Finale (OMAM)
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| "Finale" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Fun Publications | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #72 | ||||||||||||
| Writers | Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Dan Khanna | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Jake Isenberg | ||||||||||||
| Colors | Evan Gauntt | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Managing editor | Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Of Masters and Mayhem | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 2020 | ||||||||||||
Wreckers, Pretenders, and humans battle Thunder Mayhem for the fate of Earth.
Synopsis
Megatron and his partner Spacewarp emerge from their shared Pretender shell to face down Ramjet. Wanting to ensure that Ramjet dies for his condemning the Earth to death, Megatron has Spacewarp convert to weapon mode and fire upon Ramjet with the power of a black hole, but Ramjet is unfazed, and blasts the one-time Decepticon leader with his own power, — Megatron may hold the power of dead stars, but Ramjet has held the power of dead universes! While Megatron launches a dual-pronged attack with his Pretender shell, Counterpunch wonders aloud whether Megatron needs help... but Impactor doesn't care either way, being more concerned with the Wreckers' real target: Thunder Mayhem. As the combiner crushes Optimus Prime and his own shell in its hand, the Wreckers step forth, unite... and form their own combiner, Wreckage, to fight the Decepticon abomination!
Elizabeth, meanwhile, argues on the phone with G.B. Blackrock, who doesn't want her to reveal herself; but Elizabeth knows that if they don't stop Thunder Mayhem, the whole world will be destroyed, rendering her staying hidden pointless. While the two combiners duel, Elizabeth begins to glow with a power she's kept hidden from her allies... and though she intends to fight alone, Crossblades steps up to offer his help. Elizabeth is reluctant, as her powers make her a living battery capable of absorbing energy, particularly energon, but Crossblades offers his willingly, being already injured and out of the fight. Moments later, Thunder Mayhem — which has gained the upper hand in its battle with Wreckage — is taken aback when Elizabeth strikes it with beams of energy, multiplied from Crossblades' own power, and bolstered by the energy weapons of the R.A.A.T.s! Given an opening by the humans' attack, Wreckage is able to shatter Thunder Mayhem's chest armor, revealing its secret: a sixth, green spark, contained within a matrix case. Elizabeth believes that she can beat Thunder Mayhem, but it will need more power than Crossblades has; though Wreckage is reluctant to share its power, Metalhawk has all of Earth's defenders — Transformer and human alike — unite their attacks as one. The combined energy is too much for Thunder Mayhem to handle, and it is torn apart, panicking Ramjet; and as he flees, determined to escape the universe they are in and return to his master, Megatron returns himself and Spacewarp to the human disguise of his Pretender shell, heading off into the sunset.
Weeks later, life seems to be back to normal for the humans and the Autobot Pretenders. G.B. Blackrock has pulled strings to keep their role in the battle out of public view, while the Wreckers have taken the Mayhem Attack Squad captive and left the planet, intending to keep them and the Matrix of Malice safely away from Earth. Optimus and Skyhammer, meanwhile, are tracking down Ramjet to prevent him from spreading any more darkness. Vroom observes that with how neatly everything fit together, it's almost as if whatever sent them to their new home knew exactly what would happen, but Buster is content to not dwell on such things, and switches the TV over to some nice, fictional wrestling. But much to the dismay of the Autobots and their allies, they are greeted by the sight of the new wrestling champ... Stranglehold!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Wreckers | Others |
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Quotes
"If we're going to get past it, I'm going to need to take more than Crossblades has. I'm going to need some of your energy, big guy."
"WHAT? No! I don't share power with any —"
"Did I sound like I was asking?"
- —Elizabeth and Wreckage
Notes
Transformers references
- Spacewarp's blaster form channelling the energy of a black hole is a reference to the original toy bio of Megatron, whose fusion cannon was powered by the same. Her doing so through a space bridge in her chest, meanwhile, is a reference to the IDW Generation 1 continuity version of Megatron, whose stealth bomber form from the 2009-2011 The Transformers ongoing had a space bridge link within his body. Spacewarp even asks why he isn't the one with the bridge!
Marvel Comics references
- It's skirted around thanks to rights issues, but Elizabeth is clearly intended to be a mutant, of Marvel Comics fame — Blackrock doesn't want her to reveal herself for fear of prejudice, and Metalhawk refers to "a few — very few — with other powers". This, of course, stems from how the Classics universe from which she hails is a splinter of the Marvel Transformers comics, which were established in its early issues to take place in a world similar to that of Marvel's other comics, and in which Blackrock himself led a team of super-powered individuals starting with issue #68.
Other trivia
- When Ramjet talks about being able to "extinguish [Megatron's] spark with the flick of a finger", the L and the I run together, resulting in a... rather unfortunate-looking text bubble.
