Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Transformers: Last Bot Standing #2When it comes to IDW Publishing’s Transformers, fans everywhere know that the Autobots consistently wage battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons. The robots in disguise have saved the universe from Megatron and his ilk time and again. But while Optimus Prime and his fellow Autobots may do so with the most noble of intentions, even a just war comes at a cost.
The Cybertronian War has lasted as long as any Transformers fan can remember. But just because something always has been, doesn’t mean that’s how it should always be. Transformers: Last Bot Standing #2 proves that in their endless war against the Decepticons, the Autobots ultimately doomed the universe – at least according to Hot Rod.
The Transformers’ War Cost More Than Meets the Eye
Transformers: Last Bot Standing #2 by Nick Roche and E.J. Su picks up where the previous issue left off, with a disoriented and aged Hot Rod finding himself stranded on the planet Donnokt and explaining the truth of his origins to Shib, the Nebulan whose family he’s served for generations. As Rodimus Prime explains his history – and the Cybertronian War he was born to fight – he makes it clear that it was this very same war that’s been destroying the universe. In explaining the missing stars known as Lost Lights to Shib, Rodimus describes how endless war with endlessly rebuilt and resurrected soldiers ultimately drained the universe of its necessary resources.
Rodimus goes so far as to Shib, “There were no more places left to battle over and to drain or resources. No one to put us back together again. Nothing to put us back together with. We could just end.” And while this paints a bleak picture of the Autobots’ future, it casts an even darker shadow over their triumphs of the past. After all, there’s no question that this interaction draws on the iconic death and resurrection of heroes like Optimus Prime and others, but it puts the cost of those same victories into horrifying perspective.
The Autobots Are Destroying the Universe
In this very issue, Hot Rod himself acknowledges that because the Transformers can be rebuilt and resurrected while the rest of the universe can’t, their very existence is a drain on natural resources. Its resources are finite, and in their zeal to protect that same universe from the evils of the Decepticons, Optimus, Hot Rod, and the other Autobots helped ensure that there would hardly be a universe left for the Decepticons to conquer. At a certain point, they began battling for the sake of it, without truly realizing the cost their actions would have on life throughout the universe at large.
Transformers: Last Bot Standing is a series packed with plenty of eye-opening revelations about Transformers lore, but this tragic reveal has to take the cake. And with the Autobots’ insistence that they’re the true heroes of Cybertron, their history of endless battles becomes all the more heartbreaking. Hopefully IDW Publishing’s Transformers can find some way to avert this dark fate before it’s too late – if it isn’t already.
Transformers: Last Bot Standing #2 is available now from IDW Publishing.