« Transformers (Titan) #18 »
Well, he asked some other guys to save Earth, near enough.
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	6 November 2008
Editor	Steve White
Deputy editor	Den Patrick
Designer	Danny Preston
Publishing manager	Darryl Curtis

With Stockade on Nucleon, what chance, then, do the Autobots have?

(PS bog all)

Contents

Return to Cybertron: Part 2

The Autobots are trying to hold Ironhide back, but he refuses to live with the knowledge he ran! So Stockade calmly smashes him into the ground.

Bumblebee gets Ironhide to stay down and tries a diplomatic approach, telling the Decepticons that the Autobots' mission doesn't concern them at all and they haven't seen anything that they can identify anyway. Stockade, however, says he cannot allow them to leave Cybertron now they've seen the spatial anomaly—and throws a fit at the mention of Megatron, whose mad schemes involving the AllSpark left Cybertron to die! Stockade's small band of Decepticons refused to abandon their homeworld, though, and beamed energy from their Sparks on a sub-space carrier wave, believing any entity that detected the message would be a relation of the AllSpark and be attracted to Cybertron.

And now that such an entity has arrived in the form of the energy anomaly, they're opening up Cybertron so the entity will fill it and rebirth the planet!

On Earth, Camshaft's team are saving the town of Shallowater, Texas from another AllSpark-caused disaster, while Camshaft goes "WTF?!" over Optimus's plan to use Nucleon. It could save the Earth but, being a chimerical and oft-volatile substance, it could also blow the Earth to bits! But Optimus is ready to take that risk, as Earth is on the verge of collapse...

God, the lengths people will go to get spoilers on the new toyline...

On Cybertron, the Decepticons are merrily carrying on. Bumblebee knows they need to stop the Decepticons, as they're not only using up all the Nucleon but the entity can't be allowed into Cybertron. What they need is a distraction so he can get to the Decepticons' transmitter and alert Prime. Ironhide has the perfect distraction, which is to transform and start running people over while Armorhide and Arcee drive off going, "Neener neener, can't catch me!"

At the White House, currently undergoing reconstruction, President Theodore Allen is meeting Mikaela Banes. He's decided she should be in his new "Let's all be brainwashed slaves of Starscream" initiative...

On Cybertron, Stockade beats down Ironhide again. Incinerator reports the Nucleon was not transferred (not knowing Bumblebee is responsible) but that it doesn't matter, as the entity itself is providing the power needed to transfer it into Cybertron!

Then the entity gives its name...

Unicron.

Oh, bugger.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Articles & features

• Top Gear: promotion of and competitions for Animated toys.
• Bumblebee's Way-Past-Cool Reviews: video game review feature.
• Artobots: Fan art section.
• Star Screams: Letters, art and photos from readers, answered by Starscream.
• Poster of Optimus Prime doing a Lord Kitchener.
• Competitions for various video games and two books.

Free Gift

• "Free! Disk Accelerator!" — another free blaster toy, with Autobot and Decepticon disk: "Whose side are you on?"

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Megatron Origin, part 2b (6 pages)
• Beast Wars: The Ascending part 2a (6 pages)

Quotes

Strip

"Megatron? It's not his work we do here! It was Megatron's insane quest that left us bereft of the AllSpark, dooming the planet to a slow death. He abandoned Cybertron... and us!"

—Stockade

"I take it, Camshaft, you aren't of a like mind on this."
"If that means 'I think you've taken leave of your senses, Prime', then that's an affirmative."

—Optimus getting shafted by Camshaft

"It's a Decepticon control chip. It allows them to manipulate human 'puppets' from afar. I have one too."

—President Allen is scary

"I am Unicron, the anti-life. The end of everything!"

—Unicron is scarier

Star Screams

"I'm hoping one of you wretched pig-faced baboons will have something interesting to say this issue..."

"When a lion kills a gazelle in Africa, the lion is simply putting the gazelle out of its herbivorous misery. It isn't evil. The same thing will happen with humans and Decepticons. It's called the food chain, and I'm afraid you humans are no longer at the top of it."

A five-year old: "Can you tell me how to transform, as I would like to learn how to do it too?"
"Ah Joe, the question is—what would you transform into? And as you are made of meat to start with, does that mean you'd be a car, or maybe a jet made of meat too? ...However, your dedication is to be commended, as long as you were a Decepticon of course!"

"It amazes me that you mentally challenged milk-feeders managed to get so lucky as to halt our plans for world domination..."

"Such violence and passion, Arawn! You almost remind me of me (if I were a barely evolved meatsack under five feet tall)."

Notes

Continuity notes

• Cybertron dying after the All Spark left was established by the film.
• Stockade's crew also includes Storm Surge.
• Bumblebee possesses either the skill, rank or both to assume command quickly from Ironhide, as well as some degree of negotiation skills.
• Stockade doesn't actually want to kill the Autobots and, as he stated last issue, would prefer not to damage them. Nice chap for an insane ranting Nucleon junkie.
• The Decepticons actually use levers to open a large mouth-like hole in Cybertron (a "dock" as they call) for Unicron to enter. It's unknown if this is a natural feature or if they built it.
• Unicron would later appear in Transformers: The Last Knight, which revealed his body was the Earth but didn't show him awake. Handily, this means there's not yet any proof Unicron's ghost isn't haunting space in the movieverse!

Alternate-reality notes

• The Decepticon army is confirmed as being scattered across space.

Prime Wants You. But not you. Yeah, YOU. You suck.

Real life references

• Furman continues his policy of introducing readers to places in the US they'd never even heard of.

Letters page notes

• People writing in to the comic range from 5-year-olds to student-aged adults, one of whom sent in a photo of him dressed as Optimus Prime at a party (his friend was Jesus).

Production notes

And the sad thing is, I'm wondering if that counts as a canonical Transformer.

• The poster was originally going to be the cover, being previewed as such last issue.
• Unicron's involvement was in the works since at least May 2008, as it was then Furman promised they'd be "bringing in a threat so monumental that ‘epic’ plainly doesn’t cover it".^[1]
• Unicron is now appearing in both the main strip and in the Beast Wars reprints. It's extremely likely this is deliberate. Not only is this the precise issue where Unicron is named in a reprint, both stories even feature Unicron as a disembodied spirit trying to get a new bod!
• The "Team Titan!" advertising page informs us that Steve White's favourite things are sharks, jets and dinosaurs, and he longs for a dinosaur-shark that transforms into a jet. There's a drawing of him hugging a T-Rex and saying "I wuv 'oo!".

Errors

• Armorhide is coloured like that other Armorhide.
• Allen never had a model to be on but somehow he's become beefy and blond.
• The Presidential flag in the Oval Office is severely under-detailed, possessing only the circle of stars (which on first glance makes it look like the European Union flag). And it seems to switch places between panels...

Other notes

• The "Oh slag!" look on Incinerator's face when Unicron speaks is hilarious.

References