The Energon Pub

[Counterpunch]

OP 16...

I think, it all comes down to, "Onyx Prime...have you come to draw us together or pull us apart?" -- "Sometimes, Mistress...a leader must do one to accomplish the other."

So, all the players are eventually brought into one place, literally drawn together.

The explosion happens. I don't know how or why.

Doubt is cast among them all. A unified Cybertron is in disorder.

Liege Maximo is left smiling.



What I don't know...

Is Onyx Prime a part of Maximo's plan? I don't think so because he seems genuinely pissed off about Alpha Trion.

What happened to Soundwave? I think somehow Maximo influenced him and broke down the control Soundwave showed at the start of the book.

Is there an unreliable narrator here? Was some part of what we saw and read not truthful?

[Randomhero]

So this is Power of the Primes right? this is everything John has been building up in the background since issue 30 of RID 4 years ago ever since we saw the flashback of Galvatron fighting headmasters and meeting Alpha Trion.

There has still been no talk of doing a POTP event like Combiner Wars and Titans Return for IDW and we know POTP line is only going till december.

[Sunstar]

In regards to the Annual:

Where Starscream wants to send a message to the outside, is he the reason the guys attack thunder?

[Randomhero]

So I talked to John Barber on Twitter. No power of the Primes event for IDW

[snavej]

I'm going to be really annoying and point out a single-letter mistake in the OP Annual: Marissa's speech bubble, 1st panel, page 18, '... who's only it it for himself.' - should be 'in it'.

Anyway, I liked the Annual overall: nicely irreverent. Thundercracker is a MACHINE (literally) for writing ultra-clunky dialogue. '... go back to writing fan fiction.' Ha! Burn!

Hackensack is a George Lucas-type director. He's going to be very cheesed off trying to work with Thundercracker, who should really stick to fighting, transport and booming.

Trypticon 'classy'? That's serious sarcasm!

How in hell does Thundercracker (or most other Transformers) use a human-built smartphone with his giant fingers?!

[Sunstar]

I'm going to be really annoying and point out a single-letter mistake in the OP Annual: Marissa's speech bubble, 1st panel, page 18, '... who's only it it for himself.' - should be 'in it'.

Anyway, I liked the Annual overall: nicely irreverent. Thundercracker is a MACHINE (literally) for writing ultra-clunky dialogue. '... go back to writing fan fiction.' Ha! Burn!

Hackensack is a George Lucas-type director. He's going to be very cheesed off trying to work with Thundercracker, who should really stick to fighting, transport and booming.

Trypticon 'classy'? That's serious sarcasm!

How in hell does Thundercracker (or most other Transformers) use a human-built smartphone with his giant fingers?!

very carefully. I can barely use one with my tiny fingers.

[SW's SilverHammer]

Is it wrong i wish the cassette bros' movie was titled 'Rumble and Frenzy Do America"? Also flamewar is way to cute. I hope because she has a similar body type to rodimus, Hasbro or somebody makes her mainline.

[ScottyP]

So I talked to John Barber on Twitter. No power of the Primes event for IDW

This pleases me. The narrative wasn't/isn't leading to anything resembling the toy line!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Thanks to a new listing from Amazon.com, we have word that Volume 4 of the IDW Optimus Prime ongoing will be released on November 20 of this year. The listing shows that the trade paperback will collect issues 15-21, and is collectively focusing on Onyx Prime and what he has brought to the table, as recently seen in issues 15 and 16 of the series.

You can check out the cover below, as well as the description of the book, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Darkness falls over Cybertron as the legendary Onyx Prime returns, throwing the planet into chaos! What does this mean for Optimus Prime--and the Earth?

As Onyx and his comrades sow panic and dissension on Cybertron, Windblade defends an already tense planet against a secret that could shatter it forever, Soundwave questions a fragile alliance, and Optimus confronts a mystery that goes back millions of years.

Collects Transformers: Optimus Prime issues #15-21.

[Targetmaster Kup]

Not sure why, possibly extreme delays, but OP #17 & #18 we taken off the shipping calendar as reported to ComicList at http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/list ... 03-21-2018

[Va'al]

Not sure why, possibly extreme delays, but OP #17 & #18 we taken off the shipping calendar as reported to ComicList at http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/list ... 03-21-2018

Screenshot_2018-03-23-10-10-19.png

As far as I know, OP 17 was moved to April 18, meaning OP 18 will also have to move along

[Va'al]

Directly from artist Kei Zama herself on her Tumblr blog, currently main and cover artist on IDW Publishing's ongoing Transformers comics series Optimus Prime, we have the covers for upcoming issues #17 and #18 of the title, with lineart provided and coloured final version of both (handiwork of Josh Burcham, of course).

You can check them out below, as Devastator takes centre stage on the first one, and Solus Prime hammering away in her forge on the latter - and then join the conversation in the Energon Pub!

Optimus Prime #17 cover

Written by: John Barber
Art by: me
Colors by: Josh Burcham @dcjosh​
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editor: David Mariotte

Optimus Prime #18 cover

Written by John Barber
Interior art by Livio Ramondelli and Pitre-Durocher @spewpew
Colors by Josh Burcham @dcjosh​
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editor: David Mariotte

[ZeroWolf]

Solus prime is looking very good in that art, would be nice if we eventually got full sized figures for all the primes. So far by my count we got four (five if you got nexus prime from he club)

[Manterax Prime]

Solus prime is looking very good in that art, would be nice if we eventually got full sized figures for all the primes. So far by my count we got four (five if you got nexus prime from he club)

Alpha Trion, Optimus, Megatronus........who's the fourth?

[ZeroWolf]

We got vector prime in the cybertron line

[Manterax Prime]

We got vector prime in the cybertron line

D'oh! I forgot.

[Rodimus Knight]

Doesn't Fix-it keeping refering to her as "Sweet Solus Prime". She doesn't look so sweet there.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Starscream's face is precious

[Rodimus Prime]

I haven't kept up with this title, but I was in my local book store today and saw a copy of volume 2 on the shelf. I picked it up and perused it, and I was totally lost. There seemed to be no coherent story whatsoever, just a bunch of individual stories thrown together. Is that how OP is? No consistent story arc throughout, just a bunch of stuff?

I haven't read about Megatronia being in IDW, it would be awesome if she showed up to fight Victorion. Assuming Vicky survives the fight against big Devy.

[ZeroWolf]

So far megatronia isn't featured and now if she makes the jump, she'll be in the new continuity. At least some of the components will survive devy as we see magna in the Unicron free issue 0, quite alive and well.

[Daniel Adkins]

I haven't kept up with this title, but I was in my local book store today and saw a copy of volume 2 on the shelf. I picked it up and perused it, and I was totally lost. There seemed to be no coherent story whatsoever, just a bunch of individual stories thrown together. Is that how OP is? No consistent story arc throughout, just a bunch of stuff?

I haven't read about Megatronia being in IDW, it would be awesome if she showed up to fight Victorion. Assuming Vicky survives the fight against big Devy.

Not everything needs to be six-part story arcs. Personally, I prefer shorter stories and when comics can give me a complete story in a single issue. And of course, they do make a coherent, serialized narrative if you actually read the issues.

[ScottyP]

I haven't kept up with this title, but I was in my local book store today and saw a copy of volume 2 on the shelf. I picked it up and perused it, and I was totally lost. There seemed to be no coherent story whatsoever, just a bunch of individual stories thrown together. Is that how OP is? No consistent story arc throughout, just a bunch of stuff?

Volume 1 is a coherent six part story arc (unless you ask Seibertron who finds it to be a sloppy mess but it's ok to be wrong), Volume 2 is not. It picks up on several dangling plot threads and has some of my favorite stuff from the whole series by a mile - but these are mostly stand-alone things almost like Spotlights.

What order did they print the issues in? If they did publication order I can see it being a mess.

Important note though, at the time OP 7 and LL 8 hit (which was a little ways apart) we'd had: Conquerors > All Hail Optimus > Titans Return > New Cybertron in RiD/TF and Dying of the Light > Titans Return > Dissolution in MTMTE/LL. The 1-2 issue beats were extremely welcome as a reader of the monthlies by that point!

My final point: larger narrative is important but I don't mind it stepping aside to leave room for issues like "What It's Really Like" and "The Life of Sideswipe" which are absolutely great comics to me. I'm so happy they got made since there'd be no room to fit them in here not even a year later!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

iTunes has updated with a new listing in the form of a 3 page preview for IDW's Optimus Prime #17! Issue 17, set to come out next week on April 18, along with Optimus Prime #18 oddly enough thanks to a bad scheduling error as confirmed by John Barber himself, gives a look at Aileron as she recounts her story of going from a lowly citizen of Caminus to a follower of Optimus Prime, as well as what she thinks of her life going from boring to exciting while getting her best friend killed.

You can check out issue 17's 3 page preview below, BUT BE WARNED, you should not read issue 18's inevitable preview before you have actually read issue 17. So really, don't even read the preview for issue 18. Just buy it and 17 next Wednesday.

Let us know what you think of both the issue 17 preview and the scheduling conflict that has 2 issues of the same series coming out on the same day below!

I never say anything like this, but if you're reading Optimus Prime, don't look at any previews of issue 18 before you read 17... and both issues will be out next Wednesday

[WreckerJack]

Hehe my sentiments exactly. I should probably get up to date on this comic. Have not been in a reading mood as of late.

[ZeroWolf]

In one sense having 17 and 18 out on the same is a good thing, it's just bad having the preview out that potentially spoils the end of 17. Still will be nice to read a larger chuck of the story then we'd able to otherwise. Though the name sterling just makes me think of cars 3 which my oldest insists on watching a lot recently.