Man and Machine, Part Four

« New Avengers / Transformers #4
Spider-Man is Megatron's booger.
"Man and Machine, Part Four"
Publisher	Dan Buckley/Marvel Comics
First published	October 10, 2007
Cover date	December 2007
Writer	Stuart Moore
Penciler	Tyler Kirkham
Inker	Sal Regla
Colorist	Annette Kwok
Letterer	Todd Klein
Editor	Bill Rosemann
Assistant editor	Lauren Sankovitch
Editor-in-chief	Joe Quesada
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Infiltration

A pretty crappy miniseries comes to an end? Would you prefer the Transformers crossover with the Terminator?

Synopsis

With a surge of Spidey-strength, Spider-Man breaks free from his restraints. He thanks his irregular ally Doom for disabling Astrotrain. Ratchet and Prowl explain a bit of the situation to the Webslinger, and what must be done.

Iron-Man, in his gigantic mech with power enhanced by energy contributions from the Autobots, faces against Megatron. To fight against his own draining energy, Tony's suit engages the supplemental power cells, but it's too much energy to be handled, and forces the suit into an overload. With a "Zzzzzzat", Megatron removes the head from the armor behemoth. As Iron Man lies on the ground, Megatron notices that several Autobots are missing.

Wolverine, Bumblebee, and Jazz arrive inside the Decepticons' dome. The three find Prowl and Ratchet using Megatron's technology to receive a power-up from Spider-Man. Wolverine has the bright idea that his abilities can also be copied to enhance the good Transformers. When the Autobots are charged, Doom takes a few of the party to destroy the Psycho-Prism.

Outside, the enhanced Transformers and their amazing friends battle Megatron (including Iron Man, who wasn't killed by Megatron).

Inside, Doom's posse finds the Psycho-Prism. The Prism's defender, Ramjet, retreats rather than fight more. Wolverine destroys the prism with his adamantium claws. With the crucial weapon non-functional, the entire dome collapses.

The operation a complete failure, Megatron commands his troops to retreat. Before he can leave, Spider-Man, the rest of the Avengers, and some of the Autobots, beat up on Megatron a bit more. While the Avengers talk about the affair to each other, the Autobots sneak away. Leaving the site of conflict, the Avengers and Autobots both suspect that the identity of the Avengers' Quinjet has been taken by Ramjet... but that would be crazy!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (4) Prowl (5) Optimus Prime (9) Jazz (13) Bumblebee (15) Wheeljack (22)	Astrotrain (2) Megatron (6) Ramjet (16) Blitzwing (17) Thundercracker (18) Skywarp (19) Runabout (20) Runamuck (21)	Spider-Man (1) Doctor Doom (3) Luke Cage (7) Iron Man (8) Captain America (10) Falcon (11) Ms. Marvel (12) Wolverine (14)

Quotes

"You know, normally I prefer house music... but who says metal's dead?"

—Iron Man, whilst wailing on Megatron, throws out the worst line of dialogue in the history of Transformers comics.

Items of note

References galore!

• Spider-Man briefly sings a few lines from his original cartoon series.
• The panel in which Spider-Man takes down Megatron has many aspects lifted directly from the cover of the third issue of Marvel Comics' The Transformers (in which Spider-Man appeared): "Prisoner of War!"
• If the Quinjet was Ramjet, then Spider-Man's "Spider-Sense" would tell him something is off. Unless Ramjet isn't planning direct offensive action. Or he's a Skrull. In any case, Ramjet's Spotlight issue, which takes place after this issue, features him in his normal alternate mode, not that of the Quinjet.
• A cover gallery is included after the story.

Covers (1)

• Spider-Man on Megatron's finger; art by Tom Raney.

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