Skin Deep

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Me Grimlock no like taggers!
"Skin Deep"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	August 1989
Cover date	Mid November 1989
Story	Simon Furman
Pencils	José Delbo
Inks	Dave Hunt
Colors	Nel Yomtov
Letters	Jim Massara
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Why would anyone EVER rehire Starscream?

Synopsis

Ratchet cares not for your maturation and wishes you were more like 1984.

Grimlock has never been one to mince words—only metal. No sooner is he reactivated that he goes right for the kill, tackling Megatron in his dino-mode. Still reeling from his recovery, though, he is easily dispatched by Megatron. The Decepticon laughs at Ratchet's meager attempt at treachery, but the surgeon taunts him back with the assertion that his little mindless engine of destruction, Starscream, isn't quite as perfect as he'd like.

Before he can push the issue further, Megatron is interrupted by Bumblebee, who manages to delay the fiend temporarily by blowing several neat holes in his chest. After catching up with Bumblebee and informing Jazz of the extent of his new Pretender powers, Ratchet takes off to deal with the situation on the Ark.

Meanwhile on Earth, Starscream has begun to destroy Scorponok's Decepticons in the glorious name of Megatron. As Optimus Prime finally starts to wise up on everything that's been happening over the past few hours, Starscream sends his new, invincible Pretender shell to destroy the Autobot. At Zarak's bidding, the remaining Decepticons leap into the fray as well, only now on Prime's side.

The Autobot shuttle has successfully redocked with the Ark, but even with the full allotment of Autobots available, they are having little success disarming the bomb. Their prisoner, Blackjack, is less than helpful, as he says the timing sequence simply cannot be stopped once it's begun. Knowing that they'd be unable to escape the blast radius in time, much less evacuate all their wounded from the medical bay and stasis chambers, Kup continues working on the bomb in a desperate attempt to bypass the booby-traps and disarm it.

On Cybertron, Megatron removes the threat of the Autobots by tossing each of them out through the side of his fortress, one at a time. Bidding his Powermaster and Micromaster servants to go after the Pretenders and keep them occupied, Megatron devotes his time to searching out the missing Ratchet and whatever other little surprises the medic might have in store. At that moment, Ratchet is trying to make contact with the Ark, in the hopes of helping them with their little "exploding" problem.

The battle against Starscream is not faring very well at all, as he disables the last of the operational Transformers besides Optimus and Zarak. However, one of his earlier victims, the Autobot Hot Rod, manages to regain his senses long enough to photon-blast Starscream's Pretender shell, and the impact is strong enough to send sympathetic waves of pain back to the owner. As Scorponok joins in, a circuit is completed, and suddenly Starscream's personality shell program gives way, just as Ratchet intended. The whiny coward is back, and he quickly assesses the situation and begs Scorponok for lenience and sanctuary.

Ratchet likes to bring the house down.

In his fortress, Megatron catches Ratchet fiddling with the trans-time dimensional portal. Believing the Autobot is attempting to escape, he bats him aside and begins to gloat over the sprawled body that all his enemies will soon be dead. Ratchet corrects him, informing Megatron about the glitch he installed in Starscream's new software. Furthermore, as Megatron sees with his own eyes, Ratchet wasn't trying to escape, he was bringing the Ark's explosives to the fortress. Panicking, Megatron attempts to throw himself through the portal to safety, but Ratchet tackles him. Outside, the Autobots and Decepticons cease fighting as a sudden, massive explosion consumes the entire base, and apparently Ratchet and Megatron along with it.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Nebulans
Grimlock (1) Ratchet (3) Bumblebee (4) Jazz (5) Hot Rod (13) Optimus Prime (17) Blurr (23) Getaway (24) Kup (26) Cloudburst (29)	Megatron (2) Road Hugger (6) Hyperdrive (7) Detour (8) Triggerhappy (9) Starscream (10) Skullcruncher (11) Skullgrin (12) Weirdwolf (14) Scorponok (15) Mindwipe (18) Nightflight (19) Storm Cloud (20) Tailwind (21) Whisper (22) Blackjack (25) Darkwing (27) Dreadwind (28)	Zarak (16)

Quotes

"Who?"
"I was going to say Goldbug, but it seems I'm back to being Bumblebee again! Ah, well, it doesn't matter! One or the other of me will blow big holes in you if you don't let Ratchet go!"
"Hah!"
[shoots big holes in Megatron's chest] "He doesn't hear as well as he used to, does he?"

—Megatron finds that Bumblebee has gotten a serious upgrade in the firearms department

Kup: "Getaway, ask the little punk how to stop the countdown!"
Getaway: "I've tried! But the "little punk" won't tell me!"
Blackjack: "Can't tell you, can't tell you! Are you deaf, Autobot? Do you think I want to die?"

"Ohno,ohno!I'monlyfourmillionyearsold! I'mtooyoungtodie!"

—Blurr

"Oh, and by the way, I wasn't trying to escape! With Cloudburst's help, I locked onto the explosives Blackjack carelessly left lying around the Ark -- and brought them here!"
"NO! You've doomed us both!"
"Well, as you demonstrated to me at the start of this whole affair, in the final analysis -- I'm expendable!"

—Ratchet gives Megatron some long-due comeuppance

"This time -- you stay dead!"

—Ratchet's final sacrifice to stop Megatron

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Starscream is shown with only one of his helmet's exhaust port things.

Continuity errors

• As the explosives could be sent into Trans-Time portal, and the Ark's shuttles could be used to evacuate, there's no clear reason the Autobots couldn't simply load the explosives onto a shuttle to get rid of them.

Continuity notes

• In an interesting nod to future stories, Bumblebee calls Ratchet "the best surgeon this side of Hydrus Four!"
• The fate of Ratchet and Megatron will be followed up on in US issues #69–70.
• Directly after this, in the UK continuity, Darkwing and Dreadwind would go to Maccadam's Old Oil House to drown their sorrows in the previously printed Out to Lunch! and Starscream would find his mojo again in the previously printed Fallen Star!

Real-life references

• The cover blurb is a play on the common Marvel excitement-builder "Not a hoax! Not a dream! Not an imaginary tale!", originating with X-Men #42 and revisited on occasion. (Future story developments would render it untrue!)

UK printing

Issue #249:

• Additional Transformers story: "Whose Lifeforce Is It Anyway?"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "The Lower Depths" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Razorclaw and Red Alert
• With this issue the cover logo changes from Action Force to G.I. Joe the Action Force. This had been explained as a merger between the European and American groups in a mini-comic given away with issue #245 and reflected a change in the toyline packaging.

Issue #250:

• Additional Transformers story: "The Greatest Gift of All!"
• Other strips: Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Rewind and Rumble
• Combat Colin is in a full-colour strip that references the Transformers' party depicted on the cover.
• This issue also featured a competition where readers could win one of 30 Micro-master pocket bases[sic] by identifying which six Transformers had been mixed up in the matter transmitter — they were Jetfire, Optimus Prime, Mirage, Onslaught, Megatron and Headstrong.

Issue #251:

• Additional Transformers story: "The Void!"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "The Lower Depths" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Runabout and Runamuck

Other trivia

• Transformers Universe profiles for the Seacons are found after the main story.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: 23 active as Ratchet is lost in an explosion; 8 rogue Micromasters; 1 in storage, 28 offline, 28 presumed offline. (88 total)
• Decepticons: 21 active as Starscream returns to the fold, 4 rogue Micromasters; 26 offline, 25 presumed offline. 4 previously offline/missing. (80 total)

Covers (8)

• 
  US issue #59 - Admit it, who fell for that one?
• 
  UK issue #249 - Ooohhh, sparkly!
• 
  UK issue #250 - Merry Christmas, everyone!
• 
  UK issue #251 - This reminds me of the time...

• US issue #59 cover: Grimlock vs the Micromasters while Megatron approaches, by José Delbo.
• UK issue #249 cover: Longtooth's secret, by Mario Capaldi.
• UK issue #250 cover: Christmas celebration, by Andrew Wildman.
• UK issue #251 cover: Red Alert and Kup, by Gary Erskine.

• 
  Primal Scream TPB
• 
  Primal Scream hardback
• 
  Classic Transformers Volume 4
• 
  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 5

• 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.
• Classic Transformers Volume 4 cover: Panels from this issue and US issue #60, pencils by José Delbo, inks by Dave Hunt and colours by Nel Yomtov.
• The Transformers Classics, Vol. 5 cover: Prowl, by Guido Guidi.

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Reprints

• 2002 — Transformers: Primal Scream
• 2009 — Classic Transformers Volume 4
• 2012 — The Transformers Classics, Vol. 5