The Greatest Gift of All!

« The Transformers (UK) #250 »
"Incidentally... a happy Christmas to all of you at home!"
"The Greatest Gift of All!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	23rd December 1989
Cover date	30th December 1989
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Staz
Letterer	Helen Stone
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Optimus grants a gift to the Earth.

Synopsis

This story follows on from "Whose Lifeforce Is It Anyway?".

It's Christmas Day, 1989. Longtooth's piece of the Creation Matrix has reached Optimus. Now he can grant life to one of the many deactivated Autobots. He considers First Aid as they need a medic, Prowl for his leadership, one of the Dinobots for their strength... Optimus is suddenly revolted at the idea of playing god, and briefly decides to choose a random person to revive—settling on Seaspray—but cannot go through with such an arbitrary way of deciding who lives.

His dilemma is interrupted by a report: Stakeout and the Rescue Patrol have cornered Whisper, who has an open-ended contract on all of Autobot High Command, and are closing in. As Optimus monitors the battle—ordering no harm comes to human or animal life—he briefly considers reviving Silverbolt, only to wonder if he'd resent being chosen when others weren't. His musing is interrupted when the Rescue Patrol comes under attack by Whisper's Air Strike Patrol buddies. The resulting battle trashes a forest, and in monitoring it Optimus gets a computer report on the environmental knock-on damage being caused.

Optimus suddenly realises how much damage their war has done to Earth without him realising. He calls the Rescue Patrol back to base and sends the Matrix fragment into Earth's atmosphere, causing rain that repairs the damage the battle has done to the environment. "He has a gift, the greatest gift of all... he gladly gives it to the Earth!"

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Optimus Prime (1) Stakeout (2) Seawatch (3) Fixit (4) Red Hot (5) Silverbolt (deactivated) (7)	Whisper (6) Tailwind (8) Nightflight (9) Storm Cloud (10)

References

• The scores of Autobot wounded are primarily from "Dark Star", when the Underbase-powered Starscream decimated their ranks.
• This takes place after Ratchet was presumed dead ("Skin Deep"), which is why Optimus needs a medic.
• The Rescue Patrol arrived on Earth in "Primal Scream".

Items of note

• This is the last UK strip that ties into the US strip - after this comes a four-part (and last) post-movie strip, and then Earthforce.
• It's also the last Marvel UK Christmas story! *sob* British fans would have to wait until 2010 for another one.
• Seaspray has been taken offline at some point since we saw him in issue #212.
• The Air Strike Patrol appear to have gone AWOL from the Decepticons after "Skin Deep" - they're targeting Autobot leaders for money, not under orders.
• The Matrix can heal organic life if used properly.
• On the cover, Bumblebee is playing with a toy of himself.

Reprints

• This story was reprinted in issue #332. Unlike other reprints around the time the story was reprinted in black & white. It was reprinted again in the Titan Books trade paperback Transformers: Way of the Warrior.

Covers (3)

• 
  Issue #250
• 
  Issue #332
• 
  Titan TPB

• Issue #250 cover: The Transformers' Christmas party, by Andrew Wildman.
• Issue #332 cover: Bludgeon about to dismember Wheeljack, by Andrew Wildman.
• Way of the Warrior TPB cover: Carnivac and Springer stand victorious over a Limbo nightmare creature, by Simon Coleby.