Love and Steel!

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Uwe Boll's Bubble Bobble
"Love and Steel!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	July 1987
Cover date	November 1987
Script	Bob Budiansky
Pencils	Frank Springer
Inks	Ian Akin & Brian Garvey
Colors	Nelson Yomtov
Lettering	Pat Brosseau
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The battle on Nebulos escalates as the Decepticons create their own Headmasters.

Synopsis

The Horrorcons and the Terrorcons are having a grand old time, spreading terror and destruction in the Nebulan resort city of Splendora, until Brainstorm, Hardhead, and the Technobots arrive. Computron easily defeats Abominus, while the two Headmasters take out the Horrorcons. The Decepticons beat a hasty retreat. In the battle's aftermath, Arcana and Duros deal with worried citizens and some investigating members of the Council of Peers, who aren't too happy about any giant robots running around in their cities, even well-intentioned ones.

Meanwhile, Scorponok has captured a group of Nebulans led by Lord Zarak, and use them as laboratory animals for experiments, by which they intend to dispose of the humanoid populace of the planet with a dump-Nebulans-into-space machine. Lord Zarak successfully bargains for his life and convinces the Decepticons to duplicate the Headmaster process.

At the Autobot Headmasters' headquarters, Galen and his troops are investigating the weapons surrendered to them by the other Autobots. A group from the Council of Peers arrives and informs them that a committee will be observing their actions from now on, in order to keep tabs on them. A message arrives just then, brought by Llyra—her father, Zarak, claims to be held captive by the Decepticons, and begs for rescue. Galen doesn't hesitate, but leads his Autobots into the fray.

The Autobots arrive at the Grax Communications Facility to find that the Nebulans are free—and newly partnered with the Decepticons! The enhanced Decepticons prove to be a match for the Headmaster Autobots. The Council of Peers observers prove the perfect distraction for the Autobots. Mindwipe hypnotizes Llyra into leading the Nebulans into the Decepticons' operations building, where he uses the dump-Nebulans-into-space machine on them. The Autobots are too occupied rescuing the Nebulans to avoid getting shot in the back.

Confused by the hypnosis, Llyra remembers little besides the Autobots shooting at her, to Zarak's relief. Zarak says that the captive Galen and his allies will never have the chance to harm Nebulans again...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Yes, perhaps I will share my power with you—it is in my best interest—but beware—when possessed of such power all other concerns fade. Compassion. Mercy. Perhaps even daughters."

—Scorponok and Zarak make a deal

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Fortress Maximus has yet another head design on the cover of this issue, which randomly shows up for one panel inside, as he's catching Llyra.
• Also on the cover, Hardhead is colored blue instead of green.
• On the splash page, the second narrative caption is incomplete, as it reads, "But all that changed a few hours ago... when these seven living mechanical monsters—the Decepticons Apeface, Cutthroat, Snapdragon, Rippersnapper, Hun-Grr, Sinnertwin, and Blot—" Presumably there should have been a third narrative caption telling what the monsters are doing. (Not that it isn't obvious from the art, but still.)
• Slugslinger and Triggerhappy are shown retreating with Snapdragon and the Terrorcons; Apeface and Blot are missing from the group. Rippersnapper is colored with Blot's color scheme in the same panel.
• The Horrorcons later tell Scorponok that the Terrorcons retreated in another direction, but they're all shown running away from the battle together.
• Apeface is standing in front of Snapdragon when he's making excuses for their failure, but when Scorponok punches him, Apeface is suddenly behind Snapdragon. (Renowned agility?)
• Stylor's and Gort's color palletes are swapped throughout the course of this issue.
• The "weapons surrendered by six of our Autobot allies" bear no resemblance at all to the guns actually thrown down by the Autobots two issues prior. They do, however, look quite a bit like their future replacement Targetmaster weapons.
• All kinds of wackiness ensues as the Decepticons' Nebulan partners transform for the first time. When their heads are sitting on the ground, Snapdragon has a different design than his standard model (which also showed up last issue); in the next panel, he's in his normal head design. Mindwipe, meanwhile, has a completely made-up head when it's sitting on the ground. Apeface's head is correct when it's sitting on the ground, but in the next panel, he's got a mouth and eyes instead of a faceplate and eyeband. Apeface himself is miscolored, and drawn with rather squat proportions, making him look like a giant Nebulan.
• Fortress Maximus's optics and "helmet horns" are colored yellow throughout the second half of the issue.
• Fortress Maximus is drawn instead of Scorponok when the latter orders Mindwipe to create a diversion (page 18, panel 3).

Continuity errors

• Skullcruncher has an anti-gravity gun—which should be Scorponok's weapon—instead of his demolecularization gun. Later in the issue, Scorponok achieves the same anti-gravity effect by making Llyra and the other Nebulans' bubbles float with blasts from his shoulder cannons.
• Monzo is described as having his fear "hypnotically expelled" from him by Mindwipe, but he sure looks terrified when he floats in the air in Scorponok's weaponized bubble.
• On the second-to-last page, Snapdragon says that the Autobots' heads are transforming back to humans. This could be excused as ignorance on his part—after all, one squishy flesh creature looks just like another—but none of the characters present have even heard of humans yet.

Continuity notes

• Strafe and Afterburner remain tantalisingly just off-panel this entire issue, appearing only as Computron's arms.
• Scorponok's plan—which involves gathering the Nebulans together, hypnotizing them, putting them into bubbles, and floating them off into space—is needlessly complex when he has a small army of Decepticons who have expressed interest in just killing them all.

Errors

• When the Nebulans transform to become heads for their Autobot partners, the narrating text misspells "positions" as "posistions".

Real-life references

• TBD

Courtesy of my...

• Computron calls out his acid-pellet gun as he shoots Abominus with it.
• Skullcruncher uses his anti-gravity gun to make a bubble containing Monzo float, however see "Continuity errors" above.
• Fortress Maximus shoots down Llyra's bubble with his photon rifle.

UK printing

Issue #138

• Additional Transformers story: "Ladies' Night"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers
• AtoZ: Dirge and Divebomb

Issue #139

• Additional Transformers story: "Used Autobots"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers
• AtoZ: Drag Strip and Fireflight

Issue #140

• Additional Transformers story: "Used Autobots"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers

Issue #141

• Additional Transformers story: "Child's Play"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers

Other trivia

• TBD

Changes in the IDW Classic Transformers reprint

• On page 5, panel 3, Rippersnapper and Sinnertwin's colors are corrected.
• On page 21, in panel 3 Scorponok's legs are changed to red, and in panel 4 Highbrow and Brainstorm's cyan is changed to dark blue.
• Also on page 21, Snapdragon now refers to the defeated Headmasters as Nebulans.

Covers (5)

• Headmasters #3 cover: Autobot Headmasters save the Nebulans in bubbles, by Frank Springer, Ian Akin, and Brian Garvey.
• UK issue #138 cover: Rollbar, Goldbug and the ladies, by Barry Kitson.
• UK issue #139 cover: Blaster road surfs on Rollbar and Chase, by Robin Smith.
• UK issue #140 cover: Swindle threatening Big Steve, by Lee Sullivan.
• UK issue #141 cover: Brawl, by Lee Sullivan.

• 

  Headmasters #3 - I'll take the one with the hot chick inside.

• 

  UK issue #138 - Birth of the Feminazi-cons.

• 

  UK issue #139 - Blaster has some strange shoes.

• 

  UK issue #140 - "What if I include his age and food?"

• 

  UK issue #141 - Who's there?

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Reprints

Other than reprints of the full miniseries:

• N/A