The Last Stand

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This article is about the comic issue in the Marvel US Comics. For the Titan Books collection, see Transformers: Last Stand.
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« The Transformers (UK) #7–8 »

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's... oh. It actually is a plane.
"The Last Stand"
Publisher Marvel Comics
First published December 4, 1984
Cover date March 1985
Writer Jim Salicrup
Pencils Frank Springer
Inks Ian Akin, Brian Garvey
Colors Nelson Yomtov
Letters John Workman
Editor Bob Budiansky
Continuity Marvel Comics continuity

The Autobots make a desperate gamble to defeat the Decepticons.

Synopsis

Some of the Autobots accuse Sparkplug Witwicky of betraying them by giving the Decepticons the fuel conversion they needed. Panicked, Sparkplug and his son attempt to escape, but when Jazz blocks their path with a wall of flame, Sparkplug suffers a heart attack. He is rushed to the hospital by Ratchet and Buster.

Huffer tells Optimus Prime about a discovery he made in the Ark's memory banks: Just after the ship crashed, its barely functional computers detected the Decepticon Shockwave arriving on Earth in pursuit. With the last of its power, the Ark modified five Autobot warriors to combat him, thus creating the Dinobots. They traveled in a shuttle to the Savage Land to confront Shockwave, at which point contact was lost. Huffer has Ratchet dispatch a probe to search for the lost Dinobots.

At the hospital, Sparkplug undergoes emergency treatment and dreams of his Army service in Korea, where he was forced to repair North Korean vehicles. He further recalls sabotaging those vehicles...

With no new fuel sources forthcoming, the remaining Autobots are forced to make a desperate gamble to fight the Decepticons one last time. All the Autobots sacrifice their remaining fuel resources to Optimus Prime, Huffer, Ironhide, Bluestreak, and Mirage. These five prepare to fight the Decepticons within the volcano that the Ark has crashed into, as the Decepticons arrive to destroy the Autobots once and for all.

In the Savage Land, Huffer's probe has found something and starts to dig it out—until a giant purple hand crushes it...

Although the Decepticons begin to win the battle by virtue of their greater numbers, at the moment of apparent victory, the Decepticons all fall, writhing in internal agony. As he reveals to Buster at the hospital, Sparkplug had corrupted the fuel he provided to the Decepticons, and they are now poisoned. Optimus Prime proclaims the debt that they, and the entire world, owe to Sparkplug Witwicky.

But suddenly, a gigantic blast from above knocks out all the Autobot troops... and Shockwave stands supreme!

"NOT the end..."

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"What's eating you, O? This robot stuff is great for business! The place is packed with reporters and worried townsfolk! With this costume, I might wind up in People Magazine!"
"That's great! If they start shooting nukes at us, you'll really clean up, huh?"

— Mr. O and his son "O" aren't seeing eye-to-eye on the Transformers' invasion


"Is your father still functioning?"
"I hope your father can be repaired!"

— Optimus Prime is still struggling with organic biology


"Go ahead, little ones, do your worst!"
"Fire! Let 'im have it!"
[The Army opens fire for 15 minutes; Megatron is undamaged]
"HA!"

— a fully-fueled Megatron is not even scratched by the U.S. Army's might


"Starscream, I'm afraid I've heard... enough! Let those who defy Megatron taste the power of my fusion canon!"
"Add Starscream to the damage report!"

— Megatron blasts Starscream out the door. The Decepticon medic takes it in stride.


"At last! Victory is within my grasp! Soon that self-righteous Autobot will be nothing but scrap! He's had this coming for centuries! He will learn that no one can defy Megatron! ...Isn't that right, Starscream?"
"Yes, great Megatron!"

— Megatron rants... and makes sure Starscream knows his place in the pecking order.


"After four million Earth years I have accomplished my mission -- the Autobots are no more!"

— Shockwave makes his debut

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

  • Cover: Megatron is colored mostly brown.
  • Page 1: Brawn is colored red and blue instead of green and yellow. Several generic Autobots are seen in the second inset panel.
  • Page 2:
    • Panel 1: Windcharger is colored with a red chest and head and blue arms, instead of gray torso and red arms. Standing behind Huffer is an off-colour version of Jetfire's original character model (based on the Macross Valkyrie toy)
    • Panel 2: Ratchet's face and chevron are colored red instead of their usual grey/white.
    • Panel 4: Why does Ironhide have yellow accordion knees?
  • Page 3:
    • Panel 2: Mirage is colored with red arms and a white head. Jazz (seen holding back Ironhide) is colored mostly blue with red legs, instead of mostly white with black details.
    • Panel 5: Jazz fires what's supposed to be his flamethrower, but is in actuality his photon rifle.
  • Page 5: Ratchet has an all-red head again and red legs. (Again, the consistency of this indicates that it might be an earlier color scheme.) Optimus is barely as tall as Ratchet's ambulance mode.
  • Page 9: If that's supposed to be Frenzy on one of the repair beds, he's completely off-model.
  • Megatron has an off-center Decepticon sigil throughout the issue.
  • Page 13: Bumblebee is colored approximately like Sideswipe.
  • Page 21: Mirage magically has his left arm again, after it was bitten off by Ravage; whatever damage was done to his chest/head by Buzzsaw has likewise vanished.
  • Page 22: Bluestreak's left door/wing is missing.

Continuity errors

  • Issue #1 noted that the Ark's probe was totally unaware of Earth's organic life. Here, the Ark has no trouble scanning the organic dinosaurs of the Savage Land to give new alternate forms to the Dinobots.
  • Wheeljack, Trailbreaker, Prowl and Jazz are all shown to be up and about in this issue, yet they are not shown among the donor Autobots in the Tubes of Transference.
  • A major plot point is that the fuel-starved Autobots pool their resources to empower five, and only five, Autobots. Thus, after the Tubes of Transference scene on page 13, only Optimus, Huffer, Bluestreak, Ironhide and Mirage should appear. A variety of art errors make it clear that artist Frank Springer didn't get the memo:
    • Page 14: Brawn is shown among the active Autobots.
    • Page 16: There's Brawn again! And Windcharger!
    • Page 18:
      • Panel 5: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are both shown among the Autobots; there's a generic lying on the ground.
      • Panel 6: Cliffjumper is among the Autobots.
    • Page 21: There's Sunstreaker again!
    • Page 22: And Windcharger, colored like Mirage.
  • Less explicitly called out is that the Decepticon ranks are thinned as well. The damage roll call only a few pages before the final battle leaves only Megatron, Starscream, Thundercracker, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw and Ravage up and operating. Again, several Decepticons who are in repair bay show up in the final fight:
    • Frenzy and Rumble are shown as active despite page 9 stating they had been knocked out of action last issue. The next issue reinforces their injury status.
    • Page 18, Panel 6: Skywarp, Rumble and Soundwave are among the Decepticons charging, despite being reported as out of action nine pages earlier. A total of nine Decepticons are shown.
    • Page 19, Panel 3: Skywarp is shown again despite being off action. Either that or the Seeker is a miscoloured Thundercracker.
    • Page 20: Frenzy and Rumble are once again present.
  • And finally, the first issue of the series made it very clear that there were 18 Autobots and 10 Decepticons on Earth - no more, no less. Shockwave even explicitly says that there are eleven (including himself) Decepticons in the next issue. Despite this, the ranks of both sides start swelling up with generic background troops:
    • Page 9: A bunch of vaguely Reflector-like robots are suddenly hanging around in the Decepticon fortress.
    • Page 18, Panel 5: There's a generic lying on the ground among the Autobots.
    • Page 19, Panel 6: Who're those generic guys on the ground next to Optimus?
    • Page 20: A generic Decepticon can be seen between Megatron's legs.
    • Page 18, Panel 6: A total of nine Decepticons are shown charging (and none of them are the cassettes, making a total of 12); there should be only six.
    • Page 21: Several generic Decepticons are among the fallen Decepticons; ten troops are shown, with Laserbeak and Ravage missing.

Continuity notes

  • Buzzsaw ripping Mirage a new one begins a series of battles in which Buzzsaw utterly obliterates everyone. He will continue this massacre until his death in "Dark Star".

Real-life references

  • The narrative box makes a quick reference to the World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front: "Meanwhile, all's quiet on the Decepticon front..."
  • Sparkplug has more Korea flashbacks, including a mission to reach the 4067th M.A.S.H. unit. The number of the unit is suspiciously close to the 4077th featured in the popular movie M*A*S*H and its subsequent spin-off TV show, which concluded its lengthy run the year before this issue was published.
  • The action remains in rural Oregon and the unnamed city of Portland, apart from the flashback to the Dinobots' adventures in Antarctica.

UK printing

  • An alternate ending was scripted and drawn for a UK reprint of issue #4 in Transformers: The Complete Works Part 2; in this version, Shockwave never strikes, and the series ends with Optimus Prime declaring the Decepticons defeated once and for all. Some have theorized that this ending was created by the US comics in case the series failed to progress past issue #4. However, the art on these panels, particularly a closeup of Optimus Prime's face in the very final panel, is markedly different from Frank Springer's other work in the issue, so it seems much more likely that this version was simply drawn for the UK printing by one of their own artists. Also the stylized corners of the text balloons in the final two panels are drawn slightly differently from the rest of the issue (with straight lines forming the "stars," unlike the other text balloons in which the edges of the "stars" in the corners are slightly curved).

Issue #7:

Issue #8:

  • Backup strips: Machine Man - "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" Part 1 and Matt and the Cat
  • Fact File: Ravage

Trivia

  • Advertised as part 4 in a four-issue limited series, but the ending and letter column, which itself debuted in this issue, both make clear that issue #5 of what was now an ongoing was forthcoming.
  • According to a text box in the letter column, Transformers #5 was originally going to be drawn by the team of "Vince Giarrano, penciling superstar-in-the-making" and "Brad Joyce, inker extraordinare". This did not come to pass, and, while Joyce did eventually ink issue #10, Giarrano would never work on the series.
  • A second alternate ending was published in the Federal Comics Super Special edition. It expands the second panel of the penultimate page (or, the second panel from the link within the previous note) into a final splash page, eliminating the other panels entirely. Additionally, any page that mentioned the Shockwave subplot was dropped.

Bot Roster

  • Autobots: 1 active; 17 offline.
  • Decepticons: 1 active, as Shockwave arrives on the scene; 10 offline.

Covers (13)

  • US issue #4 - Rare Brown Megatron appears!
    US issue #4 - Rare Brown Megatron appears!
  • UK issue #7 - Megatron isn't even allowed on the UK cover
    UK issue #7 - Megatron isn't even allowed on the UK cover
  • UK issue #8 - Megatron took first in the Prime Press contest
    UK issue #8 - Megatron took first in the Prime Press contest
  • Collected Comics #2 - Megatron is allowed on this UK cover
    Collected Comics #2 - Megatron is allowed on this UK cover
  • Collected Comics (US) #2 - Will All Be Dead Soon
    Collected Comics (US) #2 - Will All Be Dead Soon
  • Die Transformer #3
    Die Transformer #3
  • The Transformers Comics Magazine #2
    The Transformers Comics Magazine #2
  • The Complete Works Part 2
    The Complete Works Part 2
  • Beginnings TPB
    Beginnings TPB
  • Beginnings hardback
    Beginnings hardback
  • Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron
    Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron
  • Classic Transformers Volume 1
    Classic Transformers Volume 1
  • The Transformers Classics, Vol 1
    The Transformers Classics, Vol 1

Advertisements

  • Monogram GoBots motorized model kits (inside front cover)
  • Fig Newtons and Apple Newtons (pg 5)
  • Star Comics (pg 7)
  • Mile High Comics (pg 10)
  • Mile High Comics (pg 12)
  • Power Pack and The Amazing Spider-Man with tips on ways to prevent sexual abuse (pg 21)
  • Calender of upcoming events & Marvel Mart (pg 23)
  • Block of various Sketchy Things (pg 26)
  • Bullpen Bulletins (pg 28)
  • Swords of the Swashbucklers (pg 31, below Trans-Missions)
  • Comic subscriptions (pg 32)
  • Indiana Jones RPG by TSR (rear inside cover)
  • Risk (rear cover)

Reprints

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