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The Worse of Two Evils!

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Hum "Ride of the Valkyries" here.
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
Publisher Marvel Comics
First published March 26,[1] 1985 ("on sale" April 16, 1985)
Cover date July 1985
Script Bob Budiansky
Art Alan Kupperberg
Colors Nel Yomtov
Lettering Rick Parker
Editor Christopher J. Priest
Continuity Marvel Comics continuity

Shockwave captures an oil-drilling platform, then is challenged by Megatron for command of the Decepticons.

Contents

Synopsis

Shockwave single-handedly attacks a high-tech oil rig belonging to industrialist G.B. Blackrock. The rig's defenses are largely ineffective, and Shockwave quickly conquers the platform. During the attack, electronics designer Josie Beller is severely injured.

Meanwhile, inside the Ark, Optimus Prime's still-living head instructs Buster to connect two wires from Prime's forehead to Buster's own. This results in an electric shock, knocking Buster unconscious. However, he remains unnoticed by the Decepticons, and returns to Ratchet to report his findings.

(thumbnail)
Shockwave unboxes his Masterpiece Megatron.

Megatron is still fuming when Shockwave announces his conquest to the other Decepticons. Unable to control his temper, he breaks free from his repair systems, and attacks Shockwave, blasting him across the Oregon landscape and into Vallemont school. But Megatron's injuries are not healed, leaving him vulnerable. Shockwave quickly defeats him, but refuses to grant him an honorable warrior's death, saying he has more value alive than dead... for now.

As witnessed by Ratchet and Buster, Shockwave returns to the Ark carrying Megatron's injured form. Shockwave uses the broken ex-leader as a demonstration to the other Decepticons of what they can expect if they challenge him... while outside, Ratchet and Buster huddle in despair.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"I, Shockwave, claim this facility for myself!"
"What the --?! You want one? Build one yourself!"

—Shockwave and G.B. Blackrock


"Humans, your actions seek to delay my reign! I have no time to trifle with you! Heed me now -- or feel the wrath of Shockwave!"

—Shockwave opens fire


"Shockwave... you are relieved of command!"
BA-KROOM!!

—Megatron's opening salvo


"I beg you, Shockwave... spare me the humiliat--"
"NO! I could tear your head from your body and reduce your remains to worthless slag, Megatron... but logic says you have significantly greater value to me alive than dead... for now! Your demise shall come at a time of my choosing... not yours."

—Megatron can't even get Shockwave to kill him!

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Shockwave learned about the oil rig last issue while absorbing Earth television.
  • Megatron is still recovering from the poisoned fuel he and the other Decepticons absorbed in issue #4. It seems he took it harder than his minions; the other five victims—Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Thundercracker, Starscream, and Ravage—are fully recovered by the end of the issue, and swear loyalty to Shockwave. The other Decepticons—Frenzy, Rumble, Soundwave, and Skywarp—have all been active since some point between issue #4 and #5 and were already working for Shockwave last issue, so they've evidently sworn loyalty already and don't need to be part of this scene... but see "Artwork and technical errors," below.

Continuity and plotting errors

  • Blackrock's oil platform was described as being pretty ostentatious last issue, so the corporate office it houses is perhaps not too much of a surprise... but a fleet of at least eight single-man hovercopters? Along with the security force to man them? Harpoon guns? Mortar cannons? Was G.B. just expecting a Decepticon attack?
  • Ratchet's surprise at seeing Shockwave alive on page 12 is to be expected, but he notes that "last I knew, he was still on Cybertron four million years ago!" That contradicts issues #3 and #4, in which Ratchet was the one who discovered the Ark's memory bank recording of Shockwave's arrival on Earth and his battle with the Dinobots.

Artwork and technical errors

  • Shockwave's color scheme gets an update in this issue, dropping the bright fuchsia for the more subdued purple that he will be for the remainder of the Marvel series. He still has the white shoulders of his early color scheme, however, which will take another few issues to be phased out.
  • Josie Beller looks about 10 years older (and about half as bubbly) than she did in the previous issue. Get used to this; her physical appearance is going to change a lot over the next couple of issues.
  • All Decepticon jets appearing in this issue are drawn rigidly in their character model poses, meaning it looks like they have only one vent-ear.
  • Page 3: The oil rig is already on fire before Shockwave has even fired a shot, and the "base" of Shockwave's gun mode handle is huge and jutting out at a weird angle relative to the rest of his body.
  • Page 7
    • Panel 2: Shockwave's handle is longer than his gun barrel as the harpoon debris snaps free.
    • Panel 4-5: Beller's t-shirt is a dark teal color in every other panel, but here, it's a light green when she's zapped, and dark green after.
  • Page 8, panel 1: The harpoon cables, which should still be speared through Shockwave's gun barrel, have disappeared as he transforms and lands on the rig.
  • Page 9:
    • Skywarp is colored blue, instead of the darker blue-black normally used for him. unclear whether this was a genuine mistake or the typical use of blue to represent black from the comics of the time.
    • Both Frenzy and Rumble are supposed to be in this scene, and are namechecked by Megatron, but the art draw Laserbeak (or is it Buzzsaw?) in place of one of them. Additionally, the Frenzy/Rumble robot is depicted as standing taller than Soundwave.
  • Page 14, panel 3: As Shockwave flies across the landscape, the spatial physics make it look like he's about an instant away from smashing into the commercial street below him. Instead he somehow flies onward into a football field. In the same panel, the toy-based pegs on his arms are on the outside of his arms; if the toy is transformed correctly, those pegs are on the inside—but they really shouldn't be there at all, not being part of his character model. This panel also colors Shockwave in his finalized color scheme, with purple shoulders and lighter-purple hand and gun-barrel; see "other trivia" below for more!
  • Page 16, panel 3: The speech bubble reading "At your full strength, you are less than me--and you are not at full strength!" is attributed to Megatron, but the flow of dialogue in the rest of the scene indicates that it was meant for Shockwave, as it comes off the back of Shockwave calling Megatron a fool for attacking him, and leads into Shockwave describing how Megatron's wounds have not healed. That said, it doesn't scream "error"; there is a fuel shortage going on, and Shockwave's bio does note that his power is "second only" to Megatron's.
  • Page 20, panel 1: Megatron's Decepticon insignia is uncolored.
  • Page 21:
    • The only Decepticons intended to be in this scene with Megatron and Shockwave are the five who have just recovered from fuel poisoning (Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Thundercracker, Starscream, and Ravage); the others (Frenzy, Rumble, Soundwave, and Skywarp) all departed for the captured oil rig earlier in the issue, and do not need to be part of a "swearing-in" ceremony, since they've already been serving Shockwave for an issue. Despite this, the art incorrectly depicts Soundwave and Rumble as part of the group, and colors one of the jets as Skywarp (but in the same blue, rather than blue-black, from page 9, and with a red cockpit).
    • Panel 1: one of the jets has a bizarrely inflated head.
    • Panel 2: Soundwave has his normal pale purple head, but his body is colored blue.
  • Page 22, panel 2: Ratchet has a Decepticon symbol.

UK printing

Issue #24:

Issue #25:

  • Published: 24th August, 1985
  • Back-up strips: Robo-Capers, The Chromobots, Machine Man ("Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!" part 4), Matt and the Cat, and Planet Terry ("The Saga of Princess Ugly part 6"). This issue features the last Planet Terry strip, the first of the UK back-ups to be discontinued. An added caption presents the issue's climax, in which Terry finds his long-lost parents, as an abrupt "happy ending"... but the American title would continue for nine issues beyond what Transformers reprinted, and the very next issue would reveal that the figures seen on the last page of this strip were just statues of Terry's parents. The final part of "Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!" is accompanied by "The New Machine Man" to prepare readers for the story beginning in issue 27.
  • Free gift: Kellogg's Corn Flakes model airliner; cross-promotion with a series of models concurrently available free in packs of Corn Flakes.
  • Fact File Interface: Warpath and Ramjet; this is the first "Fact File Interface" page, which is revamped from the original "Fact File" profile page included in previous issues.
  • September calendar: Ratchet, with art adapted from the forthcoming splash page of issue #27.
  • Other features: Kellogg's "Name the Plane" competition; correctly identify five aircraft to win model kits and guidebooks.

Other trivia

(thumbnail)
Special Guest Artist?
  • The last panel on page 14 (Shockwave being blasted out of Mount St. Hilary and across town) looks like it was drawn by an entirely different artist. This was verified by a photograph of the original line art, which revealed that panel had yellowed at a different rate to the rest of the art, having been pasted onto the original page. This different artist is likely William Johnson, who draws Shockwave in a more toy-accurate style in the next two issues.
  • Transformation in this issue is portrayed by a monochrome colored burst of light around the character. This led to some problems when the issue was recolored for Transformers Comic-Magazin in Germany.

Bot Roster

  • Autobots: Ratchet active; 16 inactive plus Optimus Prime held captive; 5 Dinobots missing in action.
  • Decepticons: 10 active; Megatron in recuperation.

Courtesy of my...

Covers (3)

  • (thumbnail)

    US Issue #6 - No, they're not fighting on top of the helicopter.

  • (thumbnail)

    UK Issue #24 - Shockwave shows his feelings about rising oil prices!

  • (thumbnail)

    UK Issue #25 - Cornflakes. Cornflakes cornflakes cornflakes, cornflakes. Cornflakes! Cornflakes cornflakes cornflakes... cornflakes.

Reprints

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection.

  • Pages 2–3: The block-colored pilots are of the hover-copters are changed from blue to green, as if the re-colorist perceived this as an error and changed them to the "correct" color their uniforms should be. It was not.
  • Page 7, panels 4-5: Beller's t-shirt is recolored to match the dark teal it is in other panels.
  • Page 14, panel 3: Shockwave's pale pink-purple fist and Decepticon logo are recolored; his fist to match his body, his insignia a darker shade than that.
  • Page 21, panel 2: In an apparent attempt to mitigate some of the errors in the lineart, Thundercracker is colored like Skywarp, and Soundwave is colored like... Starscream?!
  • Page 22, panel 3: Ratchet's erroneous Decepticon insignia is redrawn into an Autobot one.

Advertisements

  • Reeses Pieces (inside front cover)
  • Oreos - between pages 4 & 5
  • Tootsie Roll Swap-a-Joke Sweepstakes - between pages 5 & 6
  • Secret Wars II - between pages 7 & 8
  • Block of various Sketchy Things - between pages 8 & 9
  • Power Pack and The Amazing Spider-Man with tips on ways to prevent sexual abuse - between pages 16 & 17
  • Marvel Super Mart and more Sketchy Things - between pages 17 & 18
  • STAR Comics - between pages 19 & 20
  • Bullpen Bulletins - between pages 20 & 21
  • Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe
  • Comic subscriptions
  • Huffy BMX bikes (inside rear cover)
  • Young Astronaut Program (rear cover)

References

  1. ↑ Marvel Age #27 lists the shipping (and ergo publication) date as the 15th, but the U.S. copyright registration for the issue lists the 16th, so we've gone for the latter.
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