The Enemy Within!: Difference between revisions
From MediaWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
mNo edit summary |
→Notes: Trying out a new format for reprints section to remove unnecessary info and condense down. |
||
| Line 82: | Line 82: | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
=== | ===Production notes=== | ||
[ | {{quote|If someone had told me back in 1985 that I'd still be writing TF in 2002, I'd have laughed.|Simon Furman, [http://www.alteredstatesmag.com/features/qanda/sfurman_2.php Altered States Q&A]... and he's still doing it in {{CURRENTYEAR}}!}} | ||
*The | *"The Enemy Within!" is the second UK-original story, produced following the conclusion of the [[The Transformers Four-Issue Limited Series|original US mini-series]] to fill for time until more US issues were available to reprint. It was written to span four standard 11-page issues, but after production was finished, the fourth chapter was split up into two smaller chunks to make it span five issues total. Though ''somewhat'' lighter in tone than its sinister predecessor, "[[Man of Iron (issue)|Man of Iron]]," the story remains a grim and violent affair, with Brawn even causing a human motorist's car to end up a flaming wreck that the man is not seen to be recovered from. [[Character model]]s remained unavailable to the artists, and so the Transformers are drawn using only the toys as reference. | ||
*"The Enemy Within!" is the first ''Transformers'' story written by [[Simon Furman]], who would go on to become the UK comic's main writer, and one of the most prolific writers for the franchise in general, which he has continued to work on right up until today. He has since gone on record as saying that he does not think much of this early work, but artist [[Mike Collins]] thinks Furman "hit the ground running" with it. | |||
*This story was originally published in a mixture of full-colour and black-and-white artwork, as was the standard for the comic at the time. A year later, it was fully colourised for ''[[Transformers Collected Comics|Collected Comics]]'' #4, which reprinted all five chapters. In 1990, this coloured version was split up into seven smaller parts and reprinted in issues #308-209 and #313-317 of the regular series. Though the story was skipped for the [[Titan Books]] series of reprints in the early 2000s (probably something to do with Furman's low opinion of it), it would eventually be reprinted by [[IDW Publishing]] and [[Hachette Partworks Ltd]], both of which also used the fully-coloured ''Collected Comics'' version. | |||
*[[ | |||
===Continuity notes=== | ===Continuity notes=== | ||
* | *Though printed after the conclusion of the original US mini-series, "The Enemy Within" (like "Man of Iron" before it, and its direct sequel, next issue's "[[Raiders of the Last Ark]]") is set in some vague time ''during'' its events. The only allusions the story itself offers to a continuity placement is Megatron making mention of [[Spider-Man]], who the Decepticons encountered in [[Prisoner of War!|US issue #3]], and an [[OBTV News]] anchor remarking on the recent robot attacks in [[Oregon]], which became public news in that same issue. The "[[Robot War]]" text features which would later run in issues [[The New Order|#22]], [[The Next Best Thing to Being There!|#36]] and [[Second Generation!|#63]] would clumsily suggest that it took place somewhere "between panels" at the end of that story, after Spider-Man rescued [[Sparkplug Witwicky]] from the Decepticons, but before Sparkplug was returned to the Ark. This really doesn't work, not least of all because Gears appears active in this issue, when he was offlined and would not be reactivated until Sparkplug's return. | ||
* | *[[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]] appears among the Autobots, trying to restrain Brawn in Chapter 1, then ambushing him in Chapter 3. As a character from the 1985 toy range, he had not yet appeared in the US series, but internal to the UK comic at the time, his appearance in this story wasn't really an error; the UK reprint of [[The Transformers (issue)|US issue #1]] had omitted the famous two-page spread containing the full Autobot roll call, so Red's appearance didn't actually contradict anything in-story. Red disappeared from the series after this story, but by coincidence or design, when the 1985 [[Autobot Cars]] when they were later introduced properly into comic continuity in [[Rock and Roll-Out!|US issue #14]], Red was ''not'' included among them, meaning that his original appearance in "The Enemy Within" still didn't contradict anything. The [[Letters page (Marvel UK)|letters page]] of [[Devastation Derby!|issue #62]] justified his disappearance by explaining that he was critically injured off-panel during the events of [[The Last Stand|US issue #4]]. He would eventually reappear in [[Time Wars|issue #199]] as part of a group of time-travelling Autobots from the future. | ||
===Real-life references=== | ===Real-life references=== | ||
*The first panel of part three's seventh page, in which Starscream shoots down a human military jet, is an homage to Roy Lichtenstein's painting, ''{{w|Whaam!}}'', complete with sound effect. | *The first panel of part three's seventh page, in which Starscream shoots down a human military jet, is an homage to Roy Lichtenstein's painting, ''{{w|Whaam!}}'', complete with sound effect. | ||
=== | ===Artwork and technical errors=== | ||
*The lettering style used for this story makes punctuation very faint. Many sentences appear at first glance to be missing periods. | |||
* | *Megatron is coloured throughout the story with a golden torso, an overly literal artistic interpretation of the way his [[package art]] represented his toy's chromed chest. | ||
*Sideswipe is drawn heinously off-model in issue #13 (including its cover), looking nothing like himself. The artist's reference for his appearance seems to have been the equally-bizarre [[character model]] used for [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] in the aforementioned double-page spread of US issue #1—note especially the designs of the face, chest, and the shoulder-wheels. He gets a "proper" face in #14, but is still drawn with the wrong helmet. | |||
*Part 1 | |||
**Page 1, panel 3: Starscream's face, helmet, and cockpit are uncoloured. | |||
**Page 2, panel 1: Megatron declares "Will discuss the matter no further!" which should evidently be either "'''I''' will discuss the matter no further!" or "'''We'll''' discuss the matter no further!" | |||
**Page 2, panel 2: Rumble things Starscream should have "the right for a vote." He means "the right '''to''' a vote." | |||
**Page 2, panel 4: Starscream had red thighs. | |||
**Page 2, panel 5: Starscream is coloured like Skywarp. | |||
**Page 4, panel 5: Starscream is coloured like Skywarp again. | |||
**Page 9, panel 3: Red Alert is coloured like Gears. | |||
**Page 10, panel 1: "It's" is used instead of "its." | |||
*Part 2, panel 10, panel 3: The edge of the text within Optimus Prime's speech bubble has been erased or obscured turning "You must do no more harm," into "ou must do o more harm." | |||
===Back-up material=== | ===Back-up material=== | ||
| Line 127: | Line 135: | ||
*'''Fact File:''' [[Soundwave (G1)/Marvel Comics continuity|Soundwave]] | *'''Fact File:''' [[Soundwave (G1)/Marvel Comics continuity|Soundwave]] | ||
*'''Tales from the Fact Files:''' - "The Truth about Alcatraz" | *'''Tales from the Fact Files:''' - "The Truth about Alcatraz" | ||
===Covers ( | ===Covers (5)=== | ||
*'''Issue #13:''' Brawn giving Sideswipe a suplex, by [[John Ridgway]]; art reused from page 8 of the story. | |||
*'''Issue #14:''' Brawn & Optimus Prime, by [[Mike Collins]]; collage of panels reused from the story. | |||
*'''Issue #15:''' Starscream vs. Brawn, by Mike Collins; art reused from the final page of the story. | |||
*'''Issue #16:''' Brawn vs. Starscream, by Mike Collins; art reused from page 5 of the story. | |||
*'''Issue #17:''' laughing Megatron, by Mike Collins; art reused from page 3 of the story. | |||
<gallery> | <gallery> | ||
File:MarvelUK-013.jpg|'''Issue #13''' - Let's get rrready to Frrrenzy! | File:MarvelUK-013.jpg|'''Issue #13''' - Let's get rrready to Frrrenzy! | ||
| Line 135: | Line 148: | ||
File:MarvelUK-015.jpg|'''Issue #15''' - Either Starscream has shrunk, or Brawn has grown. | File:MarvelUK-015.jpg|'''Issue #15''' - Either Starscream has shrunk, or Brawn has grown. | ||
File:MarvelUK-016.jpg|'''Issue #16''' - Geronimoooo! | File:MarvelUK-016.jpg|'''Issue #16''' - Geronimoooo! | ||
File:MarvelUK-017.jpg|'''Issue #17''' - Is it just me, or is Megatron going bald? | File:MarvelUK-017.jpg|'''Issue #17''' - Is it just me, or is Megatron going bald? | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
===Reprints=== | |||
<gallery> | <gallery> | ||
File:MarvelUK- | File:CollectedComics4Cover.jpg|'''''[[Transformers Collected Comics|Collected Comics]]'' #4''' (Marvel UK, 1986) | ||
File:BestofStarscream.jpg|'''''Best of Starscream''''' | File:MarvelUK-308.jpg|'''[[Eye of the Storm|Issue #308]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints issue #13) | ||
File:Classicuk1.jpg|'''''The Transformers Classics UK'' Volume 1''' | File:MarvelUK-309.jpg|'''[[The Pri¢e of Life!|Issue #309]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints first half of #14) | ||
File:MarvelUK-313.jpg|'''[[...All This and Civil War 2|Issue #313]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints second half of #14) | |||
File:MarvelUK-314.jpg|'''[[...All This and Civil War 2|Issue #314]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints first half of #15) | |||
File:MarvelUK-315.jpg|'''[[Out of Time!|Issue #315]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints second half of #15) | |||
File:MarvelUK-316.jpg|'''[[Out of Time!|Issue #316]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints issue #16) | |||
File:MarvelUK-317.jpg|'''[[The Void! (US)|Issue #317]]''' (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints issue #17) | |||
File:BestofStarscream.jpg|'''''[[The Transformers: Best of Starscream]]''''' (IDW Publishing, 2010) | |||
File:Classicuk1.jpg|'''[[The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1|''The Transformers Classics UK'' Volume 1]]''' (IDW Publishing, 2011) | |||
File:DefinitiveG1Collection v1.jpg|'''''[[Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection]], Vol. 1: Power Play''''' (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017) | |||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enemy Within!}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Enemy Within!}} | ||
[[Category:Marvel UK issues]] | [[Category:Marvel UK issues]] | ||
Revision as of 14:00, 14 November 2017
| This article is about the Marvel UK story. For the unproduced Dreamwave issue, see The Enemy Within. |
| |||||||||||||
 What have you done with the real Sideswipe? | |||||||||||||
| "The Enemy Within!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 9th March – 17th May 1985 | ||||||||||||
| Script | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | John Ridgway (13) & Mike Collins (14–17) | ||||||||||||
| Colours | Gina Hart | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Richard Starkings | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Sheila Cranna | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
Brawn and Starscream both fall foul of their friends.
Synopsis
After challenging Megatron's authority and being savagely reprimanded, Starscream plots Megatron's downfall. He plans to attack humans indiscriminately until the Autobots come to their defense. This will force the other Decepticons to come to his aid, and together they will destroy the Autobots, proving that Starscream's methods are superior to Megatron's. Unfortunately, Ravage overhears Starscream's plotting and rushes to tell Megatron, but he is spotted, and Starscream attacks him and leaves him for dead.
At the same time, in the Ark, the Autobots are moving a heavy piece of machinery when it slips, and a short-circuit shocks Brawn, knocking him unconscious. After his recovers, he begins to act strangely before eventually violently attacking Sideswipe and then abandoning the Ark.
The Best Laid Plans...
Some time later, as Starscream attacks US Air Force Base Oregon Four-Alpha, the other Decepticons discover the badly damaged Ravage, who reveals Starscream’s treachery. Enraged, the Decepticons race off, and capture Starscream during his attack. Starscream demands his right to Trial by Combat.
Brawn, meanwhile, has gone on a rampage in the small town of St. Petersburg, believing their cars to be enslaved robots... and when the immobile vehicles just sit there, he throws a wobbly and smashes them.
Crime...and Punishment!
The Autobots try to subdue Brawn but are overwhelmed, only winning due to an ambush by Red Alert. The Autobots, unwilling to harm him in battle, use a neuro-tranquillizer to keep him down and take him back to base. Megatron, unwilling to let Starscream off so easily, plans to take advantage of the situation and suggests to Optimus Prime that they allow Starscream and Brawn to fight each other. Desperate to redeem himself, the now repaired Brawn agrees.
Trial...and Error!
The two battle, unaware that Megatron has stationed Ravage nearby with orders to blast Starscream if he wins the battle.
Endings...and Beginnings!
The battle goes against Brawn, and it appears that he has been destroyed. Following his orders, Ravage blows Starscream out of the sky, gaining revenge on him. He then lets the other Decepticons believe that it was the Autobots who attacked Starscream, motivating them to get behind Megatron and attack the Autobots.
Unknown to the Decepticons, Brawn was not destroyed. Instead, Mirage projected a hologram showing his death while the real Brawn was taken to safety: the same electric shock that harmed Brawn boosted Mirage's hologram powers!
Back at the Decepticon fortress, Megatron is preparing to launch an all-out attack on the Autobots.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
Notes
Production notes
If someone had told me back in 1985 that I'd still be writing TF in 2002, I'd have laughed.Simon Furman, Altered States Q&A... and he's still doing it in 2026!
- "The Enemy Within!" is the second UK-original story, produced following the conclusion of the original US mini-series to fill for time until more US issues were available to reprint. It was written to span four standard 11-page issues, but after production was finished, the fourth chapter was split up into two smaller chunks to make it span five issues total. Though somewhat lighter in tone than its sinister predecessor, "Man of Iron," the story remains a grim and violent affair, with Brawn even causing a human motorist's car to end up a flaming wreck that the man is not seen to be recovered from. Character models remained unavailable to the artists, and so the Transformers are drawn using only the toys as reference.
- "The Enemy Within!" is the first Transformers story written by Simon Furman, who would go on to become the UK comic's main writer, and one of the most prolific writers for the franchise in general, which he has continued to work on right up until today. He has since gone on record as saying that he does not think much of this early work, but artist Mike Collins thinks Furman "hit the ground running" with it.
- This story was originally published in a mixture of full-colour and black-and-white artwork, as was the standard for the comic at the time. A year later, it was fully colourised for Collected Comics #4, which reprinted all five chapters. In 1990, this coloured version was split up into seven smaller parts and reprinted in issues #308-209 and #313-317 of the regular series. Though the story was skipped for the Titan Books series of reprints in the early 2000s (probably something to do with Furman's low opinion of it), it would eventually be reprinted by IDW Publishing and Hachette Partworks Ltd, both of which also used the fully-coloured Collected Comics version.
Continuity notes
- Though printed after the conclusion of the original US mini-series, "The Enemy Within" (like "Man of Iron" before it, and its direct sequel, next issue's "Raiders of the Last Ark") is set in some vague time during its events. The only allusions the story itself offers to a continuity placement is Megatron making mention of Spider-Man, who the Decepticons encountered in US issue #3, and an OBTV News anchor remarking on the recent robot attacks in Oregon, which became public news in that same issue. The "Robot War" text features which would later run in issues #22, #36 and #63 would clumsily suggest that it took place somewhere "between panels" at the end of that story, after Spider-Man rescued Sparkplug Witwicky from the Decepticons, but before Sparkplug was returned to the Ark. This really doesn't work, not least of all because Gears appears active in this issue, when he was offlined and would not be reactivated until Sparkplug's return.
- Red Alert appears among the Autobots, trying to restrain Brawn in Chapter 1, then ambushing him in Chapter 3. As a character from the 1985 toy range, he had not yet appeared in the US series, but internal to the UK comic at the time, his appearance in this story wasn't really an error; the UK reprint of US issue #1 had omitted the famous two-page spread containing the full Autobot roll call, so Red's appearance didn't actually contradict anything in-story. Red disappeared from the series after this story, but by coincidence or design, when the 1985 Autobot Cars when they were later introduced properly into comic continuity in US issue #14, Red was not included among them, meaning that his original appearance in "The Enemy Within" still didn't contradict anything. The letters page of issue #62 justified his disappearance by explaining that he was critically injured off-panel during the events of US issue #4. He would eventually reappear in issue #199 as part of a group of time-travelling Autobots from the future.
Real-life references
- The first panel of part three's seventh page, in which Starscream shoots down a human military jet, is an homage to Roy Lichtenstein's painting, Whaam!, complete with sound effect.
Artwork and technical errors
- The lettering style used for this story makes punctuation very faint. Many sentences appear at first glance to be missing periods.
- Megatron is coloured throughout the story with a golden torso, an overly literal artistic interpretation of the way his package art represented his toy's chromed chest.
- Sideswipe is drawn heinously off-model in issue #13 (including its cover), looking nothing like himself. The artist's reference for his appearance seems to have been the equally-bizarre character model used for Gears in the aforementioned double-page spread of US issue #1—note especially the designs of the face, chest, and the shoulder-wheels. He gets a "proper" face in #14, but is still drawn with the wrong helmet.
- Part 1
- Page 1, panel 3: Starscream's face, helmet, and cockpit are uncoloured.
- Page 2, panel 1: Megatron declares "Will discuss the matter no further!" which should evidently be either "I will discuss the matter no further!" or "We'll discuss the matter no further!"
- Page 2, panel 2: Rumble things Starscream should have "the right for a vote." He means "the right to a vote."
- Page 2, panel 4: Starscream had red thighs.
- Page 2, panel 5: Starscream is coloured like Skywarp.
- Page 4, panel 5: Starscream is coloured like Skywarp again.
- Page 9, panel 3: Red Alert is coloured like Gears.
- Page 10, panel 1: "It's" is used instead of "its."
- Part 2, panel 10, panel 3: The edge of the text within Optimus Prime's speech bubble has been erased or obscured turning "You must do no more harm," into "ou must do o more harm."
Back-up material
Issue #13:
- Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Kill Me or Cure Me" Part 4, Chromobots and Matt and the Cat
- Fact File: Windcharger
Issue #14:
- Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Kill Me or Cure Me" Part 5, Chromobots and Matt and the Cat
- Fact File: Humph (star of Matt and the Cat)
- April calendar: Starscream
Issue #15:
- Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Arms and the Robot" Part 1, Robo-Capers, Chromobots, Planet Terry and Matt and the Cat
- This was the first appearance of Lew Stringer's Robo-Capers, which would run all the way until issue #152
- Fact File: Laserbeak
- Tales from the Fact Files: - "Trapped Beneath the Waves!"
Issue #16:
- Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Arms and the Robot" Part 2, Robo-Capers, Chromobots, Planet Terry and Matt and the Cat
- Fact File: Prowl
- May calendar: Sideswipe
Issue #17:
- Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Arms and the Robot" Part 3, Robo-Capers, Chromobots, Planet Terry and Matt and the Cat
- Fact File: Soundwave
- Tales from the Fact Files: - "The Truth about Alcatraz"
Covers (5)
- Issue #13: Brawn giving Sideswipe a suplex, by John Ridgway; art reused from page 8 of the story.
- Issue #14: Brawn & Optimus Prime, by Mike Collins; collage of panels reused from the story.
- Issue #15: Starscream vs. Brawn, by Mike Collins; art reused from the final page of the story.
- Issue #16: Brawn vs. Starscream, by Mike Collins; art reused from page 5 of the story.
- Issue #17: laughing Megatron, by Mike Collins; art reused from page 3 of the story.
-
Issue #13 - Let's get rrready to Frrrenzy! -
Issue #14 - "With a mind like yours, I'd try the land crab." -
Issue #15 - Either Starscream has shrunk, or Brawn has grown. -
Issue #16 - Geronimoooo! -
Issue #17 - Is it just me, or is Megatron going bald?
Reprints
-
Collected Comics #4 (Marvel UK, 1986) -
Issue #308 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints issue #13) -
Issue #309 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints first half of #14) -
Issue #313 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints second half of #14) -
Issue #314 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints first half of #15) -
Issue #315 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints second half of #15) -
Issue #316 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints issue #16) -
Issue #317 (Marvel UK, 1990; reprints issue #17) -
The Transformers: Best of Starscream (IDW Publishing, 2010) -
The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011) -
Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 1: Power Play (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017)
