The Life of Sideswipe

« Optimus Prime #9 »
"The Life of Sideswipe"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	July 12, 2017
Cover date	July 2017
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Kei Zama
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Confronted by the reality of post-war Cybertron, the restored Sideswipe must ask himself—was it all worth it?

Synopsis

In Bikini Atoll's "Little Cybertron" refugee camp, the president and Marissa Faireborn watch newsman Brad Emory reporting on the sudden end to Jazz's live interview. Marissa blames the president for not stopping the G.I. Joe raid that broke the interview up, but the president claims she did all she could. She credits Marissa for the progress being made on the island, and together, the pair watch as a Junkion shuttle takes Wreck-Gar up to the hovering Autobot City. Marissa explains that the Junkion leader is taking the Autobots something that will help them, prompting the president to note that she may have something for them too, and to raise the subject of Marissa "travelling abroad"...

Aboard Autobot City, Wreck-Gar delivers the reconstructed positron core to the Autobots, who are able to use it to finally repair the critically wounded Sideswipe and bring him back online. Warmly welcomed back by his fellow Autobots, Sideswipe is eager to get back to fighting bad guys, but he senses that something isn't right, and spots the silent Arcee, who has been watching over his injured form for months, slip away without saying anything. He follows her and finds her brooding about the fact that Sideswipe's brother Sunstreaker has not shown up for his reawakening despite promising he would. Sideswipe is not particularly fazed by this; he and his brother have always had a troubled relationship, and he long ago stopped caring what Sunstreaker thought about him. Arcee tells him that Sunstreaker's last message mysteriously cut out, and quietly speaks of a brother of her own that she once had in the distant past, who she allowed to die through inaction...

Taking the hint, Sideswipe heads for Cybertron to check on Sunstreaker, accompanied by Arcee. Having been off-world throughout many of the recent societal upheavals on the planet, Sideswipe is set on edge by the state of Iacon and its diverse population, never having expected that this "ugly, dirty" shared Cybertron would be the outcome of the war he spent millions of years fighting. The pair check out Sunstreaker's apartment, but are pounced on by something waiting inside; Sideswipe nearly shoots it until Arcee identifies their "assailant" as Sunstreaker's pet Insecticon, Bob. After apologizing to, and feeding, the hungry little guy, Sideswipe observes some scuff marks on the floor that suggest foul play by the Badgeless. Sideswipe has Bob serve as bloodhound, tracking Sunstreaker's scent, which leads them to a warehouse in the Decepticon ghetto. Before Arcee can stop him, Sideswipe smashes his way through the doors and, thinking he has caught a group of Decepticons in the middle of an energon smuggling operation, opens fire on them all. After wounding most of them, Sideswipe turns his attention to the apparent "ringleader," Soundwave, and starts pummeling him... until Sunstreaker suddenly appears and yells for him to stop!

Sideswipe is confused; is his brother in league with the Decepticons? Sunstreaker explains to his brother that there are no "sides" any more—he had just remained on Cybertron to help with the relief effort following a fire in the Decepticon district. What's more, Arcee knew about it, and the whole "mission" was just a way to help Sideswipe move beyond his wartime attitude by showing him how peace has changed Cybertron, and them all, for the better. At first, Sideswipe agrees to join in and help purely to show up Sunstreaker and prevent him getting one over on him, but as he takes in the thriving city and its populace and the noble goals they are working towards, he comes to understand what Arcee and his brother have been trying to show him. He sincerely thanks Arcee for watching out for him all this time, and looks out over the city, realizing that a world where everyone works together in peace is what he was fighting for all along.

And with that contentment filling his heart... Sideswipe dies.

Arcee and Sunstreaker disconnect from the mnemopathis projector provided by Wreck-Gar, with which they have been able to link their minds to that of the dying Sideswipe, still contained in his stasis tube, never having awoken from his coma. Through the story they have projected into his mind, they have given him the final gift of a peaceful passing, secure in the knowledge that everything he fought for was worth it. Arcee retreats to ruminate, caught up in a mixture of happiness and sadness she is unaccustomed to; Aileron follows her, and tries to reassure her by describing her religion's belief in reincarnation. The atheist Arcee laughs—not a mean-spirited laugh, as Aileron at first interprets it, but a laugh at the idea of how much trouble she would be in if everyone she and Sideswipe had ever killed came back to life. Aileron offers to leave, but Arcee asks her to stay awhile, and, addressing her words to the stars in the sky, bids Sideswipe a final farewell.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks, or Sideswipe's "dream."
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Jazz (file photo, 1) Metrotitan (7) Optimus Prime (9) Jetfire (11) Arcee (12) Sideswipe (13) Sunstreaker (15) Windblade (28) Blurr (30) Ironhide (31) Aileron (33)	Megatron (14) Starscream (16) Steamhammer (18) Onyx Primal (19) Killer Punch (20) Sizzle (21) Switchblade (22) Soundwave (23) Jolt (24) Rook (25) Megadeath (26) Backfire (27) Tall Tankor (29)	Brad Emory (2) President (3) Marissa Faireborn (4) Chameleon (5)	A Sharkticon (6) D.0.C. (10) Bob (17) Junkions Wreck-Gar (8) A Junkion (32)

Quotes

"He was supposed to be here."
"Probably walked past a mirror and got distracted."

—Arcee and Sideswipe, on Sunstreaker

"There's a reason I left Cybertron. It was getting confusing, messy. Used to be, it was good guys versus Decepticons—the end. Reason enough to live, and simple goals. Now it's he or she and Decepticons living with everybody else and it sounds like they get attacked every few weeks by who-knows-what. It's ugly and dirty (...) This is what I fought for? What my friends died for? To give a home to everybody who ruined our world."

—Sideswipe narrates

"Things change. I screwed up one time. I mean, I'm sure I screwed up more. But the big one made me rethink things. I thought I was so much above everybody and everything I thought I could... I could fix everything myself. But it's not about me. It's about all of us."
"The war changed us. But the peace... maybe the peace can change us again."

—Sunstreaker and Arcee

"Decepticons. Come on. I didn't fight for them. I fought because of them. But Sunstreaker thinks he's gonna get one over on me? If you can do it, Streaker... you know I can do it better."

—Sideswipe isn't convinced by his brother's argument at first.

"I just don't know another way to start a story, besides losing someone."

—Arcee

"Let me just look at this place, one more time. Cybertron full of people trying to help each other, huh? Well... I guess... what else were we fighting for? This is okay, guys... thanks for showing me it's okay."

—Sideswipe's final words

"I feel sad, but also a little happy. I've seen no shortage of death, but that was... well, Wreck-Gar's machine did help. I think he felt better when he died than when he lived. (...) Goodbye, Sideswipe. Until I see you again. After all... it's nice having someone watch over you."

—Arcee

Notes

Continuity notes

• Sideswipe has been comatose since receiving his injuries back in The Transformers #49. He remembers some of the specific circumstances of the story as he awakens, including the black sphere that surrounded the Ark-7 and blotted out the stars.
• The upside-down scene of Sideswipe's awakening is a direct homage to The Transformers #33, in which Wheeljack awoke in a similar manner. The water drains away in the right direction in this issue!
• The positron core was destroyed in issue #6, its detonation reducing Wreck-Gar to the disembodied head he currently remains.
• Sideswipe recalls his troubled relationship with Sunstreaker, which was first laid out way back in Spotlight: Sideswipe; it was in that same issue that we saw Sideswipe work past his hang-ups, and conclude he no longer cared what Sunstreaker thought about him. He also remembers Sunstreaker's attempts to join Megatron's underground gladiatorial games, and how he prevented him from doing so, as seen in Megatron Origin #3, and Sunstreaker's eventual ruining of everything for everyone in All Hail Megatron.
• Arcee mentions having a brother who died under undisclosed circumstances. John Barber confirmed that this was not an oblique reference to Sideswipe's passing. Issue #10 would reveal that she was talking about Galvatron, who recently perished at Optimus' hands.
• Arcee explains how the Badgeless now report to Ironhide, not Starscream, following the events of Till All Are One #2.
• While running through his personal history, in addition to his time as an Autobot under Optimus, Sideswipe recalls when he served as an enforcer for the Senate (a period of his life essentially undetailed, alluded to only by a single panel in More than Meets the Eye #3), and when he was a "cop for the city" (which was the role he served throughout "season one" of Robots in Disguise, beginning in The Death of Optimus Prime).

Transformers references

• Though he remains in his classic Generation 1 color scheme throughout the issue, Sideswipe wears a bandolier across his chest and wields a big honkin' gun to evoke his appearance in the Marvel Generation 2 comic. He is depicted with an especially Derek Yaniger-y scowl on Cover A!
• Mentioned last issue but seen on panel in this one, Brad Emory featured in issue #44 of the original Marvel comic. His guest Jake "The Jackhammer" Jackson, meanwhile, appeared in issue #55.
• Wreck-Gar has written on his hand to "talk" to Sideswipe still in the tube, referencing Pharma's use of the tactic to "speak" from inside a quarantine room in "Life After the Big Bang".
• Optimus paraphrases his live-action movie self, quoting from Revenge of the Fallen as he tells Sideswipe "Fate has once again called upon you at a moment of its choosing."
• A rat based on Beast Machines Rattrap can be seen scampering among the garbage on page 8. Also on this page is a winged 'bot colored by Josh Burcham to resemble Generation 2 Eagle Eye, but who doesn't much look like him otherwise.
• Sideswipe feeds Bob some cesium salami, a foodstuff originally mentioned in The Transformers: The Movie.
• Many of the Decepticons working with Soundwave are obscure characters from the Marvel UK story, "The Magnificent Six!", including Steamhammer, Switchblade (seen only from the rear, as he was in the original story), the monstrous Megadeath, and Backfire.
• Also present are Killer Punch from Beast Wars Neo (lacking his Styracosaurus kibble because he obviously doesn't have an Earth animal mode), BotCon 1996 exclusive Onyx Primal, and Rook from the Generation 2 comics.
• Cross-continuity crowd-scene cameos popping in on page 16 include Revenge of the Fallen Skids and Mudflap (by coincidence something that has happened before), Robots in Disguise Fixit, a possible Eukarian or Camien with Botanica's body-type and Prime Arcee's colors, and a 'bot with the body-type of Prime Ripclaw.

Real-life references

• Following Sideswipe's death, Wreck-Gar pays homage to the late, great David Bowie as he remarks "Wish upon wish upon day upon day, I wish, oh Lord, I wish I coulda repaired the positron core," paraphrasing the lyrics of Bowie's song "Golden Years".

Other trivia

• The fact that Sideswipe's awakening isn't all it appears to be is subtly foreshadowed on page 2: Marissa mentions that Wreck-Gar's head is being taken to Autobot City, but when we next see him, he's fully intact. When the issue returns to the "real world" at the end, Wreck-Gar is once more a disembodied head.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Sideswipe emerges from his tube, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham
• Cover B: Arcee and Sideswipe, by Casey Coller
• Cover C: Optimus Prime by Tom Whalen; one of several "art deco" covers produced by Whalen for various IDW July titles
• Retailer incentive cover: Arcee by Zerob

• 
  G2 to the X-treme!
• 
  "I love you."
• 
  Artsy!
• 
  Happiness is killing your enemies.

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• Optimus Prime #10
• "The Hasbro Tribune" editorial page promoting July's Hasbro Universe titles, including this issue, G.I. Joe #8, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3, Revolutionaries #8, Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor #1, Lost Light #8, and Till All Are One #12.
• Preview of Diablo House #1 (physical)
• Preview of Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor #1 (digital)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo one-shot

Reprints

• Optimus Prime Volume 2 (January 24, 2018) ISBN 1684051312 / ISBN 978-1684051311
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #7–10, and Transformers Annual 2017.
  • 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.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 3 (September 27, 2022) ISBN 1684059070 / ISBN 978-1684059072
  • Collects Revolutionaries issues #5–8, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2: "Upgrade", Lost Light issues #8–9 & #10–12, Optimus Prime issues #7–8 & #9–10, Transformers Annual 2017, and Salvation.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Best of Arcee (October 5, 2022)
  • Collects Combiner Hunters #1: "An Uneventful Night", The Transformers (2012) #55: "All Hail Optimus Part 6: No Fair Fights", Optimus Prime #9: "The Life of Sideswipe", Excerpt from Optimus Prime #21: "The Falling, Chapter 6: Unforgivable", The Transformers (1984) #224: "Aspects of Evil!", and Transformers (2019) #18: "Arcee/Greenlight: Run".
  • Bonus material includes an art gallery.
  • One-shot format.

• 
  Volume 2 – cover art by Priscilla Tramontano
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 79: Primeless – cover art by Don Figueroa and Livio Ramondelli
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 3 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher
• 
  Best of Arcee – cover art by James Biggie

External links

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