IDW - Optimus Prime #13

Title: The Dead Come Home Part 1

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Livio Ramondelli 

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The Throttlebots, who have been stranded on a planet they crashed on during the Decepticon's big surge that wiped out most Autobot outposts have lost all hope of survival. Their last contact told them that Garrus-9 had fallen, Earth was under complete invasion, and they assume that the Decepticons have won the war. Suddenly one day, whilst waiting for their own deaths, "Decepticons" appear from the chasms of the planet, who immediately kill Searchlight, and chase after the other surviving Throttlebots...

On Cybertron, Sideswipe is finally given a funeral following the events of First Strike, and it is presided over by Optimus Prime himself, everyone is grieving over their lost friend, brother or ally, and Optimus tries to console them. He is taken back when he learns from Arcee that Galvatron was her twin brother and she just let Optimus kill him in front of her. Before they can discuss it though, Optimus becomes conscious of the massive crowd gathering due to the Prime presiding over a regular funeral, so they leave to discuss this is private.

On the way to their privacy, Optimus almost runs over a "human", revealed to be Blackrock, who reports that Centurion, who has recovered from his injuries has contacted him from the wilderness of Cybertron, with an image of a protoforms. The Autobots are confused as Protoforms haven't appeared on Cybertron in centuries, until Swift appears and reveals that she and the Dinobots found them, and that Starscream has been keeping their existence a secret...

At the chambers of the Council of Worlds, the council discuss how they can deal with the alien city now tainting the core of the planet, but to no real avail. Elita wants to invade Earth in return for their invasion, whilst Starscream wants to try opening up talks with the Solstar Order for repercussions for them quarantining Cybertron during the invasion.

Starscream leaves the meeting, where he comes across Optimus and Blackrock, who confront him over hiding the existence of new life from them. Starscream explains it as him not having enough time to discuss it, since they've just been invaded by Titans and humans, but he leads them to someone who can help them locate them for themselves, since they have gone missing recently.

Starscream leads Optimus and Blackrock to a chamber where the thought-to-be dead Dinobot Slug is being held, who says he found Bludgeon messing with the protoforms and that he hired Sandstorm to kill him, and that the other Dinobots must have the protoforms. Optimus offers himself and Blackock to help Slug recover them.

In the courtyard, where the celebrations of Earth joining the council of worlds was being held, Pyra, Stormclash and Skyburst are walking the destruction, and dead bodies, when they encounter Arcee, who offers them to join her on Optimus' mission into the wilderness, but the conversation soon turns to how the war is changing all of them. Arcee believes that in peace there is no place for her, but Pyra counters that she has changed too, that during the battles Arcee refrained from using lethal force on the humans, whilst Pyra lost control, and that she believes Arcee's role is to reign in bots like her and Optimus, and keep them on the right track.

Soon, the team are tracking the Dinobots and Centurion in the wilderness, when they just find them. With Centurion pointing out that he called them, so they would find him. They begin to reunite, when Slug suddenly attacks the group, which includes Sandstorm, as he cannot believe his team would side with his murderer...

Back in Iacon, in a hidden chamber, Bludgeon is manipulating the situation with his Void Sceptre, all whilst Bumblebee's "ghost" is commenting that none of this is part of Starscream's plan...

Back on the Throttlebot's planet "Botanica", the team fight off the "Decepticons" but are overwhelmed by them and are taken down one by one. Before Goldbug can be killed, he tells his opponent to tell Megatron that they went down fighting, but the "Decepticon" has no idea who he's talking about.

The "Decepticon" is suddenly shot from nowhere, and Goldbug is shocked to be rescued by Prowl, Wheelie, Garnak and Stardrive, who appear to be recruiting them to help save the galaxy from these creatures....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Arcee - Sports Car

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Head

Slug - Triceratops

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Swoop - Pteranodon

Sandstorm - Buggy/Helicopter

Goldbug - Car

Rollbar - Jeep

Chase - Car

Searchlight - Car Killed by Beast Army

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

Sunstreaker - Sports Car

Wheeljack - Race Car

Ironhide - Van

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Wheelie - Car

Bumblebee - Car ("Ghost" Only)

Sideswipe - Sports Car (Mentioned) Body Interred in Tomb

Sentinel Prime - Truck/Jet (Mentioned) Presumed Dead

Metroplex - Iacon City (Mentioned)

Metrotitan - Autobot City (Mentioned)

The Other Torchbearers (Mentioned)

Freeway - Car (Mentioned) Killed by Sixshot

Wideload - Dump Truck (Mentioned) Killed by Sixshot

Decepticon

Swift - Helicopter

Bludgeon - Tank

Sixshot - Sixchanger (Mentioned) Presumed Dead

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned) Dead

Soundwave - Cassette Player (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Centurion - Luxury Car

Strafe - Two Headed Dragon/Car

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Knock Out - Sports Car

Obsidian - Stealth Osprey Helicopter

Elita One 

Mistress of Flame

Stardrive - Car/Jet

Bob, the Insecticon

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Roulette - Muscle Car

Gimlet - Lobster

Bump - Armadillo

Funeral Crowd

A Protoform (Image Only)

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Onyx Prime (Mentioned)

Antagony - Ant (Mentioned) Dead

The Titan Swarm (Mentioned) Dead

Beast Army

Cicadacon - Cicada Shot by Prowl

Sharp Edge - Saw Shark

Drancron - Lizard-Dragonfly

Hydra - Pteranodon

Other Beasts

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Ian Noble/Action Man (Mentioned)

Ayana Jones/Mayday (Mentioned)

The Iron Ring (Mentioned)

Red Shadow Ninjas (Mentioned)

Other

Garnak

"Bludgeon's Master" (Mentioned)

Solstar Order (Mentioned)

Notes

• Oh wow, the title didn't lie! The dead really do come home today! Or....I mean the guys who either were near death or have been gone for a while anyway...First, the Throttlebots were last seen in Spotlight: Metroplex, where they were under attack from Sixshot and were abandoned on a planet by the titular character, Sunstreaker is shown to have survived his apparent death in First Strike, Centurion has woken up from his stasis lock, Slug is back to life after being killed by Sandstorm, the long forgotten Wheelie and Garnak reappear (they were last seen on Gorlam Prime's black hole precipice during Dark Cybertron) and Stardrive, who we learn in Shining Armor #5 left to be alone 200 years ago! WOW!
• The name of the Throttlebot's planet, Botanica, is a reference to the Beast Machines character of the same name.
• It is confirmed that Freeway and Wideload died from their injuries sustained from the fight with Sixshot, and also confirmed that Sixshot did survive his attack from Metroplex. But he apparently ended up dying during a fight with the Throttlebots later....suuuuuuure.
• Goldbug is shown using a pair of  walking sticks here. This is amusing since usually he's an upgraded version of Bumblebee outside of IDW, and Bumblebee has been shown with a walking stick for quite a while now.
• The guy who Optimus quotes during Sideswipe's funeral was Sentinel Prime...it seems safe to assume that he didn't acknowledge that himself due to the recent actions of the former commander...
• Amongst the funeral goers are the Colonist Autobot-recruits, except for Slide...wonder where she is?
• Optimus seems shocked that Arcee is Galvatron's twin....did he forget that major plot point in Alpha Trion's story about the formation of the unified Cybertron of the past?! It's possible that he just assumed that Trion was embellishing with characters they might know, but come on!
• Antagony gets name-dropped and is revealed to have died during the human invasion. This confirms the identity of the Transformer that Shazraella controlled during the event.
• It is briefly mentioned that Centurion was revived from his stasis lock when Merklynn's energy shot through Cybertron...implying that it lasted a couple of hours at best....
• It is also confirmed that the Revolutionaries are remaining a team, but Kup is staying on Cybertronian for the moment to help investigate New Prysmos at the core of Cybertron in the upcoming Transformers vs The Visionaries series.
• Arcee being relieved that Action Man is off the planet is likely due to his constant flirting with her throughout the Optimus Prime and Transformers First Strike tie-ins.
• The protoforms, and the Dinobot's involvement with them, along with Swift's knowledge of the events was covered in the "Dinobot Trilogy"
• Why is Mistress of Flame at the council meeting? She's not a member, Windblade is Caminus' representative. She was only filling in whilst Windblade was comatose following the Titan invasion. I can assume that Elita is present in Strika's place since she is absent in this issue, but Windblade is clearly seen.
• Starscream brings up how the Solstar Order owes Cybertron after they quarantined them during First Strike. He also alludes to how he knows the Order have the knowledge of creating a working Energon Synthesizer from the events of the Shining Armor mini-series.
• Marissa claims that 47 humans were involved in the attack on Cybertron....even if we assume all the Iron Grenadiers wee just robots...I'm pretty sure there were way more than just that number of Red Shadows on the planet!
• The size of the bodies under the sheets in the courtyard highly implies that the bodies the Torchbearers are dealing with are humans. We can't be sure if they are from the Iron Ring or innocents, but we did see Pyra willingly killing some Iron Ring members during the battle...
• The wilderness of Cybertron looks a lot different to usual now...this could be just because of the different artist from the last time we saw it, but more than likely this is a side-effect of Merklynn's energy surging through the planet.
• Bludgeon is revealed to still have possession of his Void Sceptre, and has learned to use it to control the Dinobots to an extent, as well as Trypticon. This is likely due to the Dinobots once being tainted by Trypticon's energon in the past.
• Bumblebee's "ghost" is shown to be monitoring Bludgeon...alone...without Starscream present...further adding to the idea that he isn't just a manifestation of his guilt.
• Bludgeon mentions "his master"...I wonder if he's involved in Scorponok's schemes from Lost Light as well?
• Since the last time we saw him, it looks like Prowl has lost an eye and one of his arms. His replacement arm looks somewhat like Megatron's mega-armour from the Chaos event.
• Stardrive is shown in her original pre-armour colours here, spoiling that she will remove her armour and return it to Rom in Shining Armor #5, which was released a week after this issue came out.