Transformers Comic issue 3
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 Do you want to tell him this should be a Ratchet cover? | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Titan Magazines | ||||||||||||
| First published | 13 September 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | October 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Steve White | ||||||||||||
| Deputy editor | Andrew James & Ned Hartley | ||||||||||||
| Assistant editor | Den Patrick | ||||||||||||
| Designer | Martin Stiff | ||||||||||||
| Publishing manager | Darryl Curtis | ||||||||||||
Chucked onto an unknown world, Ratchet finds that he can't escape war.
Contents
Lost In Space 1: Ratchet
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| Lost in Space 1: Ratchet | |||||||||||||
| Script | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | Andrew Wildman | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Main Transformers prequel | ||||||||||||
Due to the foldspace detonation from last issue, Ratchet has been transported to Na'conda in the grip of genocidal war between the Thraal and the A'ovan - a war that strikes Ratchet as hauntingly similar to Cybertron's. Ratchet attempts to defend himself non-lethally but this just increases the violence; to avoid getting involved further, he scans a local vehicle, adapts his alternate mode and transforms in order to blend in. He establishes a signal beacon in the hope of signalling Jazz and Ironhide. Afterwards, unable to stand by and let the A'ovan be massacred, Ratchet attacks and defeats Durguth, the Thraal leader (who he views as the same "type" as Megatron). This causes Ratchet to technically become ruler of the Thraal Imperium, and he negotiates a ceasefire and eventually an alliance between the two factions. He warns them he'll be back one day to see how they're doing - if he can get home...
Articles & features
- Character Profile: Ratchet — Shortened version of the profile from Transformers: The Movie Guide.
- Cybertron Smackdown: Ironhide v. Starscream — Write-ups of the skills and weaknesses of the two 'bots in question, leaving the reader to decide who would win in a head-to-head. Written by Simon Furman.
- Transformers The Game review
- Top Gear — Win Transformers Movie soundtrack, Transformers Blasters toys and Leader Megatron toy.
- Competition to win Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, Transformers: The Movie Guide and You Can Draw Transformers.
- Bumblebee poster (Dreamwave stock image)
- Mech Mail - Letters and art from readers
Free Gift
- Transformers Keychain/Keyring (called both on the cover), a large foam rubber Decepticon or Autobot symbol ("2 To Collect!")
Reprints
Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.
- Transformers: Movie Prequel, part 1c (7 pages)
- Beast Wars: The Gathering, part 1c (10 pages)
Errors
- The editorial page calls the strip "Prelude: Ratchet", while the strip calls itself "Lost in Space 1".
Quotes
"I cant save them all. I learned that truism a long time ago, on countless battlefields. But still, no matter how many I help... a hundred, a thousand... it's the one that I fail that haunts me!"
- —Ratchet
Items of note
- In Mech Mail, the editor refers to Brawl and Devastator as being different characters.
- Ratchet transforms into something that isn't an ambulance or health-related at all. Titan is cutting edge, risk-taking stuff!
- Ratchet is coloured cream-beige instead of green and now has a mouthplate. This is because artist Andrew Wildman based him upon Don Figueroa's model for Ratchet in IDW's first Movie Prequel comic. An unfortunate side effect of this is that Ratchet ends up looking completely different to how he did in the previous issue.
- Ratchet as he appears in Lost In Space also appears in the IDW reprint, recovering the injured Bumblebee. Since Ratchet has been off-world long enough to establish a power-sharing government, this implies Bumblebee was abandoned for a considerable length of time. (This on top of a suicide mission. Do the Autobots secretly hate Bumblebee?)
