IDW - Optimus Prime #16

Title: The Falling Chapter 2: Another Mine

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Kei Zama

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Soundwave, acting as the foreman of the Ore-13 mine on Earth has a daydream to his past as a supervisor on Luna-2, and how even then he was looked down on by the Prime of the time, Sentinel. He then thinks back to when Optimus blackmailed him into helping him on Earth when he threatened to reveal his involvement in Horri-Bull's death a few years earlier, but he justified that as Optimus looking for freedom for everyone.

Back in the present, Soundwave is called by Autobot City, saying that Optimus needs him on Cybertron, leading him to leave the President and her Joe guards behind. Soundwave soon heads through the space bridge to Cybertron, leaving Pyra and her team behind for backup if needed, and arrives to find a giant eye in the sky above Iacon, and everyone in a bit of a panic.

Onyx Prime delivers Liege Maximo to the Council of Worlds and Optimus, explaining that he wants Maximo to be tried for his crimes against Cybertron, and also wants to help out the new social order by repairing the tainted Energon on the planet, and break up alliances with Earth and any other organic world, much to the distaste of the councillors and Optimus.

The Primes, including Alpha Trion, and the Council head to the Spire to discuss these matters in private, rather than in public.

Scoop watches the events from a rooftop, and is now convinced again that Starscream is the Chosen One, since he knew about the arrival of Onyx Prime, despite being in a windowless cell, unaware that Bumblebee's "ghost" was the one to inform him of the events.

Soundwave goes to meet with some of his fellow Decepticons at a shooting range, and they decide to go to the Spire themselves to find out what is happening with the Primes themselves.

They soon arrive at the Spire, where Soundwave manipulates Beachcomber into letting him speak to the imprisoned Liege Maximo briefly, to which Soundwave is horrified to discover that he cannot read his mind, unlike everyone else, and leaves to see the Council next.

Things get heated in the Council chambers with no one really trusting Onyx and his goals, thanks to the warnings of Galvatron in the past. Mistress of Flame brings up Onyx killing Praesidia and Magrada in the past, event invading Caminus in the past, shocking Windblade, who knew nothing about this. Optimus tries to calm the situation, and concedes that Galvatron was a terrible person and they should probably not trust his word on Onyx being evil before they hear his side on the matter.

At this point, Soundwave enters the Council chamber and accuses Optimus of betraying them and trying to bring back the rule of the Primes, thanks to him siding with the other Prime.

Optimus tries to explain his meaning, whilst Windblade yells at Mistress of Flame for keeping secrets and Alpha Trion realizes something, something important about Onyx Prime....

Suddenly, the building explodes, everyone panics, the Councillors go into defensive mode, protecting the weaker members, and Soundwave rushes to Alpha Trion, who took the brunt of the blast, but finds him already dead and faded to grey.

In the aftermath, Onyx declares that Soundwave, and his Decepticons are responsible for this, either by action or reputation, and they must be tried along with Maximo, if he survived the blast, for their mutual crimes....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime/"The Arisen" - Truck Cab

Alpha Trion - Space Shuttle Killed in Explosion 

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Arcee - Sports Car

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Dustup - Sports Car

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Tracks - Muscle Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Beachcomber - Dune Buggy

Seaspray - Hovercraft 

Metrotitan - Autobot City

Powerglide - A-10 Jet

Silverbolt - Passenger Jet

Alpha Bravo - Helicopter

Skydive - Fighter Jet

Fireflight - Fighter Jet

Air Raid - Fighter Jet

Bumblebee - Car ("Ghost")

Sentinel Prime - Truck (Flashback Only) Dead

Prowl - Police Vehicle (Flashback Only)

Chromia - Speedbike (Mentioned)

Zeta Prime - Truck (Mentioned) Dead

Dinobots (Mentioned)

Wreckers (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Dreadwing - Stealth Bomber

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Swift - Helicopter

Laserbeak - Cassette

Buzzsaw - Cassette 

Ravage - Cassette (Flashback Only)

Sky-Byte - Shark (Flashback Only)

Slugslinger - Two Nosed Jet (Flashback Only)

Scrapper - Front End Loader (Mentioned) Dead

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned) Dead

Horri-Bull - Bull (Mentioned) Dead

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Onyx Prime

Liege Maximo In Custody

Mistress of Flame

Elita One

Airazor - Falcon

Tigatron - Tiger

Knock Out - Sports Car

Moonracer - Sports Car

Fireshot - Part of Jet

Vanquish - Part of Jet

Starscream - Fighter Jet In Custody

Scoop - Front End Loader

Bonecrusher - Bulldozer

Hook - Crane

Long Haul - Dump Truck

Mixmaster - Mixing Truck

Scavenger - Excavator

Ramulus - Ibex

"Beast Megatron" - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Sharkticons - Sharks

Junkions

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet (Flashback Only)

Luna-2 Miners (Flashback Only)

Teletraan (Voice)

Primus (Mentioned)

The Other Primes (Mentioned)

Chromia's Team (Mentioned)

Ironhide's Security Team (Mentioned)

Praesidia (Mentioned) Dead

Magrada (Mentioned) Dead

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Madame President

Flint

Chameleon

Human Miners

The Iron Ring (Mentioned) In Custody

Other

Buster the Dog (Flashback Only)

Notes

• Interesting...unless it's just an artistic difference, it looks like Needlenose was eavesdropping when Optimus blackmails Soundwave over his involvement in Horri-Bull's death...I wonder if this will be a plot point later?
• Despite how it sounded last issue, the Colonists do not go to visit Soundwave at the Ore-13 mine this issue. They don't even appear in this issue in fact!
• Another interesting thing....Alpha Trion apologizes to Soundwave for stabbing him during the Titans Return event...why does he remember that? Sovereign/Blackrock was controlling his body and replaced his head during those events.
• Onyx Prime refers to his Beast army as "Maximals", the name of the heroic faction from Beast Wars.
• It may just be a nick-name or something here, but one of the Constructicons calls Scoop "Scooper" in one instance, possibly to refer to him being a replacement for the dead Scrapper.
• Bumblebee brings up the good point that Starscream obsessing over what his "true self" should have been is a bit stupid, since he can just get his body changed to match it, since he did that multiple times over the past few years anyway.
• Beachcomber's guilt from helping Starscream is a reference to his actions in the Optimus Prime Annual, where he almost got Thundercracker killed by essentially putting a hit on him for Starscream.
• Beachcomber and fellow guard, Seaspray are drawn to match their recent Power of the Primes and Titans Return toys.
• For some reason Moonracer is shown with a new sigil on her shoulder, showing a crescent moon and two stars...I like it, don't get me wrong, but where did it come from? It doesn't appear to be part of her new toy, and I don't remember her having it before now, just weird!
• Liege Maximo is referred to as the Prime of Lies here...the same title given to Quintessa in "The Last Knight", further adding to my theory that she is actually Liege Maximo in disguise.
• Okay, here's my crazed conspiracy theory for the day! Onyx Prime is an imposter, and so is the imprisoned Liege Maximo, they are just illusions created by the real Maximo, who has been hiding on Cybertron or something ever since the end of the Titan invasion. Soundwave not being able to read the minds of either Maximo or Onyx is very damning, since he's never had a problem reading minds in the past. It's also very likely that Maximo caused the explosion, when he realized that Alpha Trion figured it all out, just to get rid of him and pass the blame onto Soundwave and his crew. It even looks like someone is shoving Trion into a wall during the explosion, if you look closely to his cape, or rather under it.