City of Fear!

The name or term "City of Fear" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see City of Fear (disambiguation).

« The Transformers (UK) #164–165 »
In traditional horror format, the poor saps fail to notice the monsters watching them in the shadows. Bets on who dies first?
"City of Fear!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Cover date	7th–14th May 1988
Script	Simon Furman
Art	Dan Reed
Colour	Euan Peters
Letters	Annie Halfacree
Cover	Dan Reed
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK)
Chronology	1988

Ultra Magnus and the Sparklers discover something nasty in Kalis...

Synopsis

Not too "chuffed" at the outcome

A terrified Autobot finds himself in the middle of Kalis—once described as "reasonably safe" and now all but abandoned as a City of Fear! The Autobot curses himself for not heeding J'Muk's advice to keep hidden, and turns to find himself confronted by a decaying, apparently dead Autobot. This zombie advances and tears a hole right through its hapless victim.

On Earth, Ultra Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots prepare to transport back to the Autobot resistance's new base of operations on Cybertron—in Kalis, where they are to meet with Emirate Xaaron and the Wreckers. The dimensional portal arrives on cue, but, when they travel through it, they find the Autobot base abandoned and damaged by weapons fire.

Traveling outside, they find that the scavenging Empties run away from them in fear and the other Transformers they encounter won't even open the door to their hideout. Ultra Magnus suggests they head out of Kalis to see if this strangeness is localized and the four of them head towards the border with Tyrest. There they find the border heavily fortified, as if the inhabitants of Kalis had been trying to keep something out...or the rest of Cybertron had been trying to keep something in!

Before they can ponder this disquieting thought, they are attacked by the Duocons leading a Decepticon battle group. The Sparklers are hit and knocked to the ground, prompting Ultra Magnus to take action. He knocks Flywheels out of the air and the Autobots retreat into Kalis with their captive, where the other Decepticons are afraid to follow.

Upon awakening, Flywheels reacts with horror when he discovers where he is. He tells the Autobots that they should have just killed him, because the dead have risen in Kalis! The Autobots think he is joking, until decaying hands begin to sprout from the ground and grab at their feet...

"Oh no! They'll kill us and we'll be dead yet still alive! Like Leonard Cohen!"

Ultra Magnus and the Sparklers attempt to retreat, but find they are surrounded by the walking dead. While Magnus tries to come to terms with how the seemingly impossible can be happening, Flywheels asks him a more pertinent question: "Can I have my gun back so I can shoot these things?" When Magnus refuses, Flywheels transforms to tank mode and uses his built-in cannon to destroy the zombies. Sizzle and Fizzle follow suit and use their high temperature spark jets to set fire to great swathes of the undead horde. At first Ultra Magnus approves, but when he sees his attacker was once an Autobot he calls a cease-fire, in case these reanimated Transformers can later be revived. Though Flywheels disagrees, he is persuaded by the Autobots to comply, and they retreat.

Away from the action, Ultra Magnus deduces that the apparently undead robots are actually being reanimated by a remote signal, but it takes the brilliant intellect of Flywheels to suggest that they try to jam that signal. He leads the Autobots to the old Baird Beaming Transmitter where Ultra Magnus reluctantly returns his gun, knowing that he may have to rely on the Decepticon to watch his back. Flywheels is as good as his word, and covers Magnus as he jams the signal.

After the "undead" have been deactivated, Magnus reveals that the signal that controlled them was coming from beneath the surface of Cybertron...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Chuffer (1) Ultra Magnus (2) Sizzle (3) Fizzle (4) Guzzle (5)	Battletrap (6) Flywheels (7)

Quotes

"Dammit! What's wrong with you lot? Why won't you talk to us?"

—Ultra Magnus while pounding on the door like a lunatic. Maybe try a softer approach, Mags?

"Curse you, Decepticons! Let's see how you deal...with this!"

—Even Ultra Magnus can get in on the meme fun!

"By the Celestial Spires!"
"Oo 'eck!"

—The Autobots and Flywheels, with a phrase last uttered by Slag during In the National Interest

"I-I don't know, Sizzle! These...can't be the living dead - that's impossible! There has to be a logical explanation!"
"To hell with your logical explanations! Gimme my gun back so I can logically blow a few apart!"

—Ultra Magnus can't deal with zombies, but Flywheels has a few ideas.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• In common with all of their Marvel UK appearances, Sizzle and Fizzle's colors are switched in robot mode.

Continuity errors

• Why on Earth did Ultra Magnus choose Flywheels as his guard rather than one of the Sparklers?

Continuity notes

• Chuffer was only named in later letters pages of the UK comic (and even then he was named twice).
• In Marvel UK continuity at least, a Duocon apparently functions in a manner akin to a Triple Changer rather than separating into separate vehicles. When Ultra Magnus captures jet-mode Flywheels, the Duocon then transforms into robot mode and later tank mode, just as Blitzwing would be able to do. A few issues later Sky Lynx would be introduced and would also suffer the same loss of gimmick.
• This is the first time that Flywheels keeps his word and saves Ultra Magnus. He would later save the day by bringing in Trypticon as reinforcements.

Real-life references

• The cover for #164 bears a resemblance to a 1968 Joe Kubert cover for Our Army At War, with shadowy enemies about to ambush Sgt Rock's crew while he tells them nobody's about. Specifically, "It's a DEAD TOWN!"

Back-up material

Issue #164

• Back-up strips: Action Force - "The Battle of Springfield" and Combat Colin
• In Grim Grams, Grimlock addresses the status of Jawbreaker/Overbite's name (unconvincingly), answers some Action Force questions and totally refutes some supposed errors in issue #156.

Issue #165

• Back-up strips: Action Force - The Battle of Springfield and Combat Colin
• In Grim Grams, Grimlock answers readers' mail concerning the addition of Action Force as the back-up strip in the UK comic, plugs the forthcoming Action Force and Transformers annuals and explains away an error in issue #155.

Covers (2)

• Issue #164 cover: zombies watch the Autobots, art by Dan Reed.
• Issue #165 cover: a zombot grabs at Ultra Magnus's crotch, art by Dan Reed.

• 
  Issue #164 - Look up, ya rubes!
• 
  Issue #165

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• None yet identified.

Generics

As with most stories set on Cybertron, this featured a lot of generic Transformers including Autobots, Decepticons and empties—not even counting the hordes of zombies.

• 
  Just one of the hundreds of generic zombies Dan Reed was required to draw for this story.
• 
  Two empties react with panic at the sight of Autobots who aren't zombies.
• 
  Two generic Transformers, block-colored in purple, try to hide from the Avon lady.
• 
  The Duocons attack, backed up by generic Decepticon troops and a giant green battle station, akin to a Star Wars AT-AT. It's possible that the battle station itself is also a Transformer.

Reprints

• Transformers Comic-Magazin #20 cover: Ultra Magnus and Chuffer.
• Transformers Autumn Special 1992 cover: Zombie-Impactor tries to kill Springer (recolored version of issue #167), art by Jerry Paris.
• Transformers: City of Fear: Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers battle the zombie horde, art by Geoff Senior.
• Best of UK: City of Fear #1 Regular cover: Ultra Magnus vs. zombies, art by Andrew Griffith.

• 
  Transformers Comic-Magazin #20
  (Condor Verlag, 1992)
• 
  No Springer, it doesn't!
  1992 Autumn Special (Marvel Comics UK, 1992)
• 
  Game over man, game over!
  Transformers: City of Fear TPB (Titan Books, 2004)
• 
  Braaaains!
  Best of UK: City of Fear #1 Regular cover
  (IDW Publishing, 2009)

• Best of UK: City of Fear #1 RI cover: "retro" incentive cover: panel from page 11 of #164, art by Dan Reed and colours by Euan Peters.
• Best of UK: City of Fear TPB cover: Trypticon blows up zombies, art by Andrew Griffith.
• The Transformers Classics UK Volume 5 cover: The head of Unicron watches over Triton swapping his badge, Zombie Impactor attacking Springer, a fleeing Cyclonus and Scourge and an angry Flame, by Andrew Wildman.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 13: City of Fear: Trypticon and a zombie killing Chuffer.

• 
  "I wish I had gotten that pedicure!"
  Best of UK: City of Fear #1 RI cover
  (IDW Publishing, 2009)
• 
  Best of UK: City of Fear TPB (IDW Publishing, 2009)
• 
  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 5 (IDW Publishing, 2014)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 13: City of Fear (Hachette Partworks Ltd., 2019)