Battle for Cybertron

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Prime is either working on his crip walk or his car-surfing technique.
"Battle for Cybertron"
Publisher	Marvel Books, Kid Stuff
Cover date	1984
Written by	Scott Siegel
Art by	Earl Norem
ISBN	ISBN 9780871350169 ISBN 0-87135-016-5
Page count	35 pp

Yet another retelling of how the Autobots came to Earth, but this time with awesome Earl Norem art.

Synopsis

This may be the most badass storybook art ever.

On the planet Cybertron, war raged between the peaceful Autobots and the evil Decepticons. The Decepticons want to conquer the universe, while the Autobots bravely resist them. The war raged for over a thousand years, shaking Cybertron out of its orbit. Optimus Prime headed up a special mission to save Cybertron from its certain destruction. Other brave Autobot heroes agreed to join him.

The Autobots save Cybertron, but at a great cost—the evil Decepticons ambushed them, forcing Optimus Prime to crash the Autobot ship into the distant planet of Earth! Four million years later, a volcanic eruption awakens the Autobots' ship, which sets about repairing the crew... and the Decepticons! Awakening first, the Decepticons attack the Autobot ship, but the Ark, the Autobot ship's computer, is smart enough to put up a force field. Weakened by a lack of fuel, the Decepticons retreat, allowing Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky to approach the mysterious craft.

Okay, this one is pretty badass too...

Bumblebee rolls out to meet them and brings the humans inside, where Sparkplug's mechanical know-how gets the Autobots up and rolling again. As the Witwickys ride home in Hound, they discover that the Decepticons beat them there... and drained the city's energy! Once they were done refueling, they were certain to come back and finish off the Autobots. The Autobots, actually using their vehicle disguises for once hid out in vehicle mode and waited for the Decepticons to strike. Sure enough, the Decepticons assaulted the empty Autobot ship, finding themselves thoroughly thwarted by its defenses. Flanking around, the Decepticons strike in two waves. The first wave is easily dispatched by the disguised Autobots, but the second wave is much tougher. A null-ray blast from Starscream disables Optimus Prime and starts a panic amongst the Autobot forces. Luckily, Sparkplug repairs Prime, and the reinvigorated Autobots drive the Decepticons away.

Laughter, smiles, credits.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Unidentified Autobot warriors (1-3) Optimus Prime (7) Mirage (in shadow) (8) Bumblebee (9) Gears (in shadow) (10) Hound? (in shadow) (11) Wheeljack (in shadow) (12) Jazz (13) Ironhide? (in shadow) (14) Prowl (in shadow) (15) Unidentified Autobot soldier (19) Sideswipe (31) Huffer (32) Brawn (33) Cliffjumper(34) Ratchet (35) Sunstreaker (36) Bluestreak (37)	Unidentified Tetrajet Seekers (4-6) Starscream (20) Thundercracker (21) Skywarp (22) Unidentified Seekers (23-24) Rumble or Frenzy (25) Soundwave (28) Megatron (29) Frenzy or Rumble (30)	Sparkplug Witwicky (26) Spike Witwicky (27)	Some dinosaurs (16-18)

Notes

Hold me closer, tiny Volkswagen.

• For a book called Battle for Cybertron they sure do leave Cybertron before it's halfway over.
• The unidentified Autobot troops at the beginning resemble Bumblebee's Cybertronian mode, but can fly in space.
• Bumblebee is a downright scrawny Beetle - he barely comes up to Sparkplug's chest!
• In fact, with the exception of Optimus, ALL the Autobots are pretty scrawny- they're all roughly the same size as the humans in ROBOT MODE!
• The trademark Earl Norem "headlight eyeballs" only show up once, as Bumblebee meets the Witwickys.
• Bumblebee is a "code name."
• Sparkplug is a total badass in this one. It's him, not Spike, that decides to investigate the Autobot ship, and then he performs repairs on Optimus Prime in the MIDDLE OF COMBAT.
• Sparkplug is a goddamned genius, too. Not only does he help repair the entire Autobot force and save Optimus Prime, he teaches the Autobots about geothermal energy (they ARE sitting on top of a volcano, you know.)
• Spike and Sparkplug live in the city of Kimball. There are a half-dozen Kimballs in the United States, none of which are larger than a couple-thousand people, and certainly not large enough to have their own nuclear power facility.
• Soundwave reads the brain of the Autobot ship - and it laughs at him.
• Did we mention that "The Ark" is the name of the Autobot ship's computer? And it's got a personality? It even says "phew" at one point.
• There are dozens of Seekers in this one.
• The ship's collision into Earth sends the dinosaurs running about 61 million years after they became extinct.

External links

• Battle for Cybertron at Steve-o's Transformers Site