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Repeat Performance!

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MarvelUS-08.jpg
Jurassic Spark
"Repeat Performance!"
Publisher Marvel Comics
First published May 28, 1985 ("on sale" June 18, 1985)
Cover date September 1985
Script Bob Budiansky
Pencils William Johnson
Inks Kyle Baker
Colors Nel Yomtov
Letters Rick Parker
Editor Christopher J. Priest
Continuity Marvel Comics continuity

Ratchet recovers the Dinobots, and together they fight Megatron.

Contents

Synopsis

(thumbnail)
We have made... another commercial.

Ratchet journeys by shuttle to the Savage Land to locate the Dinobots, who fought Shockwave there shortly after the Ark crash-landed on Earth four million years ago. He uses his M.A.R.B. to locate Cybertronian life deep in a tarpit. After a lot of digging, he locates Slag, and uses a memory probe to view the Dinobots' battle with Shockwave, and their subsequent entombment. Slag awakens and, after recognizing Ratchet as an Autobot, readily agrees to help finish the job they'd started: destroying Shockwave.

Shockwave checks in on Megatron, who has been left to guard the Ark alone and has prepared the head of Optimus Prime for transport to the aerospace plant recently captured by the Decepticons; Shockwave is pleased and comments that he may have to raise his odds-of-having-to-destroy-Megatron calculations.

Shockwave returns to the plant with Optimus Prime's head, effortlessly defeating an Army force that has surrounded the plant. Within, he prepares to begin the construction of a new generation of Decepticons, using the Matrix program within Prime.

Ratchet contacts Megatron, and shows him video footage of the Dinobots defeating Shockwave. With his end of the bargain fulfilled, he arranges for Megatron to meet him on a nearby mountain. When Ratchet arrives, Megatron promptly threatens to kill him. This breaks the bargain... and the hidden Dinobots burst forth from the snow. Turns out Ratchet knew Megatron wouldn't hold up his end of the Rite of Oneness, and the video was from the Dinobots' tussle with Shockwave four million years ago.

But despite the Dinobots' power, Megatron beats them all, leaving Ratchet to face him alone once more. Determined to fight like a warrior, even to the death, Ratchet tries to carry them both over a cliff edge. Though Megatron doesn't budge, the impact weakens the cliff beneath him, and Megatron is sent tumbling away. He transforms into his gun mode in a desperate effort to survive, but disappears into the snow and is not seen again. With Megatron thus defeated, the Ark and the Autobots are free.

Meanwhile, Josie Beller, a series of printed circuit strips laced onto her arm, fires an energy bolt that destroys her hospital room's television. She speculates that she's about ready to check out...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

(thumbnail)
Shockwave: Decepticon, backstabber, Olympic gymnast.

"Uhh... I really haven't the time to find out what you want, tubular, carbon-based life form! Could you please find someone else to talk to?"

—Ratchet vs. a snake


"You seem to be adjusting well to taking orders... instead of giving them! I had calculated only a 27.6% chance that I wouldn't have had to destroy you due to an act of insubordination. I may have to revise that figure upward."

—Shockwave blasts Megatron with illogical double negatives


"You suffer from the same flaw as the rest of your Autobot ilk -- you are not a true warrior! A warrior thinks like a warrior! He finds a way to fight his enemy, not a way to trust him! But being a warrior is a claim you never made!"
"All you say about me is true, Megatron -- until now!"

—Megatron faces off with Ratchet... who subsequently unleashes the Dinobots


"You were willing to carry us both over this cliff to our doom, Autobot -- very admirable! You are a fool, but it is still an honor for me to now destroy a warrior as brave as --"
[KKRAK!]
"--NO!!"

—Megatron's last words before tumbling off a shattered cliff


Notes

Continuity notes

  • At the time of this issue's publication, The Transformers was still being written as if it took place within the mainstream Marvel Comics universe. As such, a footnote on the first page informs readers that "the events of this story take place before Avengers #257", in which the alien Terminus ravaged the Savage Land, destroying the alien machinery that maintained its tropical climate. This is the last such direct reference to the wider Marvel Universe in the comic.
  • Slag's memories provide a more detailed account of the Dinobots' battle with Shockwave, originally partially seen in issue #4.
  • Shockwave reveals that he has already used the Creation Matrix within Optimus Prime to program six new Decepticon lives, which he now intends to build bodies for using the aerospace plant's facilities. We didn't realize it at the time, but we saw this happening on the final page of issue #5, as energy was siphoned from Prime's head into a glowing cube.
  • The Dinobots disappear from the US series following this issue, only showing back up in a year's time in issue #19. The UK series provided an explanation for their absence in a series of original stories that began in the following UK issue.
  • Shockwave notes that he calculated a 27.6% chance that he wouldn't have to destroy Megatron in this issue. Back in issue #5, when checking on Megatron's recovery, he noted a 27.6% improvement in his operating capacity. What a coincidence!

Continuity and plotting errors

  • The machinery aboard the Ark that rebuilds the Dinobots does not resemble the revival drones that would rebuild the rest of the Transformers four million years later in issue #1.
  • Based on his actions during the Dinobots' battle with Shockwave, Snarl appears to have been confused for Sludge. Sludge's bio describes his low intelligence, and how he is often the victim of "self-inflicted calamities," having to be "dug out of the rubble he brings down upon himself." In the issue, Snarl brings rubble down on the Dinobots and is repeatedly called dumb.
  • Narration this issue claims Josie Beller "cannot move or lift (her right arm) on her own," but just last issue, her right arm was described as the one part of her body she could move.

Artwork and technical errors

(thumbnail)
It's odd how Slag retained his prototype toy colors throughout the cartoon, while Snarl only had them for his first comic appearance.
  • Repeating an error from issues #3, #4, and #7, Megatron still has his off-center Decepticon insignia, a result of the artist misinterpreting the geometry of his character model. See the note on Megatron's page for more information.
  • In another repeating error, G.B. Blackrock is missing his mustache this issue.
  • Shockwave finally settles into his finalized color scheme this issue, with his shoulders being colored in purple like the rest of his body. His hand and gun are typically a lighter purple than the rest of him, but in this issue, they are an especially light pink-purple.
  • As in the previous issue, Optimus Prime's head is drawn as missing its antenna-ears.
  • In dinosaur mode, Slag's head is colored golden yellow. Though this is how he looks in the cartoon, it's the only time he'll look this way in the comic; future issues color his dino-head greyish-purple. Both are derived from the toy, the head of which is golden chrome inside translucent smokey-grey plastic.
  • Page 1: There's a large yellow smear across Ratchet's pelvis, and the sides of his helmet are also colored yellow.
  • Page 7, panels 3-4: Snarl has a red head and red hands. Either he's miscolored in Slag's cartoon colors, or his colors in this issue are based on a prototype of the Transformers toy.[1] (He has his final toy's colors for his next appearance in issue #19.) In panel 4, bot his dino-mode tail kibble, and Grimlock's "wings," are miscolored as if they are part of the shuttlecraft in the background.
  • Pages 8–10: Grimlock's dino-mode neck is solid grey instead of yellow.
  • Page 10, panels 1 & 3: Shockwave is colored like Megatron.
  • Page 13, panels 4-5: Soundwave is initially alone when Shockwave arrives at the plant, only for Laserbeak to have suddenly appeared on his shoulder in the next panel. Laserbeak is oddly colored with an orange head, and Soundwave's mouthplate is the same strong purple color as the rest of his body.
  • Page 15: Megatron's Decepticon insignia is uncolored.
  • Page 18, panel 1: Ratchet's head crest looks like it's missing; we should be able to see it poking out on either side of his helmet. The same happens on page 22, panel 1.


UK printing

UKDinobotsPoster.jpg

Issue #27:

  • Published: 14th September, 1985
  • Cover date: 21st September, 1985
  • Back-up strips: Machine Man ("He Lives Again," Part 1), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat.
  • With this issue, the comic went from fortnightly to weekly, and changed from partially color/partially black-and-white to full color, a format change that would last all the way up to issue #215. The number of pages was reduced from 32 to 24, the price rose from 27p to 30p, and the design and layout of the comic was revised, settling into a standard of one lead Transformers strip (usually 11 pages, but US reprints could occasionally over-run this), one backup strip (usually between 5 and 7 pages), and two half page funnies.

Issue #28:

  • Published: 21st September, 1985
  • Cover date: 28th September, 1985
  • Back-up strips: Machine Man ("He Lives Again," Part 2), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat
  • Fact File Interface: Snarl
  • Free gift: A2 poster of the Dinobots, by John Higgins (pictured; later reprinted in the Transformers Annual 1986)
  • The epilogue featuring Josie Beller completing her cybernetic upgrade is cut from the UK printing, as there would be several issues' worth of UK-original strips between this story and the next US issue, which the epilogue is meant to lead directly into. The Snarl Fact File fills in the empty space left on the page.

Other trivia

  • The cover features only Grimlock, Slag and Sludge—without Snarl and Swoop. These same three Dinobots were initially introduced in the animated series episode "S.O.S. Dinobots" before their remaining two companions, and the same three only were seen in the commercial animation for the Dinobot toys. Coincidence?
  • IDW's Classic Transformers reprint censored the editor's note on page 1 that mentioned the Savage Land and Avengers #257.
  • This issue is featured in the movie Vice Versa (1988), though the pages shown being read are from issue 9.

Bot Roster

  • Autobots: 6 active, as the Dinobots return to the fold; 16 inactive plus Optimus Prime held captive. (23 total)
  • Decepticons: 10 active; Megatron missing in action. (11 total)

Covers (3)

  • US issue #8: Sludge, Grimlock and Slag, by M.D. Bright and Kyle Baker.
  • UK issue #27: Shockwave transforming, by Robin Smith.
  • UK issue #28: reuse of art from US cover.
  • (thumbnail)

    US issue #8 - What IS Grimlock doing to Slag?

  • (thumbnail)

    UK issue #27 - ... that shaked when he laughed like a bowl full of purple jelly.

  • (thumbnail)

    UK issue #28 - "We'll defeat Shockwave with the Dinobots. And a free poster. And an elephant."

Reprints

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection.

  • Page 7, panel 2: A yellow printing haze around Snarl's grey forehead crest is misinterpreted, and the whole crest winds up recolored yellow. Snarl himself is still the wrong colors.
  • Page 10: Shockwave's colors are corrected.
  • Page 13: As is standard for the reprint series, Soundwave continues to be colored blue, erasing his standard purple Marvel color scheme.

Advertisements

  • Secret Wars II #4 (inside front cover)
  • Fig Newtons/Apple Newtons Treasure Chest - between pages 4 & 5
  • Nestlé Quik free Steve Garvey baseball - between pages 5 & 6
  • Reese's Pieces "Glubgrafutz" - between pages 7 & 8
  • Bonkers! new watermelon flavor - between pages 8 & 9
  • Mile High Comics - between pages 16 & 17 and between pages 17 & 18
  • various comics dealers - between pages 19 & 20
  • Bullpen Bulletins, with notice of death of Morrie - between pages 20 & 21
  • The Sword of Solomon Kane limited series
  • Marvel subscriptions
  • Star Comics subscriptions (inside back cover)
  • Young Astronaut Program (back cover)

References

  1. ↑ "Photo gallery: Internal G1 Transformers prototype images, part 1" at Játékok a Polcról.
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