Afterdeath!
Optimus Prime and Megatron battle for their lives in a virtual reality world alongside the Protectobots and the Combaticons.
Marvel US issue #24
(Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #105-106)
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): Ethan Zachary, Vortex, Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, Onslaught, Megatron, Streetwise, Groove, Blast Off, Defensor, Bruticus, Brawl, First Aid, Hot Spot, Swindle, Blades
- Originally published: January, 1987
Synopsis
Ethan Zachary is a programmer at Energy Futures Industries who works on a device called a hydrothermocline. The hydrothermocline is intended to draw energy from the different thermal layers of the ocean, and is seen as a potentially inexhaustible power supply for the world.
Megatron wants to steal the hydrotermocline, and takes Combaticons to the laboratory where the hydrothermocline is being stored in order to steal it. After a bit of grandstanding, during which Ethan is captured, it becomes clear that if the Autobots and Decepticons continue to fight, they will end up destroying the very thing the Decepticons have come to steal. Ethan offers a compromise: the Transformers fight their battle in a computer-generated virtual world -- a computer game called Multi-World.
Megatron agrees, but only if the stakes are increased to include not only the hydrothermocline, but also the life of the losing leader. Optimus Prime agrees to these terms, and the game is played. The Protectobots must fight the Combaticons while remaining true to their principles, assisting and/or sparing the lives of the inhabitants of the computer world while the Combaticons attempt to destroy them. This gains the trust of assistance of these computer characters, who help the Protectobots defeat the Combaticons.
At last, Megatron and Optimus Prime face off, but while Megatron has lost the assistance of his Combaticons, Optimus Prime still has the Protectobots, now in the form of Defensor. Defensor kills Megatron, and himself, in the game by destroying the platform they're standing on. But, Megatron cheats by using a "back door" password, enabling himself to be recreated in the game at any point. He chooses, in this case, right behind Optimus Prime, from which point he shoots Prime in the back. Prime manages to avoid falling by holding on to a ledge, but defeats Megatron only at the cost of the lives of the computer generated characters.
Although this earns him victory in the game, Optimus Prime feels that he has "cheated" by sacrificing his principles (unaware of how Megatron has already cheated previously). Prime tells Ethan to destroy himself instead. Ethan presses the button, and Prime is destroyed.
The Decepticons leave with the hydrothermocline, and the Protectobots gather up the shattered body of the Autobot leader. As they leave, we see that Ethan Zachary has saved a copy of Optimus Prime's character on a 5 and 1/2 inch floppy disk.
Errors
- On page 10, Optimus Prime tells Brawl that Autobots don't cheat. The speech bubble appears to be a response, but it is depicted as being spoken by Blades.
Items of note
- Prime's entire memory fits on a five and a quarter inch floppy disk. No, seriously. IT DOES.
- Even by today's standards the Multi-World is an incredible computer game. The graphics and AI put even modern games to shame. No wonder Ethan needed cheat codes.
- Scenes that take place in Multi-World take place in comic panels with 'cut' corners.
- No mention is made of where the Protectobots or the Combaticons come from. One assumes that Prime must have granted the Protectobots life via the Creation Matrix, since the Autobots have no link to Cybertron (yet see the note re: First Aid from Funeral for a Friend. The Combaticons may have come from Cybertron, or may have been granted life via the Creation Matrix if Megatron's link from Heavy Traffic is considered to still work.
- The UK comics may shed more light on their origins -- in an earlier story, Second Generation, Buster Witwicky has matrix-induced dreams which reveal to him that the new Special Teams are about to be born on Earth, given life by the Matrix. Based on this it's safe to assume (at least in the UK continuity) that the Protectobots and Combaticons were built on Earth.
- References to past issues Wheeljack extracts the Cerebro-shell injected by Bombshell in Heavy Traffic, and uses it learn of Megatron's plans.
UK printing
- Issue #105 features a Defensor vs. Bruticus cover by artist Lee Sullivan.
- Issue #106 used a recoloured and severely cropped version of US issue #24's cover, with a new caption to boot.
- The start of Hot Spot's objections to Prime leading the mission in Multi-World was blacked out to make a better cliffhanger for issue #105.
