Ladies' Night (issue)

« The Transformers (UK) #137–138 »
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"Ladies' Night"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Cover date	31st October - 7th November 1987
Script	Simon Furman
Art	Dan Reed (137), Geoff Senior (138)
Colours	Euan Peters (#137), Nick Abadzis (#138)
Letters	Annie Halfacree
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Three human women take on the Combaticons, who are trying to dispose of Ultra Magnus and Galvatron.

Synopsis

"Why it could be Grease Lightning!"

Archaeologist Susan Hoffman is investigating the dormant volcano Mount Verona and is shocked to discover the entombed bodies of Galvatron and Ultra Magnus. She is later interviewed on television by journalist Joy Meadows. The news report is later seen by the Decepticons and by Goldbug, Blaster, and the Throttlebots.

Shockwave, seeing an opportunity to rid himself of Galvatron for good, dispatches Soundwave and the Combaticons to blow the volcano up. Goldbug, Blaster, and the Throttlebots set out to rescue Ultra Magnus.

Also watching the news is Cindy Newell, who had once befriended Ultra Magnus. Upon seeing his body, she sets out for Mount Verona herself and demands that Susan and Joy help her to free him.

It is just at that moment that the Combaticons attack. They plan to plant explosives around the volcano burying Galvatron and Ultra Magnus forever.

When they reach the volcano, Goldbug and Rollbar overhear the Combaticons' plan and decide that destroying Galvatron is ultimately more important than freeing Ultra Magnus. As they are about to leave they are confronted by Cindy with Joy and Susan in tow. She demands that they help her free Ultra Magnus but Goldbug refuses and tells her to go home. They then depart to keep an eye on things from a distance.

Cindy is unwilling to leave Ultra Magnus to his fate, however, and with the help of Susan and Joy takes on the Combaticons. Using an abandoned jeep that was left behind by the military when the Combaticons attacked, they first take down Swindle before luring the other Combaticons to a second jeep loaded with explosives. They then attack them with a tank causing the jeep to explode violently.

All the Combaticons except Onslaught are brought down. He is just about to kill his attackers when the Throttlebots return, feeling guilty for having left the women to fight alone.

Onslaught and the Combaticons leave but the Autobots are nervous as they feel that everything was too easy. They realise that the Combaticons have lain explosives around the whole volcano and that they plan to detonate it from a distance. Fortunately, Blaster is able to jam Soundwave's detonation signal giving them time to defuse the bomb. The Decepticons depart defeated.

Goldbug and the Throttlebots leave as well after expressing their admiration that mere humans could have defeated the Combaticons on their own. (Joy thought he was going to say "mere women" and was not happy.)

Inside the volcano, the earlier explosion has weakened the hardened lava and Galvatron begins to stir.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Well, Rollbar, what do you reckon?"
"It's great! We never had anything like this on our homeworld of Cybertron. What did you say it was, Goldbug?"
"The humans call it tee-vee. As far as I can work out, it's some kind of emotion heightener. Very addictive!"
"This is a particularly good moo-vee. My sort of hero, this Herbie!"

—Goldbug and Rollbar

"Heck - you'd try and sell your own brain module if you thought you'd make a profit, wouldn't you, Swindle?"

—Blast Off has Swindle's number.

"Is this wise? I've met other robots, and some of them-"
"Are okay. Just be cool."

—Susan Hoffman and Joy Meadows

"Jeez! It's comin' straight for me! I gotta - GHAA!"

—Swindle channels his inner Uncle Jimbo.

"Yaay! Score one for the humans! I knew that edition of Ladies' Night I did on a woman tank driver would come in handy one day!"

—Joy Meadows, badass.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

Gee, I sure wish I had stayed that large.

• In part 1, Swindle picks up a military Jeep and holds it in one hand, dwarfing it by far. In part 2, the burning Jeep that crashes into him is in scale with Swindle's robot mode. What, can he choose the size of his robot mode at will?

Continuity errors

• How exactly does the discovery of two alien robots that were trapped inside a volcano only a few months ago (as explicitly confirmed by Cindy) constitute "the greatest find" of Susan's career? How would the destruction of those robots make her the "laughing stock of archaeological circles"?
• The Throttlebots walk off and leave Ultra Magnus entombed in the volcano at the end of the story rather than releasing him, despite this being the reason for their involvement in the first place.
• Even though they were defeated, why do the Decepticons not try to kill Galvatron again once the coast is clear?

Continuity notes

• This is a deliberate team-up of Marvel UK female supporting characters: Susan Hoffman had previously appeared in #125's "Ancient Relics!", Joy Meadows had befriended the Dinobot Sludge in #48's part of "Dinobot Hunt!" and had been macked on by him in "In the National Interest", and Cindy had befriended Ultra Magnus in #115-6's "Burning Sky!" before leaving in anger at his apparently suicidal need to keep fighting Galvatron.
• This story neatly ties together the UK "Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!" arc (which featured Goldbug) with the US Goldbug, Blaster and the Throttlebots arc. The next US story would also feature the Combaticons hunting down the Autobot "rebels", which in the UK continuity now becomes a rematch between the two groups.
• Teased at the end of the story, it would take Galvatron a number of months before he finally breaks free in "Enemy Action!".

Real-life references

• Goldbug, Rollbar and Blaster are seen watching one of the Herbie movies.

Back-up material

Issue #137

• Back-up Transformers story: "Broken Glass!"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers

Issue #138

• Back-up Transformers story: "Love and Steel!"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers
• AtoZ: Dirge and Divebomb

Foreign Localization

• Swedish

• Title: "Ikväll: Damernas" ("Tonight: The Ladies'")

Covers (2)

• Issue #137 cover: Susan Hoffman (looking like Susanna Hoffs from the Bangles) uncovering Ultra Magnus, by Lee Sullivan.
• Issue #138 cover: Susan, Cindy and Joy telling Rollbar & Goldbug to stay back, by Barry Kitson.

• 

  Issue #137

• 

  Issue #138

Reprints

• Transformers Comic-Magazin #14 cover: Optimus Prime shooting Iguanus.
• Transformers: Legacy of Unicron cover: Unicron gazes at his pawns, by Geoff Senior & Oliver Harud.
• Classics UK Volume 4 cover: Rodimus and Galvatron fight whilst Scorponok squeezes Highbrow and Goldbug rides Wreck-Gar, by Andrew Wildman.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Volume 11: The Legacy of Unicron: Wreck-Gar and Unicron by Don Figueroa and Dan Reed.

• 

  Transformers Comic-Magazin #14
  (Condor Verlag, 1991)

• 

  Transformers: Legacy of Unicron (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Classics UK Volume 4 (IDW Publishing, 2013)

• 

  Definitive G1 Collection vol. 11: The Legacy of Unicron (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)