Heavy Traffic!

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A lot of fleshling guest stars and a comic-inaccurate Menasor, the perfect way to celebrate an anniversary.
"Heavy Traffic!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	July 1986
Cover date	November 1986
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Penciler	Don Perlin
Inkers	Ian Akin and Brian Garvey
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Hans IV
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

While Skids and Donny Finkleberg attempt to locate the Cybertronian Autobots, Megatron sends the Stunticons to intercept.

Synopsis

At RAAT headquarters in New Jersey, Walter Barnett debriefs Circuit Breaker on the capture of the seven Autobots recently arrived from Cybertron. Barnett is concerned about the eagerness with which Circuit Breaker used force on them, but she rebuffs these concerns, and even declines the bonus check Barnett offers her for a "job well done", declaring that she did not take the job for money, but for revenge against robot-kind.

At the Ark, Ratchet continues working on Optimus Prime's recently sustained wound. They are watched by Bombshell, who has infiltrated the Ark after hitching a ride back on Silverbolt, and who quickly takes advantage of this opportunity to inject Prime with a cerebro-shell. However, the Insecticon is quick to discover he is unable to control Prime, and can only monitor his thoughts. This is not a complete loss, however; at the Decepticons' Wyoming base, Soundwave is able to relay shell's signal, allowing Megatron to listen in as Optimus Prime sends Skids and Donny Finkleberg to find out what has become of the seven missing Autobots. Skids secures Finkleberg's participation by taking from him a check for $25,000 that Finkleberg was paid for his services as Robot-Master. After the pair depart, Prime turns his attention to the Aerialbots, who have been taken offline following their recent disastrous outing, and now await fresh reprogramming from the Creation Matrix. Thanks to Bombshell's cerebro-shell, Megatron is able to siphon off some of the energy of the Matrix as Prime activates the Aerialbots, and uses it to give life to the newest Decepticons, the Stunticons.

Skids and Finkleberg are delayed in their search when they come upon a driver endangered in an accident near fallen power lines. Much to Finkleberg's chagrin, Skids stops to save the driver, and the incident is reported by the local news. When Barnett sees the report, he is given further reason to suspect that not all robots are bad, but Circuit Breaker remains unconvinced, and departs to hunt Skids down. The Decepticons also see the report, and, determined to ensure the Autobots remain hated and feared by humanity, send the Stunticons out to locate Skids as well, following a tracer Bombshell planted in Finkleberg's wallet.

Skids and Finkleberg spend the night at a motel, where Skids shows Finkleberg how to "shut him down" for the night so he can recharge. The next morning, the pair are stuck in a traffic jam when the Stunticons catch up to them, smashing their way through the human vehicles. RAAT shows up at the same time, and battle ensues between the two groups, while Skids remains in vehicle mode, trying to hide among the other cars. The Aerialbots soon arrive on the scene, and are nearly attacked by Circuit Breaker until Finkleberg explains to her and Barnett that they are the "good guys". Circuit Breaker almost believes him... right up until the crafty Stunticons surround Skids and loudly announce that they are protecting him, in order to make the humans think that the Autobots and Decepticons are in league with one another. The Stunticons reveal their ability to combine into Menasor, and the Aerialbots respond by merging into Superion, but as the two titans battle, Circuit Breaker strikes, felling Superion and leaving Menasor victorious. Weakened from the attack, Circuit Breaker is rescued by Barnett before Menasor can kill her, and Skids and Finkleberg escape in the confusion, forced to leave the unconscious Superion behind.

As night draws in, Finkleberg fears that they will never finish the mission and that he will never get his money back. Proclaiming himself tired, he has Skids stop at a motel for the night, where he again deactivates the Autobot for the night... then calls Barnett and asks how much a sleeping Transformer would be worth, no muss, no fuss. Barnett's answer of $50,000 seems enough to convince Finkleberg to hand Skids over...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"In my observations of humans I've learned they will perform various functions for what they call "money". ...for instance, this cashier's check for 25,000 dollars -- a potent motivating factor."

—Skids really has figured out humanity

"If our luck holds, [the tracker]'ll lead us straight to those seven Autobots."
"If my luck holds, they'll have 25,000 dollars worth of parking tickets on them."

—Skids and Donny Finkleberg

"Don't your tires ever get tired? We've been driving all day!"
"I've been driving all day! You've been complaining all day!"

—Finkleberg and Skids

"The only good robot is a destroyed robot!"

—Circuit Breaker

"You can't even scratch me! You lack the killer instinct!"
"You're wrong, Menasor! For you, I have nothing else!"

—Menasor and Superion

Notes

Continuity notes

• We learned last issue that the "Cybertron Seven" had been captured off-panel by RAAT; this issue reveals that the Autobots' capture (seen at right) took place shortly after the events of issue #19.
• RAAT is revealed to have been assembled by Triple-I and Walter Barnett, who have been working to deal with the Transformers since issue #14. In US continuity, Barnett was last seen in issue #15, but he and Triple-I also featured in a UK-exclusive story in UK issues #74-77.
• A flashback shows us Josie Beller's electrocution from issue #6.
• Optimus Prime is still nursing the wound he sustained in issue #19, which Ratchet was shown treating last issue.
• Though their dialogue makes it seem as if gaining access to the Creation Matrix via Bombshell's cerebro-shell is something of a "consolation prize" after the shell fails to take control of Prime itself, we have to assume that obtaining access to the Matrix was always part of the Decepticons' reason for controlling Prime—otherwise the fact that they have already built the never-before-mentioned Stunticons seems like a giant coincidence. This somewhat clumsy handling of the team's introduction makes a bit more sense in UK continuity, however, where the Decepticons have been working to build the Stunticons since UK issues #63-65, after being shown them in a vision of the future granted by the Matrix itself.

Real-life references

• RAAT captured the Autobots at the real-life Columbia River Gorge, as previously seen in issue #18. As their base is in New Jersery (seen last issue), that means Skids is literally driving across the full width of the continental United States from his starting point in Oregon; he's about halfway across when he saves the driver from the downed powerlines in Colorado (right).
• When Skids and Donny check into the motel, Finkleberg wryly notes that it's nothing like the Plaza, referring to the famous luxury hotel in New York.

Continuity and plotting errors

• The story does not clearly explain why Bombshell fails to take control of Optimus Prime. Ricky Vasquez showed us last issue that an individual of very strong will can resist Bombshell's mind control with great effort, but Optimus is completely unaffected by the shell. Is he simply so strong-willed that it had no effect on him at all?
• Circuit Breaker may not discriminate in her hatred for robots, but it doesn't make much sense for her to attack Superion first. Menasor and his components had already squarely identified themselves as the bad guys, and Superion is fighting them, so wouldn't it make sense to at least go after Menasor first?
• Skids says there's "nothing [he] can do to stop" the Stunticons as they pretend to defend him. Uh, why not.. y'know... transform and start shooting them? Just a few pages beforehand he was preparing to transform and fight them, yet now he does nothing.

Artwork and technical errors

• On the cover, Menasor is... honestly barely recognizable. He doesn't particularly look like his character model or his toy outside of basic shapes, and he's even missing the "vents" on the sides of his head. Plus, his face is purple instead of grey.
• The checklist of comics for November 1986 included on the "Bullpen Bulletins" editorial printed in this issue (and all other Marvel Comics published this month) misspells "Stunticons" as "Stuntacons".

• Coloring goofs consistently seen throughout this issue include:
  • Blaster's eyes are blue again, as they were in issue #17, despite being changed to yellow in issue #18.
  • Perceptor's face is the same blue-black as the rest of his helmet. Per his finalized Marvel colors, it should be white.
  • Outside of a few panels, the whole front of Skids's chest/vehicle mode is colored solid light blue. Per his final colors, it should be mostly dark blue, with only his grill and headlights appearing light blue.
  • Motormaster's pelvis is grey instead of blue-black.
  • Breakdown's arms are purple instead of white.
  • Dead End's arms are white instead of red, and his head is blue-black instead of grey.
  • Menasor's face is grey instead of white.
• Page 2:
  • Panel 3: Blaster's face is red instead of yellow. Perceptor's shoulder is blue instead of red.
  • Panel 6: Perceptor's right bicep is green instead of red, and his left foot is orange instead of blue. Blaster's face is light blue instead of yellow.
• Page 4:
  • Panel 1: Warpath's face is yellow instead of grey.
  • Panel 3-4: Optimus Prime's abdomen is white instead of red.
  • Panel 6: Bombshell's thorax is black instead of purple, while his head is purple instead of black. His antennae is black instead of white.
  • Panel 7: Ratchet's shoulder is blue instead of white.

• Page 5:
  • Panel 5: Skids stands nearly twice as tall as Wheeljack. Wheeljack's "black" parts, normally colored blue per the comic's limited color palette, are here colored blue-green (a color often used to represent black on other characters in the series, such as Bombshell and Megatron). Skids's left foot is magenta instead of red. Optimus's abdomen is still all-white. After last issue's goof, Finkleberg's clothes have reverted to their correct coloration as seen in issue #20.
  • Panel 8: Skids's character model is drawn in such a way that he does not appear to have upper arms, with his forearms emerging out of his ribcage. Don Perlin's attempts to render Skids with upper arms, while still remaining somewhat on-model, result in some bizarre imagery (right). The lower portion of Donny's right pants leg is tan instead of light brown.
• Page 6, panel 5: A flashback to issue #15 shows Walter Barnett wearing a green trenchcoat and hat; in that issue, his coat was grey and his hat was blue.

• Page 7:
  • Panel 2: Soundwave is taller and broader than Megatron.
  • Panel 3: Air Raid's face is red instead of white, his pelvis is black instead of red, his thighs are light-blue instead of blue-black, and his feet are red instead of white.
  • Panel 4: Drag Strip's helmet is red and his visor is light-blue; both should be purple.
• Page 8, panel 7: The stripe on Skids's shoulder door is misinterpreted, resulting in the lower portion of the door appearing red instead of blue.
• Page 9:
  • Panel 3: In a repeat of a goof that's occurred before, Soundwave appears in a very dark purple, as opposed to his usual fuchsia.
  • Panel 8: Donny's statement "We've been driving all day" ends with a question mark, which should probably be an exclamation point.
• Page 10, panel 6: The white pinstripe on the bottom of the red stripe on the side of Skids's vehicle mode is colored red.
• Page 11: The front of Motormaster's torso is solid blue-black, when only the "T"-shaped area on his breastplate should be
  • Panel 1: Motormaster's face is purple instead of white/light blue.

• Page 12:
  • Panel 1: Motormaster's face is now dark blue.
  • Panel 3: Dead End's compressed air gun is purple instead of blue-black.
  • Panel 5: Breakdown's face is white instead of red. His pectorals are purple instead of white.
  • Page 13, panel 5: Drag Strip's forehead is red, his visor and the rest of his helmet is blue; again, they should be purple. Wildrider is entirely colored various shades of blue; his right leg is mis-colored as if it is part of Motormaster in the background.
  • Page 15, panel 5: The underside of Singshot's fuselage is magenta instead of red.
• Page 16-17: Motormaster's face is now grey.
  • Page 16, panel 3-4: Dead End is block-colored yellow, Drag Strip is block-colored red; that feels like it should be the other way around. Breakdown's torso and thighs are dark blue instead of white.
  • Page 17, panel 5: In Menasor-limb-mode, Wildrider is colored red instead of grey.
• Page 17-20: As noted last issue, Superion's colors remain wildly inconsistent. Here, his left leg is colored Fireflight-red; all three other limbs are light blue.
• Page 19:
  • Panel 1: Menasor-limb Breakdown is colored dark blue instead of white; Wildrider is light blue instead of grey.
  • Panel 2-3: Screentones applied to the back of Superion are badly smudged.
• Page 20:
  • Panel 4: Menasor's upper abdomen and pelvis should be black, but here, they are all grey, except for a stripe on the right side of his chestplate.
  • Panel 5: Here, the whole front of Menasor's chestplate is black, which is probably how it was supposed to look in panel 4.
• Page 21:
  • Panel 4: Skids's lower white pinstripe is missing again.
  • Panel 5: Again, screentones applied to the side of Superion's head are badly smudged.

UK printing

Issue #91:

• Published: 6th December, 1986
• Cover date: 13th December, 1986
• Back-up strips: Spitfire and the Troubleshooters ("Behemoth", Part 1) and Robo-Capers
• Other features: Spot-the-difference competition to win a Sony Walkman, in partnership with Ready Brek cereal.
• Following on from changes made to the previous story, the footnote directing readers to issue #19 for an explanation of Optimus Prime's wound is changed to instead point toward the upcoming issue #100.
• The order of the last couple of panels on page 12 is altered to provide a better cliffhanger for the reprint to end on (see right). There's also a slight text edit; in the original Motormaster says the line "I see him" twice, once in response to Drag Strip when he sights the semi truck, and again when Dead End spots Skids, but the UK version changes this simply to remove the repetitive dialogue, altering the first instance to "Indeed, Drag Strip!"
• The smudged screentones in the US printing show up clean in this version (see below).
• Instead of a letters page, this issue features Grimlock's review of The Transformers: The Movie, which had hit UK theatres just one day before this issue was released (right). As one would expect, it's very even-handed and unbiased. He was very careful to point out all the movie's good points, though. Like... uhmmm... the Dinobots are in it. The segment is titled "Film 2006", a reference to the then-currently-airing British cinema review TV show Film 1986.
• As an additional tie-in with the film's release, this issue's Robo-Capers strip is another of the limited number in the series to feature Transformers characters, with a puffed-up Grimlock telling Jazz he's far too busy to fight Decepticons since becoming a movie star.

Issue #92:

• Published: 13th December, 1986
• Cover date: 20th December, 1986
• Back-up strips: Spitfire and the Troubleshooters ("Behemoth", Part 2) and Robo-Capers
• Other features: Competition to win a copy of the movie soundtrack. The (laughably simple) questions were:
  • Megatron undergoes a drastic change in the movie. Into who?
  • What is the name of the planet-sized Transforming creature that threatens to destroy Cybertron?
  • One of the character voices in the film is supplied by an actor famous for his role as Spock in Star Trek. Who is that actor?
• On this issue's letters page, when asked by Ragwan Ahmad of Cardiff when female Transformers would finally be introduced, Grimlock points to the movie and describes Arcee as "the first female Transformer". Guess he didn't see "The Search for Alpha Trion", eh?

Other trivia

• The US issue does not have a letters page.
• Due to the presence of Marvel-owned character Circuit Breaker, IDW Publishing were unable to reprint this issue in their 2008 Classic Transformers Volume 2 collection, as they had not yet negotiated a license to do so with Marvel. The issue was replaced in the collection with a text summary. The issue appeared properly the first time after this in the second volume of IDW's subsequent, not at all confusingly titled reprint series, The Transformers Classics, Vol. 2.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: 11 active following the Aerialbots' defeat; 5 rogue Dinobots; 12 held captive by RAAT; 14 in repair bay. (42 total)
• Decepticons: 21 active as the Stunticons come online; 7 offline. (28 total)

Courtesy of my...

• RAAT are armed with electric snow missiles.
• Dead End blows away the electric snow with his compressed air gun.
• Breakdown shoots down a RAAT helicopter with his concussion cannon.
• Menasor takes down Superion with a torrent of air from his cyclone gun.

Covers (3)

• US issue #22: A portrait of Menasor, surrounded by various Marvel characters, by Herb Trimpe. All Marvel comics released this month featured this cover design as part of a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Marvel Comics, though for the central portrait, other titles used images of their lead characters, making the choice of Menasor for The Transformers cover more than a little out of place. Further confusing was that the cover depicts the G1 toy head of Menasor, while the comic itself uses the Sunbow/Marvel comic head design, thus there is little resemblance between the two.
• UK issue #91: The Stunticons, by Phil Gascoine.
• UK issue #92: Superion and Menasor battle, by Lee Sullivan.

• 

  US issue #22 - When I drink, I see little people too.

• 

  UK issue #91 - Grammar is not anyone's strong point.

• 

  UK issue #92 - The guns are just for show.

Reprints

• 

  Transformers: Showdown TPB (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Transformers: Showdown HC (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 2:
  (IDW Publishing, 2012)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 6: Target: 2006
  (Hachette Partworks, 2016)

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection, with exceptions noted below.

• The border of Marvel characters on the cover is blanked out for this reprint, but the stars covering the letter "S" in the "Transformers" logo remain. Hachette's version includes the characters, but still removes the Marvel logo.
• Page 5:
  • Panel 5: Wheeljack's blue is corrected, but not deliberately; the inconsistent remastering of the Classics series often reduces the two distinct shades of blue in question to the same.
  • Panel 8: Donny's pant leg is corrected.
• Page 7, panel 6: As is standard for the Classics reprints, Soundwave is recolored in blue throughout the issue, except for this panel, where he retains his purple colours.
• Page 11, panel 1: Motormaster's face is corrected from grey to white.
• Page 20, panels 2 and 3, and page 22, panel 5: Screentones are completely removed, but the ink-blotching artifacts remain... even though they don't actually match the smudging on the original printing (see right). What have you got against zip-tones, guys?

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US

• M&M's—inside front cover
• Bonkers! (candy) - between pages 4 & 5
• Brach's (candy) - between pages 5 & 6
• Dungeons & Dragons Set #1: Basic Rules - between pages 7 & 8
• Comic shops and sketchy ads - between pages 8 & 9
• Marvel Super Mart and sketchy ads - between pages 16 & 17
• Comic Book Conventions 1986: Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Manhattan, San Francisco, Washington DC, New Brunswick (New Jersey) - between pages 17 & 18
• Mile High Comics - between pages 19 & 20
• Bullpen Bulletins - between pages 20 & 21
• Marvel subscriptions
• Yamaha DX100 synthesizer—inside front cover
• Starburst and Skittles—back cover

UK issue #91

• Ready Brek spot the difference competition to win a Walkman
• Classified ads
• S.T.A.R.S. (right)

UK issue #92

• The New Leaders, Ultra Magnus and Galvatron
• The Transformers: The Movie soundtrack album
• The Transformers: The Movie giant poster magazine
• Weetabix