Prime Directive issue 1
Lazarus has weapons for sale while Spike learns that he can't escape his past. Template:Comicnav
Writers: Chris Sarracini (Chrislock)
Pencils: Pat Lee (Patimus Prime)
Inks: Rob Armstrong (Robonus)
Backgrounds: Edwin Garcia (Edwin Magnus)
Colors: TheRealT!
Graphic Design: Paul Villafuerte (Paulceptor)
Letters: Dreamer Design
Pre-Press: Kell-O-Graphics
President, Art Director: Pat Lee (Patimus Prime)
V/P Editor-in-Chief: Roger Lee (Hot Rog)
Director of Management: Derek Choo-Wing (Derekstator)
Director of Sales: Amelia Lo (Milly Bee)
Production Assistant: Elizabeth Santos (Lizstreak)
Producer: Adam Fortier (Fortier Maximus)
Licensing, Marketing and Merchandising: Hawke Studios
Special thanks to: James Raiz, Sigmund Torre, Ramil Sunga, Erik Sander and Kato
- Cover date: April, 2002
- Release date: ???
- Major characters (in order of appearance): Megatron, Spike Witwicky, General Hallo, Lazarus, Hound, Optimus Prime
- Chronology: Modern era
Synopsis
Humans have discovered the Transformers again after a year and a half of searching. Decepticons and Autobots are captured by a human organization and used as metallic puppets of war. Grimlock leads Autobots and Decepticons in a slaughter of humans at an oil plant—slaughter is shown! The U.S. Government contacts the only person on record as ever having known about transformers—Spike Witwicky, who currently is a working man taking care of his infant son, Daniel.
We learn that the Autobots had united with humans to defeat the Decepticons. Together, the two races built a giant ship known as the Ark II, which they planed to transport themselves and the captive Decepticons back to Cybertron. Also aboard was a handful of earth scientists and Sparkplug Witwicky. The Ark II exploded before exiting Earth's atmosphere and no humans survived.
Concluding the issue, the U.S. reveals that it has found a transformer, its dramatically placed final image on last page (sorry can't spoil the epicness—also the collected volumes do not present this image in the same way—losing a lot of the dramatic impact.)
Quotes
We have a transformer of our own!
- Really!? Which one!?
- —U.S. General to Spike Witwicky
Items of note
- Following the story is a 2-page fictional new article entitled "Reliving the '99 Ark II Tragedy—What Happened?"
- James Raiz, Alan Wang and Kenny Li created a large lithograph that contained over 600 characters from multiple Transformers continuities. Each issue of Prime Directive, and each Autobot/Decepticon issue had a 2-page spread in the middle of the comic which was 1/12 of the lithograph. Split up, it was 4 issues wide by 3 issues high. The Autobot cover issue contained the 4x3 segment, while the Decepticon issue contained the 2x2 segment.
Covers (6)
- Regular Cover: Autobots wraparound by Pat Lee
- Regular Cover: Decepticons wraparound by Pat Lee
- Alternate: Omega Supreme wraparound by Pat Lee
- Alternate: Prime and Bumblebee wraparound by Pat Lee
- Foil Cover: Battle wraparound by ???
- Incentive Cover: Superion wraparound by ???
Advertisements
- BotCon 2002
- Titan Books G1 reprints
- Prime Directive #2
- Darkminds: Macropolis #3
- Warlands TPB #2
- Predaking lithograph
- Starscream poster
- Transformers posters (back interior cover)
