Plantilla:Comicstory
The Autobots must learn to adapt to Earth with scant resources, while the Decepticons gather more energon to rebuild their army.
Synopsis[]
Optimus Prime walks through a wood, marveling at the natural beauty of Earth. The plants, the animals, the scenery; he finds it all breathtaking. However, his serenity is interrupted upon hearing a crunch underneath his foot: he's stepped on a small deer, killing it. Optimus leans down, cradling the creature with remorse. Spike emerges from the woods and reassures Optimus that it was an accident. Optimus tells Spike that this world is so fragile compared to his own. Seeing the Autobot leader's despair, Spike decides to change the subject of the conversation and asks Optimus about his name. Optimus tells him that the Prime title denotes him as leader of the Autobots and was passed to him by the previous leader of their kind. Optimus in turn inquires about Spike's name, who reveals that his mom used to call him "Spikey" before she passed away due to his hair always sticking up as a child. Optimus is confused; he’s never heard the terms "mom" or "dad" before, though he does know the concept of "family." Spike then asks Optimus about where he comes from, prompting Optimus to tell him about Cybertron and the war between the Autobots and Decepticons that has raged for the past two centuries. The Autobots' forces eventually dwindled from the Decepticons' relentless onslaught to the point where they were forced to flee the planet aboard the Ark. However, their escape was attacked by Megatron and the Decepticons. The last thing Optimus saw before they crashed into the mountain was Earth. Optimus thanks Spike for assisting him during the battle, saying that he's not sure they would have escaped without him. Spike in turn offers condolences for Bumblebee.
Sorry Cliff, but with Bumblebee gone, you're the closest thing we got to a kid-appeal character.
Their somber heart-to-heart is soon interrupted by the newly reactivated Cliffjumper, whom Ratchet was able to successfully repair. Optimus warmly greets his old friend, but Cliffjumper is not nearly as taken with Earth as his commander, freaking out upon seeing Spike and Carly and bumping into the trees. Carly tells him to calm down. After all, if anyone should be freaking out about the giant robots from space, it's her. This gets Cliffjumper to calm down and the two shake hands. Inside the quarry, Ratchet has set about trying to revive the other Autobots, but has used up the last of their energon reserves fixing Cliffjumper. Optimus considers using the Matrix of Leadership to replenish their energon, but Ratchet says they can't. The Matrix is connected to Prime's own life force and if they lose him, they lose everything. Cliffjumper remarks that if they're running out of energon, the Decepticons will hopefully have the same problem.
Meanwhile, at the power plant Sparky and Davey work at, a police officer is surveying the damage caused by Starscream's attack and taking statements, not believing the plant manager's story about a giant robot. The officer says they'll get some detectives out here to investigate, but a panicked Sparky insists they need to call in the Army. As the officer tries to reassure Sparky, Skywarp drops from the sky, destroying his patrol car. Behind him descend Starscream and Soundwave carrying an energy transfer module stolen from the Ark, which will allow them to more efficiently convert energon from the plant. The police officer tries to shoot at Starscream, much to Sparky's protests, only for Starscream to step on him. As the Decepticons begin to drain the plant of its energy, Soundwave intercepts a transmission from the U.S. military asking a nearby pilot under the callsign "Frosting" to intercept their attack. Amused at the idea of the "squishies" trying to fight them, Starscream goes to intercept the fighter. He dogfights with them for a bit before transforming and smacking the jet down. The pilot and his ride-along eject, but Starscream catches up to Frosting and squashes him between his hands. The other soldier activates a button on his parachute, converting it into a winged jetpack. As Starscream advances, he pulls out his flare gun and fires at the Decepticon, getting a lucky shot at his eye before retreating. Starscream opts to give up on the minor annoyance and Duke flies away to fight another day.
Back at the plant, Sparky takes one of the patrol cars as he is chased down by Skywarp. Before he can catch the human, however, Frosting's F-18 comes crashing down on top of him and Soundwave, allowing Sparky to slip away. The resulting explosion is seen by the Autobots and Carly and Spike realize that the plant is under attack. Feeling responsible for bringing their war to this planet, Optimus opts to face the Decepticons, despite Ratchet's protest about their need to find their own energy sources. Optimus assigns Cliffjumper to stay with Ratchet and protect their sleeping comrades. Spike decides to come along to help his dad, which Optimus reluctantly allows. Carly tries to stop him, saying they need to get back home to their parents, but Spike insists. She decides to leave for home alone. As she drives back towards town, she is spotted by Laserbeak, who identifies the image of Optimus Prime Carly drew on her van earlier that day. She arrives home to find Sparky already there, dressed in his old Army fatigues and carrying several guns. Carly asks where her dad is, and Sparky answers that "they" killed him; Davey is dead.
Plantilla:--
Featured characters[]
Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
Plantilla:Featuredcharacters
Quotes[]
Spike: "Um... Hi... Nice to meet y--"
Cliffjumper: "Ah, we're not there yet, my man. Yeeesh... You're like a turborat-- creepy, little--"
Carly: "Oh, please."
Cliffjumper: "Yeow! How many of you are there?"
Notes[]
Continuity notes[]
- Spike identifies the town he and Carly live in as Farmingham.
- Having been merely hinted at in the last issue, the flashback to the war on Cybertron gives us our first look at Megatron, though his whereabouts are still unknown. (#WhereIsMegatron)
- While mentioned but not seen last issue, this issue gives us our first appearance of Laserbeak, still out scouting for new sources of energy.
- This issue confirms what Jetfire alluded to last issue, that unlike most incarnations of the G1 story, the war has only been raging for two centuries instead of the more traditional four million years.
- Ratchet refers to deactivated brothers and sisters. While Arcee has previously been seen on the cover of the last issue (which confirms female transformers exist in this continuity), this issue implies she's not the only female Autobot aboard the Ark... though exactly who these other female Autobots are is currently unknown.
Transformers references[]
I'm not Kiryu. My name is Joryu.
- Cliffjumper compares Spike to a turborat, a form of Cybertronian wildlife that first appeared in the fourth issue of Tom Scioli and John Barber's Transformers vs. G.I. Joe.
- The police cars of the FPD are quite clearly based on Prowl, retaining his Japanese police car color layout, twin red siren lights (as opposed to red and blue) and the “highway patrol” markings on the back (none of which really make sense on an American city patrol car, but we'll let that slide.)
- Furthering the reference, in Daniel Warren Johnson's Director's Commentary for this issue, prior to Mike Spicer coloring the pages it is seen that DWJ had given a "PROWL" license plate to the police car Sparky steals to escape Skywarp and Soundwave. The car's license plate is blank in the final release.
G.I. Joe references[]
- First Sergeant Conrad S. Hauser, codename DUKE, makes his debut in the Energon Universe in this issue ahead of his own title debuting next month.
- While G.I. Joe doesn’t exist yet in this continuity, it seems the U.S. military has been developing some hi-tech tools, such as the jetpack Duke uses. This could be a new take on Jet Mobile Propulsion Unit (J.U.M.P.) jetpack from the G.I. Joe toyline, which Duke famously used in the opening sequence of G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Real-world references[]
- Frosting’s name is painted on the side of his jet’s cockpit, a real practice common on United States fighter aircraft. It’s worth noting, however, that the formatting is slightly off. His rank and full name should be on one line, with his callsign printed below. Instead, it lists simply his rank, first name, and callsign on the same line.
Storytelling notes[]
- Apparently, DWJ at one point considered modelling Spike on photos of himself as a kid—but he quickly decided it felt weird.[1] For Spike's final design, DWJ wanted to give him big ears, and make him appear "racially ambiguous". His Marty McFly jacket wasn't particularly a reference, just an aesthetic preference of DWJ's.[2]
- On the first page, DWJ drew close-up panels of an Plantilla:W and a Plantilla:W—the Plantilla:W and Plantilla:W of Plantilla:W.[3] Colorist Mike Spicer evidently was not told which specific species had been drawn, so they're just in random colors.
- The issue's opening scene, where Optimus Prime accidentally steps on a deer, was one that Hasbro got cold feet about. DWJ's editor suggested changing the animal for a squirrel, but DWJ was able to fight for the scene as he'd envisioned it. Following on from last issue, the scene draws further inspiration from Plantilla:W, in which the Iron Giant sees a deer get killed.[4]
- For the planet Cybertron, DWJ looked to The Transformers: The Movie for reference.[5]
- Beachcomber, seen getting shot in flashback, is one of DWJ's favorite Autobots.[6]
- Prime's trailer being established as the Autobots' makeshift base stemmed from a feeling that previous Transformers media had underutilised the trailer, or downplayed its significance relative to Prime himself.[7]
- Carly is seen adding Optimus Prime to her van's mural, following on from the previous issue, where she remarked that the painting was missing something. According to DWJ, this was primarily a mercenary bit of plotting to give Laserbeak a reason to follow her at the end of the issue[8]—from Laserbeak's POV, we can see him zooming in on the drawing of Prime, with his heads-up-display reading "!!".
- The police car seen this issue is drawn as Prowl as a way of deliberately playing with readers' expectations.[9]
- The Energon converter is another plot device, as DWJ needed a quick-and-dirty way of solving the Decepticons' fuel problem. After the fact, he realised they resembled the scream canisters from Plantilla:W![10]
- The Seeker who stomps on the cop was originally intended as Skywarp, not Starscream! After spotting the coloring error, DWJ decided it didn't actually matter, so it remains that way in the final issue.[11] In the previous panel, Starscream is standing on the other side of the Energon converter from the cop.
- Unsurprisingly, the confrontation between Duke and Starscream, which serves to set up Duke's own miniseries, was mandated by Skybound, but DWJ had a lot of freedom over the specifics.[12]
- DWJ came up with Frosting's callsign after seeing his wife's leftover cupcake frosting in the freezer![13]
- The Plantilla:W is specifically drawn as the older model, as seen in Plantilla:W, instead of the revised F-18D.[14]
- DWJ improvised the design for Duke's high-tech jetpack, and at Robert Kirkman's prompting, came up with the story beat where he shoots Starscream with a flare gun.[15]
- Optimus Prime is drawn mid-transformation in remarkable detail. DWJ was never satisfied by on-panel depictions of transformation in the Marvel or IDW comics.[16]
Errors[]
- As mentioned above, the wildlife on the first page is miscolored; the Goldfinch is colored blue, while the pink rhododendron is skewed towards red.
- On page 4, 'millennia' is mis-spelled as 'millenia'.
- Amongst the deactivated Autobots in the quarry is Sideswipe who appears to be miscolored as Mirage, and a bot who appears to be either Inferno or Grapple (with their wheels on the side of their legs rather than their foot) in the colors of Prowl.
- On page 11, when Duke is alerting Frosting about an incoming bogey on their radar, his flight helmet is miscolored pink as if he were Frosting. Duke is sitting in the weapon systems officer's seat behind Frosting's pilot seat, therefore he would be the one to see Starscream on the radar screen, and not Frosting telling his passenger of an unidentified aircraft.
- On page 12, the round speech bubble is mistakenly pointed to Starscream instead of Frosting's F-18. If it were Starscream saying the line, then the speech bubble would be angular and boxy, plus Starscream was the one taking shots the previous panel, not Frosting.
Other trivia[]
- This issue contains a four page preview for Duke #1.
Covers[]
Plantilla:Comicstub
- Cover A: Starscream attacks Frosting, by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer.
- Cover B: Optimus Prime transforms as he drives off a cliff, by Afu Chan.
- Cover C (1:10 Copy Incentive): Connecting cover by Orlando Arocena.
- Cover D (1:25 Copy Incentive): Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons, by Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair.
- Cover E (1:50 Copy Incentive): Duke uses his jetpack against Starscream, by Tom Reilly.
- Second Printing Variant Cover A: Duke, by Jason Howard.
- Second Printing Variant Cover B: Soundwave, by Jason Howard.
- Second Printing Variant Cover C: Cliffjumper, by Jason Howard.
- Third Printing Variant Cover: by Gerald Parel.
Advertisements[]
- Codename: G.I. Joe starts in Duke #1.
- A new era for G.I. Joe starts in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #301.
- Universal Monsters Dracula
Reprints[]
- Transformers Volume 1: Robots in Disguise (May 8, 2024) ISBN 1534398171 / ISBN 978-1534398177
- Collects issues #1–6.
- Trade paperback format.
- Transformers Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Direct Market Exclusive (May 8, 2024)
- Variant cover version of the above trade paperback, exclusively sold through the comic book direct market.
External links[]
References[]
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