Power Play!

This article is about The issue of the Generation 1 Marvel comic. For the campaign of the Earth Wars mobile game, see Power Play (Earth Wars).

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Nuclear weapons are the right of all sentient beings, Prime!
"Power Play!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Shipping date	July 10, 1984
On-sale date	July 31, 1984
Cover date	November 1984
Plot	Bill Mantlo
Script	Jim Salicrup
Pencils	Frank Springer
Inks	Kim DeMulder
Colors	Nel Yomtov
Lettering	Janice Chiang
Editor	Bob Budiansky
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The Decepticons attack a nuclear power plant in an attempt to secure fuel. Meanwhile, Bumblebee makes contact with some humans.

Synopsis

Seeking new sources of energy, the Decepticons discover a half-completed nuclear power plant. Ravage is sent in to scout and stumbles upon an engineer making a progress report on the station's construction. The spy transforms into a mini-cassette and sneaks his way into the engineer's tape recorder, gathering information on the power plant's energy potential. Hours later, Ravage returns to his comrades and reports on the power plant and its human inhabitants. Megatron deduces that mankind's technology has the power to supply the Decepticons with limitless energy and orders his troops to attack the plant. After the Decepticons ransack the power plant with their unique abilities and weaponry, Megatron orders them to strip the plant of its technological components, stealing them for their own purposes.

Meanwhile at the Witwicky garage, Buster pleads with his dad to fix the "wounded" VW Beetle he's brought home. Sparkplug believes it to be a practical joke, but his son insists to his father that its all true, telling the story of how he and his friends escaped an attack by giant robots and jet fighters. Sparkplug eventually concedes, if only to get a good night's sleep afterwards. Hours later, Sparkplug's repairs have seemingly worked as the car suddenly changes shape into a robot, which introduces itself as Bumblebee. Bumblebee thanks Sparkplug for his help and tells him of the other Autobots and their plight to find resources. Sparkplug offers his help and Bumblebee obliges, transforming to return to the Ark and inform his comrades about Sparkplug's offer and brings Buster along for the ride. On the way, Bumblebee tells Buster about the war and their initial mission that brought them to Earth before they eventually run into "O" and Jesse, Buster's friends. Watching from afar, Ravage recognizes the humans from the battle at the drive-in and transforms, planting himself in "O"'s boom-box and listening in as "O" and Jesse tell Buster and Bumblebee about the Decepticons' attack on the power plant. Realizing the dangerous potential of the Decepticons harnessing nuclear energy, Buster and Bumblebee high-tail it back to the garage to refuel.

Aboard the Ark at Mount St. Hilary, the Autobots' computer reveals that fuel supplies have reached dangerous levels, mostly due to repairs done to the computer itself. The Autobots quarrel over what to do, with Mirage and Ratchet suggesting they simply take the resources they need while Prowl argues the humans have a right to their own resources. Optimus Prime interrupts and declares they will seek to ally with the humans and barter for the fuel they need, using technology from Cybertron as bargaining chips. Suddenly, Hound receives an emergency radio broadcast from Bumblebee, who has constructed a crude communicator out of spare parts at Sparkplug's garage. Bumblebee informs Optimus of both the Decepticons' plans to harness nuclear energy and of Sparkplug's offer to help their situation and the Autobot leader orders a squadron of troops to roll out to the garage.

At the half-constructed Decepticon base, Ravage informs Megatron of the Autobots' alliance with Sparkplug, with the latter demanding that they capture Sparkplug and have him convert fuel to energy for them alone. As the Autobots arrive at the garage and meet the Witwickys, the Decepticons suddenly ambush them, turning Sparkplug's scrapyard into an all-out war zone. The battle sprawls out into the neighboring streets, with bystanders calling police who begin firing at both Decepticon and Autobot. Meanwhile, in a safe area in the junkyard, Bumblebee guards Sparkplug and Buster...unaware that Megatron has snuck upon him from behind! With one swift chop, he takes out Bumblebee and grabs Sparkplug. Hearing Buster's cries for help, Optimus leaps over to battle Megatron, who drops Sparkplug in the ensuing fight. Buster tries in vain to help his father, who is suddenly nabbed by Starscream, taking the human hostage inside his jet mode and rocketing away with his Decepticon teammates following suit.

With the battle over and Sparkplug captured, Buster begs the Autobots to do anything they can to help his father. Optimus agrees...but without sufficient energy, the Autobots have no hope of succeeding and they fall to their knees.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Cliffjumper (11) Prowl (12) Bumblebee (15) Ratchet (19) Sunstreaker (20) Optimus Prime (21) Jazz (22) Wheeljack (23) Windcharger (24) Ironhide (25) Mirage (26) Hound (27) Sideswipe (28) Brawn (31)	Soundwave (1) Megatron (2) Ravage (3) Frenzy (4) Starscream (5) Thundercracker (6) Buzzsaw (7) Skywarp (8) Laserbeak (9) Rumble (13)	Jason Boyd (10) Sparkplug Witwicky (14) Buster Witwicky (16) Jessie (17) "O" (18) Doris Roland (29) Mitchell Roland (30)

Quotes

The humans employ far better design standards on their machines than on themselves! What a backward world!

— Skywarp

"Is he healed?"
"Blast it, son! I'm a mechanic, not a doctor! All I did was fix a broken fuel line and tune up some parts! It wasn't easy! I've never seen a car quite like it, and I've—"
KLIK
"Huh?"
KLIK
"What the—? ...Oh, no! It's falling apart!"

Buster and Sparkplug meet Bumblebee

"Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want? And how'd you wind up in my garage?"
"I am code-named Bumblebee, I'm from the planet Cybertron, I'm in desperate need of fuel, and your son drove me here! Do all small, pink things ask so many questions?"

— Sparkplug and Bumblebee

Notes

Continuity notes

• While introducing himself to the Witwickys, "Bumblebee" says that his name is a "code-name." The idea that the names we know the Transformers by are not their "real" names is something that would very occasionally be revisited in future Transformers media, but in Marvel continuity specifically, it will be reiterated just a few issues from now in the UK story "Man of Iron."
• "O" and Jessie catch a song by Marvel superhero-slash-singing-sensation Dazzler on the radio. This is the first in a series of references to mainstream Marvel continuity that the mini-series would make, which were quietly ignored once the series became an ongoing as the Transformers universe was retconned into being its own thing, separate from the Marvel universe.

Real-life references

• Sparkplug states that he's "a mechanic, not a doctor", an homage to Star Trek's Doctor McCoy.
• "O" notes that the television show That's Incredible! has been cancelled. The show had indeed ended its original run in 1984.

Continuity and plotting errors

• Jesse is spelled "Jessie" in this issue.
• Megatron orders all five of his fliers into the air, while standing around and watching them go. So how does he get to the subsequent battle himself?

Artwork and technical errors

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker began sharing their body molds sooner than most believe.

Continuing on from the precedent established last issue, Marvel Productions' character models for a lot of the cast still had not been created, approved and made available to Marvel Comics for the majority of this issue's production. Many characters are drawn using designs based directly on their toys, that tried to match the general aesthetic of the few character models that did exist. The toy interpretations get even looser this issue, as characters like Bumblebee and Windcharger have very rough, inconsistent head designs. At the other extreme, throughout the issue, Sunstreaker is drawn using Sideswipe's character model, with his own head and color scheme. The remaining models only became available in time for use on the cover, the removal of wheels from the back of Optimus Prime's legs (in line with his final model) and the one small panel of Rumble's robot mode on Page 6.

• Page 1: Starscream's right wing has a yellow decal while his left has a red one.
• Page 3: The flashback to last issue preserves a coloring error from that story, as Soundwave is colored like Megatron.
• Page 5: The portion of Harrison Nuclear Plant which Laserbeak attacks looks a lot like a steel mill, but not at all like a nuke plant.
• Page 6:
  • Panel 5: Starscream and Thundercracker are missing their wings as they transform in panel 5. This art is loosely copied later in the issue on page 18, and the error repeats there.
  • Panel 6: Starscream is still missing his wings as he starts tearing the plant to pieces, and instead of his null rays, his jet mode missile-tanks are mounted on his arms.
• Page 13:
  • Panel 1: Optimus Prime appears to have goggles instead of standard optics.
  • Panel 2: Jazz is colored like Hound.
• Page 14: As the Autobots transform in a three-panel sequence, Prowl and Sunstreaker switch places in the middle panel.
• Page 15: Ratchet is shown pulling up to Sparkplug's garage despite being left behind at the Ark.
• Page 16: In panel 7, Thundercracker and Skywarp's cockpit cowlings are colored entirely orange.
• Page 17, panels 5 and 7: Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's alternate modes are switched, thus representing Bob Budiansky's original plans for the two before Hasbro decided to switch the sculpts very late in the game. As you can see in the image at right, Sunstreaker's dialogue emanates from Sideswipe's vehicle mode, colored like Sunstreaker. Once transformed, the brothers are the correct colors, but are both drawn with Sideswipe's body. As a result, the Sunstreaker toy's exposed supercharger becomes the "rocket backpack" mentioned in Sideswipe's bio, as per Budiansky's original intent (more on this here). And they're not even switched right; yellow-Sideswipe's roof is blue, while is hood is red. For the reprint published in Titan's Transformers: Beginnings trade paperback collection, both of them had many of the uncolored white sections on their vehicle modes highlighted in yellow, including the headlights and the side windows. For "Sideswipe", this was carried over to the reprint published in IDW's Transformers Classics Vol. 1 trade paperback collection.
• Page 21: The lower half of Prime's right leg is missing as he throws the engine block at Megatron.
• Page 22: In panel 8, Jazz is colored like Hound again.

UK printing

Issue #3:

• Published: 18th October, 1984
• Back-up strips: Machine Man ("Byte of the Binary Bug!"  part 3)
• Fact File: Hound
• Free gift: Transformers Iron-On transfer
• Other features: Mail-in contest to win a Mini Vehicle toy; two single-page posters of animation stills from early commercials; "Robot Round-Up"

Issue #4:

• Published: 1st November, 1984
• Back-up strips: Machine Man ("Where Walk the Gods!"  part 1)
• Fact File: Gears
• Other features: "Make Mandala Yours," a contest to win the "Mandala" board game; "Robot Round-Up"; two single-page posters of animation stills from early commercials; mail-in contest to win the A-Team soundtrack album

Other trivia

• Advertised as part 2 in a four-issue limited series.
• Both the "next issue" box of the previous issue, and the September 1984 issue of The Comic Reader (#219) solicited this issue's story title as being "Hey Buddy, Can Ya Spare Some Fuel?"—something that evidently changed when Jim Salicrup took over as scripter from Ralph Macchio.
• Megatron appears in the cover corner box for both this issue and issue #4, the only times in the U.S. run that a Decepticon was featured (although issue #80 featured a Decepticon sigil). 'Cons would get a little more love from the UK corner boxes.
• During the entire battle at the Witwicky's house, Optimus Prime's trailer sits parked, frequently in view. This is in stark contrast to the more fantastical cartoon, where it would just roll off-screen and vanish.

Courtesy of my...

• Starscream launches cluster bombs.
• Skywarp rakes the buildings with machine gun fire.
• Laserbeak fires his laser cannons.
• Sunstreaker readies his electron pulse gun.
• Sideswipe blinds Thundercracker with a flare gun.
• Optimus shoots Laserbeak with a laser rifle.
• Ravage surprises Mirage before he can use his electro-disruptor.

Covers (3)

• US issue #2: Megatron blasts Prime, by Michael Golden.
• UK issue #3: Bumblebee with the Witwickys, by Jerry Paris.
• UK issue #4: reuse of art from US issue #2's cover by Michael Golden.

• 
  US issue #2 - Megatron is angry that Prime stole his nose.
• 
  UK issue #3 - Furmanism inspiration?
• 
  UK issue #4 - Megatron is still angry!

Reprints

• 
  Collected Comics (UK) #1 (Marvel UK, 1985)
• 
  Collected Comics (US) #1: The Story Begins... (Marvel US, 1985)
• 
  The Transformers: A Federal Super Special (Federal Publishing Company, 1985)
• 
  The Complete Works Part 1 (Marvel UK, 1986)
• 
  Die Transformer #1 (Condor Verlag, 1986; reprints pages 1–7)
• 
  Die Transformer #2 (Condor Verlag, 1986; reprints pages 8–23)
• 
  The Transformers Comics Magazine #1 (Marvel US, 1986)
• 
  Transformers: Beginnings paperback (Titan Books, 2003)
• 
  Transformers: Beginnings hardback (Titan Books, 2003)
• 
  Classic Transformers Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2008)
• 
  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)
• 
  Transformers: Classic Comic Collection, Vol. 1 (Chrirpy Bird, 2015)
• 
  Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 1: Power Play (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017)
• 
  The Transformers: Classics, Vol. 1 (Hero-X, 2018)
• 
  The Transformers Compendium Volume 1
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2025)

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection.

• Soundwave is colored blue throughout this issue, erasing his standard purple Marvel color scheme. Unlike in the previous issue, this does not extend to correcting the error that colors him like Megatron on page 3.
• Page 1: Starscream's yellow right wing is recolored red to match his left one
• Page 6:
  • Panel 5: Skywarp's weapons and portions of his legs are colored red for some reason.
  • Panel 6: Seemingly operating under the misconception that he is Soundwave, Starscream's boots have been recolored blue.
• Page 13:
  • Panel 1: The yellow decals on Optimus's pelvis, uncolored in the original art (as they so often are) are filled in yellow. This is also done on page 19, panel 1, but not in other instances of their absence.
  • Panel 2: Jazz's colors are corrected.
• Page 14, panel 1: For this panel alone, Hound's legs are recolored from their standard Marvel solid blue to green with white thighs.
• Page 17, panel 5: Yellow-Sideswipe's roof and hood color are corrected to match the rest of his body, but the vehicles remain the incorrect colors overall.
• Page 18, panel 3 and page 22, panel 4: For these two panels alone, Starscream's jet mode is recolored into its finalized mostly-white color scheme.
• Page 23:
  • Panel 4: Careless text recreation turns the sentence "--they are gone!" into the nonsense "--they are gome!"
  • Panel 6: Jazz's colors are "corrected," but to blue-black, rather than the straight blue the comic normally uses for him.

Advertisements

• Inside cover: Mario Bros. for Atari
• Goofy Fig Newton maze - between pages 4 & 5
• Dazzler the Movie (Marvel Graphic Novel #12) - between pages 5 & 6
• New York Comic Book Convention/Various comic shops - between pages 7 & 8
• Block of questionable mail-ins (Camouflage clothing, karate, "build huge muscles," etc.) - between pages 8 & 9
• Military Diamond Sales - between pages 16 & 17
• Stuntmen's Association T-shirt/Comic World - between pages 17 & 18
• Marvel Super Mart - between pages 19 & 20
• Bullpen Bulletins - between pages 20 & 21
• Subscriber's Club
• Inside rear cover: TSR Endless Quest books (inner back cover)
• Star Wars arcade game for home consoles (back cover)

Second printing

• Monogram GoBots motorized model kits (inside front cover)
• Fig Newtons and Apple Newtons (pg 5)
• Star Comics (pg 7)
• Mile High Comics (pg 10)
• Mile High Comics (pg 12)
• Power Pack and The Amazing Spider-Man with tips on ways to prevent sexual abuse (pg 21)
• Calendar of upcoming events & Marvel Mart (pg 23)
• Block of various Sketchy Things (pg 26)
• Bullpen Bulletins (pg 28)
• Comic subscriptions (pg 32)
• Indiana Jones RPG by TSR (rear inside cover)
• Risk board game (rear cover)