The Cure!

	; Monday, you can fall apart / Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
	"The Cure!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Shipping date	March 24, 1987
On-sale date	April 14, 1987
Cover date	July 1987
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Breakdowns	Don Perlin
Finishes	Ian Akin & Brian Garvey
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Janice Chiang
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

This article is about the comic issue. For the mobile game event, see The Cure (Earth Wars).

Ratbat sends a team of Autobot prisoners to kill all Transformers infected with the Scraplets. If they don't comply, the Earth will be destroyed.

Synopsis

Ratbat captures the Throttlebots during a fuel raid on Cybertron. Rather than have them executed, he sends them to Earth on a mission to destroy all Transformers infected with Scraplets, using canisters of acid. They are given 10 hours to complete this mission, after which Ratbat threatens to destroy the Earth. Arriving at the crater, they find Goldbug's tire tracks heading off into the desert. Rollbar and Wide Load take an acid canister and follow them.

Meanwhile, an exhausted Charlie Fong pushes the decrepit Goldbug to a filling station, where the attendants are alarmed by his condition. They offer him some water, some of which spills on Goldbug. Instantly, the Scraplets there wither and die. The legendary cure is nothing more than water! Before Charlie can "wash his car", however, Rollbar and Wideload arrive, intent on slagging Goldbug. Once Charlie demonstrates the cure on Wideload, the two Throttlebots are more than happy to back down.

Goldbug arranges for G.B. Blackrock to have water transported to the crater to cure all the infected Transformers, but when Goldbug prepares to cure Blaster and the Triple Changers, Blaster tells Goldbug to kill him rather than save the Decepticons. During Goldbug's hesitation, the Scraplets merge into a conglomerate monster to fight back. The Scraplet monster proves more than a match for the weaponless Throttlebots, and Goldbug decides to cure Blaster and the Decepticons to provide enough firepower to fight against the monster. The gambit proves effective, and Blaster finishes the Scraplets off with the acid that Throttlebots brought with them. Goldbug uses the last of the water Blackrock brought to the crater to remove the Scraplets that had infected the Throttlebots during the fight.

Astrotrain learns enough about Blackrock to believe him to be of use to the Decepticons, and attaches a portable stroboscopic opticon to Blackrock's forehead. The chip flashes a light pattern in front of Blackrock's eyes, then falls away unseen by anyone else. The Decepticons then escape, carrying the cargo from the freighter which brought the Scraplets to Earth.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Chase (1) Searchlight (2) Wide Load (3) Freeway (4) Rollbar (5) Blaster (10) Goldbug (13)	Titanium-class Destruction Drone (6) Ratbat (7) Astrotrain (8) Octane (9) Blitzwing (11)	Charlie Fong (12) Jim (14) Ernie (15) G.B. Blackrock (16)

Quotes

"Throw down your weapons and I will spare your miserable lives, Autobots!"
"That's the best offer we've had all day... I think we'll take you up on it!"

— a destruction drone and Rollbar, who clearly hasn't been having a very good day.

"Sorry I tried to slag you a few moments ago."
"Yeah, no hard feelings, okay?"

—Wide Load and Rollbar help Goldbug to his feet.

"Careful, Goldbug! I may be a big shot in the energy business, but tank trucks don't grow on trees!"
"Of course not! Trucks and trees aren't even the same species!"

—G.B. Blackrock and Goldbug

"I'm glad you came back, Goldbug. You made me see the true you again. I guess every ill has its cure!"

—Blaster makes up with Goldbug

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

Cover: Freeway is missing his hood, while the other two sports car Throttlebots are unidentifiable and miscolored.
Throughout this issue, and indeed, the entire Marvel series, Chase and Searchlight have switched color schemes, with Chase appearing white, and Searchlight appearing red (but only in robot mode - in vehicle mode, they're the right colors!). This is probably related to the production error that caused their head designs to be swapped, which appears on their character models, and in all classic media that uses them, including the original animated series.
It's even more confusing page 1, though, where Searchlight and Freeway have their colours further swapped on top of this error, meanwhile Searchlight appears blue, and Freeway is red!
Page 3, panel 3: Blitzwing is drawn with a big thick chinstrap.
Page 4, panel 4: Rollbar's head is olive green instead of gray.
Page 11, panel 2: Rollbar is missing his hood.
Page 15, panel 4: Goldbug is missing his hood.
Page 16: Chase has Rollbar's colors.
On page 20, a rear view of Astrotrain shows him with his wings attached to the front of his torso instead of the back, and no arms.

Continuity errors

Despite Ratbat's threat to destroy the Earth, no effort is made by the Autobots to contact him after the Scraplets threat is averted. Apparently, the Earth does not get destroyed.

Continuity notes

The Transformers' discussions of the "rare chemical" that cures scraplets have caused a great deal of confusion (and amusement) in the fandom over the years. Many fans interpret various lines in isolation as meaning that the Transformers consider water to be a rare chemical, have never heard of it, and/or don't believe in its existence, all of which would be patently ridiculous beliefs for a spacefaring race (and would contradict Bumblebee's statement way back in issue #1 that he is excited that Earth is covered in water because he loves a good swim.)
However, much of this interpretation hinges on the idea that the Transformers know exactly what the cure's chemical formula is, and simply don't believe it exists. This notion is flatly contradicted by various statements in this issue and the previous one, which make it clear that they don't know the identity of the chemical:
- Octane: "Legend has it that, thousands of vorns ago during an outbreak on Cybertron, a rare chemical was found that killed the scraplets! But I doubt any of us will live long enough to rediscover it."
- Ratbat: "The only cure is a chemical so rare that its very existence is suspect! But whether the ancient legends about this substance are true matters not."
- Wideload: "I never heard of such a substance!"
  Rollbar: "Hmm... maybe it doesn't exist on our world!"
  The only thing the Transformers have been told about the cure is that it's rare, which fits with most of what we've seen and been told of Cybertron (Bumblebee never claims that there IS water on Cybertron.) Nobody denies the existence of water; they just don't know that it's the cure. In fact, the very next issue reveals that Ratbat's entire operation is centered around an evil, hypnotic, water-using car wash! At best, we can chastise Rollbar and Wideload for not knowing much about water, which isn't too surprising since 1) they're scouts and 2) they spend most of their time fighting for their lives on Cybertron.
The freighter was sent by Ratbat on a secret mission in issue #29 before becoming infected by Scraplets. The nature of its secret cargo will be revealed in issue #31.

Real-life references

Picking up from last issue, the action is set in northern Arizona, excepting a brief aside to Blackrock's headquarters in Portland.

UK printing

Issue #126

Back-up strips: Iron Man - "Deep Trouble!" and Robo-Capers

Issue #127

Back-up strips: Iron Man - "Deep Trouble!" and Robo-Capers

Other trivia

Grimlock occupies the Marvel corner box space for the next eight US issues, beginning with this one, reflecting his current status as leader of the Earth-bound Autobots in the series, even though he doesn't actually appear in this issue.
This issue was reprinted by IDW Publishing as Generations #11. It featured a new cover by Nick Roche.

Bot Roster

Autobots: 30 active, 7 "deserters" as the Throttlebots arrive on Earth and join Blaster & Goldbug, and 14 in repair bay. (51 total)
Decepticons: 34 active; 9 offline. (43 total)

Courtesy of my...

Ratbat arms the Throttlebots with some pretty brutal acid canisters.
Astrotrain calls out his ionic displacer rifle.
Blitzwing likewise namechecks his electron scimitar.

Covers (3)

US cover: Rollbar punching through the Scraplet monster, by Herb Trimpe.
UK issue #126 cover: the Throttlebots attack Goldbug, by Lee Sullivan.
UK issue #127 cover: the Scraplet monster attacks the Throttlebots, by Robin Smith.

US issue #30 - Yay, Throttlebots, so... ineffective.
UK issue #126 - Well, that's what they told Goldbug afterwards...
UK issue #127 - Throttlebots - easy on the eye AND the stomach!

Reprints

Transformers: Breakdown TPB cover: Predaking, Megatron, Ratchet and half of Ratbat, by Andrew Wildman.
Breakdown hardback cover: Grimlock fighting Trypticon, by Kev Walker, Simon Coleby and Chris Blythe.
The Transformers: Generations #11 cover A: a new version of the US cover, by Nick Roche.
Generations #11 cover B: line-art version of cover A.
Generations #11 incentive cover: reuse of a panel from this issue.
Generations TPB cover: reuse of the Nick Roche cover to Generations issue #1.