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The End of the Beginning of the World

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« Combiner Wars #3
RID11 cvrA.jpg
"The End of the
Beginning of the World"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published November 21, 2012
Cover date November 2012
Written by John Barber
Art by Guido Guidi
Inks by John Wycough (pages 19-22)
Colors by Priscilla Tramontano
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

When his public standing is weakened by a mysterious bombing, Starscream is forced into a secret alliance with Prowl and Arcee.

Contents

Synopsis

With a communications network at last established in Iacon, Starscream avails of the opportunity to further inflate the new reputation he has gained following the Metrotitan's announcement that he will be the saviour of Cybertron. He petitions Omega Supreme for his endorsement live on air, and the giant's impassive reticence does nothing to dissuade the enthusiasm of onlookers, not least of all reporter Circuit, who proceeds to interview Starscream. Bumblebee, watching the broadcast, believes Starscream has sown up the forthcoming elections, but Prowl assures the little Autobot that he can still win—a sentiment not shared by Starscream, who, once back in his quarters, starts trying on different crowns in advance of his self-assured victory. Metalhawk attempts to talk further about the divine meaning of the Metrotitan's words, and Starscream reveals that he doesn't believe the Titan is supernatural at all: all that matters is that the populace does. The pair look out over the city from Starscream's balcony... at which point the calm is suddenly shattered by an explosion, with Omega Supreme at its centre. The horrified Starscream flies down to the blast site, where Prowl is directing operations to save the badly wounded Omega's life, and the court of public opinion has already passed a verdict on who must surely be the culprits behind the explosion: the Decepticons. Metalhawk attempts to speak in their defence, and when angrily called out by Bumblebee, he surprises the little 'bot by recanting and asking him to investigate. Prowl volunteers his services, but Metalhawk is wary, reminding the public about the "suicide" of Ratbat.

Watching all of this play out over the comm net are Swindle and Dirge, who believe that Shockwave and his small group of followers are responsible for arranging the attack on Omega to weaken the Autobots before restarting the war. Starscream shares their belief, and arrives at the Decepticon pen to confront Shockwave about it, concerned that Shockwave is going to ruin both his chances within the government, and the majority of the Decepticons' chances to make new lives for themselves. Neither confirming nor denying anything, Shockwave merely warns Starscream to stay out of his way. Turning to leave, however, Starscream is hesitantly approached by Swindle and Dirge, the latter trading information on Prowl's secret executions in exchange for Starscream's protection. Starscream confronts Prowl with the information, warning him that Dirge also shared it with Shockwave, and suggesting that maybe someone should do something about the threat they pose...

Back at the Decepticon pen, some time later, Shockwave is assessing the situation with Ravage, who catches a strange scent nearby... just before the dead bodies of Triggerhappy and Blot crash down in front of them, taken out by Arcee. Incapacitating Ravage and Rumble with ease, Arcee calmly faces down Shockwave and his assembled troops and informs them she's not here to fight: she has already planted a shrapnel bomb in their base, which promptly detonates and knocks all the Decepticons out. Arcee radios Prowl to confirm her success, and he directs her to take the captured Decepticons to the Black Room, and to plant another set of explosives within the base. Mere seconds later, with his own security force behind him, Prowl arrives at the pen and deliberately trips the explosives to make it appear as if Shockwave's Decepticons booby-trapped their own base, and that they have all perished in the blast.

From afar, Starscream watches as the pen burns and crumbles, vowing to himself that after sharing power for a while, he'll take Cybertron for his own. Arcee appears behind him to "congratulate" him on his successes, but at the same time makes him aware that while Dirge's information may offer him protection against recriminations from Prowl, she knows exactly where Dirge is hidden. Struck dumb, Starscream can only watch as Arcee leaps away into the night, but as he looks off into the darkness after her, he catches sight of something else: a figure marching toward the city, from out the wilderness.

Megatron has returned.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons NAILs

Quotes

"You and I want Cybertron to grow and prosper. We instigate our little machinations- no pun intended- but we want a future. We both think Ironhide's gone binary. But we both want him back because deep down we want his stupid vision to come true, whether he imagined it or not."
"Shockwave and Soundwave? They want the war to start again. And Dirge told them what you did."

—Starscream to Prowl


"These swords aren't for killing you. They're for deflecting shrapnel."
"They're... what?"

—Arcee and a confused Shockwave, right before things go boom


"I killed a couple of guards for fun."
"Anyone important?"
"I genuinely cannot tell them apart."

—Arcee and Prowl, casually discussing the deaths of Triggerhappy and Blot

Notes

  • Though not named, Circuit's camera man is identifiable as Longtooth, designed to look more like a robot version of his Pretender shell than his inner-robot, with a helmet evocative of his distinctive walrus tusks and his "eyepatch" re-envisioned as the camera of his new trade. In IDW continuity, Longtooth's sole previous appearance was as a disembodied Spark held in Garrus-9 in Spotlight: Arcee; guess he's reformed!
  • The crown Starscream tries on is, of course, the one from his coronation in The Transformers: The Movie. The other crowns sitting on the tables are the headpieces of the Japanese anime super-robots Mobile Suit Gundam, Great Mazinger, and Daitarn 3.
  • A model of Starscream in his F-15 alternate mode sits on a table in Screamer's quarters.
  • The explosives used in the attack on Omega Supreme are identified as plasma-density charges, introduced in "Spotlight: Soundwave".
  • Among the items left as a "memorial" by Omega's fallen form is a model of Omega Spreem.
  • Starscream remarks that no pun is intended when he uses the word "machination"—he might just be referring to the fact that he and Prowl are "machines", or he might be making a crack calling back to the Machination, the evil human organization led by Scorponok from Simon Furman's "-ations" era.
  • With this issue, Rumble and Frenzy switch back to being red and blue, respectively, as they were at the outset of IDW continuity, after spending the duration of the ongoing series with their colours swapped.
  • Starscream has hidden Dirge aboard the Alchemy-Seven, one of the NAIL ships mentioned back in The Death of Optimus Prime.

Edits

Similar to the pack-in versions of various other existing IDW comics, the version of this issue available with the Generations Combiner Wars Deluxe Class Quickslinger toy was also subject to some changes:

  • On page 2, Prowl's speech bubble in panel 4 has "Starscream is going to screw this up." changed to "Starscream is going to mess this up."
  • Multiple edits on page 6: Starscream's first speech bubble has an asterisk added after "NAILs", with an additional caption clarifying that the abbreviation stands for "*Non-Aligned Indigenous Lifeforms. Neutral Cybertronians."; Bumblebee's speech bubble in panel 3 has "the Titan's death" changed to "the Titan's destruction", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly; and Metalhawk's speech bubble in panel 4 is changed from "Do—do you think that's why he was killed…?" to "Do—do you think that's why he was attacked…?", also with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly.
  • On page 7, a free-floating speech bubble in panel 2 that says "Titan dies and" is omitted entirely.
  • On page 13, Prowl's first speech bubble in panel 1 is changed from "I told you he'd screw up." to "I told you he'd mess up."
  • Three edits on page 14: Starscream's second speech bubble in panel 2 has "He saw you kill Bombshell" changed to "He saw you blast Bombshell", and "He knows you killed the Constructicons in cold blood" changed to "He knows you destroyed the Constructicons in cold blood", with the speech bubble itself resized accordingly; and his third speech bubble in panel 5 has "his stupid vision" shorted to simply "his vision".
  • On page 15, Ravage's first speech bubble in panel 2 has "He's probably not any stupider than anyone else." changed to "He's probably not any more brainless than anyone else."
  • Three edits on page 17: Shockwave's first speech bubble in panel 2 has "Little assassin" changed to "Little warrior", and "kill us with two swords" changed to "stop us with two swords"; and Arcee's second speech bubble in panel 3 has "These swords aren't for killing you." changed to "These swords aren't for stopping you."
  • Two edits on page 19: Arcee's first speech bubble in panel 2 has "I killed a couple of guards for fun." changed to "I took out a couple of guards for fun.", and her second speech bubble in the same panel has "cannot" changed to "can not".

Foreign localization

Japanese

  • Title: "Sekai no Hajimari no Owari" (世界の始まりの終わり, "The End of the Beginning of the World")

Covers (5)

  • (thumbnail)

    What? I'm still alive?

  • (thumbnail)

    Slicey Dicey!

  • (thumbnail)

    Situation critical!

  • (thumbnail)

    Quickslinger toy cover

  • (thumbnail)

    Blast Off toy cover

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Reprints

  • The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 3 (April 17, 2013) ISBN 1613776268 / ISBN 978-1613776261
    • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #10–11 and Annual 2012.
    • Bonus material includes a cover gallery, and Barber's script notes and Guidi's sketches for the Annual.
    • Trade paperback format.
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