Plague of the Insecticons!

This article is about the Marvel UK Annual story. For the similarly-named cartoon episode, see A Plague of Insecticons.

Transformers Annual 1985 »
Shrapnel's little-seen "shrieking" power.
"Plague of the Insecticons!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics in association with Grandreams
First published	Late 1985
Cover date	1985
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Jeff Anderson, Mike Collins
Colours	Hart
Lettering	Starkings
Editor	Cranna
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The Autobots' attempt to form an alliance with the US Government is sabotaged by the Insecticons.

Synopsis

Anxious to forge better relations with the humans on Earth, Optimus Prime approaches the President of the United States with a view of forging an alliance. The President agrees to meet him, and Optimus Prime, Prowl, and Warpath travel to Washington, D.C. to visit the President at the White House.

Unfortunately, an unscrambled phone call between the Secret Service and the Army is intercepted by Soundwave. Unwilling to allow the Autobots to ally with the humans, Megatron decides to awaken the Insecticons.

Just as Optimus and the President meet, the Insecticons attack the humans, making war cries in the name of the Autobots in an attempt to discredit them. After assaulting the military presence around the White House, Bombshell announces that they will take the battle to the city, as though he was receiving an order from Optimus Prime.

Enraged, the Army attacks the Autobots, who make their escape. Noticing that the Insecticons are acting with inexplicable restraint, as if they hadn't yet mastered their abilities, Optimus Prime deduces that they are being remotely controlled by an outside agent. Prowl and Warpath pursue the Insecticons alone, arriving in the city to find them causing untold destruction.

While Optimus Prime attempts to locate the origin of the Insecticons' controller, it's revealed to be Ravage as he commands Shrapnel to fire a splinter grenade at Prowl, taking him out the fight. Prime splits his mind between his main body and Roller to reinforce Warpath while simultaneously locating the source of the control signal.

Optimus Prime soon discovers Ravage, who is almost impressed by Prime's resourcefulness. He sends a mental command to Bombshell to inject Prime with a cerebro-shell and destroy him, but the signal is too strong and is also picked up by Kickback. As Bombshell dives at Prime, Kickback attacks Prime the only way he can—through Roller.

The attack on Roller causes Optimus Prime to double up in pain, causing Bombshell to overshoot his target as he fires his cerebro-shell, which then hits Ravage. Ravage instantly falls under the mental control of Bombshell, who in turn is already under the mental control of Ravage, leaving Ravage, quite literally, without a mind of his own.

Having defeated the Insecticons, Optimus Prime decides that the Autobots should simply leave, as he believes that the humans would not listen to them now. However, the President saw through the Decepticon plan and trusted the Autobots to come and explain. They didn't, and he vows not to make the same mistake again.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (1) Prowl (2) Warpath (3) Jazz (8) Roller (12)	Shrapnel (5) Kickback (6) Bombshell (7) Soundwave (9) Megatron (10) Ravage (11)	President of the United States (4)

Notes

Continuity notes

There you go again, Prime.

• Written largely to promote toys from the 1985 product line that had not yet appeared in the ongoing comic, "Plague of the Insecticons!" does not fit into the larger Marvel UK continuity. The Insecticons are shown being "awakened" from glass tubes within the Decepticon base, not yet aware of their abilities, and unknown to the Autobots, which contradicts their eventual debut in US issue #17, which showed them to be active on Cybertron. Similarly, Warpath would not come to Earth until after the events of US issue #18, and the whole idea of the Autobots openly making contact with the American government doesn't fit at all with how the characters were comporting themselves in the larger comic storyline.

Transformers references

• It's unclear if it's a deliberate reference or simple coincidence, but the title of this story seems to be based on that of the Insecticons' introductory episode from the Generation 1 cartoon, "A Plague of Insecticons." Lending some potential credence to the idea the cartoon was used as a reference point is Shrapnel's shrapnel grenade, the appearance of which in this story matches that seen in the episode.

Real-life references

• The unnamed President is drawn as the contemporary President, Ronald Reagan.
• Alongside a McDonald's, Washington, D.C. has shops called Furman's Weight Watchers and Rimmer's Ooptician—named after the story's writer, Simon Furman, and Marvel UK editor Ian Rimmer.
• On the final page, the President talks to "Don", who may be intended to be Reagan's real-life Chief of Staff, Donald Regan (though it doesn't look much like him).

Continuity and plotting errors

• On page 2, the American president refers to Optimus Prime as a "lorry," which would have sounded right to any UK kids reading this annual, but is definitely not the term that an American would use.

Artwork and technical errors

• Similar to artist Mike Collins's previous work on the earlier UK comic stories "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark," the Transformers are all drawn in this story based principally on their toys and package art, including old inaccuracies and artistic quirks from those stories like Optimus Prime having an all-blue mouthplate, and Megatron's gold torso. In Warpath's case, that means for this single-panel appearance in robot mode, he's drawn with a huge, solid uni-foot block instead of individual legs.
• The Insecticons all have strange off-model colour schemes, with red chest doors (like their Diaclone counterparts) and brown limbs which should be black like the rest of them.
• Page 6, panel 3: Warpath is coloured green as if he were a normal army tank.
• Page 7, panel 3: Now Warpath's white!
• Page 9: Both this page, and the final page of the story, depict skyscrapers in Washington, DC—a common error often seen in media, when in reality, there are no skyscrapers in the city.
• Page 11, panel 1: Optimus Prime's smokestacks are missing.
• Page 14, panel 3: In this rear view of Prime's cab mode, his smokestacks are drawn as if they are emerging from the roof of his cab, instead of running up its back.
• Page 16, panel 1: Prime's smokestacks are gone again.

Cover

• Transformers Annual 1985: Starscream, Thundercracker, Jazz, Optimus Prime and Sunstreaker. Cover Artist John Higgins

• 
  Hardcover
• 
  Softcover

Reprints

• Transformers Collected Comics: Reuse of Annual cover.
• The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Guardian, the Ark, Auntie, et al.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 13: City of Fear: Trypticon and a zombie killing Chuffer.

• 
  Collected Comics: Plague of the Insecticons! (Marvel UK, 1986)
• 
  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 13: City of Fear (Hachette Partworks Ltd., 2019)