The Last Stand

From MediaWiki
Revision as of 18:23, 12 November 2017 by Chris McFeely (talk | contribs) (→Reprints)
Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the comic issue in the Marvel US Comics. For the Titan Books collection, see Transformers: Last Stand.
« The Transformers (US) #4 »
« 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..."

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(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

Continuity notes

  • The existence of Shockwave was alluded to in issue #1, when Megatron observed that "one of the Decepticons' mightiest" was missing.

Alternate endings

Two reprints of this issue (see below) have featured an alternate ending to the story, to prevent the mini-series from ending on a cliffhanger.

  • The first alternate ending (pictured at right) appeared in Marvel UK's Transformers: The Complete Works Part 2, in which the final panel of the penultimate page (in which Shockwave strikes) is removed and replaced with two panels of Optimus Prime declaring the Decepticons defeated once and for all. There has been some argument over the origin of this ending, with some claiming it was created by Marvel US in case the series failed to progress past issue #4. However, the art on the new 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).
  • The second alternate ending appeared in the Australian Federal Super Special, released by Federal Publishing Company as part of a promotion with Peters Ice Cream. This reprint of the issue cuts out all of the material dealing with Shockwave and the Dinobots, and expands the second panel of the penultimate page into a final full-page image, eliminating the other panels entirely.

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.

Continuity and plotting errors

  • Issue #1 noted that the Ark's probe was totally unaware of Earth's organic life, yet here, it is established that, millions of years prior, it had 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, both incorrectly colored blue and white, no less; 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.

Artwork and technical errors

  • Cover: Megatron is colored mostly brown.
  • Page 1: Brawn is colored red and blue like Gears. Several generic Autobots are seen in the second inset panel.
  • Page 2:
    • Panel 1: Windcharger is also colored like Gears. Standing behind Huffer is red-and-blue version of Jetfire's original character model (based on the Macross Valkyrie toy) which would never actually be used for the character in the comic.
    • Panel 2: Ratchet continues to be colored in his unusual early color scheme through this issue, but here, his face is also colored red in addition to his arms and forehead crest.
    • 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: When Jazz unleashes his flamethrower, the art depicts him using his hand-held photon rifle, instead of the shoulder-mounted weapon described in his bio (based on the missile launcher his toy comes with). This weapon wasn't part of his finalized character model, explaining the artist's confusion.
  • 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, resulting from a misinterpretation of his character model.
  • 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.

UK printing

Issue #7:

Issue #8:

  • Back-up strips: Machine Man - "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" part 1 and Matt and the Cat
  • Fact File: Ravage
  • January calendar: Optimus Prime

Trivia

Bot Roster

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

Covers

  • US issue #4 cover: the final battle, by Mark Texeira.
  • UK issue #7 cover: reuse of art from US issue #4's cover.
  • UK issue #8 cover: Megatron holds the defeated Optimus Prime overhead, by Barry Kitson.
  • 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

Reprints

  • Collected Comics (UK) #2 (Marvel UK, 1985)
    Collected Comics (UK) #2 (Marvel UK, 1985)
  • Collected Comics (US) #2 (Marvel US, 1985)
    Collected Comics (US) #2 (Marvel US, 1985)
  • Federal Super Special (Federal Publishing Company, 1985)
    Federal Super Special (Federal Publishing Company, 1985)
  • Die Transformer #3 (Condor Verlag, 1986)
    Die Transformer #3 (Condor Verlag, 1986)
  • The Transformers Comics Magazine #2 (Marvel US, 1987)
    The Transformers Comics Magazine #2 (Marvel US, 1987)
  • The Complete Works Part 2 (Marvel UK, 1987)
    The Complete Works Part 2 (Marvel UK, 1987)
  • Beginnings paperback (Titan Books, 2003)
    Beginnings paperback (Titan Books, 2003)
  • Beginnings hardback (Titan Books, 2003)
    Beginnings hardback (Titan Books, 2003)
  • Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron (IDW Publishing, 2007)
    Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron (IDW Publishing, 2007)
  • Classic Transformers Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2008)
    Classic Transformers Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2008)
  • The Transformers Classics, Vol 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)
    The Transformers Classics, Vol 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)
  • The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 1 (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017)
    The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 1 (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017)

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)
Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.duckdns.org/index.php?title=The_Last_Stand&oldid=1221486"