TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS: 25
GREAT LINES:
BRAWN: "Can they see we're not attacking us?"
CLIFFJUMPER: "No, Brawn! The spider-human was right!"
CHEESY LINES:
"The Ark's unbelievable! I've never seen anything like it before! It's constructed on such a huge scale that I'm beginning to feel very small and insigificant before it!"--Buster, after arriving at the Autobot base. Somebody gag me. Who wrote this dialogue? Piglet? This is written on such a tremendously crappy level that I'm beginning to feel oh-so-very nauseated!
TRIVIA QUESTIONS:
- Starscream and Rumble stole a fuel tanker owned by what company?
- When Spider-Man "borrowed" the soldier's helmet, who did the soldier believe was responsible?
NOTES:
- There are a few other references to other Marvel comics and characters in this issue besides Spider-Man. Nick Fury and Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan appear aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying Helicarrier headquarters for a single panel, and Nick Fury makes an indirect reference to Godzilla. Joseph "Robbie" Robertson also makes a cameo, having sent Peter Parker to Oregon to get an exclusive story on the giant robots. Finally, Spider-Man notes that Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four) would "feel like a kid at his first science fair" if he ever saw the inside of the Ark.
- Despite this, Marvel's official stance is that the TRANSFORMERS comic takes place outside the mainstream Marvel Universe. Note that when Peter Parker was on trial in 1995, he clearly remembered that he'd never visited Oregon, even though Robbie Robertson sends him there in this very issue.
- When Rumble is pouring out a sample of fuel for Sparkplug, he says, "Say 'when,' scraplet!" This seems fairly insignificant by itself until issue #29 comes along, which introduces a race of tiny robots known as scraplets, who survive by eating the metal from other robots. So, basically, Rumble is calling Sparkplug a parasite. Heh.
- The Autobots' view towards death must have changed after their arrival on Earth. In this issue, Spider-Man notes how cold and unfeeling the Autobots are as they recover Gears' remains. Compare this to the very emotional response from Prowl when Optimus Prime dies in TRANSFORMERS #76.
PLOT OVERSIGHTS: (2)
- As the Decepticons return to base at the beginning of the issue, Megatron, Soundwave, Ravage, Frenzy and Rumble all jump out of the Decepticon jets. The problem here is that Soundwave, Frenzy and Rumble weren't part of the battle last issue.
- After the Autobots get back to the Ark, Prime orders Ratchet to "use what precious fuel we have left to refuel Cliffjumper, Brawn, Sunstreaker, Windcharger, Hound, Gears and me!" What about Bumblebee and Mirage? They were part of last issue's battle, too. And what of Sideswipe? He was so low on fuel that Prime had to carry him back to base. This line also suggests to me that characters that we saw with this group like Trailbreaker, Jazz, and Prowl weren't supposed to be here at all. Only nine Autobots left the Ark in the last issue.)
-
On
page 11, panel 4, one of the humans outside the Decepticon base is a reporter
for a TV program called Eyewitness News. Curiously, the lettering is
different here--much larger and obviously not done by the same person. On
a hunch, I checked my copy of TRANSFORMERS COMICS MAGAZINE
#2, which reprints this story, and sure enough--this version says Entertainment
Tonight. I'm guessing what happened was that the story originally referred
to ET, but somebody changed it because they didn't want to get in trouble
for citing a real news program. They must have grabbed the original,
unaltered version when they reprinted the issue for the much
smaller TFCM. (Maybe it's that way in the original
version of issue #3, too? The copy I have is the second printing.)
There are actually some minor coloring differences between the two
versions, too, which I've cited below.
- On page 12, the narration box says that Buzzsaw "cleanly severs the jet fighters' wing!" So all these jets share the same wing, eh? (It should be "jet fighter's wing.")
- Here's a weird one. On page 23, panel 6, Ratchet's repair bay thingy talks! It's got Gears laying inside the repair bay as it says, "I've managed to revive him to minimum operating level!" and Ratchet (his robot mode, that is) responds, "Incredible! He's trying to speak!" So Ratchet's repair bay has an independantly functioning personality? That's just too weird. Creeps me right out.
ART AND COLORING: (20)
- This issue marks the appearance of the finished cartoon forms for quite a few characters, including Frenzy and Rumble, Ironhide and Ratchet, Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Huffer, Brawn, and Gears. Strangely, though, Optimus Prime is drawn exactly like the toy when he's in his vehicle mode.
- On the bottom of page 4, Megatron's Decepticon symbol has the "forehead" with three points instead of two again. (Also, on panel 3, Rumble's lower torso is colored pink instead of dark blue, but only in the TRANSFORMERS COMICS MAGAZINE version. Maybe they saw the error and fixed it for the reprint?)
- On page 5, panel 1, the sign above Sparkplug's shop reads "WITWICKY AUTO REPAIR." That should be Auto Repairs. The scene has also changed slightly since we last saw the Autobots--Prime and Prowl are standing when they were on their knees in issue #2, Sideswipe is in the exact same pose, but he's colored correctly now instead of like Sunstreaker; and the Jazz-colored-like-Hound actually is sort of drawn like Hound now.
- In panel 4 of the same page, Windcharger is colored more or less like Jazz.
- On page 8, panel 1, Gears' tires are pink (They're white in the TFCM version.)
- On the third panel of page 8, Gears' hood isn't colored in (probably because the "speed lines" make it a little confusing to tell where the contours of the Autobots' vehicle modes are). Actually, I thought it was Optimus Prime at first, but if that were the case, he's suddenly driving in the opposite direction that the 'Bots were a moment ago, and one of the other Autobots is actually pulling his trailer. (Curiously, he's colored right in the TFCM version.)
- In panel 4, Cliffjumper is colored yellow, like Bumblebee. Also in this panel, Mirage's rear spoiler is sagging a bit. It looks to me like someone was using the toy for reference but didn't have him transformed correctly.
- On the bottom of page 8, Trailbreaker is colored like Brawn. (I'll also just point out that Trailbreaker didn't appear with this group of Autobots until they had already started driving back to base.)
- On page 9, panel 4, Megatron's got that three-pointed Decepticon symbol once more.
-
On the two bottom panels of page 9, Shockwave appears with
the other Decepticons.1 Needless to say, this is a very
large error since he's not supposed to show up until the next issue. I'm
guessing the script for the issue said something like, "Rumble pours a fuel
sample in the barrel as assorted Decepticos watch in the background," and
the artists grabbed Shockwave's model sheet, not realizing the significance
of the character.
- This is pretty nitpicky even for me, but during the Decepticons' battle with the army, according to the narration, Buzzsaw "cleanly severs" the jet fighter's wing, and yet we see little bits of jet-wing flying off, and the broken end looks like Cookie Monster took a bite out of it.
- On page 13, panel 2, Skywarp's left air intake (them's the thingies on his shoulders in robot mode) is colored pink, like the background. (It's fine in the TFCM edition, though. However, in the next panel, Skywarp's head isn't colored in the TFCM version, but it is in my regular copy of #3.)
- On panel 9 of the same page, that vent-thingy on Gears' chest is colored blue. (Usually, it's yellow.)
- Not a mistake, but I think it's interesting how they draw Cliffjumper on page 15. He's in his vehicle mode, and looks like his cartoon model (with the Autobot symbol on the left side of his hood), but they've stretched him out into normal car proportions rather than the super-deformed shape of the toy and normal cartoon model.
- Spider-Man and Hound lead the Autobots toward the Decepticon base with Cliffjumper, Windcharger, and Optimus Prime right behind them. On the first panel of page 16, though, Prime has disappeared and Cliffjumper is all the way at the back of the line.
- On the second panel of page 16, Sunstreaker is colored red, like Sideswipe, as he transforms.
- On page 17, panel 2, Gears is watching as Brawn punches Rumble. This is doubly wrong since he's colored entirely blue, and he shouldn't be in this scene in the first place (he and Spider-Man are on their way inside the 'Con base at this point).
- I'm wondering about the first panel on page 19. We see Megatron, but he's thinking to himself, My sensors detect an Autobot intruder entering through the rear of the fortress! Not even the weakest radio signal can evade Soundwave! It's pretty clear that they were supposed to draw Soundwave here instead. (Sure, it would make more sense if Soundwave weren't referring to himself in the third person, but that's just how Marvel comics are written. Sometimes it even confuses Zobovor!)
- This one's kind of weird. On panel 3 of page 19, Frenzy is carrying Rumble over his shoulder. Both robots are orange and the background is blue, but for some reason there's a part of the background that's purple and another that's yellow, and they look very out of place. In the TFCM version, though, everything's blue and orange like it's supposed to be.
-
On the fourth panel of page 22, Brawn is colored like Jazz;
Cliffjumper is also sort of colored like Jazz; and Sunstreaker is colored
like... uhh... I dunno. He's blue with red forearms and a red helmet.
Also, Sunstreaker's quite the hero, isn't he? Pressing on, determined
to recover all of the parts to the broken Gears, despite the fact that he
himself is missing his left arm?
- The Autobots carrying Gears' body inside on page 23 are Hound colored like Windcharger and Cliffjumper colored like... uhh... Jazz with red legs. Also, Ratchet's repair bay thingy (or M.A.R.B., as we'll learn it's called later) is colored red instead of white.
- There's a lot of 'em this issue, courtesy of Spider-Man:
- "Where'd all these rejects from a George Lucas film come from?"--this one's from "O," and most certainly a reference to the Transformers resembling machines from the Star Wars movie trilogy.
- "Hey! Hold on, Big Boy!--Or as that funny lady on TV says, 'Can we talk?'"--Spidey's talking about Joan Rivers, one of the regular guest hosts on The Tonight Show.2
- "Hi, ho! Hi, ho! It's off to work we go!"--lyrics from the song the dwarves sing in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [sic].
- "That takes care of Tweedledum and Twedledee!"--Spider-Man after dispatching Frenzy and Rumble. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were the rotund twins in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.
- "Thought I saw a pussycat!"--Spider-Man after Ravage reveals himself. The quote is actually "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" and is Tweety Bird's signature line from Looney Tunes.
- "Bazooka Joe's all tied up--let's call a cab and split!"--Spider-Man again after wrapping Megatron up in his webbing. Bazooka Joe was the name of a mini-comic found on the inside wrapper of the bubble gum of the same name, put out by The Topps Company. I guess in this context, it's a reference to Megatron's large, bazooka-like fusion cannon.
- Acme.
- Ralph.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
1Liam Kavanagh
2imdb.com