Transformers Comic issue 20

« Transformers (Titan) #20 »
"The cover's reaching critical mass!"
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	2 January 2009
Editor	Steve White
Deputy editor	Den Patrick
Designer	Danny Preston
Publishing manager	Darryl Curtis

The Transformers make a stand—here, NOW!

Contents

Return to Cybertron: Part 4

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Return to Cybertron: Part 4
Script	Simon Furman
Art	Jon Davis-Hunt
Colours	Kris Carter
Lettering	Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft
Continuity	Twilight's Last Gleaming

Unicron has arrived above Earth, detecting it's rich in a primal source (the AllSpark infection)—and he hungers for it!

Stockade, still guilty over what he's done, briefly sends in some troops to shoot at the creature's mouth, leading to poor Divebomb's death. It's pretty clear conventional force isn't working and they need a plan. At this point, Optimus arrives, having landed on Unicron in protoform mode after the Straxus's destruction and been filled in on the situation by Arcee. Stockade thinks the Autobot is here to start a fight, but instead Optimus pitches an alliance to work together against Unicron.

As Optimus has the Transformers regroup at Stockade's drill head where he previously had Nucleon sent into the planet, he explains the situation: Unicron is getting his current power from the Nucleon. Ironhide's team originally came with a harvester, which the Transformers can use to drain the entire Nucleon seam; but first they need to distract Unicron to prevent him absorbing what remains, and that means taking the fight to his innards!

On the endangered Earth, Starscream sends out a broadcast announcing that six hundred miles starting from the captured Savannah, Georgia Autobot base are now a Decepticon nation. All military resistance has been crushed, and all humans in the area are being evicted by bomb strikes...

Deep beneath Cybertron, which the Decepticons have previously explored, Stockade brings everyone to a vast component of the planet: something Ratchet realises looks like a gyro-joint, implying Cybertron is internally similar to the Transformers. Stockade is more interested that when he shoots it, Unicron gets to suffer major disequilibrium! But this also leads to a retaliation, as Unicron deploys a swarm of flying drones.

The Transformers alternately fire on the wossnames and the gyro-joint, while Bumblebee and Armorhide try desperately to drain the Nucleon on the planet's surface—but this will take twenty-five sub-cycles and the Transformers won't last that long! But then Ratchet realises that Unicron's going to need an energy distribution network, and those pipes on the roof must be full of very volatile Nucleon. Working out a quicker plan, he has everyone concentrate their fire on the roof, causing an explosion that takes out the gyro-joint!

Unicron now feels pain, and suddenly absorbs what Nucleon remains to fix the problem—which feeds the fire and wastes the entire seam! Unicron has no energy to feed on and dissolves as an entity, leaving Cybertron a dead world once more. Later, Optimus offers Stockade the chance to return to Earth with them, but the Decepticon isn't ready to leave; he allows them to take the Nucleon though, to save their new home. Optimus proudly announces this battle as a beginning, where both factions fought side-by-side, and that they'll be waiting for him.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Ironhide (5) Bumblebee (8) Optimus Prime (9) Arcee (10) Armorhide (11) Ratchet (14) Elita-One (16) Strongarm (17)	Overcast (2) Divebomb (3) Incinerator (4) Stockade (6) Fracture (7) Starscream (12) Wreckage (13)	Unicron (1) Unicron's drones (15)

Articles & features

• Beast Wars Battlefield: Write-ups of the skills and weaknesses of Beast Wars Grimlock and a real Tyrannosaurus rex, leaving the reader to decide who would win in a head-to-head.
• Character Profile: Razorbeast.
• Bumblebee's Way Past Cool Reviews: Video game reviews. (Reviews Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour)
• Artobots: Fan-art section.
• Star Screams: Letters, art and photos from readers, answered by Starscream.
• Poster of the cover.

Free Gift

• "Free! 4 Piece Stationary Set!" - features G1 Grimlock on the card backing

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Megatron Origin, part 2d (5 pages)
• Beast Wars: The Ascending part 2c (8 pages)

Errors

• This kids comic has an ad for a Watchmen book (drawing-of book Watching The Watchmen). Slight misjudging of main audience here...
• On Artobots, a reader creates a spiky, heavily armed character called Destroyer with a Decepticon logo on it... which the editor refers to as an Autobot.

Quotes

Strip

"You must be Optimus Prime. You want to take a shot at me, bring it on. But be warned, your rep means little or nothing here. We got power to spare."
"I know. In fact, it's that very power... that might be the key to stopping Unicron. If... we work together. *extends a hand*For Cybertron!"
"*takes it*For Cybertron!"

—Stockade and Optimus Prime

"A distraction, eh? How about the worst case of indigestion in the galaxy!"

—Stockade, Master of Furmanism

"This land is ours! We reclaim it by right of arms and might. Six hundred square miles of Decepticon territory, an autonomous nation. Everyone within is hereby served notice of eviction."

—Starscream

"C'mon! Is that all you got? "The Great Devourer" my aftplate!"

—Stockade

Star Screams

"Ah, creativity, ingenuity - this is what I like to see! Consider yourself drafted to my team of human slaves, erm, I mean, artisans."

"A word of advice - don't threaten a F-22 Raptor who transforms into a 13 metre-tall robot, even if your big brother is 'tough'."

"It's a shame your favourite robots are mostly Autobots. To the gulag with you! That is all."

Notes

Continuity notes

• Starscream says "reclaims" as the Decepticons had previously occupued the entirety of North America.
• Cybertron has been left in the Sol system.
• It would later be confirmed all of the New Decepticons stayed on Cybertron.
• This is one of the very few instances where Unicron was not beaten by a pseudo-mystical artifact.

Transformers references

• The discovery that Cybertron is built like a Transformer would seem to hint at the existence of Primus, but the name "Primus" is never mentioned in the story (or in the live-action fiction). A dropped subplot or a little thing to make kids who've heard of Primus/seen Cybertron go "hey, I know what this is!"?

Real life references

• A 600 square-mile spread centered on Savannah would cover all of Georgia and South Carolina (which we'll later see), and Florida about as far south as Orlando.

Letters page notes

• Arcee's Soulmates, a Transformers' lonely-hearts ad column, starts in Star Screams. We presume Starscream hates it.

Production notes

• The cover previewed in #19 did not have that sidebar on the left, had Animated's Starscream in the corner box (with "AWESOME Transformers Animated NEWS INSIDE!" under it), a less cluttered stationary set mention, a flaming background, and the cover text "BATS OUT OF HELL!" There wasn't any Animated NEWS INSIDE the finished #20.
• The "Previously" section for The Ascending, here and in the previous issue, refers to Shokaract as "the ghost of Unicron": while is fudging the truth quite a bit, but at least provides an explanation for kids wondering what the heck a Shokaract is (which is more than The Ascending did!).
• Notably, the comic's re-using the same artist who did Part 1 of the story, its first use of an artist twice on a story. While the Transformers are looking like they did in Part 1, Unicron's changed—where he had energy-held slabs for skin, now he has what looks like glowy red goo.

Errors

• On page two, Ironhide and Stockade's dialogue are given to each other in one panel.
• Stockade transforms into his Earth alternate mode, when he has clearly never been to Earth.
• The Autobots left Camshaft's Evac's team behind last issue so where are they when the Decepticons attack?