Christmas Breaker!
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 Ho! Ho! Ho! | |||||||||||||
| Christmas Breaker! | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 28th December 1985 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | James Hill | ||||||||||||
| Art | Will Simpson | ||||||||||||
| Colour | Gina Hart | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Richard Starkings | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Ian Rimmer | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
Circuit Breaker gains some Christmas Spirit.
Synopsis
While Circuit Breaker recounts her origin and her hatred for robots, the Autobots are arranging a make-shift Christmas celebration for Buster Witwicky in the Ark. A metal Christmas tree has been constructed, Optimus Prime is wearing a Santa Claus costume, and decorations and banners are hung from the ceiling. Prowl finds the whole charade a waste of time, especially while the Decepticons are weak, and Jazz doubts that humans are capable of charity due to his recent encounter with Circuit Breaker. Realizing it's getting late, Buster has Jazz drive him to St. Petersburg, a suburb of Portland, to finish delivering his dad's Christmas presents.
While children are skating on an icy pond in St. Petersburg, a young girl falls through the ice, and Circuit Breaker is nearby to rescue her. However, her appearance causes her to be attacked as a freak by other passers-by. Enraged, she flies off and stumbles upon Jazz and Buster. As she attacks Jazz, only Buster's pleas for mercy (because it is Christmas) cause her to leave. Jazz finally understands the meaning of Christmas and human goodwill.
Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Items of note
- The first of the UK Comic's regular Christmas Issues.
- The cover features Optimus Prime dressed up as Santa Claus.
- This is the only UK-only story to feature Circuit Breaker (not counting her cameo in The Wrath of Grimlock!).
- In the US storyline, the eleven Autobots who were ambushed by the Decepticons in "Prime Time!" were knocked off-line and remained inert in the repair bay for over a dozen issues (most didn't reappear until "Totaled!", over two years later.) The divergent UK storyline, however, has them still up and running — Prowl, Huffer, and Jazz all appear in this and subsequent UK stories.
- Circuit Breaker spends much of the time in the freezing rain and snow in only her metallic body suit. Metals are generally poor thermal insulators, but perhaps the electrical generating circuits it contains can generate warmth.
- Apparently, Soundwave was away for the holidays, as Ratchet was in charge of the Letters Page for this issue only. It is referred to at "Rat-chat" instead of "Sound-waves".
- Being forced to dress in a giant Santa outfit probably made Optimus think that Buster was a Ho-Ho-Hoe.
Back-up Stories
- Machine Man - "Victory" Part 3
- Matt and the Cat
- Robo-Capers
Reprints
- The story was reprinted in Collected Comics 11 (Winter Special 1988)
Covers (2)
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41 cover -
Collected Comics 11 cover
- Uk issue 41 cover: Santamus Prime, by Mike Collins
- Collected Comics 11 cover: Starscream decorating a Christmas tree, by Robin Smith
