Escape (Universe)
| The name or term "Escape" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Escape (disambiguation). |
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 Thanks to Unicron, Razorclaw can now command lens flares from the palm of his hand. | |||||||||||||
| "Escape" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | 3H Productions | ||||||||||||
| Story | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Script | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Dan Khanna, Guido Guidi, James Raiz | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Chuck Gibson, Terry Pallot, Vince Russell | ||||||||||||
| Colors | Blond | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Richard Starkings's Comicraft | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Universe | ||||||||||||
Optimus Primal is sent by Primus to rescue Transformers held deep within Unicron.
Synopsis
Optimus Primal recalls his "death" at the conclusion of his battle to free Cybertron from Megatron. Gazing into the death arena within Unicron, he reflects that... it never ends! Below, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are being prepped for battle; Sunstreaker has already fallen to the corrupting influence of Unicron. Sideswipe resists, and is punished.
Primal flashes back again to his recent revival within Cybertron, and his conversation with Alpha Trion, who detailed Unicron's efforts to revive himself by harvesting Sparks from across multiple dimensions.
Megatron and Grimlock have subdued Striker, and Primal attempts to liberate his spark from Unicron's influence. Primal then departs to try and free the captives, leaving the others to guard Striker, though they are soon discovered by Unicron's generals.
Trailbreaker devises a way to escape the energy cages holding them, as he speculates they are "keyed to our specific bio-mechanical auras". Silverbolt spots Primal, and shouts a warning as Razorclaw attacks; he and Trailbreaker then initiate a primary system program transfer, in essence each becoming the other.
Primal fights off Razorclaw, stealing weapons from Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to help; in the midst of their battle, Trailbreaker and Silverbolt initiate a total prison break, and dozens of Transformers storm their captors. The horde keeps Sunstreaker and Sideswipe apart, assists Grimlock and Megatron, then stampedes across the bridge that originally brought Trailbreaker and company to the arena.
Shadow Striker proves treacherous, however; she blasts the bridge, and the escaping crowd is trapped between the cauldron and the incoming generals. Primal uses Snarl, a Matrix Templar, to directly call upon Primus to open a pathway out of Unicron; an energy path opens in the cauldron, bearing him away. The crowd escapes... but Blackarachnia chooses to remain, knocking Silverbolt into the beam.
Some while later, within Unicron, Blackarachnia is welcomed back to the fold... by Tarantulas, who notes that the true battle hasn't yet begun. And on Cybertron, Primal reflects that his revival may have had unexpected consequences for the reformatted planet... and his old foe Megatron.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots/Maximals | Decepticons/Predacons/Vehicons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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- * Shadow Striker and Blackarachnia defect to Unicron's side, becoming a Decepticon and Predacon respectively.
Notes
- A lengthy "Last Time" text summarizes in painful detail the events of the previous issue.
- Dreamwave-style profiles were included at the end of the issue for Obsidian, Optimus Primal, Shadow Striker, and Tankor.
- Tarantulas's name is mispelled as "Tarantulus".
