Transformers: Deviations

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Publisher	IDW Publishing}}
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First published	March 16, 2016}}
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Cover date	March, 2016}}
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Written by	Brandon M. Easton}}
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Art by	Priscilla Tramontano}}
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Colors by	Priscilla Tramontano and John-Paul Bove}}
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Letters by	Tom B. Long}}
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Editor	John Barber}}
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{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

What if... Optimus Prime did not die?

Synopsis

In the world we know, the Decepticons launched a devastating attack on Autobot City in the year 2005, during which the young Autobot Hot Rod, against the advice of Kup, interfered in a battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron when he spotted the Decepticon leader reaching for a fallen weapon. Megatron seized the young Autobot and used him as a shield to prevent Prime from firing, then blasted Prime, inflicting injuries that claimed his life soon after. But in this world, things take a different turn...

Rather than just call after Hot Rod, Kup actually tackles the young 'bot to the ground, preventing him from becoming involved in Prime and Megatron's fight. Megatron grabs the gun, but Optimus is able to react, dodging the blast, and—with no options remaining—regretfully pulls the trigger on his own weapon, slaying Megatron. With the loss of their leader, the Decepticons fall into disarray and flee aboard Astrotrain; Starscream recovers Megatron's fusion cannon as proof of his death, and nominates himself as the new leader. Soon after, partway into their journey back to Cybertron, the wounded Decepticons are tossed into the void of space, where they are found by Unicron—but as Megatron is not among them in this universe, the planet-eater simply consumes them. Unicron then continues on his way to Cybertron, arriving in the middle of Starscream's coronation ceremony. At Soundwave's urging, Starscream flies out to make first contact with the living planet, and, ever the self-preservationist, is quick to accept when Unicron demands that he serve him. In return for destroying the Matrix of Leadership, Starscream requests upgrades to himself and his inner circle, and Unicron agrees.

On Earth, Optimus Prime decides to press the Autobots' current advantage, pursuing the Decepticons back to Cybertron and defeating them once and for all. Hot Rod is unsure, believing that they do not have to rush as the Decepticons will be demoralized and disorganized, but Ultra Magnus silences him, sure that the villains will have reorganized under a new leader before long. Prime steps in before Magnus and Hot Rod's argument can escalate and gets things moving forward: he will lead a group on one shuttle to Moonbase One, while Magnus will take a second group to Moonbase Two. Hot Rod is not happy about being assigned to Magnus's crew; Optimus charges him with looking after Daniel Witwicky until they can reunite him with his father. The shuttles soon depart Earth, and Hot Rod spends the journey telling Daniel that he has begun to see images in his mind of Optimus dying, like a human "dream." He believes they are the work of the Matrix, but when Ultra Magnus overhears, he is ready to accuse Hot Rod of plotting treachery! Just then, the shuttles suddenly come under attack from the Decepticons, led by the upgraded Starscream, now calling himself "Megascream"! Hot Rod proposes that they buy themselves some time by throwing their engines into a hard reverse, causing the Decepticons to overshoot them, but Magnus and Perceptor refuse, believing such a tactic will burn the engines out. However, when a blast hits the ship and injures Magnus, Hot Rod seizes his chances and does it anyway... and the engines do indeed burn out. Fortunately, just then, Megascream receives a transmission from Soundwave on Cybertron, alerting him to the fact that Unicron is consuming Moonbase One. Outraged, Megascream calls off the attack and has the Decepticons return to their homeworld.

While Magnus's crippled shuttle drifts off in the direction of the Planet of Junk, Optimus's crew set down on the planet Quintessa to repair their own ship's damage before collecting their stranded teammates. No sooner have they landed than they are approached by a shoal of Sharkticons; Kup tries the universal greeting, but the creatures do not take kindly to it and a battle breaks out. The Dinobots soon overpower the Sharkticons, and the Autobots trace them back to their point of origin, the Quintessons' citadel. The resident five-faced aliens promptly flee, and the Autobots liberate their prisoners, including Kranix, last survivor of the planet Lithone, who tells them of Unicron.

Meanwhile, as Ultra Magnus's shuttle hurtles toward Junkion, the wounded Magnus urges Hot Rod to get Daniel into the only escape pod that remains functional. The young 'bot complies, and he and Daniel escape down to the planet's surface but must watch as all their friends perish when the shuttle crashes and explodes. Hot Rod apologizes for everything, but Daniel tells him that it must all be part of the Matrix's plan, and that the other Autobots' sacrifice must mean something. Presently, Optimus's group arrives to rescue them, and they all head for Cybertron together.

Concurrently, Megascream confronts Unicron over his consumption of the Moonbase, but Unicron tires of his pawn's whining and transforms to robot mode to begin attacking Cybertron itself. As his assault begins, the Autobots gather on Moonbase Two, where Optimus Prime announces his intent to take a small ship on a solo mission to Unicron's surface, believing that the Matrix has the power to destroy the monster planet. When he arrives, he is met by Megascream, who demands the Autobot hand over the Matrix so he can use it to destroy Unicron himself. Megascream unveils the "enhancements" he had Unicron make to his warriors, merging with Soundwave, Astrotrain, Dirge, and Thrust to form a giant combiner, and promptly crushes Prime beneath his colossal fist. He picks up the shattered Autobot, but Hot Rod—who stowed away on Prime's ship—appears to wrest his leader free. Following the call of the Matrix, Hot Rod removes the talisman from Optimus's chest, then slips a teleport disc from Wheeljack's lab onto the injured Autobot leader, sending him back to Moonbase Two. Megascream blasts Hot Rod, but even damaged, he crawls to the Matrix and manages to pull it open. The resulting burst of brilliant blue energy can be seen from space, causing an explosion that destroys Unicron... but both Megascream and Hot Rod are also lost in the blast.

In the aftermath, Optimus Prime declares the Cybertronian Wars at an end, and speaks of a future of peace and prosperity. In the skies above, he sees the image of his mentor, Alpha Trion, and that of the newest shining light to join the ranks of great Autobots within the Matrix: Rodimus Prime.

Featured characters

{{#if:*Optimus Prime (5)

Swoop (7)
Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (9)
Kup (10)
Sludge (23)
Perceptor (24)
Grimlock (25)
Ultra Magnus (26)
Slag (27)
Ironhide's body (28)
Prowl's body (29)
Wheeljack's body (30)
Windcharger's body (31)
Blurr (32)
Arcee (33)
Springer (36)
Bumblebee (43)
Dagbase (44)
Blaster (45)
Alpha Trion (vision, 46)|

{{#if:*Optimus Prime (5)

Swoop (7)
Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (9)
Kup (10)
Sludge (23)
Perceptor (24)
Grimlock (25)
Ultra Magnus (26)
Slag (27)
Ironhide's body (28)
Prowl's body (29)
Wheeljack's body (30)
Windcharger's body (31)
Blurr (32)
Arcee (33)
Springer (36)
Bumblebee (43)
Dagbase (44)
Blaster (45)
Alpha Trion (vision, 46)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
Optimus Prime (5)
Swoop (7)
Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (9)
Kup (10)
Sludge (23)
Perceptor (24)
Grimlock (25)
Ultra Magnus (26)
Slag (27)
Ironhide's body (28)
Prowl's body (29)
Wheeljack's body (30)
Windcharger's body (31)
Blurr (32)
Arcee (33)
Springer (36)
Bumblebee (43)
Dagbase (44)
Blaster (45)
Alpha Trion (vision, 46) }}{{#if:*Blitzwing (1)
Soundwave (2)
Dirge (3)
Shrapnel (4)
Thrust (6, see Errors)
Megatron (8)
Starscream/Megascream (11)
Kickback (12)
Laserbeak (13)
Rumble (14)
Astrotrain (15)
Mixmaster (16)
Long Haul (17)
Scrapper (18)
Ramjet (19)
Bombshell (20)
Skywarp (21)
Shockwave (35)
Thundercracker (37)
Sunstorm (38)
Acid Storm (39)|

Autobots }}{{#if:*Blitzwing (1) Soundwave (2) Dirge (3) Shrapnel (4) Thrust (6, see Errors) Megatron (8) Starscream/Megascream (11) Kickback (12) Laserbeak (13) Rumble (14) Astrotrain (15) Mixmaster (16) Long Haul (17) Scrapper (18) Ramjet (19) Bombshell (20) Skywarp (21) Shockwave (35) Thundercracker (37) Sunstorm (38) Acid Storm (39)\|	Decepticons }}{{#if:*Daniel Witwicky (34) Spike Witwicky (39)\|	Humans }}{{#if:*Unicron (22) Sharkticons (40) Quintessons (41) Kranix (42)\|	Others }}{{#if:\|	Misc }}{{#if:\|	Misc }}
Blitzwing (1) Soundwave (2) Dirge (3) Shrapnel (4) Thrust (6, see Errors) Megatron (8) Starscream/Megascream (11) Kickback (12) Laserbeak (13) Rumble (14) Astrotrain (15) Mixmaster (16) Long Haul (17) Scrapper (18) Ramjet (19) Bombshell (20) Skywarp (21) Shockwave (35) Thundercracker (37) Sunstorm (38) Acid Storm (39) }}{{#if:*Daniel Witwicky (34) Spike Witwicky (39)\|	Daniel Witwicky (34) Spike Witwicky (39) }}{{#if:*Unicron (22) Sharkticons (40) Quintessons (41) Kranix (42)\|	Unicron (22) Sharkticons (40) Quintessons (41) Kranix (42) }}{{#if:\|	}}{{#if:\|	}}

Quotes

"Yield, Megatron, now! Don't make me destroy you."
Megatron shoots at him
"Forgive me..."

—Optimus Prime kills his old foe after attempts to talk him down fail.

"I was trying to help Optimus win this war. Where were you during the heat of battle? I didn't see you anywhere close to the frontline."
"Back down, soldier, or you'll be picking my knuckle shards out of your grill shaft."

—Hot Rod and an uncharacteristically dickish Ultra Magnus

"Take a good look at your fallen brothers. They made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could one day reclaim Cybertron. Chirping at each other like malfunctioning scrap droids is no way to honor their memory. You're Autobot warriors...or have you forgotten?"
"They've found an eternal resting place within the Matrix of Leadership. Their heroism will echo through space and time...'til all are one."

—Optimus Prime and Hot Rod right before Kup smacks the latter in the head for speaking. No, seriously.

"Uncharismatic bore...transforms into a cassette player. What's his value anyway?"

—Starscream after Soundwave reminds him that being leader comes with responsibilities.

"You worried about your dad?"
"He's everything to me. I don't know what I'd do without him."
"I think I understand. I wanted to protect Optimus Prime but it feels like every decision I make is the wrong one."

—Hot Rod and Daniel

"I guess things got lost in translation!"

—Kup's universal greeting fails to pacify the Sharkticons.

"I have grown tired of your whining. For a time I considered sparing your wretched little planet of Cybertron. But now...you shall witness its dismemberment!"
"NOOOOOOOO!!!"

—Unicron and Megascream

"I'll do what Megatron was never capable of doing...ending the life of the great Optimus Prime."
"You're worse than Megatron! At least he had style. You're just a pompous jerk with delusions of adequacy!"

—Megascream gets a sick burn from Hot Rod

"Alpha Trion...and Rodimus Prime. I will never again question the ways of the Matrix. 'Til all are one."

—Optimus Prime plays us out.

Notes

Deviations was IDW's multi-franchise crossover event for 2016, following in the footsteps of the The X-Files: Conspiracy, Mars Attacks, and Infestation events of previous years. The concept is a take on Marvel's "What If?" comic book, with each comic telling a story about a world in which a key event in the franchise's history happened differently; in this issue's case, it asks what would have happened if Hot Rod had not interfered with Optimus Prime's battle against Megatron, and thereby been the indirect cause of his death, in The Transformers: The Movie.

Other franchises involved in the Deviations event include Ghostbusters ("What if the Ghostbusters never crossed the streams?"), G.I. Joe ("What if Cobra took over the world?"), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ("What if the Turtles joined Shredder?"), and The X-Files ("What if Fox Mulder was abducted as a child?"). A second Deviations event followed in 2017, featuring My Little Pony ("What if Prince Blueblood was Princess Celestia's pupil?"), Star Trek ("What if the Romulans made first contact with Earth?"), Judge Dredd ("What if Judge Dredd stayed a werewolf?"), and The X-Files (a continuation of the previous year's story). An entire six-issue Deviations miniseries for Orphan Black ("What if Sarah prevented Beth's suicide?") was released the same year.

Continuity notes

The "What Really Happened" introductory page uses artwork from IDW's Transformers: The Animated Movie adaptation. Remember that?
True to form, there's no sign of Snarl anywhere in the issue, reflecting his mysterious absence from most of the film.
Hot Rod remarks that Ultra Magnus was nowhere to be seen during the battle of Autobot City, which is an accurate summary of his role in that part of the film. He was supposed to battle Devastator alongside a team of Autobots, but the scene got deleted from the movie.
So, uh, Ultra Magnus is kind of a massive asshole to Hot Rod in this, isn't he? They didn't have this kind of relationship in the film, though the original script for the movie did show Magnus butting heads with the young 'bot as he took him to task for breaking Kup's security cordon.
In a cute touch, Shrapnel and Kickback can still be seen at Starscream's coronation despite being thrown out of Astrotrain, in a faithful replication of one of the movie's more famous animation/continuity errors. Continuing this theme in a new direction, Thundercracker appears among Megascream's troops (though it's worth mentioning that the comic doesn't show him being tossed into space in the earlier scene).
The statues in the Decepticon Hall of Heroes are faithfully represented here, meaning we get a look at the figures of Gladiaron, Floron, Dery, and Ghoulon. Gladiaron's missing his mohawk-crest, though.
Hot Rod's tactic of reversing the engines comes from the original script to the movie (and the Marvel Comics adaptation based on it), in which Kup used it to shake off the moleculon missiles that were pursuing their shuttle. Even in the script, however, the move was described with the sci-fi nonsense phrase "inverting polarities," and for the finished film, it was changed to the shuttle actually blasting the missiles with some kind of scrambler beam that screwed up their trajectories.
The reference to Ultra Magnus's ship covering "a much larger distance than expected" thanks to "plasma burnout" sounds like a reference to "The Rebirth," in which an Autobot ship was catapulted across the galaxy when struck by plasma energy.
Grimlock wants to "bash Decepticons in their turbo chargers," recalling Cliffjumper's desire to "boot some Decepticon right in his turbo charger" from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1".
The Quintessons recognize the Autobots, and Prime deems their planet "familiar," alluding to the aliens' status as the creators of the Transformers, which the main timeline Autobots would not discover until shortly after the film, in the five-part "Five Faces of Darkness" mini-series.
Thanks to Starscream pushing Unicron's patience harder and faster than Galvatron ever did, the planet-eater foregoes noshing on Moonbase Two, and just goes straight for Cybertron, meaning Bumblebee and Spike don't get eaten in this version of events.
In addition to the above fact, Jazz and Cliffjumper are still eaten with Moonbase One, and as this timeline has no Autobot group entering Unicron and saving them, they either perished in Unicron's innards or were destroyed when his body exploded.

Real-world references

In the first panel, the narration goes "A simple turn to the left can avert catastrophe while a right turn can trigger an apocalypse". That might be a reference to the Doctor Who episode "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Turn Left (Doctor Who)|{{#if:Turn Left|Turn Left|Turn Left (Doctor Who)}}]]", in which both paths of that exact scenario play out.

Transformers references

In the first panel of the story, an Animated Autotrooper can be seen amongst the wreckage.
Two "executioner" Quintessons are seen fleeing on page 16; one is colored in animation-accurate white-and-green, the other in Marvel comic-accurate purple-and-teal.
Also on page 16, Marvel character Scrounge is among those saved from the Quintessons' cells.
A generic on page 20 is colored like Brainstorm.
On page 24, Dagbase from Brave is visible in the crowd; his design is likely based on Animated Dug Base.

Errors

In the first panel, there's an all-grey Seeker with no visible wings. Given the scene from the film this panel represents, and the fact that the other 'Cons being mowed down by Prime in this panel (Blitzwing and Shrapnel) were shown receiving the same treatment in animated form, this was presumably supposed to be Thrust, who was prominently clobbered by Prime in the movie scene. Thrust is in the comic either way, showing up in later scenes.
Also in the first panel, the fallen Swoop's body is colored red instead of blue.
On page 4, Rumble is colored in Insecticon black-and-purple, rather than his cartoon two-tone purple color scheme.
In the last panel of page 4, Blitzwing looks pretty off-color, with a greyish helmet and purplish face, but it might just be because he's in the back of the shot, and partially in shadow. It does kinda make him look like a Constructicon, who he's standing next to.
On page 5, Ramjet has black forearms—an easy mistake to make, since it's standard protocol for Seekers to have forearms the same color as their fists, but Ramjet's the prominent exception; he has white arms from wrist to shoulder in the animated series.
Also on page 5, Astrotrain is, um, missing his wing when he takes off. Maybe he's not done transforming?
On page 7, the deceased Prowl's helmet is white in panel 1, but black in panel 4.
He's only tiny, but Mixmaster is off-color on page 8, with one black arm and one green, a black headpiece, and a green mixing barrel.
On page 13, Prime's head in the bottom panel is drawn without the battle damage from his fight with Megatron.
In the second panel of page 14, Optimus Prime is missing both smokestacks. His right smokestack disappears again on page 16 panel 3, and the first panel of page 22.
"Lithone" is consistently misspelled "Linthone."
Various bots' faction symbols tend to disappear from panel to panel. For example, the Autobot insignia on Optimus's left shoulder is missing on pages 6, 10, 15, 16, and 22.
Bumblebee's got yellow shoulders instead of black on page 20.
Why is Blurr on Cybertron? He's not seen getting into either ship, and since the titular "deviation" kicks in before Blurr could have conceivably left Earth, he should still be in Autobot City. Perhaps he's so fast he just ran home.

Other notes

This issue's story is 24 pages in length, as opposed to the current standard of 20. The story is followed by eight pages of back-matter, including a letter from Easton introducing himself to the audience, a "story so far" cross-sell summarizing the current goings-on over in The Transformers and More than Meets the Eye, and a "process" segment showing how the first page of the comic went from script to finished form. The end result is a book that retails at $4.99, instead of IDW's usual $3.99.
The speech balloons are done in the same style as those of the Marvel G1 comics.
As one might glean from the article, the comic takes a rather... dismissive tone towards the characters introduced in the movie. The Season 3 Autobots are all killed en masse in a shuttle explosion, the 'Cons who would become the Season 3 Decepticons are unceremoniously munched up by Unicron, and Wheelie and the Junkions never even show up, since the characters don't stay on-planet long enough to meet them. The only movie characters to actually survive until the climax of the story are Hot Rod, Blurr, and Kup... and then Hot Rod dies at the end. Ho-hum.
The Autobots really hate Hot Rod for some reason. Ho-hum indeed.
The planet Betamax-Nine and warring Veechezez group are both references to former home video formats.

Covers (2)

Standard cover: Optimus Prime stands over Megatron's fallen body, by Marcelo Matere and John-Paul Bove
Subscription cover: Hot Rod spots Optimus Prime and Megatron fighting and plans to help, but Kup has other ideas, by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove

Collections

Deviations TPB (July 13, 2016) ISBN 1631406752 / ISBN 9781631406751

Collects all of the Deviations specials.
No Transformers extras besides cover.

IDW Publishing's comic book events
Inter-company crossovers	Infestation Infestation 2 Mars Attacks The X‑Files: Conspiracy Deviations
Transformers events	"Dark Cybertron" "Combiner Wars" "Titans Return"
Hasbro Universe events	Revolution First Strike Unicron

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