To a Power Unknown!

« Transformers Annual 1986 »
Well I'm damned if I can see what's supposed to be happening!
"To a Power Unknown!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	September 1986
Cover date	1986
Writer	Ian Mennell & Wilf Prigmore
Art	Will Simpson
Colours	Josie Firmin
Letters	Annie Halfacree
Editor	Sheila Cranna
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

A mysterious force causes the Autobots and Decepticons to change sides!

Synopsis

In Pinewoodsville, USA, a group of Autobots are forging relationships with humans when a wave of unknown energy washes over them and makes them aggressive, causing them to turn on the humans and wreck the town. A group of Decepticons attacking another town experiences the same effect when the energy hits them and makes them... well, nice!

When both the Autobots and Decepticons have recovered, they track the source of the energy blast to the United Kingdom and set off to find it, each faction believing the other is to blame for it. While searching, Starscream spots Optimus Prime in truck mode and attacks him. Just as he unleashes a missile, another energy wave strikes the Transformers, reversing their personalities again. When Starscream's missile hits Prime's trailer, the Autobots riding within—Jazz, Mirage, Sideswipe, and Prowl—all turn on Prime for failing to protect them. Fortunately, the effect soon fades, but this only causes Starscream to resume his attack. Prime orders the Autobots to scatter and find the source of the energy while he deals with Starscream; the Autobot leader finds that his weaponry has been left non-responsive by the energy's effect on his systems, but luckily, Starscream proves to have been affected in the same way and is forced to pull out. Now realising that the Decepticons are not the responsible party, the injured Prime takes shelter in an old railway tunnel.

The source of the energy is, in fact, an electronic British defense system code-named "PARD." Designed to reverse the trajectories of computer-controlled enemy missiles, the system's effect on the Transformers during its test activations has been unintended and unnoticed by its creator Professor Purnel. Suspicious of his assistant, Zeke Heilmann, the professor leaves a set of fake blueprints out in the open, and catches him in the act of photographing them. Revealed as an agent of a foreign power, Heilmann turns on Purnell and knocks him out, but as the professor slumps over, he strikes the PARD console and activates the machine again, hitting the Transformers with another blast of its energy. The effect is short-lived, as Heilmann steals the machines transistorized core, but allows Jazz to home in on the lab's location. Jazz pulls up outside just as Heilmann comes running out. Seeing the seemingly-normal Porsche as a means of escape, Heilmann "carjacks" Jazz and heads for the coast, contacting his handler for extraction. Still woozy from the energy blast, Jazz lets the human think he's in control for the time being until he decides what to do next.

Meanwhile, Starscream's systems are likewise knocked for a loop by the energy blast, and he accidentally wanders into the middle of a Red Arrows training ground. He is forced to land by the roadside, just as Jazz and Heilmann are passing; Heilmann thinks the landing plane has come to collect him, so he runs over, loudly telling the "pilot" he thinks is inside about PARD. Seeking to acquire PARD for the Decepticons, Starscream takes off with Heilmann aboard, while Jazz transforms and fires a heat seeking missile after him, determined not to let the villains obtain PARD's power. Unable to shift to hyperblast to outrun the missile thanks to his still-scrambled systems, Starscream is forced to transform instead, jettisoning Heilmann from his cockpit as he does so. Without Starscream's jet engines to home in on, the heat-seeking missile redirects and hits Heilmann instead, killing him and destroying the core of PARD. Jazz and Starscream briefly battle, but are forced to disengage when the Red Arrows come swooping in to investigate. Starscream takes refuge in a shipyard, while Jazz hides in a parking lot, both unable to do anything but wait for their systems to self-repair so they can contact their respective factions.

A little later, Jazz rejoins the other Autobots, and, driving three abreast, they carry the wounded robot-mode Optimus Prime atop them as they head for home. A passing family thinks Optimus is a large piece of modern art... so they're more than a little surprised when he waves at them!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (1) Prowl (2) Sideswipe (3) Jazz (4) Mirage (5)	Megatron (6) Thundercracker (7) Soundwave (8) Starscream (9) Rumble or Frenzy (10) Shockwave (11) Skywarp (12)	Professor Purnel (13) Zeke Heilmann (14) Flambert (15) Sacha (16) Red Leader (17)

Notes

Continuity notes

• Similar to "Plague of the Insecticons!" from last year's annual, "To a Power Unknown!" does not fit smoothly into the continuity of the regular UK comic. At best, it could be argued to fit somewhere between issue #65 (in which Megatron and Shockwave entered into a truce to co-lead the Decepticons, as they are doing in this story, their fighting one another for the position being referenced) and issue #71 (in which Rumble, Frenzy, and the Decepticon jets, who are all active in this story, are taken offline by Omega Supreme). Throwing things off, however, is the presence of Sideswipe, who has been offline since issue #50, and the fact that the human the Decepticons are holding captive at this point in time in the regular series, Robot-Master, is left unaccounted for. Additionally, the Autobots openly interacting with a whole town of human beings is hard to reconcile with the regular series, in which Optimus Prime usually pushes for secrecy, and they traverse the Atlantic ocean by flying in robot mode (pictured above; a "sky jump," Jazz calls it), which is not a power they possess in comic continuity.
• At the end of the story, Jazz mentions that Ratchet is stationed at a UK Autobot base, something that is never seen or mentioned again outside of this story.

Real-life references

• If you weren't convinced Zeke Heilmann was a baddie, his name is derived from "Sieg Heil," the real-life Nazi salute. Too on-the-nose?
• When hit by the PARD for the second time, the Decepticon jets all quote John Lennon and want to "Give Peace a Chance."
• The Red Arrows are a real-life Royal Air Force aerobatics team.
• Starscream's errant video scanner first tunes into British television programme Coronation Street, with Julie Goodyear and William Roache as Bet Lynch and Ken Barlow appearing on-panel (right). Next comes Doctor Who (complete with a mention of the Doctor's enemies, the Daleks, and their "Exterminate" battle-cry), and finally Gary Davies's BBC Radio 1 show, complete with real-life jingle.

Continuity and plotting errors

• When Starscream attacks the Autobots after the energy blast reverses their personalities, why do they not attack Starscream back before starting on Optimus Prime?
• It's tough to buy that transforming to robot mode means Starscream is no longer a heat signature.
• It's even tougher to buy the very idea of PARD affecting only technology that is not manmade when one considers that 1) Purnel clearly didn't design PARD with the Transformers in mind (as PARD's affect on them is presented as purely by accident), and 2) all Earth-born technology (unrelated to the Transformers or other alien life) is, by its very nature, manmade!
• During Jazz and Starscream's fight they are shown barely a couple of metres apart firing at each other (right), but neither takes any damage. Time for some weapon upgrades and some shooting practice, guys....

Artwork and technical errors

• The colours are all super-wonky throughout this story. Notable consistent deviations from the norm include Prowl's hands being red, Megatron's fusion cannon being grey-white, and Starscream's helmet and cockpit canopy being the same pale white-blue as the rest of his body, except for his lower legs, which are solid dark blue (right).
• Page 2:
  • Panel 2: Optimus Prime is breaking up a fight between two Prowls (pictured above). Presumably one of them was supposed to be Sideswipe as he is the only Autobot present who is not otherwise featured in that panel (Jazz is kicking Mirage in the foreground) and not an off-colour Bluestreak who just happened to stop by.
  • Panel 6: There are two Starscreams; obviously, one is supposed to be Thundercracker or Skywarp.
• Page 3, panel 1: While under the influence of PARD, Shockwave declares Megatron "obviously the right robo for the job" of leading the Decepticons (right). The line works fine as-is, particularly with Shockwave's presently chipper demeanour, but it probably is meant to say "robot," as the y at the end of "obviously" on the line above, and part of the f in "for" on the line below have also been accidentally erased.
• Page 7, panel 3: Gary Davies's surname is misspelled "Davis," which is how it's pronounced but not written.

Cover

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

• 
  Transformers Annual 1986

Reprints

• 
  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 (IDW Publishing, 2012)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 4: Second Generation (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)