Ring of Hate!

The Transformers: Headmasters #1 » « The Transformers (UK) #130–133 »
"All-powerful"? But we haven't gotten to the Godmasters yet.
"Ring of Hate!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	March 1987
Cover date	July 1987
Script	Bob Budiansky
Pencils	Frank Springer
Inks	Ian Akin & Brian Garvey
Colors	Nel Yomtov
Lettering	Diana Albers
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

A group of Autobots, tired of fighting an endless war, seek to escape by traveling to a world known for its peaceful ways. But can they prove their peaceable intentions?

Synopsis

Somewhere on war-torn Cybertron, a band of Decepticons under the command of the cruel Scorponok leads captive Autobots to their death at the smelting pools. En route, however, a squadron of Autobots led by Fortress Maximus attacks, driving off the Decepticons and freeing the prisoners. Overwhelmed, the Decepticons retreat, and the Autobots return to their hidden base.

The Autobot troops are jubilant in the wake of their victory, but Fortress Maximus silences them angrily—even when they win, the planet suffers, and lives are lost. Maximus has had enough, and intends to leave Cybertron and the endless cycle of war altogether; he has set his sights on the world of Nebulos, a peaceful planet he has watched for many vorns. His stunned troops have little option but to go along.

The Autobots construct a starcraft dubbed the Steelhaven, and Autobots from all over come to join the mission for peace. After a short warp across the void, the ship arrives on orbit around Nebulos.

The Transformers' greatest battle on Nebulos.

The Autobots land in the planet's wilds; Fortress Maximus dispatches Highbrow to make contact with the planet's inhabitants. Highbrow comes across Gort and his lover engaged in "a primitive form of communication". Gort panics at the sight of Highbrow, and in his haste to fight off the monster for his lover, trips and is injured. An apologetic Highbrow passes a small holo-projector to the woman, containing a message from Fortress Maximus, and leaves. In Koraja the next day, the Council of Peers meets to discuss the Autobots' message. Lord Zarak eagerly attempts to stir the Nebulans up into war. Galen disagrees, arguing that Nebulos has been peaceful for years and must make peace the first choice. Blurr arrives in the capital city the next day, and began to speak of his desire to live in peace. However, Krunk, one of Lord Zarak's henchmen, uses a weapon to magnetize Blurr's arm, causing him to dislodge a nearby sculpture and send it crashing into a crowd of panicked Nebulans. Under fire from the city's guards, Blurr retreats, his message of peace lost.

Soon, the Nebulans resurrect their long-buried machines of war and attack the Autobot encampment, wounding many of the Autobots. Under explicit orders from Fortress Maximus, the Autobots do not fight back and retreat further into the wilderness.

The next day, Fortress Maximus and ten other Autobots march to the capital city and throw their weapons down, begging for peace one last time. Zarak urges Galen to fire, but Galen refuses. Fortress Maximus, Highbrow, Hardhead, Brainstorm, and Chromedome all pull their heads from their body and place them on the ground, rendering their bodies useless. Galen accepts the offering, stating that "there will be no war today."

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Nebulans
Sureshot (8) Crosshairs (9) Pointblank (10) Fortress Maximus (11) Blurr (12) Cog (13) Hardhead (14) Brainstorm (15) Highbrow (16) Chromedome (17) Kup (19) Hot Rod (20) Scattershot (21) Nosecone (22) Afterburner (23) Repugnus (24) Grotesque (25) Doublecross (26)	Triggerhappy (1) Slugslinger (2) Scorponok (3) Skullcruncher (4) Snapdragon (5) Apeface (6) Misfire (7) Fasttrack (18)	Gort (27) Marita (28) Zarak (29) Sorgen (30) Galen (31) Krunk (32) Duros (33)

Notes

• The story concepts introduced in Headmasters—two large crews of Transformers traveling to a new world—was used to introduce many characters from the 1987 and 1988 toy assortments. When a new batch of characters had to be brought into the comic per Hasbro's mandate (such as the Powermasters and Pretenders), they were simply introduced as part of the ships' crews who hadn't been shown before. This worked well as many of the new toys had alternate modes clearly not based on Earth vehicles.
• On the flip side, the premise of the Autobots leaving in search of peace results in some exceedingly strange choices among the Steelhaven's crew. Rabblerousers like Afterburner, Repugnus, Scattershot, Hardhead and Joyride are all seen to have left Cybertron to seek a peaceful existence, somewhat at odds with their characterization.
• The introductory narrative describes Cybertron as suffering physical pain during the course of the battle, as though it were a living being—long before the idea of Cybertron being the embodiment of the Transformers' living god, Primus had entered the American version of the mythos.
• It's a bit nitpicky to point out but.... ripping your own head off and rendering your body comatose is a terrible way to make peace. If Galen didn't take the offer then he could've just excecuted the immobilized Autobots right then and there!

Errors

• The series takes place in the present day (1987), but an unidentified Autobot says Optimus Prime left Cybertron thousands of vorns ago. It was actually 50,000 vorns ago in "The Transformers", so he was off by an order of magnitude.

This mini-series in general is rife with mis-colorings, mis-namings and misused character models. From the top:

• Cover — Fortress Maximus is mostly grey and brown, while Brainstorm is brown and dark green. Scorponok is the wrong shade of green, and is missing half of his claw.
• Page 1 — Gort is in the line of prisoners. Brainstorm is also in the line of prisoners, even though he shows up among Fortress Maximus's troops at the start of the attack.
• Page 2/3 — Third panel: When Blurr transforms, his robot mode is drawn as Crosshairs. Fifth panel: Is that Fasttrack? If so, he should be gray. Scattershot shows up with Fortress Maximus's forces, even though he supposedly doesn't join until later. Snapdragon appears twice in the two-page battle spread, once in jet mode, once as a robot.
• Page 4 — Sixth panel: Fasttrack again, but his colors are reversed.
• Page 5 — First panel: Cog is colored like Hardhead. Hardhead is colored like Cog. Hardhead's response sounds like he should have been Fortress Maximus. Third panel: Gasket and Grommet's vehicle modes are colored as Chromedome and Hardhead. And is that the destroyed form of Apeface in the foreground? Guess he got better.
• Page 7 — Sixth panel: Why is Arcana there?
• Page 16 — Second panel has a green and yellow Spike/Galen.
• Page 18 — Second panel: Cerebros being here is kind of iffy.
• Page 19 — First panel: More Cerebros and Spike/Galen.
• Grotusque's name is (understandably) misspelled as "Grotesque".

Covers (5)

• 
  Headmasters #1 - Way to stick your neck out
• 
  UK issue #130 - Such polite chaps.
• 
  UK issue #131
• UK issue #132
  UK issue #132
• 
  UK issue #133 - Uh, NO! No, you didn't!

• Headmasters #1 cover: Fortress Maximus removes his head for the Nebulans, by Bob Budiansky.
• UK issue #130 cover: The Autobot Headmasters introduce themselves, by Geoff Senior.
• UK issue #131 cover: Scorponok crushing Highbrow, by Lee Sullivan.
• UK issue #132 cover: A giant hand squeezes Hot Rod, by Dan Reed.
• UK issue #133 cover: Death's Head about to strike down Rodimus Prime, by Dave Gibbons.

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Reprints

• 2004 — Transformers: Trial by Fire
• 2010 — Classic Transformers Volume 6