IDW - Optimus Prime #25

Title: Post

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Kei Zama

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Optimus is heading into the afterspark, following his sacrifice to defeat Unicron, and on his way, he looks back on his life...

Upon being born as Orion Pax, he is greeted by Alpha Trion, one of the Thirteen Primes, and is told that he will be the topic of stories in the future and will do great things, and the first thing he witnesses is a disposable class Transformer being abused by his master...

After a while, Orion Pax joins the police force and is taught to fight by Kup, eventually he starts to see how the world is violent and corrupt in places, such as Ravage being beaten down by Outback for scratching graffiti in a wall of the Decepticon insignia.

Over time, Orion loses his way and starts to become violent too, and sees the Decepticons as just a problem that needs stamping out, however he soon starts to change his mind, and agrees to meet with Megatron so they can combat Zeta Prime's rising zealotry. 

A while later, Orion has taken on the Matrix and is now Optimus Prime, Megatron has been captured, but his Decepticons have broken him free. Prowl wants to hunt them down, but Optimus hopes that Megatron can grow to see the error of his ways, and grow to accept a peaceful approach.

Over time, Optimus discovers that Megatron will not change his ways, and their war moves off world, resulting in deaths and compromises, such as Optimus not wanting to know what the Dynobots do in order to win battles, so long as they win...

After the war ended with the Chaos event, Optimus renounces the Prime title, and returns to life as Orion Pax and starts travelling space, hoping to find himself once again...

Later, after Orion regains his Prime name, and becomes convinced by the Mistress of Flame to use his Primehood to recruit colonists to aid his rebuilding of Cybertron and their integration into Earth. Aileron becomes worried that Optimus is manipulating people with their beliefs, but Optimus is beginning to believe he really is the The Arisen, the final Prime.

Much later, Unicron has destroyed Cybertron and all the colonies, bar Earth, Optimus prepares to confront Unicron with Arcee, and removes his mask to face him as himself, and gives it to Arcee for safe-keeping....

In the living world, the survivors of the battle are rebuilding on Earth and preparing for Optimus' funeral at Little Cybertron. The Cybertronians are starting to be accepted by their new hosts and everyone works together.

Tracks and Needlenose are unsure about restarting their Chic Chips business on Earth, so they come to get advice from Pyra Magna, the new Mistress of Flame, who is still getting used to her new role and is trying to repurpose the Way of Flame away from being about the Primes. Eventually she gets tired of their noise and asks them to leave, as she has to get ready for the funeral.

At Little Cybertron, the Junkions are preparing a burial plot for Optimus, whilst Rum-Maj and Wreck-Gar contemplate all the deaths that occurred during Unicron's attack.

In Africa, some hunters are going after a herd of elephants, but are stopped by Buzzsaw, who is disgusted that just after being saved from certain death by Unicron, they start trying to kill their fellow Earthlings, so he considers killing them in return...

Bumblebee prepares to leave Earth to start his new job as delegate to the Galactic Council, but is also now being haunted by Starscream, who died during the Unicron battle.

Thundercracker attends an awards ceremony with Buster, and hopes to win an award for his new movie "The Last Laugh: The Life and Death of Chuckles", which is also being awarded by his favourite actress, Karen Fishhook 

Aileron, Jetfire, Bob, D.O.C. and the Colonist soldiers, have been sent on a deep space mission following the battles with Unicron. Jetfire detects an anomaly so Aileron agrees to investigate it.

Prowl visits Shockwave in his jail cell inside the Lemuria, where Shockwave looks back on his own life and how he took on many faces and always wanted to save the universe, and wonders which was the real him. Prowl tells him that all of his faces were him, the good and the evil.

Windblade and Pyra Magna preside over Optimus' funeral, as he left no body, they are burying the idea of him on Earth, the world that he adopted as his own. Windblade remembers that despite his many issues, he always questioned himself, which made him a good person, and now due to his actions, they have a new home on Earth.

Optimus finally enters the afterspark, happy and at peace, and leaves his friends and loved ones behind...

Arcee concludes the story of Optimus' sacrifice to her new students, and G2 Sideswipe questions how Arcee could know what Optimus thought when he was already dead. She explains that she knew him in life, so she knew how he thought, and how he changed over his life.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax - Truck Cab Dead

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Pyra Magna, Mistress of Flame - Fire Truck

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Bumblebee - Hatchback Car

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Chromia - Speedbike

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Titan Master Head

Jazz - Sports Car

Tracks - Muscle Car

Roulette - Muscle Car

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Bump - Armadillo

Skyburst - Helicopter

Slide - Part of Oil Tanker

Dust Up - Sports Car

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Swoop - Pteranodon, formerly Jet

Kup - Pick Up Truck (Flashback Only)

Ironhide - Van (Flashback Only)

Outback - Van (Flashback Only)

Hound - Jeep (Flashback Only)

Tumbler - Car (Flashback Only)

Grimlock - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Slug - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Snarl - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Sludge - Armoured Truck (Flashback Only)

Sunstreaker - Sports Car (Plushie Only)

Decepticon

Shockwave/Onyx Prime - Flying Artillery In Lemuria Jail

Buzzsaw - Motorcycle

Sparkstalker - Insect Monster

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Starscream - Fighter Jet (Ghost)

Ravage - Cassette (Flashback Only)

Swindle - Van (Flashback Only)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Soundwave - Cassette Player (Mentioned) Dead

Junkion

Wreck-Gar (Head Only)

Rum-Maj

Sharkticons - Sharks

Other Junkions

Other Cybertronian

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Lightbright

Swift - Helicopter

Centurion - Vintage Car

Strafe - Car/Two Headed Dragon

Bob

D.O.C.

G2 Sideswipe - Sports Car

"Slicer" - Race Car

"Turbofire" - Pick Up Truck

"Sideways" - Motorcycle

"Orange Cat" - Big Cat

"Pink, White-Masked Cat"

"Green-Brown Guy"

"Scuba Mask Girl"

"Long-Neck"

Alpha Trion - Tumbler (Flashback Only)

Scrounge - Magifying Device (Flashback Only)

Iaconian Blacksmith (Flashback Only)

Oiler - Part of Oil Tanker (Flashback Only)

Devisen Civilians (Flashback Only) 

The Thirteen Primes (Mentioned)

Jhiaxus - Jet (Mentioned)

Anode - BI-Plane (Mentioned)

Shadowhawk (Mentioned)

Marauder (Mentioned)

The Old Senate (Mentioned) Killed by the Decepticons

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Elonian Child

GI Joe

Scarlett

Matt Trakker

Mayday

Talon

Chuckles (Mentioned) Dead

Other Human

Madame President

Marissa Faireborn

Ian Noble, Action Man

Sgt. Savage

Karen Fishhook

Brad Emory

Sofia Orozco

Sofia Orozco's News Crew

Human Workers

Elephant Hunters Possibly Killed by Buzzsaw

Human Children

Awards Ceremony Attendees

Chuckles Actor (Picture)

J.J. Hackensack (Mentioned)

Michael Costa (Mentioned)

Other

Buster, the Dog

Herd of Elephants

Unicron (Flashback Only) Destroyed

Unnamed Alien Species (Flashback Only) Killed in Dynobot/Decepticon battle

The Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the final issue of the current IDW Hasbroverse, however Lost Light #25 is actually partially set some time after these events.
• Scrounge's alternate mode is revealed to be a magnifying glass of some sort, he is also older than Optimus Prime!
• Whether Optimus is or is not "The Arisen" or at least his reincarnation is never revealed in this series, however Alpha Trion was present at his creation, and he is notable for being very big at birth.
• Orion Pax's appearance at birth is similar to his body from the G1 cartoon, but with some resemblance to his later short-term adopted body during Zeta Prime's early years.
• It is retconned here that Arcee agreed to be experimented on by Jhiaxus and he abandoned her, leaving her to go unstable due to a lack of support.
• Arcee mentions that Anode once agreed to help her with her transition, but she vanished. Anode is of course the character from Lost Light, and she likely vanished just after making this arrangement when she was abducted by the Necrobot.
• Jazz appears to have forgiven Sofia for her setting him up for capture from earlier in the series.
• Orion Pax mentions that with his alternate mode, he could be a police officer, scientist, librarian or a dockworker. This is a reference to pretty much all the previous verisons of his character, he's a police officer in IDW, scientist in the Movies, Librarian in Aligned and Dreamwave and a dockworker in the G1 cartoon.
• Pyra has updated her look to be a lot more ornate than usual following her promotion to Mistress of Flame. She has also changed her hammer to a green/red colour scheme to match her team's colours.
• The Torchbearers' line-up has been updated. Skyburst is now the leader, and Slide and Swift have joined the team, both taking on the green and red uniformed colours.
• Buzzsaw is shown defending a herd of elephants from some hunters. Soundwave once stated that elephants are his favourite animal on Earth.
• It is revealed that Megatron was broken out of jail by the Decepticons, after his capture at the end of Primacy. This was a bit of a continuity bump before now, so thanks Barber!
• Bumblebee is now haunted by the ghost of Starscream, an inversion of their relationship since Bumblebee's death at the end of Dark Cybertron. This likely means that Starscream is stuck in Infraspace due to him being killed by the Talisman.
• Bumblebee is mentioned as being the Cybertronian delegate to the Galactic Council, implying that they were accepted into the Council after Prowl mentioning their application in Lost Light #25
• One of the writers nominated against Thundercracker's film is Michael Costa, a reference to Mike Costa, the writer of Transformers between All Hail Megatron and The Death of Optimus Prime, who was the writer who gave Thundercracker his interest in Earth television in the first place.
• The anomaly detected by Aileron and her crew is never elaborated upon...could this be a left-over storyline that needs concluding later on, or a hint to the future series?
• Bob has a plushie of Sunstreaker, whilst D.O.C. has one of Buster...this is adorable!
• Optimus Prime removes his face mask before confronting Unicron, we saw that he was mask-less during the final battle, but didn't know why until now. He wanted to face Unicron without any masks, literal or metaphorical.
• The start of Optimus' funeral features the same lines that Sentinel prime gave to Bumper and Fastback in Megatron: Origin
• Just a weird note here...the only mourner at Optimus' funeral who is actually smiling is Action Man...no idea why...it's just weird...
• Arcee is shown to be a teacher in the post-war era, this is a reference to her Animated counterpart.
• The new Cybertronians, from the stash inside Trypticon, are mostly made of generics and repaints, much like G2 Sideswipe, so I may just give them nick-names where appropriate in my character lists :)