The War to End All Wars, Part 1

« The Transformers: Regeneration One #96 »
Fortunately, Jhiaxus's attempt to smash Rodimus's foot was unsuccessful.
"The War to End All Wars" Part 1
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 27, 2013
Cover date	November 2013
Writer	Simon Furman
Penciler	Guido Guidi
Inker	Stephen Baskerville
Colorist	John-Paul Bove
Letterer	Chris Mowry
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Rodimus Prime takes command in the wake of Bludgeon's attack as the Autobots try to pick up the pieces, only for new attacks to come from returning figures from the past.

Synopsis

The cleanup from Bludgeon and Soundwave's dual assault on Cybertron has begun. Kup wonders aloud if the resulting carnage can really be called a "victory", and if so, he'd hate to see what a defeat would look like. Rodimus Prime fears that things could get even worse, and is still troubled by the visions shown to him by Primus in Zero Space. They are interrupted by Powerglide, who summons them to the point where Bludgeon impacted upon falling to Cybertron's surface from the Warworld. They're stunned to find he is still alive, though just barely. He begs for Rodimus Prime to finish what he started by chucking him out of the Warworld's bridge, but Rodimus refuses, intent on punishing Bludgeon by denying him the glorious death he so coveted. He instructs Powerglide to get a medic to tend to Bludgeon when one becomes available. He then radios Ultra Magnus, who has had no luck in locating Galvatron, though Magnus can't imagine that Galvatron could have just walked away from the blast that was meant to destroy them both, Magnus having used Galvatron as a shield against it. Rodimus then radios a team to assist Ultra Magnus in locating the rogue Decepticon who is a threat to the time stream, above all else. Rodimus transforms and takes off for a meeting with his advisors, while Grimlock, the other Dinobots and the Demons grumble that they helped turn the tide of the battle, and no one has acknowledged that fact.

Back on Earth, Optimus Prime is building a space bridge in Oklahoma, to help link Nebulos and Earth, watched over by Circuit Smasher, who is constantly putting down the location and the idea in general. When Optimus begins to ask Spike a question, by name, Spike immediately cuts him off, saying only his friends call him Spike, and Optimus is to refer to him as Circuit Smasher. Optimus asks if Circuit Smasher is truly respecting the Little America collective's decision to allow the Space Bridge to be built by hovering over Optimus' work, and openly wondering if Circuit Smasher is bent on sabotaging the whole project. Circuit Smasher replies that he was actually referring to the natural disasters common to the area. Optimus wishes aloud that he could reach the Spike he once knew. He then recounts how the Witwickys always stood by and believed in and allied themselves with the Autobots, and wondered if Buster would have turned against them so readily. At the mention of his dead brother's name, Spike flares up and angrily demands that Optimus never say Buster's name again. They're interrupted by an alert that Optimus believes is about some cargo he needs to continue building the Space Bridge, but is surprised to see it's actually Rodimus Prime hailing him!

Rodimus Prime seeks Optimus Prime's formal authority to take charge on Cybertron, saying it seems there are one too many Primes. Optimus almost immediately cedes leadership of the Autobots to Rodimus Prime, surprising Rodimus. Optimus reveals that he knew a new Prime would come about, since the "universe abhors a vacuum", and his previous death provided just such an opportunity for the universe to put in motion events that would lead to a new Prime coming to be. Optimus asks if the new Prime has chosen a name, and Rodimus replies that the name 'Rodimus Prime' was chosen for him, by the Matrix of Leadership. Optimus bids Rodimus arise, saying he is now the leader of the Cybertronian race and speaks for Primus. The transfer of leadership complete, Rodimus Prime gets down to business, identifying the four issues Primus showed him in Zero Space that are leading to the dissolution of time, if not dealt with: Galvatron, Jhiaxus, the Dark Matrix energy creature, and Spike Witwicky. Rodimus puts Bumblebee and Nightbeat in charge of the "Zero Unit", which will have wide-ranging abilities to investigate and respond to figuring out how to deal with the issues at hand. Optimus wonders aloud what Spike has to do with anything, but Rodimus Prime says even if he isn't important in the grand scheme of things now, he will be.

Meanwhile, in Kalis, Ultra Magnus is leading Gunrunner, Rapido, Skram and Blurr on the search for Galvatron, and they soon find him! Skram leaps into action before Ultra Magnus can stop him, but Galvatron quickly dispatches Skram with a blast from his cannon. Saying Galvatron is too dangerous for any grandstanding, he orders Gunrunner to attack with everything he's got. The Pretender happily complies, launching a volley of rockets at the time-displaced Decepticon and shooting with all his guns blazing. The assault brings the structure Galvatron was on crashing into a pile of rubble, but Ultra Magnus is taking no chances, and tells Gunrunner to cover him while he inspects the rubble. Almost as soon as he exits his Pretender shell, he nervously tells Magnus to hurry- then he's put in the crosshairs and shot! Rapido and Blurr report that Acolytes of Unicron are attacking en masse. While fighting them, Magnus wonders why they're still around when Unicron met a very mortal end. One of his bots replies that "maybe they just went underground"...which they are literally doing, dragging the incapacitated Galvatron with them. Magnus is able to catch up with one of the cultists, who gladly spills the beans on the attack; they believe that Unicron's angel of death has come to them and chaos and the destruction of all is at hand...starting with Ultra Magnus!

Meanwhile, at Zero Initiative headquarters, Nightbeat and Bumblebee are busy digging deep back into Cybertronian history, as Galvatron is a known wrench in the temporal workings of the universe, and the threats posed by the Dark Matrix and Spike are too ill-defined to deal with at the moment. Nightbeat says that Jhiaxus somehow has managed to delete himself from his contemporaries' memories, and all surviving official records. Nightbeat has managed to dig up civilian beta-logs, and in one crowd shot, at the opening of the Presidium, he's been able to identify all bots present, except one, who Bumblebee deduces must be Senator Jhiaxus. Bumblebee then wonders that as a Senator, Jhiaxus must have had contact with other mechanical worlds, so couldn't they contact those worlds and ask for information on Jhiaxus? Nightbeat excitedly agrees, and sends a mass message to those worlds that Cybertronians had dealings with, asking for any information they have on Jhiaxus.

On Nebulos, Quickmix is supervising the construction of a space bridge portal in the Clar Macro-jungle, and talks with the senior scientist about the project, but is much more interested in the project the Nebulans have undertaken regarding the Headmaster process. The scientist tells him that since the project has been declassified, he's glad to share. The original heads of any Decepticons who went through the process will remain in stasis until they are transported back to Cybertron- and possibly forever after that. Chromedome has retrieved his original head, and his former Headmaster partner Stylor has been reverse-engineered back into a regular Nebulan, to reintegrate into Nebulan society again as a private citizen. Quickmix then asks about "the big guy". The scientist replies that he assumes Quickmix is asking about Fortress Maximus? He says that the building of a new body for Fortress Maximus is well underway. At the site of his new body's construction, unknown and unnoticed by anyone, a portion of the Dark Matrix energy enters the tube where Maximus' original head is being held in stasis, and enters its new host...

Bumblebee and Nightbeat are lamenting that they sent out eighty-eight messages, but haven't even received so much as an acknowledgement of any of them. They simultaneously think to launch a probe to see what's going on. The probe passes near the Ark, onboard which Shockwave (as the ship's operating system) is trying to convince an unresponsive Starscream to relocate the ship, as they must have been noticed when they attacked the Warworld. Starscream is suddenly thrown out of his stupor and announces "He's here!!"

Down on the surface of Cybertron, Mirage informs Rodimus Prime that a horde of ships just appeared out of nowhere, without any warning. Before he can do any more than ask who and how many, a message is beamed to Rodimus Prime. Appearing on screen, Jhiaxus announces himself, and states that he comes in peace...

Featured characters

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

Quotes

"Phrrm... Krll... Me... F-fnsh... ...Whtyuh ... Strted."
"No. I can think of no more fitting punishment than to deny you whatever "glorious" death you coveted. Powerglide, when a medic becomes available, direct him over here."

- Bludgeon's dreams are laid waste by Rodimus Prime.

"I wonder, would Buster have taken against us so readily?"
"NEVER...MENTION...HIS...NAME. Is that understood?
"Yes. I think it is. Finally."

- Optimus Prime and Spike have a light-hearted chat

"We should launch a probe."
"Great minds..."

- Nightbeat and Bumblebee spontaneously speaking in unison

"My name is Jhiaxus. I come in peace."

- Jhiaxus. This is gonna end well....

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Rodimus refers to a "triumverate of terror", with "triumvirate" misspelled. Furman might just have trouble spelling that word.
• In responding to Ultra Magnus' statement that Magnus' survival was a miracle, Rodimus Prime says, of Galvatron, "Maybe it was just a time for a miracles." This was not fixed for the trade paperback.

Continuity errors

• While not an out-and-out error, it does seem odd that Stylor apparently suffered no ill effects from being reverse-engineered back into a regular Nebulan from being Chromedome's head/binary-bonded partner, especially when other Headmaster and Powermaster partners essentially became one being, most notably Optimus Prime and Hi-Q and Scorponok and Zarak. Spike even went comatose when his connection with Fortress Maximus was severed.

Continuity notes

• The acolytes of Unicron previously appeared in issue #74 of the original Marvel run.
• Chromedome becomes the only Autobot Headmaster to reunite his original head and body, as he was the only one who survived his entire binary-bond with his Nebulan partner without either of them dying, and the only one whose head wasn't given a new body by Scorponok.
• Magnus has the letters G2 on his cab dashboard (in the panel when they first spot Galvatron), probably a reference to the G2 characters he was driving around with this issue.

Real-life references

• "The war to end all wars" is an archaic name for World War I, used by idealists before World War II ruined all expectations.

Other trivia

• Rapido appears in vehicle mode with his European toy release's pink windows, rather than his U.S. release's gray windows. Additionally, he's also sporting his correct (and very toyetic) engine block gun.

Transformers references

• Rodimus refers to the events of Issue #75 as the "Unicron War", a term used originally by Japanese media in 1986 to refer to the events of The Transformers: The Movie.
• Note Gunrunner's reluctance to leave his shell, and his squirelly behaviour and sense of feeling "exposed" once out in the open—a personality trait introduced to the character by Dreamwave in their More than Meets the Eye profile series, which expanded upon his original bio simple note that he was "shy and insecure" outside his shell by adding some survivor's guilt to his backstory that left him unwilling to leave its safe confines.

Furminated

• Gunrunner takes a shot through the chest from the Acolytes of Unicron.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Rodimus Prime atop a fractured field of images, paralleling the cover of issue #80.5, by Andrew Wildman and Jason Cardy
• Cover B: Rodimus contemplates Bludgeon's decapitated skull, in homage to the cover of Generation 2 #5, by Guido Guidi
• Cover SUB: Blank cover for sketches
• Cover RI: Black-and-white lineart of Rodimus Prime and Jhiaxus, made to look like a production-stage paste-up of a classic Marvel cover with yellowing tape and glue, by Geoff Senior

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External links

• Simon Furman's Script (W)rap