Everything in Its Right Place

« The Transformers: All Hail Megatron #15 »
Insert Saving Private Ryan quote here for maximum effect.
"Everything in Its Right Place"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 16, 2009
Cover date	September 2009
Written by	Nick Roche with assistance from James Roberts
Art by	Nick Roche
Colors by	Kris Carter
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor	Carlos Guzman
Associate editor	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	pre-All Hail Megatron

Prowl seeks to create a loved proxy for his machinations.

Synopsis

Prowl admits to himself that Springer's arrival on Ark-17 could not have begun any other way. Indeed, the Autobot tactician had predicted Springer's reaction to finding the convalescent veteran Kup missing from the Autobot ship: a sudden uppercut to Prowl's jaw. Letting Springer vent, Prowl rights himself while he internally laments that so many of the Autobot forces follow the Wrecker commander's example and have become mavericks and loose cannons. Seeing his opportunity, Prowl silences Springer with the revelation of why Kup is not on the ship, the fact that Perceptor and his team of scientists have gotten the old codger up and running again. Springer expresses doubt, having seen the emaciated madman that Kup had been reduced to. Prowl counters by revealing that Perceptor had teamed with the talented Autobots of the Kimia Facility and had achieved a technological breakthrough with some rather unusual procedures. Springer is wary, as due to his role as Wrecker leader his primary experience with the facility has been in testing experimental weaponry. Prowl reminds Springer that the facility was also where the successful refinement of the Pretender process reverse-engineered from Decepticon technology was accomplished. He then explains that the same principles were applied to resolve Kup's technological incompatibility with modern upgrades, with Kup's cerebro-cortex interfacing with his new body in a nearly identical manner, though he cannot separate from his Pretender carapace.

Springer's reactions are still mixed until Prowl shows him footage of Kup's new body in combat trials. Indeed, it appears that Springer's old commanding officer is fully rehabilitated, in a body that moves like it's in the prime of youth. Springer however notices a foreign object in Kup's mouth, a cy-gar. Asking why Kup has such a relic of the decadent pre-war days of Cybertron, Springer is told by Prowl that this is how Perceptor keeps the veteran from lapsing into flashbacks of his time stranded on the alien world. Emitting a synthetic replica of the radiation Kup had become addicted to, the cy-gar manages his cravings and keeps him mentally stable. Internally, Prowl notes that without Kup's continued mental stability his own plans for the veteran would be for naught. Reassuring Springer, he notes that Kup is a potent symbol to rally the Autobot troops behind.

Don't do drugs, Kup.

Finally allowed to see Kup in person, Springer's doubts are nearly all laid to rest. Kup is undergoing a final diagnostic disassembly before resuming field duty, and is jovial, joking with his former subordinate. However, when seeing his own arm laying on the nearby table, Kup briefly begins to have a flashback, only snapped out of it by Perceptor supplying his cy-gar to him. Stabilized, his friendly demeanor returns and a still-nervous Springer expresses gratitude to see him rejoining their ranks.

Prowl recalls his meetings with Perceptor and the scientist's reluctance to be assigned directly to Kup in the field. He had to remind Perceptor that the Autobot ranks look up to Kup, and that if their secret actions at reforming the way Autobots look at tactics were to be successful they needed the veteran stable and able to capably lead others by example. In so doing, they might turn the tide of the war and have the Autobots fighting more effectively overall, bringing about peace sooner.

Meanwhile, Prowl and Springer discuss that Kup will never be told what he did while stranded on that remote planet. Prowl addresses Springer's concerns, stating that all involved have been contacted and sworn to silence.

After Springer departs, Prowl muses further on the streak of individuality and insubordination that inevitably undermines all Autobot tactics. Even Optimus Prime, he notes, seems more inclined to listen to the bellicose plans of Ironhide than his own more sound battle strategies. That is all about to change, if the personality subroutines installed in Kup take hold. Personality subroutines that will have Kup give the advice that Prowl wants him to give...

He recalls another conversation with Perceptor, in which the scientist noted with no small amount of irony that in doing this Prowl had gone maverick himself, conducting secret plans beyond the chain of command. Prowl felt no contradiction in this, as what separated him from an individual like Hot Rod was the fact that none of what he was doing was something he sought recognition or admiration for. Instead, his only concern was the shared success of the Autobot forces and the final resolution of the Cybertronian civil war.

Featured characters

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

Quotes

"Tell me you didn't just drag Kup here to reverse-engineer some kind of weapon that can inflict that sort of radiation damage on a Decepticon?"
"No, Springer--"
But don't think I didn't consider it.

—Springer, Prowl, and Prowl's narration

"The average Autobot default setting is daredevil, maverick. That's not us, Perceptor. We can subdivide this war into its purest mathematical form and generate solutions all we want, but unless we happen to be surfing on a meteoroid at the time, no one will pay attention."

—Prowl demonstrates he has read Spotlight: Hot Rod

"Kup can never know what happened on that planet, or what we did--"
"What you did."
"--what was done to get him back. If he knew that his life was valued over the dozens we sent to die at his hands, then he'll just go and throw himself into the nearest sun and have done with it."

—Springer and Prowl

"But with Kup, everyone wants to hear what he has to say. So now, when he speaks... you won't even see my lips move."

—Prowl

Notes

Continuity notes

• The implication of page 10 is that Optimus was listening to people like Ironhide during All Hail Megatron and that's how the Autobots blundered into a trap.
• Thunderwing is depicted as his pre-Pretender self.
• This is not the first time Prowl has shown annoyance with his situation.
• Prowl has been labelled a prick before because he's a bit of a jerk to the cool characters. Now he's an all-out ambiguous figure, willing to do highly amoral and immoral actions in order to win the war quickly and efficiently, and all without an interest in getting credit for doing it. Which makes him... well, frakking scary, to be honest. Writer Mike Costa has said these eleven pages "defined" the IDW version of the character.^[1] Then he changed him. But aside from that, Prowl here becomes the Prowl you see in every later IDW story, starting with Last Stand.
• The subroutines Prowl installed in Kup's mind would ultimately go unused throughout the remainder of the war, until he was forced to activate them to speak through Kup in the second issue of Sins of the Wreckers, which at the same time exposed the act to the disapproving eyes of Autobot allies.
• Prowl's insubordination files on Ratchet, Hot Rod, Grimlock, and Springer flag up some habits of those characters that Prowl finds displeasing by referencing events we've seen prior:
  • Ratchet has a tendency towards insubordination and has made repeated unauthorized contact with natives on planets the Autobots are active on. The latter alludes to Infiltration, the very first IDW Transformers series, and his friendship with Hunter O'Nion, Verity Carlo, and Jimmy Pink that began in that story.
  • Hot Rod has repeatedly lost lives under his command on nonessential missions due to his recklessness and once refused to comply with a planetary evacuation order. The former might be meant to reference Spotlight: Hot Rod (but see "Errors" below), while the latter would be him sticking behind on Earth to hunt the Machination rather than following Optimus Prime's command to leave at the end of Devastation. Note that Prowl didn't want to leave Earth either, yet he judges Hot Rod for actually doing something about it. Ho-hum.
  • Grimlock has an unsurprisingly huge number of recorded instances of insubordination and general troublemaking — 113 in total! — which specifically includes a tendency to ignore disguise protocols and appropriating resources for his personal vendettas. The former is a bit of a fourth-wall wink about the Dinobots not inherently fitting with the "robots in disguise" aspect of the series, while the latter is specifically referring to his beef with Shockwave that led to the events of Spotlight: Shockwave.
  • Springer is still in hot water for the events of Spotlight: Kup because of repeatedly sending untrained science teams to retrieve Kup, leading to him killing many of the team members in his delusional fits. According to Prowl, this was highly against protocol, and sure enough, Prowl made an appearance in Spotlight: Kup specifically complaining about Springer wasting lives and resources in his desperate rush to rescue Kup rather than simply waiting for specialists to arrive.

Transformers references

• "Surfing on a meteoroid" may be a nod to Spotlight: Hot Rod, which Roche also drew.
• Grimlock has 113 files devoted to his insubordination. The number is likely a reference to issue #113 of the Marvel UK Transformers comic, the issue which got James Roberts hooked on the series. It reappears multiple times in the Roberts-written Last Stand of the Wreckers and More than Meets the Eye.
• Prowl refers to Springer's repeated turns of phrase as Springerisms.

Real-world references

• "Everything in its Right Place" is the title of a song by English rock band Radiohead. This is not the first time a Radiohead reference would be found in Roche's work.

Errors

• In panel 4 on page 4, the markings on Prowl's door read "Highway Patrol Patrol" instead of "Highway Patrol Police".
• While the presence of Hot Rod in the "insubordination files" is not out of place by itself, one of the reported instances is quite odd, as it seems to refer to the events shown in Spotlight: Hot Rod, which specifically displays him following, for once, the protocols of the mission by prioritizing the securing of the Magnificence first, a key-essential artifact in the conflict, rather than playing hero and come back to rescue Dealer instead. This can hardly be considered "Loss of lives under his command while on non-essential missions" or even be classified as insubordination. Maybe the file refers to a different event, but in this case, we haven't yet seen Hot Rod display the kind of guilt he had experienced over the retrieving of the Magnificence.

Foreign localization

Swedish

• • Title: "Allt på rätt ställe" or "Allt på rätt plats" ("Everything in Its Right Place")

Reprints

Other than full or partial collections of All Hail Megatron.

• Transformers: Wreckers sista strid (June 8, 2018) ISBN 978-91-88131-23-2
  • Swedish reprint volume published from Ades Media, translated by Johan Boström.
  • Includes all content from English hardcover, as well as Spotlight: Kup and "Everything in Its Right Place" plus Wreckers: Sweclassified, a short article from Boström.

• 

  Wreckers sista strid – cover art by Trevor Hutchison

References