Animated Comic issue 3

« Transformers Animated Comic #3 »
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	December 2008
Editor	Natalie Clubb
Deputy editor	Andrew James
Designer	Danny Preston
Continuity	Animated cartoon continuity

Robot Wars!

Contents

Crossroads!

• Script: Robin Etherington
• Art: John McCrea
• Colours: Jason Cardy
• Lettering: Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft

It's Friday evening in Detroit, just past nightfall, and the badly dressed supervillain Crossroads is attacking the City Transport Control building along with his backer—Starscream! Thanks to a sliver of Megatron that Starscream possesses, Crossroads' creepy override gauntlets will allow him to control any robotic system. Soon he'll have his old equipment and be able to prove any robot can become a weapon, while Starscream just wants him to make the Autobots and their supporters suffer...

Meanwhile, Bulkhead, Prowl, Afterburn and Sari Sumdac are watching a basketball match between the Dunkers and Jumpers. Prowl's intrigued by the grace and speed of the game, Bulkhead's fed up with it and people mistaking him for a litter bin. Then Afterburn picks up an all-units report from the police: There's total traffic gridlock across the city! As the Autobots arrive during an early sunset, Crossroads announces he's taken control of all vital robotic systems (including the snack machines, the fiend!), and as a demonstration, he has the streetlights and fire hydrants begin attacking Captain Fanzone and his men! (Yes, the streetlights moving about is physically improbable.)

Detroit will only be spared the robot rampage if they give Crossroads all the gold in the city reserve and destroy the Autobots within the hour. Bulkhead doesn't believe everyone will turn on them that quickly...and he's wrong. Luckily, after they flee for their lives, Sari remembers Crossroads is a former employee of Isaac Sumdac who was fired for forcing the lab robots to fight each other. Everything's a distraction to allow Crossroads to go for Sumdac Tower, where his old lab equipment is!

Meanwhile, at Sumdac Tower, it's suddenly night again and appears to be about to turn to day—and Crossroads has broken into his old lab! But the Autobots have miraculously just entered the building while meanwhile being somewhere else, and so the villain unleashes the building's robots on them! While Bulkhead takes out a pair of Pummeler security drones, Sari realises the villain must be in the top floor's control room, and the Autobots drive up the stairs to confront him! While Afterburn covers him, Prowl throws his shurikens through two guarding robots and into the villain's override gauntlets, defeating him!

As the police take Crossroads away, the Autobots discuss their surprise about Starscream helping him to hurt robots. Afterburn wisely says Decepticons are cunning and can strike at any time, while Prowl says they should keep their eyes open for such enemies at all times—while he stands in front of a smirking Afterburn. Ahem. But for now, the Autobots have something really important to keep an eye on: the end of the basketball game!

The End! (of the comic, forever)

Articles & features

• Starscreamers - Jokes by Starscream
• Character Puzzles: Blackarachnia-related puzzles
• Nano-Bites - news about all the cool Animated stuff you can buy, a mention that Season 3 will exist, plus factoids on robots and computers
• Books and DVD competitions
• Draw Your Own Bulkhead!
• Code Cracker: Translate Autobot secret transmissions! (Meant to be a regular feature - whoops!)
• Professor Sumdac's Design-A-Bot: a blank page to draw on. Wheeee.
• Search for the Allspark: The Autobots have hidden the Allspark in this comic! Find it and write in, and win a prize!
• Poster of Blackarachnia
• Challenge Ratchet: Complete the puzzles!
• Optimus VS Megatron game by Den Patrick: Roll a die to decide which character can attack and how hard!
• Bee Mail: Letters page, hosted by Bumblebee

Free Gift

• "Free! Cybertron Decoder Watch!" — designed to translate the Code Cracker messages

Bits and Bots

A short four-panel strip by Robin Etherington and Lee Bradley

Megatron "accidentally" fires his cannon at Starscream during a briefing. He honestly didn't know it was loaded...

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Blast From The Past, part 1c (screencaps strip) (17 pages)

Errors

• It starts off at night, then there's a sunset going on, then it's night again but with a bit of daylight showing. Errr?
• More bloody screencaps! ARRRG!
• The comic advertises its fourth issue—which will never come.

Quotes

"We could learn so much from basketball."
"But I already know how to blow my airhorn [sic], spill my drink and shout rude names!"
"No, you silly petrol-head! Prowl's not talking about the fans, he's talking about the players!"

—Prowl, Bulkhead and Sari

"No one in this city would want to hurt us! They love the Autobots! I've even got my own action figure!"

—And you can buy the Bulkhead action figure, kids!

"No one turns humans against machines in this town! Er... except Captain Fanzone..."

—Bulkhead

"Oh, I can. We all know Decepticons are cunning. You never know when or where they'll strike."
"A wise bot once told me that to truly know your enemy you must study him. Today we learnt something new—we must keep our eyes open at all times!"

—Afterburn and Prowl are not hinting at anything

Items of note

• Porter C. Powell is oddly absent from Sumdac Tower. And Optimus and Bumblebee are oddly absent as well, with the only reason being that Optimus gave everyone the day off.
• Bumblebee is not in this issue despite being right there on the cover.
• In the flashback to Crossroads being fired, you can see Sari as a toddler clinging to her dad's leg. Awwwwww!
• A dizzy Bulkhead mentions his mom after crashing into two security drones.
• This issue is in fact the last issue, due to the cancellation of the comic. This was clearly a last-minute move, as the comic teases for issue 4 (Swoop Vs Starscream), asks for readers to send stuff in, and starts a new regular feature.
• Are we all agreed Afterburn's dodgy?