The Recap Page: Get Caught Up Ahead of ‘Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye’ #50

With so many great comics series to read, it can be difficult keeping track of everything that happened from issue to issue. The Recap Page is a new feature to help readers get caught up ahead of milestone issues and jumping-on points.

This week sees the publication of Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #50, written by James Roberts, illustrated by Alex Milne & Brendan Cahill, and Megatron's past is about to catch up with him in a major way. The path to issue #50 includes a gruesome serial killer and a Transformer-turned-Superman. Here's where you can get all caught up...

The Story So Far: At the beginning of the series, the Transformers finally reached the end of their million-years-war, with the Autobots victorious… although it may not seem like it. The Autobot Rodimus decided to set off into the stars with a crew of misfits and also-rans to find the progenitors of the Transformer race, the Knights of Cybertron… joined, of late, by the reformed(?) founder of the Decepticons, Megatron.

If you haven’t heard, we like More Than Meets the Eye a lot 'round these here parts. It’s full of gorgeous art, hilarious writing, heartbreak, action, and long-form plotting so intricate that you could be forgiven for thinking James Roberts had a time machine.

What Happened Last Time? A subplot with a small group of Autobots – including Getaway and Atomizer and, somewhat more reluctantly, Whirl – came to a head, as they attempted to manipulate Tailgate, the wide-eyed winner of the Most Adorable Widdle Wobot Yes He Is Award, into attacking Megatron. The plot, intended to get Megatron thrown off the ship, was thwarted by Cyclonus, who was nearly killed – and seeing this happen to the robot Tailgate whom cared about more than anything else sent Tailgate into an unusual coma.

Last issue, the ship confronted a serial killer, a memory surgeon who feeds on guilt, and that sucks memories out through the eyes of Transformers, turning them inside out in the process.

Yes, it’s a serial killer that simulates a dog chewing on your favorite Transformer toy. Next up is a monster that peels all the stickers off and makes you lose a critical piece of their alt-mode.

Deeply seated memories within Skids were pulled up to the surface, ethical lapses in the career of ship psychologist Rung were brought to light, and Megatron formally declared himself to be a pacifist, which is a hell of a shift from wanting to wipe out everything in the galaxy that isn’t a Transformer. But it fits the character arc that Megatron’s been given, as a character driven to shift between extremes – from political agitator to brutal dictator, from Decepticon to Autobot, and now from someone who has canonically killed an eye-watering number of beings to someone who will refuse to harm a one. Character twists that in retrospect were perfectly logical is a hallmark of the series, and what gives it its spark (so to speak.)

Also: Tailgate is Superman now.

This is not code language. I am saying Tailgate is Superman, because Tailgate has Superman’s powers now. This happened.

Nothing else I could say would make more sense given what Tailgate threw and who he threw it at.

What's Next? Megatron’s pacifism is due to face its first major test: the crew of the Lost Light is about to run into the Decepticon Justice Division.

The Decepticon Justice Division has been described as “certain death but with more letters.” They were Megatron’s secret police, used to keep Decepticons from defecting from the ranks or deviating from Decepticon philosophy. Megatron abandoning Decepticonism has only made the DJD angrier, because to them, the Decepticon philosophy cannot fail; it can only be failed. Now Megatron’s made the list, and the others on board the ship may pay the price.

A crew of war-torn survivors trying to put a war behind them, versus an elite band of sadists who will never let the war be over. This is the confrontation the series has been building towards, arguably moreso than actually finding the Knights of Cybertron – and I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t find out more about them in the process as well.

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