IDW - Till All Are One Annual 2017

Title: The Chosen One

Written by: Mairghread Scott

Art by: Sara Pitre-Durocher

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Editor: David Mariotte

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Windblade wakes up for her first day back at work on the Council, but is a little disillusioned following the recent attacks. On the way there, she looks over a message from Chromia, explaining that she has been charged with the job of hunting down and killing Liege Maximo, but promises to return once their job is done, assuming they survive the mission.

Windblade enters the Council chamber to find all the councillors applauding her, she is at first overwhelmed, but soon realises what this is about, when she sees Circuit and Longtooth filming the event. Windblade begins to discuss Maximo, but is interrupted by Starscream ushering out the press. The Council are upset that Maximo's presence has been kept from them til now, but Starscream hushes them up, saying they need to maintain the secrecy of this, in order to stop public panic.

Windblade is furious about this being kept a secret, and is angry that the Mistress was okay with this. the Mistress begins to refute that she is the living will of the Primes, and her decisions are not to be questioned, leading to Windblade defying her and decrying the Primes themselves...leading to a swift slap from the Mistress.

The two Camiens argue, leading to Windblade storming off, intending to expose the secret. The Mistress of Flame chases after her, but is too late, as Windblade has already started talking to Circuit and Longtooth.

By the next morning, the news is all out, and the population of Cybertron and it's colonies all know that Liege Maximo is on the loose and he has vowed to return to destroy Cybertron, Windblade has also been removed as Caminus' delegate and also exiled from her homeworld for her heresy.

The reactions are varied, with some people angry that the people of Carcer held a Prime prisoner, whilst others hate Windblade for hi-jacking a Titan like Vigilem, and of course others are scared of their impending doom. However Blurr, Fat Tankor amd Waspinator all appear to Windblade and ask her to run for office, and promise her that more people want it too. At first she's not sure if she should, since she doesn't want to represent and talk for others any more, but they point out that her running to lead the planet will have her talking for the people HER way, instead of being manipulated.

Starscream continues as planned, and keeps the planned elections going, despite him having an excuse to delay them again, that being Liege Maximo's return. Soon, three candidates are picked and are in the running for the office, Starscream, Elita One and Windblade. Windblade leaves her celebration party for some quiet, and visits Metroplex. There, she explains that she is worried that her "desire" to rule is just leftover from Vigilem being inside her mind, however Metroplex denies this, stating that Vigilem only listened to Maximo, but Windblade listens to others, and will use that skill to rule the planet properly.

Later, Windblade starts her campaign with a bar-sit where people can have a drink with her for free, along with a conversation. Everyone comes to see her and wants her to help diversify and keep Cybertron peaceful, and all seem to be on her side. After the meetings, Rattrap comes to see her in secret, giving her a briefcase filled with incriminating evidence about Starscream and his actions over the past few years. He explains that he planned to release it himself, but he's not sure now, since he appears to have changed since Windblade and him shared a mind, but he figures that Windblade can decide what to do with it better than he can, and leaves her to decide.

Starscream talks with "Bumblebee" again, but is interrupted by Windblade chucking the briefcase at him and declaring him insane. The two head into a back-room where they can talk in secret, where Starscream tries to get her to not expose his secrets, but she instead promises to reveal everything at the debates, and leaves. Starscream begins to panic and starts looking through the evidence to find a way to spin his crimes in his favour, but Bumblebee's "ghost", despite knowing that Starscream really does want to help Cybertron now, and believes that Windblade cannot contend with Elita or any other contests to her leadership, refuses to help him try to destroy Windblade's character.

On Carcer, Elita One is confident that she will win the election, since her troops will block-vote her, and the others will split their votes between the other candidates, and so she starts plans for Maximo's attack.

The day of the debate comes, and despite her declaration, Windblade asks for the people of Cybertron and it's colonies to come together as Cybertron is becoming a world where everyone can express themselves, and they need to now work hard to protect it, and eachother from their oncoming threats. Starscream approaches the podium, and....admits to all his crimes to the crowd for over an hour....

Windblade wins the election with a landslide, and is quickly ushered into office, where her first decision is to change her title from "Supreme Ruler" to "First Delegate". Next she is given the charges for Starscream and signs them, sentencing him to life-long imprisonment, and arranges to meet with him in jail.

For their parts in his crimes, the Combaticons, Rattrap and Airachnid have all been arrested too. Windblade meets with Starscream, but not to talk with him, she knows why he gave himself up...she just gives him a present, a small pendant with an image of his "true self" that they both saw inside his mind, and he smiles....

Characters

Autobot

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Ironhide - Van

Metroplex - Iacon City Centre 

Bumblebee - Car ("Ghost" Only)

Chromia - Speedbike (Flashback)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Firestar (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Fat Tankor - Tank

Waspinator - Wasp

Onslaught - Anti-Aircraft Missile Truck Arrested

Blast Off - Space Shuttle Arrested

Vortex - Helicopter Arrested

Brawl - Tank Arrested

Swindle - Jeep Arrested

Tall Tankor - Oil Tanker/Cargo Plane (Mentioned)

Bruticus - Combaticon Combiner (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Starscream - Fighter Jet Arrested

Elita One

Mistress of Flame

Rattrap - Mole Rat Arrested

Obsidian - Osprey Stealth Helicopter

Moonracer - Sports Car

Knock Out - Sports Car

Airazor - Eagle

Tigatron - Tiger

Fireshot - Part of Jet

Vanquish - Part of Jet

Circuit 

Longtooth

Blurr - Race Car

Breakdown - Armoured Van

Airachnid - Spider Arrested

Vigilem - Carcer Ship Dead

Bar Patrons

Random Crowdfiller

Titan Swarm (Flashback) Dead

Sparkstalker - Insect Monster (Flashback)

Lightbright (Flashback)

Greenlight (Flashback)

Lancer (Flashback)

Liege Maximo (Artistic Rendition Only)

Primus (Mentioned)

The Primes (Mentioned)

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Other Cityspeakers (Mentioned)

Human

Marissa Faireborn

The Iron Ring (Mentioned) Defeated/Arrested

Other

New Prysmodians (Mentioned)

Notes

• This special issue marks the end of Till All Are One, and thus brings us some nice closure on both Windblade and Starscream, arguably the main characters of Mairghread Scott's stories in IDW.
• Windblade....why are you living in a building with a wall missing? Why haven't you just put up a sheet for privacy or something?
• From what we see here, Chromia's team to hunt down Liege Maximo includes Sparkstalker, Lightbright, Lancer and Greenlight, with the latter two being volunteers from Carcer, the ship where Maximo was originally imprisoned.
• Continuity seems to be a little wobbly in this story. It's implied that Windblade is only just now coming back to the council in this issue, but immediately gets "fired" from the role, but we saw her active and acting somewhat delegate-like during First Strike, which was set after her coma...
• It's explained that the Mistress of Flame was working on the Council in Windblade's place whilst she was injured, explaining why she was involved in the meetings.
• From their reactions in this issue, it seems like most of the Council were unaware of Liege Maximo being freed from his cell, but they were discussing him openly during First Strike...AHHH!!!
• Mistress of Flame refers to Airazor as "beast" here....can we agree that is racist or at least functionism? I think we're learning more about Caminus here!
• The artist's rendition of Liege Maximo is actually a frame from the G2 comic, showing him in a more monstrous form.
• So along with her delegate duties being removed, Windblade appears to also have been fired from her role as a Cityspeaker for Metroplex.
• Metroplex finally refers to Windblade by her name, instead of "Wind-Voice"
• Shocking approximately no-one, Rattrap is revealed to be DC-357, the informant trying to lead Onslaught and the Combaticons against Starscream early in Till All Are One.
• When was the debate arena built? Why was it built? If it was the Rascol Arena on Luna-2 I'd be fine, but this is clearly on Cybertron and looks brand new...
• Windblade refers to the "creatures underground" referring to the New Prysmodians as shown in the upcoming Transformers vs Visionaries comic.
• We don't get to hear his confession, but I would guess it is just stuff since the end of the war, since his "war crimes" would have been absolved as part of the post-war rebuilding.
• Looking in the cells, Blast Off is off on his own, implying that the other Combaticons are slightly pissed off with him for betraying them to Starscream, especially Onslaught who Starscream had his feelings towards Blast Off altered just to help control him!
• It's a nice image, but where did Windblade get a hologram of Starscream's "true form"? Did she make the image? Did she have it extracted from her memories? I need to know!!
• The story is followed by a letter from Mairghread Scott thanking the fans, and hoping that Windblade will be continued to be used in the future, as well as thanking her fellow creators from the series. She also reminds people to always accept criticism as it can help you grow as a creator, which is very important given the current climate of comic creators blocking fans for criticising their work.