Warrior School!

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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 when Shockwave contacts Megatron with orders to prepare Optimus Prime for transport, Ratchet realizes that Megatron has lost command of the Decepticons, a potential weakness. 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.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"Forgive me, humans! My intrusion upon your ceremonies was purely unintentional. The terrain of your planet is often uneven, quite unlike that of my home planet Cybertron. I lost my footing and accidentally nudged this brown pipe out of its mooring. Permit me to correct my error."

—Ratchet tries to put a tree back in place


"Hmm... intriguing... heat tempered protein cylinders!"

—Ratchet discovers hot dogs


"As you trained on our native Cybertron to be a doctor... so shall you train on Earth to be a warrior! Experience shall be your instructor. Your own survival shall be your ultimate test."

—Optimus Prime

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

  • The beam from Ratchet's laser scalpel isn't actually hitting the hot dogs.
  • Page 7: Ferdy states that he likes "to punch in one time" to work, rather than on time.
  • Soundwave is actually colored blue here. It matches his animation model, but within the context of the US Marvel comic, it's actually an error, since he's always purple elsewhere (although the UK comic does color him blue in its own stories.)
  • 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?

Continuity errors

  • And now it's a jet plant that has its own heavy artillery. Is that even legal?
  • The Decepticon base on Cybertron, seen in Megatron's flashback sequence, has a large domed roof, much like its cartoon counterpart. Meanwhile, the building drawn in front of it seems to be inspired by a building seen in the first issue.
  • 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.
  • Megatron was defeated by Shockwave while still recovering from his damage. He seems to be fully repaired now, making it a little unclear why he should need Ratchet's help.

Continuity notes

  • Blackrock has his own hospital: the Blackrock Chronic Care Institute.
  • Megatron gives us new info about events from issue #1), recapping why Shockwave stayed behind during the attack on the Ark (he planned the attack and stayed behind as backup) and his subsequent battle with the Dinobots as shown in issue #4.
  • Ferdy and Gabe talk about the Decepticons' theft of Blackrock's oil-drilling platform ("The Worse of Two Evils!"), just before taking Soundwave in so he can do the same to the plant at which they work.
  • Shockwave's navigational systems are adversely affected by Earth's magnetic field, and he lands in the Antarctic. This plot concept would be revived in 2007, when more or less the same thing happened to the live-action movie version of Megatron.
  • Megatron and Ratchet's interactions here begin a rivalry between the two which will crop up again several times throughout the series, and even beyond it.

Real-life references

  • Ratchet states he is "a doctor, not a warrior," a Star Trek reference.
  • Buster mentions Lee Iacocca while despairing over repairing the cars at his dad's garage.
  • The campers are in a national park near Oregon's Mount Hood. The jet assembly plant, Blackrock's headquarters, and the hospital are all located in Portland.

UK printing

  • Backup strips: Robo-Capers, Chromobots and Matt and the Cat
  • For the first and only time, a whole US story was printed in a single comic, though several pages were without color.

Other trivia

G.I. Joe: Not for wimps, apparently
  • 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?
  • This issue was reprinted as issue #1 of IDW Publishing's Generations series.
    • 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.

Covers (11)

  • US issue #7 - Megatron decides to insult Earth even more by going all blackface
    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!
    UK issue #26 - Ratchet isn't allowed to speak in the UK!
  • The Transformers Comics Magazine #4
    The Transformers Comics Magazine #4
  • New Order TPB
    New Order TPB
  • New Order HC
    New Order HC
  • Generations #1 cover A - Oh slag!
    Generations #1 cover A - Oh slag!
  • Generations #1 cover B - And now Ratchet is silenced in the USA!
    Generations #1 cover B - And now Ratchet is silenced in the USA!
  • Generations #1 incentive cover
    Generations #1 incentive cover
  • Generations TPB
    Generations TPB
  • Classic Transformers Volume 1
    Classic Transformers Volume 1
  • The Transformers Classics, Vol 1
    The Transformers Classics, Vol 1

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Reprints

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