Broken Glass!
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 When you gotta go, you gotta go! | |||||||||||||
| "Broken Glass" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | September 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Bob Budiansky | ||||||||||||
| Penciler | Frank Springer | ||||||||||||
| Inker | Ian Akin & Brian Garvey | ||||||||||||
| Colorist | Nelson Yomtov | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Pat Brosseau | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Don Daley | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
While the Autobots seek to prove their peaceful intentions to the Nebulans, Zarak summons the Decepticons.
Synopsis
The presence of giant f*cking robots threatens the 10,000-year peace of the planet Nebulos, as the citizens gather in protest demonstrations. Galan, a member of the ruling "Council of Peers" on Nebulos, looks for a solution to the escalating tensions; he tries to break up a fight among the protesters, only to get slugged for his troubles. Lord Zarak, a rival member of the council, seeks to use the situation to further his own political position; he's paid for quite a few of the protestors. Debate in the council is somewhat mollified when Gort appears and explains that his injuries were an accident.
While Galan consults with the disconnected head of Fortress Maximus about recent events, an unconvinced Zarak and his staff pay a visit to the other Autobots, who are setting up an encampment. Though an ostensibly peaceful gesture, their true purpose is to obtain the the frequencies required to communicate with Cybertron. Using a facility owned by Grax, Zarak calls for help in ridding Nebulos of the Autobots.
On Cybertron, Scorponok's band has invaded the deserted Autobot base, where they receive Zarak's message. Scorponok orders his troops to prepare for interplanetary transport and world conquest.
The Decepticons arrive and, over Zarak's protests, lay siege to the capital city of Koraja in hopes of getting the citizens of Nebulos to surrender the five captive Autobots to them. The Nebulans fight back from within the city's fortified walls, but Duros and Galan can see that they can't hold out forever against the Decepticons. They need the power of the Autobots. Galan can't simply restore Fortress Maximus and his group, however; it would violate the terms of the peace agreement between them. Fortress Maximus tells him that there is a way for the Nebulans to control the Autobots themselves.
Soon, a group of Nebulan volunteers binary bond with the Autobots who had sacrificed their heads earlier. Despite Llyra's pleas, Galan is the fifth volunteer, stating that he must lead his people by example. The five Nebulans are bio-engineered to actually become the heads of the captive Autobots, creating the first Headmasters. While the Nebulans control the Autobots' bodies, the original Autobots maintain contact with the Nebulans they now carry, and the result is a group of highly effective warriors, which quickly dispatch the attacking Decepticons. Scorponok orders a retreat to allow time to study this new development.
The Autobots march through their damaged city, and the citizens gape in awe and fear at them, till they disconnect their heads and return to Nebulan form, whereupon they are greeted as heroes. But Lyra cannot find joy; her betroved Galan has become a machine of war, a man she can no longer recognize.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Nebulans |
|---|---|---|
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Errors
- Even as the narration describes the Nebulans transforming to "look like the heads of" their new Autobot partners, Fortress Maximus' new head (i.e., Galen transformed) is actually the animation model for Cerebros' head. Fort Max randomly changes to his own head design as the Autobots engage the Decepticons... then suddenly changes back to Cerebros' head as the Headmasters prepare to transform back to humanoid form at the battle's end. The Cerebros head would show up a couple more times in future issues.
- On page 10, a giant sized version of Cyclonus's future Targetmaster partner Nightstick is referred to as Cyclonus, even though he looks nothing like him. In an attempt to repair this error when the story was published in the UK comic, the character name was changed to Krunix.
- On the same page, Mindwipe is drawn as a Nebulan Headmaster partner.
- When the Decepticons prepare to attack the city, a miscolored Misfire identifies himself as Mindwipe, while Slugslinger is drawn as a giant Caliburst.
- The Autobot Headmasters' relative proportions are all out of whack when the Nebulans connect to them for the first time. Fortress Maximus is the same size as the other four, when he should be a couple of heads taller. Hardhead is the smallest, while Brainstorm is swollen up like a weightlifter.
- When Galen first transforms into a head for Fort Max, he looks like Cerebros' head. This error is corrected 2 pages later when Fort Max is drawn with the correct head, but when he removes his head on the last page it again looks like Cerebros.
- While not a direct error as such, the Nebulans' decision to binary-bond with the Autobots rather than fully restoring them seems very much based on the letter, rather than the spirit, of the conditions under which the Autobots remained.
- It seems pretty incredible that Koraja's defenses, which are basically some cannons mounted on a stone wall, could hold off the Decepticons long enough for the Nebulans to perform five radical surgical procedures. The narration states that the surgeries take "hours". Getting past the walls of Koraja looks like it would take seconds.
- Several Decepticons who show up in this issue are never seen again, including Flywheels and Sixshot.
Items of note
- Cameos: Battletrap, Flywheels, Sixshot, Fasttrack
- Advertised as part 2 in a 4-issue limited series.
- Although it is explained that the Nebulans turn into heads that only resemble the original heads of the Headmaster Autobots, and that the original heads maintain radio contact with their Nebulan partners, the original miniseries never mentions what becomes of the original heads. However, "The Final Conflict" in the 1988 UK annual showed that Fortress Maximus, at least, stored his original head in a chest compartment.
Covers (5)
- Headmasters #2 cover: Scorponok, with Zarak captive, fires on the Nebulans, by Frank Springer.
- UK issue #134 cover: Cyclonus and Scourge, by Lee Sullivan.
- UK issue #135 cover: Divebomb vs Swoop, by Jeff Anderson.
- UK issue #136 cover: Grimlock about to crush Divebomb, by Robin Smith.
- UK issue #137 cover: Susan Hoffman discovers Ultra Magnus, by Lee Sullivan.
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Headmasters #2 -
UK issue #134 -
UK issue #135
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UK issue #136 -
UK issue #137
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