Editing Spacehikers!

[[Image:MarvelUS-36.jpg|thumb|right|200px|I'll feed ye to the Sharkticons, argh!]]
{{Template:Comicnav | Generation 1 (Marvel Comics) | 36 | seriesname=Marvel U.S. | prev=Child's Play (comic issue) | next=Toy Soldiers! | series2=Generation 1 (Marvel Comics)#Marvel UK | seriesname2=Marvel UK | issuenumber2=Issue #143{{n-}}144 | prev2=Used Autobots | next2=Brothers in Armor!! }}
'''A group of children are caught in the cross-fire of inter-Autobot politics.'''


==Synopsis==
Sky Lynx arrives in our solar system, answering a plea from old friend Wheeljack for help in overthrowing the current [[Autobot]] leader Grimlock, obsessed with locating and imprisoning Blaster, to the exclusion of fighting the [[Decepticon]]s.  When Blaster is located giving four [[Earth]] children a joy ride in the incapacitated form of Blast Off, the ''[[Ark (G1)|Ark]]'' immediately opens fire.  To save the kids, Blaster orders Blast Off to stop and be picked up by the ''Ark'', but one of the children tosses Blaster out an airlock to ensure that Blaster is not captured.

With Blast Off safely incarcerated on board the ''Ark'', the children are discovered, and Wheeljack sees to their needs.  Grimlock holds a trial, accusing the children of aiding a traitor, and sentences them to execution.  This is a ploy to bring Blaster out into the open, but as the children are made to "walk the plank" into deep space, Sky Lynx rescues them instead.

When Sky Lynx enters a meteor shower too dangerous for the ''Ark'' to navigate safely, Grimlock leads the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dinobots]] outside to pursue the rogue Autobot.  Meanwhile, Blaster successfully makes it inside the ''Ark'', where the other Autobots practically beg him to take command of the Autobots from Grimlock.  However, when the Dinobots surround Sky Lynx, Blaster surrenders to the Dinobots in order to ensure their safety.

==Credits==
'''Script:''' [[Bob Budiansky]] <br>
'''Pencils:''' [[Jose Delbo]]<br>
'''Inks:''' [[Ian Akin]] and [[Brian Garvey]]<br>
'''Colors:''' [[Nelson Yomtov]]<br>
'''Lettering:''' [[Diana Albers]]<br>
'''Editor:''' [[Don Daley]]<br>
*''Originally published:'' January, 1988

===Major characters===
(''Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
{|border=5 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=5 align=center style="border:#800000"
! style="background:#FFEEEE" | [[Autobot]]s
! style="background:#EEEEFE" | [[Decepticon]]s
! style="background:antiquewhite" | [[Human]]s
|- 
| style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top" | 
* [[Sky Lynx (G1)|Sky Lynx]] (1)
* [[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] (2)
* [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] (3)
* [[Blaster]] (6)
* [[Slag (G1)|Slag]] (10)
* [[Sludge (G1)|Sludge]] (11)
* [[Snarl (G1)|Snarl]] (12)
* [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] (13)
* [[Beachcomber (G1)|Beachcomber]] (14)
* [[Twin Twist]] (15)
* [[Cosmos]] (16)
* [[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]] (17)
* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] (18)
* [[Sandstorm (G1)|Sandstorm]] (19)
* [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] (20)
* [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] (21)
* [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]] (22)

| style="background:#EEEEFE" valign="top" | 
* [[Blast Off]] (4)

| style="background:antiquewhite" valign="top" |'''Regulars'''
'''Guests'''
* [[Robin Lindley|Robin]] (5)
* [[Jed Lindley|Jed]] (7)
* [[Samuel Wainwright|Sammy]] (8)
* [[Allan Silver|Allan]] (9)

|}

==Errors==
* Jed's exposition about how Blaster controls Blast Off due to Allan putting the mode lock on him is in a Transformer style word balloon.
* On, page 7, Sammy opens Blast Off's airlock and throws Blaster into space, yet (sadly) neither he nor his friends are killed by explosive decompression.
* On the very next frame on page 7, Blaster emerges from ''Sky Lynx's'' airlock, not Blast Off's.  (It's apparently pretty easy to get all those transforming space shuttles confused.)
* On page 18, Wheeljack reports that Sky Lynx has entered a meteor shower.  Since the rocks are not within Earth's atmosphere, this is an inaccurate term.  The rocks should ideally be referred to as "meteoroids" or, even better (given their size), "asteroids."
* Blaster surrenders largely because the Spacehikers' vacuum suits only had two hours worth of air, and it's about to run out.  However, the kids are ''inside'' Sky Lynx, and later issues show the kids riding around inside him with no need for suits.  This inconsistency is not explained.

==Items of note==
* ''References to other Transformers continuities/issues:'' This issue starts several hours ''before'' the end of the previous story, "[[Child's Play (comic issue)|Child's Play]]".
* Apparently Blast Off's vehicle disguise goes so far as to incorporate an airlock accessible from inside himself.
* Apart from the mode-locked and incommunicado Blast Off, this issue features no Decepticons.
* The show on the TV set in panel 7, page 9 is ''[[Wikipedia:Sledge Hammer|Sledge Hammer!]]'', which also had a brief (two-issue) tie-in comic book published by Marvel.
* Although Grimlock says he doesn't intend to kill the children, he doesn't seem to do anything that would prevent them from getting killed, should his suspicion that Blaster will come to save them prove wrong.
* When Sky Lynx transforms from "griffin" mode (four legs ''and'' wings) to "lynx" mode, his space shuttle parts are apparently absorbed into his lynx body, instead of emulating his toy by splitting off into a separate "dinobird" body.
* Amongst the Autobots seen aboard the Ark are several one panel cameos by characters not previously seen in the US comic including Twin Twist and Sandstorm. Neither of them appeared elsewhere in the US Generation 1 comic, and in the UK comic both were established as members of the [[Wreckers]] operating from [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] and thus could not have been part of the ''Ark's'' crew.
* The plot threads of this issue are left hanging for some time.  We don't find out what Grimlock does with Blaster until [[Totaled!|issue 41]], and the fate of Sky Lynx and the Spacehikers isn't revealed until [[The Cosmic Carnival!|issue 44]].  This is at least partly due to the need [[To sell toys|to introduce new toylines]]; the issues in between feature all the new characters from the ''[[Headmasters (comic)|Headmasters]]'' miniseries coming to Earth, ''and'' the introduction of the [[Pretender]]s and [[Powermaster]]s.  The time is also used to deal with [[Bumblebee (G1)|Goldbug's]] faction of Autobots (shuffling most of them off to limbo for a good half-dozen issues themselves), and to give us the completely tangential story "[[The Big Broadcast of 2006!]]" ... with all these characters, is it any wonder Budiansky began to burn out?

===UK printing===
* In Grim Grams for issue #143, Grimlock discusses plot points in the UK annuals while expressing his dislike for a [[Beast|Dinobot Combiner]], and shoots down a letter supposedly from [[Stylor]] to correct a typo which rendered [[Gort]] as Grot, saying he prefers the way Grot sounds.
* The UK issue 143 features Transformers A-Z for [[First Aid (G1)|First Aid]] and [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]]
* In Grim Grams for UK issue #144, Grimlock kindly corrects the spelling mistakes caused by some poor Mum's typewriter, attempts to explain some of the [[Frank Springer|dumb stubbies]] mistakes in the [[Headmasters (comic)|Headmaster]] back-up stories, and again expresses his extreme distaste for the idea of a Dinobot combiner.

===Covers (3)===
{{picsneeded|UK cover}}
* '''U.S. issue 36 cover:''' Sky Lynx to the children's rescue by [[Frank Springer]]
* '''UK issue 143 cover:''' A giant claw about to grab Blast Offl by [[Martin Griffiths]]
* '''UK issue 144 cover:''' Grimlock leaping/falling feet first from the Ark by [[Barry Kitson]] and [[Robin Bouttell]]

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