Victory!

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

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Megatron gets a splitting headache.
"Victory!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	September 1986
Cover date	1986
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Geoff Senior
Colours	Gina Hart
Lettering	Annie Halfacree
Editor	Sheila Cranna
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The Dinobots dream about dying in battle while in a coma-like state.

Synopsis

The Decepticons think they are victorious. Optimus Prime has been taken out by a well placed fission bomb and all the Autobots are dead. Except one—Grimlock. He surprises Megatron and quickly dispatches him by slicing him in half with his sword. He then goes on to attack the other Decepticons, defeating all who stand before him. Except one—Starscream. The treacherous air commander picks up the fallen Megatron's fusion cannon, then approaches Grimlock, feigning an injury and "begging" for mercy. The overconfident Grimlock lets his guard down long enough for Starscream to raise the cannon and fire a blast straight through the Dinobot leader. Grimlock collapses, his victory turning to defeat, and his world fading to darkness... and a pair of voices...

In the middle of a battle, Swoop attacks and carries off Soundwave. When Optimus Prime orders Swoop to release him, it only convinces the insubordinate Dinobot to instead fly off to display Soundwave in front of the other Decepticons. Unwilling to allow himself to be humiliated, Soundwave self-destructs and destroys Swoop in the process, a blast of fire and light descending instantly into darkness... and voices.

Sludge is running free through a swamp, but comes screeching to a halt when Joy Meadows, the "beautiful golden human" he once met before, appears in his path. Overjoyed to see her, Sludge nuzzles the woman... only for Joy to then rip the flesh from her own head, revealing herself to be a robot duplicate who fatally blasts Sludge with eye beams. As he dies, Sludge sees Megatron striding towards him with a remote control device for the robotic Joy. Then... just darkness, and voices.

Snarl finds himself in a rematch with the battle droid Guardian, which has already slain several Autobots. Snarl manages to decapitate it with his tail, and, satisfied that he has defeated it, he turns away... unaware that the headless droid is still active. Snarl never even sees Guardian attack from behind... only the darkness... and the voices.

Slag confronts Shockwave on the edge of a cliff, and is goaded into charging by the logical Decepticon's taunting words. Heedless of the danger, Slag barrels into his opponent, and they both go flying over the cliff edge. Shockwave crashes to the ground but Slag lands in a tar pit and sinks out of sight... into the darkness... and voices.

The voices, it turns out, belong to Optimus Prime and Ratchet, who are in the Ark's medical bay, reviewing the condition of the offline Dinobots. Ratchet explains that he has physically repaired the damage they recently sustained, but for some reason the Dinobots remain catatonic, trapped in a coma-like state. Even in this state, they dream... but, just as these dreams push their mental activity to the point that they should rightly awaken, it suddenly drops back down to a minimal state. Prime urges Ratchet to find a way to help the Dinobots, but Ratchet is unconvinced that he will be able to do anything—he believes that character flaws in the individual Dinobots' personalities are preventing them from waking... and overcoming those is a battle that the Dinobots must win on their own.

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Jazz (1) Grimlock (4) Optimus Prime (5) Swoop (9) Sludge (10) Snarl (13) Slag (15) Ratchet (16)	Megatron (2) Soundwave (3) Skywarp (6) Ravage (7) Starscream (8) Shockwave (14)	Joy Meadows (11)	Guardian (12)

Notes

Continuity notes

• "Victory!" is the first UK annual story to directly tie in with the events of the regular weekly Transformers comic. It bridges the gap between issue #50, in which the damaged Dinobots were rounded up by the Autobots, and issue #65, in which they awoke from the comas this story depicts them in. That said, the annual wasn't actually published until about three months after issue #65.
• Swoop's distaste for Optimus Prime and his reluctance to follow his orders was previously established in issue #46 of the regular series.
• Sludge encountered Joy Meadows in issue #48. This story establishes Sludge's seemingly-romantic affection for her, which would come back into play when Joy reappeared in issues #74-77, published a month before the annual was released.
• Snarl and the other Dinobots previously faced Guardian (right) in issues #31-32.
• Slag's dream is inspired by the Dinobots' previous encounter with Shockwave, which concluded with them being submerged in a tar pit, as recounted in issue #27.

Real-life references

• Starscream paraphrases William Shakespeare's Hamlet as he lifts Megatron's bisected head, remarking—as the titular Danish prince did while regarding the skull of his jester Yorick—"Alas, poor Megatron... I knew him."

Artwork and technical errors

• Megatron's got a golden chest, as seen before in various early UK stories. This weird colouring wrinkle (an over-literal interpretation of the way Megatron's package art rendered his toy's chromed silver chest) has long since been phased out of the regular weekly comic, so it's especially odd to see it pop up here.
• Grimlock's dinosaur mode is coloured almost entirely in the same solid grey, lacking things like his golden-yellow neck or white arms.
• Save for his yellow optics, Soundwave has a solid-blue head, lacking his white mouthplate and other accents.
• Page 3
  • Panel 1: Grimlock's pelvis is grey instead of red.
  • Panel 2: Grimlock's robot mode eyes are yellow instead of red.
  • Panel 3: Thundercracker's wings and arms are solid purple.
  • Panels 5-6: Starscream is coloured like Grimlock (blue head, golden torso, grey limbs, red pelvis; see right).
• Page 8: Snarl's Autobot symbol is uncoloured.
• Page 10
  • Sludge's eyebrow is coloured blue, as if it were part of the machinery he's hooked up to.
  • The lower halves of Optimus Prime's smokestacks are red instead of white.
• Page 11, panel 6: Grimlock's eyes are yellow again. Snarl's torso is partially grey when it should be solid red, he's missing his dino-tail kibble, and the plates on his back are grey instead of golden.

Cover

• Transformers Annual 1986: Prime and other early Transformers, by Barry Kitson.

• 
  Transformers Annual 1986

Reprints

• 
  Collected Comics #14 (Marvel UK, 1989; pages 2-7 & 11 only)
• 
  Transformers Summer Special 1992 (Marvel UK, 1992; pages 2-7 & 11 only)
• 
  Transformers: Dinobot Hunt (Titan Books, 2004)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #4 cover A (IDW Publishing, 2007)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #4 cover B (IDW Publishing, 2007)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #4 cover RI-A (IDW Publishing, 2007)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #4 cover RI-B (IDW Publishing, 2007)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots TPB (IDW Publishing, 2008)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of UK Omnibus (IDW Publishing, 2009)
• 
  The Transformers: Best of Grimlock (IDW Publishing, 2010)
• 
  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 (IDW Publishing, 2012)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 5: The Smelting Pool (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2019)
• 
  Transformers: Best of Grimlock (IDW Publishing, 2022)

Reprint notes

• When "Victory!" was reprinted in Collected Comics #14, pages 1 and 8-10 were cut from the story. This was because the issue was originally slated to feature the shorter story "Ark Duty," but when—for unknown reasons—this didn't happen, "Victory!" was subbed in in its place, but the page count wasn't expanded to account for it, resulting in four pages being clumsily hacked out of the story to make it fit. This truncated version was also used for the 1992 Summer Special.