Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!

	; Rodimus realises that Galvatron has eaten the last muffin!
	"Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Cover date	16th–23rd May 1987
Script	Simon Furman
Art	Geoff Senior (113)
Pencils	Will Simpson (114)
Inks	Tim Perkins (114)
Colours	Steve White
Letters	Annie Halfacree (113), Richard Starkings (114)
Editor	Ian Rimmer?
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK)
Chronology	1987/Original future (2007)

Rodimus Prime offers a bounty on the missing Galvatron which attracts the attention of Death's Head.

Synopsis

"I wore a fifteen pound skirt of bees for that woman, but it just wasn't enough."

In the year 2007, unable to find any trace of Galvatron after he threw him out of Unicron, Rodimus Prime in desperation places a bounty of 10,000 Shanix on him, dead or alive. On the planet Elpasos this attracts the attention of Death's Head, a bounty hunter (he prefers to be called a freelance peacekeeping agent).

Determined to claim the reward, after attacking a barkeep over the price of three quarts of oil, Death's Head tracks down Cyclonus and Scourge and beats out of them the details of how they and Galvatron travelled back in time. Realising that Galvatron has probably fled back to the past, Death's Head decides to follow him.

First Blood!

Rodimus, Blurr, Kup, and Wreck-Gar are cornered and shot by a squad of Decepticon planes, resulting in the squad leader standing over Rodimus, taunting him to beg for his life. However it's really an ambush and a hidden set of Autobots leap into action, quickly turning the battle around. When the squad leader begs for his own life to Rodimus, his request is brutally denied.

Later Rodimus and Kup debate about killing and the difference between Autobots and Decepticons.

Cyclonus and Scourge return to Decepticon headquarters and tell Nautilus, a deep cover Autobot spy, about how Death's Head beat them up. Nautilus breaks cover and tells Rodimus Prime what he has learned. Rodimus is appalled at what he has set in motion.

In the past, Bumblebee witnesses First Aid being displaced to Limbo as Death's Head arrives. Unwilling to allow any witnesses to know he is there, Death's Head blows Bumblebee apart.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Junkions	Others
Hot Rod (5) Rodimus Prime (6) Blurr (7) Kup (8) Jazz (13) Ultra Magnus (14) Cliffjumper (15) 2007 Bumblebee (16) Autobot flunky (18) Nautilus (19) 1987 Bumblebee (20) First Aid (21)	Galvatron (4) Shockwave (9) Scourge (10) Cyclonus (11) Airborne hunter squad (17)	Wreck-Gar (12)	Death's Head (1) Elpasos barkeep (2) Unicron (3)

Quotes

"Not bounty-hunter, yes? Don't like that term, understand? Freelance peace-keeping agent, yes? For certain financial remuneration, of course."

—Death's Head

"I tell you, Cyclonus, if that one-eyed freak ever talks to me like that again, I'll tap-dance on his brain-module!"
"Only if you get to him before me, Scourge!"

—Scourge and Cyclonus

"The Decepticons are evil, merciless - killers, pure and simple. They kill in the name of conquest...They kill because they like it! But does that make our killing them any more justifiable? Doesn't it make us as bad as them?"

—Rodimus Prime has a crisis of faith.

"Makes you an endangered species, eh?"
"Huh! Says you!"
"Yep."

—Death's Head clobbers Bumblebee

Notes

Continuity notes

Quoting The Transformers: The Movie before it became a fad!

This is the first part of a story arc that continues in "Burning Sky!", "Hunters", "Fire on High!" and "Vicious Circle!", and the first "post-movie" story, showing that while 1986 animated movie (or a version thereof) appears to have taken place, the comic is not going to be using the cartoon season 3 status quo.
During G.I. Joe and the Transformers, Bumblebee was destroyed and rebuilt into Goldbug. However, the crossover was not considered part of UK continuity (and, indeed, wasn't reprinting the UK comic for several years). As a result, Simon Furman needed a different way of changing Bumblebee into Goldbug in order to match up with future US reprints. Hence, Death's Head's actions here. (Goldbug's origins are actually one of the biggest points of divergence between the US and UK comics).
Nobody can remember Galvatron travelling to Earth's past, despite (at the very least) Ultra Magnus and Bumblebee being around and active participants of those events. This is largely consistent across most of the UK time travel stories which treat 1986-1989 almost as a parallel universe, rather than the past of the "future" universe. The only real exception is some stuff that happens in "Time Wars" (and that's a whole other can of messy time travel related worms).

Transformers references

There's a callback to the movie here, when Rodimus does Optimus' "you who are without mercy" scene... and then shoots the Decepticon dead. This quickly sets up for the reader that Rodimus is not the same type of guy as Optimus. (And it's also a sneaky nod to Judge Dredd story The Apocalypse War, where Dredd gives exactly the same response to someone's "beg" for mercy.)
The 2005 IDW continuity version of Ferak (who in Marvel continuity tangled with Blaster way back in "The Smelting Pool!") was given a robot mode that strongly resembled the leader of the airborne hunter squad pictured above in The Last Stand of the Wreckers, where his background information hinted that they were the same individual. In 2015, the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime would retroactively identify the squad's alternate modes as hunter-seeker skyships and confirm that their leader was indeed Ferak, who had survived his encounter with Blaster.

Real-life references

Wreck-Gar is uncharacteristically quite quiet in issue #114, dropping only one of the many "British Junkionisms" that he would fling about with abandon in later stories. Here, he refers to Bob's Full House, a BBC quiz show from the late 1980s. On the cover for this issue, he drops another, with "What's yours called?" referencing a contemporary advert for the Renault 5 car.
After Death's Head beats the mech-fluid out of him, the barkeep says "That'll do nicely", referencing a contemporary advert for American Express.

Errors

On the cover of UK issue #114, most of Rodimus Prime's wheels clearly are unattached to the body at their hubs. The body is just resting on top of the wheels.
Bumblebee is shown as being functional in 2007 as part of the Autobot ambush, despite being destroyed in 1987 and rebuilt as Goldbug (although as he is later rebuilt again back into Pretender Bumblebee, maybe this isn't an error after all?).

Trivia

The story starts on Elpasos, the first Marvel Transformers story partially set on a planet other than Earth or Cybertron. The US continuity would have to wait until Nebulos in "Ring of Hate!".
Like some other issues, a free version of issue #113 (with an altered corner box) was given out at the chain of British steakhouses Berni Inn.
James Roberts became hooked on Transformers due to issue #113, and after growing up to write Transformers comics professionally, he would pay homage to the issue that started it all by including the number 113 in many of his stories. Often it is just used to casually number or measure things (characters might travel 113 kliks, or something might occur for the 113th time), but a few of the more notable or recurrent uses of the number include Agent 113, Room 113 and the 113th Battalion.

Back-up stories

Issue #113:

Back-up strips: The Inhumanoids - "The Battle Down Below!" and Robo-Capers

Issue #114:

Back-up strips: The Inhumanoids - "The Battle Down Below!" and a Robo-Capers strip featuring Transformers who didn't quite make the grade.

Covers (2)

Issue #113 cover: Rodimus Prime is as mad as hell and he's not going to take it any more, by Geoff Senior.
Issue #114 cover: Wreck-Gar tries to sell us a flaming Winnebago, by Jeff Anderson.

Issue #113
Issue #114

Reprints

Issue #221 cover: Springer & Skids/Death's Head split cover by Jeff Anderson.
Issue #222 cover: Springer and Carnivac chow on Nightmare Ant, by Simon Coleby.
Issue #223 cover: the Air Strike Patrol give Scorponok the business, by Geoff Senior.
Issue #224 cover: Rodimus and Galvatron engage in some hurt/comfort slash, by Geoff Senior.