The Soapbox doesn't explicitly say it's solely about cartoon Optimus Prime, and STL did use a couple of Dreamwave images. That said, the concept of Prime being flawless would have to originate from the cartoon. As early as within the first few pages of the Marvel Comics, Optimus was already making mistakes - it was him who pressed the button that sent the Ark crashing to Earth. Thus any guilt about bringing the war to the humans was more than justified - it was Prime's fault. And then he died all the time and when he was alive he made mistakes and doubted himself. So I think this Soapbox is only really applicable to cartoon Prime - within the G1 comics, nobody could have thought Optimus was "a character whose perfection limits story possibilities... handles every situation with too much poise, too much certainty... a commander who never makes the wrong choices... a bot who is followed without question..." because - from issue one onwards - he clearly wasn't.