Secrets (G1)
From Transformers Wiki
| This article is about the Marvel UK story. For the IDW Fall of Cybertron story, see Secrets (FOC). |
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 "Whoa, déjà vu!." | |||||||||||||
| "Secrets" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 17th June 1990 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 23rd June 1990 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Pete Knifton | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Pete Venters | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Glib | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce | ||||||||||||
Soundwave is a dodgy geezer.
Contents |
Synopsis
Shockwave intercepts one of Megatron's energon shipments and beats the snot out of the guy to boot. Back at his base, an angry Megatron realises there's a traitor in his army and orders Soundwave to use his mind-reading powers to find out who it is. Unfortunately for Soundwave, he is the traitor, playing both sides against the other. He mind-scans everyone anyway, trying to find a fall guy, before finally hitting on Wildrider...
Soundwave stumbles into Wildrider's quarters at night, pretending to be poisoned by traitors, and gives him battle plans to transmit to Cybertron in secret to thwart the enemy. The paranoid Wildrider, rather than notice Soundwave was faking it, freaks out and heads off to transmit the plans—which means Megatron, informed by Soundwave, sees the Stunticon doing this, believes he's the traitor and contacting Shockwave, and executes the poor guy.
Soundwave earns Megatron's gratitude, and decides to spend some time making use of all that blackmail material he scanned from people's minds earlier...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Decepticons | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Quotes
"Nothin'. Guess he's dead, Shockwave! We killed Megatron!"
- —Astrotrain
"[Thinking] Interesting - but useless! How can I scan for the traitor - when I am the traitor!"
- —Soundwave is in a bit of a sticky wicket.
"Made it! Now to-"
"Betray me? Betray the Decepticons? It seems Soundwave was right. That tape is all the proof I need!"
"But-"
"There is no defence, no chance of appeal. There is only the sentence - [Blasts Wildrider with his fusion cannon] - of death!"
- —Wildrider blown to bits by Megatron
Notes
Artwork and technical errors
- TBD
Continuity errors
- TBD
Continuity notes
- Scrapper mentions he once had a brother, however see "Real-life references" below.
- Mixmaster deals Syk, a forbidden circuit booster.
- The Triple Changers work for Shockwave. In the later Dreamwave continuity they would do so almost exclusively.
- This story has a major consequence for the Earthforce war when Starscream blackmails Soundwave into helping him by threatening to reveal his double-agent activities in "Internal Affairs!".
- Megatron's getting his energon shipment from Cybertron, so he still has some buddies over there. We will never learn exactly who on Cybertron is helping him.
Real-life references
- Scrapper's line appears to be a reference to "Didn't You Kill My Brother?" an episode of the British comedy show The Comic Strip Presents... or more likely its theme song, which was released as a single by comedian Alexei Sayle.
Other trivia
- Wildrider is here because of a long-forgotten part of his Weaknesses section in the The Transformers Universe profiles: "He suspects enemies are lurking, ready to pounce on him, if all he hears are the sounds he produces himself. This gets him very nervous and hampers his effectiveness." Either Furman had been looking through them for useful fodder or he'd seen the profile during the production of Transformers AtoZ. In just fifteen issues time, AtoZ would reach Wildrider!
- In Dread Tidings, Dreadwind asks "Can you say 'shagpile' in a kid's comic...?" Ooer!
Back-up Material
- Additional Transformers story: "Ashes, Ashes..."
- Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Cold Snap" and Combat Colin
Cover
- Issue #275 cover: Shockwave throws Megatron off a cliff again, by Stephen Baskerville.
Issue #275 - "I throw you down a cliff, Megatron!"
Reprints
- Transformers: Fallen Star : Megatron and Shockwave fight at Memphis Airport. Cropped from the cover of issue #277, art by Stewart Johnson.
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road: Bludgeon (art reused from Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profiles) above an interior scene of Grimlock punching through Fangry (from US issue #80), by Andrew Wildman.
Fallen Star
(Titan Books, 2005)
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road
(Hachette Partworks, 2018)
