New Dawn

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Megatron is suddenly cured of his foot fetish.
"New Dawn"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	March 1994
Cover date	May 1994
Writer	Simon Furman
Artist	Derek Yaniger ("Tales of Earth Part Four")
Penciler	Manny Galan ("New Dawn")
Inker	Jim Amash ("New Dawn")
Colorist	Sarra Mossoff
Letterers	Richard Starkings with O'Neil
Editor	Rob Tokar
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Megatron and the Decepticons get their diodes kicked by Jhiaxus and the Cybertronians.

Synopsis

"New Dawn"

On the planet Tykos, Megatron and the Decepticons are staging a raid for the wonder chemical, rheanimum. This is the first field test for the new Rotor Force and Laser Rod Decepticons, as well as the rebuilt Darkwing, and they acquit themselves admirably. Megatron gloats over his success, then orders Starscream and Thundercracker to begin loading the rheanimum for transport to the Warworld. Starscream muses over how it's approaching the day when he'll have to start looking out for number one.

Megatron is contemplating his victory and his plans for conquest, when Soundwave informs him of an incoming message from Skullgrin. Megatron had dispatched him and five other Decepticons to investigate the alleged threat of the Cybertronians. Skullgrin is the only survivor, and he's so badly damaged that he doesn't survive the crash of his shuttle. Megatron is enraged, and whips the Decepticons into a killing frenzy. The Warworld sets out to conquer the rivaling faction.

This goes really badly. The Cybertronians are vicious beyond any foes the Decepticons are used to, and they kill Runamuck and Quake, among others. Megatron confronts Jhiaxus personally, and is thoroughly trounced. Jhiaxus only breaks off the beating when Megatron undergoes orbital reentry, at which point the Decepticons retreat to look for their fallen (literally) leader. Eventually they find a black smoking crater, and most of Megatron... who is nevertheless still alive, and if you thought he was angry before...

"Tales of Earth Part Four"

Optimus Prime, having been beaten by Megatron last issue, is recovering from his injuries, and mourning the loss of the Creation Matrix. He quietly thinks back over Megatron's many defeats and resurrections, and wonders if the war will ever end. His reverie is interrupted by the arrival of the hideously damaged Megatron, who ominously declares, "I'm not happy!"

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Death to the pretenders!"

—An unspecified Decepticon, referring to the Cybertronians, not his many Pretender teammates.

"Bludg — er... beat them into the ground!"

—Another unspecified Decepticon narrowly avoids mentioning the former Decepticon leader in front of Megatron.

"[Thinking] Ah! Sweet music to my audio receptors. Prime was fool to even dream of a cooperation, alliance! We need no one!"

—Megatron

"Megatron! We're getting murdered! We can't stay here! Do you hear me? We have to go - now!"
"No. Never retreat. Never!"

—Starscream and Megatron have a difference of opinion.

"Your day was long ago, Megatron...We have moved on, grown so very much beyond your kind's archaic needs and desires. Your place, if indeed you have one at all, is in a museum - to be stared at in silent horror. A throwback, an evolutionary nightmare to haunt their imagination. I pity you, for it must be frightening indeed to stand before the future - and find you are extinct!"

—Jhiaxus

"Once his new army is fully mobilized my services will no longer be required. And given my past record of treachery I doubt that means a pension and a sign that says 'Dunmurderin'."

—Starscream ponders his future.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• As Megatron is musing over past events, immediately before receiving the message from Skullgrin, there's a flashback panel showing some mountains surrounded by forest. This appears to be a (cropped, recolored, and squashed) reprint of a panel from issue #5, "The Power and the Glory", depicting a world the Cybertronians were cyberforming in that issue. There's no sensible reason for it to be part of Megatron's flashback, since he has not encountered the Cybertronians yet, wasn't thinking about the Cybertronians during that flashback, and has never been to that world, so far as we know.
  • However, here's a theory. Megatron is reminiscing about A) killing Bludgeon, and B) taking the Matrix-force from Optimus. The panel after the "mystery panel" is a reprint from issue #6, showing Megatron ripping off Optimus's chest (event B). Presumably the directions to the artist for panel B were something like "reprint panel 2 from page sixteen of issue #6". If panel A was supposed to be Megatron killing Bludgeon (event A), the instructions might have been "reprint panel 1 from page five of 'Tales of Earth' from issue #5" (Megatron decapitating Bludgeon). The mountains-and-trees panel is — wait for it! — panel 1 from page five of issue #5 as a whole, instead of panel 1 from page five of the back-up story in issue #5. Ergo: The writer and artist had an understandable miscommunication, which nobody caught, so instead of a decapitation scene, we got some pretty trees.
• Ransack's name is spelled "Ransak".
• Powerdive's name is spelled "Powerdrive".
• Drag Strip's name is spelled as "Dragstrip".
• In a group shot, what appears to be Bonecrusher is miscolored red and silver.
• When Crankcase transforms to ram an enemy and gets his roof punched in, the vehicle mode shown doesn't really look anything like Crankcase. In fact, from what we can see, it more closely resembles his fellow Triggercon Ruckus.
• When Octopunch is killed, he suddenly is colored partially brown.

Continuity errors

Continuity notes

• Rotor Force briefly stop fighting to re-attach their rotors. The next generation, ladies and gents!
• Among Megatron's crew are Runamuck and Quake, both back from the dead. They are also among those killed off. Again.
• Optimus Prime flashes back to "The Transformers", "Power Play!", "Repeat Performance!", "Afterdeath!", "Gone but Not Forgotten!", "Skin Deep", and "The Pri¢e of Life!".
• While receiving his beatdown from Jhiaxus, the narration rhetorically wonders how many times Megatron has stared down "icy death", suggesting five or six times. Megatron did suffer five or six nasty scrapes in the previous series:
  • Nearly poisoned to death by sabotaged fuel in issue #4
  • Beaten within an inch of his life by Shockwave in issue #6
  • Knocked off of a cliff by Ratchet, disabling his higher brain functions in issue #8
  • Blown up in a space bridge after being egged on by Shockwave in issue #25
  • Blown up by a bomb thanks to Ratchet in issue #59
  • Crashed on Earth in the Ark thanks to Ratchet in issue #79

Real-life references

Other trivia

• Darkwing's new body is pretty obviously the Dreadwing toy.

Furminated

• A variety of Tykos miners are sliced, slashed, blasted, and chewed upon by Megatron and his troops.
• Skullgrin dies in a crashing shuttle.
• Runamuck and Quake both take direct hits during the battle with the Cybertronians.
• Stranglehold and Crankcase both get melted by acid; Crankcase transforms and gets smashed for his troubles.
• Octopunch takes a direct hit in the torso.
• Megatron, despite getting beaten up, blasted, and falling out of orbit, survives.

Cover

• 

  Jhiaxus stands on Megatron, by Derek Yaniger.

Advertisements

• None yet identified.

Reprints

• Transformers: Rage in Heaven TPB: Optimus Prime, Skydive, Starscream and half of the Liege Maximo, by Andy Wildman.
• Transformers: Rage in Heaven HC: Blast Off, Onslaught and Ramjet, by Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, and Chris Blythe.
• The Transformers: The Best of Simon Furman ("Tales of Earth, part 4"): The planet Cybertron, by Don Figueroa.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 91: Generation 2 Part 2 Silverbolt, by Dreamwave Productions and Jhiaxus smashing Optimus Prime, by Geoff Senior.

• 

  Rage in Heaven TPB
  (Titan Books, 2002)

• 

  Rage in Heaven HC
  (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Best of Simon Furman
  (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection Vol. 91: Generation 2 Part 2
  (Hachette Partworks, 2020)