The Gift

« The Transformers (UK) #93 »
Come with me if you want to BWAH.
"The Gift"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	20th December 1986
Cover date	27th December 1986
Writer	James Hill
Pencils	Martin Griffiths
Inks	Tim Perkins
Colours	Steve White
Lettering	Robin Riggs
Editor	Ian Rimmer
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

At Christmastime, Jetfire struggles with his place amongst his peers.

Synopsis

Buster Witwicky is spending the Christmas holidays studying for a test on the American War of Independence when he is disturbed first by a news report on recent Transformer activity at a Blackrock Enterprises chemical plant in Portland, and then by the appearance of Jetfire at his window. Jetfire has come seeking Buster's advice on a problem he is having, and begins to tell his story...

Shortly after the defeat of Galvatron, the Autobots learn that the Decepticons have taken over a NASA facility. Prowl and Trailbreaker use their vehicle modes to slip past the police cordon surrounding the facility, while Jetfire is kept in reserve as their back-up. The pair discover that Soundwave is in the process of using the base's radio telescope to transmit a message to the Decepticons on Cybertron. With Dirge and Kickback barring the two Autobots' way, Prowl contacts Jetfire to come to their aid. Jetfire responds, but caught up in the moment, winds up ignoring Prowl's orders to stop Soundwave, and instead tries to help his comrades. The Decepticons easily evade his attack and quickly escape, leaving an angry Prowl to reprimand Jetfire for giving them time to complete their objective.

Buster tries to reassure Jetfire that Prowl was just cranky over the loss, but Jetfire insists that Prowl was right about his failure. Jetfire knows he can do better, and to illustrate, tells Buster the story about the recent chemical plant attack...

Jetfire and Jazz are at the plant to take delivery of a fresh shipment of Transformer fuel from G.B. Blackrock when they are caught by surprise by an attack from Thrust and Bombshell. The Autobots are quickly overcome, and worse yet, Blackrock realises that a fire started during the battle is in danger of causing an explosion that will flood the atmosphere over Portland with toxic chemical fumes, killing thousands. Hearing this, Jetfire is galvanized into action, easily defeating the Decepticons and putting out the fire with the contents of a water tank.

Buster congratulates Jetfire on the win, but Jetfire goes on to explain that he believes he reacts smartly and more efficiently when humans are in danger, compared to when his fellow Autobots are imperiled, because he was created on Earth. These experiences having given him cause to worry that, if he was ever forced to choose between helping humans and helping Autobots, he would end up betraying his comrades. Buster tells him not to worry; Optimus Prime already knows where Jetfire's loyalties lie, and values his outlook on life, and Jetfire should be proud to think of Earth as his home. Buster tells Jetfire that these words of support are his Christmas gift to the Autobot, and Jetfire takes them to heart, jetting off into the sky with a smile on his face.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You're supposed to be able to fly at Mach 4.2—but when Dirge takes off you almost break the world record... for standing still!"

—Prowl takes Jetfire to task

"You're the first of a generation of Terran Transformers. Earth is your home planet... don't worry about that—be proud of it!"

—Buster reassures Jetfire

Notes

Production notes

• Following an abortive first attempt in issue #60, "The Gift" marks the point at which the UK comic permanently switches from hand-painted colours to using mechanical colour separation. This cheaper method—the customary way in which all American comic books were coloured at the time—involved manually cutting sheets of coloured acetate and overlaying them to create different colours. There were three colours (cyan, magenta, and yellow) and each was available in three levels of opacity (25%, 50%, and 100%), which combined to create a palette of 64 available colours, but which essentially eliminated the ability to create subtler artistic effects the painted colouring had allowed for up to now, like gradiated light and shadow.

Continuity notes

• Though Donny Finkleberg has severed his association with the Decepticons as of US issue #19, a radio news report heard in the first panel of this issue shows that the media still believe him to be responsible for the Transformers.
• Jetfire refers back to his creation on Earth, and the role Buster played in it, as seen in US issues #11-12. While moping about how this makes him different from the other Autobots, Jetfire laments the fact he doesn't "know anything about the Primal Program" and that he has "never seen the Celestial Spires," two revered aspects of Cybertronian culture that the comic has seen Transformers typically swear by in moments of shock; the Primal Program was first sworn by in US issue #12, while the Celestial Spires were first sworn by in UK issue #30.
• Jetfire also refers back to making "errors of judgement" during the Autobots' battles against Galvatron, as chronicled in "Target: 2006" in UK issue #78-88.
• Trailbreaker and Jazz are explicitly noted to have been recently repaired following the injuries sustained in the battle with Galvatron's forces (Trailbreaker took a blast from Scourge in UK issue #83, while Jazz was lobotomized by Galvatron in UK issue #85). It is, however, a little odd to see that they've been repaired; over in the US stories, the two characters have been in the repair bay since sustaining injuries in US issue #12, and by taking them offline, "Target: 2006" brought their status in the UK stories into synch with the US... only for them to now be revived only a few issues later. Their resurrections are barely felt outside this issue; Trailbreaker vanishes from the UK comic after this point, and Jazz will make only one more appearance in issue #104, with neither reappearing until they are brought back in the US stories. All in all, it seems safe to say that if the more continuity-minded regular writer Simon Furman had penned this Christmas story, Jazz and Trailbreaker wouldn't have been revived.
• Blackrock made a deal to supply the Autobots with fuel (right) in US issue #9.
• Jazz remarks that the Decepticons now "have a Special Team in the field," referring to the Stunticons, who the Autobots encountered last issue.

Real-life references

• Buster is studying the American War of Independence, specifically the Battle of Yorktown.

Continuity and plotting errors

• Fire safety basics! Putting water on a chemical fire will not put it out. Instead it'll probably cause a large explosion and make things much worse.
• Buster says that Jetfire is the "first of a generation of Terran Transformers," but he's wrong; the Constructicons were also built on Earth, and were activated before him.
• Jetfire says the fight at the NASA facility occurred shortly after the battle with Galvatron, but the Insecticons and Coneheads did not arrive on Earth until US issue #21. Although the Insecticons could have conceivably arrived after the Galvatron battle but before the NASA facility fight in this issue, the Coneheads arrive on Earth DURING their debut US issue (#21). It is hard to argue that the NASA facility fight occurs after US issue #21; that issue ends with Bombshell sneaking aboard the Ark, and he is seen there at the beginning of the following issue, which then details Skids and Donny Finkleberg going on a mission of their own.

Artwork and technical errors

• Page 3, panel 7: Trailbreaker's pelvis is magenta instead of blue-black. Wheeljack's got red shoulder-wings, a prototypical colour scheme seen in early issues of the comic.
• Page 4:
  • Panel 1: Jetfire's Autobot insignia is yellow instead of red.
  • Panel 4: The bottom half of Kickback's yellow chest door is left uncoloured white (right).
  • Panel 5: "Soundwave" is misspelled as "Sounwave".
• Page 5, panel 1: There are some incongruous red panels on the back of Soundwave's cassette-player mode.
• Page 6, panel 5: Jazz is missing his Autobot insignia.
• Page 8: Thrust is missing the purple decals on his knees, which are left the same red as the rest of his boots.
  • Panel 1: Bombshell's Decepticon insignia is red instead of purple.
  • Panel 2: Thrust is missing his left arm.
  • Panels 2, 5, and 6: The sides of Thrust's abdomen, as well as his feet, are white instead of grey.
  • Panel 6: Portions of Thrust's pelvis and left arm are incorrectly coloured magenta.
  • Panel 7: The sides of Thrust's abdomen are now coloured red instead of grey.

Other trivia

• Despite appearing on the issue's cover, Galvatron plays no part in the story. He does, however, threaten that he'll "be back," and would keep this promise, returning in issue #101.
• For this special Christmas issue, the title of the "Transformation" editorial page is (adorably) made up of letter-shaped Christmas puddings, flanked by gift-wrapped Autobot and Decepticon insignia.

Back-up material

• Back-up strips: Spitfire and the Troubleshooters ("Behemoth," Part 3) and Robo-Capers
• AtoZ: Beachcomber and Blades; as Beachcomber already had a Fact File printed in issue #45, a note on the "Transformation" page explains that the A-Z entries are intended to supplant the earlier format, and that some repetition will occur.
• Other features: Competition to win one of twenty sets of "Arrival from Cybertron," "Megatron's Master Plan," and "Desertion of the Dinobots" on VHS from Video Gems. To enter, readers were shown three speech bubbles (from "Dinobot Hunt!", "Devastation Derby!" and "Target: 2006") and had to identify which Transformer spoke them.
• This issue's Robo-Capers is another of the small number to feature actual Transformers (right). Continuing the issue's festive theme, it sees two children unwrapping their presents on Christmas morning to find that they have received Ultra Magnus and Galvatron toys. After five hours of non-stop battle the kids are called to dinner, at which point the toys come alive and complain about the rough treatment they've suffered.
• This issue's letters page includes a missive from eagle-eyed Alasdair Morrison from Stirling, who, while scrutinizing the stock photography on Octane's toy packaging, has spotted a box of Kodak film being used to prop the figure up, which the designer failed to edit out of the photograph.

Foreign Localizations

Swedish

• Title: Gåvan ("The Gift")

Covers

• Issue #93: Galvatron spreading some holiday cheer, by Robin Smith.

• 

  The Treebots were a massive failure on the battlefield.

Reprints

• 

  Collected Comics #11 (Marvel Comics, 1988)

• 

  Second Generation (Titan Books, 2004)

• 

  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 3 (IDW Publishing, 2012)

• 

  Transformers: I siktet 2006 (Ades Media, 2021)

Reprint notes

• This issue was printed out of sequence in IDW's Classics UK Volume 3, appearing between issue #100 and issue #101.
• This issue was accidentally omitted from Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection.