Warrior School!

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Ratchet's such a drama queen.
"Warrior School!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Shipping date	April 23, 1985
On-sale date	May 14, 1985
Cover date	August 1985
Script	Bob Budiansky
Pencils	William Johnson
Inks	Kyle Baker
Color	Nel Yomtov
Letters	Rick Parker
Editor	Christopher J. Priest
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Ratchet discovers the fate of the other Autobots, and must fight Megatron on his own.

Synopsis

Walking through the woods in search of a road to drive Buster home, Ratchet and Buster meet up with a group of campers. As Ratchet demonstrates a new way to cook hot dogs, Buster experiences a severe head pain as an after-effect of his experience with Optimus Prime. Buster is taken home by the campers, leaving Ratchet free to deal with bigger problems.

Soundwave and Laserbeak use their innocuous alternate forms to infiltrate and take over another Blackrock Enterprises installation, this time an aerospace plant that builds jet fighters. Blackrock breaks the news to a hospitalized Josie Beller, who apparently designed this aerospace plant as well. Blackrock swears that the giant robots will be stopped, but Josie is already making plans of her own.

Ratchet returns to the Ark alone to verify Buster's findings, and soon finds the inert Autobots. He despairs upon finding the head of Optimus Prime, but Prime counsels him to fight as a warrior to defeat Megatron. Uncertain of what this might mean, Ratchet agrees.

Jessie and "O" attempt to cheer up Buster, who is wondering how to handle his father's flagging car repair business while he's recovering in the hospital. Buster explodes at the pair when they suggest that he can learn to repair cars just as easily as his hard-working father. After they leave, Buster is gripped by another head-splitting pain—and recovers to realize that several metal objects nearby were apparently floating in the air.

Ratchet soon finds Megatron, who easily overpowers him. But when Shockwave contacts Megatron with orders to prepare Optimus Prime for transport, Ratchet realizes that Megatron has lost command of the Decepticons, a potential weakness. He manages to strike a deal, sealed with the sacred Rite of Oneness: Ratchet will destroy Shockwave, in exchange for the return of the Ark and the Autobots inside. If he fails, Megatron will destroy him; if he succeeds, Megatron resumes his leadership of the Decepticons and wins regardless.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (2) Optimus Prime (4) Cliffjumper (11) Jazz (12) Prowl or Bluestreak (13) Sideswipe (14) Ironhide (15) Sludge (22) Grimlock (23) Slag (24)	Soundwave (6) Laserbeak (7) Shockwave (8) Megatron (18) Rumble (19) Reflector (20) Decepticon jet (21)	Melanie and friends (1) Buster Witwicky (3) Ferdy and Gabe (5) G.B. Blackrock (9) Josie Beller (10) Jessie (16) "O" (17)

Quotes

"Forgive me, humans! My intrusion upon your ceremonies was purely unintentional. The terrain of your planet is often uneven, quite unlike that of my home planet Cybertron. I lost my footing and accidentally nudged this brown pipe out of its mooring. Permit me to correct my error."

—Ratchet tries to put a tree back in place

"Hmm... intriguing... heat tempered protein cylinders!"

—Ratchet discovers hot dogs

"As you trained on our native Cybertron to be a doctor... so shall you train on Earth to be a warrior! Experience shall be your instructor. Your own survival shall be your ultimate test."

—Optimus Prime

"So, Ratchet, go! Destroy Shockwave and restore my command of the Decepticons, or return here in defeat and join your comrades in their doom! Either way... I win!! HA HA HA HA!"

—Even though Megatron is in a comic book, you can totally hear his evil villain music playing

Notes

Continuity notes

• Footnotes remind the reading audience of the events of last issue, including the shock Optimus Prime gave Buster; Shockwave's attack on Blackrock's oil rig and the injuries Josie Beller suffering during it; Buster's discovery of the Autobots deactivated bodies; and Megatron's battle with Shockwave and Ratchet witnessing its aftermath.
• Sparkplug continues to recover from the mild heart attack he suffered, which a footnote reminds us happened in issue #4.
• Though Jessie will return in future issues, "O" takes Buster's instruction on page 16 to "leave him alone" rather literally; he will never appear in the comic again after this issue.
• Megatron gives us new info about events from issue #1, recapping why Shockwave stayed behind during the attack on the Ark (he planned the attack and stayed behind as backup) and his subsequent battle with the Dinobots as shown in issue #4. During his flashback (page 21, panel 1, pictured), we see a Cybertronian building with a "honeycomb"-style window-dome; a similar building appeared in issue #1 (page 1, panel 4).
• You'd never suspect it to read this issue in isolation, but the interaction between Megatron and Ratchet in this story is the first in a series of confrontations that will occur across the whole length of the Marvel series. They will actually have more dramatic face-offs in Marvel US continuity than Megatron and Optimus Prime!

Real-life references

• Ratchet and Buster encounter the campers in Oregon's real-life Mount Hood National Forest. Since he just left the Ark on foot and hasn't found a road, Mount St. Hilary must be very close to Mount Hood.
• Buster's home is in Portland.
• Ratchet states he is "a doctor, not a warrior," imitating the famous catchphrase of Star Trek's Doctor McCoy.
• Buster mentions President and CEO of the Chrysler Corporation, Lee Iacocca, while despairing over repairing the cars at his dad's garage.

Continuity and plotting errors

• At the end of last issue, Buster was wearing his trademark pink t-shirt, but this issue, he has changed into a white t-shirt and jacket. He hasn't been home yet to change (since that's where he and Ratchet are headed when they meet the campers) so his new wardrobe goes unexplained. It's compounded somewhat by the fact artist William Johnson remembers to draw Buster in his pink tee in the flashback to the events of the previous issue.
• Buster is described as having been "blasted with a coruscating beam of energy" by Optimus Prime last issue, when in fact, Prime "electrocuted" him via two wires pressed to either side of Buster's head.
• Megatron was defeated by Shockwave while still recovering from his damage. He seems to be fully repaired now, making it a little unclear why he should need Ratchet's help.

Artwork and technical errors

• On the issue's cover art, Megatron is missing the gun barrel on his back.
• Ratchet's fluctuating prototypical red-white-and-blue color scheme which he has had in the series up to this point final settles down this issue into his finalized Marvel color scheme—all white with a red helmet and fists. The multiple thin red stripes that run around his forearms in this story, however, will be steadily phased out over the course of the series.
• On the flipside, Soundwave spends the duration of this issue colored blue; it matches his animation model, toy, and the UK comic, but within the context of the US Marvel comic, it's actually an error, since he's always purple in its pages.
• G.B. Blackrock spends this issue without his mustache, and error that will repeat a few times in these early appearances of the character.
• During Buster's flashback, Optimus Prime's cheek and nose are colored yellow. In this scene, "coruscating" is misspelled as "corruscating" in the US issue.
• As previously seen in issues #3 and #4, Megatron's Decepticon insignia is once again off-center, shifted over to the right of his chest, as result of the artist misinterpreting the geometry of his character model.
• Page 5, panel 7: The coloring makes it look like the beam from Ratchet's laser scalpel stops at his wrist and doesn't actually hit the hot dogs.
• Page 7, panel 3: Ferdy states that he likes "to punch in one time" to work, rather than on time.
• Page 14, panel 2: After being shown as little more than a torso in issue #5, Ironhide is now mostly intact again.
• Pages 14–15: Johnson draws Optimus Prime's head as missing its "antenna ears," when they were attached to it in the previous two issues.
• Page 18: Megatron's fusion cannon has its own little Decepticon symbol! Cute, but definitely not part of his standard design!
• Page 20, panel 5: Ratchet says he will help Megatron "defend Shockwave" when he clearly means "defeat Shockwave".
• Page 22, panel 4: The speech bubble that begins "This much I knew or Shockwave told me..." is attributed to Ratchet, but the dialogue belongs to Megatron. This error does not appear in the UK issue.

UK printing

• Published: 7th September, 1985
• Back-up strips: Robo-Capers , The Chromobots , and Matt and the Cat . The Chromobots concludes this issue.
• This issue was the first and only instance of a full issue of the US comic being reprinted in one UK issue, instead of split into multiple parts. This was because this was the final issue of the UK series to be printed in a mixture of colour and black-and-white; the series went full-colour from the next issue onward as part of a design revamp. With both back-up strips (Machine Man and Planet Terry) having reached the end of their current stories last issue, rather than start any new back-ups one month before the whole look and format of the comic was changed, this issue just reprinted a full US issue to fill out the pages.

Other trivia

G.I. Joe: Not for wimps, apparently

• Strangely, an overlay exists for the cover, indicating that Herb Trimpe redrew Megatron for the final cover. While the reason for this is unconfirmed, it would appear that Bright accidentally drew the earlier Megatron character model with a trigger on his fusion cannon on the original cover, judging by the positioning of Megatron's right hand.
• This issue's Transmissions page notes that Larry Hama kept a prototype of Jetfire on his desk in the Marvel offices. Wonder if he's still got it?
• At some point, CardsOne, a company that deals in vintage comics, trading cards, and collectibles, acquired a large stock of unsold copies of IDW Publishing's The Transformers: Generations reprint of this issue (cover variant "A"). These copies were bagged with a second random comic book and a random trading card, then sold via Dollar Tree stores around Easter of 2012.
• IDW's Classic Transformers reprint of this issue censored an editor's note on page 22 that identified the Savage Land. The note was restored for future reprints.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: Ratchet active; 16 inactive plus Optimus Prime held captive; 5 Dinobots missing in action.
• Decepticons: 11 active.

Courtesy of my...

• Ratchet busts out his laser scalpel to cook some hot dogs; later he uses it alongside his cryogenic sprayer to fight Megatron.

Covers (2)

• US issue #7: Ratchet faces down Megatron, by Mark Bright, with Megatron done by Herb Trimpe (see "Other trivia" above).
• UK issue #26: reuse of art from US cover.

• 
  US issue #7 -
• 
  UK issue #26 - Ratchet isn't allowed to speak in the UK!

Reprints

• 
  The Transformers Comics Magazine #4 (Marvel US, 1987)
• 
  Transformers: New Order paperback (Titan Books, 2003)
• 
  Transformers: New Order hardback (Titan Books, 2003)
• 
  The Transformers: Generations #1 cover A by Ashley Wood (IDW Publishing, 2006)
• 
  The Transformers: Generations #1 cover B by Nick Roche (IDW Publishing, 2006)
• 
  The Transformers: Generations #1 retailer incentive cover (IDW Publishing, 2006)
• 
  The Transformers: Generations #1 New Dimension Comics exclusive cover by Nick Roche (IDW Publishing, 2006)
• 
  The Transformers: Generations trade paperback (IDW Publishing, 2007)
• 
  Classic Transformers Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2008)
• 
  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1
• 
  Transformers: Classic Comic Collection, Vol. 1 (Chrirpy Bird, 2015)
• 
  Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 2: New Order (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2018)
• 
  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 2 (Mediaboy Mook, 2018)

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection.

• Page 7, panel 6: Gabe's forearms are incorrectly recolored to become the same golden-yellow as his lunchbox.
• Page 8, panel 3: As he transforms, Soundwave's torso is also incorrectly recolored that same golden-yellow color.
• Page 23, panel 6: Text recreation incorrectly changes Megatron's use of the word "command" to the misspelled "cummand," misinterpreting a half-faded "o" in the original printing and re-drawing it as a u.

Advertisements

• Clear-Ups acne cream (inner front cover)
• Oreo "Oreo Tumbler" scam Promotion - between pages 4 & 5
• DP Orbatron Barbells and Weight Benches - between pages 5 & 6
• Twizzlers - between pages 7 & 8
• Nestlé Quick - between pages 8 & 9
• Bonkers! - between pages 16 & 17
• Dorman's Cheese "Secret Wars Sticker Album" Promotion - between pages 17 & 18
• Comic Related Ads - between pages 19 & 20
• Bullpen Bulletins and an ad for Elfquest - between pages 20 & 21
• Transmissions
• Secret Wars II issue #3 (Circuit Breaker appears in this issue - inner rear cover)
• The Nutty Pay-Day Game (back cover)