War's End Part Two

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Publisher	IDW Publishing}}
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First published	March 30, 2022}}
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Written by	Brian Ruckley}}
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Art by	Jack Lawrence}}
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Letters by	Jake M. Wood}}
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Editor	Riley Farmer, David Mariotte, and Tom Waltz}}
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{{#if: TFWarsEnd 2 cvrA.jpg | {{#if: IDW Publishing | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: March 30, 2022 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: March 2022 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Brian Ruckley | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Jack Lawrence | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: John-Paul Bove | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Jake M. Wood | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Riley Farmer, David Mariotte, and Tom Waltz | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: 2019 IDW continuity | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: |

{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

Autobots and Decepticons combine their forces to foil Exarchon's ultimate plan—but can their united efforts prevent a dark future from coming to pass, or is the Threefold Spark destined to win?

Synopsis

In the halls of Decepticon Headquarters, Starscream proposes a truce with his former rival Soundwave, only for Skywarp to suddenly materialize in front of them. Having recently escaped the Sonic Canyons, the ever-mercurial Seeker asks if they're interested in some information about Exarchon. The three 'bots arrive in the building's primary antechamber, interrupting Megatron's terse negotiations with Optimus Prime with news of Skywarp's return, and a dire prediction of the future: not only has Exarchon returned, Starscream tells his leader, but he intends to finish what he started during the War of the Threefold Spark. While Megatron snarls that Cybertron is his and his alone, Starscream suggests that the only way to ride out whatever's coming is to call a truce and focus on the real problems. If nothing else, he points out, stalling for time will give Megatron the chance he needs to regroup and prepare for whatever comes next. To Megatron's surprise, Soundwave actually agrees with Starscream's analysis; as a result, the Decepticon leader grudgingly calls the truce and orders Slipstream and Sixshot to gather their troops, head to the Sonic Canyons, and exterminate any potential threat to Megatron's rule.

In the Sonic Canyons, Exarchon's cornered Sureshot and the other members of his Autobot survey team in a narrow chasm, but his enormous new body leaves him unable to actually pursue them into the crack. As he futilely torches the canyon walls with his flame-breath, unexpected salvation comes from Zetar, who successfully drills an escape tunnel for the team that leads deeper into the bedrock.

Elsewhere, Pyra Magna and the other members of the Companions take in the grisly sight of a rust worm swarm chewing their way through the planet's strata as their carrier floats toward the Sonic Canyons. A perturbed Jumpstream wonders what this all means—when she glimpsed Cybertron's future, the planet still existed, untouched by the rust worms. Pyra wonders if perhaps she didn't see the entire story leading up to that future... or, perhaps, it's a sign that history is not as fixed as she thinks. Since receiving the distress call in the Rust Sea, Pyra's taken an increasingly fatalistic turn: while she might've pledged loyalty to Optimus Prime and the Autobots, she's a relic from an older time, an older war... and now, those megacycles of history have finally caught up with her. Jumpstream, however, can't go with her: if she knows that her future self died in the Sonic Canyons, then they must actively work to avert this dire future from ever coming to pass. Jumpstream obediently teleports away, and reminds Pyra to call her if she needs help... but as she disappears, Pyra grimly muses that whatever happens, she'll deal with it herself.

Zetar's escape tunnel leads them straight into a long-abandoned facility, buried deep beneath the canyons: Exarchon's old base of operations, again a hive of activity as legions of freshly activated Skywarp clones prepare what appears to be a Titan-killing imploder weapon and an enormous drill-tank. Outside the bunker, Exarchon snarls that his prey has vanished, moments before Shockwave's reinforcements arrive—a group of ex-Risers that includes Soundblaster, Frenzy, Rumble, and the remaining Combaticons. As more clone soldiers rise from the depths of Exarchon's fortress, the conqueror gives them orders: find the intruders and prevent any further incursions while Exarchon completes his mission.

In the wilderness, Jumpstream reflects on recent events, periodically teleporting to higher ground as the rust-worms steadily devour the landscape around her. She saw how it all ended when she jumped through unspace into the future; even now, she's still subtly attuned to the ebb and flow of space-time, to the point where she wonders if she could deliberately jump forward in time again... but a sudden light in the sky distracts her. Jumpstream first mistakes the shooting star for a Titan, but when she remembers that there are no Titans left anymore, she decides to investigate.

In the badlands, Slipstream informs her team of what's going on: when she contacted Shockwave to tell him that they were moving on Exarchon, they received an unexpected response to stand down and stay out of the fight. Flamewar's happy to avoid helping Sixshot, but Blackjack and Tracer bristle at this order and break rank to join Sixshot's assault team while Shadow Striker contemplate their new orders. If stopping Exarchon once was so important, she wonders, why not now?

Inside Exarchon's base, Soundblaster watches as Exarchon prepares his final, ultimate weapon, a weapon he would've deployed had he not fallen in the final battle of the War of the Threefold Spark. His benefactors gave him the tools and weapons required to effectively wage war, but his ultimate mission is one of subjugation. His ability to steal sparks was but a stepping stone to his true destiny. All of the sparks he has seized and snuffed out are but fragments of the one spark on Cybertron, the AllSpark, at the center of the planet... and Exarchon intends to make it his.

On the surface of the planet, Sixshot and his troops launch a ferocious counterattack—as the clone swarm takes to the skies, Cyclonus tackles Onslaught, Sixshot faces off against Brawl and Vortex. The noise disturbs Exarchon himself, who rises from the hatchway... and finds himself confronted by Pyra Magna and the Companions!

In Iacon, Megatron confronts the three 'bots he's put in charge of the Forge Pyramid, who've still not delivered the Titan he desired. Mindwipe, Bitstream, and Sparkstalker have concerns of their own: the technology required to extract and "cage" sparks didn't exist when Exarchon first invaded. If Exarchon really has returned, perhaps there's merit in using this technology against him... but that will require Megatron to make a choice between getting a Titan and stopping Exarchon.

Having teleported herself into low orbit, Jumpstream watches the mysterious shooting star arc its way toward Cybertron. Although she realizes that it's just a mere asteroid, she teleports onto the surface to discover that it's brought someone back to Cybertron: Devastator! Without thinking, Jumpstream instinctively teleports toward the Sonic Canyons to warn Pyra...

Featured characters

{{#if:* Optimus Prime (5)

Sureshot (8)
Geomotus (9)
Landmine (10)
Pointblank (11)
Zetar (13)
Jumpstream (14)
Pyra Magna (15)
Sunstreaker (16)
Rust Dust (17)
Groundbreaker (18)
Windcharger (19)|

Autobots }}{{#if:{\|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
Starscream (1) Soundwave (2) Skywarp (3) Slipstream (4) Megatron (6) Sixshot (7) Soundblaster (21) Frenzy (22) Onslaught (23) Brawl (24) Rumble (25) Vortex (26) Flamewar (27)	Blackjack (28) Hyperdrive (29) Shadow Striker (30) Tracer (31) Swift (33) Roughstuff (34) Cindersaur (35) Flamefeather (36) Bitstream (37) Mindwipe (38) Sparkstalker (39) Astrotrain? (41)

|

!! style="background:#ededff" | Decepticons }}{{#if:* Exarchon (12)

Skywarp drones (20)|

!! style="background:#fbefde;" | Threefold Spark }}{{#if:* Cyclonus (32)

Devastator (40)|

!! style="background:#ffeeb8;" | Others }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#d5e6d5;" | Misc }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#fedeb5;" | Misc }} |- {{#if:* Optimus Prime (5)

Sureshot (8)
Geomotus (9)
Landmine (10)
Pointblank (11)
Zetar (13)
Jumpstream (14)
Pyra Magna (15)
Sunstreaker (16)
Rust Dust (17)
Groundbreaker (18)
Windcharger (19)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
Optimus Prime (5)
Sureshot (8)
Geomotus (9)
Landmine (10)
Pointblank (11)
Zetar (13)
Jumpstream (14)
Pyra Magna (15)
Sunstreaker (16)
Rust Dust (17)
Groundbreaker (18)
Windcharger (19) }}{{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"

|- |style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|

Starscream (1)
Soundwave (2)
Skywarp (3)
Slipstream (4)
Megatron (6)
Sixshot (7)
Soundblaster (21)
Frenzy (22)
Onslaught (23)
Brawl (24)
Rumble (25)
Vortex (26)
Flamewar (27)

|style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|

Blackjack (28)
Hyperdrive (29)
Shadow Striker (30)
Tracer (31)
Swift (33)
Roughstuff (34)
Cindersaur (35)
Flamefeather (36)
Bitstream (37)
Mindwipe (38)
Sparkstalker (39)
Astrotrain? (41)

|}| | style="background:#ededff;" valign="top" |

Starscream (1)
Soundwave (2)
Skywarp (3)
Slipstream (4)
Megatron (6)
Sixshot (7)
Soundblaster (21)
Frenzy (22)
Onslaught (23)
Brawl (24)
Rumble (25)
Vortex (26)
Flamewar (27)

Blackjack (28)
Hyperdrive (29)
Shadow Striker (30)
Tracer (31)
Swift (33)
Roughstuff (34)
Cindersaur (35)
Flamefeather (36)
Bitstream (37)
Mindwipe (38)
Sparkstalker (39)
Astrotrain? (41)

}}{{#if:* Exarchon (12)

Skywarp drones (20)|

| style="background:#fbefde;" valign="top" |

Exarchon (12)
Skywarp drones (20) }}{{#if:* Cyclonus (32)
Devastator (40)|

| style="background:#ffeeb8;" valign="top" |

Cyclonus (32)
Devastator (40) }}{{#if:|

| style="background:#d5e6d5;" valign="top" |

}}{{#if:|

| style="background:#fedeb5;" valign="top" |

}}

|}

Quotes

"Oof. Ow. Not going quite as gloriously as I hoped, my return. But at least it's interest-ah. Hello again. Can I interest you in some Exarchon-related information?"

—Skywarp

"Zetar! We thought you were dead."
"Appreciate the confidence. Anyone want to join me in an escape tunnel?"

—Landmine and Zetar

"Perhaps Exarchon's triumph, Cybertron's death, perhaps it's all a singularity, bending everything--time, events, us--toward it. But even if it is, we fight. We don't make it easy. We try to step off the path."

—Pyra Magna

"Blackjack! Aw, but we're a team."
"And I thought I was supposed to be the impulsive one."

—Flamewar and Hyperdrive

"I do not remember all that happened to me after I crossed into the quintessence so long ago. But I was given the gift of taking sparks. Becoming sparks. Usurping sparks. And the deep truth, at the core of Cybertron, and of us... is that there is only one spark, if I can just reach it. The AllSpark."

—Exarchon

Notes

Continuity notes

Starscream attempts to patch over his rocky relationship with Soundwave; they've had a bad relationship ever since Sentinel Prime appointed him as the director of Cybertron's intelligence division and ousted Soundwave from the position. Starscream points out that Megatron won't allow Soundwave to kill him—in Transformers #26, he lost his temper and pummeled Starscream with a sonic barrage after his theatrics got on his nerves.
This issue takes place concurrently with the ending of Transformers issue #41. That comic showed Optimus Prime opening a dialogue with Megatron in order to negotiate a ceasefire between their two sides, and this issue shows the same exchange from Megatron's point of view.
With the newly freed rust worms eating their way across the planet, Pyra and the other Companions take a floating carrier to the Sonic Canyons, a mode of conveyance that's been used occasionally since Transformers #2.
Jumpstream compares the current situation to her brief time travel adventure that ran from Transformers #31 to #32. In a conversation with a future Swift, Jumpstream learned that both she and Cyclonus died during a battle in the Sonic Canyons—apparently confirming that we're witnessing this specific battle, both Swift and Cyclonus take part in the attack on Exarchon's base, and, in an attempt to change history, Pyra's preemptively benched Jumpstream so that this future can't come to pass.
Upon seeing a shooting star, Jumpstream initially mistakes it for a Titan; her inner dialogue, "oh, I think I saw a Titan", specifically evokes Rubble's idle stargazing back in in Transformers #3. Moments later, however, she reminds herself that the Titans are all dead after the events of Transformers #29, where the Decepticons forcibly de-orbited Cybertron's remaining Titans and crashed them into the planet.
Exarchon's got himself an imploder, an extremely destructive weapon primarily used to kill Titans—most recently, Lodestar used it to execute Vigilem when they crossed paths in the 2021 annual.
As he battles Onslaught, the Combaticon commander sneers that he's not fighting amateurs this time—Cyclonus has had a habit of beating up whichever rookie Decepticon's been posted to stand guard outside of Decepticon Headquarters, including Crasher in Transformers #28, and Roughstuff and Gutcruncher in the previous issue.
In Transformers #38, Megatron announced his intention to forge a new Titan to eliminate the Autobots once and for all, and ordered Mindwipe, Sparkstalker, and Bitstream to repair the Forge Pyramid after its destruction in Transformers #29. However, Mindwipe and Sparkstalker point out that the technology to extract and preserve a spark was not in use at the time of the War of the Threefold Spark, having been implemented by Nominus Prime and Perceptor during the era of post-war reconstruction that followed.
Devastator finally returns! After laying waste to the planet Mayalx in Galaxies #4, the Constructicons went rogue and vanished. Shockwave, the 'bot ultimately responsible for using them to further The Rise's agenda, evidently kept in contact with the team, since then, however; Transformers #36 showed them surfing through space on an asteroid while Shockwave mused about summoning them back to Cybertron.

Transformers references

Exarchon again mentions the "quintessence" as somehow responsible for his transformation; the same flashback panel shows him forcibly restrained by tentacles... and, well, if that doesn't scream Quintessons to you, then we can't help you!
The Allspark has come up a few times since the beginning of the 2019 IDW continuity which established it as the source of all Cybertronian life in Transformers #28, with a further connection to the Well of All Sparks as the primary delivery mechanism for all sparks established as far back as Transformers #3. The idea that the Allspark is, itself, an enormous spark rather than some kind of physical artifact that merely creates them is closer to the original interpretation of the term established in Beast Machines, where the Allspark was visualized as a collective of sparks that individual sparks emerged from and returned to.

Errors

On pages eleven and twelve, Shadow Striker's three extra "eyes" are miscoloured to blend in with her helmet.

Covers (3)

Cover A: Pyra Magna joins the battle, by Chris Panda
Cover B: Sunstorm, by Red Powell
Retailer incentive cover: Soundwave and his minions, by Fico Ossio

Reprints

Transformers Volume 6: War's End (November 16, 2022) ISBN 1684059410 / ISBN 978-1684059416
- Collects Transformers (2019) issues #37–43, War's End issues #1–4, and Fate of Cybertron.
- Bonus material currently unknown, most likely alternate covers.
- Hardcover format.

Volume 6: War's End – cover art by Cryssy Cheung

External links

Preview

War's End Part Two

Contents

Synopsis

Featured characters

Quotes