Warrior School!

	; Ratchet's such a drama queen.
	"Warrior School!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	April 1985
Cover date	August 1985
Script	Bob Budiansky
Pencils	William Johnson
Inks	Kyle Baker
Color	Nel Yomtov
Letters	Rick Parker
Editor	Jim Owsley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Ratchet discovers the fate of the other Autobots, and must fight Megatron on his own.

Synopsis

Walking through the woods in search of a road to drive Buster home, Ratchet and Buster meet up with a group of campers. As Ratchet demonstrates a new way to cook hot dogs, Buster experiences a severe head pain as an after-effect of his experience with Optimus Prime. Buster is taken home by the campers, leaving Ratchet free to deal with bigger problems.

Soundwave and Laserbeak use their innocuous alternate forms to infiltrate and take over another Blackrock Enterprises installation, this time an aerospace plant that builds jet fighters. Blackrock breaks the news to a hospitalized Josie Beller, who apparently designed this aerospace plant as well. Blackrock swears that the giant robots will be stopped, but Josie is already making plans of her own.

Ratchet returns to the Ark alone to verify Buster's findings, and soon finds the inert Autobots. He despairs upon finding the head of Optimus Prime, but Prime counsels him to fight as a warrior to defeat Megatron. Uncertain of what this might mean, Ratchet agrees.

Jessie and "O" attempt to cheer up Buster, who is wondering how to handle his father's flagging car repair business while he's recovering in the hospital. Buster explodes at the pair when they suggest that he can learn to repair cars just as easily as his hard-working father. After they leave, Buster is gripped by another head-splitting pain—and recovers to realize that several metal objects nearby were apparently floating in the air.

Ratchet soon finds Megatron, who easily overpowers him. But he manages to strike a deal, sealed with the sacred Rite of Oneness: Ratchet will destroy Shockwave, in exchange for the return of the Ark and the Autobots inside. If he fails, Megatron will destroy him; if he succeeds, Megatron resumes his leadership of the Decepticons and wins regardless.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (2) Optimus Prime (4) Cliffjumper (11) Jazz (12) Prowl or Bluestreak (13) Sideswipe (14) Ironhide (15) Sludge (22) Grimlock (23) Slag (24)	Soundwave (6) Laserbeak (7) Shockwave (8) Megatron (18) Rumble (19) Reflector (20) Decepticon jet (21)	Melanie and friends (1) Buster Witwicky (3) Ferdy and Gabe (5) G.B. Blackrock (9) Josie Beller (10) Jessie (16) "O" (17)

Notes

The UK issue #26 printed the entire comic, though several pages were without color.
This issue was reprinted as issue #1 of IDW Publishing's Generations series.
And now it's a jet plant that has its own heavy artillery. Is that even legal?
Blackrock has his own hospital: the Blackrock Chronic Care Institute.
Ratchet states he is "a doctor, not a warrior," a Star Trek reference.

The Decepticon base seen in Megatron's flashback sequence looks nothing like Castle Decepticon, which in the first issue was established as Megatron's base of operations. Presumably then, it is the base Shockwave possessed before coming to Earth. Meanwhile, the building drawn in front of it seems to be inspired by a building seen in the first issue.
This issue's Transmissions page notes that Larry Hama kept a prototype of Jetfire on his desk in the Marvel offices. Wonder if he's still got it?
At some point, CardsOne, a company that deals in vintage comics, trading cards, and collectibles, acquired a large stock of unsold copies of the Generations reprint of this issue (cover variant "A"). These copies were bagged with a second random comic book and a random trading card, then sold via Dollar Tree stores around Easter of 2012.
IDW's Classic Transformers reprint censored an editor's note on page 22 that identified the Savage Land. The note was restored in "The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1" reprint.

Errors

The beam from Ratchet's laser scalpel isn't actually hitting the hot dogs.
Soundwave is actually colored blue here. It matches his animation model, but within the context of the Marvel comic, it's actually an error, since he's always purple elsewhere.
After being shown as little more than a torso in issue #5, Ironhide is now mostly intact again.
Megatron's Decepticon insignia is consistently off-center to the left. This is most likely due to the way his character model was drawn. See the note on Megatron's page for more information.
As he first confronts Ratchet, Megatron's fusion cannon has its own little Decepticon symbol!
Buster's flashback shows him being hit by an energy wave from Optimus Prime's head. However, in the last issue, he received an energy surge by connecting two cables from Prime's head to his own.
On page 20, Ratchet says he will help Megatron "Defend Shockwave" when he clearly means "defeat Shockwave".
On page 22, the bubble that points to Ratchet stating "This much I knew or Shockwave told me" should probably be pointing to Megatron (Ratchet hasn't yet met Shockwave on Earth), but why couldn't they have just done the whole thing in one bubble?
It's not explained how Buster got a change of clothes before the start of this issue. At the end of the last issue (#6) he was hunkered down with Ratchet outside The Ark. At the beginning of Warrior School (#7), he has a jacket and white t-shirt, not his previous trademark pink shirt. He hasn't been home yet to change, since that's where he and Ratchet are headed when they meet the campers and it's implied that only hours have gone by for the two of them since leaving The Ark.

References

Ferdy and Gabe talk about the Decepticons' theft of Blackrock's oil rig ("The Worse of Two Evils!"), just before taking Soundwave in so he can do the same to the plant at which they work.
Megatron recaps why Shockwave stayed behind during the attack on the Ark (new info about events from issue #1) and his subsequent battle with the Dinobots ("The Last Stand").

Covers (4)

US issue #7 - Megatron decides to insult Earth even more by going all blackface
UK issue #26 - Ratchet isn't allowed to speak in the UK!
Generations cover A - Oh slag!
Generations cover B - And now Ratchet is silenced in the USA!