Transformers Comic issue 2.14
From Transformers Wiki
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 And now he knows how Joan of Arc felt. | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Titan Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 17 June 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Steve White | ||||||||||||
| Deputy editor | Den Patrick | ||||||||||||
| Publishing manager | Darryl Curtis | ||||||||||||
| Price | £2.50 | ||||||||||||
Devastator LIVES! (briefly)
Contents |
Head in the Clouds
- Script: Simon Furman
- Art: Jon Davis-Hunt
- Colours: Hi-Fi Design
- Lettering: Den Patrick
- Continuity: Revenge of the Fallen (sequel)
Stratosphere is on routine patrol over the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, when he spots a suspiciously dense cloud cover that wasn't there before. He descends to investigate but atmospheric disturbance begins to impact his communications... and then a huge hulking claw appears from the clouds! Stratosphere's right wing is smashed in the collision and he goes down, calling for helps. At NEST Ops Vancouver, CFB Comox, Captain Fraser identifies the location that contact was lost to Jolt, Dune Runner, and Rollbar, though she doesn't reckon Stratosphere could survive in such a place. But she agrees with Jolt: they have to go look anyway.
Dune Runner believes Stratosphere's a tough dude and could have found a way to survive, but Rollbar is concerned that on the ground he won't be as strong as he is in the air. That's bad news to Strat himself, who wakes up in the mountains with a broken wing, and even transforming hurts. But there's worse news: comm channels are being jammed, and he's realised what knocked him out... Devastator! But with no one else around, it's up to him...
Devastator is being rebuilt by Skywarp and Constructicon drones, with a combined jammer and "cloud" spewing device in convenient range. Clearly, nothing good will happen if the gestalt is rebuilt. While ground assault is not Stratosphere's strong point, it's all he can do now and he charges into battle, gunning down drones; Skywarp proves trickier though, and uses his flight powers to get behind the Autobot and pin him down. However, Stratosphere knows "us flyboys" may be hot stuff in the air but not so much on the ground... and he flips over, knocking Skywarp down. It reminds him he needs help though, and he takes down the Decepticon's jamming dish so he can upload coordinates to NEST Server and call in an AV-8B strike to bring the rain. Skywarp is having none of this and takes to the air in jet form... at which point Stratosphere uses the Decepticon's own "cloud" cover spray on him, causing the blinded Decepticon to crash into a mountain! (Karma!)
The three Autobot reinforcements arrive, with Jolt noting they seem a bit late. The Autobots then leave the area as the AV-8B's arrive and bomb the Devastator construction site to bits. Jolt wonders if the gestalt could survive that, but Stratosphere doesn't want to find out: if any landing you can walk away from is good, he'd like to just walk away.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
"...I don't rate his chances."
"Thank you, Captain Fraser, but we have to go look anyway."
"Of course."
- —Fraser and Jolt
"I dunno. Up in the air, he's the real deal. But on the ground... it all shades a bit more pedestrian!"
- —Rollbar on Stratosphere
"Ground assault may not be my forte, but with my wings clipped... it's all I got!"
- —Stratosphere
"Could Devastator survive that?"
"You want to find out?"
- —Dune Runner and Stratosphere
Errors
- Stratosphere says he's descending to look at the clouds, when the art clearly shows they're above him.
- How Stratosphere loses his wing isn't clear. He's coming at Devastator's claw at the side on one page, then on the next he appears to have come up from below.
- AV-8B's (or "Harrier Jump Jets" as they're commonly called) are used by the United States Marine Corps but not by Canada; wouldn't it be quicker to call in Canada Air Command jets, since CFB Comox is so close and CF-18 Hornets are housed there? (And the speed with which the Harriers turned up sure makes it look like that's where they came from...)
Notes
- The plot has similarities to "Desert Island Risks!", which also had a Devastator being rebuilt.
- CFB Comox is a real Canadian base (though it doesn't really have a NEST logo on it), and on Vancouver Island too.
- And the "N.E.S.T. Global Alliance" logo, for that matter!
- While it's not stated here, Skywarp is shown to be one of Bludgeon's men in #16, making this one of Bludgeon's schemes.
- With Skywarp captured, Jolt and his rookie mates appearing, nobody mentioning "oh yeah Decepticons escaped", and last issue's story originally meant to be in this issue [1] , it's possible that Head in the Clouds was originally intended for #13.
Contents
Articles and Features
- War Machine: Light and frothy feature on Transformers: War for Cybertron.
- Megatron's Mind Maulers: "I've deliberately not made them difficult, as I know your primitive nervous systems can't deal with high-level logic problems."
- Bumblebee's Guide: The Solar System. Various facts about Venus by Bumblebee, and a wordsearch.
- Out Of This World: puzzles related to Cybertron. A wordsearch includes names of various Cybertron city-states, including Gygax, Ankmor, and Axiom Nexus...
- Way Past Cool: game reviews.
- Competitions.
- Poster of the cover.
Free gifts
- "FREE! Disk Flicker!"
Law and Disorder
"I can't believe I crossed the Galaxy, to end up here, answering letters from infant meatsacks. It's depressing."
- —Barricade
"Wait a minute, if you're being shot at by Bumblebee and Jazz [in the ROTF game], then that must mean you're playing as a Decepticon, Ali! Shame on you. As such, I have no sympathy."
- —Ironhide
"To answer your question about Bonecrusher [in ROTF] - we think it was another Decepticon who scanned the same alternate mode. At least we hope so, or the Decepticons are coming back from the dead in alarming numbers!"
- —Ironhide
"I see you humans are as obsessed with Unicron, as ever. Just another reason why you need to be exterminated in my book..."
- —Barricade
"As for Starscream's engines experiencing a severe malfunction - we can but hope."
"Hmm, there would be something intensely satisfying about seeing that ambitious twerp plunging into asphalt, as his entire, crooked life flashed before his eyes. After all, he only thing worse than reading these letters is listening to Starscream and Megatron bickering."
- —Ironhide and Barricade
Errors
- Starscream's Stars has stopped running! :(
Notes
- Gygax, Ankmor, Axiom Nexus... are Titan reading this wiki...?
- Scooby Doo (or at least someone in a Scooby Doo costume) is photographed reading #2.10. Everyone loves Transformers!
- Fanart in the letters page is a mix of live-action, G1, and Animated characters.
- The title blurb, "Big Mouth Strikes Again" is better known as the title of a song by The Smiths.
