The Hunting Party (Marvel)

This article is about the Marvel UK issue. For the IDW issue, see The Hunting Party (IDW).

« The Transformers (UK) #229 »
Oh slag!
"The Hunting Party"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	30th July 1989
Cover date	5th August 1989
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Simon Coleby
Letterer	Helen Stone
Cover	Geoff Senior
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Needlenose may not be cut out for the big leagues.

Synopsis

Even Decepticons fear walking through Camden, New Jersey.

Deep in enemy territory, the new Mayhem Attack Squad is being put through their paces by their field captain, Spinister. One member, Needlenose, is sweating oil bullets at the thought of combat. He sees his fellow Mayhem recruits as way out of his league, and can't even begin to imagine matching up to them in battle. Lost in his own fear, Needlenose panics when an Autobot jumps out at him, and only survives thanks to Spinister shooting down his opponent. As the enemy begins to pour out of the shadows, Needlenose is overwhelmed with fear and flees the scene of the battle. Spinister sees his cowardice, and knows that the official punishment for abandoning a fight is execution. Still, he thinks there's some promise to the young warrior, and darts after Needlenose, in the hopes of shaking him out of his state before anyone else notices what's happened. He gets the idea of faking distress against an opponent, hoping that Needlenose isn't so far gone that he'll just leave a fellow Decepticon to die rather than pick up his gun and fight back. Spinister's gamble pays off, and Needlenose comes back shooting to "rescue" him from his attacker.

The solid light simulated combat session ends, as Snarler arrives and demands a report on the Mayhems' status. Spinister covers for Needlenose and declares them all fit for duty, and ready to hunt down the deserters Carnivac and Catilla.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Solid light simulations
Octopunch (1) Needlenose (2) Stranglehold (3) Spinister (4) Bludgeon (5) Snarler (13)	Kup (6) Optimus Prime (7) Getaway (8) Ratchet (9) Fortress Maximus (10) Prowl (11) Slag (12)

Quotes

"No... No! This isn't right! The Autobots are supposed to be the good guys, and yet they're attacking mindlessly... Cold-bloodedly! It's only a matter of time before we're out-numbered and slaughtered! I'm outta here!"

—Needlenose, seemingly forgetting that he's in a solid light simulated training session.

Notes

Continuity notes

• In Decepticon training sessions, at least, the Autobots have their own region of the Decepticon-controlled Cybertron called Slaughter City, where they hang their enemies' bodies on the walls in effigy. Whether this reflects a real-life place on Cybertron isn't 100% clear.
• The five new Mayhem Attack Squad members make their present-day debuts in this issue. Bludgeon and the two Pretenders had previously appeared in an alternate future during "Aspects of Evil!"

Back-up material

• Reprint Transformers story: "Resurrection!"
• Other strips: Action Force - "Cross Purposes" and Combat Colin
• Classic Covers Calendar: The eighth in a series of monthly calendars that showcased inks from covers of yesteryear with new colours. This August edition used Dan Reed's inks from issue 142.

Foreign Localization

Swedish

• Title: "Jaktlaget" ("The Hunting Party")

Covers (1)

• Issue #229 cover: Spinister and Needlenose run away from Slag, by Geoff Senior.

• 
  Issue #229 - Out of the frying pan...

Reprints

• Transformers Annual 1992: The Dinobots on the rampage, by Jeff Anderson.
• Transformers: Way of the Warrior: Carnivac and Springer stand victorious over a Limbo nightmare creature, by Simon Coleby.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Volume 17: Matrix Quest: Nightbeat and Prime's corpse by Makoto Ono and Geoff Senior.
• Transformers: Jakten på Matrixen: Close-up on US #62's cover, by Rodney Ramos and Eliot Brown.

• 
  Transformers Annual 1992 - ...into the fire! (Marvel UK, 1992)
• 
  Way of the Warrior (Titan Books, 2005)
• 
  Definitive G1 Collection vol. 17: Matrix Quest (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)
• 
  Jakten på Matrixen (Ades Media, 2019)