IDW - Optimus Prime #8

Title: What it's Really Like

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Casey W Coller

Colours by: John-Paul Bove

Letters by: Tom B Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Four Million years ago, Jetfire is with Nosecone in the police lab, but he gets frustrated when Nosecone gives him the silent treatment, and storms off, with Nosecone just smiling behind him. Jetfire goes for a flight, but comes across Orion Pax, who wants to speak to him, and they end up getting into a theological argument about the actions of the Decepticons versus their true goals, all of this leads Orion to ask what would happen if they put down their guns, and asks what he would do next....

What he does is simple, he finds a friend to talk to. He goes to one of his old Decepticon hangouts, and has a drink with Deluge, he's met with hostilities from the other Decepticons, however he and Deluge still hang out, and rekindle their friendship, despite them being on different sides of the war now, and is convinced to return to his police job in the morning, so he can do good there...

Today, the Colonists are helping with the construction of Little Cybertron along with the Junkions, but soon leave to do something else (preferably feed the Sharkticons) and roll out...however the group forgot that Slide can no longer transform due to the death of her combiner partner Oiler, and she sulks. Pyra pounces on the situation, and claims that the others are making excuses for the Prime, and how he allows Oiler's killers to continue living.

The President meets with Optimus, and suggests that he may want to leave Earth for a short while, since Jazz's interview is likely to cause some extra friction, and she doesn't want him to become the figure-head for the Autobots, or have Optimus seem to endorse his past actions, and gives him a cryptic warning about something happening.

Optimus takes the President's advice, and invites Pyra to come with him to Cybertron, so they can talk out their differences. The two head through the space bridge, and Optimus seems to realize what the President was hinting towards, and he sends a message to Jazz.

Jazz arrives at a warehouse, where his TV interview with Hector Ramirez, organized by his new human friend Sofia, will be held, so as to accommodate Jazz's size and give them security. Jazz begins his story by telling Hector about how pre-war Cybertron was a peaceful and cultured place, and a lot like Earth in terms of it's variety. He soon gets to the dawn of the war, but Hector starts to bring up how Starscream, one of the worst Decepticons is now the ruler of Cybertron... Jazz is asked what he thinks of Earth, and the Autobot quickly points out all the music that he loves, which leads Hector to pointing out that the Cybertronian war that came to Earth almost killed a lot of new music talent. Hector forces Jazz to talk about his crimes, such as killing John Powell, and interfering with a police operation, and completely ambushes him.

Jazz confront Hector and Sofia about what they are doing, but they seem worried. Jazz soon receives the message from Optimus, simply telling him to run.

A GI Joe team led by Talon spring their operation, and attack the warehouse, intending to arrest Jazz, however they find him already gone, and Sofia explains that she saw in his face that he now knows what humans are like, and his was devastated.

Jazz speeds away from Mexico City, having taken his leader's advice....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax - Truck Cab

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Spacecraft

Jazz - Sports Car

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

Slide - Rear of Oil Tanker

Roulette - Muscle Car

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Gimlet - Lobster

Bump - Armadillo

Nosecone - Boring Vehicle (Flashback)

Oiler - Front of Oil Tanker (Mentioned) Dead

Zeta Prime - Truck (Mentioned)

Prowl - Police Vehicle (Mentioned)

Victorion - Torchbearer Gestalt (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier

Megatron - Gun (Flashback)

Starscream - Fighter Jet (Flashback)

Blot - Monster (Flashback)

Cutthroat - Winged Dragon (Flashback)

Gutcuncher - Tank (Flashback)

Deluge - Sports Car (Flashback)

Hefter - Forklift Truck (Mentioned) Dead

Needlenose - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Horri-Bull - Bull (Mentioned)

Bludgeon - Tank (Mentioned)

Thunderwing - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

GI Joe

Talon

Spike

Flint

Chameleon

Hi-Tech

Mainframe

Salvo

Ghostrider

Other Human

Madam President

Hector Ramirez

Sofia Orozco

Salma Guitierrez

Miguel

Mexican News Team

John Powell (Flashback) Killed by Jazz

Tyler Nelson (Flashback)

Detroit Cop (Flashback)

Marissa Faireborn (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Junkions

Cybertronian Musicians (Flashback)

Nominus Prime - Jet (Mentioned)

Nova Prime - Truck (Mentioned)

Rum-Maj (Mentioned)

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Sharkticons - Sharks (Mentioned)

Notes

• Jazz's interview is shown throughout this issue, one page at a time, though the events in it don't really correlate with the events of the rest of the comic.
• Jazz is revealed to be from Staniz, which is a northern spaceport town on Cybertron.
• From the dialogue given, it sounds like Jazz's name is a nickname, since people came to call him that (or rather his Cybertronian counterpart name, which translates as Jazz) due to his interest in music.
• Jazz is revealed to have joined the Kaon police force due to the Clampdown making entertainment jobs impossible to get, and then the war broke out...poor fella.
• As a small nod to her loss of faith in Optimus, Slide no longer has a mouthplate on her.
• Also, talking about Slide. GET OVER IT! She's still angry with the Junkions because one of them killed her boyfriend/partner/husband/brother/whatever Oiler was to her, yet she killed that same one right afterwards!
• Pyra is kind of a manipulative bitch too. She talks negatively about Optimus to Slide, due to his working with the Junkions to build their new city, yet it's implied later in the issue that Pyra herself has been getting cosy with the Junkions, especially Rum-Maj herself (Rum-Maj was the ne who ORDERED THE ATTACK THAT KILLED OILER!!). I really hope she gets shot in the face soon.
• Okay a nice little piece of continuity. It's revealed that the President's past comments to Optimus about stopping Jazz's interview may have been to try and keep him safe, since she knew about the Joe heist on his interview.
• So we get the name of the random intern that Jazz has been following, but NOT the name of the President yet? HOW HAS THIS NOT COME UP IN A COMIC YET?!!? (Let's just hope the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook gives us that!)
• Pyra and Optimus' meeting on Cybertron was shown in the Transformers Annual special...let's hope their talk there will put an end to her planned coup thing...
• Gutcruncher is revealed to have been a bartender back in the pre/early war era, just like he was in the Decepticon Ghetto following the war...then he died!
• The Joe pilot mentioned here is apparently Ghostrider, who is often "forgotten" due to his non-copyright friendly name.
• Jetfire and Deluge discuss how nuts Thunderwing is...this would later be brought up in a big way when he develops the Pretender process, goes insane and destroys Cybertron's atmosphere...yeah!