Transformers Spotlight: Megatron
This ultra-pedantic excruciatingly detailed autistic review was commissioned by @toxinvictory.
This story was released as an addendum to the 2009 Transformers comic series by IDW. Same Transformers continuity as the "Chaos Theory" arc I looked at a while ago, which is good, because I quite liked those.
What I've been told going in is that this short follows Megatron as he returns to power after a lengthy absence from the Decepticon leadership, and fixes the mess that his compulsive backstabber lieutenant Starscream made of things.
As a side note, I happen to have picked up through osmosis that IDWverse Starscream was a member of the old Cybertronian aristocracy before the revolution. Him being so highly-placed among the Decepticons, and him turning out to be a problem for their organization, is bound to have some interesting politics bundled up in it. So, I'm interested to see if this short does much with that, assuming I wasn't misinformed about the nature of IDW Starscream.
After a quick summary explaining where in the published timeline this story is set, we open on Megatron waking up in a freshly constructed new body. Apparently, his leave of absence was on account of him being temporarily dead, but that's a reversible situation if you're a cybertronian and your hard drive is still intact. He loses no time in booting himself up, assessing his new platform, and reminding everyone what a wilfully persistent hater he is.
I love how he's making a cheesy dramatic performance even in his inner monologues. When we saw a younger version of him in the last part I reviewed, he knew how to turn it off. By now, he's been hamming it up as the Decepticon Demagogue for so long that it takes conscious effort for him to break character.
After another cycle of tests by his technicians, Megatron has his communications specialist Soundwave take him on a tour of the facilities. It's a depressing tour. An asteroid base way out in the middle of nowhere. Low on fuel. Low on parts. Low on everything. The situation is dire.
As he walks, Megatron also has some unkind thoughts about Soundwave.
He really doesn't seem to like any of his underlings. Or at least, not any of the important ones.
...
On one hand, I've heard that this is a lot like what fascist communities (or at least, the online ones) are actually like from the inside. On the other...I don't know. The lack of even any affected warmth or shallow pleasantries feels off. Like we're leaning back on the original SatAm portrayal of the Decepticons rather than what I'd expect from the IDWverse.
Granted, they're in an awful situation, so their own ability to be patient with each other might be worn down. Still though, I feel like there's some kernel of pseudo-camaraderie that should be here but isn't. Maybe it's just me.
...
The tour ends with a visit to the brig, where the disgraced Starscream is imprisoned. This begins the scene that takes up most of the story, and...well, it doesn't go quite where I was expecting it to go. Granted, the stuff I was curious about (Starscream's class origins and what his presence within the Decepticon leadership says about both their approach to revolution and his understanding of their cause) was probably covered extensively in the main storyline, which the target audience of this short is expected to have already read. So, I can't exactly hold it against the comic.
Anyway, Starscream ends up looking a lot more pathetic than Megatron was expecting. But then, that's been true of everything else about the Decepticons since his revival, so it's not the biggest surprise ever at this point.
Of course, that doesn't mean Megatron is going to go easy on him. Quite the opposite; the state of things - including Starscream himself - is, after all, Starscream's own stupid fault.
It starts with Megatron calmly asking Starscream how he's doing, how everything is going, etc. Starscream barely answers. Again, very unusual for him. The guy never used to shut up even when Megatron wanted him to. Things might actually be different this time.
Eventually, Megatron gets something out of him. And it's a something that leads to some interesting questions in turn.
That's a good question. What does Starscream think he needs to be punished for? What, if anything, does he think he did wrong that resulted in the present situation?
The way he's acting definitely suggests that he's under no delusions about his own culpability. He's not acting like he believes himself to be blameless, or even like he can potentially convince anyone - himself included - that he is blameless. I really want to know how he ended up fucking everything up this badly. But, once again, the reader of this comic is expected to already know these details.
Starscream repeats that he's not going to give Megatron the satisfaction of an answer. So, reluctantly, Megatron answers his own question for him.
"Fleshlings," eh? The decepticons are relying on organic auxiliaries. And possibly even resorting to trade rather than tribute to get resources from organic species. Humans are probably one of the aforementioned species. Or possibly even the only one, idk. Anyway, that's just one of the many indignities that they've suffered in the three years since Megatron's incapacitation. They really got their shit kicked in, and in an extremely short period of time as cybertronians view things.
Finally, after wallowing in excessive verbal descriptions of how badly Starscream ruined everything, Starscream finally snaps. Baring his metallic teeth, he stands up, wheels on Megatron, and opens up on him with both armcannons. Erm...they didn't disable Starscream's weapons before locking him in there? Apparently not. This is made even more questionable by the fact that Starscream is shown to blast open the wall and make a hole leading out through the outer hull of the station.
Apparently, locking him in this cell was literally just the equivalent of telling him to stay in the time-out corner. Starscream's imprisonment was totally voluntary. And the others seem to have been aware of that fact, or they would have (probably literally) disarmed him.
Starscream goes into plane form and flies out into space before Megatron can retalliate. Megatron is elated: now see, THIS is the Starscream he's used to. This is a return to normalcy. It shows that things can be fixed back up.
I know that we're restricted to at least some degree by the original toy designs, but this scene still had me scratching my head all the way through on account of Megatron and Starscream's alternate forms. Especially Starscream's. We're not on Earth. It seems like we haven't been on Earth in a good while. Why is his alternate form still the one designed to pass as a human fighter plane, rather than something more efficient for space? Why is Megatron's altform also, from what I can see, designed to look like a vehicle for much smaller beings (at least, I'm pretty sure that's a cockpit with a canopy and windows that it's got there in front)? Do they just lack the imagination to customize these designs for efficiency over appearances? It seems very strange to me that the haughty, robot-supremacist Decepticons would demean themselves by disguising as organic aliens' vehicles when they don't have to.
Well, anyway.
The chase - punctuated by occasional rounds of Megatron catching up to Starscream and beating or shooting him up a little more - illustrates a bizarre sadomasochistic relationship between the two of them. One that I feel probably would be unpleasantly sexual in nature, if cybertronians were like that. Starscream needs someone to scheme against who will put him back in his place when he goes too far. Megatron needs someone to keep him sharp, and to vent his frustration on. Granted, we only hear Megatron's inner monologue here, but Starscream's failure to answer his final question when he finally wears him down and grabs him again indicates that Megatron isn't wrong.
Starscream says he wants it to be over, that he desires and deserves death. And yet, not only did he not simply commit robot-sepuku after his failure, but he also decided to flee after firing on Megatron just now.
If he really wanted to die, he'd have killed himself.
If he wanted his death to be a proper execution by the rightful leader of the Decepticons, he'd have demanded that Megatron kill him and kept shooting him until he granted his wish.
If he just wanted to be free of Megatron, he'd have blasted his way free and fled long before Megatron opened his cell door.
They're both here, doing this, because they want to. A pageant of childish violence, resentment, and cruelty for the sake of a non-existent audience. Not even they are entertained by their own performance. But they keep deciding to do it anyway.
My favorite couple of panels in this special is when we briefly cut to the other Decepticons watching this all from the base, and sort of boredly waiting for it to just finish already, it's dumb and they've seen it enough times before. One of them makes to try and get them to knock this off already, but his fellows quickly shoot that down. Seemingly afraid of what Megatron and/or Starscream might end up doing instead of this.
In the end, after extracting an empty show of submission from a "defeated" Starscream and thus being reassured that everything is back to normal, Megatron drags him back to the base and gives an empty speech. Ranting about how the boot of the oppressor is still on their necks, but their rage cannot be suppressed forever, Decepticons are stronger when their situation is worse, yadda yadda. I dont think anyone believes a word of this. I'm not sure if any of them even believe that they believe it. But they believe that they believe that they believe it, and that's enough to get this ship back on course.
And now, finally, Megatron thinks he can end this war for good.
Just like always. Just like it's been for countless millennia. This time they're playing to win. This time it's not just for show. Again.
Unlike Starscream, who seems like he might have actually been on the brink of a genuine character arc for a minute there before Megatron beat him out of it, Megatron is at no risk of ever actually letting anything revolutionary happen. Frankly, his relationship with Starscream is just a microcosm of his own fucked up hatecrush on Optimus, albeit less one-sided.
It's a darkly funny peek at the social dynamics you'd need to actually justify the cartoon supervillainy of G1 Transformers. That said, I don't feel like this story comes anywhere near the sophistication of the "Chaos Theory" arc.
It doesn't contradict it, per se. Nothing about this Megatron is irreconcilable with the one I read about in those issues. But, in Chaos Theory I feel like we were getting to peak behind the mask and actually see what fundamentally makes a decepticon tick. This spotlight is just zooming in on some of the details painted on the mask.
Well, mostly. There's one moment where I think Megatron and Starscream may have both been something approaching genuine, right before Megatron delivers the final beatdown and resets things to normal:
I don't know if Starscream meant this question to have the subtext that it does, or if he really was just wallowing in self-pity about his own recent fuckup. But I think that just for a moment here, Megatron was remembering the time when he actually thought he had a vision he was fighting for. Even if his primary motive for it was sanctimony and self-aggrandizement, he did have a thing he was trying to accomplish. He had a coherent picture in his head of what a better Cybertronian society might look like. And he has indeed seen it crumble.
But, it's just a moment. And the chase and beatdown sequences go on for quite a bit longer than I think they needed to.
Overall? Decent black comedy with some moments of depth, but not nearly on the level of Chaos Theory.
