Editing Transformers: The Battle of the Star Gate

{{comicstory
|seriesissue=[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers]]
|title=''The Battle of Star Gate'' <sub>(printed in English on the cover)</sub>
|image=Star Gate Battles manga cover.jpg
|caption=You know what's he's going to say.
|publisher=[[Brain-Navi Comics]]
|date=[[June 29]], [[2009]]
|art by=[[Naoto Tsushima]]
|written by=[[Naoto Tsushima]]
|editor=[[TakaraTomy]]
|pagecount=192
|price=1,751 yen
|ISBN=ISBN 4904293266<br>
ISBN 978-4904293263
|continuity=[[Generation 1 continuity family]]
}}

'''''Transformers: The Stargate Battles''''' (トランスフォーマー スターゲート戦役 ''Transformer Stargate Sen'eki'') is a [[manga]] written and drawn by [[Naoto Tsushima]] and published from issues 11 to 14 of ''[[Super Robot Magazine]]'' in 2003. The story is set in the 1990s, in the intermezzo between the end of the second season of the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|original cartoon series]] and ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''. Cut short by the cancellation of ''Super Robot Magazine'' with its fourteenth issue, "The Stargate Battles" is something of an obscure "forgotten adventure", but was nonetheless incorporated into 2007's [[Generation 1 cartoon timeline (Japan)|Japanese cartoon continuity timeline]], its open ending helping to incorporate ''[[Robots in Disguise (franchise)|Car Robots]]'' into continuity.

In [[2009]], [[Brain-Navi Comics|Brain-Navi]] compiled all four chapters into one volume.

{{chapters
|title=''The Stargate Battles'' issues
|content=
*[[First Contact]]
*[[Divided Views]]
*[[Activation]]
*[[The Stargate Battles (issue)|The Stargate Battles]]
}}

==Overview==
In the mid-1990s, the [[Autobot]]s formally enter into an alliance with [[United States of America|United States]] government, and begin sharing their technology with them in a mutually beneficial program. This upsets the socio-political climate of Earth, however: other world powers like [[Japan]] and the [[Soviet Union]] object to the alliance and began plotting with the [[Decepticon]]s, while many citizens hold anti-Transformer rallies, wishing the robots and their war off the planet.

Among the technological advancements that are born from this new partnership is the "[[Warp Gate|Trigger]]", an interstellar teleportation system housed in a space station currently being constructed in Earth orbit, which will help connect the planet to [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. Naturally, however, the Trigger becomes a target for the Decepticons, who stage an attack on it with the help of the Soviet Union. In the process, the villains narrowly avoid being teleported away by the Trigger, activated through the heroic efforts of crew member [[Makoto (Stargate Battles)|Makoto]] and violently shut down by a blast from [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]. The Decepticons are eventually routed the Autobots, but the Trigger's activation and sudden deactivation does have one unexpected effect: the ghost of [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] from over a decade in the future is plucked out of his time and dropped into the middle of the conflict.

In the months that follow, Starscream's ghost causes havoc during a test run of the new [[C-X]] battle drone, possessing the robot and causing it to run amok, and whispers in the ear of his present-day counterpart, leading him to arrange an alliance with the [[Prime Minister of Japan]] that grants the Decepticons license to gather energy in the country. Using the [[energon cube]]s they gather, Starscream's ghost is able to fuse both himself and his present-day self with the Trigger space station, transforming it into a massive, misshapen robot body that he uses to attack Autobots and Decepticons alike. The battle concludes when Megatron and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] join forces, and Prime channels the power of the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]] into Megatron's gun mode for one destructive blast that obliterates Starscream's new body. But while the threat is ended, the Transformers are all caught in the backwash of the cosmic explosion and sent tumbling to Earth in flames...

==Characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
* [[Beachcomber (G1)|Beachcomber]]
* [[Bluestreak (G1)|Bluestreak]]
* [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]]
* [[Cosmos (G1)|Cosmos]]
* [[Hound (G1)|Hound]]
* [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]]
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]]
* [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]
* [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]]
* [[Powerglide (G1)|Powerglide]]
* [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]]
* [[Jetfire (G1)|Skyfire]]
* [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]]
* [[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]]

|c2=
* [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]]
* [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]]
* [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]]
* [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]]
* [[Laserbeak (G1)|Laserbeak]]
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]
* [[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]]
* [[Reflector (G1)|Reflector]]
* [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]]
* [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]
* [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]]
* [[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]]

|c3=
* [[Makoto (Stargate Battles)|Makoto]]
* [[Trov]]
* [[Flegg]]
* [[Anya]]
* [[Adle]]
* [[Katua Adle]]

|c4=
* [[C-X]]
}}

==Notes==
[[Image:Star Gate Battles manga cover reverse.jpg|right|225px|thumb|And you know what HE'S going to say.]]
* In the colossal [[Generation 1 cartoon timeline (Japan)|retcon-heavy Japanese cartoon-based timeline]] revealed in the ''[[Kiss Players/15 Go! Go! Compilation]]'' book, the obscure ''Stargate Battles'' manga is used as the key to wedging [[Robots in Disguise (cartoon)|the ''Car Robots'' cartoon]] (which was previously unconnected to anything prior fictionally) into the time between [[The Transformers (cartoon)|the second season of the original cartoon]] and the events of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''. How? Well, virtually all of the existing Transformers end up missing at the end of ''Stargate'', thus allowing for [[Optimus Prime (RID)|Fire Convoy]] and his crew to be operating on Earth without bumping into any of the old cast. Admittedly, how everyone was brought ''back'' does not appear to have been addressed, or just where Fire Convoy and company went at the end of the series, but... look just go with it, all right?
* The collected edition features a reversible dust jacket cover, Optimus being the default side while Megatron's side lacks any of the ISBN information and bar code as seen on right.
* Disappointingly, the collected edition did NOT keep the first several pages colored in "[[First Contact]]" as they originally appeared in ''Super Robot Magazine'', Brain-Navi Comics opting for a gray-scale version of the pages.

==External links==
*[[wikipedia:ja:トランスフォーマー スターゲート戦役|"Transformers: The Stargate Battles"]] at Japanese Wikipedia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stargate Battles}}
[[Category:Generation 1 comic series]]
[[Category:Manga]]
[[Category:Battles]]