« The Transformers vol. 2 #55 » Titans Return »
"All Hail Optimus Part 6: No Fair Fights"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	July 27, 2016 (digital)
Cover date	July 2016
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Andrew Griffith
Colors	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Galvatron faces down Optimus, Soundwave, and Arcee in final battle.

Synopsis

On Cybertron, Starscream is horrified to recognize the Titan which Optimus Prime has raised from beneath the Earth as the same one which dubbed him the "Chosen One." Windblade bursts into the room to summon Starscream to an emergency meeting of the Council of Worlds; thanks to the reporters Starscream sent to Earth, all of Cybertron has just seen a live broadcast of the Titan's emergence, and the tide of public opinion is quickly turning.

On Earth, Skywarp teleports himself, Blackrock, Faireborn, and Jones to the White House, much to the consternation of the President. Blackrock puts on his game face, boastfully assuring the President that with his help, they will be able to prevent war from breaking out with the Cybertronians. When the President inquires about the Titan, Skywarp tries to explain their holiness in Cybertronian culture, but the President isn't interested in philosophy; rather, she wants tangible assets, including whatever they can recover from the Autobots' and Decepticons' recent battle beneath the Indian Ocean.

After surveying the underwater battlefield, Cosmos responds to Arcee's order to surface. Cosmos assumes she wants him to go on yet another observation mission, so he is surprised when she grabs onto him and orders him to take off after Astrotrain, revealing that Prime has ordered them to take out Galvatron once and for all. The four Transformers brave the rigors of superluminal spaceflight as they engage in a dogfight that leads them to the vicinity of Jupiter, whereupon Galvatron is able to cripple Cosmos with a cannon blast. Realizing that Galvatron is heading for Sanctuary Station, Cosmos uses the last of his energy to blast Astrotrain's engine, sending him and Galvatron plummeting towards Jupiter. Cosmos urges Arcee to leave him behind and finish Galvatron in order to save Soundwave's dream of peace; Arcee is a little reluctant at first but does as he says when Laserbeak and Buzzsaw show up to take Cosmos to Sanctuary Station for repairs.

Badly damaged and falling through Jupiter's atmosphere, Astrotrain suggests to Galvatron that they separate, but Galvatron has other plans: he takes hold of the shuttle-mode Astrotrain and hurls him at the pursuing Arcee, who remorselessly hacks him to pieces to clear her path. She and Galvatron engage in close-quarters combat once more, as Galvatron mocks her faith in Prime, believing he will eventually betray all who follow him. But as Arcee points out, Galvatron has already betrayed everyone on his side, which is why he now stands alone... while Arcee stands with Optimus Prime and Soundwave, who now emerge from Jupiter's gas clouds to join the fight. Outraged at their temerity, Galvatron engages all three of his opponents, holding his own until Soundwave shoots him in the back. Galvatron is surprised by the "dishonorable" move; Prime tells him that this fight is not about "honor," but about ensuring Galvatron will never threaten anyone again. Prime and Galvatron grapple, with Galvatron wrenching Prime's mouthplate off, until Arcee swoops in and sinks her swords into Galvatron's cannon. The cannon explodes, taking Galvatron's arm and most of the right side of his body with it, and finally knocking the fight out of him. Soundwave entreats Galvatron to see things as he has come to, to realize that the Decepticon ideal of equality extends to all races, but Galvatron laughs in his face. Far worse things are coming, Galvatron warns: their battles on Earth have proven that his ancient enemies, the Primes, still exist somewhere in the galaxy, and that Onyx Prime will soon arrive. For that reason, he will ally with them, not in the name of equality, but to fight a greater threat. Optimus somberly corrects Galvatron—nobody said anything about an alliance. Unlike Soundwave and himself, Galvatron has always put himself above everything else, including even his own ideals. Galvatron sees little difference between himself and what Prime has done on Earth; snatching his faceplate back and reattaching it, Prime tells Galvatron that if he was truly the same as him, if he thought only of himself, he would never be able to act in the greater good, or to do what he is about to do. Terrifying realization suddenly strikes Galvatron, and he declares that he unconditionally surrenders... at which point Prime blasts him point blank through what's left of his torso. Galvatron's body disintegrates, and Optimus grimly plucks the ancient Decepticon's lifeless head from his crumbling remains.

Just gonna leave this here. We cool?

Back in the White House, the President prepares to depart for a United Nations meeting, warning Faireborn that, as soon-to-be-former director of the Earth Defense Command, the failures of the last few days are likely to fall on her head. Jones tries to point out the positives, but the President won't hear it and storms out the door... straight into the shadow of the waiting Optimus Prime. Prime places Galvatron's severed head on the lawn, announcing that the Decepticon threat is over and reiterating that he comes in the name of peace. The raising of the Titan has inextricably linked Cybertron and Earth in a way that cannot be ignored, and Prime stands ready to commence diplomatic relations with the rest of the world, using the city-mode Titan as an embassy—an Autobot City.

On Cybertron, Starscream endures the council meeting, frustrated and impotent, his "holy appointment" as the Chosen One all but forgotten now that the presence of a Titan on Earth seems to prove it as a colony planet, and Optimus's ability to raise it apparently authenticates the divine rightness of his actions as a "true" Prime. The hallucinatory Bumblebee appears to him once again to gloat, reminding him that he always warned him that Optimus Prime would triumph.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

* Tough to tell which is which.

Quotes

"Lookee here. The big green cookie's got a hole in him."
"Squak! Guess that makes him a doughnut."
"He actually reminds me of a combiner."
"Why is that?"
"Because the hole's better than the parts."

—Laserbeak and Buzzsaw

"HELP ME! I can't stop!"
"You could have stopped years ago."
(SHUNK)

—Astrotrain's last words, and Arcee's riposte

"Today—one shall stand, and two shall fall!"
(WRUNK)
"No clichés, Galvatron."

—Galvatron trots out an old line, but Optimus isn't having it

"I know that whatever else I could do... you would continue to be an ultimate danger to Earth... to peace... to my fellow Cybertronians... and my fellow Earthlings. If I were like you—if I could think only of myself... I would never do this."
"No—you can't—I surrender! I surrender, Prime!"
"I know."

—Optimus delivers Galvatron's death sentence.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Starscream identifies the Titan found on Earth last issue as the same one who dubbed him the Chosen One in the 2012 Robots in Disguise annual, and confirms last issue's implied retcon that the species name has been reduced from "Metrotitan" to just "Titan," and that this Titan is actually named Metrotitan. In actuality, though, this "retcon" was suggested as early as issue #11, in which "Metrotitan" was used as a proper noun for the character—it's just that nobody noticed!
• Bumblebee notes that Starscream never believed Metrotitan's claim that he was Chosen One. We saw Starscream expressing this disbelief right away, in issue #11.

Transformers references

• You don't need us to point out the overused line from The Transformers: The Movie that Galvatron quotes, above, 'cause Optimus is as sick of it as we are.
• The President mistakenly called Skywarp "Spacewarp."

Real-life references

• The title of this issue comes from the Prick song of the same name.

Errors

• Optimus's left arm is in full-color again; it should still be unpainted grey, as seen in the last couple of issues, as the next two issues also show it unpainted.
• The Torchbearer copter-twin who appears on page 3, panel 1, looks to have her helicopter rotors hanging down her back, from her shoulder blades, rather than sticking up from her lower back. Swift, who was present at the scene last issue, has blades like this, but it doesn't look like it's supposed to be her.

Other trivia

• Originally intended for release on July 27, physical copies of this issue were delayed at the last minute. The issue was released on multiple digital platforms as normal, though not all, and was even later removed from some... so, uh, maybe don't read this article for a week?
• This issue also contains the first part of the "Revolution Prelude", a four-page back-up strip laying the groundwork for September's Revolution crossover which appears in several of IDW's July titles.
• You might think that Galvatron's death by decapitation, with his head surviving the destruction of his body, might be a tie-in to his Titans Return toy with its removable head... but apparently it was a coincidence, with John Barber forgetting that he was getting a Titans Return toy until it was too late to change it.^[1] At least the option's there if you need it, John!

Soundtrack

Writer John Barber followed in James Roberts's footsteps by tweeting the book's "first ever playlist," "in honor of the end of All Hail Optimus."

• "Chimes Broken" by Holy F**k^[2] (Language, John!)
• "Stomach It" by Olga Bell^[3]
• "No Fair Fights" by Prick^[4]

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: Optimus Prime, Arcee, Soundwave, and Cosmos rocket through space, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Burcham
• Subscription cover: The Autobots and Rom the Space Knight, by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove (miscredited as Joana Lafuente); part of a series of Rom-themed covers featured on numerous IDW titles in July, in celebration of the launch of the character's new ongoing series.
• Retailer incentive cover: Optimus versus Galvatron, by Carlos Valenzuela

• 

  The good, the bad, the lady and the flying doorbell.

• 

  If only Rom could transform.

• 

  One shall stand, and one shall fall. Guess who?

Advertisements

• The Transformers #56
• Revolution checklist
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past game (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers Volume 10 (October 5, 2016) ISBN 1631407481 / ISBN 978-1631407482
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #50–55.
  • Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 71: All Hail Optimus (March 7, 2018)
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #50–55.
  • Bonus material includes Background material on the Council of Worlds.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 12 (February 10, 2021) ISBN 1684057469 / ISBN 978-1684057467
  • Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #51–55 & #56–57, Till All Are One issues #1–4, Titans Return #1, and More than Meets the Eye issues #56–57.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Best of Arcee (October 5, 2022)
  • Collects Combiner Hunters #1: "An Uneventful Night", The Transformers (2012) #55: "All Hail Optimus Part 6: No Fair Fights", Optimus Prime #9: "The Life of Sideswipe", Excerpt from Optimus Prime #21: "The Falling, Chapter 6: Unforgivable", The Transformers (1984) #224: "Aspects of Evil!", and Transformers (2019) #18: "Arcee/Greenlight: Run".
  • Bonus material includes an art gallery.
  • One-shot format.

• 

  Volume 10 – cover art by Casey Coller and John-Paul Bove

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 71: All Hail Optimus – cover art by Don Figueroa (Sky Lynx) and Livio Ramondelli (retro)

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 12 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  Best of Arcee – cover art by James Biggie

References

External links

• Preview