« Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen #4 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 10, 2009
Screenplay by	Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Ehren Kruger
Written by	Simon Furman
Pencils by	Jon Davis-Hunt
Colors by	Kris Carter
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Edits by	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	Movie continuity

An adaptation of the summer blockbuster of 2009.

Synopsis

The Fallen orders Megatron to find Sam Witwicky and bring him the Matrix of Leadership. Megatron agrees.

Seymour Simmons and Leo Spitz decide to stay in their place of relative safety with Skids and Mudflap but to keep their eye out for an opportunity to help. The Twins then agree they were totally and majorly screwed.

Sam and Mikaela Banes are still running from Starscream when they are found by Rampage who is holding Sam's parents hostage.

William Lennox and Ray Epps wonder why the United States military is not sending help, figuring they could see the conflict from satellites. However, satellite images continue to be disrupted by Soundwave.

Some Constructicons form Devastator.

Sam is about to trade the sock full of Matrix dust to Rampage in exchange for his parents when Bumblebee shows up and defeats Rampage with his bare hands. Bumblebee drives Ron Witwicky and Judy Witwicky to safety just before Megatron opens fire on Sam and Mikaela, missing.

The Fallen downs a couple of American helicopters by telekinesis. One helicopter is completely destroyed but the other is able to make a crash landing. Simmons borrows its radio. While Devastator begins demolishing a pyramid, exposing a harvester, Simmons reaches a nearby US Naval destroyer on the radio. Simmons tells the captain to prepare his prototype rail gun and be ready to fire when he gives him the coordinates. The captain briefly argues about security clearance but Simmon's persuasive personality convinces him.

An unmanned aerial vehicle is finally able to get images back to the US military and they send a tank battalion led by General Salam into the fray. Sam and Mikaela are pinned down by Megatron near Lennox's position when the tanks arrive. Lennox orderes the tanks to give covering fire and Sam and Mikaela are reunited with Lennox. Long Haul then arrives barreling down on their position. Before he can run all the humans over, Jetfire swoops down and destroys Long Haul with one shot. US planes are entering the area on a bombing run, so Lennox and Mikaela run to safety. Sam instead runs to Optimus Prime. Scorponok appears out of the sand and stabs Jetfire through the chest. Sam arrives at Optimus Prime's body when an explosion from Megatron knocks him unconscious.

Sam's heart stops, and he has a vision of the Dynasty of Primes, who tell Sam that he has proven his leadership ability and give him stewardship of the Matrix. Sam is resuscitated by a medic. He pours the Matrix out of his sock and it reforms itself into a solid artifact. Sam jabs the Matrix into Optimus Prime's spark, reanimating him. Having apparently gained knowledge through the Matrix, Prime wakes up wanting to know where he can find The Fallen.

Is it a bird? A plane? Or a guy wearing a plane?

The Fallen teleports to where Sam is, steals the Matrix through telekinesis, shoves a couple of Autobots out of the way with a wave of his hand and teleports away. Optimus Prime declares he is still not in shape to face The Fallen, so a dying Jetfire offers his chassis for parts. Ratchet then performs a field refit of Optimus, installing Jetfire to him, forming a makeshift super mode.

Simmons makes his way under Devastator's feet and tells the destroyer captain to fire the rail gun directly above his position. This is a direct hit and Devastator is destroyed. Optimus Prime then goes on the offensive, and takes out the harvester. The Fallen is incensed that anyone would dare challenge him, as he is a Prime, but Optimus says that The Fallen renounced that name when he slaughtered his brothers, and that there can only be one Prime now. Megatron objects, calling Optimus a liar because The Fallen promised the power of the Primes to him. Optimus informs Megatron that he was deceived by The Fallen then chops off one of Megatron's arms and one of his legs.

The Fallen opens up a portal in preparation for a retreat, but takes too long in his farewell monologue because, at that moment, Optimus uses grappling hooks from off-panel to tangle him up. The Fallen begs Megatron for help, but Megatron instead uses the portal to escape to the Nemesis. Optimus then finishes off The Fallen by driving a spike through his head.

Later, the humans and Autobots are on the U.S.S. Roosevelt celebrating their victory. Sam says the symbols in his head are gone, and Optimus tells him that the knowledge had passed to him, and they are all that are left of Cybertronian heritage. Optimus is grateful to Sam for keeping the information safe. Sam asks about the future and Optimus gives a speech about facing it together.

Megatron is then back on the Nemesis with all of his limbs. He is busy raising a new army from stasis pods located there.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Simmons: "On a scale of one to ten...how screwed are we?"
Skids: "Majorly."
Mudflap: "Totally."

—The Twins don't have much hope for survival.

The Fallen: You dare challenge me?! I am a Prime!
Optimus: You abandoned that name when you slaughtered your brothers. And now my ancestry shall be avenged!
[Optimus destroys the harvester]
The Fallen: NO!
Optimus: There can only be one Prime.
Megatron: You lie! The Fallen promised me the power of a Prime!
Optimus: Primes are born...not made!

—Optimus and The Fallen settle their family feud, while also educating Megatron on the nature of the Primes.

"From now on...Megatron answers to no being!"

—Megatron leaves The Fallen to his fate.

"Let my new army...arise!"

—Megatron raises his army of Protoforms.

Errors

• Scavenger's alternate mode is the same excavator model used for Demolishor in issue 1. Likewise, Long Haul is also a different, much smaller model of dump truck than the Caterpillar 773B as seen in the movie and used as a basis for the toys (which have a more genericized alternate mode).
• Arcee, who was shown joining the battle in issue 3, is strangely absent.
• On page 2, when Sam and Mikaela are running from Starscream, Mikaela's jacket is missing.
• On page 4, Admiral Morshower not only still doesn't look anything like actor Glenn Morshower... he also suddenly sports a mustache he didn't have yet in any of the other issues he appeared in.
• On page 10, when Mudflap is sucked into Devastator, Skids calls him "Skids".
• On the last page of the story; when Sam tells Optimus that the symbols in his head are gone, his speech bubble is coming from Simmons. Also, Optimus is missing color on his legs. Again.
• How did Megatron raise the army without Energon?
• Way to end the story, with 3 errors in a row.

Items of note

• Both Rampage and Long Haul are active individually while Devastator is formed. Judging by the number of incoming comet Decepticons in the last issue, there were plenty of Decepticons on the scene for Devastator to be formed without them, so this isn't an error.
• In Defiance #4, The Fallen claimed he would be imprisoned in his sarcophagus until the star harvester is rediscovered. This is apparently literally true. It seems the act of finding the harvester somehow freed him from prison.
• Josh Nizzi's cover for this issue is a modified version of his rejected cover for Defiance #4 (rejected because, at the time, director Michael Bay and DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures wanted to keep Megatron's return a "secret".) The main difference is the photoshopping of a stock image of The Fallen into the background.
• The spike from the harvester that Optimus uses to kill the Fallen with resembles the Fallen's spear weapon, which the Fallen does not use in any media except the movie.

Differences with movie

• In the film, Scorponok is killed by Jetfire and Ravage is killed by Bumblebee, while Starscream escapes with Megatron. In the comic, the fates of Scorponok, Ravage, and Starscream are not shown—in fact, Scorponok is only seen for a single panel in the comic, when he injures Jetfire. Soundwave is presumably still in space in either version. Also, in this issue, Jetfire saves the humans from Long Haul, whereas in the movie, he saves them from a Mixmaster, while Long Haul is killed by a military air strike.
• Long Haul's alt-mode is slightly different here than it is in the movie. In the movie, Long Haul transformed into a flat-nosed mining dump truck, whereas here, he turns into a long-nosed construction dump truck.
• Arcee, "Buffalo MPV Decepticon", Mixmaster, Scrapper, and the Decepticon Protoforms are absent in the battle, although the protoforms are later shown on the Nemesis. Jolt is also missing, but that's because he was a last-minute addition to the film, and is not in the comics.
• The Rampage that battles with Bumblebee is yellow.
• In the film, Sam and Mikaela take off their jackets some time before Jetfire's arrival on the battlefield, but in the comic they keep their jackets on all the way through the final battle.
• In the movie, The Fallen does not summon a portal, and does not get tangled up with wires which prompt him to plea for help from Megatron.
• In the movie, Megatron flees with Starscream after The Fallen is defeated. In the comic, Megatron explicitly refuses to help The Fallen, due to his betrayal, during his battle with Optimus Prime and departs from the battle off-screen.
• The Fallen's death is different. In the comic, Optimus stabs the Fallen through his head with a spike taken from the harvester, but in the movie he tears the Fallen's face off with his own spear, and then Optimus rips out the Fallen's spark and crushes it.
• The final scene from the comic, with Megatron witnessing the Decepticons on board the Nemesis hatch and welcoming them as his new army, is not in the movie. It was probably in an early version of the script, though, because almost every book and the video game based on the movie has this scene in it.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: Optimus Prime facing off against Megatron while The Fallen looms in the background. Art by Josh Nizzi.
• Cover B: CGI render of Bumblebee

Advertisements

• Transformers: Destiny
• Nine-page excerpt of the Transformers: The Reign of Starscream trade paperback.
• Transformers: The Reign of Starscream (again)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Adaptation (back cover)