I can Learn to Keep My Promises I Swear it, I Will Open up My Heart and I Will Share it, any Minute now I Will be Born Again.

Drift Issue 3. October 6th 2010.
Doesn’t your kind think of anything else?
First up, an embarrassing admission and correction to last week, albeit a suggestive one.
You may remember that I didn’t think The Circle of Light had been called by name yet. And indeed, when I asked on Twitter when that term pops up, I was assured by a few people that they were pretty sure it was indeed a James Roberts thing (I’m looking at you Other James especially).
But, after the piece went up, astute reader Post Mordor pointed out that not only did they call themselves The Circle of Light in issue 2, but they also did so an almost sarcastic amount of times.
Now, not to get all ass covering, but that several of us have completely missed something said out loud in the comic, does kind of show how much of a forgettable eye sliding off the page book this is.
Doesn’t your kind think of anything else?
First up, an embarrassing admission and correction to last week, albeit a suggestive one.
You may remember that I didn’t think The Circle of Light had been called by name yet. And indeed, when I asked on Twitter when that term pops up, I was assured by a few people that they were pretty sure it was indeed a James Roberts thing (I’m looking at you Other James especially).
But, after the piece went up, astute reader Post Mordor pointed out that not only did they call themselves The Circle of Light in issue 2, but they also did so an almost sarcastic amount of times.
Now, not to get all ass covering, but that several of us have completely missed something said out loud in the comic, does kind of show how much of a forgettable eye sliding off the page book this is.

Something that can be borne out by the TFWiki page for this third issue. Which has a synopsis and character list, but the only note about the issue as a whole is to point out an error in the preview for the Transformers: Prime comic at the back.
So, in short, any mistakes are everyone else’s fault but mine.
We open on a pretentious voiceover from Drift as he heads back to Crystal City, where he muses on the times in one’s life where you have to make a choice about how far you’re prepared to go to get what you want. Where he’s so deep in thought his eyes have gone permanently into shadow.
Wing, realising he’s failed in his basic job of stopping Drift wandering off by himself, is deeply annoyed that Drift wandered off by himself. To which Drift wonders why Wing is so keen to stand against the Knights (which I’d guess is the first oblique reference to the Knights of Cybertron, but after the Circle of Light, I’d not want to bet), to which Wing slightly nonsensically replies it’s because he believes “Helping another is the highest cause one can aspire to”.
So, in short, any mistakes are everyone else’s fault but mine.
We open on a pretentious voiceover from Drift as he heads back to Crystal City, where he muses on the times in one’s life where you have to make a choice about how far you’re prepared to go to get what you want. Where he’s so deep in thought his eyes have gone permanently into shadow.
Wing, realising he’s failed in his basic job of stopping Drift wandering off by himself, is deeply annoyed that Drift wandered off by himself. To which Drift wonders why Wing is so keen to stand against the Knights (which I’d guess is the first oblique reference to the Knights of Cybertron, but after the Circle of Light, I’d not want to bet), to which Wing slightly nonsensically replies it’s because he believes “Helping another is the highest cause one can aspire to”.

Luckily, this makes Drift go all shadow eyed again as he makes his choice, going to the Circle of Light and telling them the slavers have an army and are coming… because he made a deal with them to sell the city out.
Leading us to a flashback within a flashback, as Lockdown remembers what Deadlock used to be, a great Decepticon. Giving us an unfortunate moment of Milne art where happy Decepticon warrior Deadlock has the goofiest silly grin on his face that feels weirdly out of place.
Exiting the double flashback and entering just the flashback, Lockdown, at the end of issue 2, lays down the law to “Deadlock.” Megatron is fully aware of the Turmoil situation, but also just loves his fuzzy good boy too much, so he’s sent Lockdown to bring Drift back safely.
Which is actually a nice twist, the bounty hunter is not there to fulfil the contract Turmoil took out on Drift, but to look after him.
Leading us to a flashback within a flashback, as Lockdown remembers what Deadlock used to be, a great Decepticon. Giving us an unfortunate moment of Milne art where happy Decepticon warrior Deadlock has the goofiest silly grin on his face that feels weirdly out of place.
Exiting the double flashback and entering just the flashback, Lockdown, at the end of issue 2, lays down the law to “Deadlock.” Megatron is fully aware of the Turmoil situation, but also just loves his fuzzy good boy too much, so he’s sent Lockdown to bring Drift back safely.
Which is actually a nice twist, the bounty hunter is not there to fulfil the contract Turmoil took out on Drift, but to look after him.

The slaver then quickly explains their own situation: Their species has fought lots of nasty wars as well and is now obsessed with immortality. The “Slaves” are really test subjects, and they want some Cybertronian ones to experiment with mechanical add-ons from a nearly unkillable species. And they know there’s more than just the guy in the cloak they saw with Drift, because his own repairs after the beating they gave him could only have been done by multiple people with facilities.
So, the deal they’ve made with Lockdown is: Drift will go and lure the other Transformers into a trap. At which point, Lockdown will consider everything forgiven. So don’t make that faith Megatron has him in misplaced.
Now, I can understand why Lockdown might want to do a little test of Drift, but I really can’t see why he cares about the slavers enough to come up with a plan to help them out. Nor why either side is trusting the other.
So, the deal they’ve made with Lockdown is: Drift will go and lure the other Transformers into a trap. At which point, Lockdown will consider everything forgiven. So don’t make that faith Megatron has him in misplaced.
Now, I can understand why Lockdown might want to do a little test of Drift, but I really can’t see why he cares about the slavers enough to come up with a plan to help them out. Nor why either side is trusting the other.

Back in the present, Drift hilariously tries to claim he was always doing a double bluff and only agreed to sell them out so he could get away from Lockdown. Even though we’ve already seen his black shadow eyed internal conflict from only having made his mind up from talking to Wing.
Dai Atlas is not convinced either, even slapping Drift about as he tries to explain his counter plan (with input from more open members of the Circle): The Slavers don’t know about the City or the numbers of the Cybertronians, so create a fake spaceship crash with survivors, have Drift lead the Slavers there and, even if they lose the fight, it means the City itself will remain undiscovered and everyone else will be fine.
Which really depends on them putting this crashed spaceship in a place they can be sure the Slavers won’t just look at it and go “There wasn’t a spaceship there when we already searched that territory.”
Atlas is determined not to fight and become “Like” Drift, even refusing to open up the armoury. But enough people are prepared to fight with Drift to make it a goer.
Dai Atlas is not convinced either, even slapping Drift about as he tries to explain his counter plan (with input from more open members of the Circle): The Slavers don’t know about the City or the numbers of the Cybertronians, so create a fake spaceship crash with survivors, have Drift lead the Slavers there and, even if they lose the fight, it means the City itself will remain undiscovered and everyone else will be fine.
Which really depends on them putting this crashed spaceship in a place they can be sure the Slavers won’t just look at it and go “There wasn’t a spaceship there when we already searched that territory.”
Atlas is determined not to fight and become “Like” Drift, even refusing to open up the armoury. But enough people are prepared to fight with Drift to make it a goer.

This whole anti-pacifist scene feels rather like Ian and the Doctor convincing the Thals they must fight the Daleks in the first appearance of the pepper-pots in Doctor Who. And the “You can’t appease some evils” is as relevant a message as ever.
But Dai Atlas is just annoying and no one else even has a name, let alone a character, so it feels less a moral debate and more a petulant spat and this reader certainly doesn’t have any investment in it.
Still, with time against them, the plan is put into play, but for some reason Wing decides that Drift needs another redesign, giving us a full page reveal of him in his All Hail Megatron look. Though it’s a damp squib as his original rebuild wasn’t different enough for me to have realised he wasn’t already in it.
Thankfully, this isn’t quite the cliff-hanger, though the actual one isn’t much more dramatic as Drift just thinks on what a tough fight they’re about to have.
But Dai Atlas is just annoying and no one else even has a name, let alone a character, so it feels less a moral debate and more a petulant spat and this reader certainly doesn’t have any investment in it.
Still, with time against them, the plan is put into play, but for some reason Wing decides that Drift needs another redesign, giving us a full page reveal of him in his All Hail Megatron look. Though it’s a damp squib as his original rebuild wasn’t different enough for me to have realised he wasn’t already in it.
Thankfully, this isn’t quite the cliff-hanger, though the actual one isn’t much more dramatic as Drift just thinks on what a tough fight they’re about to have.

Again, not a bad issue, but not an especially dramatic or exciting one, with Lockdown being a completely reasonable guy being the highlight.
But it feels we’re getting characters repeating themselves a lot to pad things out, the moral heart of the big Circle of Light scene is lacking and, three issues in, I really don’t care enough about the titular character to have any investment in his internal struggle.
So, it would be unfair to call it a disaster, but it’s not exciting enough to have me chomping at the bit for the conclusion.
Speaking of chomping at the bit, next week the Predacons have China in their hands.
DRIFT ISSUE 2
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
But it feels we’re getting characters repeating themselves a lot to pad things out, the moral heart of the big Circle of Light scene is lacking and, three issues in, I really don’t care enough about the titular character to have any investment in his internal struggle.
So, it would be unfair to call it a disaster, but it’s not exciting enough to have me chomping at the bit for the conclusion.
Speaking of chomping at the bit, next week the Predacons have China in their hands.
DRIFT ISSUE 2
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI