The Desert Island of Space!
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 He's a bad mother... SHUT YOUR MOUTH. | |||||||||||||
| "The Desert Island of Space!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | December 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | April 1988 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Bob Budiansky | ||||||||||||
| Penciler | José Delbo | ||||||||||||
| Inker | Dave Hunt | ||||||||||||
| Colorist | Nel Yomtov | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Bill Oakley | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Don Daley | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
Acapulco was never like this...
Synopsis
As Buster Witwicky slowly comes to, he quickly realizes he is far from home. The giant Decepticon robots looming over him are a good clue, as is the desert island locale. Shockwave and Ratbat debate the fuel-efficiency merits of keeping the young human alive, with Shockwave defending his position by pointing to the human naval fleet just off the coast of their new island base. He correctly believes that Buster will serve as an effective human shield against any reprisal by Triple-I or the military. As Forrest Forsythe and Walter Barnett find themselves stymied by the Decepticons, Walter calls home to Oregon to alert Sparkplug Witwicky of his son's fate.
At that very moment, Spike has come to his father's motel room to inform him that he's going to search for Buster. As Barnett's call comes through, Spike surprises his father by "tracing the call" just by holding the phone wire in his hands. He's forced then to reveal his new status as an Autobot Headmaster, and takes his father outside to introduce him to his new partner, Fortress Maximus, and the Targetmaster troops currently under his command. As Spike is doing the introductions, though, there is dissension in the ranks, especially with Kup, who disapproves of their overly-sentimental new leader.
As the Autobot turbo-transport arrives at the island, Kup insists Fortress Maximus remain behind and provide covering fire for the Targetmasters, lest his sentiment interfere directly with the mission. Kup should have been more worried about the island itself interfering, though, as massive cannons and blaster-weapons pop out of the sand and began unloading on the Autobots. Kup and his men are driven back into the water as the island's impenetrable dome forms above the sand, revealing its true form as a giant spacecraft.
In order to save his brother, Spike combines with Fortress Maximus and leaps onto the island craft as it begins shooting out of Earth's atmosphere. As the Decepticons inside detect his presence, Shockwave triggers an elaborate defensive mechanism that flips Fortress Maximus off the side of the rocket and directly in line with a palm tree that spears him with a missile. Damaged, Cerebros splits off from his larger partner, only to be forced into combat with Shockwave himself, who has left the rocket to defend his precious logic from the illogical actions of the Autobot. A blast from Shockwave's gun mode cripples Cerebros, and Spike is forced to separate off once more, leaving himself very vulnerable. However, he manages to remotely line-up Max's guns to target Shockwave, blasting him back into Earth's gravitational pull, where the Decepticon begins to burn up in re-entry.
Spike has a brief moment of reunion with Buster through the island's transparent casing before Ratbat fires the rockets and takes the ship far beyond Spike's meager propulsion capabilities. As he and his components are picked up by the Targetmasters' transport, Spike laments the loss of his brother. Despite that, his take-charge attitude and success against Shockwave earned him the respect of his fellow Autobots, and Kup officially welcomes Spike onto the team.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Nebulans |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Raw fish?! Do you Decepticons expect me to eat that?! I hate sushi!"
"In that case, fleshling... allow me to make amends." [ZZZZAP!] Here. I hope you like your fuel poached."
- - Buster and Shockwave
Notes
Artwork and technical errors
- In the scene where many Decepticons are seen in the control room one of them is clearly either Frenzy or Rumble. (Like all the non-speaking Decepticons in that scene he's block coloured so it's not possible to identify which, although the block colour is blue.) However both Decepticons have been in cold storage in the Ark since "Command Performances!" in issue #19 and won't be released until "Totaled!" in issue #41.
- Fort Max apparently makes a flying leap to catch onto the Decepticon ship... but the art makes it look rather like he's just plain flying.
Continuity errors
- Forsythe and Barnett incorrectly identify their former Autobot captives as numbering seven total, not six.
- Fort Max signals the transport craft to leave the Steelhaven and come and leave to pick up the Targetmasters - so how'd they get down to Earth in the first place?
- The entire island - a huge ship loaded with dozens of Decepticons - was being held back by Fortress Maximus's weight alone?
- Why wasn't Buster sucked out through the top of the island when it opened up to fire the palm tree?
- If Ratbat is so concerned about energy usage, why is he always hovering?
Continuity notes
- Barnett catches us up on what's happened with the Throttlebots since issue #37 - the Predacons broke off their hunt, allowing him to collect the scattered 'bots and escape.
- Sparkplug gives us a timeframe for recent events - #37 and #38 all happened "this week".
- Spike's trick with the phone makes it clear that binary-bonding bestows Headmaster partners with more than just transforming ability.
- Kup mentions a battle on Deneb IV.
- Cerebros has rockets in his feet.
- In the US comic, Shockwave is supposedly destroyed, and indeed believed dead for years until he eventually turns up again in US issue #65.
- Though it's glossed over, one can assume the Autobots stopped off at the naval fleet and collected the Throttlebots from Barnett and Triple-I some time after this issue, as the robots were back with the Autobots by the Underbase Saga.
Real-life references
- The story is set in the Caribbean Sea with an interlude in Portland.
UK printing
- The UK version corrects the number of Transformers Triple-I captured to six and the number of Throttlebots Barnett brings with him back down to five... except for the fifth panel on page 7 which is untouched and retains the US error. Whoops.
- It also corrects Spike calling Galen a "Human" during his explanation to Sparkplug.
- It also changes Spike's explanation from stating that he bonded with "Galen's Autobot body" to "Fort's Autobot body", which is arguably an unnecessary correction, since the body of Fortress Maximus is the same thing as the Autobot body of Galen.
- The cameo by Frenzy or Rumble is not an error in the UK continuity as Frenzy escaped the Ark in "Target: 2006" in issue #83 and had since returned to the main Decepticon forces, as shown in "Resurrection!" in issue #104.
- In the UK version, Shockwave's supposed demise was edited into the more benign-sounding fate of merely falling to Earth, to allow his continued use in UK only stories such as in very next issue. Specifically, Shockwave's line "Its gravity is pulling me down... into the atmosphere... where it is only logical... that I burn up..." was changed to the much less ironic "it is only logical... that I fall to earth..." A couple of Ratbat's lines have also been changed to reflect that Shockwave does not die, and these changes similarly drain the irony from his lines.
- All of these changes are sloppy, and look like they were penned in by a six-year-old.
Issue #158
- Back-up strips: Action Force - "Serpentor" and Combat Colin
- AtoZ: Hound and Huffer
- In Grim Grams, Grimlock attempts to clear up confusion over whether Fortress Maximus's original partner was Galen or Kord, and continually teases on the events in the upcoming issues #160 & 161.
Issue #159
- Back-up strips: Action Force - "Serpentor" and Combat Colin
- In Grim Grams, Grimlock accepts yet more praise for "The Legacy of Unicron!" and the last 50 issues.
Other trivia
- Fort Max gives us nearly two solid pages of toy-sellery as he explains himself and the Headmaster gimmick, and introdumps the Targetmasters.
Bot Roster
- Ark Autobots: 34 active, 6 bodyless Throttlebots, 11 in repair bay. (51 total)
- Steelhaven Autobots: 28 active.
- Ratbat's Decepticons: 32 active; 12 offline/missing as Shockwave falls to Earth. (44 total)
- Scorponok's Decepticons: 25 active.
Covers (7)
-
US issue #39 - Shaft. Tee hee. -
UK issue #158 - Ta da! -
UK issue #159 - "Lets copy the US cover but make it WORSE."
- US issue #39 cover: Fortress Maximus shafted, by José Delbo.
- UK issue #158 cover: Shockwave holding Buster, by Dan Reed.
- UK issue #159 cover: truly ugly copying of the US cover, by Will Simpson and David Elliott.
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Trial By Fire TPB -
Trial By Fire hardback -
Classic Transformers Volume 3 -
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 4
- Trial By Fire TPB cover: Fortress Maximus, Gort, Shockwave, and half of Skullgrin, by Andrew Wildman.
- Trial By Fire hardback cover: Scorponok, by John Watson.
- Classic Transformers Volume 3 cover: panels from US issues #35, #36 and #42. Art and pencils by José Delbo, pencils by Don Perlin, finishes by Dave Hunt & Don Hudson, inks by Ian Akin & Brian Garvey, colours by Nel Yomtov.
- The Transformers Classics, Vol. 4 cover: Starscream, by Guido Guidi.
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