Space Pirates!

« The Transformers (UK) #182–187 »
Arise, Ghyrikius Prime!
"Space Pirates!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	10th September–15th October 1988
Cover date	10th September–15th October 1988
Script	Simon Furman
Art	Dan Reed (#182–183) Lee Sullivan (#186–187)
Pencils	Dougie Braithwaite (#184–185)
Inks	Dave Harwood (#184–185)
Colour	Euan Peters (#182–186) Steve White (#187)
Letters	Glib
Edits by	Chris Francis
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK)
Chronology	Original future (2008)

Death and destruction reign supreme as the Quintessons embark on their master plan to eliminate the Transformers species.

Synopsis

The Quintessons are not having a good year. Space-time itself has been seriously ruptured, and the feedback from the disruption has altered the orbit of the Quintessons' homeworld Quintesson, such that it is in imminent danger of falling into its sun.

The Quintessons' original plan of response to this crisis was to find an alternative homeworld to move to; to that end, Quintesson spies/explorers surveyed a number of machine worlds (including Cybertron) and recorded their findings in the Quintesson Journal. Unfortunately, the journal fell into the hands of Wreck-Gar, who withstood all attempts to wring its location from him. As such, the Quintessons decide to move to Plan B — direct conquest of Cybertron and elimination of the Transformers. Fear of the Creation Matrix has made them hold off to this point, but without any other option, they proceed. This plan will start with an assault on Autobot City on Earth.

Meanwhile, on the way to the holding cells, Wreck-Gar manages to escape his guards and get onto a nearby boat. Attacked from beneath, Wreck-Gar falls into the water and is surrounded by biting Sharkticons.

Plan of Attack!

Arcee is bored with guard duty at Autobot City Earth and goes off for a ride, which the Quintesson General Ghyrik uses as an opportunity to mount a full-scale attack, killing many Autobots, including Blaster as he attempts to transform Autobot City into Battle Mode. Arcee is shocked when she returns to see the devastation, only to be gunned down herself.

Meanwhile, Wreck-Gar is saved from a sea of Sharkticons by Wheelie on his own spaceship.

Pursuit!

On Cybertron, Rodimus Prime has a confused video call with some Junkions, failing to find out the location of Wreck-Gar. He then discovers communications to Autobot City Earth are down.

The Quintessons move on to the second part of their plan B. They ask the Decepticon commander Soundwave for help against the Autobots that are (allegedly) attacking the Quintesson homeworld. Having no sympathy to the Quintesson plight, Soundwave instead decides to mount a full-scale attack on the empty Autobase on Cybertron.

Meanwhile, Wreck-Gar and Wheelie have meaningless conversations and escape the Quintessons in an asteroid field.

Finally, Rodimus and the Autobots arrive on Autobot City Earth to find their comrades hanging lifeless from the sides of the city.

The Tender Trap!

On Cybertron, the Decepticons launch their attack on Autobase. But it was a trap! They are ambushed by an army of Quintessons. At a loss, Soundwave sends an anonymous distress call to the remaining Autobots, which is picked up by Ultra Magnus and Eject.

On Earth, Rodimus sends the others off whilst he takes care of Arcee by using the power of the Matrix. But it was also a trap! Rodimus is ambushed by General Ghyrik who runs off with the Matrix. Away from its power, Rodimus weakens and shrinks, reverting to Hot Rod.

Meanwhile, Wreck-Gar and Wheelie have more meaningless conversations and continue to escape the Quintessons.

The Awakening!

Hot Rod and Arcee manage to escape the Quintessons. Finding the strung-up body of Blaster, Hot Rod rummages through his chest for some cassettes.

Um, Mr. Ghyrik, the capture of the hero comes before the "Villain's Exposition"...

Inside Autobot city, General Ghyrik realizes that whilst the attack on Autobot City Earth was just for the purposes of eliminating the Autobots, it would also serve as a base to enslave all of Earth's humans.

On Cybertron, just as the Decepticons are about to be defeated, Ultra Magnus and the Autobots turn up and join in the fight against the Quintessons.

Meanwhile, Wreck-Gar and Wheelie abandon ship for a small asteroid containing a few Junkions and a transmitter, just in time for the transmission of the contents of the message canister

I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble gum.

Finally, whilst Arcee and Blaster's Cassettes hold off the Quintessons, Hot Rod fights with General Ghyrik and manages to reactivate Metroplex, the giant Autobot sleeping within Autobot City.

The End of the World!

On Earth, Metroplex unloads a can of whoopass on the occupying Quintessons. Hot Rod manages to recover the Matrix from Ghyrik by using a child's trick, and then throws Ghyrik off a rooftop, thus winning the battle there.

On Cybertron, the combined Autobot and Decepticon forces overwhelm the Quintessons on Cybertron, and Soundwave even briefly considers the notion of a truce—but the two factions have been through too much to ever resolve their differences.

Meanwhile, as the contents of the message canister is transmitted to the galaxy at large, a large number of robotic species discover their worlds had been slated for potential colonization. As a result, those Quintessons who managed to escape the death of their world will be galactic fugitives, hated and hunted by the machine races of the galaxy.

Epilogue 1: The Quintesson planet comes to an end.

Epilogue 2: Months from now, Autobot scientists discover the accelerated death of the Quintesson homeworld was because of a rapidly-expanding rift in time and space.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"It's funny, once upon a time Hot Rod would probably have joined me! But now that he's been transformed by our sacred life force, the Creation Matrix, into our leader, Rodimus Prime, he's probably going to court-martial me."

—Arcee laments Hot Rod's matrix-induced character development as she returns to her deserted guard post.

"But quit the macho bit, eh? It just doesn't suit you!"
"Aww...I thought you might find it sort'a appealing!"
"Matrix help us!"

—Arcee and Hot Rod

"What have you done? A self-destruct device?"
"Not exactly. You see, the reason why Autobot City is able to transform... is that its core is a living being — a Transformer! All I did was wake him up! General, may I introduce... METROPLEX!"

— Ghyrik sets up Hot Rod to give Metroplex a cool intro/exposition.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

Chase is on the left, pictured here with Searchlight's head, and colored like Rollbar. He's like a combination of half the Throttlebots at this point.

• In part 1, a Quintesson Prosecutor addresses a Judge with "Has the imperial majestrix reached a verdict?", almost certainly a mishearing of a line from The Transformers: The Movie referring to the imperial magistrate.
• In part 2, Chase is coloured like Rollbar.
• In the big reveal shot of all the Autobots strung up and inactive at the end of part 3, a narration text box resides over Trailbreaker, and it seems to have confused the colourist. His upper half above the text box is coloured correctly, but his legs below it are a strange red and white colour scheme.
  • In the same shot, there's an Autobot halfway offscreen who appears to be coloured like Brawn... but from what's visible, the actual character model used doesn't look anything like him. Whether this was actually intended to be Brawn or is just a generic using his colour scheme is hard to say, as no other shot of these Autobots in the later parts ever has the character in frame.
• On page 2 panel 2 of part 4, as Soundwave speaks to the assembled Decepticons aboard Astrotrain, Wildrider is coloured like his fellow Stunticon Breakdown.
• In another shot of the strung up Autobots in part 4, there's a generic to the left of Slingshot who is coloured like Trailbreaker... probably because he was supposed to be Trailbreaker, who the art consistently depicts as being strung up to the left of Slingshot in parts 3 and 5.
• Page 5 Panel 4 of Part 5: Wheeljack is missing his characteristic cheek fins.

Colour swap thursdays is a proud tradition among the Stunticons (Wildrider is second from the right).

Continuity errors

• Considering the events of The Transformers: The Movie have been referenced in and are implied to be canon to the Marvel UK future timeline, it's a bit odd to see Wheeljack alive here since he's very prominently shown dead in The Movie. Same with Brawn, if indeed that is supposed to him (see Artwork and technical errors above).

Continuity notes

• The future Autobots were last seen in "The Legacy of Unicron!". Their story continues in "Time Wars".
• We get a look at Soundwave's generals. They're mainly the leaders of sub-teams, such as Hun-Gurrr. Oddly, Mixmaster is representing the Constructicons these days.
  

  

  We don't have to kill each other. What do you say?

Real-life references

• When Soundwave sorrowfully notes that "too much has happened between our races" for an end to the war to occur, artist Lee Sullivan homages the artwork from the similar end to that same year's "The Killing Joke."

Other trivia

• This story is noticeably influenced by Season 3 of the cartoon series. Space Pirates was the most cartoon-influenced UK comic story since "Decepticon Dam-Busters!".
  • As in the episode "The Burden Hardest to Bear", Rodimus Prime has the Matrix stolen from within him, and is 'de-powered' to his previous incarnation Hot Rod, whilst the Matrix thief has enhanced strength.
  • Autobot City resembles strongly its appearance in the 1986 animated movie and season 3 cartoon series, albeit coloured differently. As in the cartoon series, Metroplex is seen as the 'living core' of the city.
  • Characters prominent in Season 3 of cartoon series, but were previously unknown to the Marvel UK comic series, such as the Quintessons and Arcee, also feature heavily.
• The first three parts of this story are the basis for Fooled By Space Pirates, a German text story.
• The ship that Wreck-Gar and Wheelie are flying around in for most of the back half of this arc is very clearly just the Ark's model from the cartoon. (Though it's not actually the Ark, as the Ark looked completely different in the Marvel comics).

Back-up material

Issue #182

• Back-up strips: Combat Colin - "Kung Fu Penguins"
  • "Kung Fu Penguins" was a reprint of full page Combat Colin strips that originally appeared in Action Force issues #34, #35, #36, #38, #39 and #40
• Issue #182 includes the last ever Grim Grams, which had been a feature since issue #75. In an introduction Grimlock claimed this was because it was too difficult for the dumb stubbies to forward all the letters to the moon (where Grimlock currently resided).

Issue #183

• Back-up strips: Visionaries - "Quest of the Four Talismans" and Combat Colin
• This issue saw a whole new look Transformations page (the introduction on page 2), which had last been changed in issue #74 (and before that in issue #22). It no longer included an contents index (thus making life more difficult for future wiki page editors).
• The back-up strip changed from Action Force to Visionaries, necessitating a change to the front cover subtitle.
• Instead of a letters page, issue #183 contained a special Robo-Capers strip entitled "The Wind of Change!" by Simon Furman and Lew Stringer that showed Grimlock being replaced by Dreadwind as letters page answerer.

Issue #184

• Back-up strips: Visionaries - "Quest of the Four Talismans" and Combat Colin
• Issue #184 saw the first installment of Dread Tidings, which then ran until issue #299

Issue #185

• Back-up strips: Visionaries - "Quest of the Four Talismans" and Combat Colin

Issue #186

• Back-up strips: Visionaries - "Quest of the Four Talismans" and Combat Colin

Issue #187

• Back-up strips: Visionaries - "Wings" and Combat Colin

British Junkionisms

• As in the cartoon, Wreck-Gar's dialogue is littered with references to TV shows. However, UK comics Wreck-Gar has watched an awful lot more UK TV. This obviously wasn't a problem when the story originally came out, but thanks to the increased availability of UK stories in the US along with the fact that lots of these references are decades old, lots of this stuff is now just plain confusing. So, here's a list of exactly what the hell Wreck-Gar is talking about in each issue:

Part 1

• "Great Balls of Fire!"—a 1957 song made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis.
• "L.A. Law this ain't"—An American legal drama.
• "No mealtime treat"—?.
• "Tense, nervous headache" and "nothing acts faster than Anadin"—references a British advert for Anadin, a brand name for various headache tablets (yes, it's a real brand).
• "Bite it, crunch it, chew it!"—the jingle used for an advert for Cadbury's Boost, a chocolate bar.
• "Tonight on The Clothes Show..."—A television show originally shown on BBC 1 that showed you how you too could look great on a budget. Often involved tank tops.
• "Top of the Pops on the Quintessons' hit-list was Cybertron"—A popular British music show, featuring artists from the Top 40. Ruthlessly crushed by MTV and its ilk.
• "...and it's still not safe to go back in the water!"—Tag line from some film about a shark or something.

Part 2

• "For up to 20% fewer fillings, use Gibbs Sr!"—Gibbs Sr was a brand of toothpaste. It's also the answer to the question "What was the first advert ever shown on British TV?" Impress your friends with knowledge!
• "...the sweet you can eat between meals!"—Allegedly, a Milky Way bar. The version sold in the UK lacks the caramel you find in the US version, which is actually closer to a UK Mars bar (and which both used the "work, rest and play" advertising slogan). The UK version will float in water. More sexy knowledge!
• "Shot my bolt, Bernie"—Possibly a reference to a TV show called The Golden Shot. Furman is showing his age a bit here. Out of context, it sounds incredibly rude.
• "It'll take more than Five Alive to pep me up"—Juice drink still widely available in the UK. Contains 42% fruit juice, 22% sugar and several artificial sweeteners. Yum!
• "Talk about close shaves...I was so impressed, I bought the company!"—Advertising slogan used on Remington Electric Shavers.
• "The needs of the many must take precedence over the needs of the one, Captain"—A generic term, but in this case referencing the greatest sci-fi film of all time.
• "Autobots must be warned of Quintessons' university challenge"—British quiz show, pitting university students against each other. Oxbridge colleges (who compete individually) usually won.
• "It'll be winner takes all if we don't make our home run now!"—Another quiz show, notable for having a top prize of £1000 (oooh) and for helping to catch a rapist. Yes.

Part 3

• "I'm afraid it's time for closedown"—The name given to the period during the bad old days when TV stations would shut down for the night. Abandoned once they realised that people might want to watch TV after midnight, and that they had plenty of music/news/repeats to show them.
• "Only when Bob says Opportunity Knocks!"—A sort of precursor to America/Britain's Got Talent, this show aired off and on from the 50s through to the 90s. Wreck-Gar is referencing the period when it was hosted by British National Treasure Bob Monkhouse.
• "Until then we follow the Green Cross Code"—The name given to the act of stopping at the side of the road and checking both ways before crossing. The original Green Cross Code man was David Prowse, who later went on to complain about being dubbed in some film.
• "Run silent. Run deep. You know it makes sense."—The former refers to the 1958 film of the same name. The latter, meanwhile, was one of several catchphrases associated with British TV programme Only Fools and Horses.
• "Yeah. Why slowmo...when you can Flymo!"—Tagline to an advert for a really nice lawn mower that was much faster than contemporary designs.
• "Need extra strength Daz. Reaches the parts of engines other powers can't stir!"—Washing detergent that is so much more powerful than normal ones that it had adverts proclaiming this power to all. Currently uses old soap stars (you see the joke!) instead.
• "Points mean prizes!"—Catchprase used by Bruce Forsyth - British National Treasure, when he presented Play Your Cards Right, a quiz show based on the US show Card Sharks.

Part 4

• "She flies through the air with the greatest of ease!"—Lyrics from the 19th century song, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze". Wreck-Gar was probably more familiar with one of the many cover versions.
• "I'm going to have to offer that to the other side!"—"The other side" was a typical way of referring to the opposing team on various television quiz shows, such as University Challenge.
• "Today, the Wish You Were Here Team visits..."—Wish You Were Here...? was a long-running British travel programme.

Part 5

• Wreck-Gar's extended exchange with another Junkion is done in the style of football (that's soccer to the colonials in the reading audience) commentation, after the British television show The Big Match. Wreck-Gar and his companion refer to each other with the names of the show's presenters, Brian Moore and Jimmy Hill, respectively.

Covers (6)

• UK issue #182 cover: A pair of Quintessons hold Cybertron in their clutches, by Lee Sullivan.
• UK issue #183 cover: Arcee is shot, by Andrew Wildman.
• UK issue #184 cover: Rodimus Prime is confused, by Jerry Paris.
• UK issue #185 cover: Soundwave is ambushed by the Quintessons, by Andrew Wildman.
• UK issue #186 cover: Metroplex's fist, by Andrew Wildman.
• UK issue #187 cover: Ghyrik takes the Matrix from Rodimus Prime, by Andrew Wildman.

• 

  UK issue #182

• 

  UK issue #183

• 

  UK issue #184

• 

  UK issue #185

• 

  UK issue #186

• 

  UK issue #187

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• None yet identified.

Reprints

• Transformers Collected Comics #17 cover: Reuse of issue #182's cover.
• Transformers: Space Pirates TPB: a Quintesson (probably Lord Kledji) oversees Hot Rod and Arcee injured, Wreck-Gar being attacked by Sharkticons and Metroplex awakening on Earth, by Geoff Senior and Oliver Harud.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates #1 cover A: Wreck-Gar vs Sharkticons, art by Robby Musso and colours by Kieran Oats.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates #1 cover RI: Wreck-Gar is dragged under by Sharkticons, from issue #182, page 11, panel 1.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates #2 cover A: Soundwave leads the Decepticons into battle, art by Dan Khanna and colours by Liam Shalloo.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates #2 cover RI: Soundwave and his generals aboard Astrotrain, from page 2 of issue #185.

• 

  Collected Comics #17

• 

  Space Pirates TPB

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #1 cover A

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #1 cover RI

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #2 cover A

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #2 cover RI

• Best of UK: Space Pirates #3 cover A: Metroplex vs Quintessons, art by Nick Roche and colours by Chris Carter.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates #3 cover RI: Metroplex vs Quintessons, from the final page of issue #186.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB cover: Reuse of the cover of Best of UK: Space Pirates issue #1.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB cover: Reuse of the cover of Best of UK: Space Pirates issue #2.
• The Transformers: Best of UK Omnibus: Galvatron and Megatron tear into the Wreckers and Mayhems, crop of the cover to Best of UK: Time Wars issue #4.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 14: Space Pirates Hot Rod and a scene of the Blaster and Wheeljack strung up
• The Transformers Classics UK Volume 6 cover: General Ghyrik, a Quintesson Judge, Metroplex, Galvatron, Optimus Prime, Arcee, Carnivac and Snarler. Art and colors by Andrew Wildman.

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  Best of UK: Space Pirates #3 cover A

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #3 cover RI

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB

• 

  Best of UK Omnibus

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 14; cover art by Don Figueroa, Dougie Braithwaite and Dave Harwood

• 

  Classics UK Volume 6 TPB