Mystery!

« The Transformers (UK) #269 » « Earthforce
"Can you tell me who I am?"
"Mystery!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	5th May 1990
Cover date	12th May 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	Pete Knifton
Inks	Pete Venters
Lettering	Glib
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce

An Aerialbot gets confused. And so does the editor.

Synopsis

Never skip leg day.

'Twas a dark and stormy night.... Skydive arrives for guard duty at the partially built Autobot Earthforce base, only to find no sign of Wheeljack, whom he was supposed to be relieving. What he does find is a table overturned, a lamp smashed, Wheeljack's blaster lying abandoned outside, and both robot and animal tracks. Suspecting they belong to a Predacon, Skydive quickly comes to the only conclusion: A Decepticon has attacked and killed Wheeljack and, judging by the footprints, is now heading towards the Autobot shuttle.

Skydive gives chase and discovers someone has blown their way into the shuttle. Seeing what he believes is a Decepticon carrying Wheeljack's body, he tackles the figure, only to discover it is Wheeljack carrying a thermo-heating unit. Seconds later, a bemused Air Raid turns on the lights and asks for an explanation.

After Skydive has related his story, Wheeljack explains he was cold and retrieved the heating unit from storage, only for it to overheat. While attempting to shut it off, he knocked over the table and the lamp and ended up fleeing from a polar bear. Embarrassed, he tried to dispose of the evidence, but he'd lost his key in the confusion and so had to force the door. Air Raid decides they're better off keeping the incident quiet, but advises Wheeljack to learn to bear with the cold and Skydive to lay off the human mystery videos.

Featured Characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in Skydive's imagination.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• TBD

Continuity errors

• It is not adequately explained how Wheeljack forced his way into the Autobot shuttle without his blaster.

Continuity notes

• This story marked the first appearance of Skydive and Air Raid in the Earthforce saga. No explanation is given for their resurrection, but it is possible they were revived with Nucleon (as it is implied happened with the Dinobots) or repaired by Wheeljack (as later happened with Tracks).
• Skydive recalls Grimlock saying there were Predacons in the area, probably after the events of "Snow Fun!".

Real-life references

• TBD

Other trivia

• Although the Aerialbot who relieves Wheeljack is referred to as Skydive three times during the strip and is drawn as such, the inside cover blurb claims it is Air Raid. An enquiry to Dread Tidings confirmed that it was indeed Skydive.^[1]

Back-up material

• Additional Transformers story: "Power Struggle"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Shuttle Complex" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Silverbolt and Skids
• In the issue's Dread Tidings, it is reported that a sign outside a pub in Middlesex is advertising "Jazz, Live here on Monday", and Unicron writes in to ask Dreadwind to say hello to his friends Johnny and Iain. Dreadwind also attempts to answer the age-old question of what Emirate Xaaron transforms into, saying that as he hasn't done it for millions of years the shock would probably kill him but it's probably something wimpy like a toaster.
• << Said Middlesex reader is Arthur Mapes, father to David and Steven Mapes, who would go on to become Transformers rarity collectors, convention organisers, and webmasters of fansite Transformers At The Moon. >>

Cover

• Issue #269 cover: a worried-looking Skydive by Pete Knifton and Pete Venters, taken from panel 3 of the first page of the story.

• 

  Issue #269

Reprints

• Transformers: Earthforce cover: Grimlock thumps a table — crop of the cover to UK issue #263, by Stephen Baskerville.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road: Bludgeon (art reused from Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profiles) above an interior scene of Grimlock punching through Fangry (from US issue #80), by Andrew Wildman.

• 

  Transformers: Earthforce
  (Titan Books, 2005)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road
  (Hachette Partworks, 2018)

References