Editing The Last Stand

{{disambig2|the comic issue in the Marvel US Comics|the [[Titan Books]] collection|Last Stand}}

{{comicstory|seriesissue=[[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|''The Transformers'' (US)]] #4
|prev=Prisoner of War!
|next=The New Order
|title="The Last Stand"
|seriesissue2=[[The Transformers (Marvel comic)#Marvel UK|''The Transformers'' (UK)]] #7–8
|prev2=Prisoner of War!
|next2=Man of Iron!
|image=MarvelUS-04.jpg
|caption=Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's... oh. It actually ''is'' a [[Seeker (body-type)|plane]].
|publisher=[[Marvel Comics]]
|date=[[December 4]], 1984
|coverdate=March 1985
|writer=[[Jim Salicrup]]
|pencils=[[Frank Springer]]
|inks=[[Ian Akin]], [[Brian Garvey]]
|colors=[[Nelson Yomtov]]
|letters=[[John Workman]]
|editor=[[Bob Budiansky]]
|continuity=[[Marvel Comics continuity]]
}}
'''The Autobots make a desperate gamble to defeat the Decepticons.'''

==Synopsis==
Some of the [[Autobot|Autobots]] accuse Sparkplug of betraying them by giving the [[Decepticon|Decepticons]] the fuel conversion they needed. Panicked, Sparkplug and his son attempt to escape, but when Jazz blocks their path with a wall of flame, Sparkplug suffers a heart attack. He is rushed to the hospital by Ratchet.

Huffer tells Optimus about a discovery he made in the [[Ark (G1)|Ark]]'s memory banks: Just after the ship crashed, its barely functional computers detected the Decepticon Shockwave arriving on [[Earth]] in pursuit. With the last of its power, the Ark modified five Autobot warriors to combat him, thus creating the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dinobots]]. They traveled in a [[Ark shuttlecraft|shuttle]] to the [[Savage Land]] to confront Shockwave, at which point contact was lost. Huffer has Ratchet dispatch a probe to search for the lost Dinobots.

At the hospital, Sparkplug undergoes emergency treatment and dreams of his Army service in Korea, where he was forced to repair North Korean vehicles. He further recalls sabotaging those vehicles...

With no new fuel sources forthcoming, the remaining Autobots are forced to make a desperate gamble to fight the Decepticons one last time. All the Autobots sacrifice their remaining fuel resources to Optimus Prime, Huffer, Ironhide, Bluestreak and Mirage. These five prepare to fight the Decepticons within the [[Mount St. Hilary|volcano]] that the Ark has crashed into, as the Decepticons arrive to destroy the Autobots once and for all. 

In the Savage Land, Huffer's probe has found something and starts to dig it out—until a giant purple hand crushes it...

Although the Decepticons begin to win the battle by virtue of their greater numbers, at the moment of apparent victory, the Decepticons all fall, writhing in internal agony. As he reveals to Buster at the hospital, Sparkplug had corrupted the fuel he provided to the Decepticons, and they are now poisoned. Optimus Prime proclaims the debt that they, and the entire world, owe to Sparkplug Witwicky.

But suddenly, a gigantic blast from above knocks out all the Autobot troops... and Shockwave stands supreme! 

"NOT the end..."
{{-}}


==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
* [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Marvel Comics continuity|Optimus Prime]] (1)
* [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] (2)
* [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]] (3)
* [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]] (6)
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] (7)
* [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] (8)
* [[Windcharger (G1)|Windcharger]] (9)
* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] (10)
* [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] (11)
* [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]] (12)
* [[Bluestreak]] (13)
* [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] (14)
* [[Snarl (G1)|Snarl]] (30)
* [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] (31)
* [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] (32)
* [[Sludge (G1)|Sludge]] (33)
* [[Slag (G1)|Slag]] (34)
* [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] (35)
|c2=
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (18)
* [[Decepticon medic (Marvel Comics)|Decepticon medic]](19)
* [[Reflector (G1)|Reflector]] (20–22)
**[[Spyglass]] (20)
**[[Spectro]] (21)
**[[Viewfinder]] (22)
* [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] (23)
* [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] (24)
* [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] (25)
* [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] (26)
* [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] (27)
* [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]] (28)
* [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] (29)
* [[Buzzsaw (G1)|Buzzsaw]] (36)
* [[Laserbeak (G1)|Laserbeak]] (37)
* [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]] (38)
|c3=
* [[Buster Witwicky (G1)|Buster Witwicky]] (4)
* [[Sparkplug Witwicky]] (5)
* [["O"]] (15)
* [[Mister "O"]] (16)
* [[Jesse]] (17)
}}

==Errors==
* Cover: Megatron is colored mostly brown.
* Page 1: Brawn is colored red and blue instead of green and yellow.  Several generic Autobots are seen in the second inset panel.
* Page 2: 
** Panel 1: Windcharger is colored with a red chest and head and blue arms, instead of gray torso and red arms. Standing behind Huffer is a off-colour version of [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]]'s original character model (based on the Macross Valkyrie toy)
** Panel 2: Ratchet's face and chevron are colored red instead of their usual grey/white.
** Panel 4: Why does Ironhide have yellow accordion knees?
* Page 3: 
** Panel 2: Mirage is colored with red arms and a white head.  Jazz (seen holding back Ironhide) is colored mostly blue with red legs, instead of mostly white with black details.
** Panel 5: Jazz fires what's supposed to be his flamethrower, but is in actuality his regular rifle.
* Page 5: Ratchet has an all-red head again and red legs.  (Again, the consistency of this indicates that it might be an earlier color scheme.)  Optimus is barely as tall as Ratchet's ambulance mode.
* Page 9: A bunch of vaguely Reflector-like robots are suddenly hanging around in the Decepticon fortress.  (Issue #1 pretty clearly indicated that the only Decepticons on Earth are the ten introduced in that issue, a point even more explicitly stated by Shockwave in the next issue.)  If that's supposed to be Frenzy on one of the repair beds, he's completely off-model.
* Megatron has an off-center Decepticon sigil throughout the issue.
* Page 13: Bumblebee is colored approximately like Sideswipe.
* Wheeljack, Trailbreaker, Prowl and Jazz are all shown to be up and about in this issue, yet they are not shown among the donor Autobots in the [[Tubes of Transference]].
* Page 14: Brawn is shown among the active Autobots, even though he was not among those recharged for the final fight.
* Page 16: There's Brawn again!  And Windcharger!
* Page 18: 
** Panel 5: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are both shown among the Autobots; there's a generic lying on the ground.
** Panel 6: Cliffjumper is among the Autobots.  Seriously.  Wasn't the whole "last five Autobots" like a really big plot point just a couple of pages ago?  Sheesh.
* Page 19: Who're those generic guys on the ground in the last panel?
* Page 20: A generic Decepticon can be seen between Megatron's legs.
* Page 21: There's Sunstreaker again!  Several generic Decepticons as well.  Mirage magically has his left arm again, after it was bitten off by Ravage; whatever damage was done to his chest/head by Buzzsaw has likewise vanished.
* Page 22: And Windcharger, colored like Mirage.  Bluestreak's left door/wing is missing.

==Items of note==
* '''Cameos:'''  [[Ted Koppel]] (voice only), the [[Roland|Rolands]], ballet girls, [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]], [[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]], Sparkplug's Army buddy, North Koreans, hospital crew, [[United States military]].
* Advertised as part 4 in a 4-issue limited series, but the ending and letter column both make clear that issue [[The New Order|#5]] of what was now an ongoing was forthcoming.
* The narrative box makes a quick reference to the World War I novel ''All Quiet on the Western Front'': "Meanwhile, all's quiet on the Decepticon front..."
* According to a text box in the letter column, ''Transformers'' #5 was originally going to be drawn by the team of "[[wikipedia:Vincent_Giarrano|Vince Giarrano]], penciling superstar-in-the-making" and "[[Brad Joyce]], inker extraordinare". This did not come to pass, and while Joyce did eventually ink issue [[The Next Best Thing to Being There!|#10]], Giarrano would never work on the series.
* [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]]'s original character model (based on the Macross Valkyrie) appears in the first panel of the second page, but he is miscolored and partially obscured by Huffer's arm.
* An [http://www.tfarchive.com/comics/faq/alternate.jpg alternate ending] was scripted and drawn for a UK reprint of issue #4 in Transformers: The Complete Works, Volume 2; in this version, Shockwave never strikes, and the series ends with Optimus Prime declaring the Decepticons defeated once and for all. Some have theorised that this ending was created by the US comics in case the series failed to progress past issue #4. However, the art on these panels, particularly a closeup of Optimus Prime's face, in the very final panel, is markedly different to Springer's so it seems much more likely that this version was simply drawn for the UK printing by one of their own artists.
* A second alternate ending was published in the ''Federal Comics Super Special edition''.  It expands the second panel of the penultimate page (or, the second panel from the link within the previous note) into a final splash page, eliminating the other panels entirely.  Additionally, any page that mentioned the Shockwave subplot was dropped.

===Covers===
<gallery>
Image:MarvelUS-04.jpg|'''US issue #4''' - Rare Brown Megatron appears!
Image:MarvelUK-7.jpg|'''UK issue #7''' - Megatron isn't even allowed on the UK cover
Image:MarvelUK-8.jpg|'''UK issue #8''' - Megatron took first in the Prime Press contest
Image:Tfcolcom02.jpg|'''Collected Comics #2'''
</gallery>
* '''US issue #4 cover:''' the final battle, by [[Mark Texeira]].
* '''UK issue #7 cover:''' reuse of art from US cover.
* '''UK issue #8 cover:''' Megatron holds the defeated Optimus Prime overhead, by [[Barry Kitson]].
* '''Collected Comics #2 cover:''' Reuse of US issue #4's cover.

===Advertisements===
* GoBots motorized model kits - inside front cover.
{{-}}

==External links==
* [http://www.tfarchive.com/comics/faq/#1f "Is it true there was an alternate version of #4?" at Tfarchive.com]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Stand}}
[[Category:Marvel US issues]]
[[Category:Marvel UK issues]]