The New Order

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Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray.
"The New Order"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	February, 1985
Cover date	June 1985
Script	Bob Budiansky
Art	Alan Kupperberg
Colors	Nelson Yomtov
Letters	Rick Parker
Editor	Jim Owsley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Shockwave has destroyed the Autobots, and begins his plans for the conquest of Earth.

Synopsis

Within the Ark, Shockwave observes a number of human television programs, and judges Earth's natives as quite primitive. As he walks past the deactivated Autobots, now strung from the ceiling for use as spare parts, he concludes that conquest of the planet "will be a simple task indeed."

Elsewhere in the vessel, the poisoned Decepticons are being revived. Shockwave explains to Megatron that, in light of this humiliating defeat, his leadership was clearly faulty, and it is only logical for Shockwave to take command. The weakened Megatron is in no condition to disagree... yet. Shockwave flies off to undertake his first conquest.

Meanwhile, as Sparkplug recovers from his heart attack, he makes Buster promise not to have anything more to do with the Transformers. Ratchet takes Buster back to the Ark to say his good-byes, only to discover that the Decepticons have taken over. Buster convinces Ratchet to stay outside while he sneaks in to investigate. Buster discovers the deactivated Autobots and despairs. When he realizes that Optimus Prime is not among them, he holds out hope, only to have that hope destroyed when he discovers Prime's detached head located in another room. Prime, still functional, informs Buster that he is the Autobots' last hope.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (7) Optimus Prime (12)	Shockwave (1) Megatron (5) Soundwave (11)	Charlene Welles (2) G.B. Blackrock (3) Josie Beller (4) Buster Witwicky (6) Mel (8) Gus (9) Sparkplug Witwicky (10)

Errors

• In a flashback, one of the Decepticons flying to their fortress appears to be Shockwave, who had not yet rejoined the Decepticons.
• Numerous errors occur in the slabs-of-beef scene of the Autobots hanging from the ceiling:
  • Several Autobots are randomly colored like Gears, including Trailbreaker, Ironhide and Bumblebee. Cliffjumper is colored like Bumblebee, and Windcharger has Brawn's colors.
  • Ironhide, meanwhile, has inexplicably gone from being pretty much okay at the end of last issue, to being a legless, one-armed torso stuck on the end of a pole.
  • Trailbreaker's car-mode hood is shown cracked and shattered as if it were a windshield.
  • Jazz has a totally made-up head.
  • Wheeljack is missing his "ears".
• Sunstreaker is colored blue and red when Shockwave blasts him, and colored like Sideswipe when he's later seen lying on the floor.
• The severe damage inflicted on Mirage last issue is nowhere to be seen -- he's got both his arms and his chest/head are intact. To be fair, this same damage disappeared before the previous issue even concluded.
• Frenzy and Rumble are both blue. A moment later, one of them is purple and pink.
• Ratchet has a blue chest when he transforms, even though the same prominent area is white when he's an ambulance in the previous panel.

Items of note

• Cameos: on television: Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows (these 3 not in UK reprint, see below), Mrs. Shummway, Monty Hall, soap opera stars, sports announcer (voice only); dead Autobots: Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Windcharger, Huffer, Gears, Wheeljack, Ironhide, Bluestreak, Prowl, Hound, Trailbreaker, Sideswipe, Jazz, Brawn, Mirage; healing Decepticons: Thundercracker, Ravage, Starscream; flashback: Big Red; Sunstreaker, hospital employees, Frenzy, Rumble.
• According to a text box in US issue #4, this story was originally going to be drawn by the team of "Vince Giarrano, penciling superstar-in-the-making" and "Brad Joyce, inker extraordinaire". This did not come to pass, and while Joyce did eventually ink issue #10, Giarrano would never work on the series.
• In a panel on page 9 of US issue #5, Shockwave blasts the body of an unnamed Autobot. It is Sunstreaker's character model, but the blue and red colors are completely wrong for Sunstreaker. However, given Sunstreaker's absence in the scene on page 4 of US issue #9, which is meant to include all the Autobots, and the appearance of his damaged body in #10, the repair of which is noted to be unlikely, plus Yomtov's penchant for completely messing up the colors, it seems reasonable that Sunstreaker is the Autobot.
• In the US version of the story, the first page illustrates a scene from the classic TV series The Honeymooners. However, in the UK reprint, a publicity still from the contemporary (at the time) series V was used instead.
• The entire issue is devoid of any standard comic sound effects such as "BUTHROOM" or "KA-BLAM"
• Starting with page 15 of the US comic, the speech balloons for Transformers characters changed style abruptly from rectangular boxes to rounded balloons that sometimes had zig zags in the part indicating which character was speaking. This type of speech balloon would continue to be used through issue #9.

Covers (3)

• 
  US issue #5 - Shockwave really needs to invest in a pen.
• UK issue #22 - Nice little corner logo.
  UK issue #22 - Nice little corner logo.
• UK issue #23 - Yes, where is he? Inside, you dolt!
  UK issue #23 - Yes, where is he? Inside, you dolt!

• US issue #5 cover: Iconic cover of Shockwave who burned (The Transformers) "Are All Dead" into the wall by Mark Bright. The cover is possibly the most well-known of all Transformers comics and has been homaged (or reproduced) in official media at least three times: once in a UK comic mini-poster (which was much later used as an issue cover), once in a panel of Dreamwave's The War Within series, and again as a cover of IDW's The Reign of Starscream #1.
• UK issue #22 cover: reuse of US cover art.
• UK issue #23 cover: Buster amongst the dead Autobots, by Robin Smith.

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