Few hours ago, we brought you the details from the IDW Panel at NYCC 2015. There, we’ve learned that Issue #50 of the IDW Transformers Comic Book series will bring about a change to the relationship between the Autobots and the planet Earth via a story arc titled “All Hail Optimus“. The creators of the series was interviewed by NewsARama for more details (Spoilers):
John Barber: Transformers #50 is the biggest thing we’ve done. It’s called “All Hail Optimus,” and Optimus Prime annexes planet Earth to become to become part of Cybertron’s Council of Worlds—he takes control of Earth to protect it from invasion. Meanwhile, Optimus has thousands of Cybertronian followers who view him as the “True Prime”—they see him as having a power above any elected office, above any “normal” being—and now Optimus is using the power they’ve handed to him. And he’s using it for good—at least as far as he sees it. Not everybody agrees with him.
Read the entire Interview, at NewsARama.
Qcjoe
I tried reading a few of these and I just cant get into them. The characters to me read all wrong.
Galvatross
That…that's actually a really neat idea.
EagleTron
All Hail Optimus? That doesn't sound right.
WilyMech
I wouldn't be surprised. I get the feeling that Most of Earth is not happy being The Spot for Cybertronians and colonies go to as major vacation hub.
GizmoTron
I'm sure many in charge of the status quo won't like this, but I can see Optimus winning over the will of the people.
The premise for Superman IV was a good one, it's the execution where everything went horribly wrong.
Johntimus Prime
The plot reminds me of the premise for Superman IV…and that's not a good thing
Sockie
The interview straight-up says most of Earth is not happy about this.
GizmoTron
Happens in the real world all the time, people questioning when it's ok to sacrifice freedom for security.
We don't know yet what threat the Earth may be facing, and no one should assume that Optimus is not making a tough decision. Or what the people of the Earth not named Spike actually feel about these turn of events. Maybe Optimus will be seen as a savior?
It has a lot of potential, I just hope they don't screw it up.
NATO-BOT
I'm pretty sure Megatron's line is, "Peace through tyranny" and Optimus'es is, "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings". This is totally contrary to his entire core value. It's pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
Johntimus Prime
Sure, you can have morally ambiguous characters. Both Autobots and Decepticons have their line-straddlers and turncoats. Mirage, Thundercracker, Jetfire, Grimlock, Drift, Dinobot, Blackarachnia – but when every character is like that? Then holy shit, we have a universe where evil is good and good is evil and it's called Shattered Glass.
Peaugh
I don't know, it could be good. It sounds like it may even parallel to some degree with how Megatron rose to power in the IDW-verse. How neat would it be if it were Megatron that got through to Prime and explained the error of what he's doing?
Rodimus Prime
I know what grimdark is. If you had bothered to read the link, it mentions that the definition isn't completely agreed upon. Not all of them require the work to be Warhammer level of darkness. A complete lack of light and levity is the common view online, but it is by no means the only one. By some definitions, A Song of Ice and Fire would fall into the category.
Depends on the definition one is using. One thing that everyone agrees on with the definition is the heroes being morally ambiguous, and often little better than the villains. Just my personal opinion, but I'd say it fits a version of Autobots who, after the war, allow worlds that helped the Deceptions to be razed and force the former Cons to live in ghettos. Just me, though.
Johntimus Prime
I'd call the fact that in IDW continuity, every Prime until Optimus was a heartless bastard who believed in either racial superiority or using power to enslave the masses was pretty grimdark. Everything I've read about the way IDW handles this stuff makes it sound like it's
Sumner Sturgeon
Sometimes I wonder why I even read comics anymore.
Autovolt 127
Oh yes…
That's comic books for ya.
Coffee
And it was Megatron's plan all along.
SMOG
Meh. My first response hearing the first reports of this from NYCC was "Oh… one of those plots."
Yeah. I'll pass, thanks.
Hey, y'know what would be cool? Like, if Prime gradually gets more and more draconian in his attempts to do the right thing, and eventually essentially stumbles into running a police state against the will of the very people he's trying to protect.
And then at the end, it turns out he was Bombshell all along.
What a twist!!
zmog
General Magnus
No.
This is grimdark:
Warhammer 40K Wiki – Space Marines, Chaos, planets, and more
The most horrifying and bloody day on IDW verse is just a Tuesday on Warhammer 40k.
SouthtownKid
Fair enough.
Sockie
People said similar things about the notion of the war ending, and yet here we are four years later…