The Last Stand

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Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's... oh. It actually is a plane.
"The Last Stand"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	November 13, 1984 ("on sale" December 4, 1984)
Cover date	March 1985
Writer	Jim Salicrup
Pencils	Frank Springer
Inks	Ian Akin, Brian Garvey
Colors	Nelson Yomtov
Letters	John Workman
Editor	Bob Budiansky
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The Autobots make a desperate gamble to defeat the Decepticons.

Synopsis

The last issue had Spider-Man, so Sparkplug wants to be the Human Torch.

Some of the Autobots accuse Sparkplug Witwicky of betraying them by giving the Decepticons the fuel conversion they needed. Panicked, Sparkplug and his son attempt to escape, but when Jazz blocks their path with a wall of flame, Sparkplug suffers a heart attack. He is rushed to the hospital by Ratchet and Buster.

Huffer tells Optimus Prime about a discovery he made in the Ark's memory banks: Just after the ship crashed, its barely functional computers detected the Decepticon Shockwave arriving on Earth in pursuit. With the last of its power, the Ark modified five Autobot warriors to combat him, thus creating the Dinobots. They traveled in a shuttle to the Savage Land to confront Shockwave, at which point contact was lost. Huffer has Ratchet dispatch a probe to search for the lost Dinobots.

At the hospital, Sparkplug undergoes emergency treatment and dreams of his Army service in Korea, where he was forced to repair North Korean vehicles. He further recalls sabotaging those vehicles...

With no new fuel sources forthcoming, the remaining Autobots are forced to make a desperate gamble to fight the Decepticons one last time. All the Autobots sacrifice their remaining fuel resources to Optimus Prime, Huffer, Ironhide, Bluestreak, and Mirage. These five prepare to fight the Decepticons within the volcano that the Ark has crashed into, as the Decepticons arrive to destroy the Autobots once and for all.

In the Savage Land, Huffer's probe has found something and starts to dig it out—until a giant purple hand crushes it...

Although the Decepticons begin to win the battle by virtue of their greater numbers, at the moment of apparent victory, the Decepticons all fall, writhing in internal agony. As he reveals to Buster at the hospital, Sparkplug had corrupted the fuel he provided to the Decepticons, and they are now poisoned. Optimus Prime proclaims the debt that they, and the entire world, owe to Sparkplug Witwicky.

But suddenly, a gigantic blast from above knocks out all the Autobot troops... and Shockwave stands supreme!

"NOT the end..."

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"What's eating you, O? This robot stuff is great for business! The place is packed with reporters and worried townsfolk! With this costume, I might wind up in People Magazine!"
"That's great! If they start shooting nukes at us, you'll really clean up, huh?"

— Mr. O and his son "O" aren't seeing eye-to-eye on the Transformers' invasion

"Is your father still functioning?"
"I hope your father can be repaired!"

— Optimus Prime is still struggling with organic biology

"Go ahead, little ones, do your worst!"
"Fire! Let 'im have it!"
[The Army opens fire for 15 minutes; Megatron is undamaged]
"HA!"

— a fully-fueled Megatron is not even scratched by the U.S. Army's might

"Starscream, I'm afraid I've heard... enough! Let those who defy Megatron taste the power of my fusion canon!"
"Add Starscream to the damage report!"

— Megatron blasts Starscream out the door. The Decepticon medic takes it in stride.

"At last! Victory is within my grasp! Soon that self-righteous Autobot will be nothing but scrap! He's had this coming for centuries! He will learn that no one can defy Megatron! ...Isn't that right, Starscream?"
"Yes, great Megatron!"

— Megatron rants... and makes sure Starscream knows his place in the pecking order.

"After four million Earth years I have accomplished my mission -- the Autobots are no more!"

— Shockwave makes his debut

Notes

Production notes

Two reprints of this issue (see below) have featured an alternate ending to the story, to prevent the mini-series from ending on a cliffhanger.

• The first alternate ending appeared in 1985's Federal Super Special, released in Australia by Federal Publishing Company as part of a promotion with Peters Ice Cream. This reprint of the issue cuts out all of the material dealing with Shockwave and the Dinobots, and expands the second panel of the penultimate page into a final full-page image, eliminating the other panels entirely.
• The second, more famous alternate ending (pictured at right) appeared in Marvel UK's 1987 Transformers: The Complete Works Part 2. It removes the final panel of the penultimate page (in which Shockwave strikes), and replaces it with two panels of Optimus Prime declaring the Decepticons defeated once and for all. It has often been claimed that this ending was created by Marvel US at the time of the original issue's production, in the case series failed to progress past issue #4, but that's never made a lot of sense; the issue was clearly written with the knowledge the series would be continuing, given the way it spends several pages telling the story of Shockwave and the Dinobots and setting up Shockwave's return. The two new panels are, in fact, created by re-using artwork by Don Perlin from issue #22, a comic released a year-and-a-half after this issue, proving they were assembled for this 1987 reprint; the first is a composite, using a zoomed-in redrawing of Prime's torso from the preceding panel, but adding with a new head, left arm, roof-lights, and abdominal detaling mirrored from an image of Prime in issue #22, page 5, panel 8; while the second panel is copied directly from a close-up shot of Prime's face from issue #22, page 7, panel 5.

Continuity notes

• The existence of Shockwave was alluded to in issue #1, when Megatron observed that "one of the Decepticons' mightiest" was missing.

Real-life references

• The narrative box makes a quick reference to the World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front: "Meanwhile, all's quiet on the Decepticon front..."
• Sparkplug has more Korea flashbacks, including a mission to reach the 4067th M.A.S.H. unit. The number of the unit is suspiciously close to the 4077th featured in the popular movie M*A*S*H and its subsequent spin-off TV show, which concluded its lengthy run the year before this issue was published.
• The action remains in rural Oregon and the unnamed city of Portland, apart from the flashback to the Dinobots' adventures in Antarctica.

Continuity and plotting errors

• Issue #1 noted that the Ark's probe was totally unaware of Earth's organic life, yet here, it is established that, millions of years prior, it had no trouble scanning the organic dinosaurs of the Savage Land to give new alternate forms to the Dinobots.
• Wheeljack, Trailbreaker, Prowl and Jazz are all shown to be up and about in this issue, yet they are not shown among the donor Autobots in the Tubes of Transference.
• A major plot point is that the fuel-starved Autobots pool their resources to empower five, and only five, Autobots. Thus, after the Tubes of Transference scene on page 13, only Optimus, Huffer, Bluestreak, Ironhide and Mirage should appear. A variety of art errors make it clear that artist Frank Springer didn't get the memo:
  • Page 14: Brawn is shown among the active Autobots.
  • Page 16: There's Brawn again! And Windcharger!
  • Page 18:
    • Panel 5: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are both shown among the Autobots, both incorrectly colored blue and white, no less; there's a generic lying on the ground.
    • Panel 6: Cliffjumper is among the Autobots.
  • Page 21, panel 1: There's Sunstreaker again, and in the bottom right, a block-colored Windcharger.
  • Page 22: And Windcharger again, this time colored like Mirage.
• Less explicitly called out is that the Decepticon ranks are thinned as well. The damage roll call only a few pages before the final battle leaves only Megatron, Starscream, Thundercracker, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw and Ravage up and operating. Again, several Decepticons who are in repair bay show up in the final fight:
  • Frenzy and Rumble are shown as active despite page 9 stating they had been knocked out of action last issue. The next issue reinforces their injury status.
  • Page 18, Panel 6: Skywarp, Rumble and Soundwave are among the Decepticons charging, despite being reported as out of action nine pages earlier. A total of nine Decepticons are shown.
  • Page 19, Panel 3: Skywarp is shown again despite being off action. Either that or the Seeker is a miscoloured Thundercracker.
  • Page 20: Frenzy and Rumble are once again present.
  • Page 21, panel 1: Soundwave is lying among the defeated Decepticons.

• And finally, the first issue of the series made it very clear that there were 18 Autobots and 10 Decepticons on Earth - no more, no less. Shockwave even explicitly says that there are eleven (including himself) Decepticons in the next issue. Despite this, the ranks of both sides start swelling up with generic background troops:
  • Page 9: The Decepticons have suddenly gained a nameless medic (whose design is loosely based on Megatron himself, including his bucket helmet and off-center Decepticon symbol) and his three generic assistants—at least two of which have features that vaguely resemble Spectro and Spyglass's toys (see image to the right).
  • Page 18, Panel 5: There's a generic lying on the ground among the Autobots.
  • Page 19, Panel 6: Who're those generic guys on the ground next to Optimus?
  • Page 20: A generic Decepticon can be seen between Megatron's legs.
  • Page 18, Panel 6: A total of nine Decepticons are shown charging (and none of them are the cassettes, making a total of 12); there should be only six.
  • Page 21: Several generic Decepticons are among the fallen Decepticons, including a blue Ironhide, and—bizarrely—Viewfinder coloured like Rumble. Out of the three Reflector components, this is the only one that is without a doubt the character in question. Ten troops are shown, with Laserbeak and Ravage missing.

Artwork and technical errors

• As with last issue, Megatron's Decepticon insignia is off-center throughout this story.
• Cover: Megatron is colored mostly brown.
• Page 1: Brawn is colored red and blue like Gears, while Optimus Prime's left hand is green. Sunstreaker's shoulder-pylons are red like the shoulders beneath them, when they should be yellow, and his engine-backpack is yellow when it should be blue. Several generic Autobots are seen in the second inset panel.
• Page 2:
  • Panel 1: Windcharger is also colored like Gears. Standing behind Huffer is red-and-blue version of Jetfire's original character model (based on the Macross Valkyrie toy) which would never actually be used for the character in the comic.
  • Panel 2: Ratchet continues to be colored in his unusual early color scheme through this issue, but here, his face is also colored red in addition to his arms and forehead crest.
  • Panel 4: Why does Ironhide have yellow accordion knees?
• Page 3:
  • Panel 2: Mirage is colored with red arms and a white head. Jazz (seen holding back Ironhide) is colored mostly blue with red legs, instead of mostly white with black details.
  • Panel 5: When Jazz unleashes his flamethrower, the art depicts him using his hand-held photon rifle, instead of the shoulder-mounted weapon described in his bio (based on the missile launcher his toy comes with). This weapon wasn't part of his finalized character model, explaining the artist's confusion.
• Page 9: If that's supposed to be Frenzy on one of the repair beds, he's completely off-model.
• Page 13: Bumblebee is colored approximately like Sideswipe.
• Page 16: In a recurring error with the Decepticon jets, Thundercracker's entire fuselage is colored orange like his cockpit canopy.
• Page 21: Mirage magically has his left arm again, after it was bitten off by Ravage; whatever damage was done to his chest/head by Buzzsaw has likewise vanished.
• Page 22: Like Ratchet, Shockwave seems to be colored in an early color scheme. He's an all-over bright fuchsia instead of the more subdued purple of his final colors, and his shoulders are silver-white.

UK printing

Issue #7:

• Published: 15th December, 1984
• Back-up strips: Machine Man ("Xanadu!" part 2) and Matt and the Cat
• Fact File: Bumblebee
• Other features: The center pages of the issues are given over to "The Transformers Christmas Spread," a collection of readers' artwork; Transformers Word Search; "Robot Round-Up"

Issue #8:

• Published: 29th December, 1984
• Back-up strips: Machine Man ("The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" part 1) and Matt and the Cat
• Fact File: Ravage
• January calendar: Starting in this issue and running for the next year, one issue a month gives its center pages over to a pull-out calendar, featuring a full-page illustration of a single character. Kicking this off is, of course, Optimus Prime.
• Other features: "Warrior Word Search"; "Robot Round-Up

Other trivia

• Advertised as part 4 in a four-issue limited series, but the ending and letter column, which itself debuted in this issue, both make clear that issue #5 of what was now an ongoing was forthcoming.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: Ratchet active; 17 inactive; 5 Dinobots missing in action.
• Decepticons: Shockwave active; 10 inactive.

Courtesy of my...

• Jazz blocks Sparkplug and Buster's path with his flame-thrower, however, see "Artwork and technical errors" above.
• Megatron namedrops his fusion cannon when blasting Starscream with it, and again later during the battle when he contemplates shooting his own troops to hit Optimus.
• Mirage blasts Ravage with armor-piercing liquid fuel darts.
• Bluestreak fires both of his rockets at Megatron.

Covers (3)

• US issue #4 cover: the final battle, by Mark Texeira.
• UK issue #7 cover: reuse of art from US issue #4's cover by Mark Texeira.
• UK issue #8 cover: Megatron holds the defeated Optimus Prime overhead, by Barry Kitson.

• 

  US issue #4 - Rare Brown Megatron appears!

• 

  UK issue #7 - Megatron isn't even allowed on the UK cover

• 

  UK issue #8 - Megatron took first in the Prime Press contest

Reprints

• 

  Collected Comics (UK) #2 (Marvel UK, 1985)

• 

  The Transformers: Collected Comics (US) #2 - The Battle Continues... (Marvel US, 1985)

• 

  The Transformers: A Federal Super Special (Federal Publishing Company, 1985)

• 

  Die Transformer #3 (Condor Verlag, 1986)

• 

  The Transformers Comics Magazine #2 (Marvel US, 1986)

• 

  The Complete Works Part 2 (Marvel UK, 1987)

• 

  Transformers: Beginnings paperback (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Transformers: Beginnings hardback (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Transformers: Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron: (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  Classic Transformers Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• 

  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)

• 

  Transformers: Classic Comic Collection, Vol. 1 (Chrirpy Bird, 2015)

• 

  Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 1: Power Play (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017)

• 

  The Transformers: Classics, Vol. 1 (Hero-X, 2018)

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection.

• Throughout this issue (with the exception of page 14, panel 4) Ironhide is given a white face, which was red in the original art. He did have a white face in his finalized Marvel character model (as seen in The Transformers Universe) but for the majority of his appearances in the comic (and the UK title) he kept the red face of his early color scheme.
• Also throughout this issue, Optimus Prime's legs are recolored a slightly darker shade of blue than his helmet and hands.
• Page 1, panel 1: Brawn's colors are corrected, as is the color of Optimus Prime's hand.
• Page 2: Windcharger's colors are corrected, and Ratchet's colors are changed to his finalized Marvel color scheme.
• Page 3
  • Panel 2: Mirage's colors are corrected; Sunstreaker's colors are changed but aren't made any more correct, his forearms changing from correct blue to incorrect white, his shoulders going from correct red to incorrect yellow, and his shoulder-pylons going from incorrect red to incorrect blue.
  • Panels 2, 4-5: Jazz's incorrect colors in panel 2 are "fixed," but in all three, instead of the correct solid blue, a pale blue is used.
• Page 5:
  • Panel 4: Ratchet's colors are changed to his finalized Marvel color scheme, but his helmet isn't colored red to go along with it.
  • Panel 5-6: Ratchet is colored entirely white, with no red helmet or hands.
• Page 6, panels 7-8: The Korean soldiers have Caucasian skin tone.
• Page 9, panel 1: For this one appearance this issue, Soundwave is still being recolored blue, erasing his standard Marvel purple color scheme (when he incorrectly appears on page 21, he is not recolored). Rumble and Frenzy's yellow decals are recolored light blue, and the Decepticon medic's insignia—uncolored in the original art—becomes red.
• Page 13, panel 1: Bumblebee's colors are corrected to yellow and blue, but his fists, forearms, and bumpers are incorrectly made yellow when they should be blue, and he's got a white face, which is normally yellow in the comic.
• Page 16, panel 4: Thundercracker's jet mode is recolored solid blue (save for the orange fuselage).
• Page 21, panel 1: Both Windcharger and the generic "blue Ironhide" Decepticon are colored red like the real Ironhide.
• Page 22: Shockwave's fuchsia is replaced with a pale purple like his finalized colors, but the other elements of his early color scheme remain.

Advertisements

• Monogram GoBots motorized model kits (inside front cover)
• Fig Newtons and Apple Newtons - between pages 4 & 5
• Star Comics - between pages 5 & 6
• Mile High Comics - between pages 7 & 8, and between pages 8 & 9
• Power Pack and The Amazing Spider-Man with tips on ways to prevent sexual abuse - between pages 16 & 17
• Calendar of upcoming events & Marvel Mart - between pages 17 & 18
• Block of various Sketchy Things - between pages 19 & 20
• Bullpen Bulletins - between pages 20 & 21
• Swords of the Swashbucklers (pg 23, below Trans-Missions)
• Comic subscriptions
• Indiana Jones RPG by TSR (rear inside cover)
• Risk (rear cover)

External links

• "Is it true there was an alternate version of #4?" at Tfarchive.com