Plantilla:Comicstory
It's Optimus Prime versus Skywarp in a vicious battle, with humankind caught in the crossfire.
Synopsis[]
Learning her father has been killed, Carly asks Sparky how it happened, and Sparky tells her he was crushed by a giant robot. Carly realizes it must have been Starscream and begins to tell Sparky about her and Spike's discovery of the Ark. Sparky desperately asks where Spike is when they are attacked by Laserbeak. Sparky fires at the robot bird, only to get tossed around the room for his efforts. Laserbeak then corners Carly, but she is rescued by the timely arrival of Cliffjumper, who delivers a swift kick to Laserbeak's face. As Cliff approaches Carly, however, Sparky yells at him to get away before firing a shotgun at the Autobot's face. Carly tries to get him to stop, but Sparky pulls her into the police car he commandeered and they drive off.
In the Ark, an irritated Starscream berates Soundwave for not fixing Teletraan 1. Soundwave tells him that while they have enough energon, the raw materials they gathered aren’t advanced enough to repair the computer. When Soundwave begins to mention what Megatron would do, Starscream slaps him, repeating his order to not say his name. Soundwave receives an alert from Laserbeak and Starscream orders Skywarp to deal with it.
Sparky takes Carly to the veterans' bar. Carly asks why they’re there and Sparky tells her that the Decepticons are jamming all phone, radio, and internet signals, so they need reinforcements from somewhere. Inside, Danny and a group of other veterans have heard the explosions and already formed a small militia to defend themselves. Carly tries to tell Sparky that they aren't all bad, but Sparky says that he's been in war: when the shooting starts, people die. At that moment, Cliffjumper appears in the doorway and Sparky unloads a machine gun on him. Skywarp then arrives, which the humans mistake for Cliffjumper having called in reinforcements, and they begin firing on both. On the outskirts of town, Optimus and Spike see smoke coming from the battle and Optimus quickly heads in to intervene. With Skywarp shaking off the humans' bullets like they're nothing, Danny decides they need something bigger: he and Sparky pull out a bazooka before the bar caves in on itself. Skywarp approaches Cliffjumper for the kill, but Carly tries to step in and defend him, much to Skywarp's amusement. The pair are saved by the timely intervention of Optimus, who rams into Skywarp in his truck mode. Optimus transforms and tells Spike to take cover while he deals with the Decepticon.
The two fight, Skywarp using his teleportation and Optimus using his energon-axe. Optimus pins Skywarp down and asks him to surrender, but their fight is interrupted by Sparky and Danny firing the bazooka at Optimus, severely damaging his right arm. This allows Skywarp to regain his footing and blast Optimus back. Sparky tells the militia to pour their fire on both of the Cybertronians as Spike runs towards the wounded Optimus… getting caught in the crossfire. Skywarp taunts Optimus as he moves to crush Spike, but Optimus tackles him to the ground. In a moment of desperation, Prime tears off his injured arm, using it as a club to beat Skywarp down. He then picks up Spike, now bleeding profusely from his injury. Sparky runs towards Prime, tears streaking his face and a handgun pointed at the Autobot leader, screaming at him to get away from his son. Optimus transforms and tells Sparky to come with him; he’s going to save his boy. Plantilla:--
Featured characters[]
Plantilla:Featuredcharacters
Quotes[]
"I've been in war, Carly. It doesn't matter whose team they're on or what glorious cause they fight for. When the shooting starts, people die."
- —Sparky
"Damn, Starscream was right! This is a blast!"
- —Skywarp
"Your kind have played with this planet enough. I WILL HAVE NO MORE OF IT!"
- —Optimus Prime right before ripping his own arm off.
Notes[]
Continuity notes[]
- One of the citizens' militia, Jerry, was the same man raving about seeing Jetfire in the first issue.
- Sparky notes the internet is down, throwing the implied setting of the 1980s into question.
- While talking to Starscream, Soundwave can be seen cradling Ravage in his arms. Shot by Optimus in the first issue, it's still unclear if Ravage is in stasis or dead.
- When Optimus sees Spike on the ground, he is reminded of the deer he accidentally stepped on in the previous issue.
Transformers references[]
- Optimus's iconic energon-axe first debuted in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2".
- Skywarp swears "by the soul of the Fallen".
Real-world references[]
- Daniel Warren Johnson hides little references on the license plates of the vehicles and characters' alt-modes:
- The license plate of the police car Sparky commandeered has changed, now reading "Murder Falcon", the title of one of Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer’s previous Skybound comics.
- As Optimus drives into town, his front license plate reads "DAP", which stands for Do A Powerbomb, another Johnson/Spicer Image title.[1]
- When Optimus transforms at the end, his license plate also serves as Johnson's signature, with a small "DWJ '23".
- The wrestling influence on the action in this comic continues with Optimus Prime performing Plantilla:W's iconic Plantilla:W on Skywarp, hoisting the Decepticon over his shoulders before slamming him into the ground head-first.[2]
- There are two references to the Plantilla:W franchise:
- When Spike charges into the battle between Optimus Prime and Skywarp, the panel is framed to resemble the famous shot at the climax of Plantilla:W where Alfred Izuhara tries to intervene in the battle between Christina McKenzie's Gundam ALEX and Bernard Wiseman's Zaku II.
- Similarly, the scene where Optimus rips off his arm and uses it as a flail against Skywarp brings to mind Shiro Amada's Gundam Ez8 doing the same against Norris Packard's Gouf Custom in Plantilla:W. Daniel Warren Johnson also shared a gif of the original scene on his Twitter[3] and called the scene a homage to "one of [his] favorite anime shows of all time" in the letter column of the following issue.
Storytelling notes[]
- DWJ apparently struggled with the opening of this issue,[4] only feeling that he had hit his stride with the page where the militia first appear.[5]
- Skywarp sips Energon from a canister using a straw, as DWJ wanted to come up with a different way for Transformers to drink Energon, rather than drinking from cubes as they did in the original cartoon.[6]
- Initially, DWJ drew himself into the militia, but ultimately he chickened out and revised the drawing![7]
- DWJ had originally wanted a mid-transformation panel as Skywarp touches down amidst the militia; this was removed for space reasons, particularly as it was visually similar to a panel from the previous issue.[8]
- Easy to miss in the panel where Skywarp slaps a van aside, there's the lower half of one of the militia members![9]
- The sound effect from this panel was added at a late stage in the artwork, to unambiguously guide the reader's eye through the action of the panel.[10]
- When depicting characters laughing—such as when Skywarp laughs at Carly—DWJ tries to draw the laughter as SFX into the panel, rather than deferring it to the letterer.[11]
- DWJ was influenced by Plantilla:W for the beat where Skywarp is rammed through buildings and cars by Prime.[12]
- DWJ was keen on including Skywarp's teleportation ability. As Optimus fights Skywarp, DWJ wanted to build similar tension to that of a wrestler trying to tag in their partner—he keeps trying to ready his Energon axe, but never quite manages.[13] When it's finally fully activated, Prime's arm is destroyed before it can be used![14]
- The panel where Spike runs to intervene between Skywarp and Optimus is deliberately composed so Spike appears the same size as the Transformers, to highlight his heroism.[15]
- As Sparky runs in to check on Spike, the reactions of his comrades on the left side of the panel were intended to amplify the motion across the page.[16]
- DWJ liked the idea of a Transformer killing a human by flicking them, as Skywarp threatens to do to Spike here.[17]
- The two-page spread of Prime ripping his own arm off was originally meant to be a single page, but DWJ felt it needed to span a whole spread.[18]
- Sparky's hatred of Prime, even as the Autobot tries to save his son, was inspired by a similar emotion in a scene from Plantilla:W.[19]
Errors[]
- On pages 4 and 5, Cliffjumper's feet are occasionally colored grey like the rest of his legs when they should be red.
Other trivia[]
- This issue contains a four page preview for Cobra Commander #1.
- While it is likely not intentional, the scene of Optimus ripping off his damaged arm and using it as a weapon is similar to a moment where Apeface does the same in issue #49 of the Marvel series.
Covers[]
Plantilla:Comicstub
- Cover A: Optimus Prime vs Soundwave and his cassettes, by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer.
- Cover B: People cower beneath Optimus Prime as Skywarp rains fire upon him, by Taurin Clarke.
- Cover C (1:10 Copy Incentive): Connecting cover by Orlando Arocena.
- Cover D (1:25 Copy Incentive): Optimus and Skywarp square off, by Matías Bergara.
- Cover E (1:50 Copy Incentive): A defeated Optimus sits in the shadow of Starscream, by Nick Dragotta and Patricio Delpeche.
- Second Printing Variant Cover A: Ratchet, by Jason Howard.
- Second Printing Variant Cover B: Skywarp, by Jason Howard.
Advertisements[]
- The Cobra threat begins in Cobra Commander #1!
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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