The Smelting Pool!
| This article is about issue #17 of the Marvel US comic. For the Decepticon torture and recycling device, see Smelting pool. |
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 Apparently it melted Blaster's paint right off! | |||||||||||||
| "The Smelting Pool!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | February 1986 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | June 1986 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Bob Budiansky | ||||||||||||
| Penciler | Don Perlin | ||||||||||||
| Inker | Keith Williams | ||||||||||||
| Colorist | Nel Yomtov | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Janice Chiang | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Michael Carlin | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
On Cybertron, an Autobot spy discovers a message sent to the Decepticons from Earth.
Synopsis
The Transformers' homeworld, the planet Cybertron, is a war-torn, resource-strapped wasteland. Struggling survivors hide from ruthless Decepticon overlords, who hunt them down for sport and scrap metal. The Autobot Blaster, waiting to meet up with his partner Scrounge, encounters one such hunter, and trashes him but good.
Scrounge, meanwhile, has infiltrated the Decepticon headquarters fortress Darkmount, using the wire-guided sensors in his Very Special Arm. He records an interstellar transmission received by Shrapnel and some other Decepticons, who claim it is of world-shaking importance. While retracting his Very Special Arm sensors, Scourge trips an alarm; he retreats, but Shrapnel captures him outside the fortress.
Blaster returns to Autobase, but only to try and convince his fellow Autobots to search for Scrounge. Citing Scrounge's past unreliability, base commander Perceptor is reluctant to do so, but yields when he's outvoted by his troops.
Shrapnel takes Scrounge to the court of Decepticon commander Straxus. Straxus crushes Scrounge's Very Special Arm during a brief interrogation, and orders him tossed into the smelting pool, a pit that serves the dual function of execution chamber and raw materials processing for the Decepticon war effort.
Perceptor's Autobots question the fuel-starved Empties about Scrounge's disappearance, and learn of his capture. The others give up hope, but Blaster continues the hunt alone. Infiltrating Darkmount, he is briefly captured and brought before Straxus, but the tyrant isn't interested and orders him tossed into the pool.
Blaster soon finds Scrounge... what's left of him, at least; the pool has melted away much of his body. The other Autobots arrive to save Blaster. Scrounge is already too badly damaged to be saved, but he passes on a recording of the Decepticon message to Blaster, who is pulled out of the pool by Powerglide. As the Autobots fight their way out of Darkmount, Blaster uses the molten metal pumped from the smelting pool as a weapon to drive off the attacking Decepticons.
Back at Autobase, the Autobots play the recording and discover that Optimus Prime lives on among the Autobots on Earth. This gives the team new hope, and Scrounge is remembered for his sacrifice.
Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Empties |
|---|---|---|
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Errors
- Outside Darkmount, Scrounge wonders "why the Decpticons would suddenly be interested in a Neutralist who's specialty is interdimensional engineering." The letterer should have used whose (possessive), not who's (contraction of who is).
- The transmission received on Cybertron states that the Decepticons on Earth were led by Megatron and that the Autobots were led by Optimus Prime. However when Soundwave sent the message (in US issue #10), Shockwave was leader of the Decepticons, with Megatron lost and presumed dead. At the time Optimus Prime was also a severed head, and captive of Shockwave.
Items of note
- References to other Transformers continuities/issues: Soundwave sent the message in issue #10.
- The title on the issue's first page is given as "Return to Cybertron Part 1: The Smelting Pool!." Ostensibly, this would make "The Bridge to Nowhere!," "Return to Cybertron Part 2", although it is not explicitly named as such.
- This issue features the Cybertronian alt modes of the second year Mini Vehicles.
- This issue was reprinted in the Titan Books collection "Cybertron Redux".
- This issue was reprinted as issue #5 of IDW Publishing's Generations series.
- The picture of Blaster on the cover uses his cartoon and Marvel UK face (without his visor).
Covers (5)
-
US issue #17 - Cybertron could only afford red. -
UK issue #66 - Delicious Transformer soup. -
UK issue #67 - I can write my name in the snow too. -
Titan TPB cover -
Titan HC cover
- US cover: Blaster falling into the smelting pool, by Herb Trimpe.
- UK issue #66 cover: reuse of art from US cover.
- UK issue #67 cover: Blaster attacking Decepticons, by John Higgins.
- Titan TPB cover: Blaster, Ramhorn, Bombshell, Shrapnel, Kickback and half of the Space bridge by Andrew Wildman.
- Titan hardback cover: Blaster in the Smelting pool by Don Figueroa, Gary Erskine & Chris Blythe.
- Generations cover: Reimaging of US cover, by Ashley Wood.
- Generations cover: Reimaging of US cover, by Nick Roche.
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