Nice to finally get the follow-up of Orion's conversation with Codexa, and getting a bit more perspective on Orion and Megatron's past. Odd that it took them so many issues to go back to it, but given the pacing this series has taken so far, it makes sense. I'm happy to see Megatron and Orion began from humble beginnings, before eventually becoming Senators.
Ruckley probably wanted to use that conversation to frame the flashback, which works better as an epilogue to the first arc.
, which I think strengthens the idea Orion sent Bumblebee to infiltrate the Ascenticons as a spy.
This makes sense, especially with Bumblebee being non-partisan. (Ruckley actually handled this part very well. The non-partisan is an effective spy, but not entirely trusted.)
n this iteration religion is treated in a more realistic way. Some Cybertronians still believe in it more than others, but there are actually different religions, also, and creating a new Cybertronian is a specific ritual; almost like a divine spell, not just a "we built this body, and when it's done it has a spark somehow."
Many of the characters are religious. But, it is not made clear which, if any, faith is correct. That is a good set-up. (Better examples of 40K followed this dynamic.)
And just to point out, we've even seen Atheist Transformers before, notably Jetfire in Dreamwave and the previous IDW continuity.
Where was Jetfire established as atheist in the previous IDW run? (Remember, my skip-rate started going up in 2013.)
*edit: I meant to ask when Jetfire was established as an atheist in the previous IDW run, not Dreamwave.
To be more specific, I think the Threefold Spark/Exarchon is specifically an analogy for Catholicism's Holy Trinity.
I looked over Ruckley's blog yesterday. Not sure that he has anything specific to say about Catholicism. (I may have missed it though.) That being said, his conflicted thoughts about Scotland and the UK are probably reflected in his "Transformers" run.
The "Chaos-Bringer," and he gets one because Unicron is a borderline deity, if not outright divine depending on the particular iteration we're discussing.
Alternatively, Larry DiTillio went on record in '99 to specify that a description of Tarantulas as "Unicron's Spawn" (in a late-run episode of "Beast Wars") was intended to be a basic insult, not indicative of anything else. (This was ignored by drooling idiot fans, and Fun Publications...which is arguably redundant.)
"Three-fold spark" could just be a reference to somebody having a multi-layered or inconsistent, personality.