Survivors!

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This article is about the comic story. For the subgroup in the story, see Survivors.
« The Transformers (UK) #219–222 »
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Carnivac > Transmetal Waspinator
"Survivors!"
Publisher Marvel Comics
Cover date 27th May - 17th June 1989
Writer Simon Furman
Art Dan Reed (#219-220)
John Stokes (#221-222)
Letterer Glib
Continuity Marvel Comics continuity

Skids returns from Limbo... with some friends in tow.

Synopsis

Skids has returned from Limbo, but he's not alone—the mind-leeches that infest the Limbo dimension have fashioned his nightmares into a reality, and that reality has followed him back to Earth in the form of monstrous creatures. The monsters taunt him, inviting him to join with them, but Skids vows to destroy them. To that end, he breaks into the Hudden Nuclear Power Plant in California.

Elsewhere, Springer, Inferno, and Broadside—the last survivors of the decimated Wreckers—are getting the runaround from their superiors on Cybertron. Feeling frustrated, they're eager to join forces with their one-time brothers in arms Carnivac and Catilla, when the two Decepticons drop by for a chat. The pair explain how they got their new Pretender shells; Snarler shows up about that point, not at all sanguine about the proposed alliance. A human radio call for help provides a convenient out for the Autobots; Springer and company head out, while Carnivac discusses matters with Snarler. The choice is simple, Snarler tells him: kill the Autobots, or face a charge of fraternizing with the enemy.

Springer and company head into the power plant, where Skids is psyching himself up to blow up the reactor—the creatures are a part of him and if he kills himself, they'll die too! But the Autobots prevent him, noting that if he does that he'll kill many of the same humans he wants to save. That's when the creatures attack. The Autobots can't shoot, for risk of setting off the reactor, and are rapidly trounced, while the lead beast tries to taunt Skids (who can't bring himself to commit suicide in the crunch) into joining their cause, reminding him they were born out of his limbo dreams of brutish destruction and murder. In desperate need of help, Springer puts a call in to Carnivac.

Carnivac, with Snarler staring him down, hesitantly refuses to come help. Snarler is satisfied—leaving the enemy to die is enough. But Carnivac can't suppress his warrior's honor, and changes his mind. Catilla's happy to join as well. As they head off, Snarler vows that he'll be the first to sign up for the execution squad.

The two Decepticons make a dramatic entrance into the battle, and quickly turn the tables against the monsters. One of the creatures confesses to Skids before trying to bump him off—they can survive without him, and vice versa. Angry at being played for a fool, Skids joins the others in a short, swift fight to destroy the creatures.

Afterwards, Carnivac is ready to head out, as the Decepticons will surely be coming after them. But Springer says they're all in it together, and offers them a place on the team. Catilla accepts the offer to become an Honorary Autobot; Carnivac also joins, but on his own terms, as a Decepticon. The Wreckers, Skids, and former Mayhems are now... the Survivors!

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

  • Skids is drawn with Crosscut's head and face throughout. Unfortunately, this means he looks like a completely different dude, and he can't really emote all that much.
  • In Simon Colby's cover the remains of the nightmare creature bears no resemblance to the much more organic, animalistic creatures drawn by Dan Reed and John Stokes in the strip itself.

Colored reprints

Continuity errors

  • The surviving Wreckers were hanging around the same battlesite as the Earth Autobots after "Time Wars". Why didn't they go hang out with the Ark instead of hiding on Earth? The ex-Mayhems easily fell in with their Earth-based chums.
  • Skids tells the Wreckers that he thinks he has to die to stop the monsters at the end of Part 2. When Part 3 starts, the Wreckers are yelling about the need to kill the monsters to save Skids and encouraging their pal to join in!

Continuity notes

  • The Survivors storyline would eventually tie into the alternate continuity of the Earthforce storyline. It's not clear where one draws the line between the main storyline and this portion of the Earthforce branch.
  • This was originally meant to be a 2-parter, but the change in format in #213 led to it being hacked into four parts.
  • Skids vanished into Limbo when Galvatron time-jumped from the future—waaaay back in "Fallen Angel", 120 issues earlier.
  • The ex-Wreckers and Mayhems are pretty sure their trouncing in the Time War has made them embarrassing to Cybertron and that's why they're still stuck on Earth. A footnote caption refers to this as "a somewhat paranoid assumption" but no alternative is ever given.
  • Carnivac, Snarler and Catilla were granted their shells by Scorponok in exchange for running a mission for him—namely, to kill Fortress Maximus's human partner, Spike Witwicky, in "The Man in the Machine!" As Catilla didn't appear in that US story, it's explained here that he "just monitored", with no further elaboration. In a nice little detail, Springer is suspicious what sort of job Carnivac was doing and the Decepticon, rather than tell him it was a failed assassination, gives him a half-truth by saying "no-one got hurt"!
  • It's not really clear where Snarler came from. He could be a reserve member of the Mayhems, a previously unseen member of Scorponok's crew, or a recent arrival from Cybertron, but there's no direct evidence to support any of these ideas.
  • Nicholson says the plant's staff have been "slaughtered", a low key sign of exactly why Skids is so freaked out by the creatures. There's no staff on-panel or likely to be anywhere Skids was going, after all, which means the limbo beasts went looking for victims mid-attack!
  • In "Distant Thunder!", to promote aggression the limbo creatures just made the Transformers hallucinate a war very similar to their own. Skids was evidently a lot easier to twist: the captions in Part 3 refer to "nightmares" but both Skids and the lead creature were quite enjoying a nasty power-fantasy dream.

Real-life references

Other trivia

Back-up material

Issue #219

Issue #220

  • Additional Transformers story: "Recipe for Disaster!"
  • Back-up strips: Action Force - "Divergent Paths" and Combat Colin
  • AtoZ: Omega Supreme
  • Classic Covers Calendar: May #136
  • The Calendar was a month too late having been switched with June in #216. The Combat Colin strip explains that this was due to Professor Madprof.

Issue #221

Issue #222

  • Reprint Transformers story: "Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!"
  • Back-up strips: Action Force - "Divergent Paths" and Combat Colin
  • AtoZ: Perceptor and Pipes

Covers (5)

  • Issue #219 - Skids auditions for Japanese tentacle porn.
    Issue #219 - Skids auditions for Japanese tentacle porn.
  • Issue #220 - Cloudburst, you're a pain in the neck.
    Issue #220 - Cloudburst, you're a pain in the neck.
  • Issue #221 - Aw crap, now we have to deal with Death's Head too?
    Issue #221 - Aw crap, now we have to deal with Death's Head too?
  • Issue #222 - That can't be tasty.
    Issue #222 - That can't be tasty.
  • Way of the Warrior
    Way of the Warrior
  • Issue #219 cover: Skids and monsters, by John Stokes.
  • Issue #220 cover: First One holding Cloudburst's severed head, by John Stokes.
  • Issue #221 cover: Springer, Skids and Death's Head, by Jeff Anderson.
  • Issue #222 cover: Carnivac and Springer stand victorious over a Limbo nightmare creature, by Simon Coleby.
  • Way of the Warrior cover: Detail from issue #222 cover.

Reprints

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