First Encounter!
| This article is about the Armada comic story. For the Armada episode, see First Encounter. |
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 Beware the wrath of Poorly Drawn Optimus Prime! | |||||||||||||
| "First Encounter!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Panini | ||||||||||||
| First published | 21 May, 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Scripters | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Pencillers | John Mitchell | ||||||||||||
| Inkers | Bambos Georgiou, Martin Griffiths | ||||||||||||
| Letterers | Neil Porter | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Armada (Panini comic) | ||||||||||||
The comic book Panini Armada issue 1 contains multiple stories or features.
Panini Armada issue 1
Contents
Free gift
- Sticker book and stickers
First Encounter!
The Autobots, Decepticons, and the Mini-Cons are introduced and all arrive to Earth.
Synopsis
On Cybertron, Optimus Prime, Hot Shot, and Red Alert were embroiled in battle with Starscream, Cyclonus, and Megatron. Despite being powered by Swindle, Starscream still found himself shot at by Optimus using his trailer. Annoyed, Megatron removed Starscream's Mini-Con, noting how he frequently wastes the "awesome power of Mini-Con augmentation". Starscream wanted another crack at the Autobots, but Megatron noted they had disappeared.
Hot Shot doesn't particularly like retreating. Optimus pointed out that they were no match for the Decepticons without Mini-Cons, explaining that if the Mini-Cons hadn't left Cybertron, the Autobots would've lost the war a long time ago. Red Alert wondered what happened to the Mini-Con vessel, and Optimus hoped to never find out.
On Earth, Rad and Carlos were exploring the remains of an alien civilization inside a cavern. While they were in the cave, Billy and Fred caused a cave-in; in the ensuing confusion, Rad and Carlos inadvertently activated a computer, allowing it to send a signal to Cybertron. Alexis arrived at the blocked entrance just in time to see Rad, Carlos, and a mysterious robot in the entrance after the blockage exploded. The robot tried to speak to the surprised teenagers, but was unable to translate to English fast enough before Megatron arrived. Megatron provided the translation: "We come in peace." However, he noted that he didn't.
Megatron noted the primitive planet's amount of raw resources, promising to strip it down. To make a quick getaway, the mysterious robot transformed into a copy of Alexis's bike, speeding away from Megatron. An irritated Megatron noted that signal may have also reached... Optimus Prime stopped him in mid-sentence. Megatron found it easy to bat Optimus around, pointing out that he still possessed Leader-1. In the meantime, the teenagers are introduced to other Mini-Cons who woke up thanks to the signal: Sureshock, Grindor, Sparkplug, Longarm, Jolt, and High Wire, the robot who they already met. Sureshock explained the history of the Mini-Cons: they were natives of Cybertron, living in peace along with the Transformers. That is, until the Decepticons rounded them up and retooled them to serve as sources of destructive power. They escaped, but their ship was damaged enroute, crash landing onto the Moon and scattering the Mini-Cons all over Earth. By their accounts, they were deactivated for four million years.
They decided to be lazy and not help out Optimus, who's getting his ass beaten by Megatron.
Credits
Script: Simon Furman
Pencils: John Mitchell
Inks: Bambos Georgiou, Martin Griffiths
Lettering: Neil Porter
Colour: ???
