Escape (Universe)

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Thanks to Unicron, Razorclaw can now command lens flares from the palm of his hand.
"Escape"
Publisher	3H Productions
First published	July 31, 2004 (OTFCC 2004)
Story	Simon Furman
Script	Simon Furman
Pencils	Dan Khanna, Guido Guidi, James Raiz
Inks	Chuck Gibson, Terry Pallot, Vince Russell
Colors	Blond
Lettering	Richard Starkings's Comicraft
Continuity	3H Beast Wars continuity

Optimus Primal is sent by Primus to rescue Transformers held deep within Unicron.

Synopsis

Optimus Primal recalls his "death" at the conclusion of his battle to free Cybertron from Megatron. Gazing into the death arena within Unicron, he reflects that... it never ends! Below, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are being prepped for battle; Sunstreaker has already fallen to the corrupting influence of Unicron. Sideswipe resists, and is punished.

Primal flashes back again to his recent revival within Cybertron, and his conversation with Alpha Trion, who detailed Unicron's efforts to revive himself by harvesting Sparks from across multiple dimensions.

Megatron and Grimlock have subdued Striker, and Primal attempts to liberate his spark from Unicron's influence. Primal then departs to try and free the captives, leaving the others to guard Striker, though they are soon discovered by Unicron's generals.

Guess Unicron didn't want to abduct any Animated characters, huh?

Trailbreaker devises a way to escape the energy cages holding them, as he speculates they are "keyed to our specific bio-mechanical auras". Silverbolt spots Primal, and shouts a warning as Razorclaw attacks; he and Trailbreaker then initiate a primary system program transfer, in essence each becoming the other.

Primal fights off Razorclaw, stealing weapons from Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to help; in the midst of their battle, Trailbreaker and Silverbolt initiate a total prison break, and dozens of Transformers storm their captors. The horde keeps Sunstreaker and Sideswipe apart, assists Grimlock and Megatron, then stampedes across the bridge that originally brought Trailbreaker and company to the arena.

Shadow Striker proves treacherous, however; she blasts the bridge, and the escaping crowd is trapped between the cauldron and the incoming generals. Primal uses Snarl, a Matrix Templar, to directly call upon Primus to open a pathway out of Unicron; an energy path opens in the cauldron, bearing him away. The crowd escapes... but Blackarachnia chooses to remain, knocking Silverbolt into the beam.

Some while later, within Unicron, Blackarachnia is welcomed back to the fold... by Tarantulas, who notes that the true battle hasn't yet begun. And on Cybertron, Primal reflects that his revival may have had unexpected consequences for the reformatted planet... and his old foe Megatron.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

* Shadow Striker and Blackarachnia defect to Unicron's side, becoming a Decepticon and Predacon respectively.

Notes

• Characters mentioned but not seen include: Primus and Tigerhawk.
• A lengthy "Last Time" text summarizes in painful detail the events of the previous issue.
• Dreamwave-style profiles were included at the end of the issue for Obsidian, Optimus Primal, Shadow Striker, and Tankor.

Continuity notes

• Primal remembers his and Megatron's deaths at the end of "Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future", with a flashback showing Megatron in his "Optimal Megatron" body.
• The script reading of the prior year sets up some details for this comic; Primal's teaming up with Megatron and Grimlock, the capture of Striker, and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's fight.
• Triceradon and Snarl's capture by Unicron would be detailed in "Wreckers: Finale Part II".
• Tarantulas reappears after last being seen in "Primeval Dawn"-evidently, he managed to build the transwarp portal to escape, but not with the Matrix as he intended.
• During the escape scenes, a technorganic Rattrap appears next to Thrust. This is probably an error as the "headquarters" universe of the Universe comic has its own Rattrap, who was not abducted by Unicron in the previous issue and also appears in the final panel of this issue on his home Cybertron. In any case, years later the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime would declare the abductee Rattrap to be his own separate individual.
• Megatron appears on the final panel of this issue as just a head, styled like his post-Transmetal Beast Wars appearance. This was presumably done in anticipation of his intended OTFCC 2005 toy, a red retool of Robots in Disguise Megatron with a Beast Wars Megatron head. 3H, however, lost the license, and thus Megatron's full-body appearance in the Universe War remains unknown. The toy was finally released as an exclusive for BotCon 2016.

Transformers references

• Primal gains his Universe toy coloration this issue.
• Many characters appearing in the prison break are Universe toys; namely, King Atlas, Swerve, Triceradon, Snarl, Fireflight, Whirl, Defensor, Ratchet, and Firebot. Aside from them are versions of Generation 1 Ransack, Big Daddy, Squeezeplay, and Wheelie, Generation 2 Jhiaxus, Beast Wars Terrorsaur, Beast Machines Thrust and Rattrap, Robots in Disguise Omega Prime, and Armada Red Alert.
• Dan Khanna's fan character, Saber, is among the prisoners in Unicron.

Errors

• Tarantulas's name is misspelled as "Tarantulus".

Covers (3)

• Direct market cover: The Heralds of Unicron, by James Raiz.
• Fan club cover: Optimus Primal, by Dan Khanna.
• Graham Crackers exclusive cover: Arcee, by Dan Khanna.