Surrender!

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Hey look, a face!
"Surrender!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	August 1990
Cover date	October 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Penciler	Andrew Wildman
Inker	Stephen Baskerville
Colorist	Nel Yomtov[1]
Letterer	Rick Parker[2]
Editor	Rob Tokar
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Prime finds his cajones, and Zarak finds his soul.

Synopsis

Four million years ago, Optimus Prime is on the front line defending the city-state of Iacon. An Autobot soldier tries to tell Prime they are being overrun, and have no choice but to surrender. Optimus asks the soldier for the white flag, but only to bind his wound. Optimus Prime then leaps out of the foxhole and charges the Decepticon battle line shouting "Never Surrender!"

"We'll take that nice shuttle too!"

Powermaster Optimus Prime kneels in the rain, in the garbage atop the Decepticon base, surrendering his crew to Scorponok. Naturally, the Decepticon leader is all too happy to accept and commands his soldiers to divest the Autobots of all weapons and toy gimmicks. Kup is in no mood to go quietly, but Prime insists it's the only option. In his own mind, however, Optimus is just as worried about his decision as Kup.

Scorponok, meanwhile, is having a ball. His warriors were less than pleased with his recent leadership decisions, especially taking Starscream under his command and then losing him. Now, though, it seems he's once more back on top... as long as he breaks his word to Optimus Prime and reneges on their potential alliance against Unicron.

In the meantime, Shockwave and Starscream's insurrection army has grown, and Scorponok's present "victory" over all the Autobots has pushed up their plans considerably. With some leisurely applied peer pressure and threats of death, Mindwipe and Triggerhappy are officially inducted into the Decepticon auxiliary group, and the strike plan begins.

Hours later, Optimus Prime is being guarded in his cell by Soundwave, and dreams of an alliance with Scorponok seem to be turning to ash before his eyes.

Things are doing little better on Cybertron. Galvatron and Unicron's heralds have reached the planet and begun sowing discord in his name, starting with Emirate Xaaron's Autobase. Quickmix convinces Xaaron to take the turbo-lift into the sewers and flee for safety, to form another Autobot rebellion one day if need be. Quickmix and the others remain behind to deal with the attackers.

On Earth, Optimus has had enough of waiting in his cell and slams Soundwave through a wall before making his escape. He breaks out Kup and Hot Rod for assistance, but Kup has had enough and demands Prime give them a good reason why any Autobot should listen to him now. Still, he wouldn't be Optimus Prime if he couldn't make up an impassioned speech on the spot, and Kup agrees to go along.

Nearby, in his war room, Zarak is beginning to regret tarnishing his honor by rolling over on Optimus Prime as he did. His musings are interrupted by Prime and his Autobots bursting in on the scene. Once again, Optimus attempts to get through to Zarak about the severity of their situation, and this time he succeeds. The alliance is about to be sealed with a handshake when Shockwave and his warriors bomb the base, leaving all inside for dead.

On Cybertron, Xaaron is on the run. The sewers provide him no safe passage. The might of Galvatron is on his trail, and there is no escape...

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Optimus Prime -- this is madness! We're beaten, defeated! We must surrender before we're all killed!"
"Do you have the white flag?"
"The flag--? Oh, yes, the flag! Thank Primus! I'll tie it to the front battlements and --"
"You'll bind my wound with it, soldier!"

—An Autobot soldier learns how Optimus Prime rolls

"We're Autobots! We never give ground and we never, never surrender!"

—Optimus Prime sounds the Autobots' rallying cry

"Scorponok -- in the name of the Autobots, I... I surrender!"

—Four million years later, Optimus Prime lays it all down in pursuit of a greater goal

"I'll make it real simple for you. You've seen and heard too much! If you want out, you go feet first!"

—Starscream applies his usual charisma to persuade a doubtful Mindwipe

"Thank you for your... hospitality, Soundwave."

—Optimus Prime exercises some rarely-heard sarcasm.

"I know I am asking much, my Autobots, but hear me out before you decide! All our lives we have been bred to fight, to struggle, to never give ground. It's ingrained in us! But that's with a normal enemy, a foe in our league! Unicron is neither! It's difficult to believe a single foe exists that we cannot vanquish through earnest effort and guts, but Unicron is powerful beyond measure, a fallen god! To stand a chance we must do the most difficult thing of all -- nothing! This surrender is not an act of cowardice on our parts... it requires the greatest courage of all! Will you stand with me, help me see it through?"

—When it comes to motivational speeches, nobody can top Optimus Prime

"Foolish Autobot! I am a master of Metallikato, the forbidden Cybertronian art of combat! I'll cut you in two before --"
"Before I pull the arms and legs off this puny flesh creature? I think not!"

—Bludgeon and Hot Rod, the latter with Zarak in his grip

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• During the flashback at the beginning of the issue, Optimus Prime is shown with the red eyes of his Powermaster body, rather than the yellow eyes his original body had.
• Page 17, panel 5: "Hot Rod" is misspelled as "Hod Rod."

Continuity errors

• TBD

Continuity notes

• The flashback happened relatively early in the Transformer civil war. If it happened before the launch of the Underbase, Optimus Prime might have been a Lieutenant Commander at the time; alternatively, this could be shortly before "And There Shall Come...a Leader!".
• The Autobots are ordered to give up their weapons, Nebulans and Pretender Shells. That can't have been fun for the Headmasters in the group. Or the Powermasters either, for that matter. (It's notable that Optimus Prime doesn't hand over Hi-Q, or his shoulder guns for that matter. And Bomb-Burst points his gun right at Highbrow's head and all Highbrow does is pass over his weapon, realizing that Scorponok was just being a bit silly.)
• Despite being highlighted in dialogue this issue by Mindwipe, the mystery origins of the ship Shockwave is using as an underwater headquarters will never be resolved on-panel. The answer was ultimately provided in the letters page of issue #74, which explained that it was the starship the Decepticons used to follow the Ark to Earth, which Shockwave parked underwater four million years ago before brawling with the Dinobots. This represents either a divergence between the US and UK continuities or a UK continuity error since that same starship was revealed to have been parked in orbit by Shockwave and later destroyed by Galvatron way back in "Target: 2006".
• Bludgeon and his Mayhem Attack Squad materialized on Earth after US issue #61, and would then join up with Scorponok's crew prior to this issue.
• Shockwave's "brush with death" occurred in US issue #39. If you believe in the US/UK combined comic universe, the logic-related nervous breakdown caused by UK issue #189 and #199–205 could also be responsible for "loosening his circuits", as Mindwipe put it.

Real-life references

• As he mentally commands Scorponok to release Kup, Zarak throws up the "I love you" hand sign!
• The action is set in the swamps of northwest New Jersey, with a brief interlude off the coast of England.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: 30 active; 8 rogue Micromasters; 1 in storage, 32 offline as Ratchet is put into storage (off-panel), 24 presumed offline. (95 total)
• Decepticons: 21 active, 7 gone rogue as the Battlechargers - missing since #23 - join Shockwave's team; 25 offline, 25 presumed offline. (78 total)

UK printing

Issue #311:

• Other strips: Machine Man - "He Lives Again" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Getaway and Joyride
• << Blaster answers a letter from Jenny Mapes, a relation (sister?) to Transformers rarity collectors, convention organisers, and webmasters of fansite Transformers At The Moon, the Mapes twins. >>

Issue #312:

• Other strips: Machine Man - "He Lives Again" and Combat Colin
• This issue also featured a readers poll for which the results would never be published.

Other trivia

• Transformers Universe profiles for Punch and Counterpunch are found after the main story.

Covers (3)

• US cover: Prime surrenders to Scorponok, by Andrew Wildman.
• UK issue #311 cover: recoloured US cover. Still wrong.
• UK issue #312 cover: Bomb-Burst and Skullgrin by Stephen Baskerville, Lesley Dalton and Robin Bouttell.

• 

  US issue #71 - That's the last sticker he needs for the album!

• 

  UK issue #311 - Nope, try again!

• 

  UK issue #312 - Now, how are you supposed to shake that?

Advertisements

• None yet identified.

Reprints

• Transformers: All Fall Down TPB: Powermaster Optimus Prime, Megatron/Ratchet, Starscream, Shockwave and half of Unicron, by Andrew Wildman.
• Transformers: All Fall Down BotCon exclusive cover: Powermaster Optimus Prime and Unicron, by Geoff Senior & Oliver Harud.
• Transformers: All Fall Down standard HC: Bludgeon, by Howard Chaykin & Chris Blythe.
• The Transformers: The Best of Simon Furman: Cybertron, by Don Figueroa.
• Best of Transformers: Eye of the Storm: Optimus Prime, Ravage and Skywarp, by Andrew Wildman.

• 

  Transformers: All Fall Down TPB
  (Titan Books, 2001)

• 

  Transformers: All Fall Down hardback Botcon exclusive cover
  (BotCon Exclusive, 2001)

• 

  Transformers: All Fall Down hardback standard cover
  (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  The Best of Simon Furman
  (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  Best of Transformers: Eye of the Storm
  (Titan Books, 2008)

• Classic Transformers Volume 5: panels from this issue, "Deadly Obsession", "All Fall Down" and "...All This and Civil War 2".
• The Transformers Classics, Vol. 6: Blitzwing, by Guido Guidi.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection:Volume 18: Edge of Extinction: Grimlock, above an interior scene (issue #74) of Powermaster Optimus Prime battling the Acolytes of Unicron. Grimlock art by Guido Guidi, Retro art by Andrew Wildman (pencils) and Stephen Baskerville (inks).

• 

  Classic Transformers Volume 5
  (IDW Publishing, 2009)

• 

  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 6
  (IDW Publishing, 2013)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 18: Edge of Extinction
  (Hachette Partworks, 2017)

References