Victory!

	; Megatron gets a splitting headache.
	"Victory!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	September 1986
Cover date	1986
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Geoff Senior
Colours	Gina Hart
Lettering	Annie Halfacree
Editor	Sheila Cranna
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The name or term "Victory" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Victory (disambiguation).

The Dinobots dream about dying in battle while in a coma-like state.

Synopsis

The Decepticons think they are victorious. All the Autobots are dead. Except one—Grimlock. He surprises Megatron and quickly dispatches him by slicing him in half with his sword. He then goes on to attack the other Decepticons, defeating all who stand before him. Except one—Starscream. He picks up Megatron's fusion cannon and interrupts Grimlock's victory celebrations by pleading for mercy. Grimlock lets his guard down and Starscream gets close enough to blast and fatally wound Grimlock, who sees his victory turn to defeat, and then to darkness.

Swoop attacks and carries off Soundwave in the middle of a battle. When Optimus Prime orders Swoop to release him, it only convinces the insubordinate Dinobot to instead fly off to display Soundwave in front of the other Decepticons. Unwilling to allow himself to be humiliated, Soundwave self-destructs and destroys Swoop in the process, a blast of fire and light descending instantly into darkness.

Sludge is running free through a swamp when he comes upon his human friend, Joy Meadows. Pleased to see her, Sludge stops, only for Joy to rip the flesh of her head away to reveal a robotic head that fatally blasts Sludge with eye beams. As he dies, he sees Megatron striding towards him with a remote control device for the robotic Joy. Then just darkness.

Snarl battles a Guardian droid and manages to decapitate it with his tail. Satisfied that he has defeated it, he turns away, unaware that the headless droid is still active and is surprised when he is attacked from behind and destroyed. Snarl doesn't see what hits him, only darkness.

Slag is charging towards Shockwave, who is standing on a cliff edge. He hits him and they both go flying over the edge. Shockwave crashes to the ground but Slag lands in a tar pit and sinks out of sight, into the darkness.

The scene cuts to the Ark's medical bay, where Ratchet reveals to Optimus Prime that the Dinobots have fully recovered physically from the damage they have sustained but for some reason they are not mentally active. They seem to be in a coma and are dreaming but just as their mental activity is about to reach the point that will wake them, it drops back down to a minimal state.

Optimus Prime tells Ratchet that he has to save the Dinobots, but Ratchet is unconvinced that he will be able to do anything. He thinks that a character flaw is preventing them from waking, and being unable to help them, the Dinobots must win this battle for themselves.

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Jazz (1) Grimlock (4) Optimus Prime (5) Swoop (9) Sludge (10) Snarl (13) Slag (15) Ratchet (16)	Megatron (2) Soundwave (3) Skywarp (6) Ravage (7) Starscream (8) Shockwave (14)	Joy Meadows (11)	Guardian (12)

Notes

Continuity notes

"Victory!" is the first UK annual story to directly tie in with the events of the regular weekly Transformers comic. It bridges the gap between issue #50, in which the damaged Dinobots were rounded up by the Autobots, and issue #65, in which they awoke from the comas this story depicts them in. That said, the annual wasn't actually published until about three months after issue #65.
Swoop's distaste for Optimus Prime and his reluctance to follow his orders was previously established in issue #46 of the regular series.
Sludge encountered Joy Meadows in issue #48. This story establishes Sludge's seemingly-romantic affection for her, which would come back into play when Joy reappeared in issues #74-77, published a month before the annual was released.
Snarl and the other Dinobots previously faced Guardian in issues #31-32.
Slag's dream is inspired by the Dinobots' previous encounter with Shockwave, which concluded with them being submerged in a tar pit, as recounted in issue #27.

Real-life references

Starscream paraphrases William Shakespeare's Hamlet as he lifts Megatron's bisected head, just as the titular Danish prince did while regarding the skull of his jester Yorick: "Alas, poor Megatron... I knew him."

Artwork and technical errors

Megatron's got a golden chest, as seen before in various early UK stories. This weird colouring wrinkle (an over-literal interpretation of the way Megatron's package art rendered his toy's chromed silver chest) has long since been phased out of the regular weekly comic, so it's especially odd to see it pop up here.
Grimlock's dinosaur mode is coloured almost entirely in the same solid grey, lacking things like his golden-yellow neck or white arms.
Save for his yellow optics, Soundwave has a solid-blue head, lacking hie white mouthplate and other accents.
Page 3
- Panel 1: Grimlock's pelvis is grey instead of red.
- Panel 2: Grimlock's robot mode eyes are yellow instead of red.
- Panel 3: Skywarp's wings are arms are solid purple.
- Panels 5-6: Starscream is coloured like Grimlock (blue head, golden torso, grey limbs, red pelvis).
Page 8: Snarl's Autobot symbol is uncoloured.
Page 10: Sludge's eyebrow is coloured blue, as if it were part of the machinery he's hooked up to.
Page 11, panel 6: Grimlock's eyes are yellow again. Snarl's torso is partially grey when it should be solid red, he's missing his dino-tail kibble, and the plates on his back are grey instead of golden.

Other trivia

When "Victory!" was reprinted in Collected Comics #14 (see below), pages 1 and 8-10 were cut from the story. This was because the issue was originally slated to feature the shorter story "Ark Duty," but when—for unknown reasons—this didn't happen, "Victory!" was subbed in in its place, but the page count wasn't expanded to account for it, resulting in four pages being clumsily hacked out of the story to make it fit.