It's time to read all about the time that Optimus Prime killed himself over a video game!

THE TRANSFORMERS issue #24 was printed on October 14, 1986 with a pull date of January 1987.  This story was on newsstands around the same time as THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE issue #2 as well as TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE issue #2. This month also saw the first of several TRANSFORMERS COMICS DIGEST magazine, reprints of the early Transformers adventures (two per issue) in a smaller Archie Comics sized handbook format, with profiles from TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE thrown in. (Those do not offer significantly different content, so I won't be doing reviews of them.)

The front cover (illustrated by Herb Trimpe) shows an as-yet unknown video game master clutching two joysticks, seemingly controlling both Optimus Prime and Megatron as they appear on the larger-than-life game screen before him.  The digitized Megatron is blasting his digitized opponent, with the text "GAME OVER, OPTIMUS PRIME!" superimposed upon the screen.  Insert coin to continue!

The title of this story is "Afterdeath!" and was written by Bob Budiansky.  Don Perlin penciled the art, with Ian Akin and Brian Garvey inking the art.  Janice Chiang was the letterer and Nel Yomtov was the colorist..  It's the usual gang.

An employee at Energy Futures Industries named Ethan Zachary is using their large comptuer screen after hours to play video games.  The company is developing an energy solution called the hydrothermocline, designed to draw energy from the different thermal layers in Earth's oceans, but when the place is closed for the night, the computer is up for grabs.  

A fellow co-worker named Margaret wants to use the computer for actual work, but Ethan is determined to babble endlessly about his video games, like any serious gamer.  (This is an aspect of the story that has not only aged well, but in retrospect was strangely portentious. Everybody knows a video game savant who takes his gaming way too seriously. We all know an Ethan Zachary.)

With that said, Ethan Zachary's explanations about how video games work are pretty cringeworthy.  Obviously, they weren't as widespread in 1986 as they are today (that year, the United States population was about 240 million, but only about three million homes had a 8-bit Nintendo console) but the long and laborious manner in which he describes how he can save character data on a floppy disk and boot it up later to revisit his character is positively painful.  The key takeaway here is that he knows the cheat code "afterdeath" that allows him to insert his character anywhere in a game, and that there's a Decepticon helicopter hovering overhead that's listening to every word.  

Elsewhere, at the Ark, Wheeljack has found the cerebro-shell that Bombshell had planted inside Optimus Prime previously.  They remove it, and are able to modify it so they can listen to the Decepticons instead of the other way around.  They learn of the Decepticons' plans to capture the hydrothermocline, and make plans to intercept.

Megatron, with a new group of Decepticons called the Combaticons, arrive at the plant.  The human guards have already been warned and hastened to a safe place, thanks to Optimus Prime and his team of Protectobots.  The Combaticons combine into Bruticus; the Protectobots combine into Defensor.  Stalemate.  Sadly, we don't even get to see them fight each other.

Now, up until this issue, Bob Budiansky has always been very good about devising origins for the various new characters that Hasbro was mandating should appear in the comics.  One supposes this story might have originally been meant to feature the Aerialbots and Stunticons, possibly, until Hasbro requested that the newest Scramble City teams be featured instead.  It's extremely unusual for Budiansky to just throw new characters into the story with zero explanation as to where they came from.

We can probaly infer that perhaps they were reinforcements from Cybertron, or possibly the Protectobots and Combaticons were created in the same manner as the Aerialbots and Stunticons (with Prime using the Creation Matrix to give his team life, and Megatron once again stealing the energy of the Matrix for his own ends).

This creates such continuity weirdness that the UK comics actually had to interject with a story about the Special Teams, as they were called, that preceded this issue. That story revolved around Buster Witwicky having Matrix-induced dreams, or more accurately clairvoyant visions, that foresaw the coming of Superion, Menasor, Defensor, and Bruticus.  However, even that story doesn't really answer the question of just where the characters came from—it just foreshadows that they're eventually going to show up.

Interestingly, Hasbro had done the same thing with the cartoon series.  The second season had been more or less planned out, when Hasbro requested that the final ten episodes of the season be reserved for the introduction of the four new combiner teams.  As with the comic book, the Protectobots suddenly appeared on the scene with zero explanation.  They're such an enigma, those Protectobots.

(In a later issue, Defensor does appear back on Cybertron in a flashback, but it's hard to know whether the artwork can be taken literally.  In a much, much later Generation 2 story, Simon Furman introduces a Cybertronic character named Mindset who is a genetic descendant of Onslaught, suggesting the Combaticons are also from Cybertron.  So, I guess there's our answer, more or less.)

In any event, Ethan Zachary attempts to flee until Bruticus snatches him up..  While Optimus and Megatron debate the finer points of hostage negotiations, Ethan himself suggests an alternate means of settling the score, without destroying the hydrothermocline in the process.

The idea is to input Optimus Prime and the Protectobots, along with Megatron and the Combaticons, into the Multi-World video game.  Whichever team wins gains control over the hydrothermocline.  Megatron suggests upping the stakes by proposing whoever loses the game must be destroyed in real life.  Prime and Megatron are rigged so that the press of a button on each of Ethan's two video game joysticks will set off an explosive that will kill one or the other of them.

Bob Budiansky has said in interviews and convention appearances that he had grown tired of writing Optimus Prime and Megatron as characters, and had wanted to shake up the status quo and do something unexpected.  It's possible the events of The Transformers: the Movie also informed his decision..  Where the cartoon would put Rodimus Prime and Galvatron in the new leadership roles, Budiansky would end up taking a considerably different route.

So, the two teams are uploaded into the Multi-World game.  (Streetwise remarks that it doesn't look anything like Cybertron, suggesting he wasn't created on Earth.)  The difference in command styles between Prime and Megatron are immediately obvious.  Prime reluctantly allows Hot Spot and the Protectobots to take point so that they can eliminate the danger, making it safe for Prime to proceed.  Megatron shoves the Combaticons in front of him and orders them to go first.  The safety of the Autobot and Decepticon leaders is paramount, here, since their survival or destruction determines the victor in the game. The Protectobots and Combaticons are, ultimately, expendible here.

Interestingly, during scenes that take place within the video game, the shape of the comic book panels mirrors the shape of the Spectramaxx computer—octagons framed by triangle shapes at each of the four corners. It's a neat little visual detail.

Streetwise and First Aid enter the realm known as Vineland.  First Aid is quick to offer to blast through the vines, but Streetwise thinks it's a better idea to gently lift the vines and crawl under them.  (There's an exchange where Streetwise says, "Maybe a hunch... or maybe something I saw," to which First Aid replies, "Or maybe you're just strange."  I don't know why, but I've always loved this moment.)  

Also, something that is interesting about this story is that the designs for the vehicle modes for Streetwise and First Aid deviate from their standard character models for this story.  They're equipped with the rear-mounted dual cannons, which was an accessory included with the Hasbro toys, but which was never part of their animation designs.  A lot of the small Scramble City toys had weapons like these (like all four of the small Stunticons, for example).  Brawl had one too, and it was part of his cartoon model, but he's the only character who typically wore it.  

Speaking of which, Brawl and Swindle ambush the pair.  They are quickly captured by the vines, allowing First Aid and Streetwise to blast them to bits.  They're out of the game.  Turns out the vines were friendly, and were thankful to the Protectobots for sparing them.  

Elsewhere, in the Cloud-Steppes, Vortex and Blast Off ambush Blades and Groove, cutting the support cables for the steppes and threatening the resident cloud people.  Remembering Optimus Prime's words, Groove tells Blades to rescue the cloud-steppers instead of him.  The inhabitants reward the Protectobots by creating cloud cover that blinds the Decepticons, who crash into each other.

As far as the new characters go, now it's just down to Onslaught versus Hot Spot.  Within the Slimepit region, Onslaught ambushes Hot Spot by popping up from out of the bog, surprising him.  (Hey, I thought Snaptrap was supposed to be the Butcher of the Bog?)  Hot Spot fights to protect the people of the slimepit from Onslaught's blasts, and they reward Hot Spot by sucking him into the slime and then allowing him to pop back up behind Onslaught.  He unleashes his fireball cannons and blasts Onslaught right in the crotch.  Like, seriously, there's no other way to read the artwork.

A great review, as always, Zob! Thank you.

(And, can you believe it: the timing here is spooky, too. I just found this issue in a used comic shop for $8 this past weekend, so I get to relive the experience, too!)

Joseph

On Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 3:01:56 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> It's time to read all about the time that Optimus Prime killed himself over a video game!
>
> THE TRANSFORMERS issue #24 was printed on October 14, 1986 with a pull date of January 1987. This story was on newsstands around the same time as THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE issue #2 as well as TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE issue #2. This month also saw the first of several TRANSFORMERS COMICS DIGEST magazine, reprints of the early Transformers adventures (two per issue) in a smaller Archie Comics sized handbook format, with profiles from TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE thrown in. (Those do not offer significantly different content, so I won't be doing reviews of them.)
>
> The front cover (illustrated by Herb Trimpe) shows an as-yet unknown video game master clutching two joysticks, seemingly controlling both Optimus Prime and Megatron as they appear on the larger-than-life game screen before him. The digitized Megatron is blasting his digitized opponent, with the text "GAME OVER, OPTIMUS PRIME!" superimposed upon the screen. Insert coin to continue!
>
> The title of this story is "Afterdeath!" and was written by Bob Budiansky.. Don Perlin penciled the art, with Ian Akin and Brian Garvey inking the art. Janice Chiang was the letterer and Nel Yomtov was the colorist. It's the usual gang.
>
> An employee at Energy Futures Industries named Ethan Zachary is using their large comptuer screen after hours to play video games. The company is developing an energy solution called the hydrothermocline, designed to draw energy from the different thermal layers in Earth's oceans, but when the place is closed for the night, the computer is up for grabs.
>
> A fellow co-worker named Margaret wants to use the computer for actual work, but Ethan is determined to babble endlessly about his video games, like any serious gamer. (This is an aspect of the story that has not only aged well, but in retrospect was strangely portentious. Everybody knows a video game savant who takes his gaming way too seriously. We all know an Ethan Zachary.)
>
> With that said, Ethan Zachary's explanations about how video games work are pretty cringeworthy. Obviously, they weren't as widespread in 1986 as they are today (that year, the United States population was about 240 million, but only about three million homes had a 8-bit Nintendo console) but the long and laborious manner in which he describes how he can save character data on a floppy disk and boot it up later to revisit his character is positively painful. The key takeaway here is that he knows the cheat code "afterdeath" that allows him to insert his character anywhere in a game, and that there's a Decepticon helicopter hovering overhead that's listening to every word.
>
> Elsewhere, at the Ark, Wheeljack has found the cerebro-shell that Bombshell had planted inside Optimus Prime previously. They remove it, and are able to modify it so they can listen to the Decepticons instead of the other way around. They learn of the Decepticons' plans to capture the hydrothermocline, and make plans to intercept.
>
> Megatron, with a new group of Decepticons called the Combaticons, arrive at the plant. The human guards have already been warned and hastened to a safe place, thanks to Optimus Prime and his team of Protectobots. The Combaticons combine into Bruticus; the Protectobots combine into Defensor. Stalemate. Sadly, we don't even get to see them fight each other.
>
> Now, up until this issue, Bob Budiansky has always been very good about devising origins for the various new characters that Hasbro was mandating should appear in the comics. One supposes this story might have originally been meant to feature the Aerialbots and Stunticons, possibly, until Hasbro requested that the newest Scramble City teams be featured instead. It's extremely unusual for Budiansky to just throw new characters into the story with zero explanation as to where they came from.
>
> We can probaly infer that perhaps they were reinforcements from Cybertron, or possibly the Protectobots and Combaticons were created in the same manner as the Aerialbots and Stunticons (with Prime using the Creation Matrix to give his team life, and Megatron once again stealing the energy of the Matrix for his own ends).
>
> This creates such continuity weirdness that the UK comics actually had to interject with a story about the Special Teams, as they were called, that preceded this issue. That story revolved around Buster Witwicky having Matrix-induced dreams, or more accurately clairvoyant visions, that foresaw the coming of Superion, Menasor, Defensor, and Bruticus. However, even that story doesn't really answer the question of just where the characters came from—it just foreshadows that they're eventually going to show up.
>
> Interestingly, Hasbro had done the same thing with the cartoon series. The second season had been more or less planned out, when Hasbro requested that the final ten episodes of the season be reserved for the introduction of the four new combiner teams. As with the comic book, the Protectobots suddenly appeared on the scene with zero explanation. They're such an enigma, those Protectobots.
>
> (In a later issue, Defensor does appear back on Cybertron in a flashback, but it's hard to know whether the artwork can be taken literally. In a much, much later Generation 2 story, Simon Furman introduces a Cybertronic character named Mindset who is a genetic descendant of Onslaught, suggesting the Combaticons are also from Cybertron. So, I guess there's our answer, more or less.)
>
> In any event, Ethan Zachary attempts to flee until Bruticus snatches him up. While Optimus and Megatron debate the finer points of hostage negotiations, Ethan himself suggests an alternate means of settling the score, without destroying the hydrothermocline in the process.
>
> The idea is to input Optimus Prime and the Protectobots, along with Megatron and the Combaticons, into the Multi-World video game. Whichever team wins gains control over the hydrothermocline. Megatron suggests upping the stakes by proposing whoever loses the game must be destroyed in real life. Prime and Megatron are rigged so that the press of a button on each of Ethan's two video game joysticks will set off an explosive that will kill one or the other of them.
>
> Bob Budiansky has said in interviews and convention appearances that he had grown tired of writing Optimus Prime and Megatron as characters, and had wanted to shake up the status quo and do something unexpected. It's possible the events of The Transformers: the Movie also informed his decision. Where the cartoon would put Rodimus Prime and Galvatron in the new leadership roles, Budiansky would end up taking a considerably different route.
>
> So, the two teams are uploaded into the Multi-World game. (Streetwise remarks that it doesn't look anything like Cybertron, suggesting he wasn't created on Earth.) The difference in command styles between Prime and Megatron are immediately obvious. Prime reluctantly allows Hot Spot and the Protectobots to take point so that they can eliminate the danger, making it safe for Prime to proceed. Megatron shoves the Combaticons in front of him and orders them to go first. The safety of the Autobot and Decepticon leaders is paramount, here, since their survival or destruction determines the victor in the game. The Protectobots and Combaticons are, ultimately, expendible here.
>
> Interestingly, during scenes that take place within the video game, the shape of the comic book panels mirrors the shape of the Spectramaxx computer—octagons framed by triangle shapes at each of the four corners. It's a neat little visual detail.
>
> Streetwise and First Aid enter the realm known as Vineland. First Aid is quick to offer to blast through the vines, but Streetwise thinks it's a better idea to gently lift the vines and crawl under them. (There's an exchange where Streetwise says, "Maybe a hunch... or maybe something I saw," to which First Aid replies, "Or maybe you're just strange." I don't know why, but I've always loved this moment.)
>
> Also, something that is interesting about this story is that the designs for the vehicle modes for Streetwise and First Aid deviate from their standard character models for this story. They're equipped with the rear-mounted dual cannons, which was an accessory included with the Hasbro toys, but which was never part of their animation designs. A lot of the small Scramble City toys had weapons like these (like all four of the small Stunticons, for example). Brawl had one too, and it was part of his cartoon model, but he's the only character who typically wore it.
>
> Speaking of which, Brawl and Swindle ambush the pair. They are quickly captured by the vines, allowing First Aid and Streetwise to blast them to bits. They're out of the game. Turns out the vines were friendly, and were thankful to the Protectobots for sparing them.
>
> Elsewhere, in the Cloud-Steppes, Vortex and Blast Off ambush Blades and Groove, cutting the support cables for the steppes and threatening the resident cloud people. Remembering Optimus Prime's words, Groove tells Blades to rescue the cloud-steppers instead of him. The inhabitants reward the Protectobots by creating cloud cover that blinds the Decepticons, who crash into each other.
>
> As far as the new characters go, now it's just down to Onslaught versus Hot Spot. Within the Slimepit region, Onslaught ambushes Hot Spot by popping up from out of the bog, surprising him. (Hey, I thought Snaptrap was supposed to be the Butcher of the Bog?) Hot Spot fights to protect the people of the slimepit from Onslaught's blasts, and they reward Hot Spot by sucking him into the slime and then allowing him to pop back up behind Onslaught.. He unleashes his fireball cannons and blasts Onslaught right in the crotch. Like, seriously, there's no other way to read the artwork.
>
> Optimus Prime and Megatron square off within the Metropipe region, but Prime has Defensor to back him up, while Megatron has no one. In real life, Megatron (still connected to the video game, and unable to see what's going on in real life) flails around, calling for the Combaticons and inadvertantly grasping Vortex by the throat. Warning them that he'll kill them all if he loses the game, Vortex sputters something about the cheat code he heard about earlier. Somehow, none of the Autobots or Ethan Zachary witness this exchange. But, now Megatron is armed with the cheat code, and he puts on a show of pretending to fear for his life, as Defensor blasts a bridge and causes both of them to plummet. Defensor recognized that his death in the game is meaningless, and only Megatron's fate is important.
>
> Megatron inputs the "afterdeath" command and he instantly reappears in the game, blasting Optimus. Somehow, Ethan Zachary doesn't recognize what Megatron has done, even though he explained all about the cheat code at length earlier in this story. Anyway, a damaged Prime is desperately clinging to a cliff, but just as Megatron is about to deliver the crushing blow, Prime reaches for a support pipe and collapses the structure upon which Megatron and some metropipe citizens are standing, and they all tumble to their 8-bit digitized deaths.
>
> The Protectobots celebrate Prime's victory and encourage Ethan Zachary to press the joystick button to destroy Megatron for real. However, Prime is not so quick to celebrate. He explains that a hollow victory in which he cheated and killed the inhabitants of Metropipe is no victory at all. Having violated his own principles, Prime orders Ethan Zachary to destroy him instead. After some hesitation, and at Prime's insistence, the human finally does so, and Optimus Prime's body erupts in an explosion.
>
> The Decepticons abscond with the hydrothermocline, while the Protectobots gather up the remains of Prime's body and return to base. Unbeknownst to them, Ethan Zachary has apparently saved Prime's video game character on a floppy disk, and puts it in storage. The blurb for next issue teases: "Is Optimus Prime truly dead? The answer to that question might just prove fatal for Megatron in: Gone But Not Forgotten!"
>
> So, here's the thing. It's not that Optimus Prime being killed off was necessarily an awful idea. It's just that the reason for his death, during the course of this story, is spectacularly silly. At no point did Ethan Zachary specify that the Autobots had to keep the video game characters alive in order to win. That was a decision that Optimus Prime made himself after they were inputted into the game. Basically, he was playing Pacifist Mario Bros. and deciding not to kick any of the Koopa Troopas. But, the game was programmed so that you could choose to either help the region's citizens or not. That's a choice the player makes. So, therefore it can't possibly be considered cheating if it's built into the game.
>
> Once again, Bob Budiansky has made a decision to subvert expectations. You expect the Dinobots to be awesome, so he turns them into ineffective buffoons. You expect Devastator to be a powerful warrior, so Budiansky makes him this slow, lumbering idiot. You expect that, if Optimus Prime were ever to die, he would die a heroic death, sacrificing his life to stop Megatron and to save his fellow Autobots, or the humans, or the Earth. Instead, he chooses to die because he stomped some Goombas in a video game. It's pathetic.
>
> The ripples caused by Prime's death will be felt in the comic book, and by the Autobots, for a very long time. The power vaccuum created in his absence, in particular, will be a subject addressed repeatedly in the future. Prime has got some very big boots to fill. You could argue that nobody could ever replace Optimus Prime, but that won't stop them from trying! And, as the teaser suggests, we're about to lose Megatron as well.
>
> Next issue features the introduction of the Predacons, so that's kind of exciting. The comic book is making a herculean effort to catch up with the cartoon in terms of character introductions. We're still missing a few key players (like the Triple Changers), but that will come soon enough!
>
>
> Zob (is writing these about a month in advance now)

On Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 6:31:57 PM UTC-6, Joseph Bardsley wrote:

> (And, can you believe it: the timing here is spooky, too. I just found this issue in a used comic shop for $8 this past weekend, so I get to relive the experience, too!)

Clearly, it was meant to happen!

Zob (is eight bucks a good deal for a comic book from 1987? I'm woefully out of touch when it comes to these things)

> Zob (is eight bucks a good deal for a comic book from 1987? I'm woefully out of touch when it comes to these things)

It seems a bit high for a Transformers comic anyway. I think when it comes to the original Marvel run the majority of them are dollar bin fodder. Only the first one and the last 6 issues command any real money. Maybe the Jim Lee covers but for the most part I'd be surprised if most of the original 80 can't be had for 5 bucks or less. (The limited series books and trades excepted.)

On Thursday, June 16, 2022 at 8:14:49 PM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Zob (is eight bucks a good deal for a comic book from 1987? I'm woefully out of touch when it comes to these things)
> It seems a bit high for a Transformers comic anyway. I think when it comes to the original Marvel run the majority of them are dollar bin fodder. Only the first one and the last 6 issues command any real money. Maybe the Jim Lee covers but for the most part I'd be surprised if most of the original 80 can't be had for 5 bucks or less. (The limited series books and trades excepted.)

Very interesting. I'll offer first that it was $8 CAD, so, more like $6 US. But also, wow: this particular comic shop associated anything post issue 56 as "under the glass box", meaning they require staff and a key to access! I picked up #60 a few weeks ago, and it ran me $12 CAD.

*sigh*

In case folks are curious: http://gacvan.com

JB

On Friday, June 17, 2022 at 8:28:02 PM UTC-7, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> Very interesting. I'll offer first that it was $8 CAD, so, more like $6 US. But also, wow: this particular comic shop
> associated anything post issue 56 as "under the glass box", meaning they require staff and a key to access!
> I picked up #60 a few weeks ago, and it ran me $12 CAD.

Wow! Yeah I guess I can see that given those are the Furman run, although I'm surprised any Delbo issues get the glass box treatment. It was my impression that Transformers comic fans didn't like his art.