Personal tools

A Sunrise Dark

From Transformers Wiki

« Optimus Prime#24 »
OP24 cvrA.jpg
"A Sunrise Dark"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published October 17,2018
Cover date September 2018
Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith(pg 1-2, 8-9, 13, 19-20) &Sara Pitre-Durocher(pg 3-7, 10-12, 14-18)
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor David Mariotte
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era

Personal conflicts must be set aside as the threat of Unicron looms over the Earth.

Contents

Synopsis

This story is told in nonlinear form. This synopsis presents it in chronological order for ease of reading.

InHollywood,Thundercrackeris rushing to complete the edit ofhis new movie,a biopic about the life ofG.I. JoeagentChuckles,before he responds toMarissa Faireborn's call for assistance, when he is interrupted by the frenzied barking ofBuster.Looking out the window, it's impossible for Thundercracker to miss what she's barking at: the planet-sized robot mode ofUnicronnow hovers above theEarth,its gravity causing all sorts of havoc in the streets below. Editing can wait—Thundercracker's got people to help!

Out in space, thePeaceful Revolutionapproaches Earth.Prowlwonders why Unicron is only hovering, rather than immediately eating the planet as it has with all the worlds that came before it.Stardrivebelieves she has the answer; Unicron is waiting for all its enemies to gather on the planet, so it can kill them all at once.

AtMount Rushmore,news reporterSofía Orozcoand her cameraman arrive on the scene to report on the Cybertronian battle that has just occurred there.SpikeandTalontry to bar her way, butJazz—despite his own bad past experiences with Orozco—suggests they let her through, as the media has a right to know what's going on. Jazz leads the new arrivals over toMarissa Faireborn,who is on the phone with thePresidentlearning about the arrival viaSpacebridgeofOptimus Primeand the entire remaining population ofCybertronand its colonies inAfrica.Presently,Soundwave,Arcee,andRomarrive as Prime's envoys, and each group quickly brings the other up to speed on recent events:Gimlet's death at the hands ofSlugduringSlide's attempt to rescue Jazz from the humans, and Unicron's consumption of Cybertron and all itscolony worlds.A furiousFlintdoubts that the Transformers have any interest in saving Earth from this world-eating threat; Slug counters that the new generation ofprotoformsstill in the process of coming online withinTrypticonare now natives of Earth, soobviouslythey will fight to defend their new homeworld, but neither Flint nor Slide is convinced. Sensing that Flint's extreme anger is due to the loss of another life beyond that of Gimlet's, Soundwave is horrified to discover that his own human friend,Mainframe,also perished during the fight. Cradling the human's body, Soundwave is overcome with grief, and his psychoempathic powers run out of control, broadcasting his feelings and memories as an electronic "scream" of anguish. The "broadcast" spans the entire country—back in Hollywood, it even shows up on the phone of police officerReggie Winslow's partner, as they work with Thundercracker to save lives during the Unicron-induced chaos—and serves as proof to many doubting humans that Cybertronians are just as much living, feeling beings as they are.

When the ground around Mount Rushmore suddenly begins to tremble beneath everyone's feet, Jazz fears the end has arrived... but it's not the end, it's just thePeaceful Revolution,which has accidentally warpedundergroundthanks toGoldbug's dodgy piloting, and now bursts up out of the dirt. Jazz is not happy to see Prowl, based onwhat happenedthe last time he showed his face, but Prowl insists that they have to put their own animosities aside and stand together if they are going to survive Unicron. The group agrees, and Jazz, Slide, and the colonists board thePeaceful Revolutionso they can all rejoin Optimus in Africa.

Six hours later, at the Transformers' African camp, Slide recounts the events that went down at Mount Rushmore for Optimus Prime. Of course, Slide finds a way to turn every word out of Optimus's mouth back against him; she accuses him of not caring about Gimlet's death; chastizies him for not coming to Mount Rushmore himself; expresses her disgust at the way Soundwave's grief has been weaponized to benefit human/Cybertronian relations; and finally, concludes that the way Prime has, via proxies and mouthpieces rather than his own actions, united Cybertron, the colonies, and Earth against the common enemy that is Unicron is fascism, rather than benevolence. After Slide storms off, Prime takes a moment to speak with Jazz, apologizing to him for abandoning him to the mercy of the humans all those months ago—for as Slide has made him realize, standing aside and not choosing a side in a conflict...isstill making a choice.

A little later, Prime and Arcee stare up at the looming form of Unicron. The events of the day seem to prove that there is no way Prime can win; history has shown how the Cybertronian race has always turned against itself, and how the same seems to be happening even though they are now confronted with the greatest threat they have ever known, and Prime wonders if it is his leadership that has led things to this point. Arcee isn't sure; the best advice she has is for them to try to love who they can, and understand those they can't. Prime doubts the power of love holds the key to saving the day, but as Arcee walks away, she pauses just long enough to point out—it can't hurt. Left alone, Optimus gazes into the night sky and reflects on the tarnished legacy of the Primes—a lineage of failures at its best, and of dictators and despots at its worst. Optimus has always believed himself different from all the Primes who came before him, someone who really was the force for good that his predecessors purported to be, and which legend has romanticized the "Prime" title to stand for. But now, as he looks upon where he has led his race, he wonders... has the seemingly-inevitable legacy of failure and corruption that has seen every other Prime become a leader who forced their will upon others in the name of whattheybelieved to be the greater good... claimed him as well?

Featured characters

Characters initalic textappear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans Other Cybertronians Others

G.I. Joe

Others

Space Knights

Junkions

Quotes

"Why'd ya jump usunderground?"
"I didn't do it onpurpose.I was aiming formoderate density...what's this planetmadeout of,dirt?"
"Most planetsare."
"Well pardon me for not being as well-traveled asyou."

—GarnakandGoldbug


"Prowl?!What the hell areyoudoing here? Last time we saw you, you were staging acoup."
"First off, that's a reallybiaseddescription of events. Since then I stopped a bunch oftitansfrom—Nevermind. I'd have sent apostcardif that's what I was after. "

—JazzandProwlhave different ideas of what happened in theCombiner Wars


"We fought so long, we didn't notice we gotold.Didn't notice we gotkidsnow, that need to live in the world we fought tomake... not one we fought an'destroyed."

—Jazz


"Left to our own devices, we tear ourselves apart. But when we confront the ultimate force of destruction? Westilltear ourselves apart. Did I lead us down thewrong path?WasPyra Magnaright about me? "
"I don't know. Maybe all we can do is try tolovewho wecanand understand who wecan't.But again...lookwho you'retalkingto. "
"I... I don't know thatlovecan save the day. "
"I guess if I learned one thing in my time being a relic, it's that... love can'thurt."

—Optimus PrimeandArcee

Notes

Continuity notes

  • As with the previous two issues, the title of this story is a line from theDark Cybertron prophecy.
  • Chronologically, this main body of issue occurs immediately after the end ofUnicron#4,while the story's framing sequence (Slide recounting those events to Optimus) takes place somewhere duringUnicron#5.Slide's group is not shown rejoining the main Cybertronian force in Africa with Jazz and Prowl's crew in this issue; that happens on-panel inUnicron#5.
  • Thundercracker has been working on the screenplay for his biopic of Chuckles since learning about him fromChameleoninissue #3,and actually got the contract to make the film inthe 2018Optimus Primeannual.His story is based on the events of "The Last Laugh," the extended Chuckles story-arc from IDW'sCobracomic books, and we previously saw some of his "adaptation" in the annual. The portion of the story seen here is Thundercracker's re-working of 2009'sCobravol. 1 #3;in the real course of events, Chuckles was forced to actually kill Jinx, but Thundercracker has re-written the story so he kills Xamot and saves her life instead. Thundercracker has previously shown awareness of sexist tropes (like Jinx's "fridging") in issue #3, and he's clearly trying to go against them!
  • A billboard for Thundercracker's prior film,Starscream: The Movie,can be seen amongst the debris of Los Angeles.
  • Stardrive believes Unicron is giving the Transformers time to come together so it can kill them all at once, butUnicron#5 indicates that it is holding back its attack until theTalismanis removed from Earth, since, if Unicron eats the planet while the Talisman is on it, it will die.
  • Artist Andrew Griffith's double-page spread of the Cybertronians refugees in Africa on pages 8–9 is an homage to the double-page spread ofIaconand its newNAILinhabitants that he drew way back inthe first issue ofRobots in Disguise.Twogenericsfrom that scene even reappear here: a multi-limbed grey-and-yellow 'bot consulting a datapad, and a silver worm-like 'bot, though the former's colors look somewhat different compared to his first appearance (which might be due to the different lighting in both panels).
  • Tiring of Starscream's sniping, Aileron threatens to punch him, remarking that Arcee "isn't the only one" capable of it. Arcee socked Starscream one inUnicron#4.
  • Soundwave unleashing an uncontrollable "sonic scream" that disrupts and overrides broadcasts in a moment of anguish was seen before inAll Hail Megatron#9,when he did the same upon findingRumblewounded.
  • Flint initially assumes Prowl and his crew are "more of those things that attackedScarlettand the rest of the Joes, "referring to theMaximalswho attacked the Joes'Lemuriaheadquarters inUnicron#2's back-up story.
  • Jazz remembers Prowl attempting to "stage a coup," a "really biased description" (as Prowl puts it) of the events ofCombiner Wars.Prowl counters that since then, he stopped a fleet of Titans from attacking Cybertron, as seen inMore than Meets the Eye#56-57.Of course, he really onlydelayedthem, as the attack wound up happening inTill All Are One#5anyway.
  • Prime apologizes to Jazz for leaving him "to the mercies of the humans," which took place inissue #7,when Prime left Earth for Cybertron so that he would deliberately be absent when Jazz was apprehended by G.I. Joe, and could therefore avoid having to make a the difficult political choice between siding with Jazz or the humans.
  • Prime's monologue at the end of the issue is lifted almost verbatim fromissue #1;his memory of Cybertron as a "tarnished jewel," on the other hand, was a turn of phrase first used inthe 2012Robots in Disguiseannual,and recently used by Shockwave — in his "Onyx Prime" alter-ego — duringissue #15.

Real-life references

Errors

  • The Cybertronian refugee camp atVictoria Fallsis slightly different in this issue;Unicrondepicted Metroplex and the other survivors as having arrived at thetopof the falls, while here, they're shown to be making camp at thebaseof the waterfall.

Other trivia

  • Originally solicited for release in September 2018, this issue arrived noticeably late, halfway through October, six weeks after the already-delayed previous issue.

Covers (3)

  • OP24 cvrA.jpg
  • OP24 cvrB.jpg
  • OP24 cvrRI.jpg

Advertisements

Reprints

External links

Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=A_Sunrise_Dark&oldid=1742652"
Advertisement
TFsource.com - Your Source for Everything Transformers!