Decepticon Graffiti!
Megatron has a message for Optimus Prime, and sends the Battlechargers out to deliver it.
Marvel US issue #23
(Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #94-95)
Script: Bob Budiansky
Pencils: Don Perlin
Inks: Ian Akin and Brian Garvey
Lettering: Janice Chiang
Colors: Nelson Yomtov
Editor: Don Daley
- Major characters (in order of appearance): Circuit Breaker, Donny Finkleberg, Megatron, Runabout, Runamuck, Soundwave, Noah Acton, Walter Barnett
- Originally published: December, 1986
Synopsis
At RAAT headquarters, Circuit Breaker experiments on Skids, in an attempt to learn more about the Transformers. Meanwhile, Megatron recruits Battlechargers Runabout and Runamuck from Cybertron to send them to deliver a message to Optimus Prime, challenging him to a duel to the death.
As the Battlechargers begin their mission, they discover a family, the Actons, on summer vacation. One of the family members, Noah, is bored with the vacation. Noah rebels by writing "Vacations are the pits" on a store wall. This act of defiance inspires the Battlechargers to follow the Actons on their journeys. The Battlechargers follow the Actons' tour of America, graffiting national monuments as they go. Their targets included Mt. Rushmore and the Gateway arch in St. Louis.
These acts of graffiti are broadcast via news reports, and RAAT is sent to investigate and engage the robot perpetrating these crimes. When the Battlechargers strike the Washington Monument, Circuit Breaker discovers a link between the incidents and the Acton family, and is able to intercept the Battlechargers at the Acton's next stop, Independence Hall in Philadelphia. While RAAT is able to prevent Independence Hall from being vandalized, Circuit Breaker is injured saving Noah Acton from being killed in the crossfire. She is ordered to stay behind and recover while RAAT journeys to intercept the Battlechargers at the Statue of Liberty (this time having taken the appropriate precautions to avoid civilian interference).
Circuit Breaker is frustrated by her inability to join in the fight, but is too weak to go against the robots alone. Finkleberg convinces her to use the Autobots she has imprisoned to fight the Battlecharger. This is done by means of building the bodies of these Autobots into a jury-rigged gestalt, which she controls from a position at the gestalt's chest. They engage the Battlechargers at the Statue of Liberty, but not before the robots manage to deface the Statue with another message, this one intended for the humans and written in English: "Humans are Wimps".
Circuit Breaker is able to defeat the Battlechargers, who are last seen falling to the ocean as burnt-out husks. Circuit Breaker frees the Autobots, apparently as part of an agreement she made with them in order to gain their cooperation. She and Finkleberg are fired from RAAT for this act of insubordination.
Finkleberg returns to his apartment, and watches the televised report of the defamation of the Statue of Liberty. In an act of uncharacteristic self-sacrifice, Finkleberg signs over the $50,000 he earned for betraying Skids, in order to fund repairs on the monument.
Errors
- Circuit Breaker protests that it would take days to get the Autobots operational. This is apparently part of the justification in using the Circuit Breaker-controlled gestalt. Yet, after the battle (which itself was the next day), only "several hours later," the Autobots are gone, apparently restored to their autonomous forms.
Items of note
- The Battlechargers are awesome in this issue. Runamuck laughs like Beavis and Butthead (heh-heh), and Runabout seems to have delusions of sophistiphication. Both of them seem very impressed by the literary prowess of their graffiti. When we finally get to see what they're writing it turns out it's stuff like "Humans are Wimps".
- What's really fun about them is they genuinely appear to be friends, delighting in each other's company. It's a dynamic rarely seen in Transformers, especially among the Decepticons.
- One of the funniest moments in the issue doesn't even involve Runamuck and Runabout -- it's when Megatron whomps Soundwave in the face with a car exhaust system on page 4.
References to past issues
- Circuit Breaker continues to collect Transformers' faces in this issue adding Skids and the Aerialbots to her collection. They were captured in issue #22.
