Transformers Comic issue 16

« Transformers (Titan) #16 »
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	11 September 2008
Editor	Steve White
Deputy editor	Den Patrick
Designer	Danny Preston
Publishing manager	Darryl Curtis

Maybe I should call you Double... Jazz.

Contents

Dark Spark

Oil pipelines in Crooked Creek, Alaska; naval defences in San Diego, California; supply convoys in Shreveport, Louisiana—anywhere America tries to rebuild, the Decepticons attack and destroy! The Autobots are completely overstretched. Ratchet knows they need reinforcements and so, after much deliberation, decides to use his AllSpark fragment to bring Jazz back to life!

Six days later, Optimus Prime and a human team including Tom Banachek and President Allen arrive in Okeechobee, Florida; the ground is seething with and spewing out raw energon! Optimus reveals that while the Autobots destroyed the AllSpark, the conversion of Earth into a new Cybertron was too far underway and the planet has been fundamentally damaged as a result. Chaos is occurring across the planet, and while Evac and his team are en route from Cybertron, all that can be done now is to limit the damage and cover up the approaching apocalypse to prevent humanity's morale giving out entirely.

Of course, to Starscream, all this means is there's a place in America spewing out enough energon to power an invasion fleet, and he wants it...

Back in Savannah, Jazz is back and feeling confident—much to Optimus' confusion and annoyance at Ratchet. Making the most of it, he dispatches the two of them to secure and monitor Okeechobee. Jazz happily speeds off, while Optimus reminds Ratchet that Megatron had corrupted the AllSpark and this may not be the Jazz they knew. Jazz, for his part, doesn't remember being dead and states the only thing that concerns him about his death is living each day like it was his last.

Shockingly for a story called "Dark Spark", it turns out Jazz actually has been corrupted—he paralyses Ratchet's main axis cog with an inhibitor clamp, and organises a tele-conference with various aliens to sell off Earth and its lucrative raw energon! The Decepticons, however, don't want to share and Dreadwing and a drone launch an attack, ignoring Jazz's attempts at making a deal.

Ratchet suddenly comes back to life—he always has spare parts inside him and easily replaced the axis cog—and ends the conflict by destroying the energon field. Unfortunately, Jazz has fled, and the medic breaks down as he realises what he's unleashed...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Articles & features

• Nintendo DS competition.
• Cosmic Catch competition.
• Character Profile: Elephorca.
• Bumblebee's Way-Past-Cool Reviews: video game review feature.
• Preview of next month's Animated comic.
• Artobots: Fan art section.
• Star Screams: Letters, art and photos from readers, answered by Starscream.
• Poster

Free Gift

• "Free! Rotor Blaze Battle Launcher!"—toy gun firing rotors. Pretend to be Rotor Force while a mate pretends he's Nemesis Prime and offs you!

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Megatron Origin, part 1c (7 pages)
• Beast Wars: The Ascending part 1c (5 pages)

Errors

• The Elephorca Profile has images of Torca, probably confusing thousands of young kids into thinking the Maximal is actually a villain in disguise. It also states his alternate mode is that of an elephant, which is only half true.
• On page 3, a caption saying reinforcements are being summoned is in the same panel as Elita-One standing completely still and not going anywhere. Of course, this is Elita-One.
• The Megatron Origin reprint ends on the splash page of the Autobot HQ in Kaon, even though narratively it'd make more sense to end the page before.
• Longarm speaks for Ironhide in their one scene together

Quotes

Strip

"Skyblast—send for back-up. The convoy has to get through."
"Back-up? What back-up?"

—Strongarm and Skyblast

"We have to keep a lid on this. Public morale is already at an all-time low. If it gets out we're now facing some techno-organic armageddon, whatever fight's left in mankind will go right out the window."

—President Allen

"I... see, I gather, Ratchet, you interpreted your responsibility, vis-a-vis the AllSpark fragment's "safekeeping", a touch freely."

—Optimus, clearly wanting to say "you git"

"From now on it's just me, myself, I!"

—Jazz from now on will be his own best friend

"Jazz? What... have I done? What... have I unleashed?!"

—Ratchet

Star Screams

"I may well hang this [reader's drawing] in my trophy room, alongside Jazz's lumbar spinal region, an F-22 nose cone, and a blank shield that, one-day, I hope to hang Megatron's head on... (best keep that to yourselves right now...)"

"Goodies? Baddies? Do you think this is some vapid toy franchise or something?! THIS IS WAR!"

"Michael Bay's second documentary... is due to be released on 26 June 2009 in your country. Hopefully we'll see more Autobot casualties, less pitiful humans and a lot less toilet jokes. Bumblebee should really be in a nappy if he has such poor bladder control."

Reader: "I spent ages making these two Autobot and Decepticon symbols out of my sister's art beads—she doesn't know... and never will. Otherwise there will be WAR!"
"So human females will go to war over art beads? Hmmm, this is useful intelligence information that could be used to sow discord among human populations. Do these beads have some kind of power like the AllSpark?"

"As for the competition questions being too easy—if they were too difficult, you miserable Stone Age mouth-breathers wouldn't be able to answer them at all!"

Notes

Production notes

• When trailing this issue, Furman stated this was a deliberate bridge story between the big multi-parters. "It’s also more character led than other recent issues, which I do like to do from time to time, to bring the focus back from the epic to a level that anyone, even a casual reader, can jump in on."^[1]

Continuity notes

• Longarm and Strongarm are both functional again after getting battered in earlier stories.
• Bumblebee appears to outrank Armorhide, which doesn't stop Armorhide totally ignoring his orders.
• It's confirmed here that the AllSpark was permanently corrupted by Megatron.
• Sector Seven is operational once more, under the command of Tom Banachek.
• What appears to be General Seward turns up here, albeit unnamed.
• Ratchet can replace any internal part of himself with a spare part, all without moving, and carries two lots of spare parts at all times. This was previously introduced in the hardcover Movie Guide, but only Titan actually used it. Yay Titan!
• Despite Allen's distrust of the Transformers, he's on speaking terms (albeit cool ones) with Optimus.
• Evac leads a specialist scientific team. Evac leads it. Remember this, because the scripts won't!

Alternate-reality notes

• Barricade and Blackout are engaging the Autobots at Shreveport, so the latter's been brought back from the dead.
• We also see a non-drone Thundercracker for the first time. And we see... well, whoever that is helping Dreadwing, his jet mode doesn't fit with anyone.

Transformers references

• Jazz brought back from the dead by the All Spark? That seems to be Furman doing an evil twist on the toy bio of the post-movie Jazz toys. AllSpark-Enhanced Autobot Jazz's toy bio reads: "Though he was badly damaged—almost destroyed—in the final battle Autobot Jazz is back. Thanks to the power of the AllSpark he’s more powerful than ever."

Letters page notes

• Starscream tells us he'd make Barricade his second-in-command, and that he respects Ironhide and wishes he would defect to the Decepticons.

References