Primeless, Part 1

« Optimus Prime #11 »
"Primeless" Part 1
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 11, 2017
Cover date	September 2017
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Sara Pitre-Durocher (pg. 1-8), Fico Ossio (pg. 10-12, 14-15), Paolo Villanelli (pg. 17-20), Kei Zama (pg. 9, 13, 16)
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

When the Autobots on Earth are cut off from Cybertron, Aileron takes charge as best she can.

Synopsis

At long, long last, the day has finally arrived: Earth is set to join the Cybertronian Council of Worlds. Elected Earth representative Marissa Faireborn is wished well by Thundercracker as she and the other dignitaries leave via Autobot City's spacebridge, but emotions among the other onlookers are mixed. The G.I. Joes who have to remain behind are grumpy about missing out on a chance at space travel; Stormclash voices her dislike of the way Optimus Prime has turned such an important event into a public spectacle, causing friction with most of the colonist Autobots, who still worship Prime; and Slide angrily denounces everything about the proceedings, disillusioned by the death of her partner Oiler and disgusted at the idea of Cybertronians making peace with former enemies who have killed members of their race in the past. Suddenly, before Aileron can form a response to Slide's angry words, an explosion goes off on Cybertron and the spacebridge shuts down, cutting off all communications from the planet. Blame immediately starts flying between the colonists, the Joes, the Autobots, and the Decepticons, and before things fall irreparably apart, Aileron is forced take command of the situation. She makes everyone put their heads together, and they manage to deduce that the failure is on the Cybertronian end of the bridge, and that nobody present is responsible. Word comes through that G.I. Joe team leader Scarlett is taking a unit to follow up a hunch of hers, so the Joes present head back to their base, while Aileron assigns tasks to everyone else: Jetfire works on getting the bridge back up, Thundercracker heads for Sanctuary Station to make sure all the Decepticons there are accounted for, and Soundwave is placed in command of Autobot City with the Torchbearers acting under him. Slide rankles at Aileron's take-charge attitude, but Aileron has no time for her bitter reproachment—she is on her way to search for the missing Jazz and orders the Colonist Soldiers to accompany her.

News of the events on Cybertron has been seen around the world, and multiple civilians are interviewed on television for their opinions; Jaylin Henry, who saw alliance with Cybertron as a sign of hope; Serena Bharwaney, an old friend of Bumblebee's; Sofía Orozco, enjoying her station's increased ratings after Jazz's appearance on-air; Jimmy Pink, still bitter; Maki Asato, unsurprised and resigned to the repercussions Earth will suffer; and Bryce Chan, who accepts the existence of good and bad Cybertronians working with good and bad people around the globe as just the way of the world.

Aileron's reasons for bringing the colonists with her are twofold—she wants them out of the way before they do something stupid, but she also really does need help to search for Jazz, still absent after his TV interview gone wrong. The group tracks reports of Transformer activity to Oaxaca, Mexico, but the journey there is an unpleasant one as Slide refuses to let up on her anti-human diatribes, and things only get worse when they attempt to peacefully approach the native humans, only to wind up on the receiving end of fire from black-market Earth Defense Command weaponry. The angry Slide backhands one of the humans, forcing Aileron to order everyone to withdraw from the town.

News spreads on Cybertron, too, where Transformers of all stripes give their opinion on the air. Blurr welcomes and sympathizes with humanity, while Tracks thinks the safety of Cybertron needs to come first. Tappet has no real opinion, having no experience with humans, but Dirge is haunted by the prospect of the same beings who cloned Ramjet and Thrust being allowed onto their homeworld. Flatline considers humans violent creatures in general, while Swift believes violent acts are perpetrated only by a small number of their kind, but that their actions nevertheless only prop up anti-human bigotry on Cybertron.

As Aileron and the colonists regroup, Slide continues her ongoing tirade, now accusing Aileron of being a terrible leader who no longer even believes in Optimus Prime herself. Aileron (haltingly) denies it, insisting that finding Jazz—Prime's friend—is important, and that Prime would want them to do it... but if Jazz is so important, Slide wants to know, why did Optimus leave Earth for Cybertron rather than help him? Roulette steps into stop them arguing, suggesting a course of action that Aileron agrees with: follow the trail of the EDC weaponry back north in the hopes that Jazz is doing the same.

News broadcasts across Earth and the colony worlds each put their own spin on events. On Cybertron, Circuit tells his audience humans have come to the planet to conquer it. On Earth, Brad Emory believes the attack was a Cybertronian ambush on humanity. Caminus prays for Optimus Prime's safety, and Earth's BNN fears for the humans trapped on the planet. A distorted broadcast from an angry Cybertronian blames Starscream for inviting a dangerous race to Cybertron, while Hector Ramirez advocates that the spacebridge be kept closed to prevent more Transformers from arriving on Earth, even though it would mean abandoning the humans already on Cybertron.

Aileron's team goes about their mission in silence, which turns out to be a bad move, as it gives the other colonists time to think about Slide's position and start doubting Aileron's leadership. As a group, they question why they're looking for Jazz when they should be recovering the EDC weaponry from the humans, and realize how Optimus's determination to accomplish the latter has seemingly waned in recent months. Slide thinks she has all the answers: the weapons are Cybertronian tech, meaning that humanity's possession of them could result in the invocation of the Tyrest Accord, a threat that Optimus has used to lobby Earth into joining the council. Now that that's been accomplished, Slide believes, Optimus no longer cares about recovering the weapons, as they are no longer "useful" to his cause. Finding herself pressed further and further into a corner, Aileron is running out of answers, until a sudden explosion of light from the nearby town draws everyone's attention and the answers she needs... because they've just found Jazz, under attack from humans wielding the Cybertronian weapons!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	G.I. Joe	Other Cybertronians	Other humans	Others
Metrotitan (1) Optimus Prime (7) Pyra Magna (8) Aileron (9) Jetfire (10) Stormclash (15) Skyburst (16) Rust Dust (17) Jumpstream (18) Dust Up (19) Slide (20) Gimlet (21) Midnight Express (22) Bump (23) Roulette (24) Tracks (32) Jazz (43)	Soundwave (14) Swift (36)	Flint (5) Hashtag (6) Mainframe (11) Hi-Tech (12) Chameleon (13)	Thundercracker (4) Blurr (31) Tappet (33) Dirge (34) Flatline (35) Circuit (37) Camien newscaster (39) Playback (41)	Marissa Faireborn (3) Jaylin Henry (25) Serena Bharwaney (26) Sofía Orozco (27) Jimmy Pink (28) Maki Asato (29) Bryce Chan (30) Brad Emory (38) BNN newscaster (40) Hector Ramirez (42)	Buster (2)

Quotes

"That's an impressive get-up. Is it Charmeuse?"
"A terephthaloyl chloride polymer/p-Phenel-enediamine blend."
"My very next guess."

—Thundercracker and Marissa talk fashion

"People like to pretend otherwise, but it doesn't matter what we think we're doing... reality is constructed from other people's perceptions of our actions."
"Somebody's been reading Wikipedia again."

—Thundercracker and Marissa

"Torchbearers—back up Soundwave, and be ready to help G.I. Joe if they need us. We're all in this together."
"Our loyalty is to—"
"Peace. The next word better be 'peace.'"

—Aileron and Stormclash

"Typical. They'll shoot at us, but when we try to talk..."
"Ease off, Slide. We're big and scary. Gimlet has all kinds of spikes and stuff."
"I can't help it!"

—Slide, Aileron, and Gimlet conduct diplomacy

Notes

Continuity notes

• This issue is a tie in with IDW's First Strike event, running concurrently with issue #1. In that issue, Starscream shut down the spacebridge in response to an attack by Baron Ironblood and his cabal of supervillains, whose plot against Cybertron is the focus of the First Strike storyline, and issue #1 also follows Scarlett's team as they investigate the "hunch" mentioned here.
• Slide remains bitter over the death of Oiler from issue #5, and recalls the death of Sterling from The Transformers #50.
• Aileron remarks on the possibility of "more Titans invading", referring to the recent attack by Sentinel Prime's reanimated zombie-Titan army in Till All Are One #5-#8.
• Jazz has been missing since the events of issue #8.
• Among the talking heads interviewed throughout the issue is a new character named Jaylin Henry, who talks about how his great-great-grandfather once met a "metal guy". He's referring to John Henry, who met Centurion during the events of Hearts of Steel in the mid-19th century. Formerly a separate continuity, Hearts of Steel was folded into 2005 IDW continuity in Revolutionaries #5.

One panel of fame for everyone.

• Serena Bharwaney originally appeared in the 2009 Bumblebee mini-series, and remembers meeting the title character. That's about eight years in-universe as well as in the real world, so while Serena was a child at the time, she's in her teens now.
• Sofía Orozco is the news intern who roped Jazz into his interview/ambush in issue #8, having appeared periodically through the series from issue #1.
• Jimmy Pink last appeared in The Transformers #38. As noted in The Transformers #50, he and Spike Witwicky received unconditional pardons from the president for their anti-Transformer efforts outside the law; it look like he's gone back to his garage, where he was working when first introduced all the way back in 2006's Infiltration #1.
• Maki Asato made her sole previous appearance in The Transformers #36, providing Spike and Jimmy with inside intel from Onyx to help them in their crusade. This is the first time her last name has been revealed.
• Bryce Chan is a member of the Action Man Programme, a supporting character from IDW's Action Man comic who has put in a few appearances in Revolutionaries. He mentions that the AMP has an agent on Cybertron, "well, two if you count our Cybertronian friend"; he's referring to Action Man and Kup, who have been chumming around since Revolution and starring together in Revolutionaries, and whose role in the conflict on Cybertron plays out in the Optimus Prime: First Strike and Transformers: First Strike one-shots, the former of which chronologically takes place prior to the events of this story, but which hadn't actually been released at the time this issue came out.
• Bryce also comments that the Chinese worked with Transformers before, and that there are "Cybertronians in Kalistan"; in both cases he's referring to the Predacons, who allied themselves with the Chinese government in The Transformers #11, and were last seen operating as slaves of Kalistan's ruler, the Iron Klaw, in Revolutionaries #4.
• Blurr alludes to the last time Maccadam's Old Oil House turned into a safehouse in the midst of chaos, back in Robots in Disguise #13.
• Tracks recounts how Skywatch once captured him and froze him in vehicle mode, as seen in issue #3 of the 2009-2011 ongoing series.
• Save for a silent cameo in Robots in Disguise #33, Dirge hasn't been seen since his major supporting role in the first year of the series came to an end. He mentions the deaths of his former cone-headed flying partners Thrust and Ramjet (as seen in Spotlight: Prowl and Spotlight: Ramjet respectively) and humans' subsequent use of their remains to create "zombie clones" of them, introduced in Robots in Disguise #32.
• As Slide observes, Optimus was on Cybertron when Jazz was being interviewed in issue #8, having deliberately left Earth to create the illusion of distance between himself and a controversial subordinate at the suggestion of the president. They don't realize that Optimus warned Jazz of the impending ambush before leaving, though.
• The BNN news network was introduced in issue #14 of the 2009–2011 series, and recently reappeared in Revolutionaries #8. The news anchor seen in this issue seems to be the same one from the introductory story, and he concludes his report by handing off to Nina, who does not appear on-panel, but showed up in several issues of the 2009–2011 series.
• The Autobots were hunting down black-market EDC weaponry back in issue #1. It was in the same issue that Prime realized they breached the Tyrest Accord, and used this as a means to push humanity into joining the council. Slide specifically notes that the humans breached Article Three, first mentioned in Shining Armor #2, which prevents the sharing of material Cybertronian technology with aliens.

Transformers references

• An unnamed Camien newsreader makes reference to "Cityspeaker Nightbird". Nightbird was created for the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Enter the Nightbird", a human-made robot ninja who became equal parts popular and infamous in the fandom for... reasons. Seems that in IDW continuity, she is a fully-fledged Camien Transformer instead.
• The red-and-white Transformer who appears in panel 5, page 16, is a design created for the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Fight or Flee". Originally a nameless communications officer from the colony world of Paradron, this generic was given the name "Playback" by Ask Vector Prime (retroactively merging the character with an another generic from the Marvel comic). His words here indicate he is a Cybertronian NAIL.
• The message across the bottom of the panel featuring Playback is written in "Ancient Autobot", the symbol font created by Jim Sorenson based on images from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Cosmic Rust". It reads: "Weak or no signal", which combines with the static clouding the image to suggest Playback might be making a pirate or underground broadcast to his fellow Cybertronians.

G.I. Joe references

• We don't get a decent look at it until the Optimus Prime: First Strike one-shot, released one week after this issue, but the tracked vehicle that Marissa's party rides through the spacebridge is a modified G.I. Joe Bridge Layer.

Real-life references

• Terephthaloyl chloride and p-Phenylenediamine are components of Kevlar.

Errors

• In both this issue and the next, Slide is missing the Autobot insignias on her shoulders that she's sported since her debut. It's easy to think that she's simply abandoned the faction due to her mounting frustration with its leader, but her next appearance in issue #15 returns the insignias to their proper position.
• In the opening pages, Chameleon doesn't have an introductory caption box while everyone else does. This is corrected in the trade.
• "p-Phenel-enediamine" shouldn't have that second hyphen in it. This is corrected in the trade.
• Slide has repeatedly stated that she can no longer transform, but on page eighteen Midnight Express is shown towing her in her tanker-trailer mode.
• Blurr and Dirge are described as a "former" Autobot and Decepticon, respectively, which fits with their portrayal in IDW's comics for the last few years—but they're both still drawn with their faction insignia on their chests.
• In his interview, Dirge claims the humans killed both Ramjet and Thrust after the Decepticon invasion when Ramjet was in fact was killed by Megatron prior to the invasion.
• When talking about the Tyrest Accord, Slide says "if Cybertron joins the council" where it should be "Earth". This is corrected in the trade.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for released in September, this issue arrives a little late, in early October.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Aileron and the colonist soldiers, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham
• Cover B: Slide stands apart, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• Cover C: Optimus Prime, by Andrew Griffith
• Retailer incentive cover: Jetfire by Marcelo Matere

• 
  Thou shalt not pass!
• 
  I'm out!
• 
  Yes, we know this is your comic, Optimus.
• 
  Hi there!

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Reprints

• Optimus Prime Volume 3 (June 6, 2018) ISBN 168405270X / ISBN 978-1684052707
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #11–14 & First Strike #1, and Transformers: First Strike #1.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 79: Primeless (November 14, 2018)
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #9–12, and Lost Light issues #9–12.
  • Bonus material includes information about the end of the IDW Universe, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Volume 3 – cover art by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 79: Primeless – cover art by Don Figueroa and Livio Ramondelli

External links

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