Departure
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 We've seen this cover layout somewhere... | |||||||||||||
| "Departure" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | 3H Productions | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 13, 2001 | ||||||||||||
| Story | Glen Hallit | ||||||||||||
| Script | Glen Hallit | ||||||||||||
| Art | Dan Khanna | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Richard Starkings and Comicraft | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Rob Gerbracht, Jon Hartman, Dan Khanna | ||||||||||||
The Oracle gathers a motley crew of Transformers and sends them on various missions.
Synopsis
In the near future, Daniel Witwicky (now grown to adulthood) and Wheelie are killed while engaged in a battle against a flock of Nightbirds. This sends Daniel's friend Arcee into a depressed funk. Rodimus and Springer talk about undergoing the Maximal Upgrade.
Three hundred years later on Vehicon-controlled Cybertron, Optimus Primal and Nightscream are transporting the three Deployers while under attack from Vehicons. They are rescued by Ramulus and Primal Prime, who take them to meet the rest of the Wreckers team. Apelinq recounts for Optimus their mutual battle against Shokaract, which Optimus doesn't fully remember.
At the Oracle chamber, the Wreckers are joined by the Mutants and Dinobots. The Oracle, after propounding vaguely at length, sends the three teams on a series of missions. Optimus and Nightscream are deemed to "have witnessed too much", and their memories of these meetings are purged.
Meanwhile, Megatron has created two new Vehicon generals to hunt down these new wayward Cybertronians.
The Wreckers meet up with Rodimus, who has been trying to convince the morbid Arcee to join them. After she bids them leave, Fractyl gives it one last try, to which Arcee is more open... only for Fractyl to get blown away by the arriving Vehicon generals. Furious, Arcee blasts Quake and Blastcharge out of the way and attempts to heal Fractyl.
Looking for a starship, the Wreckers arrive at Shuttle Complex Ohm in Dodecahex, only to find it overrun with Vehicons under Spystreak's command. A battle ensues. The arrival of the Wreckers' air support (Cyclonus, Skywarp and Rotorbolt), as well as Arcee and the newly-Transmetalized Fractyl, turns the tide against the Vehicons. Blastcharge gets sliced in half by Fractyl, while Tigatron vaporizes Quake. The Wreckers escape on the shuttle, leaving Spystreak trapped in the rubble as Cyclonus detonates explosives that destroy the entire complex. Megatron observes their escape and advises them to run while they can.
In space, the Wreckers have little time to relax, as a stowaway has showed up and started beating up passengers for no apparent reason. He says his name is Devcon...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots/Maximals | Decepticons/Predacons/Vehicons | Others |
|---|---|---|
Dinobots
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Robots
Computers
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Notes
- This issue debuted at BotCon 2001. The Wreckers title would be rebranded as part of the Universe storyline the following year.
- This issue also contained "Primeval Dawn Part 1" as a backup story.
- The shuttle that the Autobots, minus Daniel and Wheelie, use to escape the horde of Nightbirds is actually the Autobot Sky Garry from Return of Convoy. The transport it drops is a Micro Trailer, though here, there's nothing "micro" about it!
- As Arcee looks sullenly at the image of her and Daniel, the weapons seen mounted on the wall nearby are Hot Rod's photon pistols (drawn to toy-accurate specifications), and the laser-sword and shield he used during his duel with the auto-combatant in The Transformers: The Movie.
- For Rodimus, undergoing the Maximal Upgrade means a change from his original cartoon character model, magenta coloration and all, to an accurate rendering of his original Generation 1 toy.
- The Oracle's memory wipe of Primal and Nightscream is intended to make sure this issue doesn't conflict with the events of the television show. Within the story, however, it's not real clear why they shouldn't know there are other Maximal survivors.
- What did Doctor Fujiyama the Not-So-Famous Scientist learn from his prior experiment? Zilch!
- The Nightbirds are functionally identical to each other, but their accent colors vary between blue, orange, red, and purple. This is a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whose bandanas were the same colors.
Errors
- When the Oracle is first addressing the crowd, all the text in the speech bubble ("It will soon be...") is repeated in the next bubble.
- The appearance of the Grand Mal places this story within Beast Machines' second season, but Optimus Primal is still portrayed as the extremist from the first season, rather than the seeker of balance that he had since become.
