« Titan Transformers Comic #8 »
Ironhide carefully explains why he feels G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers is not an equal match.
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	31 January 2008
Cover date	February 2008
Editor	Steve White
Deputy editor	Den Patrick
Designer	Danny Preston
Publishing manager	Darryl Curtis

That'll do, scorpion. That'll do.

Contents

Scorpion Sting

In Qatar, Ironhide tears apart an army vehicle, screaming at the soldiers to run and hide before he kills them, as he is now a slave to the will of Scorponok!

Earlier, at a local US air base, Ironhide discovers Captain Lennox has been reassigned. Captain Cartwright's team of Army Rangers will instead be assisting him in hunting for Scorponok. Ironhide is slightly perturbed by the change of plan, and when asked to "show us some credentials" merely transforms as a display of force. Cartwright admits that'll do. As they head out, Ironhide grills Cartwright on what he knows about the quarry and questions if they're ready for the Decepticon to fight. The soldiers reply in the affirmative, but nobody realizes the Decepticon is tracking them.

"This Ironhide! Twenty men enter, only he leave!"

Picking up multiple weak contacts, Ironhide transforms to get a better view. Cartwright barely has time to realize these are "ghost" contacts to confuse them before Scorponok emerges. Ironhide is hit before he can respond, and the Decepticon drills into his head and takes over his motor functions. As the Decepticon forces him to attack and he screams at the Rangers to run, Cartwright orders a barrage of shoot-to-disable sabot rounds. But in contrast to previous results with Decepticons, the rounds have no effect...

The Autobot grabs one tank and uses it to smash another, injuring two of the Rangers. Cartwright swiftly regroups his team and orders Weapons Sergeant Darius Gale to sever Scorponok's connection with Ironhide. The other Rangers distract the enemy, who forces Ironhide to fire on them, allowing Gale to reach an XM8 Carbine with armour-piercing rounds and draw a bead on Scorponok. He severs the Decepticon's connection, allowing an enraged Ironhide to grab Scorponok and viciously kill him.

Watching the fiery wreckage, the Rangers "figure we can tell Lennox...job done!".

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Articles & features

• Character Profile: Bonecrusher
• Top Gear: Promotion of and a chance to win Beast Machines Series 1 DVD (the second time this has been promoted), Transformers caps, and G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers Omnibus by Devil's Due.
• How to Draw Bumblebee feature: "You love him. You admire him. He makes you laugh because he wees on the bad guys. Now's your chance to draw him!"
• Poster of the cover image.
• Star Screams: Letters and art from readers, answered by Starscream.

Free Gift

• "Awesome Tattoos & Sweat Band!" - Temporary Autobot or Decepticon related tattoos/stickers and a sweatband with an Autobot or Decepticon insignia. Whether you get an Autobot or Decepticon set depends on which issue you bought, with both being printed in equal numbers. The labels ask "Who's [sic] Side Are You On?".

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Transformers: Movie Prequel, part 3b (7 pages)
• Beast Wars: The Gathering, part 3b (8 pages)

Quotes

Strip

"We're not stalking him... he's stalking us!"

—Cartwright

Star Screams

"It grieves me that you humans as so fascinated with Optimus. No one ever sends pictures of me. ... Do I not possess a mechanical beauty of my own?"

Reader: "I feel that having Ratchet host the [letters] page as RatChat would be a fantastic idea."
"Ratchet? Ratchat? Do you have any idea how long you have just sentenced yourself to a Cybertronian gulag, you disgusting human?"

Notes

Production notes

• The original plan at Titan, announced by Furman in October 2007, was that issues 7-12 are set during "the very tail end of the movie", between the big fight and the epilogue, to avoid contradicting the sequel and "more IDW movie-based stories".^[1] While we don't know exactly when these plans changed, it was obviously after this issue started being drawn and so it remains the last glimpse of Titan's original thinking.
• This is the first issue to have a comic-art cover instead of a stock photo image, a sign that sales were healthy.
• Editor Simon Williams helped Furman get the army hardware right.^[2]
• Ironhide smashes a tank that two of the soldiers still occupy. Cartwright says it's a "tough little tank and Oates and Holt are tough guys." While the final panel shows six of the Rangers in silhouette form, the two tank soldiers are not shown being retrieved, nor is their current state depicted. This also occurs mere moments after Ironhide has finished killing Scorponok. It's thus not clear if Oates and Holt have actually survived (with the six silhouettes being an error) or whether they are injured.
• With this issue, the magazine runs out of profiles from Transformers: The Movie Guide to repurpose, hence Bonecrusher's profile is entirely new. And entirely devoid of a nice big CGI promotional pose image of him. He hates that.

Continuity notes

• The story is a bit stuffed in the canon department, what with Scorponok later turning up in Revenge of the Fallen and in Titan Magazine's own prequel to that movie!
• Scorponok can hijack an enemy's motor functions and can fool enemy radar.
• Whereas sabot rounds were effective against Decepticons, Ironhide can shrug them off. The Rangers' dialogue suggests this is a unique feature of Ironhide's structural materials.

Star Screams continuity notes

• Starscream wishes more people would send in fan art of him rather than of Optimus Prime. He also dislikes the film because "all my best scenes were cut, some of my best lines never made it into the final film, and I never got a chance to pulverize any of the Autobots. How dull!" He seems a little forgetful though, since he got to beat the living slag out of Ratchet and Ironhide and is responsible for Bumblebee losing his legs.
• Starscream also states that Movie Optimus carries the Matrix of Leadership. Starscream must not have seen the Revenge of the Fallen script at this point. Or maybe he can see the future?

Errors

• The free gift labels misspell "Whose" as "Who's".
• Top Gear shows the Beast Machines Series 2 cover while promoting Series 1.
• Ravage's arrival in Beast Wars is described as "Magmatron's minions come face-to-muzzle with a terrifying new 'creature'!" even though in the reprint they're reviving him as an ally.
• According to later installments of Star Screams, Scorponok was never found. Small kiddies must be confused as hell.

References