The Resurrection Gambit!

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Physician, heal thyself!
"The Resurrection Gambit!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Shipping date	June 27, 1989
On-sale date	July 18, 1989
Cover date	October 1989
Story	Simon Furman
Penciling	José Delbo
Inking	Dave Hunt
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Lettering	Jim Massara
Editing	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

An actual Marvel US/UK crossover occurs this issue!

Synopsis

Ratchet's deep in denial, but Megatron is indeed back. He even greets Ratchet like an old friend. He decides to skip the "How I Survived" story and move right into the "My Insane Scheme" story, introducing Ratchet to the prototype super Pretender armor he has designed to implement said scheme. As Ratchet begins to measure just how deep in it he is, he thinks back and regrets not being able to contact Optimus Prime earlier.

Several minutes ago and just after Optimus Prime and his team landed on Earth to confront the Air Strike Patrol, the factions are in the middle of exchanging insults and ultimatums when Prime's comm suddenly chirps to life with Ratchet's voice. Before he can say much, though, the radio is blown to pieces by quick-draw Storm Cloud. Now Prime really knows something is up, and bashes his way through the other Micromasters to wring it out of Storm Cloud. The cocky Decepticon says just the wrong thing, alerting Optimus to their real intentions: getting him away from Ratchet and the Ark.

Before he can get any further in the interrogation, Optimus is interrupted by the arrival of Scorponok and his Decepticons, whom the Air Strike Patrol had called in earlier. Though they actually owe allegiance to Megatron, it seems the Micromasters joined Scorponok's forces on Earth just for this opportunity—to call in their "fearless leader" for "rescue" and keep the Autobots busy (and damaged) while Megatron's scheme unfolds on Cybertron.

As for that scheme, Megatron explains to Ratchet that he's waiting for the delivery of a special guinea pig, who will be fully repaired into an instrument of destruction by the new Pretender shell. He needs Ratchet, however, to monitor and co-ordinate the process so that nothing goes wrong. When Ratchet balks, Megatron makes contact with Blackjack aboard the Ark, who has somehow managed to knock all the remaining Autobots on board offline, and is in the process of installing explosives that will destroy the entire ship at Megatron's command.

As Ratchet's situation sinks in for him, Megatron takes the opportunity to satisfy his earlier curiosity and relate the story of his survival. While he was believed dead after blowing up the space bridge several years ago while standing on it, Megatron was in fact blown clear of the explosion and crash-materialized on Cybertron. He lay deactivated for months before internal repair circuitry brought him back on-line in an extremely disoriented state. He only regained his full faculties after crossing some Autobots assaulting Blackjack. The combination of the Micromaster shouting out his name and the sight of the hated Autobot symbol kickstarted Megatron's personality routines. He destroyed the Autobot duo, and began making plans with the Micromasters to reclaim a position of strength in the Decepticon army, and destroy his enemies in the process. As his tale ends, Megatron leads Ratchet off to meet his newly arriving patient. Realizing that Megatron only plans to use one of the four shells at his command, an idea begins to form in Ratchet's cerebral-circuitry...

Back on Earth, the battle between Optimus Prime and Scorponok's forces has begun in earnest. Optimus Prime is pissed, more than aware that he's been led around by the olfactory sensors all day, and can do nothing about it. As the Air Strike Patrol leave their "honored leader" to fight the battle for them, Prime sledgehammers his way through half of Scorponok's fighting force. He only stops himself when Bomb-Burst of all robots reminds him of the danger to the humans still in the area. But while Prime's now ready to start a dialog, Scorponok is in no mood to talk after seeing his troops manhandled so severely, and begins stalking his way towards Optimus.

If seeing Megatron alive was a nightmare, Ratchet is now experiencing a psychotic episode. There's no way, no how, Megatron plans for him to reactivate Starscream, no matter what the reason. But it's true—Starscream will be Megatron's running dog. And the hits just keep coming...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (2) Jazz (3) Goldbug (4) Grimlock (5) Landmine (9) Getaway (10) Hot Rod (11) Blurr (12) Optimus Prime (13) Cloudburst (14) Slapdash (15) Highbrow (16) Joyride (30) Pinpointer (see Errors, below) (31)	Megatron (1) Hyperdrive (6) Detour (7) Road Hugger (8) Whisper (17) Storm Cloud (18) Tailwind (19) Nightflight (20) Scorponok (22) Iguanus (23) Skullgrin (24) Bomb-Burst (25) Skullcruncher (26) Mindwipe (27) Weirdwolf (28) Blackjack (29) Dreadwind (32) Darkwing (33) The various pieces of scrap metal formerly known as Starscream (34)	James Campbell (21)

Quotes

"Haw! Haw! Look, Detour -- I think the big, brave Autobot is gonna cry!"
"Probably overcome with emotion, Hyperdrive. Touchin', ain't it, to see two old pals reunited?"

— as Ratchet deals with Megatron's return, Hyperdrive and Detour wax sarcastic

"Well, come on then -- hit me with the "how I survived" story. I heard you blew yourself up!"
"Time for that later, my friend. Come, there's something I wish you to see..."
"...Right. So it's the "my insane scheme" story first, huh --"

— Ratchet lampshades every step of Megatron's return

"Scorponok is here!"

— Scorponok, who, by all verifiable accounts available to the reader, is here.

"I've had it with talking! You want to fight? Well, by Primus, you're gonna get one!"

— Optimus Prime wonders why so many Decepticons keep trying to ice-skate uphill.

"Huk-ka... ka... I-I am Mer-Megatron..."
"*hic*... Yep, an' I'm Lord Straxus..."

— a delirious Megatron bandies words with an Empty

"You're insane! Why him... of all Transformers?"
"You confuse madness with genius, Ratchet. Do you not appreciate the supreme irony... of using my traitorous ex-lieutenant, Starscream, as the instrument of my revenge?!"

— Ratchet and Megatron continue to tick off the list of supervillain tropes

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

Just barely noticeable.

Megatron's ghost keeps haunting you even when it turns out he's still alive.

• After swiping the poses of several members of the Micromaster Air Strike Patrol from their package art for the previous issue, José Delbo does the same with Storm Cloud on page 5 of this issue. To his credit, the pose features a little variation, the panel doesn't show the full body and Delbo completely redrew his arm, holding a gun.
• Spoilsport is shown among the Autobots disabled by Blackjack, drawn the size of a normal Transformer.
• Members of the Sports Car Patrol and the Air Strike Patrol get their names mixed up during the first few pages. Most notably, Detour seems to be in command of the Sports Car Patrol at the beginning of the mission instead of Blackjack.
• A printing error in the original Marvel US release of the story results in half of Megatron's face from panel 3 on page 9 to appear again as a ghostly image across the gutter and the narration caption for the panel below it. Oddly, subsequent reprints of the story are wildly inconsistent regarding this error:

• The reprint in issue #244 of the UK series did not feature the error, and reveals that the only thing missing is a little bit of a "y" and an "e", and a dash separating the two.
• When Titan reprinted the story in their "Primal Scream" collection, they either didn't notice the error, or weren't aware of the intact version from the UK printing, and so the error made a return.
• When IDW reprinted the story for Transformers: Magazine #4, the error was also present.
• When IDW reprinted the story again for volume 5 of their Classics collections, they "remastered" the artwork and particularly the coloring, with mixed results. In the process, they did notice the error, but were seemingly not aware of the intact UK version either. As a result, they instead fixed the error on their own without referencing the UK printing, as evidenced by the use of an ellipsis instead of a dash, and a slightly incomplete "e".

Continuity errors

• It's not real clear what prevents the sizable Autobot squad from immediately capturing the smaller, weaker, and considerably outnumbered Air Strike Patrol and ending the battle within seconds. Optimus alone seems to have no trouble beating them to a pulp.

Continuity notes

• The question UK readers had of "Well if that's Megatron, then who's...?" was answered around this time in UK #243–244, a flashback before this story of Megatron confronting Megatron II, aka Lord Straxus.
• A "reactor linkage" is located just where you think it is.
• Darkwing and Dreadwind's "breezy" mission to recover Starscream's broken body was shown in UK story "Race with the Devil", one of only a few instances of crossover on the US comic's part.
• Don't you just love the rare occasion that Optimus Prime is seen truly beating the exhaust out of the Decepticons?
• Scorponok requested that the Air Strike Patrol come to Earth in issue #55.

Real-life references

• TBD

UK printing

Issue #243:

• Additional Transformers story: "Mind Games"
• Other strips: Action Force - "Evasion" and Combat Colin
• Classic Covers Calendar: The eleventh in a series of monthly calendars that showcased inks from covers of yesteryear with new colours. This November edition used Jeff Anderson's inks from issue 135.

Issue #244:

• Additional Transformers story: "Two Megatrons!"
• Other strips: Action Force - "Evasion" and Combat Colin

Issue #245:

• Additional Transformers story: "Underworld!"
• Other strips: Action Force - "Evasion" and GI Joe the Action Force - "Divided We Fall!"
  • "Divided We Fall!" was a mini-comic detailing how the European Action Force and its American counterpart G.I. Joe have merged to form G.I. Joe the Action Force, a name change that would be carried over to the back-up comic strips from issue #248 and the cover from issue #249, as well as the toyline. The mini-comic was also given away free in some toy shops.

Other trivia

• Transformers Universe profiles for Cloudraker, Overkill, and Slugfest are found after the main story.
• Optimus Prime casually name-drops Primus in this issue, his first mention in the US series.

Covers (9)

• US issue #57 cover: Megatron blasts Ratchet, by José Delbo and Danny Bulanadi.
• UK issue #243 cover: Megatron and his mean shadow, by Andrew Wildman.
• UK issue #244 cover: Megatron kills Megatron, by Geoff Senior.
• UK issue #245 cover: Tailgate in the Underworld, by Andrew Wildman.

• 
  US issue #57 - Come on Megatron, his toy is fragile enough...
• 
  UK issue #243 - Shadow boxing.
• 
  UK issue #244 - I've won! I am the right one, right?
• 
  UK issue #245 - In Japan, blah blah blah...

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US

• Tengen games for Nintendo games: Gauntlet, R.B.I. Baseball, Tetris, Super Sprint and Pac-Man - inside front cover
• Nintendo games: Operation Wolf, Renegade, Bubble Bobble, Renegade, Sky Shark - between pages 4 & 5
• Nintendo system and games - between pages 5 & 6
• Mister Bubble - between pages 7 & 8
• Acclaim wireless remote for Nintendo - between pages 8 & 9
• Mile High Comics - between story and Cloudraker profile
• Quasar comic - between story and Cloudraker profile
• American Comics - between story and Cloudraker profile
• Various Comic Conventions - between Overkill and Slugfest profiles
• Bullpen Bulletins - between Overkill and Slugfest profiles
• Transmissions
• Metal Gear Ultra video game - inside back cover
• TSR Spelljammer, Dragonlance, City of Greyhawk RPGs (back cover)

UK

????

Reprints

• Transformers: Primal Scream TPB cover: Grimlock, Goldbug, Pretender Starscream, and half of Primus, by Andrew Wildman.
• Primal Scream hardback cover: Grimlock victorious over the Sports Car Patrol, by Dave Gibbons.
• Transformers: Magazine #4 cover: Megatron stands victorious over Ratchet, Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee by Robby Musso
• Classic Transformers Volume 4cover: panels from US issues #59 and #60, pencils by José Delbo, inks by Dave Hunt and colours by Nel Yomtov.
• The Transformers Classics, Vol. 5 cover: Prowl, by Guido Guidi.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection:Volume 16: The Primal Scream: Optimus Prime by Guido Guidi above an interior scene of the Megatron vs Grimlock.

• 
  Transformers: Primal Scream TPB (Titan Books, 2002)
• 
  Transformers: Primal Scream hardback
  (Titan Books, 2002)
• 
  Transformers: Magazine #4 (IDW Publishing, 2007)
• 
  Classic Transformers Volume 4 (IDW Publishing, 2009)
• 
  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 5
  (IDW Publishing, 2012)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 16: The Primal Scream
  (Hachette Partworks, 2017)