State Games
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 The golden age before the golden age. | |||||||||||||
| "State Games" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | September 1986 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | James Hill | ||||||||||||
| Art | John Stokes[1] | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Sheila Cranna[1] | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK) | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Immediately pre-Great War | ||||||||||||
The War begins...
Synopsis
The Games are an inter-city competition created by the Autobot Overlord to facilitate goodwill between the various city-states such as Iacon, Tarn and Vos. Tensions have been rising on Cybertron as new Transformer life is created unabated, putting increased pressure on the planet's resources.
Megatron, a citizen of Tarn, is a successful but particularly vicious athlete. Optimus Prime is very much his equal, and the two share a somewhat acrimonious sporting rivalry.
The Games are being held in Tarn. The Vos athletic team breaks into Tarn's power generator with the purpose of planting a bomb, destroying Tarn, while at the same time leaving evidence to suggest that it was Iacon who was responsible. The resulting war would decimate Tarn and Iacon, leaving Vos (ruled by a criminal syndicate headed by Starscream) the most powerful city on Cybertron. However, the team are caught in the process. The bomb still goes off, but not before Vos's guilt becomes known. Tarn is instantly nearly completely destroyed and the war between Vos and Tarn begins.
The commencement of hostilities traps the athletes and the Autobot Overlord in what was now the frontline of an inter-city war. The Autobot Overlord is ancient and frail, and requires frequent care. Megatron and Optimus Prime accompany the Overlord's two bodyguards, Ravage and Nightstalker in attempting to return the Overlord to Iacon through the battlefield. However, the fighting becomes too intense, and Optimus Prime leaves the other three with the Overlord to go to Iacon alone to gather reinforcements. While Prime is away, Nightstalker sacrifices himself in a suicide explosion leaving only Ravage and Megatron to stand guard. Megatron, seeing that Cybertron was about to go through a major political change, leaves the Overlord to die, with Ravage following suit.
When the war between Vos and Tarn finishes, Megatron convinces the survivors to unite as a new faction, the Decepticons, against Iacon, who Megatron is convinced could have intervened to prevent the war.
Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
Continuity notes
- Optimus Prime is but a successful Iaconian athlete in this story.
- The Autobot Overlord is the last of his line, with influence but little real power since the Overlords' "planet-wide autocracy" gave way to the city-states in the wake of an energy crisis caused by a continuing birth rate combined with a plummeting death-rate.
- Emirate Xaaron and High Councilor Tomaandi appear to be Iacon politicians, with General Traachon being the leader of the Iacon military.
- This story tells us how Megatron originally came across his fusion cannon, but see Errors below.
- Shockwave and Starscream are mentioned as leaders of Tarn and Vos, respectively.
- This story precedes "And There Shall Come...a Leader!" chronologically and retcons that story's stance that Megatron and Prime did not know each other before the war.
Transformers references
- The "spark" for the gladiatorial setting came from Optimus Prime and Megatron's fight on Sherman Dam in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2".[2]
Real-world references
- The terrorist attack on the Games was a reference to the events surrounding the 1972 Munich Olympics.[2]
Errors
- While Megatron comes by his fusion cannon in the course of the story, the last illustration with Megatron and Ravage looking at the dying Overlord (above left) is after that point, and so he should be wearing it.
Trivia
- This story is prefaced with the title "A Tale from Cybertron".
- The State Games are mentioned by Alpha Trion in Transformers: Exodus as being an annual event held in Tarn during Cybertron's Golden Age.
- This is one of the more influential stories in the comics. The concept of the Decepticons having their origins in gladiatorial games and of political tensions in a declining Cybertron were visited again in both the Dreamwave and IDW G1 continuities and in the Aligned continuity family. IDW's The Transformers: Megatron Origin is in many ways a retelling of "State Games", using combat games (albeit illegal), economic depression and anger towards the politics of Iacon as major plot points.
- James Hill pitched an adaptation of "State Games" as a comic to IDW Publishing in 2007. The pitch is included in The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2.
Covers (2)
-
Transformers Annual 1987 -
The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2
- Transformers Annual 1987 cover: Prime and other early Transformers, by Barry Kitson.
- The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 cover: Centurion, Professor Morris and his neural relay link, Soundwave, Shockwave, Megatron, Buster's battlesuit, the Overlord and Nightstalker, by Andrew Wildman.
