All Fall Down

	; And Go Boom!
	"All Fall Down"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	March 1990
Cover date	May 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Artist	Geoff Senior
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Jim Massara
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The name or term "All Fall Down" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see All Fall Down (disambiguation).

Arise, Thunderwing!

Synopsis

Unicron has consumed the planet Ghennix on his journey to Cybertron and Primus, and takes a moment to recreate three mechanical misfits as his new heralds, Hook, Line, and Sinker. Unable to teleport himself the full distance to Cybertron, Unicron requires an agent that can be sent ahead to sow fear and spread his name. He transports his heralds through the veil of time to fetch this agent.

Aboard the Ark, Thunderwing realizes the full power of the Matrix... by using it as a club to smack down Optimus Prime. As Hot Rod leads a group of Autobots to Prime's aid, Thunderwing strikes down Landmine with a single blast, killing him instantly. He then scatters the remaining Autobots like bowling pins. Believing himself to be all-powerful and unstoppable, Thunderwing is surprised when Optimus breaks through his defenses and beats the Decepticon to the ground. As Prime is about to drop some heavy debris on Thunderwing, though, the crafty robot taunts him with the fact that he might damage the Matrix as well, his last hope. This momentary pause puts Optimus on the defensive, and Thunderwing returns the beating he had just received from Prime.

Barely conscious, Optimus Prime stalls for time by pulling out the old "Tell me your master plan" trick. The corrupted Matrix is smart enough to push Thunderwing into just killing the Autobot already, but Thunderwing ignores its influence to stroke his ego. Flashing back to VsQs, Thunderwing explains how the tainted life-force cried out for help once Bumblebee got ahold of it—it didn't want an end to its new sensations. Momentarily distracted, Thunderwing managed to impale the Matrix-spawn on a wall and end their fight. He chased down the Classic Pretenders and recovered the Matrix, leaving them to die in the crushing gravity of VsQs while he stole their ship to enter the Ark.

His tale completed, Thunderwing had yammered on long enough for Autobot reinforcements to arrive, and Highbrow and Brainstorm managed to get in a few good shots from behind. Fearing the loss of its vessel, the Matrix's corrupted essence finally manifested itself physically as a horned and fanged creature of smoky energy, rising up around Thunderwing to control and protect him.

Back on the shuttle, Nightbeat and his fellow Matrix hunters are staring on in disbelief. After a power surge freed them from captivity aboard the Decepticon ship, they overheard Thunderwing's plan to infiltrate the Ark, and snuck aboard Grimlock's ship in order to monkey up the plan somehow. Now the only trick is finding out how.

Would a fan even work in a vacuum?

On Earth, a shadowy figure dressed in purple who speaks only in the scientific method is spying on the exit of Scorponok's base. He witnesses Starscream emerge and sneak off into the night, and makes plans to incorporate the treacherous Decepticon into his strategy.

Back on the Ark, Thunderwing's mind has been completely subsumed by the Matrix's dark essence, and he's dropping Autobots left and right. Optimus Prime tries to reach Thunderwing's mind and convince him he has been possessed, but he refuses to listen. Only when the Decepticon Spinister speaks up and tries to tell him the same thing (and gets blasted for it by the Matrix) does Thunderwing realize he's losing control.

Meanwhile, Nightbeat has come up with a plan. He sends Hosehead to the control station in the hangar to open the bay doors and turn off the artificial gravity, while Siren is to set the shuttle's self-destruct mechanism. Nightbeat personally aims the shuttle's grappling harpoon at Thunderwing and fires, catching him straight through the chest before he can finish off Prime. With the gravity off and the landing clamps released, the shuttle is sucked out into space with Thunderwing and the Matrix still attached to it. Nightbeat manages to jump to safety, and Hosehead restores the pressure and gravity to the hangar.

The fighting is over, as Thunderwing's Decepticons are in no mood for more combat. Beaten and demoralized, the Autobots collect their prisoners and count their losses, mourning the loss of the Matrix. Prime gives his best rousing speech of morale, but there are definitely darker days ahead...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Optimus Prime (8) Joyride (9) Hot Rod (10) Landmine (11) Crosshairs (12) Bumblebee (17) Jazz (18) Grimlock (19) Nightbeat (21) Hosehead (22) Siren (23) Chromedome (26) Getaway (27) Blurr (28) Waverider? (29) Kup (30)	Thunderwing (7) Ruckus (13) Spinister (14) Needlenose (15) Windsweeper (16) Shadowy figure (24) Starscream (25)	Unicron (1) Hook, Line, and Sinker (2–4) Galvatron (5) Creation Matrix/Dark Matrix (6) Matrixspawn (19)

Quotes

"You still don't understand, do you? Your 'Matrix Quest' is over -- and I have won!"

— Thunderwing

"You're a fool, Thunderwing! No being commands the Matrix! Not me, and certainly not you!...How long have you possessed the Matrix? Days? Hours? I carried it within me for four million years!"

— Optimus Prime

"You dare to lay hands on me, Autobot?! No one touches the Lord High Commander of the Decepticon army! No one touches the Matrix master! No one! You hear me? NO ONE! NO ONE!

— The rage of Thunderwing

Don't listen to him, listen to us -- to the Matrix! Show us his death, show us goodness can perish! We desire... experience! Show us!

— The Matrix

"Yess! Was that not a beautiful deception? Did you know your warriors--"

kill him

"Nnn. Y-your warriors.... your warriors actually beat me to the Matrix!"

— Thunderwing can't even monologue without the Matrix interrupting

Interogative: What am I doing here? Why have I traveled three thousand miles to sit in a swamp watching a patch of grass?

— Shockwave observes Scorponok's base

"Fools! Your weapons are useless against us ...me we ...I cannot be harmed! I... We are power incarnate! We are unstoppable!"

— Thunderwing loses his battle for control of the Matrix

"Lord Thunderwing - hear me! You're in terrible danger! Though nothing would please me more than to see the hated Optimus Prime dead, you must stay your hand! He speaks true - the Matrix has possessed you! Obey it now and you will be forev--aaaagh!"
" You dare tell us what we can or cannot do? You -- ....you... you... are a fellow Decepticon -- one of my loyal warriors! Spinister, I --

Get

out

of

my

HEAD!"

— Spinister tries to reach the Matrix-possessed Thunderwing

"We have faced the dark side of our own souls today and triumphed! What happened to the Matrix could happen to any of us! The capacity for evil is there within us all, waiting for release. But so is the goodness of Primus -- a little piece our 'god' within us all! Every day we resist, every day we fight for peace, for good -- we triumph! Whatever the future holds, we shall face it together, bonded as one! And we shall win!"

— Optimus Prime

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

Page 14: The vehicle-mode Autobot attacking the Matrix entity looks like it's supposed to be Waverider, but the only details that match are the top-mounted round thing that could be a gun, and the little side wings. The behind-and-below angle probably accounts for the discrepancy - it's likely no character model existed at that angle (if at all!), and Geoff Senior had to fill in the gaps from his imagination.
Page 15: Kup (in the Matrix entity's grip) is colored brown.

Continuity errors

TBD

Continuity notes

The Matrix Quest story arc concludes this issue.
Ghennix is quoted as having 60 billion inhabitants. That's either a really big planet, some really tiny inhabitants, or a pretty densely populated world. Your choice.
Hot Rod quotes "ten or more injured, three deactivated" in the fight, but no official roster is made. Landmine is clearly one of the deactivated, and Chromedome is later identified as having lost a leg in the battle. Joyride, Getaway, Blurr and Kup are all shown being struck down by Thunderwing, but reappear quickly in later issues and so probably weren't on the deactivated list. Crosshairs does not reappear, though, making him one of the possibilities for deactivation here.
Ruckus's damaging impact was shown in "Deadly Obsession", and the power surge it caused that freed the Headmasters happened in "Dark Creation".

Real-life references

TBD

Bot Roster

Autobots: 27 active as Nightbeat's team joins (rejoins) the Ark crew; 8 rogue Micromasters; 1 in storage, 34 offline including 3 casualties of the Matrix battle, 25 presumed offline. (95 total)
Decepticons: 23 active; 4 rogue Micromasters; 1 rogue Shockwave; 26 offline, 25 presumed offline. 3 offline/missing. (82 total)

UK printing

Issue #294:

Reprint Transformers story: "The Legacy of Unicron!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Stiletto" and Combat Colin
...And Combat Colin was back in Black and White again.

Issue #295:

Reprint Transformers story: "The Legacy of Unicron!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Stiletto" and Combat Colin

Issue #296:

Reprint Transformers story: "The Legacy of Unicron!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Stiletto" and Combat Colin

Issue #297:

Reprint Transformers story: "The Legacy of Unicron!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Stiletto" and Combat Colin

Other trivia

Transformers Universe profiles for Quake and Ruckus are found after the main story.
According to Marvel Age issue #87, the cover was penciled by Ron Frenz and inked by Bob Layton.

Foreign Localization

Swedish

Title (1990): Allt ska raseras ("All shall be Razed")
Title (2019): Allt är förlorat ("All is Lost")

Covers (5)

US cover: Thunderwing punching Prime in the face, by Ian Akin.
UK issue #294 cover: Dead Landmine, by Stewart Johnson.
UK issue #295 cover: Thunderwing's ugly mug, by Stewart Johnson.
UK issue #296 cover: Kup vs the evil Matrix, by Stephen Baskerville.
UK issue #297 cover: Thunderwing speared, by Staz.

US issue #66 - Check out his bling!
UK issue #294 - ...Maybe they can repair him with the free patch?
UK issue #295 - I know a good dentist, sir...
UK issue #296 - Silly Matrix, Kups are for kids!
UK issue #297 - Can you say "ouch"?

Reprints

Transformers: Matrix Quest TPB: Thunderwing, Rodimus Prime, Shockwave and half of Primus, by Andrew Wildman.
Transformers: Matrix Quest HC: Thunderwing with the Creation Matrix, by Pat Lee.
Best of Transformers: Eye of the Storm: Optimus Prime, Ravage and Skywarp, by Andrew Wildman.
Classic Transformers Volume 5: panels from this issue, "Eye of the Storm", "Deadly Obsession" and "...All This and Civil War 2".
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 6 cover: Blitzwing, by Guido Guidi.
Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Volume 17: Matrix Quest: Nightbeat and Prime's corpse by Makoto Ono and Geoff Senior.

Matrix Quest TPB (Titan Books, 2002)
Matrix Quest hardback (Titan Books, 2002)
Best of Transformers: Eye of the Storm (Titan Books, 2008)
Classic Transformers Volume 5 (IDW Publishing, 2009)
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 6 (IDW Publishing, 2013)
Definitive G1 Collection vol. 17: Matrix Quest (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)

Personal tools

Views

All Fall Down

From Transformers Wiki

Contents