Deathbringer (issue)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Deathbringer" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Deathbringer (disambiguation). |
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| "Deathbringer" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 9th September and 16th September 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 16th September and 23rd September 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | Geoff Senior (#235) Staz (#236) | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Glib | ||||||||||||
| Cover | Geoff Senior and Lee Sullivan | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity ([Marvel UK and Marvel US, see Notes) | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 1989 | ||||||||||||
A ravaging mechanoid rampages across Earth... and holds a clue to the Creation Matrix's whereabouts.
Contents |
Synopsis
Aboard the Ark, Siren recites a Cybertronian myth about a god-like being called the Deathbringer, which has the power to create and destroy worlds.
The Autobots are aboard the Ark recovering from the Underbase battle and the Time Wars. Nightbeat asks Optimus Prime why he can't use the Matrix to repair all the injured Autobots. Optimus reveals (for the first time) that when the Autobots launched his old body into space, they unknowingly launched the Matrix along with it. Thus, the Matrix is lost.
A communication comes in from Cloudburst of Rec Team Two, which was sent to check out a disturbance on Earth. Cloudburst is badly damaged and asks for help before his communication signal is lost.
Optimus Prime and several Autobots, including Nightbeat, head to Earth, where they encounter a being calling itself Deathbringer. Deathbringer claims his purpose is to "wipe the stain of life from this planet", as he annihilates the city.
Suddenly, Optimus Prime recognises that the being possesses the power of the Matrix, and he refuses to fight back against it. The other Autobots try to fight back, but Deathbringer quashes their attempt and heavily damages them.
Meanwhile, Nightbeat radios the Ark, and asks Waverider for information on Deathbringer. Waverider reveals that there are two records: one the legend that Siren recited earlier, and the other a mechanoid that kills beings gripped by plague or mental illness in order to grant them relief from their suffering. Nightbeat notices that Deathbringer is being slowly eaten away by the Matrix's power, and informs Deathbringer of this. Deathbringer follows its purpose and kills itself.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Others |
|---|---|
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Quotes
"I am Deathbringer! I come to cleanse, to wipe the stain of life from this planet!"
- —Deathbringer
"Unf! Getaway and the others are getting slaughtered, and no wonder! If that thing really is fuelled by the matrix, it's like trying to fight a god!"
- —Nightbeat
"A hollow victory."
"Yes. Not only have we lost our one chance of finding the creation matrix, but an innocent being has died. Its sole function was to provide relief and we destroyed it. Our sacred life force...has become a deathbringer!"
- —Nightbeat and Optimus Prime
Notes
Artwork and technical errors
Continuity errors
Continuity notes
- This incident was referred to in "Dark Creation", one of the few times a UK story was acknowledged in the US comic.
- Regeneration One further links this story to the Marvel US continuity when Hot Rod observes the end of the battle in "Less Than Zero", where the city that the Deathbringer attacks is retroactively identified as Denver, Colorado.
Real-life references
Other trivia
Back-up material
Issue #235
- Additional Transformers story: "King Con!"
- Other strips: Action Force - "Airshow" and Combat Colin
Issue #236
- Additional Transformers story: "The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!"
- Other strips: Action Force - "Beginnings... and Endings" and Combat Colin
Foreign Localization
Swedish
- Title: "Dödsbringaren" ("The Deathbringer")
Covers (2)
- Issue #235 cover: the Deathbringer floats above a defeated Prime, by Geoff Senior.
- Issue #236 cover: half Deathbringer, half Prime, all cover, by Lee Sullivan.
Issue #235
Issue #236
Reprints
- Transformers: Aspects of Evil: Rodimus Prime and Unicron fight, by Stephen Baskerville. Cropped version of issue #254's cover.
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Volume 17: Matrix Quest: Nightbeat (from Dreamwave Productions' More than Meets the Eye profiles) over an interior image of Optimus Prime's corpse (from US issue #65 by Makoto Ono and Geoff Senior.
- Transformers: Best of the Rarities: Soundwave and Ravage "cassette" by James Biggie.
Aspects of Evil TPB
(Titan Books, 2005)
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 17: Matrix Quest
(Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)
Transformers: Best of the Rarities
(IDW Publishing, 2022)
