All or Nothing!

	; Now there's a pain that's going to linger, I must say...
	"All or Nothing!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	October 1993
Cover date	December 1993
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencilers	Derek Yaniger, Manny Galan, Andrew Wildman
Inkers	Jim Amash, Marie Severin, Stephen Baskerville
Colorist	Sarra Mossoff
Letters	Richard Starkings with Gaushell
Editor	Rob Tokar
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Fortress Maximus attempts to defeat an upgraded Megatron aboard the Ark while Hot Spot takes on Cobra!

Synopsis

"All or Nothing!"

All eyes turn skywide as the Ark looms overhead under the command of Megatron! After various events in another comic, he's defeated an Autobot strike team with four kills and two woundings, and he's conned Cobra into giving him a new body and their top weapons designer Dr. Biggles-Jones in return for a load of junk. Now he's off to reclaim command of the Decepticons!

Unknown to him, Skydive and Spike Witwicky, one-time Headmaster partner to Fortress Maximus, have each managed to sneak on board. Spike feels it's lucky he came back to check on the Ark when he did but he'll need Maximus' body to do anything; unfortunately, he finds Fortress Maximus's body has been heavily damaged by Megatron. He takes control anyway and Maximus teams up with Skydive, making his move while Megatron, in need of reinforcements wherever he can get them, is focused on the "sheer lunacy" of bringing someone back. While Max takes on Megs, Skydive rescues Biggles-Jones and then leaves. Sadly, Fortress Maximus proves no match for the upgraded Decepticon leader, leaving Spike worried that Maximus intends to die stopping Megatron (he doesn't want to be included too!).

Only a distraction provided by Skydive—screw Biggles-Jones' safety, he wants to shoot at that bastard too!—proves enough to allow Maximus to walk away from the battle. He locates the antimatter conversion chamber, which will take out the Ark if destroyed, and tells Spike to leave and get clear. Unfortunately, Spike knows that Maximus probably can't do it without his help, and the two willingly sacrifice themselves to shatter the chamber. Skydive escapes in time, Biggles-Jones in tow, but whether or not Megatron fell is unknown...

Meanwhile, on Earth, Cobra is fleeing the town of Milleville with Cybertronian junk parts. Hot Spot, the leader of the Autobots sent to Earth, feels that the risk is too great that humans could reverse-engineer something even from rubbish; he goes on the attack despite his wounds, attempting to destroy all the parts. Wounded, he is only able to succeed when G.I. Joe arrive to provide aid. However, he's unable to fight back when the Cobras surround him, intending to dissect him for information. Optimus Prime had made it clear that not even the Autobots could fall into human hands... so Hot Spot self-destructs, much to the horror of the watching Hawk.

When Skydive returns to Earth with Dr. Biggles-Jones, he and members of G.I. Joe reflect on the sacrifices of Fortress Maximus and Hot Spot. Skydive reflects on death and both he and Hawk hope that, when their time comes, they can be as strong as their comrades were.

"Ghosts"

Main article: Ghosts

A reprint of the story from the Generation 2: Halloween Special Edition released ahead of issue #1.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	G.I. Joe	Cobra
Hot Spot (5) Fortress Maximus (9) Skydive (10)	Megatron (6) Starscream (11)	Spike Witwicky (8)	Scarlett (1) Snake-Eyes (2) Hawk (12) Wild Bill (13)	Cobra Vipers (3) Cobra Commander (4) Sidney Biggles-Jones (7)

Quotes

"ALL OF THEM! The Autobots - four kills and two woundings! Cobra - their top weapons expert and a new body in return for a trailer full of junk! I beat them ALL!"

—Megatron drops some exposition with his usual flair.

"If one printed circuit so much as gets smudged, I'll have your heads! After I've had your fingers, your toes..."

—Cobra Commander to his men.

"Bring me his...cab!"

—Cobra Commander tries to sound badass and fails miserably.

"There can be no half measures, not on your or my part. You were right, it's all...OR NOTHING!"

—Spike title drops.

"What they've got there...stuff we wouldn't normally give a second thought to...in the hands of these creatures, these scurrying inquisitive creatures...who knows where it might lead? Our leader, Optimus Prime, was worried worried about more than just Megatron. If our presence here advanced this race before its time...whatever chaos followed would be on our conscience!"

—Hot Spot internally monologues about how dangerous it can be when Cybertronian technology falls into human hands.

"Another one? I really must get this placed swept!"

—Megatron has a high opinion of his enemies.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

As Derek Yaniger couldn't meet the deadline for #2, Manny Galan and Andrew Wildman were drafted to help out. This makes the art extremely inconsistent, as all three artists had different styles (Galan tried to emulate Yaniger's but really struggled at it).
Hot Spot should be rendered as two words, but is consistently rendered "Hotspot" here.
On page 8, Spike transforms directly into Fortress Maximus's head, rather than Cerebros's.
Fortress Maximus' head reuniting with his body is somehow able to reattach his arm.

Continuity errors

Spike says he "came checking" on the Ark, except the Ark was moved from northern Canada to somewhere in the States in "Goin' South". Did he follow it all the way?
For all the action to stop anyone gaining Cybertronian technology, nobody remembers all those dead Autobots back in Milleville.

Continuity notes

Way back in "Still Life!", Grimlock was searching for the Ark so he could rescue the deactivated Autobots still aboard the ship. Since the ship was in Decepticon hands from that time on up to its destruction here, does that mean Fortress Maximus blew up a bunch of his comatose teammates?
Spike says he kept tabs on the Ark now and then, but hasn't done so for a while. This implies that Megatron has only recently got up again. (How did he do it? He just did, alright?)
While Megatron claims Cobra just has Cybertronian junk, Hot Spot believes that humans could reverse-engineer even this technology. Since he died for it, you hope Hot Spot was right or that'd be a real pisser!
Also, yes, that's right: Optimus Prime told his Autobots to kill themselves if captured.
Fortress Maximus seems to have much more trouble against Megatron here than he did against Galvatron back in "The Last Autobot". Make of that what you will. Spike does mention that he only had a little bit of time to activate his "systemic regeneration program" to justify the one-sided battle.
This issue marks the third time that Spike has abandoned Fortress Maximus's body in the Ark and gone off to lead a normal life before events force him to take up the mantle of Fortress Maximus's head once again and proclaim that this time, they are truly one. You'd think by this time the Autobots would have just built a regular head for Maximus...
This story ties up loose ends from G.I. Joe #138–142.
And thus ends the story of Fortress Maximus, the war-weary leader who left Cybertron only to decapitate himself, lose his partner in a volcanic eruption, get impaled in space before being abandoned multiple times. He doesn't fare much better in other Furman storylines.

Real-life references

Other trivia

Furminated

Fortress Maximus (and Spike, and presumably Cerebros) are vaporized in the explosion of the Ark.
Hot Spot self-destructs, exploding from within.
Various Cobra troopers are offed in the running battle with Hot Spot and the Joes.

Cover

Transformers: Generation 2 #2 cover: Megatron vs. Fortress Maximus, by Derek Yaniger.

Blarg!

Reprints

Transformers: Dark Designs TPB: Megatron, Swoop, Bludgeon, Grimlock's toe and half of the Liege Maximo, by Andy Wildman.
Transformers: Dark Designs hardback: Megatron and the graves of Starscream, Bludgeon, Fortress Maximus and Optimus Prime, by John Byrne and Chris Blythe.
Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 90: Generation 2 Part 1: Red Alert, by Dreamwave Productions and Kup, by Derek Yaniger.

Dark Designs TPB
(Titan Books, 2002)
Dark Designs hardback
(Titan Books, 2002)
The Definitive G1 Collection Vol. 90: Generation 2 Part 1
(Hachette Partworks, 2020)

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