The Human Factor!

« The Transformers (US) #68 » « The Transformers (UK) #302–305 »
Not Starscream's best moment.
"The Human Factor!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	May 1990
Cover date	July 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Artist	Dwayne Turner
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Rick Parker
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Puny flesh creatures fight to protect a world that hates and fears them.

Synopsis

In the aftermath of the RAAT debacle, G.B. Blackrock has been given carte blanche to assemble a new team to deal with Transformer-related incidents. He has focused on gathering super-humans, people with a unique genetic quirk that gives them powers beyond normal men. His first two recruits, Lee Gruber and Katrina Vesotzky, are given special codenames (Thunderpunch and Rapture, respectively) and costumes to appeal to the public. They're both bitter outcasts who don't get on with each other or Blackrock and, to his dismay, don't entirely give a crap about the mission, but they're willing to give this half a shot.

Their first mission is to hunt down a third potential member, referred to as "Mister X", who wiped out the Air Strike Patrol in Louisiana and then panicked when he'd almost killed bystanders. Unfortunately, Starscream wants Mister X too. He sees the human's power as a bottomless fountain of energy, the Powermaster process on steroids, giving him enough power to challenge and defeat Scorponok for leadership of the Decepticons. Blackrock's bickering crew have, thanks to a news crew, found out X is a Mexican named Hector Dialonzo and are able to make contact with him, getting him to wait for them and hear out their offer of joining them in return for temporary citizenship. What neither party realises is that Circuit Breaker got their first and is making her own pitch to him!

Starscream arrives second and begins to battle Circuit Breaker for Dialonzo. She begins tearing his circuitry apart, but is struck down from behind by a mysterious assailant who's been tracking Starscream. With a bartender at risk, Dialonzo agrees to come with the Decepticon until Blackrock's team arrives. They almost take down Starscream, just as they've trained, until Circuit Breaker gets involved again and swats Thunderpunch away so she can kill the Decepticon!

The potential three-way fight ends when Dialonzo violently calls a time-out, and says he will listen to each proposal and then decide for himself. Starscream offers revenge against those who wronged him and a chance at conquest, Circuit Breaker offers a crusade against the evil robots and the adoration of the masses, but Blackrock simply offers the truth—the chance to be branded either hero or traitor by the public, but to ultimately do what is right. Starscream naturally attempts to cheat, but is blasted by Rapture's dream-power and then ultimately brought down by the rest of the team. In the end, Blackrock extends his offer to Josie as well, who he's noticed is burning out and becoming far too cold, and she reluctantly accepts.

Sometime later, Starscream awakens to find himself eyes-to-eye with Shockwave, who has an offer of his own...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"The second Decepticon -- Stormcloud, I think he says his name is -- explains colorfully what he's going to do to Mister X for acing his pal."

—Blackrock narrates the Air Strike Patrol's last stand.

"Why? Why the costumes?"
"Did you never read comics as a kid? It's the done thing! If you're going to be heroes-- you have to look the part!"

—Lee Gruber and G.B. Blackrock lampshade

"I want you two ready for anything! Well, are you?"
"Ready? Yeah, I'm ready... ready to dance Swan Lake in this gear!"

—G.B. Blackrock and Lee Gruber

"Josie Beller died years ago, Blackrock. There's only Circuit Breaker. Now stand aside and let me do the job I was built for!"

—Circuit Breaker

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Thunderpunch and Rapture's costumes are colored incorrectly on the cover.
• Dwayne Turner's artwork on this issue is crude and sketchy, with the action often hard to follow, as when Dialonzo (seemingly) uses his powers to put down all the combatants. He also consistently draws Starscream's back as a single flat wing-shaped plane. Turner never worked on the comic again and you can see why. He did get better on other comics!
• Starscream responds to a fighter pilot's dialogue even though he could not possibly have heard it. Comics!

Continuity errors

• An unnamed news crew filmed Dialonzo's fight with the Patrol and then somehow found out his real name and location, which the government-affiliated Blackrock was unable to do. Once they'd done the work, Blackrock somehow made contact and it's not clear how unless he got the newsies to do it for him.

Continuity notes

• The episode's events happen "a month or so" after the attack on MacDill Air Force Base (issues #56-59.) The Air Strike Patrol have been rampaging across the southern states of the US and the Autobots don't seem to have been stopping them, implying that when they went on the Matrix Quest they stopped paying attention to Earth.
• The "[National] Security Council" is mentioned as having "grudgingly" accepted Autobots and Decepticons are separate factions, and scrapping RAAT afterwards. This is the first time we've heard what happened to the once-ubiquitous RAAT.
• This is the first appearance of the human super-beings who would become the Neo-Knights. (In the UK reprints, however, the "Previously" recaps were already calling them the Neo-Knights.) You may think superhumans is a new development for the comic but Spider-Man has already turned up!
• Starscream wants to use Dynamo as an upgrade of the Powermaster process, tying the plot in to established power boosts.
• Circuit Breaker has gone even loopier, now saying Josie Beller "died years ago" and referring to herself as being "built for" killing robots. Blackrock is disturbed by this and also feels guilty that he hasn't done enough for her. He's not wrong: after "DIS-Integrated Circuits!", they never met again until now!
• We learn that Transformers cannot power up to maximum energy levels using Earth fuels.
• The Air Strike Patrol are killed off permanently here.
• Starscream remembers fighting Circuit Breaker from back in US issue #9... after being killed twice. Now that's a good memory!
  • Circuit Breaker doesn't remember him at all.
• Shockwave has been walking around very not dead in the Marvel UK strips. (Starscream should also have heard about it) By this point, Furman's long given up on trying to tie US and UK together but will go on to not contradict any UK stories when he handwaves Shockwave's survival.

Real-life references

• Blackrock Industries is headquartered in Washington, D.C. - a change from the long-standing Portland headquarters of Blackrock Enterprises. The Air Attack Squad is defeated at a refinery in Louisiana; Starscream passes by Jacksonville, Florida on his way to Matacumbe Key.
• The United States National Security Council, rather than a fictional body like Triple-I, are giving Blackrock his mandate.
• The Neo-Knights in-universe look like comic-book superheroes. Blackrock deliberately modelled them on fictional heroes so they'd "look the part" to the general public.
• We're told Rapture was "destitute, down-and-out". With her later lines of having had "more than my fill" of men telling her what to do and that she's not a "tool to be used as you see fit", there seems to be a coded reference to sex work.
• Thunderpunch makes reference to the classic ballet Swan Lake.

Other trivia

• Whether intended here or not, the Neo-Knights will become a really obvious attempt by Simon Furman to get his foot in the Marvel Universe door and get some superhero spinoffs going. In the final issue of this series, he'll even talk about plans to get a Neo-Knight series going (and a pitch was made).
• Thunderpunch is a really obnoxious git.
• Simon Furman describes this issue as perhaps the only one in his whole career where he has been "disappointed with the way [it] came out."^[1] In a Titan collection, this issue was deliberately left out at Furman's request.
• The UK cover of #305 is a reprint of interior artwork from #29.^[2]
• A Transformers Universe profile for Slapdash is found after the main story.
• In the credits, editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco is listed as "Mutant".
• The "Next Issue" box ends its exclamation-laden promises for the next issue's contents with "AND MORE STUPID EXCLAMATIONS!"

Bot Roster

• Autobots: 30 active; 8 rogue Micromasters; 1 in storage, 31 offline, 25 presumed offline. (95 total)
• Decepticons: 22 active, 2 gone rogue; 26 offline, 25 presumed offline, 3 offline/missing. The Air Strike team is taken out of the picture for good. (78 total)

UK printing

Issue #302:

• Additional Transformers story: "Dreadwind's Xmas!"
• Reprint Transformers story: "In the National Interest"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Alliance of Convenience" and Combat Colin

Issue #303:

• Reprint Transformers story: "In the National Interest"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Alliance of Convenience" and Combat Colin

Issue #304:

• Reprint Transformers story: "In the National Interest"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Alliance of Convenience" and Combat Colin

Issue #305:

• Reprint Transformers story: "In the National Interest"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Alliance of Convenience" and Combat Colin

Covers (5)

• US issue #68 cover: Starscream punched by Thunderpunch, by Dwayne Turner.
• UK issue #302 cover: Dreadwind's Christmas, by Stewart Johnson and John Burns.
• UK issue #303 cover: Peeping Tom Starscream, by Stewart Johnson and Robin Bouttell.
• UK issue #304 cover: Starscream vs Circuit Breaker, by John Marshall, Bambos Georgiou and Robin Bouttell.
• UK issue #305 cover: Shockwave, by Richard Fisher.

• 

  US issue #68 - At least put some shoes on!

• 

  UK issue #302 - Strangely, this cover relates to the letters page. Even stranger, the middle guy is supposed to be Blaster.

• 

  UK issue #303 - All he wants is the funny hat.

• 

  UK issue #304 - Sheeargh!

• 

  UK issue #305 - No-one remembers the last time we used this pic? Good!

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US

• Taito Wrath of the Black Manta for Nintendo - inside front cover
• LJN The Uncanny X-Men for Nintendo - between pages 4 & 5
• Capcom Bionic Commando - between pages 5 & 6
• TSR AD&D books - between pages 7 & 8
• Tradewest Super Off-Road for Nintendo - between pages 8 & 9
• Chicago and Southern Cal. Comic Cons - between pages 16 & 17
• Dick Tracy movie - between pages 17 & 18
• Bullpen Bulletins and checklist - between pages 19 & 20
• Comic book convention schedules - between pages 20 & 21
• Transmissions
• Marvel subscription service
• Capcom Code Name: Viper - inside back cover
• Ultra Games Nemesis for Nintendo Game Boy (back cover)

UK

????

Reprints

• Transformers: Matrix Quest TPB: Thunderwing, Rodimus Prime, Shockwave, and half of Primus, by Andrew Wildman.
• Transformers: Matrix Quest HC: Thunderwing with the Creation Matrix, by Pat Lee.
• Classic Transformers Volume 5: panels from "Eye of the Storm", "Deadly Obsession" "All Fall Down" and "...All This and Civil War 2".
• The Transformers Classics, Vol. 6: Blitzwing, by Guido Guidi.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection:Volume 18: Edge of Extinction: Grimlock, above an interior scene (issue #74) of Powermaster Optimus Prime battling the Acolytes of Unicron. Grimlock art by Guido Guidi, Retro art by Andrew Wildman (pencils) and Stephen Baskerville (inks).

• 

  Transformers: Matrix Quest TPB
  (Titan Books, 2002)

• 

  Transformers: Matrix Quest HC
  (Titan Books, 2002)

• 

  Classic Transformers Volume 5
  (IDW Publishing, 2009)

• 

  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 6
  (IDW Publishing, 2013)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 18: Edge of Extinction
  (Hachette Partworks, 2017)

References