Underworld!

<table class="infobox" style="width: 20em;">

<tr style="background-color:#e7d492;text-align:center;font-size:12px;"> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> <table width="100%" style="background-color:transparent">

<tr style="font-size:14px;"> <td class="tti_buttonlink">« </td><td align="center">The Transformers (UK) #245 </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink">» </td></tr> <tr class="tt1_secondarynav"> <td class="tti_buttonlink"> </td><td align="center"> </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink"> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 12px; background-color:#ffffff;" align="center"> <img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/6/65/MarvelUK-245.jpg/230px-MarvelUK-245.jpg" width="230" height="306" border="0" /> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> "Underworld!" </td></tr> <tr> <td>Publisher </td><td> Marvel Comics </td></tr> <tr> <td>Date published </td><td> 18th November 1989 </td></tr> <tr> <td>Cover date </td><td> 25th November 1989 </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Writer </td><td> Simon Furman </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Art </td><td> Jeff Anderson </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Letterer </td><td> Helen Stone </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Continuity </td><td> Marvel Comics continuity </td></tr>

</table> Initiation rituals turn out to be more than meets the eye...

Synopsis

In caverns deep underground on Cybertron three Autobot cadets - Subsea, Tailgate and Flattop - hide as a group of mutant Transformers hunt for them. Once the mutants have passed them the three Autobots move off, though Flattop is frozen with fear.

Up on the surface Pipes and Outback comment that initiations in the Underworld went out with the Ark but Flattop was headstrong and talked the others going in. Outback and Pipes agree to go in to rescue their fellows.

Down below the mutants find the Autobots and kill first Subsea then Flattop. Before they can kill Tailgate he blasts Smeltdown's furnace, triggering an explosion which kills all the mutants bar Rotgut. Tailgate throws the survivor into the pyre as Outback and Pipes arrive to find their help is not needed.

But the explosion has released something else, something that has not fed in countless years...

<div style="width: 90%; margin: 0 auto .2em auto; background-color:#efefef; border: 2px solid #eeeeee; padding: 2px; text-align: left;">Note: This story is continued in Demons!.</div>

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

<table border="5" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" align="center" style="border:#800000"> <tr> <th style="background:#FFEEEE"> Autobots</th><th style="background:#FFEEB8"> Others </th></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top">

• Subsea (1)
• Tailgate (2)
• Flattop (3)
• Outback (9)
• Pipes (10)

</td><td style="background:#FFEEB8" valign="top">

• Rotgut (4)
• Warhead (5)
• Slayride (6)
• Smeltdown (7)
• Jackhammer (8)
• Demons (11)

</td></tr></table>

Items of note

• This is the first appearance of Tailgate (bar a one panel cameo in "Resurrection!") and Pipes.

• It's not at all clear when the story is set. All three Mini-Autobots are cadets at the academy, but in his previous appearances Outback was a regular soldier. It's possible this story is set some years in the past but there is nothing for definite.

• Issue #245 also contained a four page Action Force 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.

Reprints

• This story was reprinted in the Titan Books trade paperback "Aspects of Evil".