IDW - Optimus Prime #21

Title: The Falling Part 6: Unforgivable

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Kei Zama, Sara Pitre-Durocher, & Livio Ramondelli

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Devastator and Victorion continue their fight, with Victorion concerned about how Devastator is able to withstand her gravitational powers.

Elsewhere, Aileron and Jetfire have been brought to the Crystal City Singularity, which is now shrouded in Matrix energies and Shockwave declares that he needs their help with something, and explains that Optimus has been deduced to data inside the Singularity, with his physical body, including the Matrix being destroyed.

Arcee, having been captured by Liege Maximo and his Maximals is being taken into the Nemesis, thanks to the use of Ore-4, which creates a gravitational field. Arcee manages to break free and grabs her sword from Maximo, in turn throwing it at the Ore, shattering it, and causing the field to vanish. The Maximals, Maximo and Arcee all fall down, with Maximo being impaled on Devastator's crane and the other Maximals falling to their deaths too. Arcee is rescued by Aileron before she meets a similar fate.

Vicorion now realizes why her powers weren't affecting Devastator, the Ore was causing a second gravitational field, disrupting her own one. Now that she is unhindered, she shreds Devastator apart, killing him. In the aftermath, Arcee grabs Aileron for a kiss, to say thanks for the rescue.

Following their victory, the Torchbearers decombine and rush to Jetfire's aid, where Shockwave is revealed to Pyra to be Onyx Prime's true form. She attacks him, but he waves off the attacks, explaining that he needs HER, and was just using Jetfire as bait to draw her in. He wants to have her combiner-receptive mind to store Optimus' digital consciousness into her head to rescue him from Infraspace.

Shockwave used some of the tainted energon from Cybertron and places it into the Singularity, drawing Optimus and Bumblebee into Pyra's mind. Following this, Pyra attacks Shockwave and rips off his arm cannon, preparing to kill him for all he's done, without any contesting voices from Optimus or Bee...

Elsewhere, Soundwave prepares to assassinate Starscream, who is gaining followers for a new Decepticon movement, but Needlenose stops him, saying that this is all he knows to do. Kill people who get in his way...

Starscream notices the Nemesis, with the remaining Maximals aboard leaving, leading him to believe that Shockwave has been defeated. He then agrees to lead the new Decepticons and takes them with him to plan..

Left behind, Swift is disillusioned by all this, and questions her allegiance, whist the nearby Needlenose finds his brother Tracks, and decides to go with him, deciding to stick with people who care for him. Soundwave, now left alone is approached by Windblade, who invites him to join them at the council to start planning their next moves. Soundwave however is worried if he made a mistake by allowing Starscream to live.

The Nemesis leaves orbit, without any attacks from Carcer, on orders of Windblade. On the surface, Elita demands to know why they couldn't destroy them, and also why Shockwave is still alive, Mistress of Flame agrees since she still hates him for killing her friends in the past.

Pyra explains that they will have Shockwave brought before the council for judgement, so he can be punished properly, and so they truth about the Primes being just mortal beings be broadcasted to the people.

Upon hearing this, Shockwave declares that she is ready and implants some of the tainted energon into her head, giving her, Optimus and Bumblebee a shared vision of the upcoming threat....Unicron, and to deal with him, they had to accept that their religion was false and would hurt them in the long run...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab Mind Displaced into Pyra Magna's Head

Bumblebee - Muscle Car Mind Displaced into Pyra Magna's Head

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Arcee - Sports Car

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Tracks - Muscle Car

Victorion - Torchbearer Gestalt

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Dust Up - Sports Car

Superion - Aerialbot Gestalt (Flashback)

Optimus Maximus - Autobot Gestalt (Mentioned)

Chromia - Speed Bike (Mentioned)

Alpha Trion - Shuttle (Mentioned) Dead

Metrotitan - Autobot City (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Shockwave/Onyx Prime - Flying Artillery Captured by Pyra Magna

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Devastator - Construction Gestalt Killed by Victorion

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Swift - Helicopter

Fat Tankor - Tank

Tall Tankor - Oil Tanker/Cargo Plane

Acid Storm - Fighter Jet

Squeezeplay - Crab Monster

Flip Sides - Cassette

"Armada Thrust" - Fighter Jet

Menasor - Stunticon Gestalt (Mentioned)

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Beast Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Skywarp - Eagle Killed by Arcee

Bigmos - Mosquito Killed by Arcee

Insecticon - Beetle Killed on Impact with Devastator

Rartorata - Lionfish-Hornet Killed on Impact with Devastator

Nightglider - Flying Squirrel Killed on Impact with Devastator

Razorclaw - Fiddler Crab Killed on Impact with Devastator

Rhino - Rhino Killed on Impact with Devastator

Scorponok - Scorpion Killed on Impact with Devastator

Randy - Wild Boar Killed on Impact with Devastator

Retrax - Pill Bug Killed on Impact with Devastator

Scarem - Scarab Beetle Killed on Impact with Devastator

CatSCAN - Big Cat Killed on Impact with Devastator

Apelinq - Gorilla Killed on Impact with Devastator

Scissor Boy - Earwig Killed on Impact with Devastator

Rav - Raven Killed on Impact with Devastator

Mol - Mole Killed on Impact with Devastator

Dillo - Armadillo Killed on Impact with Devastator

Other Maximals Several Killed on Impact with Devastator

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Mistress of Flame

Elita One - Car

Liege Maximo Killed on Impact with Devastator

Vigilem - Carcer Ship Dead, Corpse used as ship

Civilians

The Fallen/Megatronus (Mentioned) Dead

The Thirteen Primes (Mentioned)

Scoop - Front End Loader (Mentioned) Died with Devastator

Praesidia Magna (Mentioned) Dead

Fastbreak (Mentioned) Dead

Magrada (Mentioned) Dead

Human

Marissa Faireborn

The Iron Ring (Mentioned)

Other

Unicron - Ringed Planet (Vision)

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue fully explains that the Torchbearers left their position on Caminus due to the Mistress of Flame trusting a Prime (Optimus) despite her, and the Torchbearers knowing that a Prime (Onyx) was evil and killed their friends.
• It's revealed here what Shockwave was looking for when he was on Caminus, and killed Magrada and the earlier version of the Torchbearers, one of his Regensis Ores. In this case, it is Ore-4, Gravity.
• Even though some of the Maximals could have survived their fall from the Nemesis, it's likely that Victorion's gravity crushing attack would have killed them regardless
• This issue marks the first on-panel, on the lips kiss between two Transformers...the question is though...why was is Arcee and Aileron? Why not an established couple like the Torchbearer cars or Anode and Lug? This feels like it's just been shoe-horned in for some reason.
• We learn here that the area inside the mind of a combiner where the component parts can communicate is called Antespace.
• Optimus' brief stint as the torso of a combiner in Combiner Wars gets lip-service here. I thought IDW had forgotten about that!
• Windblade says "he found someone named Bumblebee?" as if she doesn't know who he is...she has mentioned him various times, and even screamed at Starscream for him being crazy for talking to his "ghost"
• Fat Tankor is mentioned as a Decepticon again in this issue, despite just last issue being identified as "unaligned"...MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!
• Likewise, Devastator is also shown in multiple views (even his components) with Decepticon insignias, so I guess he has re-joined them too?!
• So, Shockwave's ultimate plot has been to create the Primes, just so in the future he could reveal that they were a fiction and were not gods, giving the Cybertronian people the strength to deal with the upcoming Unicron, since they cannot rely on gods to save them, only themselves. This is a good idea, except one small thing....how did Shockwave know when Unicron was going to return?
• Shockwave mentions that the Maximals are going to join Unicron now, whilst we know this is true from Unicron #1, this doesn't explain how he knows this. Was he allied with Unicron in some way before his "defeat"?

IDW - Optimus Prime #20

Title: The Falling Part 5: Endless Forever

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Kei Zama

Finishes by: Casey W. Coller (Pages 14-19)

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Back during the rule of Zeta Prime, Orion Pax brings his new recruit, Bumblebee with him on a raid of Swindle's weapons workshop, where Bee notices and is concerned by Pax's growing violence towards the Decepticons. Jetfire comments that this ISN'T the same person who challenged the old Senate in the past any more...

Eventually Pax reformed and went against his old friend Zeta Prime, helping Megatron to kill him, beginning the true civil war.

During the Dark Cybertron event, Bumblebee was killed by Shockwave and his body was consumed by a singularity caused by a repentant Shockwave, and has been trapped in Infraspace ever since then, but is now joined by Optimus Prime as well.

The two trapped Autobots worry about what is happening on Cybertron without them, but Optimus is confident that Arcee and the others can save their world, despite them being all but dead right now.

On Cybertron, Arcee tears through the Maximals, but even with her skills is eventually captured by Liege Maximo and his guards, but he reveals that they will not kill her, since "Onyx Prime" has need of her.

Nearby, Devastator and Victorion battle it out, with Devastator using brute force to overcome Victorion's gravity bending powers. Shockwave watches the battle as Starscream, whose entire life has been revealed to be pointless and manipulated, slinks away, intending to return to his jail cell.

Aileron and Jetfire make it to Metrotitan's body where they find the Titan has been definitely killed, Jetfire explains to Aileron who Shockwave is, explaining that he's pretty much pure evil and tried to destroy reality once. Aileron is pleased however, since he is just a real guy, and not a Prime, it's possible that he can be killed.

Back in Infraspace, Bee theorizes that he was able to connect to Starscream in the "real world" because he was always uncomfortable in his own body, and since the people trapped in Infraspace are without true bodies too, they must be able to use him as an anchor of sorts.

Back on Cybertron again, Windblade returns to the rest of the council after looking for Optimus, only to find a riot forming on the streets below between the Decepticons and Prime's loyalists, especially since some of them questions WHICH Prime to follow!

Hiding from the crowd, Soundwave is with Needlenose, the former of which is now hated by everyone for his involvement in Horri-Bull's murder being revealed. Starscream, on his way back to jail, is found by the Decepticons and they ask him to lead them once again, since he didn't do that bad of a job last time, however, upon hearing this, Soundwave is reinvigorated to get "his" Decepticons back...

Inside Infraspace, the two Autobots discuss how this world is pretty much just made up of thoughts and ideas, giving Optimus the idea to use the Matrix...or at least the memory of it, to help them escape...

Aileron and Jetfire make it towards the Crystal City singularity, where they find the anomaly larger and surrounded by light, as well as the dead bodies of several Maximals and Arcee's discarded jetpack, they worry about what is happening, until Shockwave arrives and is glad to see Jetfire, as he needs his help for the final stage of his plan....

Characters

Autobot

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Arcee - Sports Car

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Victorion - Torchbearer Gestalt

Roadmaster - Van

Metrotitan - Autobot City Dead

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax - Truck Cab Trapped in Infraspace

Bumblebee - Muscle Car Trapped in Infraspace

Zeta Prime (Flashback Only) Dead

Megatron - Tank (Flashback Only)

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Flashback Only)

Prowl - Emergency Vehicle (Flashback Only)

Ironhide - Van (Flashback Only)

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned)

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck (Mentioned)

Wheeljack - Race Car (Mentioned)

Silverbolt - Concorde Jet (Mentioned) 

Decepticon

Shockwave/Onyx Prime - Flying Artillery

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

Acidstorm - Fighter Jet

Tall Tankor - Oil Tanker/Cargo Plane

Swift - Helicopter

Flip Sides - Cassette

G'Nur

Submarauder - Submarine

Skullgrin - Tank

Garboil - Cassette 

"Armada Thrust" - Fighter Jet

Decepticon Rioters

Swindle - Van (Flashback Only)

Space Case - Fighter Jet (Flashback Only)

Road Pig - Motorcycle (Flashback Only)

Snarler (Flashback Only)

Finback - Hovercraft (Flashback Only)

"Armada Cyclonus" - Helicopter (Flashback Only)

"Cybertron Sideways" - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Beast Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Thunderhoof - Elk Killed by Arcee

Steel Jaw - Wolf Killed by Arcee

Powerhug - Pill Bug Killed by Arcee

"Mutant Soundwave" - Bat/Alligator Killed by Arcee

Diver - Toad Killed by Arcee

Icebird - Owl/Polar Bear Killed by Arcee

Posion Bite - Barracuda/Scorpion Killed by Arcee

Mantis - Praying Mantis Killed by Arcee

Lazorbeak - Pteranodon Killed by Arcee

Tasmania Kid - Tasmanian Devil Killed by Arcee

Rockbuster - Fiddler Crab Killed by Arcee

Bigmos - Mosquito Killed by Arcee

Drill Nuts - Boll Weevil Killed by Arcee

Scuba - Squid Killed by Arcee

DJ - Cicada Killed by Arcee

Snapper - Snapping Turtle

Scylla - Squid

Archadis - Archaeopteryx

Dead End - Ammonite

Apache - Mandrill 

Cohrada - Cobra 

Jawbreaker - Hyena

Heinrad - Tanuki

Moon - Rabbit 

Seaclamp - Lobster (Claw Seen)

Other Maximals

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Liege Maximo

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Elita One - Car

Mistress of Flame

Devastator - Constructicon Gestalt

Fat Tankor - Tank

Prime Loyalists

The Old Senate (Mentioned)

The Thirteen Primes (Mentioned)

Vigilem - Carcer Ship (Mentioned)

Trypticon - Earth Embassy (Mentioned)

Lightbright (Mentioned)

Metalhawk - Fighter Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Other

Marissa Faireborn

Notes

• The opening scene is set just after Bumblebee met Optimus in the 2017 Annual, and leads into his ruthless cop persona from the start of Autocracy
• Among the Decepticons in Swindle's workshop are Armada Cyclonus and Cybertron Sideways...has Unicron been manipulating Cybertron using Sideways this whole time?!
• Arcee claims to have avoided the Lost Light to also avoid wordplay...I guess she hates Swerve...
• In the Infraspace realm, Optimus appears to have a purple colour scheme, much like his Shattered Glass counterpart
• Bumblebee apologizes to Optimus for not doing a good job leading the Autobots during Optimus' self-imposed exile from Cybertron. Optimus says that it's okay, but he was pretty mad with Rodimus when he learned that he messed up too, seems a bit biased...
• Submarauder and Skullgrin are seen in their Pretender shells here...but if you remember all the way back to Stormbringer they were seemingly killed before they ever received them. (We saw before that Skullgrin survived his "death" so it can be assumed that at least some of the other proto-Pretenders did too)
• Fat Tankor is mentioned to be "unaligned"....since when?
• I'm assuming that the condor cassette in this issue is Garboil, since Laserbeak and Buzzsaw should be still on the Jupiter Decepticon colony
• Seaclamp's claw is shown amongst the dead bodies of the Maximals, however he prominently appears in the upcoming Unicron #1, so he must have just lost an arm (I would normally assume it's a repaint's body, but his only repaint is Gimlet, who is part of the Autobot's Earth crew)
• For some reason, Shockwave needs Arcee and Jetfire for his big plans, we don't know why, not even with the early released Unicron #1, set after this issue, and the next!
• Last issue's solicit for this issue said that "only one will survive" regarding Victorion and Devastator's battle...did the conclusion get moved back an issue for some reason? Their battle lasted all of two pages here...

IDW - Optimus Prime #18

Title: The Falling Interlude: The First Who Was Named

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Sara Pitre-Durocher and Livio Ramondelli

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Optimus, now chained up by Shockwave asks what happened to his old friend, and how he is posing as Onyx Prime. Shockwave happily explains it all to his friend...

After he was drawn into the singularity in Crystal City, he was launched twelve million years into the past, badly injured, but still alive. He is soon found by a roaming shepherd, the original Onyx, who asks if he can help him. Without hesitating Shockwave kills Onyx, sending his beasts running to safety. One of the "beasts", a biped remains, who Shockwave named Megatronus.

Soon, Shockwave manages to gather the beasts again, and becomes known as Onyx Prime. Along with Megatronus, he teaches them to fight, creating an army of his own. Before long, he sends Megatronus out to create his Darklander army and begin his siege on other territories. Shockwave dons his full disguise as Onyx and sets out to unite the Thirteen Primes to create their new society.

Following their founding of society, Shockwave manages to convince the others to attempt Expansionism, and spread their message to the stars, however on the first world they encounter Shockwave manipulates things so the Cybertronians attack the natives, slaughtering them, and traumatising Alpha Trion, who was there to document the mission.

When they returned to Cybertron, Prima had a screaming match with Megatronus, blaming him for the slaughter on the unnamed planet. This eventually leads to Shockwave manipulating Liege Maximo into, in turn, manipulating Megatronus into attempting to kill Prima. During their battle, Solus rushes to help Prima, but she ends up being run through by her own Star Saber, Megatronus escapes, taking the sword with him, and the other Primes renounce him as "The Fallen".

Liege Maximo is captured for his manipulation of Megatronus, imprisoned inside his own Titan, Vigilem, with his people charged to be his wardens and keep him away forever. After Vigilem is sent away, Prima leads a mission with "Onyx" and Trion to hunt down Megatronus aboard his own Titan, Emissary.

Soon, Prima and Onyx encounter Megatronus on planet Tsiehshi, where Megatronus manages to cleave Prima in half with ease, however "Onyx" betrays Megatronus and decapitates him, and brings their bodies back to Emissary, where he tells Trion that they died fighting each other. Trion believes his story and they are interred back on Cybertron.

Emissary takes Prima's body into space, however "Onyx" sabotages Emissary, causing him to eventually crash onto the prehistoric world of Elonia, bringing about the end of the era of the Primes...

Back in the present, Shockwave explains that all he has done has been to spear-head the progress of Cybertron, even these dark days he has brought about by attacking the planet. Optimus disagrees, which Shockwave always knew he would. 

He decides to give Optimus the chance to change his mind, by sending him into the Singularity too...as he pushes him right into it....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab Thrown into Crystal City Singularity by Shockwave

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Metrotitan - Autobot City Seemingly Dead

Decepticon

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Needlenose - Fighter Jet

The Primes

Onyx Prime/Shockwave

Liege Maximo

Megatronus/The Fallen (Flashback Only) Killed by Shockwave

Prima (Flashback Only) Killed by Megatronus

Solus Prime (Flashback Only) Killed by Megatronus

Alpha Trion (Flashback Only)

Alchemist Prime (Flashback Only)

Amalgamous Prime (Flashback Only)

Nexus Prime (Flashback Only)

Quintus Prime (Flashback Only)

Vector Prime (Flashback Only)

Micronus Prime (Flashback Only)

"The Arisen" (Flashback Only)

Maximal

Iguanus - Iguana

Snarl - Lion

Backstop - Rhino

Ramulus - Ibex

Other Maximals/Herd Members (Flashback Only)

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Mistress of Flame

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Devastator - Constructicon Combiner

Original Onyx (Flashback Only) Killed by Shockwave

Vigilem - Space Ship (Flashback Only) Lobotomized by The Primes

Emissary - Space Ship (Flashback Only) Crashed into Elonia by Shockwave

Arcee - Cannon (Flashback Only)

Galvatron - Cannon (Flashback Only)

Omega Supreme - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Omega Sentinel Army - Space Shuttles (Flashback Only)

Darklander Army (Flashback Only)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Ancient Headmasters (Mentioned)

Other

Primitive Elonian (Flashback Only)

Cybertron's First Victims (Flashback Only) Dead

Notes

• Wow sometimes being behind schedule on these things does have it's benefits! The planet that Emissary is shown crashing on has been confirmed as being Elonia in Unicron #0
• So...turns out Shockwave is pretty much responsible for everything that happened in Cybertronian history, even the seemingly coincidental stuff, such as the Eukarian ship that would end up doing the Hearts of Steel re-enactment being filled with a crew that just happened to look like the main G1 cast of Transformers. We know that "Onyx" sent them towards Earth, where he knew his younger self was going to experiment on them...YIKES!
• Shockwave has immense knowledge of what happened on Cybertron in the early years of the Primes because he listened to the stories told by Alpha Trion.
• It's revealed here that Shockwave was launched twelve million years into the past when he was drawn into the Crystal City singularity. We learned a while ago that Bumblebee was somehow alive inside the Singularity, and thanks to the Unicron #0 preview, we knew he was going to be returning to the "real world" soon anyway. So at least this isn't out of the blue I guess?
• In an astonishing amount of detail, the original Onyx, whom Shockwave killed and replaced is shown to be a quadruped, where the Shockwave version of him has been mostly bipedal...and people just thought that was an art error!
• It's revealed here that Shockwave named Megatronus here, explaining why his name is similar to Megatron's, given that in this continuity Megatronus' name was unknown until recently.
• This issue explains that Shockwave, knowing of their doomed futures, managed to manipulate the Primes to doing as he pleased, especially when manipulating Megatronus and Liege Maximo
• It's revealed here that, despite what was shown in earlier stories, Solus Prime was killed by Megatronus stabbing her with her own Star Saber.
• This issue confirms that the Matrix was indeed originally the hilt to the Star Saber
• Briefly during the flashback we see a heavily silhouetted figure of "The Arisen". We should presumably discover who he really is, and his supposed connection with Optimus soon