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Transformers (2023) issue 3

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Transformers03A Cover.jpg
Publisher Image Comics
Skybound Entertainment
First published December 6, 2023
Cover date December 2023
Written by Daniel Warren Johnson
Art by Daniel Warren Johnson
Colors by Mike Spicer
Letters by Rus Wooton
Editors Sean Mackiewicz & Jonathan Manning
Continuity Energon Universe

It's Optimus Prime versus Skywarp in a vicious battle, with humankind caught in the crossfire.

Contents

Synopsis

(thumbnail)
"Better dead than red!"

Learning her father has been killed, Carly asks Sparky how it happened, and Sparky tells her he was crushed by a giant robot. Carly realizes it must have been Starscream and begins to tell Sparky about her and Spike's discovery of the Ark. Sparky desperately asks where Spike is when they are attacked by Laserbeak. Sparky fires at the robot bird, only to get tossed around the room for his efforts. Laserbeak then corners Carly, but she is rescued by the timely arrival of Cliffjumper, who delivers a swift kick to Laserbeak's face. As Cliff approaches Carly, however, Sparky yells at him to get away before firing a shotgun at the Autobot's face. Carly tries to get him to stop, but Sparky pulls her into the police car he commandeered and they drive off.

In the Ark, an irritated Starscream berates Soundwave for not fixing Teletraan 1. Soundwave tells him that while they have enough energon, the raw materials they gathered aren’t advanced enough to repair the computer. When Soundwave begins to mention what Megatron would do, Starscream slaps him, repeating his order to not say his name. Soundwave receives an alert from Laserbeak and Starscream orders Skywarp to deal with it.

Sparky takes Carly to the veterans' bar. Carly asks why they’re there and Sparky tells her that the Decepticons are jamming all phone, radio, and internet signals, so they need reinforcements from somewhere. Inside, Danny and a group of other veterans have heard the explosions and already formed a small militia to defend themselves. Carly tries to tell Sparky that they aren't all bad, but Sparky says that he's been in war: when the shooting starts, people die. At that moment, Cliffjumper appears in the doorway and Sparky unloads a machine gun on him. Skywarp then arrives, which the humans mistake for Cliffjumper having called in reinforcements, and they begin firing on both. On the outskirts of town, Optimus and Spike see smoke coming from the battle and Optimus quickly heads in to intervene. With Skywarp shaking off the humans' bullets like they're nothing, Danny decides they need something bigger: he and Sparky pull out a bazooka before the bar caves in on itself. Skywarp approaches Cliffjumper for the kill, but Carly tries to step in and defend him, much to Skywarp's amusement. The pair are saved by the timely intervention of Optimus, who rams into Skywarp in his truck mode. Optimus transforms and tells Spike to take cover while he deals with the Decepticon.

The two fight, Skywarp using his teleportation and Optimus using his energon-axe. Optimus pins Skywarp down and asks him to surrender, but their fight is interrupted by Sparky and Danny firing the bazooka at Optimus, severely damaging his right arm. This allows Skywarp to regain his footing and blast Optimus back. Sparky tells the militia to pour their fire on both of the Cybertronians as Spike runs towards the wounded Optimus… getting caught in the crossfire. Skywarp taunts Optimus as he moves to crush Spike, but Optimus tackles him to the ground. In a moment of desperation, Prime tears off his injured arm, using it as a club to beat Skywarp down. He then picks up Spike, now bleeding profusely from his injury. Sparky runs towards Prime, tears streaking his face and a handgun pointed at the Autobot leader, screaming at him to get away from his son. Optimus transforms and tells Sparky to come with him; he’s going to save his boy.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"I've been in war, Carly. It doesn't matter whose team they're on or what glorious cause they fight for. When the shooting starts, people die."

—Sparky


"Damn, Starscream was right! This is a blast!"

—Skywarp


"Your kind have played with this planet enough. I WILL HAVE NO MORE OF IT!"

—Optimus Prime right before ripping his own arm off.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • One of the citizens' militia, Jerry, was the same man raving about seeing Jetfire in the first issue.
  • Sparky notes the internet is down, throwing the implied setting of the 1980s into question.
  • While talking to Starscream, Soundwave can be seen cradling Ravage in his arms. Shot by Optimus in the first issue, it's still unclear if Ravage is in stasis or dead.
  • When Optimus sees Spike on the ground, he is reminded of the deer he accidentally stepped on in the previous issue.

Transformers references

Real-world references

  • Daniel Warren Johnson hides little references on the license plates of the vehicles and characters' alt-modes:
    • The license plate of the police car Sparky commandeered has changed, now reading "Murder Falcon", the title of one of Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer’s previous Skybound comics.
    • As Optimus drives into town, his front license plate reads "DAP", which stands for Do A Powerbomb, another Johnson/Spicer Image title.[1]
    • When Optimus transforms at the end, his license plate also serves as Johnson's signature, with a small "DWJ '23".
  • The wrestling influence on the action in this comic continues with Optimus Prime performing Kenta Kobashi's iconic Burning Hammer on Skywarp, hoisting the Decepticon over his shoulders before slamming him into the ground head-first.[2]
  • There are two references to the Gundam franchise:
    • When Spike charges into the battle between Optimus Prime and Skywarp, the panel is framed to resemble the famous shot at the climax of Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket where Alfred Izuhara tries to intervene in the battle between Christina McKenzie's Gundam ALEX and Bernard Wiseman's Zaku II.
    • Similarly, the scene where Optimus rips off his arm and uses it as a flail against Skywarp brings to mind Shiro Amada's Gundam Ez8 doing the same against Norris Packard's Gouf Custom in Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. Daniel Warren Johnson also shared a gif of the original scene on his Twitter[3] and called the scene a homage to "one of [his] favorite anime shows of all time" in the letter column of the following issue.

Storytelling notes

  • DWJ apparently struggled with the opening of this issue,[4] only feeling that he had hit his stride with the page where the militia first appear.[5]
  • Skywarp sips Energon from a canister using a straw, as DWJ wanted to come up with a different way for Transformers to drink Energon, rather than drinking from cubes as they did in the original cartoon.[6]
  • Initially, DWJ drew himself into the militia, but ultimately he chickened out and revised the drawing![7]
  • DWJ had originally wanted a mid-transformation panel as Skywarp touches down amidst the militia; this was removed for space reasons, particularly as it was visually similar to a panel from the previous issue.[8]
  • Easy to miss in the panel where Skywarp slaps a van aside, there's the lower half of one of the militia members![9]
    • The sound effect from this panel was added at a late stage in the artwork, to unambiguously guide the reader's eye through the action of the panel.[10]
  • When depicting characters laughing—such as when Skywarp laughs at Carly—DWJ tries to draw the laughter as SFX into the panel, rather than deferring it to the letterer.[11]
  • DWJ was influenced by Pacific Rim for the beat where Skywarp is rammed through buildings and cars by Prime.[12]
  • DWJ was keen on including Skywarp's teleportation ability. As Optimus fights Skywarp, DWJ wanted to build similar tension to that of a wrestler trying to tag in their partner—he keeps trying to ready his Energon axe, but never quite manages.[13] When it's finally fully activated, Prime's arm is destroyed before it can be used![14]
  • The panel where Spike runs to intervene between Skywarp and Optimus is deliberately composed so Spike appears the same size as the Transformers, to highlight his heroism.[15]
  • As Sparky runs in to check on Spike, the reactions of his comrades on the left side of the panel were intended to amplify the motion across the page.[16]
  • DWJ liked the idea of a Transformer killing a human by flicking them, as Skywarp threatens to do to Spike here.[17]
  • The two-page spread of Prime ripping his own arm off was originally meant to be a single page, but DWJ felt it needed to span a whole spread.[18]
  • Sparky's hatred of Prime, even as the Autobot tries to save his son, was inspired by a similar emotion in a scene from All-Star Superman.[19]

Errors

  • On pages 4 and 5, Cliffjumper's feet are occasionally colored grey like the rest of his legs when they should be red.

Other trivia

  • This issue contains a four page preview for Cobra Commander #1.
  • While it is likely not intentional, the scene of Optimus ripping off his damaged arm and using it as a weapon is similar to a moment where Apeface does the same in issue #49 of the Marvel series.

Covers (15)

  • Transformers03A Cover.jpg
  • Transformers03B Cover.jpg
  • Transformers03C Cover.jpg
  • Transformers03D Cover.jpg
  • Transformers03E Cover.jpg
  • Transformers 2023 3 2nd Ptg Cover A.jpg
  • Transformers 2023 3 2nd Ptg Cover B.jpg
  • Transformers 2023 3 3rd Ptg Cover.jpg
  • Transformers 2023 3 4th Ptg Cover.jpg
  • Transformers 2023 3 5th Ptg Cover.jpg
  • Transformers 2023 3 6th Ptg Cover.jpg
  • Battlesea5thprint.jpg
  • 5thprint3.jpg
  • Foil3.jpg
  • Betterseacolorless.jpg

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  • The Cobra threat begins in Cobra Commander #1!

Reprints

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise – cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Blackbird Comics & Coffeehouse Exclusive – cover art by Matthew Allison

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Comics Etc. Exclusive – cover art by Stewart McKenny & John Law

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Direct Market Exclusive – cover art by Jonboy Meyers

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Gotham City Limit Exclusive – cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Jonathan Comics Exclusive – cover art by Jason Howard

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise Things From Another World Exclusive – cover art by Frédéric Pham Chuong

  • (thumbnail)

    Volume 1: Robots in Disguise TopShelfComic Fan Expo Dallas Exclusive – cover art by Pasquale Ferrara

  • (thumbnail)

    Deluxe Edition Book 1 – cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer

  • (thumbnail)

    Deluxe Edition Book 1 Bookdelivery Exclusive – cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer

  • (thumbnail)

    Deluxe Edition Book 1 Direct Market Exclusive – cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer

  • (thumbnail)

    Deluxe Edition Book 1 Hasbro Pulse Exclusive – cover art by Tom Whalen

  • (thumbnail)

    Deluxe Edition Book 1 TopShelfComic Exclusive – cover art by Marcelo Matere

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Oh- what's this? Do a Powerbomb! DAP!"—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  2. ↑ "So this probably is my favorite page in the book, in issue #3. This is of course Optimus hitting a Burning Hammer! All you have to do is Google Kenta Kobashi, Burning Hammer, that's all I'm going to say about that. If you know, you know. There's this like [...] BREEEEE! I can feel like the pistons locking in, and like pushing, as he raises Skywarp above his head."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  3. ↑ Daniel Warren Johnson, Twitter, 2023/12/07
  4. ↑ "This whole first part of this issue was brutal for me to get through. Maybe it doesn't show, but I was having a really hard time. And I'll show you when I made a breakthrough, but it's not for a bit."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  5. ↑ "Okay, so here! Here's where I started getting my mojo back. It took a while!"—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  6. ↑ "We do get a standout moment here, which which is Skywarp of course, sipping Energon. I wanted to figure out a better way to have them consume Energon, that wasn't them like drinking out of those cubes from the TV show. So yeah, he's drinking from the scream canister—sorry, accidentally copying Pixar a little bit—but yeah sipping, sipping canister, in true skywarp fashion."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  7. ↑ "I was scared of drawing this panel here, with all the soldiers, but it just worked out really well. I changed the design, I drew myself in here! I almost put myself in the militia, but I don't even own a gun, so I felt a little bit too much like a poser. And yeah, this is... I really really love this. I just, I... And this panel's great, her like pulling on the shirt, and... it's just... I got my, I got my groove back in this page. And it was, I was off to the races after this page, [...] page seven?"—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  8. ↑ "I forgot to get rid of this page. This was going to be a mid-transforming page of Skywarp coming down. So instead of him being here, already kind of landed, he was going to be landing. But I felt it was a little too similar to the panel that you saw in issue #2 of Skywarp crushing everybody at the electrical plant. And this has a more, a little bit of like a calm kind of like flowing-down, whereas I just kind of wanted him to be established. There were going to be too many storytelling beats between [the panel where Skywarp is landing] and [the panel where he's being shot], it just... You know, it's not a huge deal, it wouldn't have really mattered, but... And this is like a little bit more of an intense angle. I pulled out a little bit here, I also really wanted to have room for Cliffjumper. It's just the storytelling worked a little better, with all- I needed to include all of these, like, militia guys, at the same time, while also having Skywarp land, and be a threat. So I have all these things that I'm juggling at once, and I don't like having to make compromises, 'cause honestly if I had another page or another few- if I had just a little more room, this would have been the panel. But maybe I'll ink it up someday, that'll be cool."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  9. ↑ "Notice that this guy's getting cut in half here, by this van! Not Carly's van, it's not there, but I just wanted to draw a van again."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  10. ↑ "I love this panel. This is awesome. I added the BREEEEEEEOOOOOO after a bit, it's not here on the thumbnail. But I really like, you know, this is the first person that's talking, the bartender going to Sparky... then you're kind of following it around. It kind of goes like this: left to right, but then you know you follow the letters, and it zooms around to him flying here, and circle is completed. So this is an intentional thing on my part, sometimes my compositions are unintentional, this one was definitely intentional, trying to ca- you through the entire reading experience in a way that is fun and dynamic."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  11. ↑ "I don't like when in letters you have like little HAHAHAs in balloons. I like having really loud onomatopoeia HAHAs, so whenever someone's laughing, I try and include it in the background as an SFX. And then I will remove it from the letters. I'm sure Russ is very capable of drawing very great HAHAs, I just- it's a personal preference."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  12. ↑ "Getting a lot done here, transforming and tossing Spike to the side, get to safety, this car and the- [Skywarp] was just kind of falling in a parking lot before, and I really wanted Skywarp to be having some serious damage, really getting pounded and slammed into something. And that's a bit of a nod to Pacific Ram where they just get knocked into all of the buildings. And I don't have the time to draw them [...] crashing into every building, and it is a small town, but you know, you could be smushing some cars, and you know, rocking some bricks, so."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  13. ↑ "Teleport! Done on the page! Of course wanted to add that in, because I do love Skywarp and that is one of his most fun abilities. And through this entire sequence I was trying to do this kind of like hot tag thing, like you see in wrestling, where [...] somebody on a tag team's getting worked over by the other team, put in a submission, or... you know, they can't make this tag, to try and get that rescue partner. And in my mind it was like, in this scene, Optimus has got this energy ax, that everybody knows- everybody knows he's got an Energon axe! Even the people that aren't super fans of Transformers, and... they're like, when is this guy... get... you know, BZOW, BZOW. Because I hint at it, I show, okay, this is a thing, he's activating it, nope just kidding. Okay, not going to happen..."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  14. ↑ "And then, again, we got- we're hinting, we're saying, "this is when the Energon ax is going to come out." And we get this glorious, just like, KRSHHHHH. I can just, I can see it in my head, you know? The scene was clear as day. Everybody's getting excited about this moment. He's finally got the Energon ax. We are going to wreck face. Let's do it. JUST. KIDDING. Ohhh man."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  15. ↑ "So then we have Spike being a silly human, and running... Added a little step panel there, not sure why, just felt right! You know, I don't know if this works, but one of my goals was to have Spike be about the same size—compositionally—as Skywarp and Optimus, so that his actions are like, so heroic that he's like kind of now elevated to their stature, physicality wise."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  16. ↑ "I really wanted Sparky to have like forward motion, so left to right. We see the reaction of his fellow bar goers—militia, whatever—he's moving through them, and you see the reactions before you necessarily see Sparky, who's like at the forefront, who's most forward, and he's dropping his gun here... Did I tell you that I'm a pacifist?"—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  17. ↑ "You know I'm a big fan of flicking- robots flicking humans, and so I like this a lot. This makes me very happy. I don't know, the like... almost impact of, you know, getting his innards flung out by a middle finger."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  18. ↑ "So here's here's the infamous- of course, going back to one of my favorite anime series of all time, Gundam: The 08th MS Team. This is a total little shout out to that, of a robot ripping off its own arm and using it as a weapon. Not really sure what I was- So originally, this double page spread was not a double page spread, it was just going to be one page, until I made the call myself—without asking anybody over at Skybound for permission—to make this a double page spread. 'Cause I was like, you know what, we need this. So we're going to have a few less ads in the back of the Transformers comic, and he's going to be able to rip off his arm in full glory. The only problem is, the arm rip was indeed an addition, because it was a double page spread, and I did not have a lot of time. So I had to do this in an afternoon— or a few different afternoons, like tacking it on to other pages after those were done. [...] I like how he's got like kind of subtle Angry Eyes, I just kind of added that, just as a... artistic license."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
  19. ↑ "This makes me think of [...] All-Star Superman, Frank Quietly and Grant Morrison, when the two Kryptonians are- they get sick and Superman rescues them. They start by being kind of bad guys, kind of mean, and then they need help. And Superman rescues this Kryptonian's wife, and he's running towards Superman, being like, "Don't you touch her!" Like, "How dare you even lay hands on her?" Even though he's trying to help her. So that was kind of the vibe I was going for here—that's one of my favorite scenes in all of comics, is Superman rescuing that Kryptonian couple. Just a little subtle thing I was thinking about. Thank you Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly, wouldn't be here without you guys. Standing on the shoulders of giants as always."—Daniel Warren Johnson, YouTube, "TRANSFORMERS Issue 3 Director's Commentary", 2024/01/10
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