IDW - Optimus Prime #23

Title: Time Will Rust

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Priscilla Tramontano

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Six Months ago, some of the original denizens of Devisiun were sitting around a fire, listening to an elder tell them the story of when the colonists arrived, and how once they did, they turned their vibrant and lush world into a metallic one...

In the present day, Jazz is in GI Joe's custody after his surrender, but Marissa arrives with her Dinobot allies to try and negotiate his release, when all of a sudden Sky Lynx arrives, with the colonist recruits in tow, who attack the Joes and Dinobots intending to free Jazz from his cell, as he doesn't deserve to be entrapped there. Flint gives the order for the Joes to use lethal weaponry on them, but they decide against it, sue to them knowing and caring about Cybertronians now.

At the Junkion City, Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj are listening in on the altercation and decide that if this continues then their new world may be destroyed like their old one, especially with Unicron's threat looming on them, so they decide to head out too...

Jazz laments his coming to Earth in the first place, having been sent to scout it out, and then slowly bringing in Optimus, and eventually the invasion, even killing a Human in a very public setting. He breaks out of his chains and leaves his cell, deciding to try and calm the situation, since he's responsible for all of this now.

Gimlet recalls how he wanted to come to Earth, feeling more comfortable with a world that wasn't mechanical, and wanted to help another organic colony belong with the Cybertronians. However in the battle, he smashes into a Joe vehicle, mortally wounding Mainframe in the process. He immediately regrets what he did and apologises, only for Slug to slash him in half, killing the Eukarian.

As Mainframe is dying, he remembers how he used to hate the Cybertronians for being near indestructible and for bringing their war to Earth, but after working with some of them, he grew to like them and even see them as friends. He asks Hi-Tech to not allow all their hard work go to nothing as he tries to heal him.

Sky Lynx attacks Slug for killing Gimlet, as Bump mourns over his corpse. Jazz holds back Slide, who is seeing red now for another colonist being killed on Earth, but she escapes and attacks Slug, accusing him of being no better than Optimus.

Slug takes this hard, as he dislikes Optimus and how he has double standards, and how he used the Dinobots to do things he wouldn't do himself, but eventually they saw a new life when they witnessed the new Cybertronian lives being born within Trypticon and vowed to protect them.

Slug soon realises his mistake, and is distressed over killing Gimlet. Hi-Tech tries to get help for Mainframe, only for Marissa to declare him as already having died, to which Flint points out that this is what Cybertronians do.

Strafe pins down Slide to calm her down, only for the Junkions to arrive with a fleet of Sharkticons, planning to end the battle. Jazz quickly jumps to action and calms down the Junkions, reminding them that they're friends, but Slide is still furious at them for a Junkion killing Oiler, her bonded partner, and also at Optimus for both allying with the Junkions and allowing their worlds to be devoured by Unicron...

As if on cue however, Unicron appears in the skies above Earth, ready to finish off his ultimate goal of destroying the Cybertronian race....

Characters

Autobot

Slug - Triceratops

Swoop - Pteranodon

Jazz - Sports Car

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle

Slide - Part of Oil Tanker

Gimlet - Lobster Killed by Slug

Bump - Armadillo

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Roulette - Muscle Car

Optimus Prime - Truck (Flashback Only)

Aileron - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Flashback Only)

Sludge - Apatosaurus (Flashback Only)

Snarl - Stegosaurus (Flashback Only)

Oiler - Part of Oil Tanker (Flashback Only) Dead

Metrotitan - Autobot City (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Soundwave - Cassette Player (Flashback Only)

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt (Flashback Only)

Starscream - Fighter Jet (Flashback Only)

Unnamed Decepticon Team (Flashback Only) Killed by Dinobots

Shockwave/Onyx Prime (Mentioned)

Junkion

Wreck-Gar

Rum-Maj

Vajra - Shark

Sharkticons

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Trypticon - Earth Embassy

Strafe - Two Headed Dragon

Black Arachnia - Spider (Flashback Only)

Snarl - Tasmanian Devil (Flashback Only)

Long Rack - Giraffe (Flashback Only)

Other Eukarians (Flashback Only)

New Protoforms (Flashback Only)

"The World Breaker" - City/Space Ship (Flashback Only)

Early Devisen Colonists (Flashback Only)

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

GI Joe

Flint

Spike

Talon

Mainframe Killed by Gimlet

Hi-Tech

Scarlett (Flashback Only)

Doc Sr. (Mentioned)

Doc Jr. (Mentioned)

Other Human

Marissa Faireborn

John Powell (Flashback Only) Killed by Jazz

New Yorkers (Flashback Only) One Killed during Invasion

Madame President (Mentioned)

Other

Unicron

Serpentine Aliens (Flashback Only) Killed in Battle between Dinobots and Decepticons

Native Devisens (Flashback Only)

Notes

• This issue taps into an abandoned storyline from Till All Are One, where it would have looked into the culture and daily life of the colony worlds. Here showing the early days and daily life of Devisiun and a glimpse into the life of Eukaris (both worlds now of course destroyed by Unicron)
• It's fully explained here that the sparks that were cultivated on Devisiun were remade to be paired with another one due to exposure from the planet's binary star system.
• Devisiun is revealed to be a world that still have some natural plantlife on it, rather than being fully cyberformed or an otherwise barren world (like Caminus, Velocitron etc)
• The native Devisen people are shown to have evolved from being quadrupedal bunny rabbits to bipedal bunnies since the Cybertronian colony was formed.
• Awww the GI Joe member Mainframe dies here, having been a fairly major character since he was brought into this continuity...I guess he can join his Autobot name counterpart now...
• The alien race seen during Slug's flashback to a battle with some Decepticons look kind of like Orphion's race from the Rom series...huh....
• One of the Sharkticons gets named in this issue, and it is "Vajra" (named after the weapon of Indra) ...I was kinda expecting Gnaw...
• Unicron's arrival at the end of this issue places it slightly ahead of the concurrently released Unicron #4, where Unicron has only just arrived at Jupiter by that story's end and is still on the way to Earth at that point.
• In both this issue, and the concurrently released Unicron #4 there are instances of a character calling Unicron a "unicorn"...we really need new jokes about Unicron's name guys!
• The Dinobots are shown in their flashback battling some Decepticons in their dinosaur alternate modes...there's a problem there though, they were never an active team in those modes. After taking on the forms they were trapped under rubble for several millennia, then after waking up Grimlock was taken away to Garrus-9 and they've been separated ever since.