Issue 23, 27 July 1985.
Written by: Bob Budiansky.
Art by: Alan Kupperberg.
Colours by: Nel Yomtov.
Letters by: Rick Parker.
Cover art: Some artist or another.
Reprinted from US issue 5.
Plot: Sparkplug makes Buster stay away from the Autobots, which he promises he'll do. Back at the Ark, Shockwave reveals his plans for the Autobots - most of them will become spare parts, except for Optimus Prime: Shockwave plans to use the Creation Matrix in the Autobot Leader's mind to create more Decepticons. Buster and Ratchet finally arrive at the Ark to discover this.
Naff dialogue: Ratchet tells Buster, 'Sometimes your thinking is equal to that of any robot I know!' Patronising bugger, inn'e?
Miserable glitches: During that ever-so-touching scene where Sparkplug tells Buster to say goodbye to his new friends, he reminds Buster that he's all he has. Um...what about that other son you've got stashed away in college, Sparky? (Spike, that is. Turns up in a few years' time.)
Shockwave has the other Decepticons clean up the Autobot wrecks that still lie about the Ark. Last issue, we saw that all the Autobots were danging from the ceiling.
The style of Transformer speech-bubble jumps here, between the 'box with flashes' ones with the straight pointer, to the round style with the 'electric' pointer. The different speech bubbles aren't usually my biggest concern, but it's odd to see them change right in the middle of an issue.
Right when those things above happen, the robot Shockwave calls Soundwave really doesn't look much like him. And, come to that, he has an 'organic' speech bubble!
Frenzy and Rumble stand guard outside the Ark, and both are coloured as Frenzy.
Ratchet's colours are just getting shocking. He's got blue and red all over the place here, and it doesn't even match his vehicle mode.
Then, whichever it is that Buster runs past to get into the Ark is also coloured wrong.
Back-up strip: Machine Man - Jolted by Jack O'Lantern, Planet Terry - Doom of the Domed City.
Notes: Liam generously supplied me with the original American printing of this strip, and I've taken my review from there.
Comments: Behold, the first great use of the Matrix in the Transformers comic. A lot of future continuity is neatly preserved here, actually, as Shockwave (who could easily have been misinformed), reports only legends and hearsay about the famous Cybertronian relic. Buster (whose face just looks bizarre) and Ratchet have some brilliant character interaction here, especially as one of Buster's 'life on Earth' tutorials backfires on him.