Dreamwave Armada issue 5

	; Tell me once again, who's bad?
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	December 18, 2002
Script	Chris Sarracini
Pencils	James Raiz
Inks	Rob Armstrong, Erik Sander, Ferd Poblete
Colors	Shaun Curtis, Alan Wang, Ramil Sunga, Rob Ruffolo, David Cheung, Chris Walker, Elliot Kravchik
Lettering	Dreamer Design
Editor	Roger Lee
Continuity	Dreamwave Armada continuity

As the Transformers battle on Earth, a group of Mini-Cons comes to the aid of the Autobots.

Synopsis

A group of junkyard workers discovers Longarm, Jolt, Liftor, and Rollbar living in the yard, and they flee in terror. The Mini-Cons scrounge around for some sort of communication device, and ultimately find a television. Turning it on, they see a news report of Megatron chasing Sparkplug, and decide they need to help.

Meanwhile, the Autobots continue to battle the Decepticons in Sun Valley outside Science City, but Megatron powerlinxes with Blackout, Crumplezone, Leader-1, and Swindle, and defeats them with ease. Just as the Decepticon is about to kill Optimus Prime, the four Mini-Cons from the junkyard arrive and decide to see if the Decepticon rewiring will allow them to powerlinx with the Autobots. It works as intended, and Megatron decides to make a tactical retreat back to Cybertron rather than face the Mini-Con-powered Autobots.

The Mini-Cons say that they're willing to work with the Autobots so long as they're equals rather than slaves. Optimus Prime says that the Autobots are not interested in using them as slaves—if they wish to help, it is their choice. He then sends his team out to scan for alternate modes, because he suspects they'll be there for a while...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Mini-Cons	Humans
Optimus Prime (12) Scavenger (13) Smokescreen (18) Red Alert (19) Hot Shot (20)	Megatron (6) Demolishor (9) Starscream (10) Cyclonus (11)	Rollbar (2) Longarm (3) Jolt (4) Liftor (5) Sparkplug (7) Sureshock (14) High Wire (15) Grindor (21) Blackout (22) Leader-1 (23) Swindle (24) Crumplezone (25)	Louie (1) Rad (8) Alexis (16) Carlos (17)

Quotes

"What's wrong, Megatron? Are you frustrated that after all these years, with all your enhanced Mini-Con power, you still haven't been able to eliminate us? Maybe you're not the great leader you think you are."
"WATCH YOUR WORDS, AUTOBOT!!!"
"Why? Are you afraid to hear the truth? Power alone might win you battles, but it will never win you the war. Are you too scared to admit that your bumbling has been what's kept this war alive? A smarter leader would have destroyed us long ago."

—Optimus Prime on Megatron

"You dare call me inferior?! You weakling! Cybertron was yours, and I stole it from you! I'm superior to you in every way!"
"No, Megatron. You're just a fool with some strength."

—Megatron to Optimus

*Smokescreen knocks down the mountain on which Megatron was standing*
Optimus Prime: "I was wondering when he was going to make his move. I was running out of things to say."

Notes

Trivia

This would be the last issue to be penciled by James Raiz or written by Chris Sarracini. It was only meant to be a temporary break but they decided they'd rather do an Optimus Prime miniseries, which then turned into them being offered the G1 ongoing, which then got delayed... The end result was Sarracini was permanently replaced by Simon Furman, while Raiz took a job at Wildstorm and would only return to pencil one Energon issue and a story in the 20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special (as it was clear by then that if he did a longer job for Dreamwave, he might not get paid).^[1]