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The Will of the Few

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Windblade v2 7 regcvr.jpg
"The Will of the Few"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 23, 2015
Cover date September 2015
Written by Mairghread Scott
Art by Corin Howell
Colors by Thomas Deer and John-Paul Bove
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2015)

When Starscream and Windblade make contact with a long-lost colony of space-farers, they must rely on each other to make it out alive.

Contents

Synopsis

Chromia and Rattrap are waiting in Metroplex's spacebridge chamber for Windblade and Starscream's return from Eukaris. Just as Chromia starts to threaten the button-pushing Rattrap, Windblade and Starscream step through the bridge, bickering about their misadventure. Seeing her friend's distress, Chromia is ready to fight Starscream, but the Cybertronian leader explains he saved Windblade's life. The cityspeaker doesn't dispute the fact but does make it very clear that she believes Starscream killed rather than defended her from Chela. Starscream casually dismisses the whole affair by saying the only thing that matters is that they got the Eukarians on their side, and walks out.

As the two Camiens mourn the death of the Titan, Windblade confides that she feels like a failure, and the two discuss their own falling out over Chromia's responsibility for a bombing that resulted in two dead Cybertronians, and almost killed Windblade herself. Chromia halts her friend's pity party with four simple words: "I believe in you." Chromia tells Windblade that she's seen Windblade make tough decisions over and over since arriving on Cybertron, and that she knows she did all she could to save Chela. If she didn't, she can learn from the mistake and move on. Windblade starts to apologize to Chromia, but Chromia tells her there's no need-she was given a second chance, and wants to help Windblade do some good on the planet.

The two 'bots head to Metroplex's brain chamber, where the cityspeaker apologizes for Chela's death. Metroplex asks her if she killed Chela, and she says she didn't, but that she couldn't save him. Metroplex replies that even if she had been able to do so, Chela wouldn't have allowed himself to be "saved", and Windblade thanks him for the reassurance. She then asks him what the final colony that he has located is like. Though it takes a while to interpret his words, Windblade learns that the colonists departed on the Titan Tempo. They were a group of philosophers and were looking to bring new kinds of truth back to Cybertron, but they just never came back. Opining that truth can be hard to find, she hopes peace won't be. The next morning, as Starscream snarkily asks about her talk with Metroplex, the two begin bickering again, before Wheeljack informs them the spacebridge to Tempo is ready.

Meanwhile, near the spacebridge atop Tempo's hull, Greenlight bemoans the guard duty she and Lancer were put on (due to Lancer being handsy with Greenlight during roll call). No one has come through the spacebridge for weeks, and even then, Greenlight's not sure that it was actual Cybertronians that touched the hull. Lancer is positive that they were, because Obsidian said so, and Obsidian doesn't lie. She is soon proved right when the bridge activates. Lancer quickly signals the bridge of the ship, and as Starscream and Windblade step through, they are confronted by myriad bots, all with their weapons trained on the two arrivals. The very imposing Strika informs the two that if they move even one little bit, they will be killed on the spot. Having expected a ship full of peaceful philosophers, Starscream carelessly advances, and is saved from being shot by a tackle from Windblade. Angrily informing the "welcoming committee" that they just attacked the lord of Cybertron, Starscream is instantly put into his place when Strika transforms into her massive mobile artillery altmode, cannon charged to take a shot. She is stopped from murdering Starscream by the captain of the ship coming out to greet them. Elita One orders her troops to stand down, and apologizes to the two arrivals, telling them that the ship's last contact with Cybertronians was violent and that they'd been on high alert since. She then greets them as the captain of the Titan ship Carcer. The two introduce themselves and Elita suggests that they go somewhere more private to talk.

As the three enter the ship, Windblade confesses that she is confused, because they had registered the ship as Tempo, not Carcer. Elita One replies that that was the ship's name, but the people aboard are not of Tempo. She explains that their spacefaring life has made them value certain different things: efficiency, security, and chief among them, truth. Windblade bluntly asks why the ship looks the way it does. Elita One is somber as she recounts the death of a previous captain, who died to save the ship, his body becoming a part of it in the process. As resources grew scarce, those crewmembers who died donated their bodies to be used as parts of the ship as well. In fact, the throne that Elita One sits on contains the bodies of their greatest heroes, and it reminds her daily of what she might have to sacrifice for Carcer. Flanked by Strika and Obsidian, Elita One looks on as Starscream prostrates himself before her, forcing Windblade to do the same. Whispering under his breath for Windblade to follow along, Starscream entreats Elita One to join her forces with those of Cybertron, trying to appeal to her more warlike side. Windblade tries to interrupt, but Starscream continues, saying that the two armies can maintain peace, and that Cybertron's resources could allow Carcer to continue living for an eon or more. He asks her to join with the Council of Worlds, and Elita One then asks Obsidian what he thinks of the offer - he replies that he thinks Starscream is lying, which Elita One easily agrees with. She orders Strika to seize Starscream, and angrily recounts that the peace he talks of is a complete fabrication. When they witnessed Devastator and Optimus Maximus brawling, they saw how savagely they battled, and having been enslaved before by resource-rich worlds, she finds Starscream's claims to be unbelievable. She says that on Carcer, lying to her is a capital offense, and that is exactly what Starscream has done.

As Strika prepares to blow Starscream's head off, Windblade leaps to his defense. Elita One wonders why, when Windblade saved his life on the hull, and he didn't return the favor, that Windblade is risking herself for him now. Windblade says that yes, Starscream is an imperfect leader, but that's no reason to execute him. Elita refuses to risk her troops for Starscream, saying that more of his lies will be revealed on the battlefield. Saying that she hardly knows why herself anymore, she still entreats Elita One to listen. Even if Carcer's inhabitants could all contribute their bodies several times over, it still wouldn't be enough to bring Carcer back to peak performance. After being warned to watch her words, Windblade more calmly explains that the Carcerians need Cybertron, and Cybertron needs them. She then goes full-out bold, saying that she wants Elita's followers to join with them to counter Starscream's influence on the Council, and that killing him will only lead to war. After Windblade reminds a testy Elita One of the cost of her people's life in space, Elita decides that Windblade's bold honesty in admitting her mistakes and faults has won her over. She tells Starscream that if he lies to her again, on her ship, she will kill him. Ordering Strika to release him, she tells the pair to return in 48 hours for Carcer's delegates, but no sooner. As they begin bickering while walking back to the spacebridge, Windblade doesn't tell Starscream what she learned from Metroplex–that Carcer is not a nickname for the titan Tempo, but is the name of a completely different Titan. She notes that while Elita One may favor the truth above all else, she isn't telling the whole truth about her colony's origins.

Two weeks later, Strika and Obsidian add their signatures, entering Carcer into the Council of Worlds. As Starscream reads a statement on the news, an angry Onslaught hurls a canister of energon at a viewscreen on the street, while Blast Off angrily says he knew that Starscream would try and sweep the past aside. Onslaught declares that if Starscream wants the past to be forgotten, he'll have to go through him, Blast Off, Vortex, and Brawl first!

Featured characters

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

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"My guards said you spoke with Metroplex last night. Glean anything about our soon-to-be-allies or did you just cry on daddy-bot's shoulder?"
"You really know how to foster cooperation, don't you?"

—Starscream and Windblade


"...Why did you save me, Starscream? When Chela was crashing, you could have just let me die."
"And have Chromia hack me to bits when I came back without you? No thanks. When you die, it will be in public, with witnesses, and I'll be at least five miles away."

—Windblade and Starscream


"I do not attack- I TERMINATE!"

—Strika throws a bone to Beast Machines fans


"Our greatest heroes make up this throne, to remind me every day of what I might be called to sacrifice."
"If your heroes become chairs, what do your traitors become?"
"We always need ammunition."

—Elita One explains Carcer's decor to Starscream


"Killing [Starscream] won't bring anything but war."
"Do you think I fear battle?"
"I think you'd rather have soldiers than furniture."

—Windblade and Elita One


"We have a saying here, Starscream. Better death than lies. Death you can see coming; lies will always surprise you."

—Elita One


"...You could've let me die."
"When you die, it'll be for something you deserve and all of Cybertron will know it."

—Starscream and Windblade

Notes

Continuity notes

Transformers references

  • Unnamed in this issue, the female robots guarding the spacebridge on Carcer are Greenlight and Lancer, the two extra/generic Female Autobots who appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Search for Alpha Trion". They didn't get names back then, either; they were retroactively granted by the Fun Publications story "Flames of Yesterday", which was their only other appearance in Transformers fiction before the publication of this issue. Their designs here are new, so they're really only recognizable by their color schemes; however, see "Errors", below.
  • In addition to having their first appearance in mainstream fiction in nearly 30 years, Greenlight and Lancer are under the command of Elita One, just as they were in their debut appearance in the G1 cartoon.
  • With Obsidian amongst Elita's crew, it's no great surprise to see Strika appear prominently in this issue; she was Obsidian's equal and consort in the Beast Machines cartoon.
  • "I do not attack," Strika declares, "I TERMINATE!" "Terminate" was Strika's activation code in her debut appearance in the Beast Machines cartoon.
  • One of the Carcerians lined up as Elita One leads Windblade and Starscream has the silhouette of Animated Sentinel Prime, and an oppressed Carcerian in Elita One's imagination has the silhouette of Armada Megatron. Another Carcerian seen several times in the issue resembles the Animated incarnation of Optimus Prime.
  • Onslaught appears with the design of his Combiner Wars toy, though not colored particularly accurately. The other Combaticons all look like they did the last time we saw them: Brawl's still got his new Earth design from over in The Transformers, Blast Off has his classic Generation 1 look, which he had reverted to the last time we saw him in The Transformers #41, and Vortex—making his first present-day appearance since aaaaall the way back in issue #12 of the 2009-2011 ongoing series—is also still rocking his G1 style. Vortex is, however, colored in the reds and yellows of his Fall of Cybertron counterpart.

Real-world references

  • The Combaticons have spray-painted "Swindle Lives" on a wall as their first act of civil disobedience in the face of the Council's formation, a reference to the countercultural slogan "Frodo Lives!" from the 1960s and 1970s.

Errors

  • As Windblade and Starscream step through the spacebridge to Tempo, they're approximately half the height of the structure. Pages later, when Elita One recounts Devastator and Optimus Maximus' brawl, the combiners are drawn to be only marginally taller than Windblade and Starscream- to about Strika's height.
  • On page 7, Greenlight is colored grey (in the bottom right of the image), while another female robot has stolen her color scheme (second from Strika's right). Coincidentally enough to be confusing, this color-stealer has a helmet that resembles the original Greenlight animation model a bit more.
  • On page 12, "breach" is misspelled as "breech" in Elita One's line "As his body melted, it plugged the breech."
  • On page 14, when Starscream mentions "vast tracks of open territory", it should be "vast tracts".

Trivia

  • This issue's story is followed by a letter to readers from writer Mairghread Scott, celebrating the series so far and its transformation into Till All Are One.
  • Greenlight and Lancer's dialogue makes it pretty clear they're romantically linked, making them the second official female same-gender pairing in Transformers history, after Proxima and Acceleron were mentioned over in More than Meets the Eye #42, and the first on-panel female couple.

Covers (3)

  • Regular cover: Elita One reclines on their throne, which Starscream and Windblade's heads have been added to, by Priscilla Tramontano
  • Subscription cover: Windblade and Starscream at gunpoint, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
  • Retailer incentive cover: Chromia, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham; the first in September's series of retailer incentive covers by Zama.
  • Windblade v2 7 regcvr.jpg
  • Windblade v2 7 subcvr.jpg
  • Windblade v2 7 cvrRI.jpg

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Reprints

  • Transformers: Windblade - The Last City (February 14, 2018) ISBN 978-1684052240
    • Collects Windblade (2014) issues #1–4, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–7, but not the alternating chapters of Combiner Wars from The Transformers vol. 2 needed to complete the story. Um.
    • Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
    • Trade paperback format.

External links

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