Issue 18, 18 May 1985.
Written by: Simon Furman.
Art by: Mike Collins & Jeff Anderson.
Colours by: Gina Hart.
Letters by: Richard Starkings.
Cover art: Mike Collins & Jeff Anderson.
Plot: The Decepticons attack the Ark, and the Autobots fight back. No, seriously. That's pretty much it.
Technobabble: The 'electro-magnetic shield' that helps Ravage avoid detection can also 'negate' Windcharger's 'powerful magnetic field'.
Miserable glitches: In the recap at the start of the story, about why there is such a thing as Transformers on Earth, it's implied that Auntie, the ship computer, had a good long think about things, then came up with the notion of crashing the Ark into Earth. As we saw in issue 1, that was Optimus' doing. (And if you think it's unclear there, issue 198 will make it completely clear.)
As Gina Hart is handling the colouring tasks on this issue, we have more of those lovely alternate hues... Megatron's still got his yellow top on and whathaveyou, Hound's head is grey, and Soundwave and Prime's woobers are blue.
Fact-file: Jazz.
Back-up strips: Machine Man - Alone Against Alpha-Flight, Planet Terry - Some Answers.
Notes: I read this issue via the scans on Lizzard's site. Go here and you can read it for yourself!
Comments: Really, as I said, there's not a lot to this issue. Simon Furman, having shone in parts of The Enemy Within over the past few issues isn't having a terribly good day here. Sure, a big Transformers fight can be cool, but not like this. It's not really a huge epic battle, just a scrap that seems to be extended, without the usual virtue of the plot being sought between punches. And readers more familiar with the later days of Optimus Prime (Mr We Need No Violence We Shouldn't Fight 1991), might find him a bit shocking here - after Laserbeak attacks some Autobots, Prime blows him down with his gun and adds, 'Call yourselves warriors? Arm up and follow me outside!' Kinda cool to see that he can whip out his full strength when it's only bad robots he's fighting.