A Cliffjumper(s) Tale
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| "A Cliffjumper(s) Tale" | |||||||||||||
| Published by | Yolopark | ||||||||||||
| First published | June 12, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Pierre Jean Saint-Clair | ||||||||||||
| Line art by | Robby Musso | ||||||||||||
| Color art by | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Packaged with | Cliffjumper | ||||||||||||
Frustrated at being regarded as a "Cliffjumper", a rouge rogue goes wild in the multiverse to... save Cliffjumpers?
Synopsis
On the Cybertron of Primax 625.12 Gamma, everybody has a unique identity... except one unfortunate soul. After being endlessly compared to the generic service bots known as Cliffjumpers due to their shared design cues of red coloration, small size, and horns, the angry robot drops a strain of the Hate Plague that specifically targets the Cliffjumpers and they kill each other, taking care of her problem. Even still, after discovering the multiversal Vector Sigma gestalt, "Cliffjumper" has decided to continue her mission to make herself the Cliffjumper. But after Pick-Up finds that 99.98% of Cliffjumpers across 15 million universes have already died, "Cliffjumper" realizes that her actions have, in turn, been the continuation of a cosmic joke and decides to adjust her plans for revenge—she will now save Cliffjumpers instead!
In Uniend 911.05 Alpha, "Cliffjumper" takes care to blow up the Nemesis before Cliffjumper's untimely demise.
In Tyran 207.28 Gamma, Cliffjumper is saved from Shatter and Dropkick before he can be bisected himself.
In Malgus 1207.26 Alpha, "Cliffjumper" takes Cliffjumper's place in a confrontation with Toxitron where the Decepticon clone asks "C.J." to join him on a mission that would have ended in his death.
After 12.025 million timelines of saving Cliffjumpers, "Cliffjumper" is satisfied that Cliffjumpers across the multiverse are no longer "cannon fodder" for the powers that rule over their existence. She does find one last signal from a Cliffjumper in a "pillar reality" from far into the future. She's shocked to find that this particular iteration has survived his adventures, even to the end of existence 18 billion years later. Realizing what an ideal existence this is for a Cliffjumper, "Cliffjumper" travels into the past of Primax 984.17 Alpha, finds the newly-manufactured Cliffjumper, and takes his place! Onward, she ends up on Earth in 1984, before Optimus Prime as he announces that the Autobots are the first line of defense against Decepticons. She gives a knowing wink—she never said she gave up on being the Cliffjumper...
Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
|
Notes
Transformers references
- The Cliffjumpers of "Cliffjumper"'s native universe are "generic service bots" with no unique identity as a meta joke on Cliffjumper being usually pushed as a red variant of Bumblebee (and, indeed, "Cliffjumper" being the original "red Bumblebee" plays into this).
- The discovery that 99.98% of Cliffjumpers are already dead is a product of the popular fan belief that Cliffjumpers die very often. However, this isn't really true, as evidenced by the fact that the story can only produce two existing canon examples of it happening (the ones that inspired the misconception in the first place!), having to invent an original third example.
- The Cliffjumper of this story is in actuality a different character, originally intended to be named "Ladybug" (a trace of which can be seen when Pick-Up refers to her as "La-" before being interrupted). Ladybug is based on the red variant of the 1983 Micro Change MC-04 Mini Car Robo 03 Volkswagen, sold in the original Transformers toyline as Bumblebee and thus isn't really a "Cliffjumper". This story plays with the wider franchise's consideration of Cliffjumper as "red Bumblebee" (due to them having similar bodyforms and it being an easy redeco), inadvertently muscling into the territory of the "original" red Bumblebee.
- The universal stream designations refer to different works of Transformers fiction:
- Primax 625.12 Gamma refers to this comic itself.
- Uniend 911.05 Alpha refers to the Prime cartoon.
- Tyran 207.28 Gamma refers to the "movieverse" comics published by IDW, which began with Movie Prequel #1.
- Malgus 1207.26 Alpha refers to the Animated cartoon.
- Primax 984.17 Alpha refers to the original The Transformers cartoon.
Real-world references
- "Cliffjumper" screams "What the #%!&???", a reference to Deadpool, who was fond of censored swearing in his comic books.
- "Cliffjumper" remarks "You're welcome!" to Prime Cliffjumper, whose voice actor, Dwayne Johnson, sang the "You're Welcome" song in Moana.
- The scene with "Cliffjumper" rejecting Toxitron is a homage to a similar scene in Back to the Future Part II.
Errors
- The art of the second page is aligned too low on the page, and the overlay for word bubbles is aligned too high, so the two elements are disjointed.
