Just a quick thumbnail I made. My wife is making a comic dub for her YouTube channel and I volunteered to help by making some of the music and drawing the thumbnails!
Really happy with how both turned out. Can't wait to share the whole thing with you. 😁
More Than Meets the Eye #47 — Cyclonus Cries Alone in His Room Because He Wants to Hold Hands With Tailgate
Oh wow, a literal love triangle! I’m certain this will resolve in a way that’s satisfying for all parties involved, without any underhanded bullshit whatsoever!
The funny thing is, we don’t really know all that much about Getaway. We know he’s cold constructed, that he used to work for Prowl and alongside Skids, that he’s got an interest in Tailgate that he expresses in… dubious fashion, and that he’s got an unfortunate habit of standing in lighting that makes him look like a murderer.
But who is Getaway, really? What made him the man he is today?
Well, you see, it all started the day he was born.
Getaway of the Corcapsia Incursion is an MTO, who had his frozen spark ripped out of a cooler and stuffed into the lifeless husk that would become his body a few minutes before he got tossed out of the plane that was his birthplace. He didn’t want to fight, or do any of the shit he’d been told to do, so he high-tailed it out of there.
I suppose this is certainly a topic of discussion for a date. If you wanted the date to suck, anyhow.
Getaway and Tailgate are once again hanging out and drinking, because apparently they can’t have fun without being inebriated and talking trash about people who aren’t there to defend themselves. This little moment of vulnerability was in the middle of Getaway teaching Tailgate to speak chirolinguistics, because Tailgate is “disarming” and “easy to talk to” and “so much nicer and sweeter than his shitty roommate Cyclonus, who totally eats babies and no that’s not a euphemism”. Tailgate’s a little weirded out by the random diversion in conversation, but lets it go, since he is getting free sign language lessons out of this deal.
Tailgate tells Getaway about how Cyclonus held his hand and sang to him while he was dying, which reminds him how he never got those Old Cybertronian lessons from the big purple space jet. Getaway doesn’t seem to enjoy being compared to Cyclonus, or perhaps even the mention of him at all.
Then things get a little disjointed, as Getaway is revealed to have Nautica’s wrench, which he uses to uncover a hiding Ravage— except Ravage isn’t hiding, because this is a public venue and he’s a fucking adult who can drink if he wants to. Getaway asks Tailgate to come with him, so he can give him something. Most of these panels have the backgrounds blacked out. I’m sure it’s fine, and not symbolic of some shitfuckery going on.
Over in habitation suite 14, Cyclonus wakes up from his nap to find that Tailgate isn’t there. It is presumably late in the evening, though I’m guessing at this, since space is dark no matter what. Cyclonus heads over to Swerve’s, where he catches the grave sin of PDA.
Yeah, I know, you wanna hold hands too, you emotionally-constipated sap.
Cyclonus sits down at the bar, where Swerve seems to know exactly what’s on his mind. Letting Cyclonus know that Tailgate’s with another man, our barkeep gives him a free drink to nurse his wounds with. Cyclonus takes a shot, then goes to do something that appears to make him nervous.
Over in Getaway’s room, it would appear that Tailgate’s gift was a pair of clip-on mnemo-needles. Tailgate, while not wanting to seem ungrateful, is utterly baffled as to why Getaway would think he wanted surgical equipment, not even remembering the conversation they had about how cool Chromedome’s needles are. But I’m sure that’s fine, and certainly not something to worry about.
Getaway’s gift comes with strings attached, however, as the man stumbles through asking Tailgate a very important question. See, in order to become Conjunx Endura, you have to go through the Conjunx Ritus, which is broken down into four parts, which take place in a location that holds fond memories for all parties involved:
The Act of Intimacy — usually physical contact. Yes, getting your dick wet probably counts.
The Act of Disclosure — the initiator of the ritual reveals a secret or deeply personal information, which doesn’t exactly make them look good, showing trust in all other involved parties.
The Act of Profference — a present. Pretty straight-forward, despite the fancy name.
The Act of Devotion — I’ll let Getaway explain this one.
So where exactly does the consent come into the ritual, Getaway? Because it sort of seems like you’ve sprung a massive life change on Tailgate without any sort of input from him! Hell, you literally just told him what the ritual is! You two haven’t even lived together you absolute goon.
Tailgate, who seems to be feeling a lot of pressure to say “yes” to all this immediately, asks what exactly Getaway wants him to do.
While this sketchy shit is going down, we see where Cyclonus has gotten to. He knocks on a door, and is greeted by Whirl and a gun. Whirl lets him in, showing off his surprisingly nice room and collection of alarm clocks. When Cyclonus asks why he’s got roughly 300 clocks, Whirl tells him to fuck off and get to the point.
Cyclonus takes a seat and admits that he misses spending time with Tailgate. Well, “admits” in his own, Cyclonus-y way. He worries that Getaway is eating up all of Tailgate’s time, and also treating him in ways that maybe aren’t very good for him. Which he would be correct about, but it’s not like Cyclonus would ever stoop so low as to actually voice his concerns to Tailgate himself. That would be too close to admitting that he’s got feelings that can be hurt.
Whirl lets Cyclonus finish before laughing in his face at his audacity to think that Tailgate gives a shit about him or owes him any of his time, just because they share a room and did a spark transfusion. Which while harsh, is true. Cyclonus sort of talks around the real point of the matter, going so far as to say he cares about Tailgate, which for Cyclonus is equivalent to saying he’s madly in love and can’t live without him. But again, Tailgate doesn’t actually owe Cyclonus anything, especially since Cyclonus has refused to voice any actual concern about their relationship status, or Getaway’s whole deal.
That, and Getaway’s apparently hot. I don’t see it, but maybe Tailgate does. He’s allowed to want to fool around with a hot guy.
Cyclonus seems to have gotten what he came for, and decides to leave, thanking Whirl as he does. When Whirl asks why the hell he’s being thanked, or why Cyclonus sought him out in the first place, Cyclonus tells him that Whirl was the only one he trusted to give him the truth and not coddle him. With that, he leaves, leaving Whirl to think. Whirl, who has never had a positive relationship with anyone for more than two minutes without it all going to shit, is starting to feel something for Cyclonus.
The feeling is friendship. And maybe a little pity.
As such, he holds a meeting with his co-conspirators.
Oh, this can only mean good things, surely!
Whirl thinks that using Tailgate as a weapon is a bad idea, and Atomizer blames this whole situation on Whirl not dying at the hands of Megatron back in issue #28. So that confirms that Whirl didn’t steal that bow, but was rather loaned it for the purposes of suicide for the greater good. How does Getaway feel about Whirl’s sudden change of heart?
Well, considering he’s been literally grooming Tailgate for the role of sacrificial lamb, so they could get Megatron sent back to Cybertron/killed, I’d say his opinion doesn’t really matter all that much.
Yes, the entire relationship has been a farce, meant to get Tailgate to do whatever Getaway needs him to do.
We get a flashback to complete their conversation from earlier, where Getaway explained that Tailgate’s mnemo-needles would inject Megatron with an “anti-villain” virus, removing his bad thoughts and keeping him from ever returning to his evil ways! Wow! How convenient!
When Tailgate didn’t seem totally on-board with this plan, Getaway laid it on thick, appealing to Tailgate’s desire to protect the people he cares about. He also gave Tailgate the wrench to detect Ravage with, for the sake of protection. Tailgate is (quite reasonably) terrified by the idea of going to defile a former warlord’s brain all by himself, but Getaway understands! And if Tailgate is too much of a crybaby bitch to keep everyone he’s ever loved from being murdered, that fine! They just won’t get space married. Oh, but wouldn’t this stunt be just the thing to finally earn Cyclonus’s approval, at long, long last?
That last point is what finally cinches it for Tailgate, as Getaway knew it would. Given what he’s about to put Tailgate through, I hope it burns him up all even after all that work, he had to lean on Tailgate’s desire for Cyclonus to be proud of him than any love he might hold for Getaway himself.
Getaway explains to Whirl that the Ravage-detector on the wrench has been disabled, and Tailgate being beat to death by Megatron in a needle-induced panic will be a small price to pay for a genocidal maniac to finally be brought to justice. Atomizer stands in the foreground wearing some highly fashionable ominous shadows on his gun-toting arm. Whirl messes with his clocks while they converse, as if he knows what’s about to happen to him. Atomizer blasts him in the back of the head with the nudge gun while Getaway makes a bad joke, and the two leave Whirl on the floor to pass out.
Whirl, however, is much smarter than most give him credit for, and prior to succumbing to memory erasure, he pops on his holoform program, bouncing his avatar around the ship until he reaches the one guy who can and will go absolutely berserk to keep Tailgate safe.
With only a moment before she fades out of existence, Cyclonus gets the idea that something’s wrong and bolts for Whirl’s room. He passes by Getaway and Atomizer as he does, and Getaway has the gall to be cheeky about it. When he gets to Whirl’s room, Cyclonus finds the guy on the floor with a killer headache, and roughly twenty clocks that all read the same, incorrect time— 1:13.
Tailgate enters Megatron’s room at this point, not seeing Ravage on the floor by the recharge slab. Cyclonus sprints down, sword in hand, as Megatron is woken by Ravage and panics when he finds a guy with needles trying to poke him in the brain. Cyclonus rushes in before too much murder can happen, however, javelin-tossing his sword into Megatron’s chest and spin kicking Ravage into oblivion, before beating Megatron into unconsciousness with a flat screen television.
When will YOUR man do this much for you and look good doing it?
Tailgate takes Cyclonus’s hand and they book it from the scene of the crime. As they do, Tailgate realizes that Getaway’s gift and the anti-villain virus were both bullshit. However, we can’t fix the past, so now Cyclonus is taking them to the shuttles to run away from their problems, which is sad, because this is their home. As they’re running down the hall, the alarms sound, and Tailgate realizes something about his and Cyclonus’s relationship.
Tailgate, I know this is very poignant and sweet, but, again, marriage is a mutually agreed-upon decision, that happens after you two can actually have conversations about feelings that don’t require one of you dying.
The pair reach the shuttle bay, but Cyclonus is given a warning shot in the back by the security team, one of which has a machine gun. Typical wannabe cops. Cyclonus reaches for his sword, and this is all it takes for the entire team to fire on him, as well as Tailgate. Hey fuckers, swords are waaaaaay slower than gunfire!
Cyclonus scoops Tailgate up to his chest to protect him from the guns, his back getting blasted to pieces as he does. He tells Tailgate goodbye, then falls to the ground, presumably dead. The security team ceases fire, giving Tailgate time to cry over his dead not-boyfriend. Then this happens.
Just a typical Friday night in the sad, gay space comic.
Just read the latest IDW issue; extremely charming story and artwork. It can be easy to get too sentimental with a sort of "power of teamwork" plot and climax, but the tension felt quite real, and it was really sweet to see the characters bounce off of each other and learn their strengths. The little letter at the end of the issue was when I went "Thaaat's why she picked this", as something about it felt too specific to just be a premise Evan pulled from a hat and rolled with.
The pencils, inks, and coloring also fit snugly together. Having a separate artist do the inks gives the penciller time to make scenes even more rich in detail and polish, and it really shows here. I'm familiar with Evan's other work and personal projects, and have the feeling this setup gave her the chance to make the backgrounds feel more rich, detailed, and lived-in like she usually does in her sketches. The expressions also felt a bit more lively in this issue, while still feeling very grounded. Both Matts, Herms and Froese, also handle coloring and inking respectively with fantastic consistency, and vibrantly bring it all to life.
I think this issue in particular encapsulates the specific strengths and style of IDW Sonic very well, working as a great benchmark for how these issues should be and what anyone should expect, both artwise and storywise.
