Transformers Comic issue 10

« Titan Transformers Comic #10 »
Not even you can save the day, miniature Animated Optimus Prime!
Publisher	Titan Magazines
First published	27 March 2008
Cover date	April 2008
Editor	Steve White
Deputy editor	Den Patrick
Designer	Danny Preston
Publishing manager	Darryl Curtis

France is over—finished!

Contents

Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 2

Megatron has arrived at the former Sector Seven base, ready to kill Bumblebee—as the Autobot hides, Megatron taunts him about how they're nothing without Optimus Prime and there is no hope of liberating their commander from his frozen state. While this goes on, Mikaela Banes, in radio contact with ally Tom Banachek, attempts to thaw out Optimus—unaware Frenzy is watching her...

In Paris, a city on fire and under siege, the French government and representatives of the NATO nations (as well as Russia) run through their options. Diplomacy has failed, threats have failed, conventional weapons have failed—as Russia has been saying for weeks, it's time to make a nuclear strike on Decepticon-held America. Unfortunately, the NATO nuclear fleets come under a sudden attack by Starscream, Dreadwing and their Thundercracker drone troops, who wipe out the naval fleets within ten minutes. As a bored Starscream heads off to fry "bigger fish", Dreadwing heads to Paris and obliterates the Palais Bourbon & the assembled NATO chiefs.

Twelve miles west of Savannah, Georgia, Ironhide and Ratchet ambush a Decepticon convoy. They make short work of the Payload drones—but the real trick is to destroy the vast Cybertronian tower rising out of the landscape, seemingly the origin of the AllSpark's cyberforming...

And on the moon, the Autobot reinforcements have received no word from their Earth contacts. Elita-One announces she's fed up and spoiling for a fight—just in time for Starscream to arrive!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Articles & features

• Transformers Animated feature—images of the Autobots, Megatron and Starscream, and a very basic plot synopsis and announcement of where you can see the show in the UK.
• Design Your Own Transformer: outlines of Optimus & Megatron, with a few of their body parts added. What the rest of it looks like is up to your imagination! (As long as your imagination imagines someone shaped like Optimus.)
• "The Purple & The Red": black-and-white image of the cover for you to colour in.
• Top Gear: adverts for and a chance to win Softimus Prime & Slumblebee plushies and a Swindle toy.
• Poster of the cover image.
• Star Screams: Letters and art from readers, answered by Starscream.

Free Gift

• "Free Missile Blaster!" foam-dart shooting toy

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Transformers: Movie Prequel, part 4a (7 pages)
• Beast Wars: The Gathering, part 4a (8 pages)

Quotes

Strip

"It was inevitable. Sooner or later, one or more of you would come. Even if to do so was to invite certain death. For you are all nothing without him. Without Optimus Prime."

—Megatron

"The best NATO has to offer and it's not nearly enough. Almost every frontier has been breached. Troop losses currently stand at 11, 506... in just ten minutes of actual combat time!"

—NATO gets déjà vu

"Sorry, but—we die hard."
"In other words... after you!"

—Ratchet and Ironhide tear it up

Star Screams

"Welcome back to Star Screams—the letter column where you pitiful humans beg for your tired existence!"

"You could mark [letters] 'All Hail Starscream' so long as you make it clear this is in no way a reflection on our glorious leader or a prelude to some sort of coup. Just so that we're clear on that."

"As for Bumblebee, his stripped-out innards would make a nice wallhanging in Decepticon headquarters."

"I have no interest in this PayPal you speak of, and besides, I don't have a credit card. Besides, the on-line sign-up page wouldn't accept my application because I had no date of birth. What is an Egg card anyway?"

"We Decepticons are very liberal-minded—we'll happily destroy both male and female Autobots."

Notes

Continuity notes

• Last issue mentioned that the AllSpark was cyberforming Earth—the site for this is now shown to be Georgia.
• Sector Seven boss Tom Banachek makes one of his very few appearances outside of the first film! He'll be the only other human from the film to appear in this entire arc. (This doesn't bode well for Glen Whitmann!)

Alternate-reality notes

• Russia has signed up with NATO, though France appears to be the dominant player in it (until Dreadwing blows them up anyway). Conventional force has failed against the Decepticons.
• France was not part of NATO's integrated military command in 2008, but then in our 2008 giant robots hadn't conquered North America.

Transformers references

• Dreadwing's troops, mostly Dreadwing drones and Thundercrackers, include a G1 Starscream.

Letters page notes

• Starscream tells us that he's proven unable to use eBay and PayPal as he has no credit card or date of birth ("what is an Egg card anyway?"); he also states dead Transformers stay dead (Ha!).
• Send in drawings of Decepticons, and you'll be classed as a sympathiser and spared the fate of the rest of mankind...

Production notes

• In the indicia for this issue, Titan has listed the average net circulation for the 2007 issues—which is over 45,000. The small children had spoken!
• Simon Furman gets to blow up the centre of France's government, which is a surprise when Shane McCarthy, writing All Hail Megatron at the same time, had said Hasbro doesn't want landmarks getting blown up by Transformers. ^[1]
• The artist changeover hits a multi-parter for the first time, so several characters have been redesigned from part one. Elita-One has changed colour and been given a G1 makeover, Arcee has gone from being modeled on the movie concept to being modeled on the Target exclusive toy and Starscream has grown a gnarly fanged maw.

Errors

• Why haven't the moon crew heard from Earth? Surely the resistance knew they were coming?

References