Blood on the Tracks

	; Oops!
	"Blood on the Tracks"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	September 1986
Cover date	January 1987
Writer	Michael Higgins
Penciler	Herb Trimpe
Inker	Vince Colletta
Colorist	Nelson Yomtov
Letterer	Joe Rosen
Editor	Bob Harras and Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

G.I. Joe are assigned to guard the mobile nuclear Power Station Alpha, but it's not long before the Autobots, the Decepticons, and Cobra take an interest in its potential.

Synopsis

The G.I. Joe team has been assigned the task of protecting Power Station Alpha, the world's first mobile solar/nuclear power station, currently housed at Fort Lewis army base in Washington. Joe team leader Hawk arrives at the base with a delegation of senators and congressmen to witness the launch of Alpha, but first, they have to get through a horde of protestors who object to the project for environmental and political reasons. Hawk has grown close to Senator Barbara Larkin, the driving force behind Alpha's construction, but Senator Garcia shares many of the protestors' concerns, and believes Larkin to be too close to the project to be objective about its dangers.

News of Power Station Alpha soon reaches the Autobots at the Ark. Fearing that the Decepticons will likely attempt to steal it, Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee to watch the base for any signs of enemy activity. Bumblebee isn't thrilled about going alone, and spends the drive there lamenting his lack of physical strength, wishing that he could have a more powerful body.

Unfortunately, the forces of evil have already set their sights on Alpha. Cobra biker trio the Dreadnoks have also been assigned to keep watch at Fort Lewis... but the three goons quickly grow bored of waiting around, and decide to go against orders and try to take control of Alpha there and then. The Dreadnoks roar into the base on their motorbikes, but quickly realise their mistake when they come up against the Joes. Buzzer grabs one of the congressmen, and threatens to kill him if the Joes don't let them escape. The Joes are forced to comply, laying down their weapons and letting the bikers withdraw, leaving the congressman behind. The Dreadnoks proceed to hack and blast every vehicle in their path so they can make good their getaway, while the Joes try to fight through trafffic to pursue them. In the process, the bikers cross paths with Bumblebee, and the little Autobot is forced to partially transform to avoid Buzzer's chainsaw. The Dreadnoks are stupefied at the sight, but manage to make their rendezvous with Zarana, riding their bikes up into the trailer of a truck she arrives in, allowing them to disappear from sight and shake off the pursuing Joes.

The Dreadnoks' little stunt is observed on two different fronts. On Cobra Island, Cobra Commander is furious at having lost the element of surprise, not least of all because he needs a win to shore up support among the troops, now that the recently arrived Serpentor is threatening to usurp his position as leader of Cobra. Meanwhile, at the Decepticons' base, Megatron's curiosity has been piqued by the attack, and he sends Dirge and Bombshell to the base to carry out a more subtle atttempt at seizing control of Alpha.

Bumblebee arrives at Fort Lewis none the worse for wear, and marvels at the sight of Alpha as he settles in for an overnight vigil—only to wake up the next morning to the indignity of a police officer slapping a parking ticket on his windshield! He watches as Alpha prepares to launch, reconfiguring into an airborne form... but just as it begins to roll down the runway, Bombshell and Dirge arrive. Dirge identifies Bumblebee below, and Bombshell quickly comes up with a plan to keep the Autobot busy while he makes his play for Alpha. Zeroing in on young Anthony Duranti, son of one of the protestors, playing frisbee with G.I. Joe Mutt's dog Junkyard nearby, Bombshell injects the boy with a cerebro-shell, taking control of his body and mind, and commanding him to walk in front of the station's treads, reasoning that Bumblebee will be forced to act to save him. Bumblebee alerts the Ark to the Decepticons' appearance, and Optimus sends the Aerialbots to help out, but they will not arrive in time—Bumblebee is forced to disobey Optimus and break his cover, transforming to robot mode and snatching Anthony to safety at the last minute, while G.I. Joe commando Snake-Eyes shuts Power Station Alpha down. The Joes mistake Bumblebee's actions as hostile, and at Senator Larkin's urging, they open fire on the Autobot, blowing him to pieces. As this horrifying scene plays out, Bombshell completes his mission, infiltrating Alpha and tagging it with another cerebro-shell... then, things get even worse when the Aerialbots arrive on the scene and combine into the gigantic Superion, demanding to know where Bumblebee is!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	G.I. Joe	Cobra	Humans
Optimus Prime (16) Bumblebee (17) Skydive (18) Slingshot (19) Air Raid (20) Fireflight (21) Silverbolt (22) Ratchet (23) Superion (33)	Megatron (29) Dirge (30) Bombshell (31)	Hawk (6) Roadblock (7) Snake-Eyes (8) Beachhead (9) Scarlett (13) Junkyard (14) Mutt (15)	Ripper (3) Torch (4) Buzzer (5) Zartan (24) Baroness (25) Cobra Commander (26) Doctor Mindbender (27) Serpentor (28) Zarana (32)	Mrs. Duranti (1) Anthony Duranti (2) Barbara Larkin (10) Congressman (11) Garcia (12)

Quotes

"Oh, the indignity of it all! This would never happen to an Aerialbot!"

—Bumblebee reacts to getting a parking ticket

Notes

Continuity notes

BloodontheTracks bumblebee destroyed.jpg

This issue occurs roughly concurrently with issue #24 of the regular Transformers comic, published the same month. In terms of precise continuity, it's nnnnot a perfect fit, requiring Optimus Prime to head out and participate in the events of issue #24 after the Aerialbots leave the Ark in this issue; meaning that the bulk that story (at least pages 6–23, spanning several hours) must fit into no more than the length of time it takes the Aerialbots to fly from the Ark to Washington (covered by pages 19–24 of this issue). Also, while this issue takes place in daylight, the Transformers issue occurs at night.
An unidentified man notes that "Mr. Blackrock" will be pleased with Power Station Alpha, referring to the Autobots' human ally, industrialist G.B. Blackrock, last seen back in Transformers #15. However, see "Continuity and plotting errors", below.
Scarlett refers to a recent "debacle in Springfield" the Joes were involved in, which took place in G.I. Joe #50; it involved the Joes staging an all-out assault on Cobra's home base, which ended in failure.
Optimus Prime credits Bumblebee with obtaining the information on the Decepticons' combination process that allowed the Autobots to create the Aerialbots, as seen in Transformers #19.
Optimus Prime notes that "the threat of Megatron is far more serious" than he'd originally believed, and a footnote directs readers to Transformers #23 to learn more. In that issue, Megatron instructed the Battlechargers to deliver a message to Prime, challenging him to a one-on-one duel... but the problem is, they never actually delivered that message. In actuality, this is probably just a mistake with the footnote, and is meant to direct readers to the concurrently-published issue #24, in which Prime eavesdrops on Megatron, and learns of his plans to steal the hydrothermocline from Energy Futures Industries.
Bombshell refers to his recent trip to the Ark, and calls it a "total waste of time", but there are a few things wrong with that. First, the footnote says it took place in Transformers #19, but it actually occurred in issue #22. And on that trip, Bombshell implanted a cerebro-shell in Optimus Prime, which allowed the Decepticons to channel the energy of the Creation Matrix and bring the Stunticons to life! Hardly a waste of time!
Ratchet is carrying out some form of "adjustments" to the Aerialbots throughout this issue that aren't expounded upon; this might have something to do with their recent experience as captives of RAAT, as seen in Transformers #23, which involved them being disassembled and rebuilt.

Real-life references

The title of this issue is derived from the Bob Dylan album of the same name.
Placards waved by the anti-nuclear protestors at the Alpha read "Didn't Chernobyl Teach You a Lesson?" and "Remember TMI", referencing the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.

Continuity and plotting errors

From his single mention in this issue, it is implied that G.B. Blackrock was involved with the creation of Power Station Alpha... but when he appears later on in the series, he shows no knowledge of or concern for the power station.

Artwork and technical errors

Page 4:
- Panel 1: Though it has the standard blue-white coloration used by the comic, the Ark appears to have been drawn based on its appearance in the Transformers animated series. It's hard to call this a true error, though, because the comic hasn't yet actually introduced a standardized design for the ship.
- Panels 2 & 4: Optimus Prime's head is solid blue; his mouthplace and the crest on his forehead should be white/light-blue.
Page 11, panel 1: The gun barrel on Megatron's shoulder is white; per his Marvel color model, it should be blue.
Page 19:
- Panel 5: Optimus Prime's nose is white instead of blue. When giving orders to the Aerialbots, he names "Superion" as part of the roster instead of Silverbolt (right).
- Panel 6: Now the area of Prime's face not concealed by his faceplate (his eye-and-nose area) is light-blue/white; it should be blue like the rest of his helmet.
Page 22, panel 1: Bumblebee's chest (the roof of his vehicle mode) is blue-black instead of yellow.
Page 24, panel 5: As is often the case with the character in both comics and animation, Superion's colours are very off model; the sides of his abdomen are yellow instead of red, his legs are red with white details instead of white with red details, and both his arms are solid blue, when his right should have some Fireflight-red, and his left should be mostly Slingshot-white.

UK printing

The entire G.I. Joe and the Transformers mini-series was initially skipped by the British comic, with an alternate story even being produced to fill the narrative gap involving Bumblebee's destruction for the UK continuity. A little over three years later, however, when the comic had to take a break from the then-current US material due to catching up with the American comic's publication schedule, the crossover was dusted off for a belated reprinting. Issue #265's editorial (right) is perfectly honest about this; no attempt is made to rework the story to fit into the UK continuity, and it is just presented as "the US version" of events.

Issue #265

Published: 7th April, 1990
Cover date: 14th April, 1990
Additional Transformers story: "Once upon a Time..."
Other strips: G.I. Joe: The Action Force ("Manoeuvring for Position", Part 3) and Combat Colin
AtoZ: Shockwave

Issue #266

Published: 14th April, 1990
Cover date: 21st April, 1990
Additional Transformers story: "Life in the Slow Lane"
Other strips: G.I. Joe: The Action Force ("Manoeuvring for Position", Part 4) and Combat Colin
This issue tries to correct the footnote error involving Bombshell's mission to the Ark, but still doesn't get it quite right, labelling it as occurring in issue #89 (US issue #21) when it actually happened in issue #91.

Issue #267

Published: 21st April, 1990
Cover date: 28th April, 1990
Additional Transformers story: "Snow Fun!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe: The Action Force ("Shuttle Complex", Part 1) and ~~Combat Colin~~ Combat Kate
AtoZ: Shrapnel and Sideswipe

Issue #268

Published: 28th April, 1990
Cover date: 5th May, 1990
Additional Transformers story: "Flashback!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe: The Action Force ("Shuttle Complex", Part 2) and Combat Colin

Other trivia

The cover corner box for this series uses Marvel's convention for many of its team-based comics at the time, by showing heads of prominent characters. For G.I. Joe and the Transformers, Marvel used the head of Snake-Eyes from the cover of G.I. Joe issue 53, slightly altered, and the head from Bumblebee's character model from Transformers Universe #1.

Covers (5)

G.I. Joe and the Transformers #1: Bumblebee is destroyed by GI Joe, by Herb Trimpe.
UK issue #265: the Autobot Code lies abandoned in the snow, by Gary Gilbert.
UK issue #266: Jazz and Sunstreaker play Dukes of Hazzard, by Andrew Wildman.
UK issue #267: Grimlock charges at some hunters, by John Marshall.
UK issue #268: Megatron/Snap Trap tries to stab Prowl in the past, by Stephen Baskerville.