The Greatest Gift of All!
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 "Incidentally... a happy Christmas to all of you at home!" | |||||||||||||
| "The Greatest Gift of All!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 23rd December 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 30th December 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | Staz | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Helen Stone | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
Optimus Prime grants a gift to the Earth.
Synopsis
It's Christmas Day, 1989. Longtooth's piece of the Creation Matrix has reached Optimus Prime. Now he can grant life to one of the many deactivated Autobots. He considers First Aid as they need a medic, Prowl for his leadership, one of the Dinobots for their strength... Optimus is suddenly revolted at the idea of playing god, and briefly decides to choose a random person to revive—settling on Seaspray—but cannot go through with such an arbitrary way of deciding who lives.
His dilemma is interrupted by a report: Stakeout and the Rescue Patrol have cornered Whisper, who has an open-ended contract on all of Autobot High Command, and are closing in. As Optimus Prime monitors the battle—ordering no harm comes to human or animal life—he briefly considers reviving Silverbolt, only to wonder if he'd resent being chosen when others weren't. His musing is interrupted when the Rescue Patrol comes under attack by Whisper's Air Strike Patrol buddies. The resulting battle trashes a forest, and, in monitoring it, Optimus gets a computer report on the environmental knock-on damage being caused.
Optimus Prime suddenly realises how much damage their war has done to Earth without him realising. He calls the Rescue Patrol back to base and sends the Matrix fragment into Earth's atmosphere, causing rain that repairs the damage the battle has done to the environment. "He has a gift, the greatest gift of all... he gladly gives it to the Earth!"
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
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Notes
- This is the last UK strip that ties into the US strip—after this comes a four-part (and last) post-movie strip, and then Earthforce.
- It's also the last Marvel UK Christmas story in strip form! *sob*British fans would have to put up with "Dreadwind's Xmas!" the following year and then wait until 2010 for another one.
- Seaspray has been taken offline at some point since we saw him in issue #212.
- The Air Strike Patrol appear to have gone AWOL from the Decepticons after "Skin Deep" - they're targeting Autobot leaders for money, not under orders.
- The Matrix can heal organic life if used properly.
- On the cover, Bumblebee is playing with a toy of himself.
- This issue featured Transformers AtoZ profiles for Rewind and Rumble.
References
- The scores of Autobot wounded are primarily from "Dark Star", when the Underbase-powered Starscream decimated their ranks.
- This takes place after Ratchet was presumed dead ("Skin Deep"), which is why Optimus needs a medic.
- The Rescue Patrol arrived on Earth in "Primal Scream".
Covers (3)
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Issue #250 -
Issue #332 -
Titan TPB
- Issue #250 cover: The Transformers' Christmas party, by Andrew Wildman.
- Issue #332 cover: Bludgeon about to dismember Wheeljack, by Andrew Wildman.
- Way of the Warrior TPB cover: Carnivac and Springer stand victorious over a Limbo nightmare creature, by Simon Coleby.
