Yes, there's two layers to the question. Firstly, is Getaway an outright baddie, morally compromised or actually, to some extent, in the right? Secondly, what is Roberts trying to do with the character?

In my opinion, the final arc of MTMTE carried mixed messages - tonally, Getaway was painted as a contemptible villain. But in terms of his actual actions as portrayed, as you indicate above, there seemed to be no small amount of justification.

This issue addresses that mismatch by having Getaway cross a whole load of moral event horizons. Every justification he's ever offered, in this light, seems doubtful. There's certainly a sense in which this seems like the poorer story - having a villain/antagonist whose position is somewhat reasonable and who has a degree of integrity makes for a more compelling exploration of rights and wrongs. But now we know what we know, we can't really hold on to that picture of him anymore.

 

I enjoyed the issue, but you're right: It would be far more interesting if Getaway would be shown to be a capable captain.
But as i've said before, a mutiny is a nasty business.
Once you start one there is no way back and your life is on the line.
So it's to be expected anybody who is not on board with the situation would be dealt with in extreme ways,
and in the case of a mutiny a good 'captain' would be one who won't allow any word of the mutiny come to the ears of the authorities at any cost.
Yet as you say: we can't be a hundred procent sure of anything we saw in this issue.

 

i don't really have anything cogent to add here but i wanted to throw in that i agree with every single word of this post.
when my housemates and girlfriend, who all knew i was super amped for this issue, asked me how it was the morning after, i told them i'd been holding out for some deep rumination on the nature of moral ambiguity but instead i got a comic book supervillain.
they all gave me the "you know you're reading a comic book, right" look but i stand by it, i don't think it was an unreasonable hope.

i'm still happily along for the ride and keen for whatever brutal/heartwrenching twist Roberts is gonna give us, but i feel a profound sense of loss for what could easily have been.

 

Eh.

While I also would like there to be more to it than "Getaway, the stereotypical bad guy", if it turns out he himself is being controlled by another power then the issue is kind of moot.

Just have to keep reading for now and pass judgement when the story is done.

(or, you know, wait three years for another one of those Roberts secret slow cooking plot twists  )

 

My interpretation was that the entire issue was 1 loop in the Mirage + Protectobots' looped memory.

Remember, Getaway said he made "minor adjustments to [Thunderclash's] memories--a few tweaks here and there so he can't tell when his personal history curves back on itself." In other words, Thunderclash is living a mostly-accurate iteration of some real events, but remixed in a way that creates a stable loop.

From First Aid and the others' point of view, what we saw is probably a mostly-accurate iteration of events, but Getaway changed some things to create a loop. To illustrate (I'm just making this up as an example), what if they arrived on the Lost Light just fine. No busted engine, no crash, no arm injury on Blades, etc. Then, events played out more or less like we saw, and then Blades was shot in the arm during the escape.

Then, Mirage + Protectobots' ship got shot in the engine, and the tractor beam dragged them onboard the Lost Light. Then, they probably fought, Getaway's team probably won, and then they did to Mirage + Protectobots what they did to Thunderclash.

And (remember, I'm not saying this is what happened, I'm just making up an example to illustrate what could have happened) let's say Getaway started changing things here and there. Perhaps Getaway decided that, since the escape ended with being sucked back into the Lost Light, he would change a peaceful and uneventful docking into a violent crash landing in which Blades was injured.

Then, things proceed more-or-less unaltered for another loop.

TLDR: I think the entire issue was a loop, and none of it was in the "real world."

Side note: Since these events were changed, my personal theory is that Mirage, First Aid, et al, are looking at their own brains floating in the engex.

 

what if there's already been a counter-mutiny and they done did put getaway himself in the ol' brain loop and that's what the trilogy's gonna be

 

When the Protectobots first approached the ship for real, before the loop began, how could they not have known about Team Rodimus? Didn't their distress call reach pretty much everybody during Dying of the Light, including Optimus, Starscream, and the Scavengers? Optimus was all set to transport to the Lost Light himself, and then...uh...forgot about it, I guess?

 

I guess it depends when the original Protectorbot arrival took place. Can't remember the exact reason why but there was a time delay on the distress call, it wasn't received by anyone until three weeks after the attack.

 

It's not so much he forgot about it, but Jetfire told Optimus the video was made 2-3 weeks before anyone could see it, ergo, it was too late to do anything about the situation.

 

That only explains why he'd be potentially too late to save them, but seriously, why would he not still go and investigate what happened, and see if there were any survivors? It seems like Optimus shrugged his shoulders and said, "Oh well, they're probably dead anyway by now. Whatever, I've got my own series to go star in". It doesn't make any sense that he wouldn't have even dispatched a rescue party to investigate the Lost Light.

But yeah, as Nocturne pointed out, it could only sort of work if the Mutineers story takes place before the distress call reached Optimus.