All That Remains

	"All That Remains"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 10, 2015
Cover date	May 2015
Story by	Mairghread Scott and John Barber
Written by	Mairghread Scott
Pencils by	Marcelo Ferreira (pg 1-2, 8-19) and Corin Howell (pg 3-7, 20-22)
Inks by	Corin Howell, Brian Shearer and John Wycough
Colors by	Yamaishi (pg 1-2, 8-19) and Thomas Deer (pg 3-7, 20-22)
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2015)

Now merged as a combiner, Optimus Prime and Prowl must finally come to terms with one another if they are to stop Devastator from ravaging all of Cybertron's colony worlds.

Synopsis

Instantly recognizing the presence of Prowl within the new Optimus combiner, Devastator is furious at being "rejected" by the Autobot who was once part of him, and attacks. Even before the first punch lands, the Optimus combiner collapses due to the five minds which make it up being unable to synchronize, so Superion and Defensor come to his aid. Superion tries to remind Devastator that Starscream had tasked him with stopping Menasor, but Devastator refuses to be controlled by anyone's whim, and the battle between the four combiners resumes.

On Cybertron, Wheeljack and Windblade are trying to defend the space bridge against Swindle and the Decepticons when help arrives in the form of Starscream and his Badgeless troops. Starscream himself blasts Swindle through the chest, and while everyone is fighting, Wheeljack and Windblade recalibrate the bridge for Caminus, allowing Chromia and the other Decepticons on the colony world to return and lend their aid. With the help of Chromia's forceful personality, the melee is brought to an end... but not without a casualty. Swindle succumbs to his injuries and dies, but before he passes, he whispers to Rattrap that there is proof that Starscream was responsible for Menasor's attack on Caminus.

While the other combiners battle around them, within the Optimus combiner, Optimus Prime struggles to maintain his sense of self in the face of Prowl's experience in controlling a combiner mind. Prowl restates his belief that destroying the space bridge and sacrificing the future of Cybertron and the colony worlds is the only way to stop Starscream, but one by one, Optimus, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, and Mirage rally, refusing to look at the world only as numbers and statistics the way Prowl does. Instead, they all believe in the power of people to change that: people who may fail, but who will be there to help pick one another up if they do. Synchronized by this shared belief, the four 'bots' minds slowly come together, and while Prowl refuses to accept their way of thinking, in that refusal, he finally understands them... and in that understanding, five become one, and Optimus Maximus is born! Surging back to life, the newborn Autobot combiner takes his place beside Superion and Defensor as they prepare to force Devastator and Menasor back through the space bridge.

On Cybertron, Wheeljack discovers that the fluctuating space bridge is trying to lock on to multiple locations at the same time, as Metroplex attempts to reach all of the colony worlds at once. No sooner has this discovery been made than the five combiners suddenly come tumbling through the portal; Menasor has been knocked out, but the other four continue to fight. The titanic brawl carries across the universe, as the combatants repeatedly fall in and out of the portal, jumping to a different location each time: first to a desert planet, near a giant mobile city; then to the bow of a Titan, somewhere in the depths of space. While Windblade, Chromia, and Starscream keep Menasor down, Optimus Maximus, Superion, and Defensor finally manage to surround Devastator, and with an almighty pull, tear him into his component Constructicons with their bare hands. As the Constructicons are arrested, Scoop apologizes to Starscream for being unable to control them. Knowing that they cannot consider themselves above the law, Optimus Maximus willingly separates and surrenders Prowl to Starscream's custody. Superion is saddened to think that Optimus Maximus will never form again, but some bonds are not easily broken, as proven when Optimus Prime later visits Prowl in his cell.

Sometime later, on Caminus, Windblade reports to the Mistress of Flame: the Council of Worlds has successfully been formed, with Rattrap acting as Cybertron's representative, but Windblade cannot rest easy, since, with Menasor and Devastator imprisoned, all functional combiners still remain under Starscream's control.

Across the galaxy, on the colony worlds, the aftermath of the combiner wars is surveyed by the far-off planets' inhabitants. On Velocitron, Knock Out and Moonracer prepare to tell Override of the devastation, while on Eukaris, Airazor is not so keen to share what she and Tigatron have found. And within the huge starship, Obsidian reports on the appearance of the space bridge, and the readings detected from it that point the way to Cybertron... readings of great interest to the listener, who sits on a throne made of the remains of other Transformers... Obsidian's captain, Elita One!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Others

Devastator (4)
Swindle (8)
Badgeless officers (9)
Starscream (10)
Rattrap (11)
Scavenger (22)
Hook (23)
Scrapper (!!!, 24, see Errors)
Scoop (25)
Mixmaster (26)
Bonecrusher (27)

Quotes

"This is how you see the world, Prowl? Numbers? Percentages?"
"This is how the world is, Optimus. Everything else is people trying to convince themselves otherwise."

—Optimus Prime and Prowl

"You are so concerned with who leads our nation, Prowl, that you do not see who makes up our nation... and that is where change comes from. Can you not see these people as we do? As people? Can you not see the valiance in their actions? The determination of their struggle? We are not speaking of merely numbers, Prowl... but people."
"People will always fail you, Optimus. Always."

—Optimus Prime and Prowl

"When we fail together, we pick each other up. When we fail alone, there is no one there to help."

—Optimus Prime

"I have seen the heart of Devastator. And the duplicitousness of humans. I offered you enlightenment. And still you refuse to see it?!"
"We do. We must."
"I understand. I finally understand."

—Prowl and Optimus Maximus

"We are not Optimus Prime. We are OPTIMUS MAXIMUS! The defender of all sentient beings!"

—Optimus Maximus

Notes

Transformers references

Windblade swears "Sweet Solus Prime!", taking the name of one of the Thirteen in vain with an oath that has been used a few times in the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon.
Velocitron was one of Cybertron's colony worlds central to the plot of the Transformers: Cybertron series. In IDW continuity, we briefly glimpsed it back in issue #4 of the first Windblade mini-series, a scene also gave us a look at a vehicle-mode Knock Out. He appears in robot mode here and is officially named, confirming him as being based on the Prime character. His companion goes without a name this issue, but as a turquoise and grey female Autobot, we feel pretty confident in identifying her as Moonracer (she's got those thingies with the yellow bits on the side of her helmet). Her identity would be confirmed in the following issue.
Knock Out mentions reporting their discovery to Override; obviously, this is a version of Cybertron Override, who was the ruler of Velocitron in that series. This isn't the first time Override's appeared in Generation 1 continuity family fiction: an incarnation of her was recently introduced in the Beast Wars: Uprising prose story "Broken Windshields", but the one who inevitably appears in this series is liable to be a lot more traditional than that one.
The planet Eukaris was also briefly glimpsed in Windblade vol. 1 #4; the two inhabitants we see here are Tigatron and Airazor of Beast Wars fame, suggesting this new world may play home to a series of battles similar to the titular conflict. A colony planet of beast-formers also references the Cybertron "Jungle Planet" Animatron.
Obsidian leaps right out of Beast Machines, still fulfilling his role as a dedicated number two beneath his master. Of course, the identity of his master is very different here...
...it is Elita One, Cybertronian rebel cell leader and Optimus Prime's paramour from the original Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Search for Alpha Trion". Save for the BotCon 2007 comic, this marks the beginning of Elita's first major role in Generation 1 fiction since that episode's broadcast, with only a scattering of cameos and aborted storylines to her name otherwise. In this appearance, she appears in her quite recognizable G1 cartoon character model. In the single panel she appears in, however, her personality appears drastically different than her incarnation of almost 30 years previous sitting on a throne/chair made of Transformer bodies, which is on a floor made of Transformer heads, and sporting a broken helmet and a somewhat demented smile.

Errors

With or without youuuuu
With or withouuuut you
I'm disappointed
With or withouuut youuu

Optimus says "How is that he has landed on Caminus and yet Caminus is still separate from Cybertron?", missing an "is" after the first word.
On the same page, Defensor is drawn with a duplicate First Aid as his arm instead of Blades, who was in that position before... although it's somewhat hard to tell with how off-model most of the gestalts are in this issue.
Last chapter, Optimus Maximus was colored like Ultra Prime, and this issues tries to fix that by making his blue parts white. He's still not supposed to have a red chest, however.
Devastator is, inexplicably, drawn to the specifications of somebody's fan art, notably causing him to lose his visor and tread-forearms.
- Scoop is also drawn with no shades throughout the issue.
Not strictly an error, but all the recognisable Decepticons who were with Swindle last issues have disappeared, and a horde of generics has taken their place.
Fat Tankor is looking pretty off-model, with long, proper legs instead of squat treads, and hands with opposable thumbs instead of pincer-claws.
Optimus Prime's head and limbs are on-model, but his torso is drawn as that of his MP-10 Masterpiece figure.
All of the Constructicons have incorrect body designs, appearing with their classic Generation 1 designs rather than the redesigned Earth modes they've been sporting since Robots in Disguise #29. Perhaps this is a deliberate effort to bring them closer in appearance to their new Combiner Wars toys that could be written off on the reconfiguring effects of the Enigma, but Scrapper—friggin' SCRAPPER!!!—is standing with them! Scrapper was erased from the art for the trade paperback, with Scavenger, Bonecrusher and Scoop slightly upscaled, and some fog effects added.
Page 20 is cropped a teeeeny bit too high—at the very bottom, Optimus Prime and the silhouetted figures in the distance disappear where the lineart stops, which ought to have been cropped off the page. This was adjusted for the trade paperback.

Other trivia

This issue was originally solicited for release in May 2015, with Saren Stone on art, but unspecified production delays caused it to slip into June, with a six-person art team taking Stone's place.
This story's title was missing from the individual issue, but was added back in for the trade.
Starscream projects laser-swords from his forearms; while it's entirely possible that this is a power he has in his new body, given that said body is expressly based on a new toy that doesn't have swords as a feature, this feels like it might be a script goof, since Starscream's previous body did feature deployable forearm-blades.

Covers (4)

Regular cover: Prowl holds the Enigma of Combination, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
Subscription cover: One half of Optimus Maximus, with Defensor and Superion behind him, by Livio Ramondelli; connects to the subscription cover of The Transformers #41 to form a complete image
Retailer incentive cover: Combiner Wars Optimus Maximus package art by Marcelo Matere, "courtesy of Hasbro"
Hasbro exclusive cover: Artwork of Smokescreen, based on his Generations Combiner Wars Deluxe Class toy, available with said toy in the United States, Australia, and Asia. Rebranded as Combiner Wars #20. It also contains the same error with Scrapper being with Scoop and the Constructicons.

Reprints

The Transformers: Combiner Wars (August 12, 2015) ISBN 1631403869 / ISBN 978-1631403866
- Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–41, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–3.
- Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
- Trade paperback format.

Transformers: Windblade - The Last City (February 14, 2018) ISBN 978-1684052240
- Collects Windblade (2014) issues #1–4, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–7, but not the alternating chapters of Combiner Wars from The Transformers vol. 2 needed to complete the story. Um.
- Bonus material includes covers from each issue.
- Trade paperback format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 65: Combiner Wars (October 31, 2018)
- Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–42, and Windblade (2015) issues #1–4.
- Bonus material includes an article about the Prime Wars Trilogy, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 (June 19, 2019) ISBN 1684054842 / ISBN 978-1684054848
- Collects The Transformers (2012) issues #39–41, #42–43, Windblade (2015) issues #1–3 & #4–5, and More than Meets the Eye issues #41–44.
- Hardcover format.

Combiner Wars – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente
Windblade - The Last City – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 65: Combiner Wars – cover art by Don Figueroa and Livio Ramondelli
The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 9 – cover art by Marcelo Matere