The Dead Come Home, Part 2 (of 2)
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|colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center" | "The Dead Come Home"
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|}{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}
Trypticon enters the fray, but Optimus Prime sees him as the key to keeping the next generation of Cybertronians safe from harm.
Synopsis
[edit]On the planet Regalis V, aka "Botanica," Prowl uses his vamparc ribbon cannon to clear a path through the attacking beasts so that Wheelie and Garnak can exfiltrate the wounded Throttlebots. Stardrive, meanwhile, takes on their flying opponents with a grotesque new trick she has picked up since we last saw her: she has become partially infected with Dire Wraith biomatter, and shapeshifts into a monstrous, biomechanical form to rip the airborne beasts to shreds. Stardrive takes no pleasure in the deed, having only ever wanted to be left alone; she is resentful of Prowl for pulling her into the conflict, but he reminds her that every opponent she puts an end to is a life saved. Prowl de-cloaks their ship, the Peaceful Revolution, and everyone gets aboard, where Goldbug marvels at the collection of weaponry and artifacts Prowl has amassed.
On Cybertron, chaos reigns in the outback as the rampaging Slug (secretly under the control of Bludgeon's Void Scepter) attacks his fellow Dinobots, while Sandstorm attacks Optimus Prime, blaming him for Slug's actions. The Dinobots recognize that Slug is not himself, but that doesn't do anything to minimize the danger he poses; under orders from Strafe to "protect the newcomers," Sludge breaks off from the battle, and an intrigued Arcee follows him as he disappears into a nearby cave. Once inside the cave, Arcee is suddenly tackled from behind by a small robot, who knocks her through a hole in the floor leading into an underground cavern. Arcee is shocked to discover that her attacker is one of the missing protoforms—the rest of whom are all holed up in the cavern under the protection of Trypticon, who warns Arcee against harming his protoform "children!"
Back on the surface, Centurion has forcibly separated Prime and Sandstorm. As a transmission from Arcee comes in informing Prime of what she has discovered, the Autobot leader quickly puts a cunning plan together. Prime directs Garrison Blackrock to return to Iacon and fetch Marissa Faireborn, while he turns his attention to Slug, singeing the Dinobot with a warning shot to get his attention, and then attempting to convince him to stand down, urging the Dinobot to move past old grievances. Watching through Slug's eyes from his lab back in the city, Bludgeon scoffs at Prime's pleas and is about to order Slug to kill him when Starscream suddenly bursts into the room. Having been informed of Bludgeon's duplicity by the "ghost" of Bumblebee, Starscream snatches the Void Scepter from his hands and destroys it, freeing Slug from its control. Starscream does not want Prime killed; he just wanted him to find the protoforms, which he would have to hand over to the government, but thanks to Bludgeon's impromptu attempt on his life, things have all gone wrong...
With Arcee still riding atop his head, Trypticon bursts up through the ground, demanding an end to the fighting. Prime greets the giant dinosaur in peace, whereupon Blackrock returns with Faireborn. With all parties present, Optimus announces his plan: just as Metrotitan serves as the Cybertronian embassy on Earth, they will have Trypticon serve as the Earth embassy on Cybertron. As this means that the protoforms dwelling within Trypticon (including the one who attacked Arcee, who she affectionately dubs "Sideswipe") are technically on "Earth soil," and hence under Prime's care, they will not have to be handed over to Starscream. Sandstorm balks at Prime's use of Cybertron's new generation as a political move, but Centurion silences him; it's a low move, but one undertaken in the name of peace. The Dinobots reconcile and welcome Slug back into the fold, but Prime is certain that they have all been the victims of outside manipulation...
...and through Slug's eyes, Bludgeon continues to watch the whole scene, disappointed at how things have played out... but confident nonetheless that this failure will do nothing to impede the plans of his coming "master."
Back on Earth, in Autobot City, Aileron, Dust Up and Jumpstream greet Pyra Magna, Skyburst, and Stormclash as they return from Cybertron via space bridge. The returnees update them on recent events, but Aileron is a little perturbed that Optimus has not returned with them. When she asks Pyra Magna about him, Magna curtly responds that she has not seen him in days, and leaves to attend to business of her own. That "business," it turns out, is to report to Prowl, with whom she has secretly been in contact. Over a comm-link, she informs him that Optimus has achieved his goals: Cybertron is now intrinsically linked to Earth, relying upon it for survival in the wake of the energon shortage. Prowl is unsurprised, but considers this development a secondary concern; the beast-formers currently pose a greater danger, and intel provided by Pyra on Eukaris and its inhabitants have ruled out the planet as their point of origin. Whoever they are and whatever their goal... Earth and Cybertron will both need to be ready for them...
Featured characters
[edit]{{#if: ||(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)}}
|
!! style="background:#ffdddd;" | Autobots }}{{#if:* Bludgeon (26)| !! style="background:#ededff" | Decepticons }}{{#if:* Marissa Faireborn (30)| !! style="background:#fbefde;" | Humans }}{{#if:* Hydra (2)
- Insecticon (3)
- Transquito (6)
- Drancron (11)
- Sharp Edge (12)|
!! style="background:#ffeeb8;" | Maximals }}{{#if:Other Cybertronians
- Stardrive (1)
- Strafe (18)
- Sandstorm (20)
- Sideswipe (23)
- Trypticon (24)
- Other protoforms (25)
- Starscream (27)
Others
!! style="background:#d5e6d5;" | Others }}{{#if:| !! style="background:#fedeb5;" | Misc }} |- {{#if:{|border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent" |- |style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|
- Prowl (5)
- Wheelie (7)
- Rollbar (8)
- Goldbug (9)
- Chase (10)
- Arcee (13)
- Slug (14)
- Optimus Prime (15)
- Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign (16)
- Sludge (17)
- Snarl (19)
- Swoop (21)
|style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"|
- Bumblebee's "ghost" (28)
- Dust Up (29)
- Aileron (30)
- Jumpstream (31)
- Skyburst (32)
- Pyra Magna (33)
- Stormclash (34)
|}|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
|
| style="background:#ededff;" valign="top" |
- Bludgeon (26) }}{{#if:* Marissa Faireborn (30)|
| style="background:#fbefde;" valign="top" |
- Marissa Faireborn (30) }}{{#if:* Hydra (2)
- Insecticon (3)
- Transquito (6)
- Drancron (11)
- Sharp Edge (12)|
| style="background:#ffeeb8;" valign="top" |
- Hydra (2)
- Insecticon (3)
- Transquito (6)
- Drancron (11)
- Sharp Edge (12) }}{{#if:Other Cybertronians
- Stardrive (1)
- Strafe (18)
- Sandstorm (20)
- Sideswipe (23)
- Trypticon (24)
- Other protoforms (25)
- Starscream (27)
Others
| style="background:#d5e6d5;" valign="top" | Other Cybertronians
- Stardrive (1)
- Strafe (18)
- Sandstorm (20)
- Sideswipe (23)
- Trypticon (24)
- Other protoforms (25)
- Starscream (27)
Others
| style="background:#fedeb5;" valign="top" |
}}|}
Quotes
[edit]"Every one you put down equals another innocent life saved. Do the math, Stardrive. It makes everything easier."
- —Prowl
"We haven't seen another Cybertronian in years. It's... nice to know we weren't forgotten."
"Optimus Prime and the others completely forgot about you, Goldbug."
"Oh."
"Well, to be fair, they assumed you were dead."
- —Goldbug gets his hopes up, only to be shot down by Prowl
"Sorry to hit you, man."
"You don't know how—"
"'How sorry,' yeah, yeah—macho posturing on Cybertron—same as Earth."
- —Centurion and Sandstorm
"Slug, please... we are not who we once were were, yet... we are who we were. We are the sum of our experiences, good and bad. But I believe in change. We can be better than we were at our worst."
"Some things are too bad to come back from, Prime."
"I don't know. Perhaps we don't deserve a second chance. But the alternative is a universe based on vengeance. Maybe you and I deserve it. But do we take everyone with us?"
- —Optimus Prime and Slug
Trypticon: "Cease fighting! You endanger my children!"
Arcee: "I know what you're all thinking, but Sludge here explained the protoforms aren't literally Trypticon's kids."
Sludge: "Are you making fun of me? You don't know how the reproductive system of a giant space-dinosaur works anymore than I do—an' I am one."
"We can die in the past, Slug... or make the effort to live in the future."
- —Optimus Prime
"Blasting each other's just how Dinobots say 'hi.'"
- —Swoop forgives Slug
"Nothing is ever 'just' politics."
- —Optimus Prime
Notes
[edit]Continuity notes
[edit]- The final page of Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor #5 implied Stardrive had somehow become the victim of a Wraith infection, presumably after Vekktral tried and failed to drag her into an explosion, leaving a severed tendril on her wing as he died. This issue confirms that to be the case, but indicates that she is at least in control of it, somewhat similarly to Camilla Byers of ROM.
- Prowl's ship, the Peaceful Revolution, is named after the Peaceful Resolution, another vessel he once crewed as mentioned in The Death of Optimus Prime.
- Among the artifacts aboard the Peaceful Revolution is a giant stone head with horns and a mustache, which can surely be a sculpture of none other than Unicron. It had been previously glimpsed in the final installment of Autocracy among the weapons in Zeta Prime's armory. The chaos-bringer awoke in First Strike #6 and is set to be at the center of a storyline in 2018, and though Bludgeon's references to an approaching master immediately make one think of the long-foreshadowed and far more imminent threat of Onyx Prime (arriving next issue!) there's a good chance he could be referring to Unicron instead...
- Visible in the same panel as the Peaceful Revolution is the beastformers' apparent ship.....the Predacon ship from Beast Wars??? This ship debuted in IDW continuity under the command of Shockwave in Revolutionaries #5. How this could make sense would be revealed in issue #18.
- Bumblebee's "ghost" was seen watching Bludgeon's actions in the previous issue. His informing Starscream, who definitely could not have known, casts further doubt that Bumblebee is a figment of his imagination.
- Trypticon's use of the word "children" to describe the protoforms is, as the story jokes, euphemistic, but not quite as euphemistic as you might think. He's not simply protecting them or acting as a "figurative" parent—they actually spawned from his body in the Salvation one-shot after he took their sparks into himself and allowed them to draw upon his metal in order to form their own bodies.
- When recalling worlds destroyed by the Transformers' war, Optimus Prime remembers Gorlam Prime (destroyed in Robots in Disguise #19), Xetaxxis (scoured of life in Shining Armor #5), and Varas Centralus (location of one of the most horrific battles in the war's history, as recounted in Punishment).
- Blackrock carries Marissa on his back, and compares it to when Mayday "used him like a surfboard on the Moon", as seen in Revolutionaries #2.
- Stormclash is briefly heard catching Dust Up and Jumpstream up on the events of First Strike. Specifically, she is describing their attack on Castle Destro from First Strike #3, and quotes verbatim Lady Jaye's directions during the battle. However, see "Errors", below.
Transformers references
[edit]- Additional Beast Wars characters seen in this issue who did not appear among the beast army's ranks last issue include Insecticon and Transquito. Alongside them on the first page of the story is a bat of some kind; it can't be Sonar, who is a key Eukarian tribe leader (seen before in Windblade vol. 2 #6), and it's unlikely that it could be Onyx Primal, who appeared as part of a virtual reality program in issue #9. Also, there is some kind of a purple-blue reptile on page 2, who gets their jaw blasted off by Prowl.
- The planet "Botanica" is revealed to actually be named "Regalis V." That was the name (given by Wreckers: Finale Part II) of the planet from which Botanica obtained her plant alternate mode in the Beast Machines cartoon.
- The protoform whom Arcee dubs "Sideswipe" is coloured in the black-and-red Generation 2 color scheme of his namesake.
Errors
[edit]- Stormclash recalls an exchange she had with Lady Jaye during First Strike #3... except that in that issue, it was Skyburst who talked with Jaye, not Stormclash. Hard to tell if the script or art has made the error here!
Covers (4)
[edit]- Cover A: Bludgeon by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham
- Cover B: Optimus Prime, Starscream, Bumblebee, Blackrock, Faireborn, and Trypticon by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove
- Cover C: The Dinobots versus Trypticon, by Andrew Griffith; part of IDW's "Artist Edition" cover theme for December
- Retailer incentive cover: Trypticon by James Raiz and David García Cruz
-
The calm, sensitive Bludgeon. -
O.P and his backup band. -
Not going as well as their Marvel encounter. -
He's one gigantic muthafunka!
Advertisements
[edit]- Optimus Prime #15
- Till All Are One Annual 2017
- Transformers vs. Visionaries
- Rom & the Micronauts
- Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook TPB
- Micronauts: Wrath of Karza TPB
- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Reprints
[edit]- Optimus Prime Volume 3 (June 6, 2018) ISBN 168405270X / ISBN 978-1684052707
- Collects Optimus Prime issues #11–14 & First Strike #1, and Transformers: First Strike #1.
- Bonus material includes art from most covers.
- Trade paperback format.
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 84: The Falling Part 1 (January 22, 2020)
- Collects Optimus Prime issues #13–17 and Annual 2018.
- Bonus material includes a page about the Primes, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.
-
Volume 3 – cover art by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove -
