The Wrath of Grimlock!

Issue 32, 26 October 1985.

Written by: Simon Furman
Art by: Barry Kitson and 'Farmer'. Mark Farmer, I'll take a stab at there.
Colours by: Whitaker
Letters by: Scott
Cover art: John Stokes?

Plot: Remote-controlling Optimus Prime's headless body, Wheeljack stops Grimlock from shooting Guardian and detonating the bomb. This costs Grimlock a hand for a time, which puts him in an even less bonny humour. Guardian, meanwhile, activates its final protocol from Shockwave. Its thermonuclear bomb will explode as he makes his way to the highest concentration of enemy. He storms towards the Ark control-room. Swoop, recently back online, sees it and takes it away from the Ark where it explodes, saving everyone on the Ark - but Swoop is assumed liquified. Ratchet gets to work bringing everyone online, while the remaining Dinobots depart. Meanwhile, Josie Beller blows up another TV.

Brill!: Grateful as ever, when Ratchet suggests Grimlock test out his repaired hand, Grimlock gets him back for this and last issue by punching the medic in the face and storming off.

Wicked dialogue: Grimlock tries to cope with Prime's body accosting him. 'Prime! How can you move without a head?'

Miserable glitches: Prime's body is missing all of the colour on his pelvis when he first turns up. (You know, the yellow things on the front and the...uh...blue thing in the middle.) Grimlock's woober's gone grey again. Prowl's missing most of his black trim this week, looking whiter than ever. Snarl's head's still grey, but it's acquired yellow go-faster stripes down the middle! And Slag's robot-mode head is now red.
Given the character, this might not be a glitch, but when Grimlock 'tests' his fixed hand...he's actually using the other hand! (He gets Ratchet with a right, he'd lost his left.)
Prowl is missing his police-car bonnet on his chest when Guardian bursts through the wall.
Can Swoop really fly far enough in nine seconds to get Guardian far away from the Ark that the explosion doesn't affect it? This is a thermonuclear explosion here. They're big! (And if that's Mt St Hillary behind him, I'd say the answer is, 'No he can't!' Ratchet's schedule should have filled right back up again, assuming he was even around to read it!) Who are the Autobots standing around the marker beacon at Swoop's memorial? They don't look like any of the current Ark compliment. Neither, for that matter, do any in the panel around Ratchet, further down the page. (Actually, one looks like he's from the Micromaster Race Car Patrol.)

Notes: The last panel of this issue revisits the last panel of issue 28, nicely providing a teaser for next issue.

Comments: Poor Swoop. Only knocked offline two issues ago, and now he's all blown up again. (Too bad he didn't know about Windcharger, yes?) An excellent back-half to a great little story. Not so high on action, but fast-paced nonetheless. Funny that Windcharger still looks like his toy instead of his Romita model, but I guess Ratchet still had some work to do on him. Again, you've got to feel sorry for poor put-upon Ratchet...he's kind of the universe's bitch through most of the series, isn't he? Of course, any story about the Dinobots is almost good by default. (I say 'almost' because they'll get some shockers soon enough.) Good fun, this.