Several months ago, shortly before the launch of the Lost Light, Brainstorm—eager to further his research of the Dead Universe—carries out some tests on Hardhead. A scanning device shows two lifesigns in the room: one for Brainstorm, one for Hardhead, proving that Hardhead is indeed alive once more after his experiences in the Dead Universe. Hardhead is incredulous, but just as Brainstorm is explaining the wily ways of the Dead Universe, a bolt of energy leaps from the corpse of Nova Prime—kept in Brainstorm's lab as another object of study—and strikes the scientist. He appears to be fine, but the dropped scanner, forgotten by the pair, now detects only one lifesign...

In the present day, Shockwave's Ammonite army descends upon Cybertron. The Autobots and Decepticons begin fighting back immediately, but Bumblebee, seeing the futility of a counter-attack, begins issuing orders to have the planet evacuated. Perceptor stops him with a grave realization: he has observed cosmological blueshift, which indicates that space and time are collapsing.

In Crystal City, Bludgeon reports Galvatron's apparent expiration to a disinterested Shockwave. Jhiaxus presents Shockwave with the chronal drive, now containing the drained life-energy of the entire Dead Universe, and as Shockwave integrates it into his body, he momentarily becomes psychologically unstuck in time and is overwhelmed with visions of his past life. As he struggles to process the experience, Jhiaxus explains the plans with scientific relish to Bludgeon as he dons a suit of armor, then orders Monstructor to join the battle in Iacon. Dreadwing, meanwhile, observes that Galvatron has some life in him yet...

Back in Iacon, Ultra Magnus radios Windblade in the hopes she can get Metroplex to join the fight, but the Titan proves to need no persuasion, and rises to the task. As Metroplex engages the Ammonite horde, aboard the Lost Light, Bumblebee and Megatron assemble a team to head into Crystal City and take on Shockwave. They disembark the ship and meet with Soundwave, who is a little surprised to see that Megatron's alliance with the Autobots is a legitimate one. A moment later, Starscream arrives with his own team, and explains that Skywarp can teleport them all into Crystal City; there is a little almost-good-natured back-and-forth trash-talk between everyone, including Metalhawk's attempt to apologize for his actions post-resurrection, but all agree to leave proper arguments and discussions until all is said and done. With the appearance of Monstructor, a hesitant Prowl is forced to once again combine with the Constructicons into Devastator, providing cover for Bumblebee and Megatron's team to get away. Alas, Skywarp proves unable to teleport such a large group, so Scoop decides to stay behind, as does Getaway. Starscream dismisses the altruism, but Soundwave agrees, and he and his cassettes also decide to remain behind. A blast clips Scoop just as the group teleports out...

...and reappears in the Crystal City cavern, where Waspinator immediately begins celebrating the fact he survived the jump... juuuuust before Bludgeon runs him through with his sword. Magnus, Skids, and Brainstorm keep the Master of Metallikato busy while Megatron and Bumblebee search for Shockwave, and Metalhawk leads Rattrap and Starscream—still stunned over Scoop's actions—to Jhiaxus's ship. The trio are confronted by the master scientist himself, fully clad in what he calls his reactive armor. He mocks Metalhawk and how easy it was to control him after his resurrection, then turns his scorn on Starscream, who angrily opens fire on the scientist. Though the blast from Starscream's cannons is impressive, Jhiaxus's reactive armor absorbs it and shifts into a form that matches its power, mimicking Starscream's own.

Megatron and Bumblebee arrive in Shockwave's command chamber, where a hesitant Dreadwing tries to tough-talk them, only to be blasted by Megatron. They come upon the limp form of Galvatron, who admits what his actions have wrought and submits himself to Megatron's wrath, but Bumblebee tries to talk the Decepticon leader out of slaying him, reminding him of his past to convince him that killing is not the way forward. Megatron lowers his cannon... and Bumblebee's chest explodes as Shockwave shoots him through the back. Megatron races to his fallen ally's side, but it is too late: Bumblebee is dead. With a howl of rage, Megatron lunges at Shockwave, but his old subordinate is surging with the power of the chronal drive and his ores, and seems unbeatable...

As Magnus and Skids continue their battle with Bludgeon, the samurai warrior proves unimpressed with Skids's adaptive powers and demonstrates the superiority of his natural skill over the theoretician's mimicry. Magnus, too, falls, distracted by a cry from Brainstorm, who has collapsed in pain... as a swirling portal opens within his chest and Optimus Prime and his team emerge through it!

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Hardhead (1) Brainstorm (2) Metroplex (4) Cosmos (7) Jetfire (8) Swoop (9) Slug (10) Whirl (12) Warpath (13) Sideswipe (14) Swerve (15) Arcee (16) Snarl (17) Rung (18) Sludge (19) Crosscut (20) Ironhide (21) Ultra Magnus (22) Ratchet (23) Mainframe (24) Hound (25) Bumblebee (26) Perceptor (27) Chromia (35) Nautica (36) Windblade (37) Highbrow (38) Windmill (39) Gripper (40) Grotusque (41) Hosehead (43) Hurricane (44) Rumbler (45) Cliffjumper (46) Getaway (47) Skids (48) Prowl (64) Optimus Prime (69) Nightbeat (70) Rodimus (71) Kup (72)	Blitzwing (6) Astrotrain (11) Bludgeon (29) Shockwave (30) Megatron (32) Monstructor (33) Dreadwing (34) Cutthroat (42) Buzzsaw (49) Laserbeak (50) Soundwave (51) Ravage (52) Rumble (53) Skywarp (57) Waspinator (59) Mixmaster (60) Bonecrusher (61) Long Haul (63) Hook (65) Scavenger (66) Devastator (67) Frenzy (68)	Nova Prime's corpse (3) Ammonites (5) Galvatron (28) Jhiaxus (31) Rattrap (54) Metalhawk (55) Starscream (56) Scoop (58) Tankor (62) Cyclonus (73)

Quotes

"Windblade? It's Magnus. There's no easy way to say this, but—the universe is ending."
"Uh-huh."
"You took that very well."
"Yes, well, it takes more than—wait, did you say the universe is ending? The universe is ending? What kind of a person starts a conversation like that?"

—Ultra Magnus and Windblade

"On that note... everybody ready to—what's the phrase? 'Roll on out'?"

—Starscream

"Cybertron is in your hands, Megatron. Ravage—my friends—"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. We're with you... just tell 'em some cassettes sent you, okay?"

—Soundwave and Ravage

"He's given up, Megatron. Leave it."
"He ripped me in half."
"And in return you're going to kill him? Is that how your world works? Each blow invites a bullet? Each death answered by ten? Because look where it's got you. Look where it's got all of us. All those years ago, when you dreamed of a life outside of the energon mines—is this what you wanted to become? The type of person who would rather kill than not kill?"
"He's your enemy as much as mine."
"Good, bad, friends, enemies... if there's one thing I've learned since Metalhawk and the others came home, it's that the world's a lot more complicated than that—and so are you. So let him live—let him join us."
(Megatron relents and offers Galvatron his hand.)
"See? We're stronger together than apart."

—Bumblebee's last words to Megatron

Notes

Continuity notes

The first page of this issue is set concurrently with the early stages of More than Meets the Eye #1, prior to the launch of the Lost Light. The news report playing in the background is Rodimus's speech from the first page of that issue.
Hardhead is playing about with Brainstorm's security pass, also seen in More than Meets the Eye #1. He's evidently just heat-activated the rubsign on it.
The launch site of the Lost Light (and the Ark-1 before it) is revealed to be Rivets Field, the hot spot named as the birthplace of Tailgate in More than Meets the Eye #21.
The cyberwraith that played a key role back in Chapter 2 can be spotted on Brainstorm's workbench, while the scientist's ever-mysterious briefcase can just about be seen behind some speech bubbles, under glass in a compartment on the wall behind him.
Nova Prime's body appears here following his apparent death in Spotlight: Sideswipe, still in his "Nemesis Prime" color scheme. It's never been explained until now how Nova went from this death to his reappearance in Heart of Darkness; his essence returned to the Dead Universe following the expiry of his physical shell.
Brainstorm is revealed to have been "killed" by the Dead Universe, and has been in an undead state for the entirety of his involvement in More than Meets the Eye. This is why the life-consuming Sparkeater ignored him when he was confronted by it waaaay back in More than Meets the Eye #3; slyly alluding to Brainstorm's living-dead state two years ahead of this revelation, the scene even had Skids remark that he was "already dead".
Even slier, back in Chapter 6, when a life signature reading was taken of the Rodpod and Metroplex, eight signs were detected, which the issue intimated consisted of one for each of the seven 'bots in the pod (including Brainstorm), and a stowaway Ammonite that the crew mistakenly thought was Metroplex. But Metroplex turned out to be alive, so that left a signature missing... ol' dead Brainstorm.
Bumblebee has removed the protective faceplate from his new body, which we first learned he could do back in Chapter 5; whether by coincidence or design, this makes him look close (but not identical) to TakaraTomy's Generations "Bumblebee Goldbug" toy, which retained the original Bumblebee head (as well as the black stripes for the vehicle mode).
Ultra Magnus lets out a good old fashioned "Hell's bells!" thereby continuing his predilection for quaint expletives that began in Chapter 3.
On page 9, Grotusque's distinctive form can be seen among the fighting bots, despite apparently having died in "Lamentations". His continued presence in future issues of More than Meets the Eye confirm that this is not an error and he actually did survive.
As Shockwave integrates the chronal drive into his body, he is assailed with a series of visions from throughout his life, showing us scenes of his friendship with Orion Pax, his undergoing Shadowplay and Empurata, and his first meeting with Megatron; all newly drawn by Griffith, but previously seen in, and with dialogue lifted from, "Chaos Theory", the "Shadowplay" trilogy, and Robots in Disguise #22.
We learned last chapter that all those turned by the Dead Universe have portals that link the worlds within them; at the time that seemed like it was merely intended to serve as an explanation for why Kup had a portal within him earlier in the story, but is now revealed to have been foreshadowing for the appearance of the portal within Brainstorm through which Prime's team emerge. That also makes it implicit that the "singing" the team heard while in the Dead Universe last chapter was the singing going on in Swerve's, echoing through the portal in Brainstorm.

Transformers references

Jetfire appears with the design of his then-upcoming new Generations Leader Class figure.
Stabbed by Bludgeon, Waspinator crumples and plaintively wonders why the universe hates him, repeating the famous character-defining quote he originally coined in the Beast Wars episode "Deep Metal".
When attacked by Starscream, Jhiaxus's reactive armor adopts the shape of Starscream's new body in an orange-and-white color scheme—this, of course, being what Jhiaxus's new Generations figure looks like. Or rather, sort of looks like—the color layout is different, and he appears without any of the sculpt changes the toy has that distinguish it from Starscream.

Errors

Continuing the artistic error of the previous chapter, Bumblebee's new "Goldfire" body appears with design cues from the original comic design that were not part of the toy, when all previous appearances of the body have adhered to the toy design.
During Shockwave's out-of-time experience (pages 6–7), the second word balloon ("Yes, yes... but... I planted a seed") should be tailless, as that line was not spoken at the same time and place as what the accompanying panel depicts. This is fixed in the TPB.
The Hasbro exclusive cover variant of this issue that was included with the Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Chromia toy has page 11 printed twice, while page 12 is missing.
Hook is with the Decepticons on page 13, despite having combined into Devastator on the previous page; he's apparently been drawn in place of Scoop, who's missing from this panel.
On page 14, Starscream says, "He's going get himself killed!" There is a "to" missing there, which is fixed in the TPB.
On page 19, Galvatron calls Dreadwing "Dreadwind". This is fixed in the TPB, but is still present in the version of this comic included with the Generations Deluxe Class Chromia toy.

Edits

Similar to the pack-in versions of various other existing IDW comics, the version of this issue available with the Generations Deluxe Class Chromia toy was also subject to some changes:

Multiple edits right on page 1 (not counting the "previously" page): In panel 3, both Hardhead's and Brainstorm's mentions of Nova Prime's "corpse" were changed to "body", and Brainstorm's second speech bubble in panel 4 has "the Dead Universe can kill you" changed to "the Dead Universe can change you".
On page 4, Ultra Magnus's first speech bubble in panel 2 omits the exclamation "Hell's bells!", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly. Meanwhile, Perceptor's second speech bubble in panel 4 has "Ammonites" changed to "Minicons", just like in the comics available with Windblade and Nightbeat.
However, once again the latter isn't done consistently, though; right on the very next page, "Ammonites" is left unedited.
On page 7, Galvatron's first speech bubble in panel 3 (counting the large panel spreading both pages) is changed from "I am… difficult to kill." to "I am… difficult to finish."
On page 8, Ultra Magnus's first speech bubble in panel 3 has "Ammonites" changed to "Minicons" again.
On page 10, Bumblebee's second speech bubble in panel 5 has "a hell of a lot" shortened to simply "a lot", whereas his first speech bubble in in panel 6 is changed from "You're not gonna try to kill me again, are you?" changed to "You're not gonna try to destroy me again, are you?", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly.
On page 11, Prowl's first speech bubble in panel 6 is changed from "Dammit." to "All right.", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly.
On page 14, Starscream's second speech bubble in panel 5 has "he's going to get himself killed" changed to "he's going to be destroyed".
Multiple edits on page 17: Bumblebee's second speech bubble in panel 3 is changed from "And in return you're going to kill him?" to "And in return you're going to destroy him?", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly; his fourth speech bubble in the same panel has "bullet" changed to "blast", and "death" changed to "loss"; and his second speech bubble in panel 4 is changed from "The type of person who would rather kill than not kill?" to "The type of person who would rather destroy than not?"
Megatron's sole speech bubble on page 18 (panel 4) is changed from "He's dead." to "He's gone."
The repetition of the phrase on page 19 is changed in the same way, as is Shockwave's subsequent questioning of the term "dead".
On page 18, Skids's speech bubble in panel 4 is changed from "And you really don't know when to shut up." to "And you really don't know when to be quiet."

Trivia

Artist breakdown: All Andrew Griffith, all the time, baby!
The idea of "Dark Cybertron" Jiminez/Fajardo covers corresponding to the Generations toy this issue is going to be included with has gone right out the window over the last three issues, and this one's no different with Legends Class Cosmos taking the spotlight. The Hasbro exclusive cover variant was included with Generations Deluxe Class Chromia.
Bumblebee's death was accidentally blown by the preview of Chapter 12 released through iTunes the week prior to this issue's release; although it had been cut down to only one page instead of the normal three to avoid any in-story spoilers, unfortunately, the recap page and its detailing of 'Bee's departure was not removed.

Covers (4)

Cover A: A burning Autobot symbol forewarns of the "Death of a Hero", by Casey Coller and Josh Burcham
Sub cover: Cosmos, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Cover RI: Bludgeon, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano
Hasbro exclusive cover: Chromia, by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr., exclusively available with Generations Deluxe Class Chromia.

"Dark Cybertron" checklist, highlighting the final chapter
Transformers Legends
Regeneration One #100
IDW: Getting Into Your Head for 15 Years (back cover)

Reprints

The Transformers: Dark Cybertron Volume 2 (June 11, 2014) ISBN 1613779984 / ISBN 978-1613779989
- Collects Robots in Disguise issues #25–27, More than Meets the Eye issues #26–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
- Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
- Trade paperback format.

The Transformers: Dark Cybertron (February 11, 2015) ISBN 163140072X / ISBN 978-1631400728
- Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–27, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
- Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
- Hardcover format.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 (October 18, 2017) ISBN 1684050855 / ISBN 978-1684050857
- Collects Dark Cybertron #1, More than Meets the Eye issues #23–27, and Robots in Disguise issues #23–27, Dark Cybertron Finale, and Windblade (2014) issues #1–4.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 60: Dark Cybertron, Part 2 (February 21, 2018)
- Collects Robots in Disguise issues #25–27, More than Meets the Eye issues #26–27, and Dark Cybertron Finale.
- Bonus material includes a "blow-by-blow account of Dark Cybertron's hidden secrets", a cover gallery and a forward by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: Best of Bumblebee (September 7, 2022)
- Collects The Transformers (1984) #16: "Plight of the Bumblebee!", Transformers Annual 2017: "Ghost Stories", Robots in Disguise #27: "Black Planet: Dark Cybertron Chapter 11", Transformers (2019) #2: "The World In Your Eyes Part Two", and All Hail Megatron #16: "Hidden".
- Bonus material includes an art gallery.
- One-shot format.

Dark Cybertron Volume 2 – cover art by Phil Jimenez and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Dark Cybertron – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 6 – cover art by Marcelo Matere and Tom B. Long
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 60: Dark Cybertron, Part 2 – cover art by Mark Brooks (Brainstorm) and Andrew Griffith (retro)
Best of Bumblebee – cover art by James Biggie