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Earthfall Part 2: Detonation Boulevard

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RID29 cvr.jpg
Can't you two just kiss and make up?
"Earthfall Part 2:
Detonation Boulevard"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published May 28, 2014
Cover date May 2014
Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith (present day)
Guido Guidi (Earth flashback)
Brendan Cahill (Cybertron flashback)
Colors by Josh Perez (present day)
Joana Lafuente (flashbacks)
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2014)

Beset by the allied forces of the Decepticons and the Earth Defense Command, the Autobots' attempts to first fight back, then to flee are met with failure, forcing Prowl and his team to take devastating action.

Contents

Synopsis

The forces of the Earth Defense Command, led by General Daniel Witwicky and Director Marissa Faireborn, are summoned to a meeting with Galvatron and Soundwave at the South Pole. Marissa angrily recounts her experiences in New York City during the Decepticon invasion of Earth, questioning why the humans should trust them; Galvatron is all too willing to fight if that is their desire, but Soundwave keeps things calm, explaining to Faireborn that the Decepticons, at their core, have a belief in equality, and have distanced themselves from Megatron, the mastermind of attack on Earth, and instead rallied behind Galvatron as their new leader on a path to "harmony". The Autobots, however, have accepted Megatron into their ranks...

Surrounded by the Decepticons and the EDC, a dumbfounded Optimus Prime tries to make sense of the situation, attempting to explain that the Autobots have only come searching for Alpha Trion, and warning Faireborn against their current Decepticon alliance. Marissa is not interested in his words, however, and Prime is forced to accept the reality of the situation, suddenly ordering the Autobots into close-range combat to prevent the humans from utilizing their projective weaponry effectively.

On the Ark-7, orbiting the far side of the Moon, Jetfire and his little drone buddy D.0.C. try to hold the ship together as it is eaten alive by the micro-bots unleashed by the EDC's missiles. Deducing that the micro-bots have been reverse-engineered from Cybertronian biology, Jetfire hits upon the plan of using an aerosol made of the ship's liquid memory core to overload and short out the metal-munching menaces, but when he and D.0.C. head out to start spraying the ship, they find that the micro-bots have already been exterminated the old fashioned way by the unlikeliest members of the Ark-7 crew: the Constructicons! Annoyed to learn that Prowl ignored him and called the Constructicons, Jetfire tries to raise the police-bot on the comm line, but the ex-Decepticons stop him with the assurance that Prowl has everything planned out...

As the Autobots continue their battle with the Decepticons and the EDC, Laserbeak pulls a particularly dirty trick, swooping low and causing Jazz to nearly shoot some human soldiers. Alarmed and distracted by thoughts of his previous killing of a human, he is clobbered by Blitzwing, prompting Optimus Prime to call a retreat. Faireborn is happy to let the Decepticons give chase, as the 'Cons themselves know its in their own best interests to maintain a low profile—except, of course, for Thundercracker, who has no intention of fighting and is happy simply to be reunited with his dog Buster. The fleeing Autobots are joined by Arcee and Sideswipe, sent in by Prowl, who is busy putting his own plan for retaliation into effect—he has taken Sky Lynx to the Ark-7 for reinforcements and is now heading back down to Earth.

A month ago, on Cybertron, around a week after the conclusion of Megatron's trial, a furious Prowl rages at Optimus over the outcome of the judicial proceedings. Prime contests that Megatron is aware of this wrongness of his actions, and wonders how Prowl views his own ruthless deeds carried out in the name of the supposed "greater good". Struck by the remark, Prowl calms somewhat and admits that he has never been good at dealing with feelings, suggesting that the death of Bumblebee is clouding his judgement. Prime invites Prowl to join him on his mission to Earth, and Prowl accepts, recalling the brief change of heart he experienced on the planet, and wondering aloud if perhaps it and its people have more to teach him. As soon as he's outside, though, Prowl is met by the Constructicons, and informs them that rather than going with Megatron on the Lost Light, they will be accompanying him to Earth—because he knows that going back to the planet is a mistake, but a mistake he can't let Optimus make without him there to fix everything...

With Prowl's plan having left them only one road to escape down, the Autobots' flight takes them to the small town of Poverty Flat, but Galvatron is unfazed, sending Blitzwing and Brawl to circle the town and cut off their means of escape at the other side. Horrified, and with Thundercracker playing the "I-told-you-so" card, Faireborn attempts to get the Decepticons to stand down; Soundwave sees the sense in her words, but Galvatron refuses to back down from a fight. Prime proposes that they mutually relocate to continue their fight, but just then, Sky Lynx appears in the night sky, and Prowl and the Constructicons leap out of him. Gathering the Decepticons in a human settlement and forcing them to risk exposure was Prowl's plan all along... and to exploit the advantage he has gained over the villains, he once again combines with the Constructicons to form Devastator!

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans Others

Quotes

"D.0.C.—synthesize the core fluid and load your hoses—we have a ship to clean."
"BEE-BREEP?"
"What? No, not at all."
"BREEEEEEP...?"
"Okay, yeah, fine. It'll be just like spraying for Belvadurian rock-mites."

—Jetfire and D.0.C.


"Attention terrorists! Step outside of your vehicles with your hands in the air, or we, the Army of the United Steaks of America—"
"States!"
"—whatever, we'll have to blast you to the Afterspark!"

—Blitzwing and Brawl threaten the Autobots under false identities


"Oh yeah, Thundercracker? You've been living by yourself in the mountains long enough to become a master of conducting covert operations?"
"Well, I played a lot of real-time strategy games, so yeah. Basically."

—Marissa and Thundercracker

Notes

Continuity notes

RID Issue 29 Matrix.jpg
  • The issue opens on a flashback to the Decepticon attack on New York City as seen in the first few pages of All Hail Megatron, drawn by returning All Hail artist Guido Guidi.
  • Bumblebee's half of the Matrix reappears in this issue after not appearing since The Death of Optimus Prime; though he and Rodimus were only shown being given halves of the crystal core of the Matrix, 'Bee's half is here shown with half of the artifact's shell as well.
  • Prowl refers to the brief change of heart he had on Earth, as seen in Spotlight: Prowl.
  • The Constructicons are all in new bodies. Most obviously, Long Haul now towers over the others, likely because he's a mining truck.

Transformers references

Real-life references

Errors

  • On the credits page Brendan Cahill's last name is misspelled as "Cahil".
  • In the last panel on page 22 "Cybertronians" is misspelled as "Cybertonians". This was corrected in the trade paperback.
  • When the Constructicons make their entrance, all their visible Decepticon symbols have been partially scraped away (but they haven't taken on Autobot symbols, which is why we list them under "Other" for now in the cast list). However, in the final panel on the same page, their symbols are intact.
  • After the beat panel in Prowl's conversation with the Constructicons, Bonecrusher's lower "jaw" becomes the same lighter-gray color as the rest of his face.

Other trivia

  • The Occupy movement is shown to take place concurrently with All Hail Megatron. In real life, the movement began in 2011, but All Hail Megatron was set in 2007, based on the dates given in IDW comics by that time. This seems to imply a floating timeline for IDW continuity, but information given in the next issue complicated this.

Foreign Localization

Swedish

  • Title: "Fritt fall Del 2: En esplanad av krossade drömmar" ("Free Fall Part 2: A Boulevard of Broken Dreams")

Covers (3)

  • RID29 cvr.jpg
  • RID29 subcvr.jpg
  • RID29 cvrRI.jpg

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Reprints

  • Transformers: Optimus Prime - Tillbaka till jorden (February 15, 2023)
    • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #28–32 & #34–38, and Punishment issues #1–5.
    • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

External links

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