Power Play!

	; Nuclear weapons are the right of all sentient beings, Prime!
	"Power Play!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	July 10, 1984
Cover date	November 1984
Plot	Bill Mantlo
Script	Jim Salicrup
Pencils	Frank Springer
Inks	Kim DeMulder
Colors	Nel Yomtov
Lettering	Janice Chiang
Editor	Bob Budiansky
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The Decepticons attack a nuclear power plant in an attempt to secure fuel. Meanwhile, Bumblebee makes contact with some humans.

Synopsis

In an effort to secure fuel sources and raw materials, the Decepticons attack a half-completed nuclear power plant. They walk off with stripped machine parts, leaving stunned humans in their wake.

Meanwhile, an injured Bumblebee has been taken to the garage of Sparkplug Witwicky by his son, Buster. After much pleading, Buster convinces his dad to fix the car, even though it's the middle of the night. Once repaired, Bumblebee transforms in front of the startled humans and enlists Buster's help to find fuel for the Autobots. As they drive back to the Ark, Bumblebee explains the war between the Transformers. Buster runs into his friends Jessie and "O", and explains that his car is from another planet (who knew?). They speculate with Bumblebee on the recent attack on the nuclear power plant, while Ravage, disguised as a cassette in "O"'s boom box, listens in on their conversation.

At the Ark, the Autobots are debating about whether they should just take the energy they need or offer humans Cybertronian technology in exchange. A distress signal from Bumblebee inspires Optimus Prime to lead an Autobot group to the Witwicky garage. Sparkplug agrees to help the Autobots convert human fuel sources into a form Transformers can use. However, the introductions between Prime and the humans are barely finished when the Decepticons attack.

The Autobots appear to gain the upper hand as a battle rages in Sparkplug's scrapyard, but Megatron arrives, makes short work of Bumblebee, and nabs Sparkplug. Optimus Prime forces the Decepticon leader to release the human. As he and Megatron throw car parts at each other, Starscream grabs Sparkplug and takes off. Their objective obtained, the rest of the Decepticons retreat. Buster begs the Autobots to follow and rescue his father, but the fuel-depleted bots fall to their knees, unable to even help themselves.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Cliffjumper (11) Prowl (12) Bumblebee (15) Ratchet (19) Sunstreaker (20) Optimus Prime (21) Jazz (22) Wheeljack (23) Windcharger (24) Ironhide (25) Mirage (26) Hound (27) Sideswipe (28) Brawn (31)	Soundwave (1) Megatron (2) Ravage (3) Frenzy (4) Starscream (5) Thundercracker (6) Buzzsaw (7) Skywarp (8) Laserbeak (9) Rumble (13)	Jason Boyd (10) Sparkplug Witwicky (14) Buster Witwicky (16) Jessie (17) "O" (18) Doris Roland (29) Mitchell Roland (30)

Quotes

The humans employ far better design standards on their machines than on themselves! What a backward world!

— Skywarp

"Is he healed?"
"Blast it, son! I'm a mechanic, not a doctor! All I did was fix a broken fuel line and tune up some parts! It wasn't easy! I've never seen a car quite like it, and I've—"
KLIK
"Huh?"
KLIK
"What the—? ...Oh, no! It's falling apart!"

Buster and Sparkplug meet Bumblebee

"Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want? And how'd you wind up in my garage?"
"I am code-named Bumblebee, I'm from the planet Cybertron, I'm in desperate need of fuel, and your son drove me here! Do all small, pink things ask so many questions?"

— Sparkplug and Bumblebee

Notes

Continuity notes

While introducing himself to the Witwickys, "Bumblebee" says that his name is a "code-name." The idea that the names we know the Transformers by are not their "real" names is something that would very occasionally be revisited in future Transformers media, but in Marvel continuity specifically, it will be reiterated just a few issues from now in the UK story "Man of Iron."
"O" and Jessie catch a song by Marvel superhero-slash-singing-sensation Dazzler on the radio. This is the first in a series of references to mainstream Marvel continuity that the mini-series would make, which were quietly ignored once the series became an ongoing as the Transformers universe was retconned into being its own thing, separate from the Marvel universe.

Real-life references

Sparkplug states that he's "a mechanic, not a doctor", an homage to Star Trek's Doctor McCoy.
"O" notes that the television show That's Incredible! has been cancelled. The show had indeed ended its original run in 1984.

Continuity and plotting errors

Jesse is spelled "Jessie" in this issue.
Megatron orders all five of his fliers into the air, while standing around and watching them go. So how does he get to the subsequent battle himself?

Artwork and technical errors

Continuing on from the precedent established last issue, finalized character models for a lot of the cast continued to be unavailable to artist Frank Springer at the time of this issues production, leading many characters to be drawn using early designs, or based directly on their toys. The toy interpretations get even looser this issue, as characters like Bumblebee and Windcharger have very rough, inconsistent head designs. At the other extreme, throughout the issue, Sunstreaker is drawn using Sideswipe's character model, with his own head and color scheme.

Page 3: The flashback to last issue preserves a coloring error from that story, as Soundwave is colored like Megatron.
Page 5: The portion of Harrison Nuclear Plant which Laserbeak attacks looks a lot like a steel mill, but not at all like a nuke plant.
Page 6:
- Panel 5: Starscream and Thundercracker are missing their wings as they transform in panel 5. This art is loosely copied later in the issue on page 18, and the error repeats there.
- Panel 6: Starscream is still missing his wings as he starts tearing the plant to pieces, and instead of his null rays, his jet mode missile-tanks are mounted on his arms.
Page 13:
- Panel 1: Optimus Prime appears to have goggles instead of standard optics.
- Panel 2: Jazz is colored like Hound.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker began sharing their body molds sooner than most believe.

Page 14: As the Autobots transform in a three-panel sequence, Prowl and Sunstreaker switch places in the middle panel.
Page 15: Ratchet is shown pulling up to Sparkplug's garage despite being left behind at the Ark.
Page 16: In pangel 7, Thundercracker and Skywarp's cockpit cowlings are colored entirely orange.
Page 17:
- Panel 5: Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's alternate modes are switched. That is to say, as you can see in the image at right, Sunstreaker's dialogue emanates from Sideswipe's vehicle mode, colored like Sunstreaker.
- Panel 7: Once transformed, the brothers are the correct colors, but Sideswipe's jet pack is represented by the rear-mounted engine found on Sunstreaker (or would be, if the pair were not both being drawn with Sideswipe's body). This might have something to the uncertainty as to which toy represented which character, which you can read more about here.
Page 21: The lower half of Prime's right leg is missing as he throws the engine block at Megatron.
Page 22: In panel 8, Jazz is colored like Hound again.

UK printing

Issue #3:

Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Byte of the Binary Bug" Part 3
Fact File: Hound
Free gift: Transformers Iron-On transfer

Issue #4:

Back-up strips: Machine Man - "Where Walks the Gods" Part 1
Fact File: Gears

Other trivia

Advertised as part 2 in a four-issue limited series.
Both the "next issue" box of the previous issue, and the September 1984 issue of The Comic Reader (#219) solicited this issue's story title as being "Hey Buddy, Can Ya Spare Some Fuel?"—something that evidently changed when Jim Salicrup took over as scripter from Ralph Macchio.
Megatron appears in the cover corner box for both this issue and issue #4, the only times in the U.S. run that a Decepticon was featured (although issue #80 featured a Decepticon sigil). 'Cons would get a little more love from the UK corner boxes.
During the entire battle at the Witwicky's house, Optimus Prime's trailer sits parked, frequently in view. This is in stark contrast to the more fantastical cartoon, where it would just roll off-screen and vanish.