Conquerors Part 4: Perihelion

« The Transformers vol. 2 #49 »
"Conquerors Part 4: Perihelion"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 20, 2016
Cover date	January 2016
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Sara Pitre-Durocher
Colors by	Josh Perez and Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

The Decepticons capture the Ark and Galvatron turns the tables on Soundwave, but Optimus Prime is ready to take drastic action to prevent the resurgence of war.

Synopsis

Conflict rages on three fronts: In the EDC's Bikini Atoll base, Galvatron smirkingly faces down the allied Autobots and EDC agents, with Garrison Blackrock in his grip; aboard the Ark-7, in space, Arcee, Sideswipe, and Alpha Trion are confronted by an army of Decepticons pouring through the spacebridge to Cybertron; and on Cybertron itself, Windblade's team tries to stop the Decepticon horde from entering the bridge.

Simultaneously, Wheeljack is able to shut down the spacebridge, and Faireborn uses Blackrock's tablet to deactivate the shields surrounding the Ark-7. Unaware of the author of their salvation but happy about it nonetheless, Arcee tries to hold off the Decepticons while Sideswipe and Alpha Trion fall back to the ship's bridge, in order to set the ship down on the Moon and blow its engines before the Decepticons can capture it. Her resistance is short-lived, as she is quickly taken out by Brawl, but she buys Sideswipe enough time to conceal Alpha Trion within a "closet" on the bridge before he, too, is brought down by the invaders. With the Ark now under Decepticon control, Needlenose radios Soundwave and prepares to set the ship on course for the Jupiter commune, Sanctuary Station, but Brawl has a different idea... and has him head down to Earth.

A furious Soundwave contacts Galvatron on Earth to inform him of this apparent treachery, but it turns out that Brawl is merely following orders from Galvatron himself, and that conquest of Earth has always been Galvatron's plan. Soundwave tries to appeal to Skywarp, but the Seeker—having spent months trussed up teleporting everyone around on command—is fed up of being told what to do, and teleports himself and Galvatron from the EDC base to the middle of Shanghai, China. Galvatron is angry at first, but is quickly placated when Skywarp explains that the Decepticon-controlled Ark is about to land in the middle of the city.

Back on Cybertron, Windblade's team are still facing off against the remaining Decepticons who did not make it through the spacebridge, but some big help soon arrives in the form of Optimus Prime, Victorion, and Superion (and also Starscream, who's not very happy that Superion is following Prime's lead in the fight, rather than his). Victorion's gravity powers end the fighting quickly, and various friends are reunited as Wheeljack sets about getting the spacebridge back online at Optimus's request. War cannot be allowed to come to Earth yet again, and Optimus knows what he must do to prevent it...

Aboard Sanctuary Station, Soundwave despairs, believing that the Decepticon cause has been undone once again thanks to the failings of an individual. He apologizes to Cosmos and Sky-Byte for his failures, but warns them that they must now prepare for war...

With Sky Lynx too injured to take Kup, Jazz, and Jetfire to Shangai, Thundercracker offers to go and fight in their place, but the Ark-7 lands in Shanghai before they can even begin to mobilize. There, in the heart of the city, even as Blackrock squirms in his grip and vows to destroy him, Galvatron begins to deliver a speech to the Decepticons who emerge from the vessel... only to then be cut off by the voice of Optimus Prime! From out of the spacebridge, Prime's forces—including the two combiners—emerge, as Prime lifts high an Autobot flag and officially declares that he is annexing Earth into the Council of Worlds, and that the planet is now under the united protection of Cybertron and its colony planets!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Jazz (8) Kup (9) Jetfire (10) Sideswipe (11) Alpha Trion (12) Arcee (13) Sunstreaker (21) Wheeljack (22) Windblade (23) Ironhide (24) Chromia (25) Tracks (26) Cosmos (32) Optimus Prime (38) Superion (40)	Skywarp (1) Galvatron (2) Needlenose (14) Brawl (15) Onslaught (16) Cindersaur (17) Squeezeplay (18) Dreadwing (19) Swift (27) Soundwave (28) Laserbeak (29) Buzzsaw (30) Slugslinger (31) Sky-Byte (33) Blitzwing (42) Astrotrain (43) Rumble (44) Frenzy (45) Acid Storm (46) Flamefeather (47)	Garrison Blackrock (3) Ayana Jones (5) Marissa Faireborn (6) Spike Witwicky (7)	Thundercracker (4) Bob (20) D.0.C. (34) Buster (35) Aileron (36) Victorion (37) Starscream (39) Sterling (41)

Quotes

"AIIIEEE!"
"I'm sure that guy'll be fine."

—An unfortunate Decepticon is sliced in two as the spacebridge shuts down while they are passing through, but Wheeljack is hopeful

"I wish I had more guns... but I guess I always do. They'll carve that on my tombstone."

—Sideswipe

Windblade: "No one blames you for what happened."
Chromia: "I do."
Ironhide: "Yeah, let's not lie."

—Windblade attempts to talk down the Decepticons, but Chromia and Ironhide don't quite agree with her methods

Victorion: "Windblade, Chromia- it is good to see you again."
Windblade: "Uh, hey Victorion. How's the Rust Sea?"
Chromia: "Yo."

—Chromia shorthands the pleasantries

"Wheeljack—when will the spacebridge be active again?"
"Well, this thingamajig pulled the plug pretty hard. I'd say... it probably did about two days worth of damage. So gimmie ninety seconds."

—Optimus Prime and Wheeljack

"Earth is mine... and under my protection. I hereby annex Earth into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds. Now and forever, we stand united against tyranny... and against you, Galvatron. Now and forever, war is over."

—Optimus Prime

Notes

Continuity notes

• Tracks turns out to still be alive, following the hit he took in issue #47.
• Skywarp recalls the EDC's mindbomb, which the Decepticons were hit with back in issue #30. The memory of it is obviously enough to convince Galvatron that Skywarp has made the right call.
• Windblade and Chromia's previous (secret) meeting with Victorion in the Combiner Hunters one-shot is alluded to.
• Laserbeak and Buzzsaw remind Soundwave of the first time they met him, which we saw in issue #22. It's the first time the location for their meeting has been identified as the Dead End.
• Marissa remarks that the Chinese government doesn't trust the EDC to handle the Transformer situation after their "last thing" on Chinese soil, referring to Prowl's attack on Onyx's Wanmu facility.

Transformers references

• Continuing from previous issues, the Decepticons led by Needlenose and Brawl include a spike and wheel shoulders generic with Toxitron's color scheme and a generic with Buzzclaw's color scheme.
• One of the Decepticons in the spacebridge room (he's the one holding his head in terror as his buddy is bisected by the closing spacebridge) has a color scheme which seems to evoke Shattered Glass Ricochet.
• The Decepticon whose arm Arcee slices off seems to take his head colors from Machine Wars Skywarp.
• Most of the construction workers who witness the Ark's crash in Shanghai are wearing the classic blue pants/tan shirt/white vest/yellow hard hat combo of Spike and Sparkplug Witwicky from the Generation 1 cartoon.

Real-life references

• Like the first two chapters of "Conquerors", this issues takes its title from astronomy. A "perihelion" is the point at which an orbiting celestial body is closest to the sun, the opposite of the aphelion, which was the title of Part 1.

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: Galvatron raises Optimus Prime's head on a pike, by Andrew Griffith; an homage to All Hail Megatron #1, by Klaus Scherwinski
• Subscription cover: Optimus offers the Matrix to Victorion, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
• Retailer incentive "Countdown to 50" cover: Ironhide, Sideswipe, Jazz, and Chromia, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez; part of a series of variant covers "counting down" to the release of the 50th issues of the The Transformers and More than Meets the Eye in February 2016, which combines with the other covers in the series to make a larger image.

• 
  Galvatron does not appreciate the irony of this image.
• 
  "You want this?"
• 
  Ironhide flexes for his lady.

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• The Transformers #50
• More than Meets the Eye #49
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10
• IDW Transformers Reading Guide
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise: A New Mission

Reprints

• The Transformers Volume 9 (June 29, 2016) ISBN 163140668X / ISBN 978-1631406683
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #46–49.
  • Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 67: Conquerors (July 24, 2019)
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #43–49, and Combiner Hunters #1.
  • Bonus material includes development art by Andrew Griffith, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 11 (June 17, 2020) ISBN 1684056403 / ISBN 978-1684056408
  • Collects The Transformers Holiday Special: "Silent Light", Redemption, The Transformers (2012) issues #46–50 & "New Worlds Order", and More than Meets the Eye issues #50–55 & "No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases".
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Volume 9 – cover art by Andrew Griffith and Klaus Scherwinski
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 67: Conquerors – cover art by Don Figueroa and Andrew Griffith
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 11 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

External links

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