Dark Star
| The name or term "Dark Star" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Dark Star (disambiguation). |
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| "Dark Star" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | November 1988 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | March 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Bob Budiansky | ||||||||||||
| Penciler | José Delbo | ||||||||||||
| Inker | Dave Hunt | ||||||||||||
| Color | Nel Yomtov | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Rick Parker | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Don Daley | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
The end of the Underbase Saga... and the Transformers?
Synopsis
Out in the vacuum of space, the Underbase travels ever closer to Earth...
On that planet, the Aerialbots are the first to respond to the alert beacon triggered by Buster Witwicky. Seeing the responsible party, they quickly radio back to the Ark and Fortress Maximus. A full Autobot response battalion arrives within a matter of minutes. Spike is reunited with his brother only to find him on the brink of death. He places Buster within a heating unit in Fortress Maximus's chest to fight off the effects of exposure and frostbite. As the Autobots gather their wits enough to question the situation at hand, though, they are treated to a full scale Decepticon attack, as Ratbat and Scorponok have detected their approach.
The following battle is quick and merciless, and comes to a stop only when Ratbat ends up confronting Fortress Maximus and his own former prisoner, Buster. Buster outlays what Starscream told him before departing, and makes Ratbat see reason about putting his feud with the Autobots on hold until the larger issue can be dealt with. The various faction leaders agree to work together and make a space-worthy craft to hunt down Starscream.
At the edge of space, the most treacherous Decepticon of all leaves his star cruiser to bathe directly in the light of the Underbase's powerful knowledge and knowledgeable power. Before he absorbs much, however, he is blasted out of the way by Optimus Prime, manning the guns on the island starship. Unfortunately, that momentary exposure was enough to supercharge Starscream, and he manages to grab hold of the entire star cruiser he stole and toss it straight through the island ship, leaving the combined armies crippled and stranded in space, and the Decepticons in particular without any means of star travel from then on.
For some reason, Starscream chooses to let them live drifting in the vacuum of space. He also chooses to return to Earth and attack it instead of chasing down the Underbase to fulfill his lust for power. He also announces in advance the exact set of cities he plans to assault. Clearly, the "knowledge" part of the Underbase takes awhile to set in.
Optimus Prime enacts Plan B and summons the Ark to pick them all up and speed back to Earth ahead of Starscream. As the factions begin splitting into teams to cover Starscream's previously identified destinations, Optimus makes the stunning announcement that he will stay aboard the Ark and not confront Starscream. The Decepticons quickly dismiss this as pure cowardice, and leave for Earth in disgust.
Autobots and Decepticons alike confront Starscream one after another and in groups, but ultimately he slaughters them all. The only difficulties he runs into are the Pretenders and those who are binary bonded, as the organic outer shells and bonding prove somehow resistant to his destructive energies. As the battles continue, both Ratbat and Scorponok become suspicious that Optimus Prime's alleged cowardice might actually be greed to capture the Underbase for himself, and abandon their respective battles to return to the Ark and confront him.
Aboard the Ark, Optimus Prime and Hi-Q are guarding Buster Witwicky, while constructing a rocket with reflective panels, designed to catch the Underbase and change its course. Buster makes the mistake of radioing his brother during the battle, though, and Starscream realizes the potential threat an absent Optimus Prime poses to him. He takes off for space to intercept the Autobot leader and the Ark. Ratbat and Scorponok get there ahead of him, however, and confront Prime. After Scorponok blasts Prime and annihilates Ratbat, he heads off to reach the redirected Underbase on his own. Optimus manages to replace his Powermaster engine in time to go after Scorponok, and physically drags the two of them out of the Underbase's path, so that it strikes Starscream instead. The combined power of the Underbase mutates Starscream until he is overwhelmed with power, and is obliterated.
In the aftermath, Optimus Prime explains to Scorponok that he learned his lesson about the Underbase millions of years ago. He arranged for the reflector rocket and for Buster's "ill-timed" radio message to Fortress Maximus in order to lure Starscream back out into space, where he would surely try to take all of the Underbase's power and destroy himself. The Cybertronian leaders part in peace, but Scorponok makes it clear that the war will begin anew, tomorrow...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Nebulans | ||||
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Notes
- This issue is double-length in honor of its milestone issue number. Accordingly, it also cost 50 cents more than a standard issue.
- It features the biggest battle toll of any issue, including the battle with Unicron. Among the confirmed casualties are the Aerialbots, Hound, Bluestreak, Mirage, Hoist, Brawn, Gears, Goldbug, Jazz, the Seacons, Jetfire, Blaster, the Throttlebots, Thundercracker, Skywarp, the Dinobots, the Predacons, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Octane, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, the Technobots, the Terrorcons, Omega Supreme, Ratbat and, of course, Starscream.
- Beachcomber and Powerglide can (arguably) be retroactively added to this issue's casualty list as Beachcomber is later seen laying in Ratchet's repair bay in "Deathbringer", and Powerglide is confirmed deactivated in "Yesterday's Heroes!".
- Bob Budiansky's reasoning for the mass murder was that he needed a big end for the story, he had too many characters, and Hasbro wouldn't care about characters that didn't have toys for sale. And hey, they weren't getting any panel-time these days anyway, "so they were already just about dead". [1]
- Many people also assume that the rest of the earlier armies, those not possessing organic enhancements like Headmasters and Pretenders (save the ever "lucky" Ratchet), were also wiped out behind the scenes. Though unconfirmed, there's something to be said for this theory. Many Transformers like the Protectobots, Insecticons, and Combaticons are never seen again (within the course of the G1 series). Later issues show Prime mourning the loss of warriors not seen killed in the Underbase Saga, such as Perceptor and Prowl (and again, Powerglide), while First Aid, Ironhide, Wheeljack and Tracks are variously shown as deactivated during "The Greatest Gift of All!", "...Perchance to Dream" and "Makin' Tracks!". The greatest support for this theory is the story "Flashback!", which shows Prowl being destroyed by Starscream in San Francisco, a moment not shown in Dark Star, proving that there was indeed at least one "off panel" casualty. Still, it remains a point for debate.
- Prime refers to the casualties as "destroyed", but later issues make it clear that at least some of them could be repaired. The Dinobots, Jazz, Goldbug, Blaster and Silverbolt are all revived later in the series. Ratchet is also seen working to restore Omega Supreme. The task of repairing them all will have consequences very shortly.
- Starscream's actions would inevitably haunt the Decepticons for some time when he was reborn. Several Decepticons would actually desert in various continuities, because Starscream was among them.
- With Ratbat's demise, Scorponok is now in charge of all the Decepticons of Earth. Since most of them were wiped out in this issue, that's probably not much of a promotion.
- Soundwave is explicitly blasted by Starscream, but apparently either survives unscathed or is promptly repaired, as he soon appears in later issues. This is never explained (he has no organic components to ensure his survival), other than Soundwave is BADASS!
- The next issue shows Seaspray among the survivors, though by the time "The Greatest Gift of All!" saw print, he is shown and referred to as deactivated.
- This is clearly Slingshot's worst day ever. He gets left behind by his fellow Aerialbots when they go pick up Buster, is ionically-disrupted by Astrotrain, transforms into jet mode only to get strafed by a Decepticon flying patrol, and finally is atomized battling Starscream. Some people just can't catch a break.
- The Seacons got axed 3 issues after their debut appearance (though Marvel UK had them appearing sooner). Even Nemesis Breaker lasted longer than that.
- Optimus Prime returns to the US cover corner box, although it's his original form as it appeared on the first 29 issues. This image of Prime will remain in the corner box for the next 25 issues.
Errors
- Ratbat and Scorponok figure out that Starscream stole the spacecraft to go after the Underbase... and then Buster inexplicably needs to explain it to Ratbat all over again a few pages later. (The only new information Buster gives him is that Starscream arranged for the Autobots to show up.)
- Not technically an error, but the background shot of Prowl under attack from Scorponok is copied right from "Totaled!".
- So is the entire sequence of Cerebros and Spike transforming out of their respective head modes.
- In said sequence, Cerebros' name is misspelled as "Cerebro".
- Another repeat from "Totaled": Fortress Maximus's Autobots are completely absent from the first half of the issue, most notably from the Autobot-Decepticon battle.
- On page 11, panel 2 Fortress Maximus has only 3 fingers on his left hand. Ratbat COULD have POSSIBLY eaten it off panel...MAYBE.
Covers
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US issue #50 - He may be powered up, but he's still only got one ear. -
UK issue #208 - Starscream needs to learn to share his toys. -
UK issue #209 - Sure Prime, sure... -
UK issue #210 - Mummy, what's the bad man doing?
- US issue #50 cover: Starscream supreme, by José Delbo and Danny Bulanadi.
- UK issue #208 cover: Starscream bathing in the Underbase, by Andrew Wildman.
- UK issue #209 cover: Starscream on the attack, by Geoff Senior.
- UK issue #210 cover: Scorponok, having just blasted Prime, by Andrew Wildman.
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Reprints
- 2004 — Transformers: Dark Star
- 2009 — Classic Transformers Volume 4
- 2010 — The Transformers: Best of Starscream
