TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS: 31
GREAT LINES:
"Do all small, pink things ask so many questions?"--Bumblebee, after being interrogated by Sparkplug.
TRIVIA QUESTIONS:
- What was the name of the engineer working at the Harrison nuclear power plant?
- Who paved the road that led from the Ark?
NOTES:
-
There's an advertisement next to the sign above Sparkplug's
Auto Repairs shop. It's fairly indistinct most of the time, but on
page 7 you can see very clearly that it reads "Coca Cola."
- In this issue, Optimus Prime mentions offering Cybertron's advanced technology to the humans in exchange for fuel. Eventually, the Autobots will strike a deal with a human (in issue #9), but they will offer him protection from the Decepticons instead. In fact, Optimus Prime will come to strongly believe that Cybertron's technology must not fall into the hands of the humans, as Protectobot leader Hot Spot will sacrifice his very life to prevent that from happening in TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION 2 issue #2.
PLOT OVERSIGHTS: (5)
- Megatron refers to the humans' machines being the basis from which the Ark designed the Decepticons' combat modes. I can accept the Decepticons jets and even Megatron referring to their Earth forms as "combat modes," but what about Soundwave and the cassettes? How are they going to fight in their Earth modes, by blasting Barry Manilow songs at top volume?
- When Sparkplug offers gasoline to Bumblebee, Buster says, "You can't expect an extra-terrestrial to guzzle premium unleaded!" Bumblebee responds with the suggestion that Huffer might be able to arrange things so that "we can adapt to your 'premium or unleaded!'" In other words, Bumblebee's quoting something that Buster didn't say.
-
On a similar note, Buster asks, "Where are the rest of you 'Auto-Bots'?"
and Bumblebee responds, "That's 'Autobots' and they're probably back at the
Ark..." How is "Auto-Bots" pronounced any differently than
"Autobots"? What's really funny is, a little bit later on, Ravage gets
a tiny little thought balloon that breaks up the word to get it to fit in
the balloon, so he thinks to himself:
MY OPTIC SENSES |
...THEM FROM THE |
...WITH |
- After "O" and Jessie meet up with Buster and Bumblebee, "O" says, "It's too late to get on That's Incredible! It's cancelled!" That TV series ran from 1980 to 1984 and focused on various amazing human and animal feats. Somehow I have a hard time imagining that Buster could get on the show just because he had a "talking car." (There's also the fact that this reference seems very forced to me. It's almost as though somebody had planned to refer to the show before it had been cancelled, and decided to work the reference in anyway even after the show went off the air. Why didn't they just replace the name of the show with Ripley's Believe it or Not? It was the same type of show, but it wasn't cancelled until 1986.)
- Will somebody please tell me what the point was of Bumblebee building a communicator out of spare parts? Don't all the Autobots have built-in communications systems? Prowl alluded to them in issue #1, and obviously Hound's got one since he receives Bumblebee's signal. The only explanation I can think of is to demonstrate why Bumblebee didn't call for help as soon as he was injured at the drive-in last issue. Wouldn't it just be less roundabout to say that his radio had been damaged?
- On the bottom of page 17, Sunstreaker's supposed to be saying, "Somehow, Sideswipe, the Decepticons knew we were going to be here!" but the dialogue balloon is pointing at Sideswipe.
- During the battle in front of Sparkplug's auto shop, when Optimus blasts Laserbeak, Beaky goes, "Aieee!" but his word balloon pointer has a jagged edge. So far in the comic the only time we've seen that happen is when the Ark computer is speaking (earlier in this issue) or when characters are communicating via radio (as when Hound picks up Bumblebee's signal). Why is Laserbeak transmitting his "Aieee!" over radio?
- In this issue, the name of Buster's girlfriend is spelled Jessie. Last issue, it was spelled Jesse.
ART AND COLORING: (23)
- On the front cover, Megatron's face is drawn strangely, with no nose and an almost Batman-like mask covering his eyes. Also, Bumblebee appears in a slightly modified version of his cartoon model, with wheels and fenders added to his shoulders, despite the fact that the artists still aren't using this design in this issue yet.
- On the first page, Megatron's fusion cannon is on the wrong arm and the cannon on his back is on his left side instead of his right. This is the first time we see him in cartoon model form, incidentally, but the only time he's drawn that way in this issue. Frenzy is still drawn pretty much like his toy version, but for some reason, they drew him with Megatron's hip plates on this page. Finally, they accidentally colored in the thought bubbles for Megatron's thought balloon instead of leaving them white.
- Ravage is missing the guns on his hips in almost every panel in this issue. Somebody was apparently using the toy as a model for this issue but didn't attach the weapons.
-
Sometimes, you really have to suspend disbelief for the sake
of the story. The narrative box on page 2, panel 2 informs us that
it is impossible to see Ravage--and yet he is very obviously visible in that
scene!
- The flashback scene referring to the battle at the drive-in in issue #1 isn't quite the same as the scene as it actually happened. Prowl is shooting Soundwave's face instead of his shoulder, and Soundwave's missile is in his launcher instead of having just been launched. Also, Nel is still coloring Soundwave like Megatron for this scene. (Why would Ravage have to explain what a human was if Megatron had been at the drive-in and seen them for himself?)
- On page 3, panel 7, Megatron is drawn with some extra sights on his gun barrel. The drawing of Starscream behind him, incidentally, was lifted directly from his model sheet. (Some of you may know already that I consider this very lazy, since the model sheets are meant to serve as a guide, not to be copied directly.) Finally, Soundwave is wearing a Decepticon symbol with three points on the "forehead" instead of two. I find this very interesting, since that inaccurate version of the insignia was almost exclusively from the cartoon. The three-pointed version does show up on occasion in the comics, but as far as the comics go I consider it a mistake.
- On the first panel of page 4, all three drawings of the Decepticon jets in robot mode were lifted from their model sheets. Also, after Starscream transforms, part of his underbelly is still colored orange, apparently because Nel Yomtov didn't realize that the orange thing on his chest forms his cockpit in jet mode.
- On page 6, Starscream and Thundercracker seem to be missing their wings when they transform back to robot mode. Then in the sixth panel, the Decepticon jet in the foreground (Starscream, I guess) is missing his wings, and is drawn with his jet-mode weapons on his arms instead of the longer ones for robot mode. (The toys used the same launchers, but the jet mode used the short, knobby missiles and the robot mode used the long, easily-broken ones.)
- In issue #1, Bumblebee was inside Sparkplug's garage with his front bumper facing the door to the garage. In this issue, we pick up exactly where the last story left off, but now Bumblebee's facing the other way around. (Other than that, the continuity is very nice in this scene. Buster's T-shirt is un-tucked in the exact same place, and Sparkplug's still weaing his cap and bathrobe.)
- Bumblebee's appearance continues to evolve. Despite the fact that he appears in his cartoon model on the front cover, in this issue he's still got a face plate. He actually looks like they borrowed Jazz's cartoon design for his arms, legs, and parts of his body.
- On the first panel of page 13, we see that more of the Autobots' designs have changed. Windcharger has actually taken a step backward, no longer drawn like his cartoon model, and sporting the toy's face. Ratchet and Ironhide are a lot closer to more normal, humanoid forms now, but they still lack heads. You can spot a pre-cartoon model Wheeljack in the background, too.
- On page 13, panel 2, Jazz is colored like Hound.
- On the first panel of page 14, Prime's carrying his rifle in his left hand. It was in his right hand on the previous page. Also, Sideswipe is colored sort-of like Sunstreaker--mostly red but with some yellow on his helmet and torso.
- From left to right, panel 5 has Prowl, Optimus, and Sideswipe colored like Sunstreaker. Then as they transform, it's suddenly Sideswipe (still colored like Sunstreaker), Prime, and Jazz in the middle of their transformations. When we see them next in vehicle mode, from left to right we have Sideswipe colored like Prowl, Optimus, and Jazz colored like Sunstreaker.
- The Rolands must be strange people. The narration explains that the arrival of the Autobots has rudely awakened them, and yet Mrs. Roland is wearing earrings and bracelets, and Mr. Roland is holding a pipe and a newspaper. Did they sleep with this stuff?
- As the Autobots pull up to Sparkplug's auto shop, Optimus is missing the Autobot symbol on his trailer (we see it on the previous page). Also, Ratchet can be seen with the group, but that can't be right since we saw him stay behind on the last page.
- On the third panel of page 16, Prime's missing the Autobot symbol on his shoulder. He's got it in the next panel, though.
- The bottom of page 17 is all screwed up. In addition to the dialogue glitch above, when we first see Sideswipe and Sunstreaker in vehicle mode, Sunstreaker's colored red (like Sideswipe) and Sideswipe is colored yellow with a red hood (sort of like Sunstreaker, but not really). You can tell which one's which because Sunstreaker's got the rear-mounted engine. In the next panel as they both transform, though, both of them seem to have the rear-mounted engines. Once they've reverted to robot mode, both characters are drawn like Sideswipe. Sunstreaker's carrying Sideswipe's gun, while Sideswipe's got a generic weapon. Oddly, though, Sideswipe's the one who's got the rear-mounted engine now--on his back, and functioning as his rocket backpack. What's more, Sunstreaker's got a Decepticon symbol in this scene.
- On the last panel of page 18, Prime's got a Decepticon insignia on his shoulder.
- Prime really blows the crap out of some Decepticon who's just off-panel on page 19. We actually see large chunks of wing fragments and things falling away, and yet all five aerial Decepticons escape intact at the end of the issue.
- On the bottom of page 21, as Optimus chucks the car engine or whatever that is at Megatron, Prime's missing his entire right left leg. Somebody just... forgot to draw it.
- On page 23 as Megatron and Ravage jump inside Skywarp and Thundercracker, the Decepticon jets are wearing their robot-mode lasers in jet mode.
- On the bottom of page 23, as the Autobots all collapse for want of fuel, Jazz is colored like Hound again; another Jazz is colored like Cliffjumper; and Sideswipe is, as usual, colored like Sunstreaker.
- After Sparkplug's finished his attempted repairs on Bumblebee and Buster asks if he's fixed, Sparkplug responds, "Blast it, son! I'm a mechanic, not a doctor!" This is, of course, a play on the dialogue of Dr. McCoy from Star Trek, who actually did say "I'm a doctor, not a mechanic!" on two different occasions.
- When Bumblebee offers to relay Sparkplug's message to Optimus Prime, Buster opts to go along and says, "Okay, Bumblebee, like, take me to your leader!" This apparently came from some 1950's sci-fi flick, but it has become such an utter cliché that it's nearly impossible to track down from which film the line originated.
- Jason Boyd.
- Huffer and Wheeljack.