Forever Is a Long Time Coming (issue)

« The Transformers: Punishment #5 »
"Forever Is a Long Time Coming"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 2014
Cover date	2014
Story by	John Barber
Art by	Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)
Price	Free (Windows 8 Madefire app, initial) ??? (Other digital platforms)

Optimus Prime has finally fingered the culprit...

Synopsis

Slug, still fuming after his confrontation with Optimus Prime, takes the Dinobots to the Optimus Prime statue, which he summarily decapitates. Slug threatens to kill Optimus and drags the other Dinobots into following him, just as an explosion goes off and sends the four flying. In reality, exposing the Dinobots' old war crimes was a feint by Optimus; the unknowing Dinobots fall through a trap door with Barricade's help and are caught in mid-air by Windblade and Starscream.

All of this was to draw out the killer—Sandstorm, who Optimus confronts. Gone off the deep end, Sandstorm shoots Prime with an infernus bullet, only to show regret afterwards. Optimus rips the bullet out of his body and places Sandstorm under arrest. Sandstorm tells his side: he had seen too much, too terrible, to allow others to go unpunished for their crimes during the war. All of the Cybertronians he had killed or attempted to kill had committed unspeakable acts and had to be killed in the name of justice; he only pretended to befriend those in Gutcruncher's bar to make it easier to kill them all. After asking whether Optimus knew of the Autobot atrocities and how he could manage knowing them, Sandstorm tries to flee, but Optimus simply knocks him out and answers that he tries to stay "grounded".

The murders solved, Optimus goes on his personal errand: bringing the remaining half of the Matrix of Leadership to the site where he received it all those years ago. It is the anniversary of when he became Prime. Optimus shares with Windblade that he was honest about his calling out of the Dinobots, believing that bots like them who refuse to change are the greatest threat to the future; but still, he has faith that the future can be a peaceful one.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You're under arrest, Sandstorm. You're guilty of murdering fourteen Cybertronians, and attempting to kill seven more."
"Seven. Really, Prime? You really care enough to count the Firecons? If their lives mean so much to you... MAYBE YOU ALL DESERVE THE SAME!"

—Optimus Prime and Sandstorm

"This is where my future began, built on past crimes—the kind Cybertron can never escape".
"Don't give up, Optimus. You saved the Dinobots"—"
"After I said they should die."
"You needed to lie big to draw Sandstorm out."
"You don't know me very well. I never lie. At least Sandstorm saw Cybertron united, even if it was united in atrocity. Slug's refusal to change is the greater threat to our future."
"Then why come here? What did you hope to find?"
"The memory of believing in tomorrow, Windblade. No matter what I feel... Cybertron needs me to hold on to that.

—Optimus Prime and Windblade

Notes

Continuity notes

• When Sandstorm talks about the things he saw as a Wrecker, he mentions "killing unarmed prisoners"—a clear allusion to the deaths of Squadron X by Impactor's hand, as seen in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5. Previously, the prose story "Zero Point" had depicted Sandstorm as the only Wrecker who didn't try to get Springer to absolve the team of any role in the killings, suggesting that unlike his teammates he did not approve. Foreshadowing!
• In the panel where Sandstorm recalls this, he's correctly drawn to the specifications of his Last Stand design, looking very different to his appearances in the rest of this mini-series, which is based on his Thrilling 30 toy.
• Heavy Barrel and team's crime was the siphoning of "pseudo-energon" from a mechanoid world; it's not really been elaborated upon, but that seems to be a not-really-the-real-thing variant of energon that occurs on other planets, which we saw before in Spotlight: Thundercracker.
• The Matrix half was given to Bumblebee by Prime back in The Death of Optimus Prime (the other half was given to Rodimus and wound up being destroyed in More than Meets the Eye #21). Prime reclaimed 'Bee's half in Robots in Disguise #29.
• Prime visits the Underworld where he found the Matrix, as chronicled in Autocracy #9.
• This issue continues directly into The Transformers #39.

Transformers references

• This issue is named after the Generation 1 cartoon episode, "Forever Is a Long Time Coming".

Real life references

• Given Sandstorm's motivation and modus operandi, the title of Punishment would seem to be a reference to Marvel Comics' own one-man war on crime, the Punisher.

Foreign Localization

Swedish

• Title: "För evigt är en lång tid" (Forever Is a Long Time")

Covers (2)

• Digital cover: Optimus Prime's decapitated statue, from the issue's first page, by Livio Ramondelli
• Print cover: Optimus Prime and the Dinobots, by Ramondelli

Reprints

• The Transformers: Punishment (January 21, 2015)
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5.
  • One-shot format.

• The Transformers: Redemption of the Dinobots (March 14, 2018) ISBN 1684051835 / ISBN 978-1684051830
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5, Redemption, and Salvation.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 8 (December 5, 2018) ISBN 1684053722 / ISBN 978-1684053728
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #35–38 & #39–40, The Transformers (2012) issues #35–38, Punishment issues #1–5, and Drift - Empire of Stone issues #1–4.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 70: Punishment (October 30, 2019)
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5, Redemption, and Salvation.
  • Bonus material includes an article about the Motion Book Tool app used for the digital version of Punishment, a "Brief History of the (IDW) Dinobots", and a Livio Ramondelli sketchbook, a cover gallery and an introduction by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• 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.

• 

  Punishment – cover art by Livio Ramondelli

• 

  Redemption of the Dinobots – cover art by Livio Ramondelli

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 8 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 70: Punishment – cover art by Don Figueroa (Snarl) and Livio Ramondelli

• 

  Optimus Prime - Tillbaka till jorden – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente