End of the Road! (US)
| The name or term "End of the Road" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see End of the Road (disambiguation). |
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 "I am victorious! Is there any who can challenge Bludgeon?!" "Me." "...Oh, slag." | |||||||||||||
| "End of the Road!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 1991 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 1991 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Penciler | Andrew Wildman | ||||||||||||
| Inker | Stephen Baskerville | ||||||||||||
| Colorist | Nel Yomtov | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Rick Parker | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Rob Tokar | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 1991 | ||||||||||||
All good things...
Synopsis
Sometime after the end of the last issue, the Autobots came to Klo, saw a Decepticon, and were conquered. As Octopunch leads a tracker team to hunt down the remaining survivors, Grimlock is trying to keep the last five Autobots alive. Unfortunately for him, Prowl is one of the survivors, and spares no breath berating Grimlock for the situation. It seems the Dinobots were led into an obvious trap upon the Autobots' arrival on Klo, and the resulting melee was a slaughter. Prowl's pontificating is cut short when Fangry leads the hunting party to double-back, and the Decepticons move in for the kill.
Back at the scene of the first battle, Bludgeon is about to administer another execution when he and his warriors are suddenly caught off guard by the arriving Neo-Knights. The Decepticons quickly learn that the humans were only the first wave, and onto the battlefield drops the second wave—Optimus Prime, alive and kicking. Despite Bludgeon's disbelieving cries, Prime is indeed back, and he introduces his new friend, the legendary Last Autobot. The child of Primus relates how he first encountered Hi-Q and the Neo-Knights on Cybertron, and reformatted the Nebulan into a Nucleon-enhanced Action Master version of Optimus Prime.
The Decepticons dogpile on Optimus Prime, but prove less than effective. What's more, the Last Autobot begins using his powers to reanimate all of the fallen Autobots, increasing their forces by the minute. As Grimlock and his group of survivors charge over the hillside, the tide of battle quickly turns towards the Autobots, and Bludgeon's troops are put to retreat. As Bludgeon proclaims he will lead his troops into the voluntary exile that honor demands, he quietly tells Stranglehold to gather their forces, to live to fight another day.
As the Autobots wrap up, Optimus Prime informs his brethren that Cybertron survives, restored by the Last Autobot's power and the Matrix energy that washed over the planet in the final battle with Unicron. The Autobots prepare to help the Klozians rebuild, take the Neo-Knights home and, finally, return to their home planet for a new era of peace and enlightenment.
- The UK Annual story "Another Time & Place".
- The G.I. Joe issue "Unfoldings!", leading into the Generation 2 series.
- The Fun Publications "Classicverse", starting chronologically with "The New World".
- The IDW Publishing miniseries The Transformers: Regeneration One.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Nebulans |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Do you not understand? It's OVER—FINISHED!"
- —Bludgeon, executing Siren
"As it was foretold, so it came to pass. But the chosen one... was something of a surprise. Until I saw that there was more to this tiny being than met the eye."
- —The Last Autobot
"And now... it is time for this mindless war to cease. It is done, finished."
- —The Last Autobot
"ENOUGH! Do you not understand, Decepticons? It is over—FINISHED! A new age has dawned, and we must herald it in... with peace and harmony!"
- —Optimus Prime, while pulverizing a squad of Decepticons
"For me, personally, it never ends!"
- —Simon Furman, giving mixed messages as he concludes the letters page
Notes
Artwork and technical errors
- On the final page, Wheeljack is colored medium and dark gray, while Kup has a helmet like that of Wreck-Gar.
Continuity errors
- "Recipe for Disaster!" and, in the UK, "Prime's Rib" say that the Transformers have no gender and no "mates". Tell that to Stranglehold, whose fantasies involve scantily-clad maybe-robot women!
Continuity notes
- Optimus Prime appears in his Action Master design, but Nucleon is not explicitly mentioned here as being a part of his transformation. However, Hi-Q absorbed energy during Grimlock's metamorphosis to Action Master form in "Still Life!", an indirect appropriation of Nucleon that is confirmed in Transformers UK Annual #7, "Another Time & Place".
- If a (Fill in the Blank)master is killed with their partner, could the Last Autobot still resurrect them?
- On page 19, Optimus Prime seems to be shattering or completely crushing Crankcase's head; despite this, Crankcase is shown running off in retreat on page 21. He doesn't seem to have a head as he retreats, though!
- Though the story certainly implies that all the destroyed Autobots were revived, the only confirmed survivors are Optimus, Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Prowl, Hot Rod, Inferno, Blaster, Kup and Wheeljack.
Real-life references
UK printing
Issue #331:
- Reprint Transformers Story: The Big Shutdown!
- Other strips: Combat Colin
Issue #332:
- Reprint Transformers Story: The Greatest Gift of All!
- Other strips: Combat Colin
- Whereas The Big Shutdown was reprinted in colour, The Greatest Gift of All wasn't.
Other trivia
- With typical Marvel humor, this issue is billed as #80 in a four-issue limited series.
- Twenty-three years later, IDW's Regeneration One comic would recycle this gag for its own final issue.
- Nobody gets the final US cover corner box; instead, an orange and yellow beveled Decepticon insignia appears here, contrasting the Autobot symbol featured in the cover's logo.
- How high were sales in the 90s speculator boom? This comic was cancelled for low sales of 70,000 copies an issue.[1]
- Simon Furman's "send-off" message at the end of the issue claims that this will almost certainly mark the end of the Transformers franchise, but that he hopes to continue to write stories about the Neo-Knights. Wonder how that turned out?
- Game over, man—game over.
Covers
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US issue #80 - Wheeljack never gets a break. -
UK issue #331 - All action, no 'Master. -
UK issue #332 - It's the end... but the moment has been prepared for. -
Titan Books End of the Road TPB -
Titan Books End of the Road HC -
IDW Classic Transformers Volume 6 TPB -
IDW Regeneration One 100 Page Spectacular Cover A -
IDW Regeneration One 100 Page Spectacular Cover B -
The Transformers Classics Vol. 7
- US cover: Bludgeon about to dismember Wheeljack by Andrew Wildman.
- UK issue #331 cover: Optimus Prime by Andrew Wildman; recolored version of page 12 of the story.
- UK issue #332 cover: recolored version of US cover.
- Titan Books End of the Road TPB: Galvatron, Grimlock, Bludgeon, Prowl and half of Unicron, by Andrew Wildman
- Titan Books End of the Road HC: Galvatron and generic Decepticons, by Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie & Chris Blythe
- Classic Transformers Volume 6 TPB: A scrapbook of images from issues 76-80, all by Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville
- IDW Regeneration One 100 Page Spectacular Cover A: Action Master Grimlock smashes
- IDW Regeneration One 100 Page Spectacular Cover B: Hi-Q writhes in pain with the memories of Optimus Prime, surrounded by (anti-clockwise from top) The Last Autobot, Grimlock, Prowl, Ratchet, Galvatron, Fortress Maximus, Shockwave, Megatron and Bludgeon
- The Transformers Classics Vol. 7 cover: Ratchet by Guido Guidi.
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