The War to End All Wars, Part 2

« The Transformers: Regeneration One #97 »
"C'mon, gimme a hug!"
"The War to End All Wars" Part 2
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 18, 2013
Cover date	December 2013
Writer	Simon Furman
Breakdowns	Guido Guidi
Finishes	Stephen Baskerville
Colorist	John-Paul Bove
Letterer	Chris Mowry
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

When Jhiaxus and his forces arrive on Cybertron, diplomacy soon gives way to attempted genocide.

Synopsis

Grimlock surveys with disgust the hastily-constructed shanty town the primordial Cybertronians have been sequestered in, feeling responsible for the creatures' well-being after leading them to the planet's surface. As the creatures crowd around a crude drawing of Primus they have scrawled on a wall, Swoop observes the timid streak they have developed, in contrast to their normal ferocity, and wonders if they are merely biding their time...

Gold and blue bikini set: $300
Red head piece: $150
Genocidal, Nazi-esque worldview: model's own

At the Presidium, Rodimus Prime confers with his men over the sudden appearance in Cybertronian airspace of Jhiaxus and his army. From the Ops-Command HQ, the Zero Unit of Nightbeat and Bumblebee proposes actively inviting the mysterious ex-senator for a face-to-face discussion, and so a crowd gathers at Eugenesis Plaza to await the arrival of the enigmatic newcomers. In a flash, Jhiaxus appears through an advanced form of space bridge along with his "Primum Fugae", a team of five, sleek, silent warriors. Rodimus proposes they talk somewhere private; Jhiaxus accepts, though menacingly makes clear his awareness of Autobot snipers overlooking the plaza. As Rodimus and Jhiaxus leave for Nova Point, Jhiaxus's men take to the skies.

On Earth, while Landfill and Scoop are putting the finishing touches to a space bridge, Optimus Prime contacts Quickmix on Nebulos to confirm the bridge link-up will be ready on his end. Quickmix also updates Prime on the restoration of Fortress Maximus, presently underway at the Nebulan science center; as Maximus's head is reconnected to his body, the giant Autobot screams in agony before suddenly falling silent, a dark twinkle behind his eyes.

At Nova Point, Rodimus inquires of Jhiaxus what he has been doing in his eons away from Cybertron, and why Primus would consider him a threat to his grand plan. Jhiaxus scoffs at the mere mention of Primus and explains he long ago dismissed the notion of their creator's plan and chose to sculpt the universe into an ordered form under his own power. Before Rodimus's horrified eyes, Jhiaxus unveils a hologram of the Hub Network, a cosmos-wide structure of interconnected metallic planets, and invites the Autobot leader to add Cybertron to its ever-growing web. Quickly deducing that the worlds are not newly created, but mecha-formed existing planets, Rodimus angrily demands to know how many supported life... and Jhiaxus sneers, offering up the caveat that it depends on how one classifies life. Rodimus slams Jhiaxus into a wall, furiously refusing his offer, only to find that the former senator has untold strength of his own, derived from the Underbase. Jhiaxus hurls Rodimus away, and easily fends off attempted interventions by Bumblebee and Jetfire before transforming and blasting his way out of the hall.

Concurrently, elsewhere on Cybertron, Jhiaxus's men set their sights on the primordials' ghetto, and immediately begin slaughtering the creatures. The Dinobots come to the beasts' defense, but as the two forces meet in combat, Sludge is stabbed through the chest by Firecrest. Just as Ultra Magnus and a contingent of Autobots come rolling up in an attempt to stop the massacre, the Primum Fugae receive a message from Jhiaxus to join him in departing the planet, and take wing. Their foes gone for now, the Autobots extract Rodimus from the rubble and update him; no deaths have been incurred save those primordials that were slain, but the Dinobots are out of action for now. Fortunately, Nightbeat has studied the data he captured from Jhiaxus and his men and believes he has come up with a way to defeat them—and Rodimus is ready to put it to use, vowing to take the fight to their new enemies!

Out in space, a short time earlier, as Starscream and Shockwave watch Jhiaxus's fleet heading for Cybertron from their vantage point aboard the Ark, Shockwave inquires as to how Starscream knows Jhiaxus's name. As the familiar glowing yellow tech-patterns of the Underbase begin to creep across Starscream's metallic skin, another voice emerges from his lips... a voice that recognizes Jhiaxus as "one of the five"... a voice that vows a reckoning...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Optimus thanks Landfill for his report on the completion of the space bridge, but it's Scoop who's delivering the report.

Continuity errors

• Perhaps not technically an error, but Rodimus Prime marveling at Jhiaxus having the Space Bridge technology to teleport down from orbit seems at odds with Soundwave having the tech to teleport safely out of the Hall of Silence in #86. Sure, Rodimus didn't know that, but the implication that Jhiaxus is so amazingly technologically advanced because of that tech doesn't ring true.

Continuity notes

• The Demons' ghetto is called resettlement camp "Zero", one of Furman's many references to the number throughout this series.
• Rodimus welcomes Jhiaxus "on behalf of the Unified Cybertron Alliance". Back in "Loose Ends, Part 1" Optimus Prime was concerned that any show of overt force by the Wreckers against Neo-Decepticon insurgents would risk the very existence of the Unified Cybertron Alliance but since then the planet has seen the chaos caused by Scorponok's Gene Key, the invasion of Bludgeon's Blitz Engines and a full insurrection by Soundwave's troops, so it seems Prime drastically overestimated what it would take to damage the Alliance. This, coupled with the fact that we only ever see Autobots in any positions of power during the series also begs the question of just who they were allied with at this point.
• The space bridge Scoop, Landfill and Quickmix are building is the original Marvel continuity design first seen in "The Bridge to Nowhere!", resembling a suspension bridge.
• Starscream absorbed the power of the Underbase back in issue #50; clearly, the consciousnesses of one or more of the five senators seen in issue #0 were among the energies he absorbed, which have hung around in his body until now.

Real-life references

• The Nebulans' science center is called the Technodrome, which can't be anything other than a reference to the monocular battle fortress of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame.
• Formerly known just as "The Hub" in the Generation 2 comics that introduced it, Jhiaxus's web of worlds is here renamed the "Hub Network" in a cute reference to Hasbro's Hub television network.

Other trivia

Transformers references

• Jhiaxus's space bridge does not require any kind of structural mechanism for the portal to form, nor does it need anything to generate an exit portal, which opens directly at his intended location. These are evolutions of the technology that were introduced with the transwarp technology of Beast Wars, and which have become more common in depictions of space bridges in subsequent years, particularly in the Unicron Trilogy.
• The true purpose of Jhiaxus's mysterious Hub in Generation 2 was explained in the non-canon novella, Alignment. Given Jhiaxus's areligious rantings here, it's likely that that purpose—to allow the Liege Maximo to ascend to the realm of the gods—has no bearing on its role in the Regeneration One story.

Furminated

• A number of the Demons are killed off by the Primum Fugae.

Covers (3)

• 

  Cover A

• 

  Cover B

• 

  Cover RI

• Cover A: Jhiaxus reveals the Hub to Rodimus Prime, by Andrew Wildman and Jason Cardy.
• Cover B: The infected Fortress Maximus on the rampage, by Guido Guidi.
• Cover RI: Sludge against Jhiaxus's troops, by Geoff Senior.

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External links

• Simon Furman's Script (W)rap