End of the Road! (US)
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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 Actionmaster version of Optimus Prime.
The Decepticons dogpile on Prime, but prove less than effective. What's more, the Last Autobot begins using his powers to reanimate all 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 and Place".
- The G.I. Joe issue "Unfoldings", leading into the Generation 2 series.
- The Fun Publications story "Crossing Over, Part 1".
Credits
Script: Simon Furman
Pencils: Andrew Wildman
Inks: Stephen Baskerville
Colors: Nelson Yomtov
Lettering: Rick Parker
- Originally published: July, 1991
Major characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Errors
- None yet identified.
Items of note
- Optimus Prime appears in his Actionmaster 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 and Place".
- If a (Fill in the Blank)master is killed with their partner, could the Last Autobot still resurrect them?
- Apparently Crankcase is perfectly fine surviving without a head.
- With typical Marvel humor, this issue is billed as #80 in a four-issue limited series.
- Simon Furman's "send-off" message at the end of the issue claims that this will almost certainly mark the end of Transformers as a story, but that he hopes to continue to write stories about the Neo-Knights. Wonder how that turned out?
- Game over, man — game over.
Covers
- U.S. cover: Bludgeon about to dismember Wheeljack by Andrew Wildman
- UK issue 331 cover: Optimus Prime by Andrew Wildman
- UK issue 332 cover: recolored version of U.S. cover
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- None yet identified.
