Transformers: When Optimus Prime Sacrificed His Life Due to..Winning a Video Game?! – CBR

I Love Ya But You’re Strange is a feature that spotlights strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Today, we look at the time that Optimus Prime sacrificed his life over…winning a video game?!?!

As I have explained a number of times over the years, when you’re writing a comic book series that is mostly based on short two-parters or “done in ones,” you’re constantly on the look out for plot ideas. Obviously, EVERY comic book writer is looking for plot ideas, of course, but when you do long-form storylines, you can take one plot and stretch it out for three-six issues. If you’re doing repeated “done in one” stories, on the other hand, you have to come up with a new plot for each issue, and that can be maddening. This was how comic books were done for DECADES in the 1940s-1950s, which led to comic book writers like Bill Finger carrying around “gimmick books” where they would jot down ideas that could be used for possible plots.

Another helpful tool when it comes to coming up with fresh plots is the idea of FADS. There are almost always some new fad going on in the world (and often, what we THINK of as a fad turns out to be something that will just become part of everyday society, like, for instance, computers). Archie Comics were famous for years for doing multiple short stories in each issue of its comics, and so Archie, in particular, was ALL about fads, as you could just tap into whatever the then-current fad was, and voila, you have a plot for your story! This sort of thing continues to this day, like with a Stranger Things-themed Archie story. The Marvel Transformers comic book series was also mostly a “done in one” series, and so writer Bob Budiansky had to always strive for interesting plot ideas for the book, and in Transformers #24 (by Budiansky, and artists Don Perlin, Ian Akin, and Bryan Garvey), he used a common theme for a comic book plot in the 1980s – the characters get sucked into a video game (I recently noted five times DC characters were sucked into video games).

However, in this case, the story led to the DEATH OF OPTIMUS PRIME!!

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How did Optimus Prime and Megatron come to fight each other in a video game?

On top of trying to come up with new plots for each issue that could be wrapped up in a single story, Budiansky also had to deal with the fact that the comic book was obviously mostly seen by Hasbro as a way to advertise its Transformers toyline, and so Budiansky had to constantly write stories that would integrate whatever the newest line of Transformers toys was at that given moment (and once the toys became outdated, Budiansky had to then write those toys OUT of the comic book).

In Transformers #24, the new toys were the Protectobots and the Combaticons (the Protectobots were all emergency response vehicles, like ambulances, rescue helicopters, police cars, etc., while the Combaticons were all military vehicles), and so Optimus Prime and the Protectobots headed to stop Megatron and the Combaticons steal a new powerful device that could possibly fuel the Decepctions. The pages introduce the characters and their concepts well, including the fact that the Protectobots could then all comhine into Defensor, while the Combaticons could all merge into Bruticus…

However, the young computer programmer who worked at the place offered an alternate solution to the heroes and villains battling it out (and very likely destroying everything in the area, including the device they were there fighting for). They could fight within the realm of the video game, and the winner could get the device!

They agree, but Megatron insists that they add an extra wrinkle, whichever team wins, the losing team’s leader had to agree to be destroyed! Optimus Prime agrees, and the young programmer, Ethan, now has a joystick that could destroy either Optimius or Megatron (I just adore that they are both agreeing to this crazy plan). The battle then begins!

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How did Optimus Prime die in the comic due to winning a video game?

So, right off the bat, the heroic Autobots begin to befriend the characters within the video game, while the Decepiticons are jerks to them, and sure enough, as the game goes by, the fact that they are friends with the denizens of the game proves beneficial to the Autobots, and the Decepitcons are picked off one by one until it is just Optimus Prime and Defensor versus Megatron.

However, one of the Combaticons learned that Ethan had developed a backup system in the game, so that when you die, you can come right back to life, so Megatron uses the cheat code after he dies, taking Defensor with him. He then pops up right back alive, and attacks Optimus Prime from behind…

Things are looking bleak for Optimus, but then he comes up with a desperate gambit, he knocks down a tower, which topples below, killing Megatron in the game, but also killing some of the non-player characters, as well….

So Optimus Prime has now won the game, and Megatron is to be destroyed. BUT WAIT! Optimus Prime won by killing innocent people, even though they are just computer game characters, and so he says that that is a betrayal of his principles, and thus he insists that they actually LOST the game, and thus Optimus should be destroyed…

Ethan follows Optimus’ command, and a bunch of little kid comic book readers likely had their dreams haunted that night by the sight of Optimus Prime exploding…

The villains headed off with their stolen prize, but luckily, it appears as though Ethan had saved Optimus Prime’s consciousness when he entered the video game…

Yes, all of Optimus Prime’s consciousness was existing on a freakin’ FLOPPY DISK! As you might have guessed, this led to his eventual return to life (maybe I’ll cover that in the future as a Death is not the End. Let me know if you’d like to see that covered)!

If anyone has a suggestion for a future I Love Ya But You’re Strange, please drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!