Race with the Devil

	; Too busy messing with the 8-track to look in the rear view mirror.
	"Race with the Devil"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	22nd April - 14th May 1989
Cover date	29nd April - 20th May 1989
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Andy Wildman
Letterer	Glib (#215-216); Hel (#217-218)
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Can the Triggerbots stop Darkwing and Dreadwind from retrieving Starscream's corpse?

Synopsis

Darkwing and Dreadwind have been hired to collect something for a mysterious employer, and the Triggerbots have been dispatched to shadow them in an Autobot shuttle. Since the Decepticons have noticed and are firing on them, they did a crap job. A vicious dogfight erupts around Earth's Moon, ending when the Autobots fake their death. They're now able to follow the Decepticons without a problem.

The Decepticons land in southern Peru, where archaeologist Susan Hoffman and her assistants are searching for the shrine of the Juluth, a tribe unchanged since the days of the Inca. The Decepticons search for what they came for, only to be gunned down. Hi-Test and Throttle run in terror and are intercepted by both the Autobots and Susan (who is annoyed to find herself dealing with robots again). They spill the beans: they were hired to find the dead body of Starscream... and that body is now walking around!

He lives his life like there's no tomorrow, and everything he's got, he had to steal.

While they have a clear shot at the zombie, Backstreet first makes sure the humans are evacuated—giving Starscream time to disarm the other Triggerbots and injure Backstreet. With low energon levels, Dogfight can't battle it in jet mode, so they run away instead. Backstreet tells them to leave without him (and Dogfight says he deserves to be left behind for what he did). Eventually, he convinces them to go to protect the humans while he holds the zombie back. Meanwhile, Hi-Test and Throttle return to their Powermasters and bring them back online with an energy boost; Dreadwind knows they have to complete their job, and realises the Nebulans can defeat the zombie...

Override goes to protect the humans, while Dogfight decides to use his jet mode to fight Starscream after all—by attempting to ram it! When he gets brushed aside, Backstreet tries to reason with the zombie, realising that there's an intelligence behind it: the Underbase. Starscream's murderous impulse is driving it, but he convinces the Underbase to fight it. It takes control... at which point the Nebulans run out and absorb all its energy until it falls dead. The Decepticons take the corpse, not caring they've killed the Underbase, but Backstreet feels it won by taking control.

While all this has gone on, Susan and her team found the Juluth, who believe Starscream's corpse to be their death-god Myaz and plan to sacrifice them to appease it. Susan escapes and is rescued by Override; he's forced to let the Decepticons leave with Starscream in order to save her friends. The Triggerbots later worry what this may result in, but Susan reminds them they did a good job here today and should deal with the future when it happens.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Nebulans
Backstreet (2) Dogfight (3) Override (4)	Dreadwing (1) Dreadwind (7) Darkwing (8) Starscream (15)	Susan Hoffman's Assistants (9-11, 13) Susan Hoffman (12) Juluth tribespeople (14)	Hi-Test (5) Throttle (6)

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

This was the first UK story to be printed in black and white since "Raiders of the Last Ark" nearly 200 issues previously. The unannounced change caused some readers to think there had been a printing error. The resulting anger when it became clear that the change was permanent dominated the letters page for several weeks (where, to be fair, Dreadwind/the editors didn't sugar-coat the change and basically said that, due to falling sales, it was either this or a price increase.) The black and white stories were also subsequently printed on lower quality paper than the colour pages from issue #225 onwards.

Colored reprints

For Volume 16 of Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, John-Paul Bove coloured this story in the same style, lack of gradients and 'dots' and all, of US strips like "Back from the Dead". Turns out Hoffman's wearing all orange!
In on the joke, Bove coloured the "Ghostbusters" (see below) in-line with their animated appearances. He went a step further and gave the random female character red hair, intimating the appearance of Janine Melnitz.

Continuity errors

The strip decided to happen NOW!, dating Part 1 to April 24th 1989... and then Part 3 to the 1st of May.

Continuity notes

This was originally meant to be a 2-parter, but the change in format in #213 led to it being hacked into four parts.
This foreshadows the upcoming "Back from the Dead", Furman's first US story, where we'll discover Darkwing and Dreadwind's employer was Megatron and Starscream will be brought to life again.
It follows on from the then-recent events of "Dark Star".
Susan Hoffman has run into the Transformers twice before: "Ancient Relics!" and "Ladies' Night".
Through his dialogue in Parts 1 and 3, it seems Dogfight doesn't like Backstreet at all.

Real-life references

Susan Hoffman's assistants resemble Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler, an in-joke as Wildman was drawing The Real Ghostbusters for Marvel UK at the time. When asked about the identities of the assistants in a Bee's Backtalk segment, Bumblebee responded by playing a garbled clip from a very familiar theme song.

Courtesy of my...

The Triggerbots' shuttle is armed with a nuclo-deatomiser cannon, which, frankly, is an awesome name for a weapon.

Back-up material

Issue #215

Additional Transformers story: "Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?"
Back-up strips: Visionaries - "The End..." and Combat Colin
AtoZ: Motormaster and Octane

Issue #216

Additional Transformers story: "Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?"
Back-up strips: Visionaries - "The End..." and Combat Colin
Classic Covers Calendar: The fifth(?) in a series of monthly calendars that showcased inks from covers of yesteryear with new colours. This edition used Dave Gibbons's inks from issue 133... and was actually the calendar for June, erroneously published way too early and in place of May (which would eventually surface in issue 220).

Issue #217

Additional Transformers story: "Recipe for Disaster!"
Back-up strips: Visionaries - "The Balance of Power" and Combat Colin

Issue #218

Additional Transformers story: "Recipe for Disaster!"
Back-up strips: Visionaries - "The Balance of Power" and Combat Colin

Covers (4)

Issue #215 cover: Triggerbots vs Dreadwing, by Jeff Anderson.
Issue #216 cover: The Mecannibals and Landmine / Backstreet and Susan, by Art Wetherell.
Issue #217 cover: Dreadwind accuses an unseen aggressor of attacking Darkwing and being dead, by Jez Hall.
Issue #218 cover: Sky Lynx and Dogfight, by Lee Sullivan.