die generic. His cameo here suggests he's on a winning streak!
• Grotusque's complaints about Cybertronians prejudiced against individuals with beast modes seems like a call-back to the first IDW continuity's functionist system, which discriminated against both Transformers who turned into beasts, and Cybertronians with animal-like robot modes. Of course, as Ironhide points out here, that kind of institutionalized prejudice doesn't seem to exist on this version of Cybertron, where newly forged Transformers can choose to become whatever they'd like. Future issues would show this Cybertron venerates the Age of the Firstforged, with several tales of humanoid biped heroes like Halonix Maximus and Big Bang warring against bestial Cybertronians like Preditron or Gaidora and the turbofoxes. It's possible the prejudice Grotusque alludes to dates back to this era.
• The parting crowd on page three includes a pair of Cybertronians drawn to resemble Animated Scrounge.
• Ion Storm incapacitates the Senate using a powerful electromagnetic pulse, but the effort involved makes him collapse from overexertion. Both of these traits have their origin in the 2015 Ask Vector Prime feature that originally named both him and Nova Storm.
• The cassette team includes familiar mainstays Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw, second-stringers Beastbox and Squawktalk, and left-field cameo Howlback—a character who, up until now, has been limited to bit parts and namedrops. In an odd detail, Laserbeak is drawn to resemble his Siege toy and sports that toy's streamlined, mono-optic head, but both Buzzsaw and Squawktalk possess their regular bird heads (But see "Errors", below...)

Real-life references

• Megatron's statement to the Senate, as quoted above, is a nigh-direct quotation of Oliver Cromwell's statement to the Rump Parliament on the 20th April 1653. Megatron goes just a little further than Cromwell, who merely had the members dragged out.

Errors

• Colorist Joana Lafuente appears to have mistaken Beastbox for Apeface, and has colored him as such. (Perhaps Beastbox is just a big fan?)
• On page seventeen, the panel of Laserbeak attacking Roulette has him sporting a two-eyed head.
• Flareup is shown turning grey after the cassettes attack her, suggesting that she's dead. That said, this universe is just a teensy bit inconsistent on whether or not characters turn grey when they die—Rubble did, as did Cyclonus's ghostly compatriots as well as a generic civilian in issue #19, but Brainstorm and Quake did not. Issue #25 will show that Flareup survived the attack, which retroactively makes this an error.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for June, this issue was pushed back to September as a result of IDW Publishing suspending operations. It was released digitally on September 16, and saw a print release on September 30.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Megatron in front of the Senate, by Joana Lafuente
• Cover B: Megatron and his Infiltration Troopers, by Aline Herzspalter Baumgartner
• Retailer incentive cover: Megatron, Brawn, Laserbeak, and Strika, by Corey Lewis

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• Transformers Volume 3: All Fall Down (February 24, 2021) ISBN 1684057396 / ISBN 978-1684057399
  • Collects Transformers (2019) issues #19–24 and Galaxies issues #7–12.
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