Rodimus Jr. Does His Part! Defeat the Beast of Legend
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| "Rodimus Jr. Does His Part! Defeat the Beast of Legend" ロディマスJr.が大活躍! 伝説の魔獣をやっつけろ
(Rodimus Jr. ga Daikatsuyaku! Densetsu no Majū o Yattsukero) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Kodansha | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Super BomBom #1 | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Manga by | Ikuo Miyazoe | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 continuity family | ||||||||||||
Rodimus Jr. must follow a prophecy to defeat the Decepticons.
Synopsis
After a survey out in space, Rodimus Convoy Jr. and Yūji initiate a warp back to Earth. In the meantime, Galvatron commands a spaceship nearing the planet. With the vessel's Dimensional Cannon, the Decepticon leader seeks to bring Earth to chaos and finally succeed against the Autobots. But when the cannon fires, Rodimus Jr.'s spaceship completes its warp just in time to catch the full brunt of the beam, enveloping its inhabitants with a strange light. Galvatron is baffled at nothing happening while an underling notes that something must have got in the way. It'll take three hundred hours to recharge the cannon's energies before it can fire another shot. Rodimus Jr. doesn't feel anything out of the ordinary until he turns and sees Yūji gone... and his voice comes from within Rodimus—the strange light must have merged human into the Transformer's body! They finally notice the gigantic Decepticon ship, awed by its size.
Seeing Blitzwing fly out, Rodimus Convoy Jr. realizes they must be in the midst of the enemy's headquarters and decides to stick closely to the battleship, lest they be spotted. Galvatron orders the battleship to fly out, promising to attack again once the cannon is recharged. Rodimus Jr.'s smaller ship, however, ends up being dragged to a planet by its gravity when the Decepticon ship flies nearby. Rodimus Jr. comes to underwater, only to find that he's actually in the boiling cauldron of absolutely gigantic aliens! Seeing the robot, the aliens immediately kowtow to the Transformer and Rodimus Jr. turns on his translator to understand their constant utterances of "piki", finding that he's regarded as the "small giant" and a "messenger from god". While Rodimus Jr. is seated on a fancy chair (that's too big) and served some fine food, the elder of the giant alien tribe introduces legendary stone tablets passed down through the generations. Yūji notices the tablet is adorned with the visage of Rodimus Jr. and even their ship—legend states that when suffering comes to the tribe, a "small giant god" would come to their aid. When asked what ails them, the elder explains that devils calling themselves the Decepticons have been taking members of their tribe as slaves thanks to their planet having raw materials like energon cubes that the villains require. Rodimus Jr. can't let this stand and asks about the other figure on the tablets, who is said to be a demonic monster who spurns god and possesses five faces. The Autobot figures that if he defeats this beast, peace will return, but the elder isn't too sure how to bring that about and brings their supposed savior to the entrance of a small cavern shrine that serves as a shortcut to the Decepticon base—the giants are too big to enter it themselves.
Inside the cavern, Yūji finds the scenery creepy, but Rodimus Convoy Jr. reassures the boy, promising that he'll be safe as long as he's still inside him. He's nevertheless startled by a humanoid figure caked in dirt like a fossil, who's quickly felled by a quick shot. Before he can mull further on this enemy, Rodimus is suddenly grasped by a gigantic bug! Struggling for a second, Rodimus Jr. expands his spoiler to free himself from the insect's grasp and blasts a hole clean through it with his rifle. He concludes that his opponents so far have been primitive robots that took up residence underground and isn't too impressed by what he assumes to be the legendary villains. He's soon attacked by Sharktron and his flail, but the Autobot makes short work of the marine robot with some strength and his blasters.
Rodimus Convoy Jr. comes to a fork in the tunnel, so he breaks a stalactite and flips it, following the direction it points when it hits the ground. Deep into the darkness of the right tunnel, Rodimus Jr. turns on his optic lights, and reveals harmless giant bats that frighten Yūji. The two soon have good reason to fear as Divebomb and Tantrum attack, but Rodimus Jr. manages well against the beasts. Rampage voices concern for his teammate, but is shot at and forced out of hiding. Razorclaw commends the Autobot on being a formidable opponent, but warns him that he's up against the guardians of the energon deep underground—the most powerful of the Decepticons, the Predacons! All five Predacons combine into the mighty Predaking, who Rodimus Jr. recognizes as the legendary monster from the stone tablets. His usual weaponry is no match for the combined Decepticon and Rodimus Convoy Jr. is knocked into a ravine, falling into darkness.
At the bottom, Rodimus Convoy Jr. awakens to find himself surrounded by crystals. Also nearby is a sword and shield, which the Autobot draws from the ground. Activated, the sword speaks to Rodimus Jr., declaring it has bestowed upon the Autobot a mighty power. With legendary strength, Rodimus again faces off against Predaking, who is shocked that his opponent is still alive. Rampage detaches, believing that he can handle the intruder by himself and is summarily bisected for his trouble. Rodimus Jr. buries the sword deep into Predaking's chest and activates his Rodimus V-Flash attack to cause the Predacon combiner to explode. In the aftermath, he spots a hole in the ceiling and passes through, finding himself in the Decepticon base.
Flying through, Rodimus Convoy Jr. bumps into Galvatron, who has powered up and become giantic. As the Decepticon is about to crush him, Rodimus Jr. calls upon the legendary god, and is divinely grown to massive size, bursting through the Decepticon ship. The Decepticons are sent fleeing. The gigantification has the side effect of Yūji finally separating from Rodimus Jr.'s body. Rodimus bemoans to his friend about being even larger than the aliens, but soon takes it in stride when he sees peace has returned to the planet.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Notes
- "Rodimus Jr. Does His Part! Defeat the Beast of Legend" is likely just a tagline for the title page, but we need a better title than "Transformers 2010", so.
Errors
- Upon arriving in the Decepticon base, Rodimus Convoy Jr. calls it an Autobot base.
Real-world references
- Galvatron's ship is visually based on the Jawa Sandcrawler from Star Wars.
- The "giant aliens" are blatantly based on the Tusken Raiders, also from Star Wars.
