Crisis of Command!

Part 3

Issue 44, 18 January 1986.

Written by: Mike Collins
Art by: John Stokes
Colours by: Gina Hart
Letters by: Mike Scott
Cover art: Jeff Anderson

Plot: Having dropped Bumblebee's arm in front of the Autobots, Laserbreak issues a challenge - Optimus Prime must come alone after the Mini-Autobot. Optimus accepts and heads off. He manoeuvres out of a trap from Rumble to fall before Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp. He recovers himself to take them out, then rescues Bumblebee from Soundwave's clutches. Filled with confidence and resolve once more, Prime makes his decision: he will not be using the Matrix to make any Ultimate Autobots.

Brill!: As the Seekers confront him, Optimus overcomes his own doubts and opens up a fuel-tank of whup-ass on them. He's completely back in the game.
The great sense of irony from Optimus Prime when he announces at the end, 'I owe my recovery to...Starscream!'

Wicked dialogue: Even though it's narration rather than real dialogue, I like the summary of Bumblebee's whupping: '...but the Autobot's strength didn't match his courage...'
Again, this would be naff it wasn't for the fact I can so hear Starscream saying it in his voice from the TV series: 'He's just waiting to be put out of his misery...waiting for the final blow from Starscream - The leader killer!'

Miserable glitches: Starscream has one red wing and one grey on the cover. And Thundercracker has black legs.
Who's that yellow guy in the background of the first page? It looks almost like Bluestreak with Sunstreaker's colours.
Soundwave has a blue woober here - and for some reason, in occasional close-ups, his weapons are gold, very deliberately coloured and toned gold.
Rumble's got gilded pile-drivers in one panel, too.
Soundwave has a purple cassette-door, making him look a bit like the Japanese Soundblaster character (sorry, that's 'New Soundwave' to anyone who saw the Star TV dub).
Bumblebee's head design is entirely wrong. (Getting faces wrong particularly irks me. Even in Transformers, that's one of the most important character-features, so when someone's head is too far gone, it doesn't feel like them anymore.)
Was that really Soundwave's whole plan? 'I'll get Optimus Prime aside and then some Decepticons will beat him up?' Surely it can't be his big master stroke - he must know how powerful Optimus Prime is. (I think those guys possibly could beat Prime, it seems a bit much to hang a whole idea on it and mark it out as what makes you smarter than your predecessors. (Should've sent Devastator along, that'd do it.)
In the final scene, Sunstreaker's standing around at the meeting, even though he should be strung up in the repair bay. (I guess Ratchet could have got around to fixing him, but he'd have to be taken out again before issue 80, because he doesn't recognise Galvatron in Perchance to Dream. And Ratchet sure didn't hold any confidence he'd be able to repair him in issue 35.
Also in this scene, Prowl and Ironhide have some off character designs...Prowl in one panel simply has a chest with an Autobot symbol, no car bonnet, and Ironhide once more makes an appearance in his 'silly robot who rides a cart' persona.

Back-up strip: Iron Man.

Notes: Laserbeak's regained the power of speech once more, but his speech is in this strange wavy lettering. Maybe he's doing a really creepy voice.
It could just be dramatic style, but a caption in this issue seems to make an attempt to refer to the Decepticon Headquarters as 'Fortress Sinister'! If they were trying for that, it was quitely dropped later. (Doesn't that sound like Fortress Maximus' brother who spends his time tying damsels to railroad tracks?) Actually, that name kinda grows on me. I think I'll use it.

Comments: What might be just a simple plot is lifted by the deeper thread about Optimus and the Autobots' internal conflict. And by the fact that it's just plain old well-written and well-presented. Some of the ideas were a bit by the wayside, but made up for by the fact that the story's actually fairly enjoyable. Some might say the real plot is only an issue or so's worth, but turning it into three parts means that it doesn't feel rushed at all. This pace isn't necessary what I'd like issue after issue, but it makes a nice effort here, letting us sit around and clear our head after all of the business with the major arc last year.