The Not Knowing

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #44 »
"Forty-two! Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"
"The Not Knowing"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 2, 2015
Cover date	August 2015
Written by	James Roberts
Pencils by	Hayato Sakamoto
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2015)

Following the trail of Agent 113's bullet, the Lost Lighters make their way to the Necrobot's base of operations, where both Rewind and Chromedome's relationship, and Nightbeat's hope in the existence of a greater power, are tested.

Synopsis

Take the second panel out of context, things don't look quite right...

The message bullet extracted from Swerve's shoulder proves largely corrupted by rust, but of the data sent by Agent 113—now revealed to have been the previous holder of the "Vos" codename—one intact piece of information gives the crew of the Lost Light a startling new objective to explore: the location of the supposedly-mythical Necrobot's base of operations. Rodimus has a revelation of his own, however—it turns out that the doodles he has been carving into his desk since the ship's launch are, in fact, a map to Cyberutopia just like the one Thunderclash drew, and he is much more interested in following it than looking for the Necrobot. When Rewind and Chromedome explain that they want to visit the Necrobot's world in hopes of learning the fate of Rewind's old partner Dominus Ambus, Megatron agrees to their request, and the Lost Light sets off. Ultra Magnus takes Rewind aside to talk about his departed spark brother in order to caution him to not get his hopes up for Dominus's survival, but it turns out that Rewind has already had this discussion with his Magnus, on the quantum duplicate Lost Light, and refuses to believe his claim that he can sense his brother's absence.

Presently, the Lost Light arrives at the Necrobot's rather unassuming planet, and a small group heads down to the surface in the Rodpod. They are greeted by the sight of a beautiful garden, full of holographic statues surrounded by sparkling blue flowers, and soon deduce that the statues represent those Transformers who are still living, while the empty plinths are for the dead. Homing in on the solitary life sign on the planet, the Rod Pod sets down outside a huge complex, where a noticeably jumpy Nightbeat immediately spots some movement in the building's doorway, only for the door to be slammed shut before he can reach it. While the others split up to wander about the garden and investigate, Nightbeat stands outside the door and calls to whoever or whatever may be inside... at which point, the door opens a crack, and the imposing form of the Necrobot appears to invite Nightbeat inside!

Ravage dismisses the exercise as a waste of time, but Megatron confides that that was precisely his rationale for allowing the trip: although he will accept his fate when the time comes, he is in no hurry to rush toward that final judgement. Regardless of Megatron's intent, Chromedome and Rewind are here for a purpose: soon, they have hacked into the central database that powers the holographic statues, so that they can search for Dominus's name to learn what has become of him. But before Chromedome presses "search", Rewind hesitates, unsure if, after all this time, he really wants to know the truth. Chromedome assures him that whatever choice he makes, he will stand by him, and help him continue his search in other ways—a show of dedication that convinces Rewind that the past must be put behind him. The search begins, and the result appears... Dominus Ambus of Ambustus Minor is, indeed, deceased.

Within the Necrobot's complex, the mysterious robot explains to Nightbeat that he is, actually, a totally ordinary—if very long-lived—Cybertronian named Censere. A forensic pathologist, Censere was moved to begin chronicling deaths when the death of his friend Tusk went unreported, and simply uses the machines in his complex to keep track of spark signatures and to teleport him around the universe to carry out his tasks. Nightbeat is dismayed and furious; in spite of his rationalist nature, he had truly hoped to learn that the Necrobot was proof of a higher power, a reaffirmation of the notion of life after death that Nightbeat had come to doubt since his own death years beforehand. Censere reassures him that just because he is not "magic" does not mean that the Afterspark does not exist, and explains that his understanding of life and death is not absolute: he was, for instance, alarmed to see Nightbeat and many of the other Lost Lighters, as he believed they were already dead. Censere takes him to a monolith labelled "In Honor of the Disappeared", upon which he has carved the names of those whose deaths he cannot verify; Nightbeat sees his own name on the slab (his body having been stolen away into the Dead Universe before Censere reached him), but then spots another one of great interest. He calls the crew together, and while everyone is marvelling over the once-legendary Necrobot, Nightbeat takes Chromedome and Rewind to the monolith, where it is revealed that Dominus Ambus's name is also engraved on its surface!

A little later, as everyone prepares to depart, Nightbeat says farewell to Censere, but not without grimly informing him that he should use his skills to save the living, rather than record the dead. Rodimus realizes that Megatron has disappeared, and is informed by Riptide that he slipped away with Ravage a little while ago, after the Necrobot explained the significance of his garden's flowers: they contain the residual spark energy of the deceased, and he plants them around the statue of the Transformer who was responsible for ending that life. Thus it is that Megatron receives a grim reminder that he cannot put off his day of reckoning forever, as he visits his own statue and sees a beautiful blue field of sparkling flowers, stretching in every direction, far and away into the horizon...

Just look at the flowers.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You know, I can just about accept that the D.J.D. was infiltrated by an Autobot, but what I find bizarre is that this "Agent 113" thinks it practical to deliver his field reports by firing bullet-shaped data-slugs into three-fingered metallurgists."
"It's not exclusively metallurgists. When I said that, I didn't... I was attempting to make a joke."
"Yes—I know—I was running with it. There's a lot of banter on this ship; I thought I was ready to take the plunge."
"I think we've both learned something from this."

—Megatron and Ultra Magnus

"If you caught me spilling that many beans, you'd give me a dressing down so epic, so protracted—so narratively dense—it would have subplots, callbacks, and a finale that would provide closure whilst leaving the door open for future tellings off."

—Rodimus, to Magnus, when Magnus tells Megatron about Agent 113

"Is it too soon to have "Chosen One" engraved on my forehead?"
"I can think of more appropriate words."

—Rodimus and Megatron

"Don't take offense, but it's quite difficult—sitting here, looking at you... you look so similar."
"I know. Why do you think I've spent most of my life trying to look like someone else?"

—Rewind and Minimus Ambus

"I don't know what you were expecting. I don't know what a non-boring planet looks like to you."
"What."
"Describe it. I'm genuinely interested. Describe your perfect planet."
"Let's see... stripped of organic life, relieved of energy, coated in metal... oh—wait—that's your perfect planet."

—Megatron might want some cold water for that burn, courtesy of Rodimus

"Don't touch anything, don't steal anything, and definitely don't desecrate anything."

—Rodimus warns the crew to behave

"Once you press "search", that's it—I'll know. And I don't know if I'm ready to know. ...I'm sorry. This is stupid. I'm being stupid."
"It's not. And you're not."
"Tell me what to do."
"Rewind—my love—it's not for me to say."
"But this affects both of us. If I don't do this... if we leave here not knowing, we could spend the next four million years searching for someone who's..."
"I know. But at least we'd be doing it together."

—Rewind and Chrome— * sniff* ...and Chromedome... look, I just have something in my eye, okay?!

Notes

Continuity notes

• The Necrobot was introduced in the "Scavengers" two-parter in issue #7 and #8. It was in the second of those issues that he actually physically appeared, and in which we saw his datapad containing a list of deceased Lost Light crewmembers; this issue confirms the earlier implication that these were the quantum duplicate crewmembers from the second Lost Light, seen in the "Slaughterhouse" two-parter in issue #32 and #33.
• Agent 113, first mentioned in the "Bullets" prose story in 2010, is finally revealed to not be a current member of the DJD, but rather, the previous holder of the "Vos" codename—the one with hooks for hands and feet, whose existence was established in issue #29. He was replaced so recently that nobody on the Light, not even Megatron, knew he'd been replaced until they found the 'other' Light.
• Magnus mentions that the crew learned how to juggle during a three-week stay at the Cosmic Carnival, and Skids was seen demonstrating his juggling skills back in issue #41.
• We first learned Rodimus has been carving doodles into his desk in issue #13, and were reminded of that fact recently in issue #41. Turns out he's been drawing a map to Cyberuptopia like the one we saw Thunderclash had drawn in that same issue, complete with the gear-like hieroglyphs from issue #21.
• Ultra Magnus has a figure of Ten under his desk, recalling how their friendship began in issue #40 when Ten gave him a Minimus Ambus figure.
• When Skids remarks that he is a "recovering believer", he strokes his cheek, where we know from issues #11 and #36 that he used to have a tattoo of the Matrix of Leadership as a symbol of his faith.
• Nightbeat refers to his death from all the way back in Spotlight: Hardhead (see "Errors", below).
• Swerve takes a selfie with the Necrobot; we've seen Swerve using his "cell phone", before, back in "Dark Cybertron", when he went on about his ringtone.
• Skids says "who doesn't want to survive the dying of the light?" to Nightbeat, both people who will be part of a little story in #50 called... "The Dying of the Light"!
• Nightbeat is haunted by the idea that there is no afterlife for his kind. His use of the phrase "nothing to ascend to" forshadows his final fate.
• Swerve's opening recap monologue contains the first hints of his relationship with Velocity.

Transformers references

• Ultra Magnus mentions that the Lost Lighters once spent three weeks at the Cosmic Carnival, the greatest show in the galaxy that appeared in issue #44 of the original Marvel Transformers comic.
• Rodimus jokes about having "Chosen One" engraved on his forehead, the title that Rodimus was referred to with in the Generation 1 cartoon.

Real-life references

• Rodimus describes Rewind's way of telling him about the Necrobot as they walk through the ship's corridors as "West Wing-ing", a reference to the TV show The West Wing and its famous tracking shots of characters talking with one another as they walk down long hallways.
• The Necrobot's real name, "Censere" (see "Errors", below), is a Latin word meaning to appraise or assess.
• The endless blue sparkflowers that symbolise the sparks of dead Cybertronians bear close resemblance to the poppy fields of Flanders, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers died during World War I, and to the legend that there are as many flowers as soldiers who died there. Poppies are also used to remember fallen, and veteran, soldiers in Britain and several Commonwealth nations, though this comic puts a darker spin on it here. This will take on an extra significance with "The Dying Of The Light" and especially #53, which will give an explicit nod at the end to the First World War and the memorial poem "In Flanders Fields". In an extra nod, the gravestones on the special cover resemble the rows of hundreds of thousands of gravestones of Unknown soldiers lying in World War I and II cemeteries.

Errors

• Rewind worries about Rodimus poking someone's eye out with a table leg, but the table he's carrying doesn't really have legs — it's just a huge metal block with little stubs at each corner.
• As the crew disembark the Rodpod it appears that Skids has been coloured as Hound.
• The Necrobot introduces himself as "Censere", but when Nightbeat speaks his name during their farewell, it's incorrectly spelled "Censerre", with an extra "r". This is corrected for the trade paperback.
• When Nightbeat talks about his death, the footnote states he died in Spotlight: Nightbeat, rather than Spotlight: Hardhead. This is corrected for the trade paperback.
• Dominus Ambus's name is described as being "three from the bottom" on the monolith, but the art shows it being on the bottom line. The trade paperback changes this to "Right column, on the bottom".
• Rewind's second "Oh my god!" is attributed to Nightbeat erroneously.
• In "After the Necrobot explained about the flowers," Necrobot's word balloon is pointing at Riptide.

Other trivia

• This issue arrived a teensy bit late, landing in the first week of September rather than the last week of August.
• Megatron correctly deduces that the former holder of the Vos codename (who we now know was also Dominus Ambus) was the Autobot mole within the Decepticon Justice Division. While this does imply he was the appointed Vos as of Megatron's last meeting with the DJD, he was previously seen using the current Vos, originally known as Forestock, in his sniper rifle mode in a flashback panel of Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things. Additionally, he seems aware of Forestock's new identity in The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle. This may not necessarily be an error, as Megatron may have plausibly been familiar with Forestock as a soldier and a weapon prior to his induction into the DJD.
• Several statues in the Necrobot's garden are not immediately recognizable; though Rodimus mentions two Transformers named Raptor and Scissorkick, their statues are said to be near Ironhide and Xaaron, who are not pictured.
• While Xaaron has always been best known by the rank he carried in the Marvel comics, "Emirate", he's never had that rank in the IDW universe. As Rodimus spots a statue of him in the Necrobot's garden, he notes that his full title in this universe is "Advocate Xaaron".
• Ironhide died way back in The Transformers #1; presumably the Necrobot turned his statue back on after learning that he was up and about again thanks to his resurrection at the hands of Alpha Trion.
• During Nightbeat's conversation with Censere, he reveals that he tracks the lives and deaths of Cybertronians, yet there is a statue for Windblade, who is a Camien. Roberts later clarified that the Necrobot does not record the lives and deaths of those living on the colony worlds, only those on Cybertron, so since Windblade had made Cybertron her new home, she fell under that purview.^[1]
• Full names learned for Transformers in this issue include: Bumblebee of Iacon, Pipes of Pescus Hex, Dominus Ambus of Ambustus Minor (and thus by extension, Minimus Ambus of Ambustus Minor), Chromedome of Iacon, Hound of Lower Monoplex, and Nightbeat of Yuss. Additionally, Ambulon is revealed to have been an M.T.O.; a speech-bubble obscures his full name, but we see that it partially reads "Ambulon of Operation Split Infin--" something (a crack about "split infinitives" and Ambulon's status as part of a combiner, if not a reference to his grisly demise). This makes Ambulon the first confirmed example of a Decepticon M.T.O.
• Bumblebee's plinth puts in an appearance, but note that the scene is drawn in such a way that we can't tell if his statue is on or off...

Soundtrack

• "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" by The Smiths^[2]
• "Song for the Leftovers" by A Camp^[3]

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: Chromedome and Rewind stare up at an imposing monolith, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
• Subscription cover: Megatron amid a field of gravestones, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham.
• Retailer incentive cover: Megatron wails after Nautica steals his Rodimus action figure, while Swerve looks on; one of a series of super-deformed covers by Agnes Garbowska that make up the Retailer Incentive covers on IDW's August Transformers titles.

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• Uncle Scrooge Vol. 1 TPB (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 8 (October 21, 2015) ISBN 1631404520 / ISBN 978-1631404528
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #39–44.
  • Bonus material includes covers of each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 (June 19, 2019) ISBN 1684054842 / ISBN 978-1684054848
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–41, #42 & #43, Windblade (2015) issues #1–3 & #4–5, and More than Meets the Eye issues #41–44.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 66: Speak, Memory (December 25, 2019)
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #43–49.
  • Bonus material includes a one-page article about the Scavengers, a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  More Than Meets the Eye Volume 8 – cover art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 66: Speak, Memory – cover art by Dan Khanna (Getaway) and Hayato Sakamoto (retro)

References

External links

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