Optimus Prime Annual 2018

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OPAnnual18 Acov.jpg
"Thundercracker In:
Starscream: The Movie"
Attribution Information
Writer(s) John Barber
Artist(s) Priscilla Tramontano (1-12, 15-35, 38-40)

Andrew Griffith (13-14, 36-37)

Letterer(s) Shawn Lee
Colorist(s) John-Paul Bove (1-12, 15-35, 38-40)

Josh Burcham (13-14, 36-37)

Cover artist(s) Josh Burcham (Cover B)
Andrew Griffith (Cover B)
Priscilla Tramontano (Cover A)
Editor(s) David Mariotte
Publication Information
Publisher IDW Publishing
Publication Date February 28, 2018
Pages 48
General Information
Timeline 2017 AD
Series Optimus Prime
Issue Number Annual 2018
Preceded by "The Dead Come Home, Part 2 (of 2)"
Followed by "The Falling, Part 1:Surfeit of Primes"

Optimus Prime Annual 2018 is an IDW Publishing comic book by John Barber, with art by Priscilla Tramontano and Andrew Griffith. In the course of the story, Thundercracker works to create a movie that displays the life of Starscream. The comic was released on February 28, 2018.

Publisher's summary

THUNDERCRACKER IN: STARSCREAM: THE MOVIE! The good news: somebody finally gave Thundercracker money to make a film. The bad news: it’s Starscream, and he wants a biographical picture to win over the people of Earth. Will Thundercracker stand by his principles or… well, no, he makes the movie.

Plot summary

In 2017, Optimus Prime meets with a group of supporters in the streets, while Starscream looks down in disdain from the Spire as the classic film The Birth of Cybertron plays in the background. He is watching it in hope of gaining guidance in pursuit of direction on how to rule an empire. Rattrap scoffs at him, but Cybertron's ruler suddenly has a new idea...

With the new Earth embassy on Cybertron, Trypticon, Thundercracker brainstorms on his screenplay about the G.I. Joe agent Chuckles' heroic sacrifice. He asks for help from Delegate Marissa Faireborn, however, she is to busy with paperwork to assist. Suddenly, Starscream comes in, carrying drinks, saying he has come to speak to Thundercracker directly. Since Thundercracker understands the human culture better than any other Cybertronian, he wishes the ex-Seeker to make a biography about his life.

Enthusiastically, Thundercracker collects a team to assist him: Proxima as a cinematographer, Tankor for costume design, Seaspray on set design, and Acid Storm for playing the part of Starscream. He hears Starscream's pitch for the movie, including a young Starscream saving innocents from Autobot thugs, meeting Skywarp and Thundercracker as a way to bring justice to Cybertron, and showing great remorse at Megatron shooting down Air Force One. As he thinks over it, Thundercracker believes many parts of this are inaccurate and leaves to speak to those who knew Starscream best.

He first goes to Maccadam's Old Oil House, where he meets with former Decepticon Dirge. Dirge says he has not trusted Starscream since Megatron's invasion of Earth. As the Autobots were marched into the spacebridge, Starscream told him to go with the Autobots through the portal. Going along with it the gain favor, he soon regretted his decision as Optimus destroyed the spacebridge, trapping he, Deluge, and the Autobots on Cybertron alongside a swarm of Insecticons. He now believes that while Starscream did not know what would happen, he wanted to make sure someone else would take the fall.

Next, he goes to Earth, to the Lemuria, to speak with Skywarp who is currently a G.I. Joe agent. The two make-up over their last meeting, which resulted in Skywarp almost killing Thundercracker. Skywarp then tells of his backstory of how they met Starscream: as soon he first teleported, he was sent to the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology, where both he and Thundercracker were experimented upon. The two were also unappreciated due to their status of fliers, who were believed to be only good for war and transport. They soon met with Starscream, a senator from Vos who wanted to recruit them. He had them rebuilt to resemble him out of ego and as soon as politics went wrong for him, he joined Megatron in order to lose himself.

He heads back to Cybertron to confront Starscream on what the Decepticons meant to him. The High Chancellor says it meant having his greatness ignored until Metrotitan declared him to be the Chosen One, giving him clarity on why the Decepticons lost the war: they did not listen to him. Looking for greater insight, Thundercracker goes to visit Alpha Trion. The old sage believes the prophecy to be nothing more than a damaged Titan spouting nonsense. However, Trion states that stories have power, and a true storyteller uses that power to present truth, unlike Starscream's lies.

Taking the Prime's word to spark, Thundercracker becomes incredibly difficult to work within his pursuit of truth, with the cast and crew becoming extremely irritated. Thundercracker goes to the embassy to talk to Marissa about his dilemma: while he himself wants to tell a true story, Starscream wants himself to be displayed in an overly positive light. While he wants to be big in the movie business, but if Thundercracker cannot tell the truth, he believes himself to be a hypocrite. Faireborn finally cracks under pressure and asks for her assistant, Rashid Nasir, to call Mayday to get former superhero and current actor Richard Ruby's phone number.

Traveling once again to Earth, Thundercracker shows Ruby a scene depicting Starscream's first meeting with Megatron following the latter's arrival from Cybertron's wilderness. Ruby declares that the audience does not want to see dialogue, they want to see action and explosions. While Thundercracker initially rejects the notion, he decides that people want to be inspired, not only with action but with emotion as well.

Thundercracker completely rewrites the script, which is the last straw for Acid Storm, who quits on the spot. Encouraged by Buster, Thundercracker takes it upon himself to play the main role himself. However, everything changes as Swift brings in one piece of news: Starscream is now incarcerated due to crimes he has confessed to. The ex-Seeker is now even more invigorated, for he has found the perfect ending.

Thundercracker finishes the film, portraying Starscream's life as accurately as possible. He goes to his old commander's cell to show him, but Starscream says it is now irrelevant, due to his current situation of being in prison. Thundercracker is determined that his film will be an all-time favorite and leaves, forcing Starscream to tell his guard, Beachcomber, to ensure the director does not make it to Earth. Thundercracker enters the spacebridge and arrives on Prion, best upon by two Badgeless. Thundercracker easily dispatches them due to his Seeker past heads on to Autobot City.

He is given a message from Aileron to Ruby, informing him to meet the former Bulletman at his office. Thundercracker arrives and is distressed to learn that Rumble and Frenzy have released a film of their own already, which was aired in theaters and flopped, while his film is to be relegated to a direct-to-digital release. Defeated, he returns to Cybertron to talk with Marissa, but he is suddenly called by J.J. Hackensack, director of Space Battle. Hackensack wishes to make Thundercracker's film a reality and the Seeker is elated and accepts.

Appearances

Characters

Creatures

Events

Locations

Organizations and titles

Sentient species

Vehicles and vessels

Weapons and technology

Miscellanea

Behind the scenes

Continuity notes

  • The events of this issue occur between Optimus' discovery of the protoforms, during Starscream's reign,[1] and Onyx Prime's arrival, during Windblade's rule.[2] It also runs parallel to Starscream's political campaign and subsequent arrest.[3]
  • The movie Starscream watches, "The Birth of Cybertron", was previously watched by Zeta Prime.[4]
  • Thundercracker has been working on his Chuckles movie since Chameleon told him about it.[5] This issue gives a sequence of the preliminary screenplay, which shows Chuckles preparing to kill himself in order to destroy Cobra's Section Twenty base with its own missiles.[6] However, this imagining makes a few, key mistakes:
    • Chuckles was talking with Xamot Paoli, because he had already killed Cobra Commander.
    • The missile were not aimed at the world, rather, Chuckles detonated them aboard a submarine.
    • Chuckles is wearing his traditional, flower pattern Hawaiian shirt, rather than the shirt he wore actually, which had a different pattern.
    • The Cobra Commander appears wearing the uniform of his successor, Krake.
  • Rashid Nasir used work at the White House during the Dire Wraith invasion.[7]
  • Proxima is a Camien who was a crewmember of the Vis Vitalis.[8] In 2015 AD, it was established that the ship was returning to Caminus, which it evidently did, allowing Proxima to go through the spacebridge to Cybertron.
  • One of Starscream's wishes for the movie includes Air Force One being shot down, which Starscream did during Megatron's invasion.[9]
  • Dirge brings up the banishment of the Autobots to Cybertron,[10] when he and Deluge were stranded on the planet and left to the Insecticons.[11]
  • Hi-Tech is sad to hear that Thundercracker has stopped writing his "Susan Journeyer", proving he was not just humoring the ex-Seeker a few years prior.[12]
  • Skywarp and Thundercracker have not seen each other since Skywarp shot him in the back.[13]
  • Skywarp and Thundercracker attended the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology, run by Shockwave,[14] due to their Outlier abilities.[15] Skywarp laments that he was not selected for the "away team" on the mission to raid the Primal Basilica.
  • In his past, Starscream served as a precinct senator when he first met Thundercracker and Skywarp, a position he later held during Zeta Prime's reign.[16]
  • Skywarp tells of how Starscream had he and Thundercracker rebuilt to resemble him. Their physical similarity was later remarked on by Skywarp to Megatron that they took them to "honor their commander",[17] which is revealed to be a lie.
  • Starscream recalls when Metrotitan declared him to be the Chosen One.[18] The mystery surrounding the Titan, who appeared to die but in actuality teleported to Earth,[19] is acknowledged but not explained. Alpha Trion believes that the Titan was a different one, but this is not true, since Starscream recognized him when he awakened.[20]
  • Trypticon became Earth's embassy following Prime's discovery of him.[1] The protoform Sideswipe has physically developed greatly, taking on the form Sideswipe did following his return to Cybertron.[21]
  • Marissa gets Richard Ruby's number from Mayday, who met him earlier from information about the Talisman.[22]
  • Thundercracker shows Ruby the second Decepticon uprising (which is directly copied from the comic it appeared in).[23] He notes that Megatron is displayed in the wrong body, the form he took upon arriving on Earth, rather the stealth bomber.
  • Scenes that Thundercracker shows Starscream include the death of Metalhawk[24] and Starscream's imprisonment.[3]
  • The dead colony of Prion was previously seen to be where Infinitus transported Optimus and Soundwave to.[25]

Franchise references

Transformers references

  • Skywarp says that Starscream was on the run for ripping off taxpayers in Vos, which indicates he represented that city in the Senate. Starscream was the figurehead leader of Vos in the 1987 annual for the Marvel UK Tramsformers comics.
  • The Space Battle franchise was first mentioned in 2015 comic series Transformers: Robots in Disguise. It was brought into this continuity by Bulletman's profile. [26] Karen Fishook, an import from the original Transformers cartoon, take the role of Queen Spacela, a rip-off from Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars.
  • Flamewar first appeared as an exclusive toy for BotCon 2005. Her appearance in this comic is based on her toy from BotCon 2014.
  • The film's lighting is credited to Flash Bang, who first appeared as a toy flashlight from the Transformers movie toyline.

G.I. Joe references

  • One of the posters in Ruby's office is for Sigma 6, named after the 2005-2007 version of G.I. Joe.

Other Hasbro references

  • Aileron calls Ruby "Jem" mistakenly.
  • J.J. Hackensack first appeared in the Parker Brothers' game "International Movie Maker", who Richard Ruby has worked with.[26] Having him as director of Space Battle makes him a reference to J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, although he is visually based upon George Lucas, creator of Star Wars.

Real-life references

  • Hi-Test compares Thundercracker's first screenplay to Dogville, a 2003 avant-garde film with divisive reviews.
  • Ruby points out that Earth portrays Cybertronians on film with "big booms and excitement", similar to the general reception of the live-action Transformers movies.
  • Thundercracker deems "The Birth of Cybertron" to be an extremely racist film, similarly to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force.
  • Hackensack calls Thundercracker a "Cybertronian Orson Welles", who was also a writer, director, and an artist.

Errors

  • On page 10 on the final panel, Viewfinder is drawn in his based on his original 1985 toy, rather than his true appearance based on the original Transformers cartoon.[10]
  • On page 13, panel 1, the Jhiaxian Academy is called the "Jhiaxus Academy".
  • On page 22, Thundercracker calls an actress Karen Fishnet, rather than Karen Fishook.
  • On the final page, Hackensack says he directs the Space Wars films, rather than Space Battle.

Other trivia

  • The final page of this issue is a credits page, listing all of the Cybertronians, humans, and one dog who worked on the film, and giving "special thanks" not only to the characters in story, but also to the writers and artists who worked on the comics showing issues this comic called back to.

Soundtrack

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Cover gallery

Notes and references

External links

Optimus Prime
Main issues
Volume 1:

Volume 2:

Volume 3:

Volume 4:

Volume 5:

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