Faces of Darkness

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"Faces of Darkness"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	March 27, 2013
Story by	Chris Metzen & Flint Dille
Art by	Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Before the war

Megatron finds a surprising ally on the inhospitable world of Junkion while the Dynobots find that someone else is targeting their loot.

Synopsis

The Dynobots systematically pipe the Toraxxis mega-refinery's energon into tankers while Swoop continues to stress the fact that they need to get off Cybertron before they snap and start causing major damage. When Grimlock tells them to shut up and get back to work, Slag gets ticked off and accuses him of getting them into this mess to begin with, then strikes off on his own.

On Junkion, Megatron is caught in an ionized acid rain storm and takes cover in the wreckage of a nearby starship where he finds another occupant trapped under some debris. The alien introduces himself as Pentius, a Quintesson who has been stuck in that very spot for centuries, spending his time using his ship's computers to map and memorize the surface of Junkion. Claiming to have expected Megatron, his fellow "king without a throne", he ominously warns the Decepticon that on this monstrous planet power is everything, and the only way to survive is to become a monster yourself. After Pentius tells him that there may be a way off the planet at the Pillar of Rust within the eye of the ion storm, Megatron frees him from the debris to serve as his guide... and slave.

Meanwhile, at Kolkular, Starscream approaches Scorponok and suggests that it's time to take action and prove to the other Decepticons that there's more to his leadership than just grandiose speeches. Scorponok agrees, revealing his plan to conquer the Toraxxis mega-refinery and drain it of fuel, furthering the global energon crisis and causing Optimus Prime's Grand Convocation to collapse as the members fight amongst themselves over what energon is left.

Optimus Prime himself is busy organizing a meeting with Dai Atlas at Metroplex's sparring arena, asking him if his Circle of Light could help recruit strong soldiers for the new Autobot army. When Atlas refuses to send his followers to die in Prime's war, Prime warns him that pacifism won't get him anywhere with the Decepticons, causing Atlas to grow angry and show off exactly how "pacifistic" he is by easily slicing a group of auto-combatants into pieces. He explains that he's a patriot, not a pacifist, but he's witnessed the cost of unrestrained hatred before and knows all too well that resorting to violence will only lead to more violence.

As dawn rises on Toraxxis, the Dynobots prepare to head out with their ill-gotten gains only to come under attack from Scorponok's Decepticons, who have arrived to steal the refinery's fuel only find it's already being stolen. Thankfully Slag returns to his mates just in time to take out some of the 'cons, shrugging off the save by claiming he "got bored" alone, but his help doesn't even the odds and Grimlock is soon standing face to face with Scorponok. The Dynobot leader doesn't feel threatened though, since he's already triggered the refinery's alarm, summoning Autobot reinforcements in the form of Sky Lynx!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• The title of this issue is a reference to "Five Faces of Darkness", the five-part season premiere of the third season of the Generation 1 cartoon, which was also written by Flint Dille and involved Quintessons.
• Similar to his fellow Triple Changer Astrotrain, Tankor is positively gigantic in plane mode.

Errors

• Slag and Snarl's dialog is switched around in the very first panel.

Reprints

Other than collections of the full series.

• N/A