The Four

Sequential art has always been my goal with art, so expect to see lots more of these this year.

This time we explore "The Four" as they will always be known to me...their violent deaths on the shuttle shocked so many of us as youngsters. Especially poor Ironhide...a blast to the head by Megatron?? With his ridiculously (but awesomely) overpowered cannon that was like firepower 25 for the movie? (if you are unfamiliar with tech specs, the highest firepower anybody can have is 10.) I purposely didn't draw Ironhide's head a fried crisp in this...

Anyway, this comic came into existence from various ideas. First, it occurred to me the other day (before drawing this) that the matrix and unicron are surprisingly alike. They are the perfect "anti-pair" so to speak, just like Prime and Megatron. Then it occurred to me that I could make it rather funny doing a flip flop with the matrix and unicron.

Then I toned down the humor and decided that this could have a heartfelt angle and that though it is comical to have a big matrix, it's also very reasonable especially if it's in Prowl's head. (Some remnants of the humor remain, like Prowl's ridiculous expression in panel 1 and his befuddled expression in panel 5.)

One other idea I thought of that led me to draw this is I was reaching for possibilities to somehow have their bodies survive the shuttle crash on earth. I already explored one theory in Prowl LIVES [link] , but here is yet another theory. Starscream "jettison's some weight" before breaking the atmosphere. LOL This also serves as a great parallel to reversing the matrix and unicron. It's so deep! haha

One other thing occurred to me as I was drawing this while wondering how the comic would end...it seems odd that the 4 autobots didn't attack at once as a team. Brawn charges alone, Prowl attacks alone, then the final two team up to attack. But what if they had organized the attack better? Would they have survived? Which ended up being another theme of this deviation. And in the last panel, they are "closer than ever", I believe, and they know that they need each other to survive.

Also, my bro mentioned that he thought Prowl would get a new body. This definitely occurred to me, but because I am a diehard G1 fan, it seemed appropriate to leave them as they are, in their perfect state.

There was one other planned panel where they are flying toward earth...then I realized, how are they going to land on earth?? They're just going to burn up in the atmosphere and crashland on earth like 4 molten firebombs, lol. So I left that panel out! Maybe they can hijack Astrotrain as it leaves Earth (and then do a reverse attack on the shuttle on Astrotrain!...hmmm...). JK The reverse attack on the shuttle has already been done superbly by phelous on youtube. [link]