COUNTDOWN: 8 noteworthy moments from Skybound’s Transformers #24

This is it!

After two years and 24 chapters, we’re finally at the end of Daniel Warren Johnson’s run on Transformers! How did things turn out? Did the good guys win the day? And were all the many outstanding plot points wrapped up neatly? Let’s have a look!

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS ahead! Check out our previous parts here.

#8: One shall stand…

One of the undeniable highlights of this issue is the opening fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. We’ve been waiting since the very beginning to see these two finally come face-to-face, and the opening six pages here deliver on that promise with fierce action and eye-searing splash-page art! It was great to see use of transformation during the battle (something that is often underutilised in Transformers media), and the art here was nothing shy of spectacular. However, the biggest surprise was surely how quickly the tide turned in favour of the Autobot. After making his proper return to the main storyline in #16, Megatron has been built up as this unstoppable force, terrifying everyone he encounters, including his own team, and even causing Optimus to make a hasty return upon revealing his presence in #18. So to see him fairly swiftly overpowered here is a real surprise! Sure, he gets plenty of licks in, too, despite Prime proving to be the superior force in this hand-to-hand scenario. It’s telling that the Decepticon turns to underhanded methods so quickly in an effort to gain an advantage.

#7: Human targets

In any case, it’s not long before Megatron cruelly uses the surrounding humans to force Optimus to back off, firstly by making his very unsubtle point by stamping on a nearby family, and then trying to goad the Autobot into fighting back despite the threat of more of the same. It’s exceptionally underhanded and quite in keeping with Megatron’s previous use of harming humans to draw out the Autobots, and it has the predictable result here. Optimus is so paralysed with fear for the humans’ safety that he dares not defend himself or retaliate, instead receiving a savage beating from the Decepticon leader, who taunts him about making hard choices as he goes!

#6: Megatron makes a point

Megatron stops short of killing Prime, instead choosing to send a message. He seems far more interested in ‘educating’ his opponent than he is in actually getting rid of him, as he orders Starscream and Laserbeak to carry Optimus to the top of a skyscraper and drop him onto a large metal spike instead, incapacitating our hero and forcing him to watch the twisted scenes that play out next. Megatron then has Starscream round up Spike and Carly as we learn the Autobots lie defeated in battle. Soundwave informs that “both sides have sustained heavy losses“, but from a reader’s POV, it’s unclear who this is referring to or if any characters have actually died during the fight. We see Arcee and Ultra Magnus are alive, and we glimpse the comatose bodies of Jazz, Wheeljack and Trailbreaker. Still, it seems unlikely anyone has died “off-screen”. We were anticipating some big-name casualties in this issue, but it feels here like perhaps everyone is accounted for, so far!

#5: The hero’s choice

There’s more to come, though, as Megatron then presents his master plan to Optimus. First, Starscretfam retrieves Beachcomber after the events of the last issue, which is a genuine surprise as I had honestly believed him to be already dead! He then tells Prime that he must choose who survives, his Autobot comrade or his human friends, Spike and Carly, in what reads like a very straight-up ‘hero’s choice’ moment a la the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man film! Despite Beachcomber’s pleading to let it be him, Optimus perhaps inevitably says he will not choose, as Megatron then orders Starscream to turn his gun mode onto the humans first…

#4: Timely intervention 1

This is where the issue takes a few turns, beginning with the sudden (and mostly unexpected) arrival of Omega Supreme, known in this storyline as “The Ancient”! However, the humongous robot is not really here to help – he’s just passing by, much as he did in his initial appearance in the flashback storyline of #13, when Starscream (then known as Ulchtar) first glimpsed him. It is still enough to shock the Decepticon into a change of heart, with this brief allusion to a positive memory stopping him in his tracks and casting off the mental shackles of Megatron’s mind control, allowing him to defy his master and declare himself to be Ulchtar once more! His eyes turn blue in a true ‘change the bulb’ moment before we cut to a splash page of a blast from Megatron’s gun mode ringing out, and it quickly becomes clear that the Decepticon has shot himself in the head instead of taking another grim order. It’s a slightly bizarre (and exceptionally sudden) ‘twist’, but it does at least tie together several threads that have been dangling for a while over various issues. As someone who was not a great fan of the ‘mind control’ element introduced in this storyline, I am pleased to see it concluded, at least for now (although it will be intriguing to see what else develops from these events in the future). Some may also wonder how Omega came to appear, exactly, but that can be traced back to #20, where a brief mention is made of an alert beacon on the downed portion of Cybertron… It’s still somewhat random, but for what it’s worth, we did predict something like this might happen!

#3: Timely intervention 2

With Omega Supreme passing on and Starscream out for the count, Megatron turns his attention back to the current situation and threatens to murder Carly and Spike himself as Optimus watches… except now it’s time for another story beat to be concluded in last-minute fashion with Shredhead arriving at the precise moment needed to save the day! Out of nowhere, they cut through the Decepticon with surprising ease before taking Soundwave off the table too and announcing to Carly that “Cliffjumper says hello“! Optimus is equally puzzled by the new arrival, but Shredhead merely explains that they are a friend. Overall, it’s a moment which plays out largely as many might have predicted, with the new robot character jumping into action right in the nick of time, which is no doubt going to cause plenty of comments (and a fair number of “Poochie” puns!). That said, for as ‘convenient’ as it all was (especially after the Omega ‘save’), I can’t deny there was a thrill to these scenes all the same, and it’s good to note how Shredhead remains active for more character development down the line.

#2: …one shall fall!

Shredhead cuts Optimus down from the pole where he was stranded before the Autobot leader swiftly gets back into action by pulling the remains of it from his chest (in one of the most harrowing panels of the issue!) and lunging at Megatron. The downed Decepticon pleads for Prime to stop as we’re treated to another example of classic 1986 Transformers movie dialogue with our hero stating he thought his foe was “made of sterner stuff“. It has to be said that such phrases being recycled yet again, and particularly at a peak and pivotal moment in this book, somewhat undercuts the drama in a way, but no doubt there’s an element of ‘playing to the crowd’ happening here. In any case, Megatron falls but is caught by Devastator before ordering his forces to beat a hasty retreat. However, we then get a very brief interlude with Starscream (or is it Ulchtar?), who seems to have been collected by Bruticus and may yet survive… he still has his new blue eyes, so perhaps this is a storyline that we can expect more from in the future. Will he recant his evil ways moving forward? We shall see!

#1: It never ends

This chapter (and DWJ’s run) comes to a close with some sombre but surprisingly hopeful moments, all of which zero in on the character beats and relationships that have been at the core of this book so far. A parallel is drawn between Sparky’s first encounter with an infant Spike after he was born and Spike’s awakening in Optimus’ hands following the conclusion of the battle. It recalls the longstanding plot point of the Matrix being infected and Prime’s twisted visions, and reminds us of Sparky’s sacrifice, both in #6 initially and again last time ‘inside’ the Matrix during #23. Then, after Prime has a brief heart-to-heart with Beachcomber, telling him he represents “the best” of the Autobots, we see how the Matrix has finally begun to heal and “come back to life“. Carly comments how the light is small, but Optimus reassures her that it is still powerful, hitting on the theme of hope and family, which has played out since the earliest issues.

Overall, it’s a fairly neat ending to a largely very successful run of Transformers comics, and whilst not everything was neatly tied up with a bow (we wouldn’t have expected as much!), we can’t help but feel emotionally satisfied given where this iteration of Transformers sits, nor with how it is poised for what potentially might be next.

So that’s our list! Did you enjoy #24?

TTFN