Manoeuvres!
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| "Manoeuvres!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 11th August 1990 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 18th August 1990 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Pete Knifton | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Pete Venters | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Sophie Heath | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce | ||||||||||||
Octane takes a seriously bad wrong turning!
Synopsis
[edit]Octane explains how, as per usual, he was stealing fuel for the Decepticons and took an accidental turning that took him onto an army testing range.
Blitzwing and Astrotrain respond that this is no "odd mistake", but agree to help their fellow Triple Changer and get some target practice in at the same time. They start attacking the tanks and helicopters, but find that the humans are good, though the Decepticons are better.
Octane has not joined in the battle, which annoys Blitzwing and Astrotrain. Octane explains that he is full of fuel and one shot will mean he explodes like a nuke. Blitzwing demands the truth as to how Octane got into the mess.
Octane admits he was playing with human cars but one of them almost got the better of him so he pursued it for many miles, finally getting the better of it as he entered the test range.
Blitzwing is outraged that the whole situation is a result of Octane's silly games and he and Astrotrain take off, hoping that if Octane survives the experience will teach him a lesson. Octane is left pleading for help as shells explode around him.
Nearby, the car is revealed to be Jazz. He comments that Octane needed to be taught a lesson as too many humans were being hurt, but now he's been outmanoeuvred.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
[edit]"[Narrating] I mean work, work, work. It's all I seem to do! All day every day, filling me tank to its 10,000 gallon capacity. All for the Decepticons...for you! Is it surprising I get tired? Even when I get time to enjoy myself - is it surprising I make the odd mistake?"
- —Octane bemoans his lot in life.
"What the-? Is this part of the test?"
- —A human soldier spots the triple-changers.
"Hardly fair play, Octane. But you had to be taught a lesson! Too many humans were being hurt. Face it, Decepticon - you've been out-manoeuvred!"
- —Jazz
Notes
[edit]Artwork and technical errors
[edit]- Even though this story is set in America, there are occasions where the background text uses international spellings.
Continuity errors
[edit]- Why can't Octane just transform to his jet mode and take off? One possible explanation is that he's only able to store fuel when he's in tanker mode.
Continuity notes
[edit]
- This is the last time Octane shows up in the Earthforce stories. Uh oh!
- Octane's habit of telling tall stories to make himself look good and not being believed occurs once again. It was previously seen in "Resurrection!".
- In the story's very first panel, the gas station that Octane attacks has written "-XXON" (the beginning of the word is off-panel). This could either be a reference to real-life oil company Exxon, or Roxxon Oil, a fictional company from the Marvel Universe. The latter was featured in Transformers fiction previously in "The Icarus Theory".
Real-life references
[edit]- TBD
Other trivia
[edit]- TBD
Back-up material
[edit]- Additional Transformers story: "Kings of the Wild Frontier."
- Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Into the Breach" and Combat Colin
- AtoZ: Thundercracker and Thrust
- This was the only time AtoZ was printed in black and white and after readers' complaints the profiles were reprinted in issue #309, this time in full colour.
Cover
[edit]- Issue #283 cover: The military fire on Octane, by Robin Smith.
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Issue #283
Reprints
[edit]- Transformers: Way of the Warrior: Carnivac and Springer stand victorious over a Limbo nightmare creature, by Simon Coleby.
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road: Bludgeon (art reused from Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profiles) above an interior scene of Grimlock punching through Fangry (from US issue #80) by Andrew Wildman.
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Way of the Warrior (Titan Books, 2005) -
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20 (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)
