New Worlds Order

« The Transformers vol. 2 #50 »
"New Worlds Order"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	The Transformers #50
First published	February 24, 2016
Cover date	February 2016
Written by	John Barber
Pencils by	Casey Coller
Inks by	Jamie Snell
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long and Chris Mowry
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

In the wake of Optimus Prime's world-shaking announcement, the EDC, the Decepticons, and the Council of Worlds all debate on what must be done next.

Synopsis

Marissa Faireborn and Ayana Jones are en route to Washington, D.C. to meet with a very unhappy President. Faireborn is anxious, but Jones tries to get her to focus... though the sight of two of Garrison Blackrock's Decepticon clones standing guard on the White House lawn does not fill her with confidence.

En route to Sanctuary Station, Needlenose is not showing a lot of remorse over the fact that his idea to side with Galvatron has blown up in his and the other Decepticons' faces. Swift is horrified to realize she helped fight a Prime based on what he had told her, but as they arrive at the station, Needlenose goes on to explain that that, at least, was the right course of action. All Primes are oppressors—a sentiment Soundwave agrees with, though right now, he is more concerned with never allowing anyone like Galvatron to manipulate his dream again.

On Cybertron, the Council of Worlds convenes to discuss Optimus Prime's actions. Starscream refuses to permit Optimus a seat, and nobody actually disagrees; rather, Windblade advocates that they simply give Optimus time to state his case once he contacts them. Once the meeting is over, Starscream stalks the halls, grumbling about how everyone is giving Optimus the benefit of the doubt, yet they never extend the same courtesy to him despite the fact he was legally elected. Talking with the imaginary figure of Bumblebee, he expresses his genuine concern that Optimus has made the wrong move, and that it is only inevitable that his good intentions will become corrupted and lead him down the same path as Megatron.

Aboard the Nemesis, somewhere beneath Earth's oceans, Mindwipe vivisects Blackrock to verify Galvatron's belief: he is, indeed, an incredibly advanced robot who appears human in every way! The news is rather alarming to Blackrock himself, but Galvatron insists that the knowledge of his true nature is a gift he has given to the once-and-former "human." And of course, Blackrock has given Galvatron a gift in return: the Onyx source code, and access to all devices running it...

In the White House, the President gives Marissa a dressing-down that would be bad enough on its own, but which pales in comparison to the news that Spike Witwicky has been pardoned and his military rank reinstated, and will now serve as the President's EDC liaison, just as Zilong Qian will be the liaison from China's People's Liberation Army Mecha Force.

Watching the meeting through Onyx-enabled security cameras in the Oval Office, Galvatron laughs at the notion that humanity will be able to save themselves. Mankind's time is coming to an end... and it will be Optimus Prime who causes it.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Swift: "Needlenose—you didn't know it was a bad idea to follow an ancient warlord who—I saw a documentary about this when I moved to Cybertron—who tried to use Cybertron to eat the entire universe... twice?"
Needlenose: "Well... it was a real long war. Mistakes were made."
Swift: "What!? I mean... I just helped you idiots fight a Prime!"
Rumble: "Boo!"
Frenzy: "In name only!"

"This is no different than Megatron conquering a planet of organics and demanding a seat."
"Well, one difference is these organics are still alive."

—Starscream and Windblade

"Look, I can be disingenuous-"
"Your vocabulary is improving."
"I bought a dictionary calendar."

—Starscream and Bumblebee's "ghost"

"I have a lot on my mind."
"I can see what you have on your mind. It looks like a transuranic alloy casing."

—Blackrock and Mindwipe

"Naive little creatures. I have battleaxes older than their civilization."

—Galvatron, on humanity

Notes

Continuity notes

• Swift refers to Galvatron's two previous plans to use Cybertron to destroy the universe, in "Chaos" and "Dark Cybertron" respectively. Though in fairness to Galvatron, neither was actually his plan; the first time he was tricked by the D-Void, and the second time, he was just a cog in Shockwave's plan.
• Frenzy remarks that he and Rumble were "born to be mining equipment," referring to their early lives as seen in Megatron Origin.
• Swift recalls Barricade's death from Redemption.
• Starscream recalls how Sentinel Prime was the last Cybertronian to "lay claim to a populated world." This might just be referring to how Sentinel was the last Prime who took power before the Decepticon uprising took place (as seen in Megatron Origin, again), but the way Starscream phrases it, it sounds like he could be talking about another planet entirely, which isn't something we've heard about before.
• Robots in Disguise #30 referred to a male U.S. president. Either an election has recently happened or a minor detail slipped the author's attention.
• Mindwipe declares Blackrock to be far more advanced than a holomatter avatar or a facsimile construct—the two types of "phoney humans" the Transformers have used to interact with the people of Earth in the past.

Transformers references

• One of the generic Decepticons on the shuttle heading back to Sanctuary looks like he's stolen the scrambling neon Decepticon NAIL's color scheme.
• Sentinel Prime, you say? Doing something mysterious you say?? WHY EVER would we want to have that put in our minds right now???

Real-life references

• When Marissa tries to talk the President out of pardoning Spike, calling him a "loose cannon", the President accuses her of being a movie cliché, and compares her to Dean Wormer from Animal House.

Errors

• Mindwipe is colored like Ratbat throughout this story, complete with golden detailing that evokes the cassette's weapons.
• On page 6, "simulacrum" is misspelled "simulcrum."
• If the Mecha Force use the same ranking structure as the Chinese Air Force (which has Airman First Class), then the squadron commanding Zilong Qian would just be a junior enlisted airman.

Other trivia

• Issues #36 and #49 referred to the real-life Xi Jinping as President of China. Issue #30 also had Faireborne refer to the President of the United States as male. This story, however, establishes the current President of the U.S. as a fictitious woman and not the real-life Barack Obama.