There can be only ONE Prime!
Unlike Magni, I guess! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s Energon Universe, he now takes the writing reins of the flagship Transformers comic series as well, with Dan Mora now on pencils and Sarah Stern on colors.
In this thirtieth issue, Optimus Prime must contend with Elita-1 as she challenges his leadership of the Autobots!
So they fight?
A little bit. Optimus really has no quarrel with Elita, but she’s been fighting the war on Cybertron for so long that she can’t really see anything else. The entire issue is built around their conflict with no cutting away from this momentous occasion and in the end, Optimus must compromise in order to do what is best for Earth. Basically, Optimus is put in a difficult position by Elita, who is practically immovable in her views and his ultimate decision leaves the Autobots on Earth in a tighter corner than they were already.
It’s a very Optimus thing to do and Kirkman doesn’t play him as indecisive as Daniel Warren Johnson did, which I do appreciate. I think it’s a bad decision made on Optimus’ part, but it might have been the only one that would keep the peace between the Autobots at this time. We’ve seen Optimus make numerous hard decisions in past fiction to safeguard or protect something, and this is really no different.
What about everyone else?
Ironically, if this issue makes anyone look bad, it’s Elita-1. I couldn’t help but feel like Optimus made the decision he did just to get her off his back. I get that she may be suffering from some PTSD from fighting the Decepticons for four million years, but she seems really short-sighted in her reasoning in wanting all Autobots to return to Cybertron. Does she think Megatron will stop at conquering Earth? She’s also got some nerve claiming that anyone who doesn’t want to return to Cybertron should stop calling themselves Autobots.
I feel like it’s a common thing for writers to try and pit Elita-1 against Optimus in some way, perhaps as an “over-correction” for her original role as his “girlfriend” in the Sunbow cartoon. Maybe they miss that Elita was also a charismatic and competent leader in her own right that WASN’T broken by millions of years of fighting in that cartoon. Still, most of the other portrayals of Elita-1 have been more interesting than this, not least of all was her role in the original IDW continuity. I guess we’ll see how her new status here in Skybound will evolve her as a character.
Cube?
After reading this twice, I think I’m a little more positive for the future of this comic than I was on the first read-through. It’ll probably serve characterization better to have smaller groups of Autobots in different places and the group that stays on Earth with Optimus at the end is an interesting bunch. I’m still enjoying this more than Daniel Warren Johnson’s run and Dan Mora’s art is still impeccable; it’s really a shame he isn’t going to be on the book after this.
Buy Transformers #30 this week and support those humans that Elita thinks are insignificant.
