Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime

[tripodeca113]

It's been ten years since, this comic was released. It marked a turning point for IDW's Transformers comics.

7.33 out of 22 pages.



This comic has previously been covered here.

Optimus Prime awakens, after he used the Matrix to save Cybetron from an interdimensional threat.



He finds himself on a Cybertron that seems to have reverted to it's primordial state. Eventually he finds himself where the city of Iacon used to stand, and the first signs of life after his awakening.



One of these strangers (whose designed to look like he turns into Noddy's car) recognises Optimus, and blames him for the past four million years of war. Two Autobots interrupt their conversation.
A host of neutral Transformers have returned to Cybertron. They've been dubbed Non-Affiliated Indigenous Lifeforms.



Prime arrives in the makeshift Autobot command centre. It seems that the Matrix has reset Cybertron, and sent a message out across the galaxy about the end of the war.




Metahawk and the neutrals, outnumber the Autobots and want them gone. The empty Matrix, hammers home there's no magic solution to this.

Prime inspects Megatron's forces who the Autobots managed to capture.



Perceptor and Rewind have been studying the Matrix's remains.


Now we know what this means.

If you shine light into the Matrix....





In the following days a mass protest against the Autobots begins. Meanwhile the Autobots are divided on what to do. Drift believes that the map is a guide to the legendary Knights of Cybertron, who eons ago started the planets first Golden Age.





The protest turns violet, and the Autobots are massively outnumbered. Inside the debate continues. Rodimus, Drift and Ultra Magnus want to use the past as a guide to rebuild Cybertron. Bumblebee and Prowl want to start fresh.









The impressive thing, is that most of the comics over the next seven years were mostly good.

Comments

[lordultimus]

"Optimus is dead? Must be Tuesday."

[tripodeca113]

"No this time it's a metaphorical death...oh wait he's dead for real now."

[icon_uk]

"But wait.."

[tripodeca113]

"Look it's the Autobots sidekick Chip Chase. I wonder what that scamp is -"

"Do you have any idea what you've done!"

[tinygaylaura]

CHIP NO 0_0

[tripodeca113]

False alarm. Optimus Prime got teleported to Cybertron. He was just carrying around a life sized decoy of himself for unrelated reasons.

[tinygaylaura]

Megatron briefly wondered why he was doing this but stopped questioning it when he decided he didn't like the potential answers 0_0

[tinygaylaura]

Now he'll be able to foil Scorponok's devious plan to disguise his fifty foot tall mechanical warriors as fifty foot tall terrifying demons

[scorntx]

Hey, don't knock Scorponok's plan with the Pretenders.
After all, it worked for Skullgrin.

[tinygaylaura]

I wonder how his movie career is going these days?

[scorntx]

I think he's "between jobs" at the moment.

And wondering why Thundercracker's not calling him back.

[tinygaylaura]

:(

Thundercracker should make that Monstercon from Mars remake already!

[tinygaylaura]

Prowl channelling his inner Zap Brannigan here: "I hate these filthy neutrals....with enemies you know where you stand but with neutrals? Who knows..."

This was a really good way to begin the new era of the Transformers comics I think. Did a good job setting up the new status quo and giving things a fresh start

I liked the idea of Optimus wanting a new start as well

[janegray]

I actually agree with Prowl a lot (pls don't ask me to elaborate, it's almost Christmas and I'm buried under a veritable avalanche of work and I can't possibly spend a whole day writing a furious essay about it, plus I'd get in fights with Prowl bashers and that's bad for my blood pressure). But especially in this particular instance, I did end up despising the neutrals.

The Autobots fought so hard for so long and sacrificed themselves so much, facing horrors that rival the Third Reich, for the purpose of preventing genocides and slavery. And the Decepticons, as horrifically evil as they became, at least had the burning shreds of something that once upon a time had been a very valid and noble motive.

Meanwhile the neutrals are like Obama's Car In A Ditch analogy. They refuse to do any work yet they victim-blame the people who actually did for not doing a good enough job. They take and take and take and never give anything back but a spit to the face. They won't lift a finger but never stop complaining. They never take any responsibility ever, but call dibs on the goods the second other people's struggles and sacrifices bears fruit. And the *ONE* time they took up arms, it was to declare the Autobots as bad as the Decepticons and banish them from the very city that the Autobots had salvaged.

When STARSCREAM has a better grasp on personal responsibility and work ethics than you do, that's gotta be Primus' way of telling you to go feed the scraplets.

[dan_ingram]

I could not agree more.

What makes this worse, IMO, is that the NAILs allowed Cybertron's civil war to consume entire planets and societies, and then act like they had some moral high ground because they didn't fight.

[tripodeca113]

I found how it was treated odd at times. So Megatron is motivated to fight an corrupt government and unjust social structure. But then he achieves that, and goes on to become a genocidal conqueror. They seemed to treat that first part as making his later actions more morally complicated.

And it rang a bit hollow when they treated Optimus Prime like he was as bad as Megatron. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

[dan_ingram]

I wish it rang hollow to me, but the Autobots being treated as bad or worse than the 'Cons seems terribly realistic.

Look at what's happening with Joe Biden's Build Back Better. All the pressure is on the Democrats to pass it. That Republicans are doing nothing whatsoever to help, is something is just accepted. And it's failure comes down on them.

Time and again, we see people who strive to a higher standard torn down for failing to reach it, and those with little standards, those who only pay lip service to ideals, are given a free pass.

[janegray]

This. The NAILs are essentially Republicans. It's the exact same attitude of "I refuse to get vaccinated, wear a mask, or refrain from attending social gatherings where hundreds of people are squeezed together like sardines. WHY IS BIDEN SO INCOMPETENT AND UNCARING THAT HE HAS FAILED TO END THE PANDEMIC?!?"

[dan_ingram]

As an aside, I really do like how Alpha Trion described the Decepticons, as "A social correction that could not stop their own momentum."

[tinygaylaura]

Oh I agree, the neutrals honestly come across like humanity in the Marvel universe most of the time...ungrateful jerks who blame all the bad things that happened on the people who were trying to stop it and not on the people who actually DID said bad things

Them shaking their fists at the Autobots for fighting back against the Decepticons attempts to conquer their homeworld and then the entire universe through pan-galactic genocide is as ridiculous as people blaming superheroes for the damage supervillains cause

When a house is burning down it's not the firefighters fault

And Prowl does make some good points a lot of the time

[dan_ingram]

Someone needs to make a 'Prowl was right' T-shirt

[tinygaylaura]

He did kind of help save the universe after all