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The Icarus Theory

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MarvelUK-046.jpg
Anthony Morris was able to build this IN A CAVE with a box of SCRAPS!
"The Icarus Theory"
Publisher Marvel Comics
First published Part 1: 18th January
Part 2: 25th January, 1986
Cover date Part 1: 25th January
Part 2: 1st February, 1986
Writer Simon Furman
Art Barry Kitson
Colours Gina Hart (Part 1), Stuart Place (Part 2)
Lettering Richard Starkings
Editor Ian Rimmer
Continuity Marvel Comics continuity

Professor Morris goes fishing and shocks the Autobots with what he catches.

Contents

Synopsis

Part 1

Professor Morris believes that the Transformers rampaging across Oregon are not warring aliens, as they claimed, but rather automatons, controlled by oil tycoon G.B. Blackrock. Seeking to secure funding for his neural relay link, which will enable him to seize control of the robots, he presents his theory to his employers Roxxon Oil, but is shot down by Hemmings, who has no time for his wild conspiracy theories. Enraged, Morris retires to his laboratory, where he takes out his fury at both Blackrock and Hemmings by destroying dummies with the antiquated robots he controls with his mind through his device.

The next day, the professor goes fishing in Lake Dena, bitterly thinking about how he cannot get financial backing. There are no fish in Lake Dena, which makes it all the stranger that Morris suddenly gets a bite... and reels in something that will change his life. Using his neural relay link to take control of the inactive robot he has found in the lake, Morris practices controlling and flying it—but is caught by a security guard in his laboratory after hours. Believing Morris is using Roxxon equipment to moonlight for another employer, the guard attempts to blackmail him, and when Morris has the robot strike the man in an attempt to knock him out, he misjudges the force of his blow and kills him. Wrestling with his conscience, he decides he must finish his plan and destroy Blackrock's robots at all costs.

At the Ark, Optimus Prime checks in on Bumblebee, who is recuperating well following his recent injuries. Presently, the Autobots detect the approach of a flying Transformer and, assuming an attack, prepare for battle. The unknown enemy gets the first strike in with rockets, and as the Autobots are trying to re-group, their attacker emerges from the smoke... revealed to be the Dinobot Swoop!

Part 2: "Dreams Die Hard!"

Believed to have died when the battle droid Guardian exploded, Swoop was, in fact, hurled by the blast into Lake Dena, where Morris found him. Realizing that Swoop is being controlled by an outside force, Optimus Prime orders the Autobots to restrain him without using lethal force—a feat easier said than done. Optimus Prime thinks back to his time as commander of the Elite Flying Corps on Cybertron, in which Swoop—then known as "Divebomb"—served under him. Recalling how Swoop used to hate taking orders from him, Prime affects his most stern and authoritative demeanour and demands Swoop stand down. Old hatreds reawakened within him, Swoop's mind comes back online, and he begins to fight Morris's mental control, abandoning the Ark and heading back to Morris's lab with the intent of killing the human. Morris is horrified to realize that Swoop and the other Transformers are living beings, not mindless machines, and begs for mercy... until he remembers the guard he killed, and relents, believing he deserves to die for his actions.

An Autobot group led by Prime follows Swoop back to the lab, arriving just in time to discover that Swoop has spared Morris's life. Prime forgives Morris for his actions against the Autobots, but swears that he must face human justice all the same. Just as it seems the adventure is over, however, Swoop suddenly flies into a rage and begins attacking the Autobots once again. Morris has nothing to do with this attack, but at Optimus Prime's direction, he is able to use his device to bring Swoop under control. The Autobots depart for the Ark with the Dinobot's inert form, leaving Morris to destroy his machine and set off an alarm, waiting in the ruins of his lab to be arrested.

Back at the Ark, Ratchet examines Swoop and finds that his second breakdown was a reversion to primal instincts caused by his primary cybo-dendrons burning out, due to the insulation that protects them having been eroded by the tar he spent four million years submerged in. The damage is quite reparable, so Ratchet doesn't understand Optimus Prime's rising concern... until Prime reminds him that there were four other Dinobots in the tar pit along with Swoop who have also likely suffered the same fate! The war with the Decepticons must wait: now, the Autobots must find and capture the other rampaging Dinobots before any humans come to harm!

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks or on TV screens.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"I'd always wanted to fly...always dreamt of soaring free into the sky...once I'd begun it became increasingly difficult to let go. I flew higher, higher...
Finally, I flew too high, too close to the sun, and like Icarus found my wings were made of wax...please forgive me."

—Peter Anthony Morris asks the Autobots for forgiveness

Notes

Continuity notes

  • In an unusual move for a UK story, "The Icarus Theory" is written from the perspective that the series is still occurring in the Marvel Universe—Professor Morris works for the Roxxon corporation, a corrupt multinational originally introduced in the pages of Captain America, and one of the slides during Morris's presentation is from the Daily Bugle newspaper, previously seen in US issue #3 and #9.
  • The first slide on Morris's presentation is of Megatron being attacked by the US military outside the Decepticon fortress, a scene that occurred in US issue #3. The second is of Shockwave opening fire outside Blackrock Aerospace Assembly Plant Number One, which is presumably intended to be from the scene of him arriving at the plant and attacking the military while the media watched in US issue #8.
  • Bumblebee is recovering from injuries sustained in UK issue #44.
  • Swoop returns after his apparent death battling Guardian in UK issue #32.
  • Ratchet recalls the Dinobots' millennia-long imprisonment in a tar pit, as related in US issue #8.

Real-life references

  • The title of this story refers to the Greek myth of Icarus, a tragic parable about failure due to hubris to which Morris compares himself.

Continuity and plotting errors

  • Morris was able to reel in and pull a Transformer the size of a Dinobot from the lake on his own? He must work out...
  • Hound believes that Optimus Prime had never met Swoop before, which is an odd conclusion to come to given that Swoop and the Dinobots were all members of the crew of the Ark, who all seem to know each other just fine.
  • Why would Optimus Prime, a non-flying Autobot, be placed in charge of an airborne squadron? No wonder Swoop didn't take kindly to his leadership!

Artwork and technical errors

  • The Autobot Cars ain't lookin' so good in this story. Many of them are drawn seriously off-model, with flattened bodies that compress the unique shapes and silhouettes created by their vehicle mode kibble down into human proportions, and weird heads that don't look anything like the characters. In particular, Jazz, Sideswipe, and especially Trailbreaker are barely recognizable.
  • Swoop, meanwhile, is still in his early colour scheme as seen in his past UK appearances, with a blue Pteranodon head, arms, and boots, and white thighs.
  • The slide of Shockwave seen in Part 1 gives him the miscolored blue shoulders seen in various early US issues (but not, funnily enough, the issue in which the scene originally occurred).
(thumbnail)
The switching of the yellow and magenta plates changes the color of the explosion, the large speech bubble, and the iconic yellow "next issue" box.
  • Part 1, page 6:
    • Panel 1: block-coloured in the background, Gears is again drawn based on the bizarre design originally seen in US issue #1, also seen in the 1986 Annual. He continues to be drawn this way for his further one-panel appearance in Part 2, page 3. On the right is Jazz, whose right headlight is drawn as sticking out over his bumper.
    • Panels 2-6: Bumblebee's horns are coloured white instead of yellow.
  • Page 10, panel 4:
    • Jazz has a mouthplate
    • Wheeljack is coloured in the early, incorrect colour scheme that makes his shoulder-fins red, seen before in UK issues #31-32 and US issue #9.
    • The 'bot on the far right of the group is coloured like Bluestreak, but is otherwise a generic jumble of parts.
  • The final page of Part 1 is misprinted, with the magenta and yellow plates of the CMYK printing process switched. This was never corrected for any future reprints of the story, but check the image at right for how it should have looked.
  • Part 2, page 2, panel 3:
    • Optimus Prime's eye is uncoloured, and his cheekguard and mouthplate colours are switched, the former appearing silver and the latter blue.
    • The two Autobots Swoop attacks in this panel are Ironhide with a generic head, and a generic collection of shapes coloured like Sideswipe, who Swoop just got done flying past in the previous panel.
  • Part 2, page 4, panel 6: Cliffjumper is coloured like Ratchet. Brawn has his toy's head, and has all the right colours (green, orange, silver) but on all the wrong parts of his body.
  • Part 2, page 5, panel 1: Who even knows who the red robot with the white face is meant to be?
  • Part 2, page 11, panel 8: Grimlock and Sludge's headshots are colored as each other; thus we get a golden Grimlock T. rex head, and a grey Sludge Brontosaurus head.

Other trivia

  • The idea of Swoop having been previously named "Divebomb" is based in behind-the-scenes fact. "Divebomb" was, in fact, an early name for Swoop used during the development of the character; a typed-up version of the Generation 1 cartoon series bible uses the name, only for it to be crossed out by hand and replaced with "Swoop" (Grimlock and Slag likewise had early names, but those have never been used in fiction). Hasbro would recycle the abandoned name the next year for one of the Predacons, providing a springboard for the story featured in issues #135-136.

Back-up material

Issue #45:

Issue #46:

  • Back-up strips: Iron Man ("Night of the Octopus," Part 4), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat

Covers (2)

  • UK issue #45: the Autobots attacked by missiles, by Kev Hopgood.
  • UK issue #46: Wheeljack, Jazz and Swoop, by Jeff Anderson.
  • (thumbnail)

    UK issue #45

  • (thumbnail)

    UK issue #46

Reprints

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