IDW - Optimus Prime Annual 2018

Title: Thundercracker in "Starscream: the Movie"

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Priscilla Tramontano and Andrew Griffith

Colours by: John-Paul Bove and Josh Burcham

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Annoyed by seeing Optimus being revered by the colonists in Iacon, Starscream gets an idea to create a propaganda film to make the colonists, and even the humans love him. To do this he visits Thundercracker inside Trypticon, still acting as the Earth's Embassy to Cybertron. Despite working on a new screen-play on Chuckles saving Earth from Cobra, he happily takes on the new role, since Starscream will be funding the entire project.

Starscream soon tries telling Thundercracker about how awesome and heroic he was in the past, leading to Thundercracker questioning the validity of his story. During the script writing process, Thundercracker has hired Proxima to deal with the camera work, Tankor to do the make-up, and Acid Storm to play the title role of Starscream.

After being told more lies about what he did during the Earth Invasion, Thundercracker decides to go see other people involved in the events for their accounts of Starscream's actual history.

Dirge explains how Starscream convinced him and Deluge to go with the Autobots back to Cybertron when they were defeated before the Earth Invasion, because he trusted him, but he believes that Starscream actually sent him because he could tell they would probably be killed on Cybertron, which Deluge was...and then Dirge was abandoned on Cybertron until after the planet was reborn.

Thundercracker heads to the GI Joe Lemuria base, where he meets up with Skywarp, and the two reminisce on their days at the Jhiaxian Academy for being Outliers, and how Starscream recruited them for his own needs, and wanted to exploit their gifts.

Soon, he returns to Cybertron and meets with Starscream to ask him what being a Decepticon really meant for him, which  he states that he always wanted to point people in the right direction, but he was never really listened to until after the war, when Metrotitan named him the Chosen One. Thundercracker leaves Starscream to continue mumbling about how everyone listens to him now...seemingly ignoring his office being in massive disrepair.

Thundercracker decides to visit Alpha Trion, who explains to him that he believes the Titan that named Starscream the Chosen One, to not be the one who appeared on Earth later, but just a random dying one. He goes on to explain that stories can be used to spread a narrative, which Starscream understands how to do, which is why he's so successful, but warns that Thundercracker should try to use truths, rather than just making an entertaining story for Starscream to spin.

Soon, Thundercracker is having problems on the set, with the paint being used to make Acid Storm look like Starscream not working right, and Flamewar, now cast as Rodimus, moaning that they never really met before the war, having only been put in the story because he's a popular "character".

Thundercracker hides with Marissa back in Trypticon, who decides to help him by getting the phone number for a famous human actor and former hero, Richard Ruby, to help with the film.

Before long, Thundercracker screens some scenes for Ruby, but he's unimpressed since it is just historical and is too wordy, human audiences will be bored, since they want to see action from the alien robots, not talking heads.

Taking his advice, Thundercracker decides to use his movie to try and inspire people, much like how the Nurse Whitney show inspired him to be a writer when he was stuck on Earth following the invasion. Acid Storm gets annoyed by the new script and the constant horrible paint work, leading him to quit the film. Thundercracker soon takes up the role of Starscream for himself, just as Swift walks in, announcing that Starscream has admitted to all his crimes, and has been arrested. The crew are upset since this means their film is doomed, but Thundercracker just states that this gives their film an ending now.

Thundercracker completes the film, indeed ending it with Starscream's imprisonment, and screens it for Starscream inside his cell. Starscream is unimpressed, but points out that there's no point in showing the film now, since he doesn't need to impress anyone anymore, but Thundercracker is determined to show it still.

As he leaves, Starscream manages to bribe his guard, Beachcomber, to deliver a message to a "friend" of his for a reward, which he agrees to.

At the wrap party, Thundercracker gifts his crew some goodies, including a plushie of Buster and a copy of his Chuckles movie script, before leaving to drop off the film to Earth (leaving Proxima to wonder if she'll actually get paid still). 

Thundercracker goes through the space bridge, aiming for Earth, but is redirected to the dead world of Prion instead, forcing him to rush Buster into his cockpit so she can breathe. Two Badgeless officers follow him into the portal, where they attempt to kill him, having been hired by Starscream to do so, so his film cannot be shown. Fortunately, Thundercracker still has his fighting skills and kills the Badgeless.

Thundercracker soon arrives on Earth, confusing Aileron as to why he was on the dead world of Prion, but she tells him that Ruby wants to see him.

Richard Ruby tells Thundercracker that Rumble and Frenzy also made a movie, that got released two weeks earlier, and it failed terribly, leaving human audiences to not care about Cybertronian cinema anymore. He has managed to sell the movie to a subscription service, but isn't sure how to watch it even himself.

Thundercracker returns to Cybertron, where he contemplates giving up on his writing dreams, but is pulled through by a call from J.J. Hackensack, a major director on Earth, who saw his movie and wants to work with him on a new one, if he is interested...which of course he is.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Proxima 

Alpha Trion - Space Shuttle

Metrotitan - Autobot City

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Beachcomber - Dune Buggy

Ratchet - Ambulance (Flashback Only)

Prowl - Police Car (Flashback Only)

Jazz - Sports Car (Flashback Only)

Cliffjumper - Sports Car (Flashback Only)

Mirage - F1 Race Car (Flashback Only)

Hound - Military Jeep (Flashback Only)

Tracks - Muscle Car (Flashback Only)

Bumblebee - VW Beetle (Flashback Only)

Wheeljack - Race Car (Flashback Only)

Impactor - Tank (Fantasy Only)

Ironhide - Van (Fantasy Only)

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Fantasy Only)

Scrounge - Wheel (Fantasy Only)

Windcharger - Sports Car (Mentioned)

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Rodimus - Sports Car (Mentioned)

Seaspray - Hovercraft (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Acid Storm - Fighter Jet

Fat Tankor - Tank

Swift - Helicopter

Waspinator - Wasp (Footage Only)

Sky-Byte - Shark (Footage Only)

Laserbeak - Cassette (Footage Only)

Slugslinger - Twin Nosed Jet (Footage Only)

Rumble - Motorcycle (Footage Only)

Frenzy - Motorcycle (Footage Only)

Thrust - Fighter Jet (Flashback Only)

Astrotrain - Space Shuttle/Train (Flashback Only)

Viewfinder (Flashback Only)

Deluge - Sports Car (Flashback Only) Killed by Insecticon Swarm

Apeface - Ape (Flashback Only)

Dead End - Sports Car (Flashback Only)

Battletrap - Helicopter/Van (Flashback Only)

Motormaster - Truck (Flashback Only)

Brawl - Tank (Flashback Only)

Needlenose - Fighter Jet (Flashback Only)

Shrapnel - Stag Beetle (Flashback Only)

Megatron - Gun (Fantasy Only)

Seekers - Jets (Mentioned) Defunct

Ramjet - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Dirge - Fighter Jet

Flamewar - Motorcycle

Rattrap - Mole Rat

Trypticon - Earth Embassy Building

G2 Sideswipe - Car

Other Newborn Cybertronians

Two Badgeless Officers Killed by Thundercracker

Cybertronian/Colonist Crowdfillers

Extras in Movie (Footage Only)

Onyx Prime Actor (Footage Only)

Prima Actor (Footage Only)

Insecticon Swarm (Flashback Only)

Teletraan (Voice)

Primus (Mentioned)

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Metalhawk - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Rashid Nasir

Baker

Richard Ruby

J.J. Hackensack

Hi-Tech/Sanjay Bharwaney

Rumble and Frenzy's Human Actors (Footage Only)

Chuckles (Fantasy Only)

Cobra Commander (Fantasy Only)

Earth Invasion Era US President (Mentioned) Dead

Ayana Jones (Mentioned)

Jem (Mentioned)

Karen Fishook (Mentioned)

Orson Welles (Mentioned)

Nurse Whitney (Mentioned, Fictional Character)

Karen Fishnet (Mentioned, Fictional Character)

Susan Journeyer (Mentioned, Fictional Character)

Other

Buster the Dog

Notes

• This special issue is set during the Till All Are One Annual, and also between issues 14 and 15 of Optimus Prime. It begins with Starscream in charge of Cybertron, later showing his office in a wreck, clearly set after the scene where Windblade confronts him over his crimes, and ends with Starscream arrested for his crimes.
• As mentioned earlier in the series, the old film "The Birth of Cybertron" is based on the real world film "Birth of a Nation", and like the fictional one is mentioned to be, it was a very racist and revisionist history type of film.
• Since it was mentioned that the film is "Nominist propaganda" earlier in the series, and here we see that the original Primes are involved in some way, we can probably assume that a part of the film was to show that Nominus Prime was directly descended from them and was a "true Prime"
• Despite him being the title character of this series, Optimus only actually appears in one panel in the entire book....why didn't they just name this "Transformers Annual" like they did last year??
• Rashid Nasir was one of the survivors from the attack on the White House during the Revolution event, clearly he must feel safer with Marissa after what happened then.
• We learned back in All Hail Megatron that the Seekers changed their bodies to resemble their commander (Starscream) out of respect. Here we learn that they were manipulated into looking like him so he could hide amongst them from angry tax-payers that he defrauded during his senate days
• Starscream's false history tells us that Megatron was the one who destroyed Air Force One during All Hail Megatron, and that Starscream tried to stop him. What actually happened was that Starscream shot down he plane!
• When is the scene set on the Lemuria set? Is it before the current Scarlett's Strike Force series, or after? I ask because Skywarp seems happy there, but we learned in issue 2 of the series that he plans to betray the team to Duke.
• Alpha Trion believes that the Titan that named Starscream as the "Chosen One" was not Metrotitan, despite everyone believing it to be, and was just a random dying one, since Alpha is certain that Metrotitan was always under earth's surface sleeping. To be fair, I'm pretty sure Metrotitan hasn't said it was him, just everyone assumes it is...huh...
• Proxima being amongst Thundercracker's crew likely means that the Vis Vitalis did end up reaching Caminus, and the crew have since gone their separate ways, with Proxima heading to Cybertron.
• FLAMEWAR IS HERE?!?! We don't see an insignia, so we can assume she's a colonist. She is also based on her second Botcon toy which turns into a motorcycle, so I'll assume that's her alternate mode here too.
• However, Flamewar knows quite a bit of Starscream and Rodimus' shared history, so maybe she's a former Decepticons who just ditched her insignia at some point, or maybe they teach the personal histories of key Cybertronian figures on the colonies now?
• The Protoform that was dubbed Sideswipe by Arcee has now started looking more like his namesake, but in his G2 toy colours...I wonder if he'll get a bandolier in the future?
• Ayana Jones met with, and got the number for Richard Ruby during the Revolutionaries series
• I'm actually quite surprised that Trypticon has remained in his dinosaur mode, and not changed to city-mode for the Earth Embassy job. It's a cool sight though, so no matter!
• During the scene in the film where Starscream recruits Skywarp and Thundercracker, we can see a slight bit of colour bleeding around the Seekers, I guess Proxima's colour filter edits aren't so perfect after all huh?
• Beachcomber passing off a message for Starscream sets up why Beachcomber feels guilty in Optimus Prime #16, released the same day as this issue.
• So....how does Starscream have the power to convince two Badgeless to try and kill Thundercracker? He's in jail and no one trusts him any more...is he just still rich from his days as a money-extorting senator?
• Aww no Buster! Don't suffocate on Prion! I swear this series wants to make me paranoid about Buster dying in every issue she appears in! (PS, to the team of Transformers vs Visionaries, this is due to Prion not having an atmosphere for organic life, much like what Cybertron has outside of Iacon!)
• Rumble and Frenzy's movie is clearly supposed to be a joke about how Transformers movies are seen in the real world, with violence, bikini clad women, explosions, lots of military, more explosions, and nonsense.
• Rumble and Frenzy refer to themselves as the "Tape Bros"....they don't turn into tapes at this point in time, they are motorcycles.
• J.J. Hackensack is based on both J.J. Abrams (for the films shown of his, and the name) and George Lucas (for the general look)
• Karen Fishook is a nod to Carrie Fisher, who is mentioned as reprising her role as Queen Spacela in the new Space Battle movie, directly referring to her role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Fishook character also appeared in a similar role back in the G1 cartoon days.
• The lighting is credited to being done by Flash Bang, the name of a torch sold for the Movie lines.
• The main story is followed by a credit screen, starting with in-universe credits, but ending with thanks to all the creative teams for the works referenced in this special, ending with a "no humans were harmed in the making of this film" parody credit from most films that feature animal characters in the real world, and a promise that "Starscream will return". A credit mostly made popular with superhero movies.

IDW - Lost Light #15

Title: The Scavengers in: Kill All 'Cons

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Brendan Cahill and Sara Pitre-Durocher

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Grimlock, shackled, is taken to meet with Scorponok and Flame, where he demands to know what has been going on, and even feigning that he doesn't know or care about the Scavengers, whom he killed in his cell just before.

Scorponok and Flame explain that they took the Magnificence from Grimlock's chest, but that it has developed some sort of moral code, not answering anyone that it deems untrustworthy, however due to Scorponok having human brain patterns inside his head, thanks to his previous bonding with Abraham Dante, he is still able to get answers from it. Soon however, the Scavengers arrive and surround Scorponok and Flame, taking the Magnificence from them. They explain that Nickel was able to force Grimlock into his dinosaur mode, letting him think clearer, thanks to her theory that he has extra pressure on his brain module in robot mode, making him unable to think properly. Spinister is allowed to examine his brain in this mode, so he can be back to his old self. In the process Krok gets the idea to have Nickel and Spinister carefully take the Scavengers to pieces and make it look like they've died, so they can get Grimlock out, and escape when the guards leave the cell open, since why would someone lock up a cell of corpses?

The team try to figure out what Scorponok's ultimate goal is, but he is unwilling to tell them, however Fulcrum just asks the Magnifence. Scorponok, unwilling to let someone else take his thunder, he opens his chest and reveals his ultimate goal...a purple baby human with a Decepticon insignia printed on the face inside a pod. He plans to transplant all Decepticon sparks into organic bodies, allowing them to reproduce and create a massive army that they will then be transplanted into new mechanical bodies, to finally take down the Autobots.

Scorponok offers to let the Scavengers join him as commanders in his new army, if they simply kill Grimlock. The crew however immediately decline the offer, stating that they don't want to go back to war.

Scorponok is disappointed, but simply waves his hand, taking control of all their sparks, utilizing their badges being made from their spark casing as weapons. He intends to use their sparks to power the next few organic Decepticons, however before he can succeed, Nickel reaches the Magnificence, which gives her the solution, she throws her communicator to Scorponok, telling him it's a call for him.

Scorponok puts the communicator to his head, where he hears Tarn, who's voice slowly and painfully paralyses him. Flame calls for help from the other troops on the ship, whilst Grimlock prepares to finish off Scorponok, being stopped by Misfire, who wants to rescue the baby, since she's innocent in all this.

Soon, the Scavengers, now with the Firstborn of the new Decepticon army and the Magnificence in tow fight their way to a transmat suite, led bythe Magnificence's direction, where Misfire explains his plan, they should head to Garrus-9, so they can use their spark extractor technology to remove the Decepticon spark from the baby, and place it back inside one of the many dead bodies in the prison.

The Magnificence gives them the galactic coordinates to Garrus-9, but brings up that the organic baby will not survive a trip through the transmat chamber. Grimlock takes the baby's pod and places it inside his Magnificence brace, keeping it safe. However Misfire realizes that this means Grimlock can't join them in escaping, which he is not allowing. The Scavengers huddle up to decide what to do, but Grimlock just shoves them through the portal and destroys the controls, and gets ready to fight their oncoming attackers alone, declaring that he'll protect the baby, like Misfire protected him...

The Scavengers arrive inside Grimlock's old cell in Garrus-9, where they find the door locked, their communicators are all gone or broken, and the Magnificence has stopped working....leaving the crew to ask Krok what they should do now....

Several years earlier, Flywheels is rescued from floating in space by Krok and his crew, the Foragers, who have just stolen a prison escort ship, and Misfire starts trying to think up a new name for their group...

Nearby, Scorponok and Flame met a large ball of light which declares itself as "The Grand Architect" and tells them that they belong to him now....

Characters

Autobot

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Decepticon

Misfire/Flyhigh - Jet Trapped in Grimlock's Old Garrus-9 Cell

Fulcrum - K-Class Bomb Trapped in Grimlock's Old Garrus-9 Cell

Spinister - Helicopter Trapped in Grimlock's Old Garrus-9 Cell

Crankcase - Van Trapped in Grimlock's Old Garrus-9 Cell

Nickel - Rocket Ppowered Car Trapped in Grimlock's Old Garrus-9 Cell

Krok Trapped in Grimlock's Old Garrus-9 Cell

"The Firstborn"

Tarn - Tank (Voice Recording)

Flywheels - Tank/Jet (Flashback Only)

Rat-a-tat-tat (Mentioned) Spark used to Power "The Firstborn"

Thundersaur (Mentioned) Dead

Grand Architect's Faction

Scorponok - Scorpion Paralyzed by Tarn's voice message

Flame - Car

Worldsweeper Crew

The Grand Architect (Flashback Only)

The Infinites (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Agnoizer/The Curator (Mentioned)

Sparkeaters (Mentioned)

Human

Abraham Dante (Mentioned) Presumably Dead

Notes

• Further adding to the theory that the Magnificence is the remains of one of the Knights of Cybertron, it is said to have developed a moral code, rather than just answering every question asked.
• Scorponok mentions that he still has traces of Abraham Dante in his head, this implies that they are not binary bonded any more, likely meaning that he was removed in Garrus-9, and possibly died It's also likely that the Firstborn's genetic information likely came from Dante, since it does look quite human.
• I totally called it last issue with Nickel and Spinister making it just look like they were all killed by Grimlock!
• It's revealed that Grimlock's brain damage for the last few years has been due to pressure being applied to his brain...maybe if Spinister had of given him an actual check-up over these last years then he would have been fixed ages ago!
• Okay....having a baby human inside Scorponok is getting us dangerously close to pregnant transformers being canon and not just a creepy fan-art sub-genre...I agree with Fulcrum, it's disgusting...
• I don't get Scorponok's plan...I mean I'm sure he can transplant sparks into organic bodies, that's not much different to having organic alternate modes, or the Treecons from last issue, what I has a problem with is the reproduction thing, and then using the sparks from the offspring to create a massive Decepticon army in the future....why would a spark, which would be added to the body following birth naturally, also be reproduced too? That's not how sparks work...if he was making a Decepticon Matrix or something, then sure, but this makes no real sense to me.
• This issue confirms an earlier reveal that the Decepticon insignia is made using a piece of the Decepticon's own spark chamber, and that Scorponok used this process to control other Decepticons, as he did with making Grimlock sleep and wake up last issue. This is also likely further reasoning for the Decepticons and even Drift acting weird and combining during the Chaos event.
• Tarn is shown to have recorded a special message for Nickel on her communicator, allowing her to paralyze an opponent if needed. We learned last issue that he could use his vocal powers over a communicator when he did it to Shockwave, so it also turns out that he can do it via recordings.....did he never just try using this skill over a loudspeaker or something?!
• We don't see Scorponok again after the Scavengers get the Firstborn out of his chest, so he might actually have been killed by Tarn's voice message! (Also Grimlock was about to skewer him with his sword before he was stopped so they could rescue the baby)
• So, Grimlock actually does appreciate Misfire's help over the past few years, and now wants to do the same to keep the Firstborn safe. I wonder how long until he gets captured by the Worldsweeper's crew or Scorponok using his spark control power again?
• So, the Scavengers arrive in Grimlock's old cell in Garrus-9...I have a couple of questions....Why would the Magnificence send them there? They wanted to get to the spark extractor room, so why send them to his cell? Also during Last Stand of the Wreckers, the team find Grimlock's cell empty....why did they lock it back up after opening it?
• I'm not too worried about the Scavengers however, we saw in issue 12 that Agonizer could find them on a random planet to rescue them, so I'm sure he can do it again!
• It's revealed that Crankcase, before properly joining the Scavengers, was the pilot of the prison ship carrying Misfire to prison. The ship appears to be the Weak Anthropic Principle, and it was shown that Crankcase was the ship's pilot in More Than Meets The Eye.
• Just as with the corpse theory from last issue, I also called that Flywheels' disappearance from the group after leaving the Garrus-9 escape ship would lead to him meeting the other Scavengers for the first time.
• To my utter shock however, it turns out that Scorponok is NOT the Grand Architect, but rather some other figure who takes the form of a ball of light in space...intriguing....
• Okay, here's my theory on the finale of this series now: The Knights of Cybertron, are the Guiding Hand, and the five symbols we've seen repeatedly representing them are their individual sigils. The Grand Architect will be revealed to be Adaptus, who is known for being the supposed originator of the transformation cog, and his sigil resembling a gear. If true then my theory on Epistemus being the Magnifence, Solomus being the crystal inside the Matrix (creating the original map to Cyberutopia), Primus being Cybertron itself, and Mortilus just being an alternate name for Unicron, we have information for all members of the mythical quintet.
• If my theory is true, then the Grand Architect is not evil, and is just trying to prepare for the upcoming return and rampage of Unicron/Mortilus.