Unstopped and Unstoppable

« Optimus Prime #22 » Transformers: Unicron »
The Transformers Are All (Soon) Dead.
"Unstopped and Unstoppable"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	August 8, 2018
Cover date	Late July 2018
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Sara Pitre-Durocher
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

No sooner are Optimus Prime and Bumblebee back in the land of the living than the threat of Unicron makes itself known.

Synopsis

Wheeljack sets to work finding a way to restore Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to the physical world, building them new bodies, using photonic material from Trypticon to grow them new sparks, and finally, transferring their consciousnesses out of Pyra Magna's mind. Bumblebee is restored first, and is caught up on current events by Windblade while Wheeljack repeats the process with Prime, who awakens with a start from another nightmare about the Dark Cybertron prophecy. Relieved to see that Bumblebee was not merely a figment of his imagination, Prime embraces his old friend, and begins to tell him about his nightmare, before Windblade interrupts with matters of greater importance.

Windblade plays back a video recording from an hour earlier, showing a three-man team of Cliffjumper, Subsea, and Rest-Q departing via Space Bridge for Velocitron to investigate a loss of contact with the planet. The trio step through the portal to find the populace of Velocitron scattering in a mad panic in response to the appearance of a huge, horned, planet-size object in the sky, at which point the recording cuts out. The identity of the object is a mystery, but Windblade believes that recent events that took place while Optimus was offline hold the answer. A second message was beamed into space by the Talisman, this time containing a word that Windblade translates as "uncreator," the opposite of Primus, which she believes is the name of the monster planet: Unicron.

On Earth, Rom the Space Knight engages in battle with a group of humans he believes have recently come into contact with a Dire Wraith. Presently, Jazz arrives on the scene, having traced a line of black market Cybertronian technology to the humans, and helps Rom subdue them. Suddenly, Rom's body is wracked with pain; he senses his homeworld of Elonia is in danger as Unicron approaches it, and further, knows he will be unable to return there in time to defend it. Jazz believes he knows someone who can help...

Back on Cybertron, Shockwave is led through the streets to prison. As he goes, he rambles aloud to no-one in particular, relating the story of how, following the Age of Primes, he and the Maximals relocated to the planet Antilla, only to find that it "belonged to another." His escort, Beachcomber, snaps at him to shut up, telling him that nobody is listening to him... but Beachcomber couldn't be more wrong, as among the crowds, Shockwave's ancient servant Rhinox has heard his words...

Out in space, former Space Knight Stardrive also senses the threat now faced by Elonia. Prowl reminds her that she owes Elonia nothing, and that she and the rest of his team are already occupied tracking the Maximals. The beast-robots have been hunting down Cybertronians all across the galaxy, and Prowl's team is now on their trail following their flight from Cybertron...

On Earth, Trypticon has taken up residence in South Dakota, near Mount Rushmore. While he and Slug chat—with Slug grumbling over the fact that Victorion, rather than the Dinobots, got to be the one to take down Devastator—the President of the United States argues with Marissa Faireborn, determined to have Trypticon sent back to Cybertron to alleviate security concerns. Their debate is interrupted by the arrival of Jazz and Rom; realizing the importance of Rom's mission to protect his homeworld, Jazz, still wanted by human authorities, surrenders himself to military custody in return for Rom being allowed to use Trypticon's Space Bridge to go to Cybertron and rally aid for Elonia.

In the Little Cybertron refugee commune on Bikini Atoll, Wreck-Gar brings the news of Jazz's arrest and the attacks on the colonies to the Autobot colonist soldiers stationed there. Most of the group take the situation calmly, confident in Optimus Prime's ability to set it right, but of course, Slide is full of nothing but rancor for Optimus.

Alas, even with the might of the Cybertronian fleet backing Rom up, they are unable to stop Unicron from consuming Elonia. Worse yet, news soon comes in that contact has also been lost with Eukaris. Rom is distraught, but Arcee is all business, determined to hunt Unicron down and destroy it. Pyra Magna reveals that she has recently been in contact with Prowl, and contacts him so he can join their planning. Prowl teleconferences in live from the midst of a battle between his team and the Maximals over Devisiun, which Unicron is on the cusp of devouring. Learning about the fate of the other colonies, Prowl reasons—much to Stardrive's disgust—that they must abandon Devisiun and follow the fleeing Maximals to Unicron's next target, in order to set a trap for it there. In short order, Prowl is able to deduce that that target is Caminus, and the Cybertronian space fleet makes ready to defend it. Optimus Prime has a dangerous plan in mind, and warns that the price will be a high one indeed: they will evacuate the entire population of Caminus and let the planet be destroyed, buying Prime time to venture within Unicron in hopes of learning more about it.

On Cybertron, Starscream and the Decepticons hole up in the corpse of Metrotitan, where Starscream tells his followers about his plans to reunite the various Decepticons cells scattered throughout the galaxy. Presently, Rhinox arrives, and invites Starscream to accompany him to Shockwave's cell.

A news broadcast from Circuit regarding the destruction of the various colonies and the arrival of surviving refugees on Cybertron reaches New Cybertron on Earth. Having been informed of Prime's plan for Caminus by Pyra Magna, Slide tells her fellow colonists that Prime let all the colonies be destroyed, and declares it's time to end his reign for good.

Featured characters

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

Quotes

"Sitting up real fast and yelling always lets a 'bot know when a procedure worked."

—Wheeljack cheerfully responds to Optimus Prime awakening from his nightmare

"Selling out the living for the sake of expediency. I was an idiot to believe in you. Elonians... Wraiths... Cybertronians... we're all the same... we deserve each other."

—Stardrive

Notes

Continuity notes

• Optimus Prime once again dreams of the Dark Cybertron prophecy, including the image of himself holding Galvatron's head on a pike, as he did before in The Transformers vol. 2 #50. The title of this issue, "Unstopped and Unstoppable," is the final line of the prophecy.
• The events of the Transformers vs. Visionaries mini-series are revealed to have taken place in the few days between last issue and this one.
• For the last seven years, IDW stories have made occasional reference to "Primus's opposite," an oblique way of referring to Unicron without ever saying his name. It remains unclear if the name "Unicron" is actually known in Cybertronian legend or not; Windblade has never heard it before (simply "translating" it to mean "uncreator," concluding that it is Primus's opposite based on that) but she's from a planet with a differing belief system, so that's not concrete evidence. It's mentioned in Unicron #1 in reference to him being Primus's opposite, but that still takes place after Windblade reveals his name this issue.
• Jazz was last seen in issue #12, having gone rogue to hunt down humans using Cybertronian-derived tech following the events of issue #8.
• Shockwave's monologue reveals that he deliberately founded Eukaris as a place where beastformers could live free of prejudice; while this might seem at odds with his personality, More than Meets the Eye did establish that, during his time as a Senator, Shockwave went out of his way to establish the Jhiaxian Academy, a similar "refuge" for a persecuted class of Cybertronian.
• Shockwave relates how, after the end of the Age of Primes, he and his Maximals relocated to Antilla. They were first revealed to have a presence on the planet during that time in the 2017 Transformers annual.
• The caption isn't kidding when it says Rhinox "hasn't shown up for a while"; his sole previous appearance was four years ago, in Robots in Disguise #34. He was an ancient servant of Onyx Prime's from millions of years ago who was left behind when his master left the planet. It's unclear where he's been in the interim, if he's lived on Cybertron or if he relocated to Eukaris or elsewhere.
• Prowl's team were last seen in issue #14, in which issue it was revealed Prowl was in contact with Pyra Magna.
• The events of Unicron #0—including the destruction of both Elonia and Eukaris—take place between pages 13 and 14 of this issue. The audience is intended to have already read that story before this issue, as it was released several months earlier for Free Comic Book Day. The end of the story leads directly into Unicron #1, which opens with Unicron's attack on Caminus, and includes Starscream meeting with Shockwave following Rhinox's invitation.

Transformers references

• As we already knew would be the case thanks to the issues of Unicron that had been released before this, Bumblebee's new body is based on his "evergreen" design.
• Rest-Q is an Autobot Mini-Vehicle created by Fun Publications and featured in a few of their "Wings Universe" stories, based on a protoype version of Hubcap and named after a Guardian GoBot.
• Subsea was a generic "hi-then-die" Autobot from the Marvel UK story "Underworld!" That story featured a cast of Mini-Vehicles and Mini-Vehicle-sized original characters like Subsea, and he again finds himself among them here – the trio Subsea forms with the white Rest-Q and red Cliffjumper perhaps parallels his similarly doomed party from "Underworld!" of the white Tailgate and red Flattop, both of whom are dead or otherwise occupied in IDW continuity.
• Wreck-Gar's disembodied head is ferried around by a Junkion named Detritus, a character created by e-HOBBY in 2004 who was a recolor of the original Hound toy. This is literally the first appearance he's ever made in Transformers media under his own name, in his original body.

Real-life references

• After Marissa promises that "no Cybertronians are going to take over this place," the president replies "that's probably exactly what the Lakota said," sarcastically alluding to the unpalatable real-world history of Mount Rushmore; the mountain, originally a site sacred to the Lakota Sioux known as "The Six Grandfathers", was illegally seized from the Lakota by the United States government in 1877 despite the Treaty of Fort Laramie granting the Black Hills to the Sioux in perpetuity — something paralleled in Optimus's annexation of Earth against humanity's wishes. Who says that comic books can't teach you anything?
• Wreck-Gar emulates the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas" when he declares: "Good King Optimus went out to keep the peace or get even."

Errors

• Windblade's lower lip remains unpainted for the whole issue.
• Prowl's statement on page 17 that "There's six of us" is at odds with the seven members of his ship's crew: himself, Stardrive, Wheelie, Garnak, Goldbug, Chase, and Rollbar. This error seems to be restricted to the digital release, however, as the print copy has Prowl correctly saying "There's seven of us".
• On page 20, Circuit says "the Solstar capitol of Elonia" when it should be "capital".

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for late July 2018, as the second of two Optimus Prime issues to be released that month, this issue arrived late, in the second week of August. However, it was released a week early on IDW's website by mistake, allowing a small number of purchases to be made before the error was spotted and the issue was taken down.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Optimus Prime and Bumblebee in the shadow of Shockwave and Unicron, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham
• Cover B: Jazz and Rom, by Sara Pitre-Durocher
• Retailer incentive cover: Black-and-white lineart version of Cover A

Advertisements

• Optimus Prime #23
• Transformers: Unicron
• Transformers vs. Visionaries TPB
• G.I. Joe vs. The Six Million Dollar Man TPB
• The Comic Book History of Comics: Comics For All TPB
• Full Bleed magazine
• Transformers: Unicron #1

Reprints

• Optimus Prime Volume 5 (February 6, 2019) ISBN 1684054117 / ISBN 978-1684054114
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #22–25 and Annual 2018.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 85: The Falling Part 2 (June 3, 2020)
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #18–24.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Volume 5 – cover art by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 85: The Falling Part 2 – cover art by Dreamwave and Kei Zama

External links

• Preview