Transformers Comic issue 17

« Transformers (Titan) #17 »
Oh no, not again!
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	19 October 2008
Editor	Steve White
Deputy editor	Den Patrick
Designer	Danny Preston
Publishing manager	Darryl Curtis

Meanwhile, Back on Cybertron...

Contents

Return to Cybertron: Part 1

A raw energon seam, building up to sixty thousand rads, has erupted in Sylacauga, Alabama! The newly arrived Autobot specialist team are on the job (their ninth such job), with Evac evac-ing the humans while under Camshaft's direction, Salvage magno-caps the seam and Grindcore buries it with rubble. But it's too late, the inverted pressure tremors are too much for the makeshift job and the whole town is destroyed!

The demise of Earth is escalating, and President Allen is annoyed at the specialists' failure to stop it. Optimus reveals the situation is worse than they previously believed: the All Spark's corruption has reached the core of Earth, and the planet is at war with itself, the organic and technological struggling for a new status quo—Earth will die before this status quo arrives. A frustrated Allen gets Optimus to agree to work with Earth's best geologists in a symposium—but Optimus secretly has a long shot plan to save Earth, one he's keeping quiet to avoid dashing hope when it fails...

A plan that involves Ironhide taking a team to the abandoned, dying Cybertron to salvage Nucleon!

"I've changed my mind, we'll surrender."

Ironhide instructs his team—Arcee, Bumblebee and Armorhide—to be cautious and don't get distracted by being home: they don't know whether anyone else is still on the planet. It becomes clear there is when Bumblebee finds a newly erected satellite dish on the planet, and when the Autobots investigate on their way to the Nucleon, they find out who those inhabitants are: Stockade and his self-proclaimed "new Decepticons"!

Stockade wants the Autobots to remain functional rather than die, and calmly challenges Ironhide to hand-to-hand combat. And is completely unaffected by his strike. And then beats the snot out of him with one punch. It turns out the Decepticons survived on Cybertron because they got to the Nucleon first and guzzled it down...

...and then a swirling energy thing appears in orbit, while Stockade proclaims that this will see Cybertron re-empowered and reborn!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Dino-MIGHT!

Starscream and his clone hordes have just taken out all the Autobots and seized their base! Sari Sumdac has fled to rain-swept Dinobot Island to get the Dinobots to come help—but Grimlock views her as a trespasser!

Back in Detroit, Starscream reveals his plan is basically to have a base he can stay in that Megatron won't find, because why'd he come looking for him in the Autobot base? But all that talking gives the Dinobots an opening to attack, and they turn the tide against him!

Here, we can see two things that never happened in the show.

The Autobot base is saved from one intruder—but gains three more, because it turns out the Dinobots don't like the rain and Sari gained their alliance by promising them they could stay in the base until it stops. Guess what the forecast for the next FOREVER is.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

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Articles & features

• Top Gear: promotion of and competitions for Universe Sunstreaker, Marvel Crossovers Transformers, and a lunch bag.
• Character Profile: Lio Convoy.
• Starscream's Ten Tips On Ruling: Starscream advises us on how to be a tyrant, with a Soviet propaganda style image of the man himself.
• Bumblebee's Way-Past-Cool Reviews: video game review feature.
• Advert and promotion for the Animated comic, out on 23 October 23 October 23rd October.
• How To Draw: Scorponok
• Artobots: Fan art section.
• Star Screams: Letters, art and photos from readers, answered by Starscream.
• Poster of the cover
• Half of a The Many Faces Of Optimus Prime poster. The other half is in Animated #1 23 October buy it kids.
• Competitions for a Nintendo DS and Sonic Chronicles, and the Next Avengers DVD.

Free Gift

• "Free! Bumper Tattoo Set!"—temporary "tattoos" again

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Megatron Origin, part 1d/2a (7 pages)
• Beast Wars: The Ascending part 1d (4 pages)

Errors

• The contents page advertises last issue's reprints.
• The Many Faces Of Optimus Prime, when citing Robots in Disguise, mistakenly calls Koji Onishi "Yuki Onishi" (his Japanese name).
• Cybertron is not a "Zombie World!" like the cover said. Booo!

Quotes

Strip (Movie)

"The damage to Earth goes far deeper than we realised."
"How deep?"
"Core deep."

—Optimus and the Prez

"We don't know what state Cybertron's in. It could be teeming with life... if [so], they could be native or "visitors", hostile or friendly. Take nothing for granted. One thing I do know, this ain't no happy homecomin'. Start getting all optic-fogged—and you'll get dead."

—Ironhide, Motivational Speaker

"Please, no sudden moves. Just at the moment, I'd prefer you all fully functional."
"You expect us to surrender?"
"No. I expect you to fight. One-on-one. Hand-to-hand. Winner takes all."

—Stockade and Ironhide

"And now Cybertron shall arise from the ashes, re-empowered, reborn!"

—Stockade is mental

Strip (Animated)

"Clones — I want them extincted!"
"Um... is that even a word?"

—Starscream beaten at English by an eight-year-old girl

"Me Grimlock want clones. World needs more Grimlock!"

—Simon FurmanGrimlock

"What's the forecast again, Ratchet?."
"Same as last time you asked, Prime... rain, rain and more rain!"
"<sigh>"

—Optimus and Ratchet

Star Screams

A six-year-old: "I am sending you a picture my daddy took of me at a Transformers Convention with David Kaye. He played the voice of Megatron in TRANSFORMERS Beast Wars and the Armada cartoons..."
"We need more loyal, young fans like you at conventions. Keep up the good work!"

On Ratchet doing the letters: "Oh great, we get to hear the Autobot's most famous medic be dull and polite and magnanimous to you barely-evolved meatsacks of primeval sludge. How riveting."

"Not cowardice. Just a lifestyle choice."

"So sorry we had to kill Jazz. Well, I say sorry... I regret... well, not so much regret as really don't care..."

"Oh dear, David. Let me explain in basic terms you will understand—I'm a Decepticon and I don't like Autobots. Sending a picture of you, dressed as Bumblebee is a bad idea. A very bad idea. Now go to your room and write 'I will not sympathise with the pathetic Autobots' a hundred times."

Notes

Continuity notes

• The All Spark-caused disasters are occurring more and more frequently; even though they've just recently arrived, the specialists have already used up all the disaster relief equipment they brought with them.
• The film had established that Cybertron is an utterly dead planet.
• Snarl and Swoop talk here for the first time anywhere. Swoop appears slightly more intelligent than his mates.

Alternate-reality notes

• Some Decepticons have remained on Cybertron, but otherwise it's been completely deserted due to its slow death. Now in the second volume, we'll see the Twins have been hanging around on the dead Cybertron in order to avoid the war. Training Day Evidently, in this timeline they didn't want to hang around when Decepticons showed up or have been quietly killed off!

Transformers references

• Nucleon was a maguffin used before by Furman to bring back dead 'bots at Marvel Comics (and create Actionmasters).
• The image of Starscream standing on top of the Autobots declaring "I beat them all!" seems to be a homage to the cover of the final issue of "Time Wars".

Real life references

• The spaceship the Autobots are using is a dead ringer for the USS Sulaco from Aliens.

Letters page notes

• The fans in the letters page mention Beast Wars, the Unicron Trilogy and the G1 cartoon.

Production notes

• This is the second bumper-sized issue.
• Fun with artist changes: Arcee now resembles her movie concept art rather than her toy.
• The contents page bids a "fond farewell" to Alison Paye of Hasbro UK, who'd been credited as liaising with the comic in previous issues.
• The Optimus Prime poster uses various stock images of Primes, including Marvel Comics and a Dreamwave RID poster. It summarises Optimus' life with data from four separate versions of G1, making it an extremely awesome micro-continuity.
• The "Megatron Origin" recap states that the miners have fled to the "brutal urban hell" of Kaon "where Megatron soon finds himself in the gladiator arena", which didn't happen but is presumably meant to make his appearance in an arena here seem less abrupt.
• By combining the end of "Origin" #1 with the start of #2, the dramatic irony of Sentinel Prime dismissing Megatron's escape as "nothing... compared to down here" (where Megatron has turned up) is heightened, as we go straight from his comment to Megatron in battle with Cy-Kill.

Errors

• Last issue made it sound like Evac ran the specialist team (which Furman had stated on Wordpress as well), but Camshaft is the one actually running the show here.
• Armorhide is coloured like Strongarm.
• Starscream somehow knew where the Autobots' base was, in spite of its location being unknown to all Decepticons and human villains.
• Snarl and Swoop have names (Snarl even says his!). Thanks to later episodes of the show, this has since become an error. Unless you're feeling charitable, and then you can say it's the first sign of continuity divergence in Titan's Animated strips.

Other notes

• The Animated strip does everything in a mere six pages. Rock on.