The Falling, Chapter 3: The Ground

« Optimus Prime #17 »
Prepare for hour-lighting!
"The Falling Chapter 3: The Ground"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 18, 2018
Cover date	March 2018
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Kei Zama
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Cybertron descends into chaos as Onyx Prime sows dissent, revealing secrets that turn Decepticon against Decepticon, Titan against Prime, and Cybertronian against Cybertronian.

Synopsis

Aboard Autobot City over Kentucky, Aileron reflects on her life up to this point. In her youth on Caminus, she always wanted more out of life, and found inspiration when Pyra Magna of the Torchbearers visited her village. Her adherence to the Way of Flame swelling as she read more about the Torchbearers' adventures, Aileron moved to the big city, dragging her friend Sterling along with her. There, they witnessed first contact with Cybertron, and Aileron met Optimus Prime and followed him to Earth... which led to Sterling's death at human hands. Now, as Aileron watches footage beamed lived from Cybertron, she witnesses another death that has come as the apparent result of following a Prime—Alpha Trion has perished in a bombing that Onyx Prime is blaming on Soundwave and the Decepticons. Aileron is convinced that Onyx is responsible, however, and urges Jetfire to activate the space bridge so they can go help. Arcee advocates caution, but Autobot City itself seems to have other ideas; the ground suddenly falls out from under Aileron as Metrotitan transforms from city to robot mode and opens a space bridge big enough for himself to travel through. Arcee dives after Aileron, while down below, in Kentucky's Ore-13 mine, the Autobot colonists can only watch as the city disappears through the portal, leaving them behind.

On Cybertron, it turns out that no-one is actually buying Onyx's allegations against Soundwave, believing that Liege Maximo—who has vanished from captivity in the chaos—is the one responsible. Unfortunately, Circuit and Longtooth are still broadcasting live to the whole city as Onyx continues his tirade, impugning Optimus Prime's good name and reminding all native Cybertronian citizens watching that they have far more reason to mistrust the Decepticons, humans, and colonists with whom Optimus stands than they do Onyx himself. To validate his point, Onyx unveils a years-old recording he has secretly obtained from Iacon's public security network, which reveals to all a long-held secret: it shows Soundwave killing Horri-Bull by detonating his I/D chip, something that everyone believed was Bumblebee's doing. Content to leave the populace to do with this information as they will, Onyx boards his flying skiff to return to his eyeball-mothership, Nemesis, floating above. Horri-Bull's former Conjunx Endura, Needlenose, is confused and horrified; Soundwave remorsefully admits to the crime, and mayhem erupts all at once as Needlenose lunges at him, and fighting breaks out among Cybertronians and colonists in the city streets.

Having just watched yet another Prime prove to be nothing more than a manipulator and liar, Scoop finds that his previously-faltering faith in Starscream as the true "Chosen One" prophesied to save Cybertron is now stronger than ever. Soundwave shrugs off Needlenose's ineffectual attacks to watch as Scoop combines with the other Constructicons into Devastator, who proceeds to tear his way into the prison where Starscream is being held and forcibly drag the former ruler of Cybertron out of his cell so that he can "light their darkest hour"—all over Starscream's own protestations, of course. But Scoop isn't the only believer in Starscream's supposed divinity—in the sky over Cybertron, Metrotitan emerges from his space bridge, and submits himself to Starscream's command, opening fire on Onyx Prime's skiff.

Recognizing that the whole situation has somehow been engineered by Onyx but unable to discern why, Optimus Prime has Windblade fly him up to Metrotitan's head-height so he can order the Titan to stand down. Metrotitan refuses to obey Optimus's orders and fires on the pair; Windblade evades the blasts, but Optimus slips from her grasp and is sent plummeting down towards the surface... only to be snatched to safety by Onyx, aboard his skiff. At Onyx's command, Nemesis returns fire on Metrotitan, blasting him through the chest with a single colossal energy beam. The giant collapses, and Optimus, aghast at the apparent deaths of his Titan and all aboard him, turns on Onyx. Onyx grabs Optimus's arm to stop his blow, then plunges his left hand into Optimus's midsection, unleashing an incapacitating energy blast. Onyx draws back his arm, his left hand shattered by the attack... then Optimus tears Onyx's face off... revealing that, beneath his beastly exterior, "Onyx Prime" is, and has always been...

...Shockwave!

Featured characters

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

Quotes

"Flying is a constant fight. Gravity pulls at us. I can tell myself it can't get me... but not everybody is so lucky. I wanted to build things. I told Optimus you need to start with a foundation. When the foundation isn't strong enough... when it fails... nothing stays standing. When everything collapses... it's not the falling that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end."

—Aileron

Notes

Continuity notes

• Aileron describes Pyra Magna as being the "new leader" of the Torchbearers, indicating that this flashback takes place shortly after the events recounted in the second half of the 2017 Optimus Prime annual.
• Aileron flashes back to Menasor and Swindle's attack on Caminus and Optimus Prime's unveiling of the Matrix to the planet's people, as seen in Windblade vol. 2 #1. Though not shown in flashback form, she also recalls Sterling's death from The Transformers vol. 2 #50.
• Aileron mentions that her colony was lucky enough not to be wiped out by the Black Block Consortia, recalling the fate of Prion.
• Onyx tells the masses that he "was there when Protohex was razed by the Darklanders," an event we saw in issue #10, though there was no sign of Onyx being there to witness it...
• Dreadwing is revealed to have died in the explosion at the end of last issue, though you would be forgiven for missing it; pretty much nobody comments on his death (not even this article!), and his corpse is kept mostly off-panel for some reason.
• Needlenose refers to Optimus Prime—back in his Orion Pax days—joining with the Decepticons to take down Zeta Prime, as seen in The Transformers: Autocracy. He also notes that Prime gave the Decepticons "another shot" after Galvatron "tried to wreck everything", a rather understated summary of the events of The Transformers vol. 2 #46-55.
• The first voice that speaks out to join Onyx in discrediting Optimus Prime is Tappet, the occasionally-seen NAIL who has been nursing a hatred of Optimus "Orion Pax" since he was first introduced years ago in The Death of Optimus Prime. We found out the origins of his grudge back in issue #1.
• Onyx's recording showing the death of Horri-Bull from way back in Robots in Disguise #1, and the subsequent revelation that the Decepticons were responsible from issue #2. He claims it is a public security recording, but the camera angles (viewing the death from behind and above, then looking up at Ratbat as he hangs upside down from the ceiling) indicate that this is actually a POV recording from Skywarp, who watched the scene play out from these positions.
• Just before the chaos breaks out, Marissa Faireborn is seen making a phone call to her assistant Rashid Nasir to have the Dinobots sent over. We learned Rashid was working as Marissa's assistant in 2018 Optimus Prime Annual; we haven't seen the Dinobots since issue #14, but this confirms they're still living inside Trypticon, as they have been since the events of Redemption, even though Trypty is now serving as the Earth embassy on Cybertron.
• It makes sense that Metrotitan would follow Starscream, as he was the one who originally dubbed him the "Chosen One", back in the 2012 Robots in Disguise annual.
• Shockwhaaaaaaaaaat?! In one of the biggest surprise moments in Transformers comics pretty much ever (and in no way lesser than the first time the "this character was secretly Shockwave all along" twist happened), Ol' One-Eye returns four years after his apparent death in the final chapter of Dark Cybertron, when he was consumed by a singularity. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that he still lives, though; the 2017 Transformers annual revealed that Bumblebee, dead even before he was consumed by the singularity, was alive within it.

Transformers references

• "Onyx" identifies his eyeball ship by name as Nemesis, after the similar-looking Predacon craft from the Beast Wars II animated series. There's a parallel in this; Shockwave previously used a different Predacon ship, the Darksyde from Beast Wars, in Revolutionaries #5. And of course, it's a huge, single eye... should've been a hint, really, shouldn't it?
• This isn't the first time a Shockwave has masqueraded as a Prime.
• Devastator asks Starscream to light their darkest hour. You should know what this means even without the link.

Errors

• Dreadwing's corpse is identified by a caption that mistakenly refers to him as "Dreadwind". This is corrected in the trade paperback.
• Devastator is depicted with Bonecrusher and Scavenger's treads on the sides of his torso, like his Combiner Wars toy, instead of on his forearms. This error would pop up intermittently in future issues.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for release in March 2018, this issue arrived noticeably late, almost two full months after issue #16. Issue #18, however, was not delayed; it was supposed to be released the week after #17, but a scheduling error resulted in the issue being digitally released, and copies being shipped to some stores, in the same week as this issue.

Soundtrack

• "Repo Man" by Charlotte Hatherley^[1]
• "Amplivagant" by T.A.R.^[2]

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Starscream in the grip of Devastator, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham
• Cover B: Our cast, within the silhouette of Aileron by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove
• Retailer incentive cover: Optimus Prime by Thomas Deer

• 

  Devastator has Starscream well in hand!

• 

  Keep your friends within you.

• 

  Yep, it's Prime.

Advertisements

• Optimus Prime #18
• Redemption of the Dinobots TPB
• Rom: Tales of the Solstar Order one-shot
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #250
• Dungeons & Dragons: Evil at Baldur's Gate
• IDW at C2E2 2018 (which was over a good 10 days before this issue was released. Whoops.)
• Free Comic Book Day 2018
• Transformers vs. Visionaries #1, presented as a "funeral program" for the departed Kup

Reprints

• Optimus Prime Volume 4 (November 21, 2018) ISBN 1684053633 / ISBN 978-1684053636
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #15–21.
  • Bonus material includes art from most covers.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 84: The Falling Part 1 (January 22, 2020)
  • Collects Optimus Prime issues #13–17 and Annual 2018.
  • Bonus material includes a page about the Primes, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Volume 4 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 84: The Falling Part 1 – cover art by Dreamwave and Kei Zama

References

External links

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