Earth: R.I.P.

« Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10 »
"Earth: R.I.P."
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10
First published	December 23, 2015
Cover date	December 2015
Written by	Tom Scioli and John Barber
Art by	Tom Scioli
Colors by	Tom Scioli
Letters by	Tom Scioli
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Production by	Chris Mowry
Continuity	Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

With Earth destroyed, G.I. Joe and the Autobots go underground on Cybertron to prepare for the fight back against DeceptiCobra.

Synopsis

The collision with Cybertron has resulted in the destruction of Earth. Now Cybertron is all that remains, with G.I. Joe, Cobra, and the Oktober Guard all that survives of humanity, stranded on the metal world. The Oktober Guard tries to claim Cybertron as "New Transylvania"; Blowtorch is impressed by the idea, but all it serves to accomplish is to make the Guard targets for the allied "DeceptiCobra" forces, while the Joes take the opportunity to escape.

A great feast is held for the men and women of Cobra in Megatron's dining hall, where they are all served by their captive G.I. Joe chef, Roadblock. Megatron, too, joins the banquet, where he partakes of a delicacy specially prepared by his own confectioners: the still-living Joe Skidmark, who Megatron then eats alive in gruesome commemoration of the day the Earth died. The Dreadnoks find their stomachs turned by the grisly display and quickly lose their appetites, save for Torch, who happily digs in to his meal... only to die a moment later, projectile-vomiting a fountain of blood! Realizing that Roadblock has poisoned their meal, the forces of Cobra charge towards the kitchen, where the burly G.I. Joe is able to hold them off long enough for Tunnel Rat—still scurrying around in the vents—to bring him an automatic rifle, with which he mows down his attackers. Tunnel Rat and Roadblock escape into Trypticon's vents and meet up with Perceptor—not the traitor he appeared to be, Tunnel Rat has discovered, but actually an Autobot double agent. Roadblock is still suspicious, and only becomes moreso when it turns out T-Rat and Perceptor's exfil plan involves the two Joes sealing themselves in body bags so Perceptor can carry them outside for "disposal", but the plan seems to be working until guards Scavenger and Hook realize that Perceptor is not heading to his lab like he told them he was. His cover blown, Perceptor makes a break for it, and successfully manages to escape Trypticon. Though Earth is no longer visible in the sky, Perceptor tries to reassure the two Joes that is it unscientific to believe something does not exist just because you cannot see it; Roadblock and Tunnel Rat are less optimistic, taking the space debris raining down across Cybertron as proof that their home planet is gone for good.

Perceptor, Roadblock, and Tunnel Rat are met by a party of other Joes, who lead them to the new Pit beneath Cybertron's surface where the rest of the Joe team has holed up. Perceptor has also brought the deceased Wild Bill's body with him, confusing the Joes, who believe he is still alive, unaware that shapeshifting Cobra spy Zartan has taken his place. His cover blown, Zartan uses Wild Bill's Dragonfly helicopter to mow down Joe after Joe, but a well-placed sniper shot from Stalker permanently ends the threat of the Dreadnok leader. As Generals Flagg and Hawk restore order, Roadblock, Tunnel Rat, and Perceptor reveal that, between the three of them, they have obtained the deactivation code for Trypticon's forcefield.

Atop one of Cybertron's horn-like mega-mountains, the last survivors of Earth do battle: Snake Eyes managed to make it onto Cybertron before his homeworld was destroyed, but so did Koh-Buru-Lah, carrying Cobra Commander and his followers within organic sacs on its hideous body. Now, even as one of Koh-Buru-Lah's tentacles tugs at Snake Eyes's ankle, the ninja commando duels with Stormshadow, who Cobra Commander believes has come to join them. While Snake Eyes is occupied fending off the eldritch horror, however, Stormshadow reveals the true reason for his presence: he has come to rescue his pupil Billy—his body ravaged, but still alive—from within the god of Cobra.

Far below the surface of Cybertron, Rodimus and Duke's team are guided through the mind of Primus by the Keeper, steward of the sleeping god's dreams. The Keeper regales them with the tale of Primus's creation: he is the offspring of Daiakuron, a living world sculpted by a race of ancient gestalt beings known as the Makers, who had in turn bestowed upon their creation the ability to create worlds of its own. The further and further they descend, the more the Transformers and Joes see, and the larger the question looms... what if not just Cybertronians, but also humankind, were creations of Daiakuron? The line between Earthling and Transformer is growing ever blurrier... much like the line between life and death, as, at the bottom of the staircase the heroes descend, they find Ultra Magnus, the Autobot God of Death, ferrying the corpse of Optimus Prime across the river to the underworld!

Featured characters

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

Quotes

"I fink I've gone and lost me bloomin' happytite."

—Ripper, after watching Skidmark meet his end

"I told you having a G.I. Joe chef was a bad idea."
"Great cuisine is worth the risk."

—Serpentress and Destro

"I can't let myself believe it—not for one second. Until I see it with my own eyes, Earth is just how I remember it. Can't do the job any other way."
"Denial is half the battle."

—Roadblock and Tunnel Rat

"In all this high-tech survival gear, it's getting harder to tell the orgs from the borgs. We're all Cybertronians now."

—Ozone

"The makers sure would be disappointed in us. Instead of creating new life, we've created new ways of killing each other."
"My makers didn't like how I turned out either, Rodimus."

—Rodimus and Bazooka

Notes

Continuity notes

• Doctor Venom was shown building B.A.T.s for G.I. Joe back in issue #3, but Cobra has one in this issue. What this means for the good doctor, last seen escaping Optimus Prime's custody in issue #7, remains to be seen.
• Hook and Scavenger grouse about the loss of the Constructicons' combined form following the death of Long Haul, which took place in issue #2.
• Duke, Snake Eyes, and Optimus encountered the Quintessons in issue #5, in which they claimed to be not just the creators of the Transformers, as in past media, but of all life. Here, the visuals tell us that the Quintessons are actually the "gestalt" forms of the Moai-like "Makers"—the reason for their multiple faces and tentacles, formed from the Makers' own faces and limbs—and that they created Daiakuron, who then created other planets, making their statement essentially true.
• Ultra Magnus was mentioned before in issue #5, but nothing about that issue implied he was anything more than the great Autobot warrior he is typically depicted as. The prose story "Black Cybertron" (see "Other trivia," below) explains his sinister appearance here by painting him as the Autobot God of Death.

Transformers references

• One of the Decepticon caterers who serves Megatron is based on Drag Strip's toy, colored in greys and blues.
• The Keeper of Primus, a character from the original Marvel series, appears to guide Duke and Rodimus's team through the depths of Cybertron.
• "Daiakuron" is, of course, named in reference to Diaclone, the Japanese toyline from which the toys that would become the first Transformers were taken; the spelling is a direct phonetic rendering of the Japanese pronunciation of the word (ダイアクロン da-i-a-ku-ro-n).
• The twin horn-mountains Cybertron has grown over the course of this series have always been evocative of Unicron. This issues explains that both Cybertron and Unicron were created by the horned Daiakuron, and they both inherited the feature from their "father."
• The "ferry" Ultra Magnus uses to transport Prime's body is styled after his own trailer and his rown with a bone white version of the Magnus Hammer. This doesn't affect the appearance of Magnus himself, who is still drawn with his traditional appearance as if the trailer has formed his body, save for the fact he is missing his shoulder-launchers, visible on the ferry. While the ferry is colored with Magnus's usual red, blue, white, the sinister form of Magnus himself is black, magenta, and white.
• Surprisingly, this is not the first time that Megatron shown a taste for humans. In The Battlestars manga, Super Megatron had plans to eat a bunch of oil rig workers as snacks (even licking one like a lollipop). Though the key difference here is that Super Megatron was stopped before he could do so while regular Megatron got to eat Skidmark.

G.I. Joe references

• The first page of this issue, with the Oktober Guard raising their flag on Cybertron, is an homage to the first page of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #1, where the original thirteen G.I. Joes hoist Old Glory atop a mound. Horrorshow and Colonel Breakoff take the places of Stalker and Hawk as the ones lifting the flag, with Blowtorch and Dusty replacing Snake Eyes and Short-Fuze. Steeler and Rock 'n Roll, meanwhile, take the same places as they did in the original, albeit with their more sci-fi Scioli designs instead of their rather drab originals.
• Torch prefers a "Yank fizzy drink" at the feast rather than wine; the purple bottle marks it as grape soda, the favorite drink of the Dreadnoks in the original Marvel G.I. Joe comic book.
• "Denial is half the battle," quips Tunnel Rat, riffing on the classic Joe public service announcements that ended with "Knowing is half the battle."
• Cold Front? Red Spot? Who are all these guys? Never small to begin with in this series, the Joe ranks swell even further with the first appearances of many lesser-known Joes, most of whom hail from the 1988, 1989, and 1990 product lines released in the gap between G.I. Joe animated series, and who consequently never gained the wider exposure and recognition that came with being in the one Joe cartoon anyone cares about. This being a Transformers wiki, we'd gamble you've not heard of most of them!

Real-life references

• On the first page, Steeler wryly mentions Kennywood, a famous amusement park just southeast of Pittsburgh. Scioli, a Philadelphia native, often has Steeler speak in the local slang.
• Roadblock recalls his best Christmas as a child, when he received an Easy-Bake Oven and a Huffy bicycle.
• Cover Girl likens the discoveries the Joes and Autobots make about Cybertron's origins to Chariots of the Gods?
• Ultra Magnus is playing the role of Charon, the ferryman from Greek mythology who took the souls of the deceased across the river into Hades.

Other trivia

• This issue is dedicated to the memory of Herb Trimpe, noted G.I. Joe and Transformers comic book artist, who passed away in April 2015.
• Assuming he's not one of the two aforementioned caterers who presents Megatron with his grisly dish, a Decepticon chef named "Confektor" is mentioned.
• The usual creator commentary is absent from this issue, replaced with the prose story "Black Cybertron."

Reprints

• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Volume 3 TPB
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Quintessential Collection Hardcover
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 74: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, Part 2

• 

  Volume 3; cover art by Scioli

• 

  Quintessential Collection; cover art by Scioli

• 

  Definitive G1 Collection: Vol. 74: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, Pt. 2; cover art by Don Figueroa and Scioli

External links

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