Totaled!

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My money's on Cosmos.
"Totaled!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	February 1988
Cover date	June 1988
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Pencils	José Delbo
Inks	Danny Bulanadi
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Bill Oakley
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

It starts with Grimlock vs. Fruitloop Multipuck, but things never end that simply, do they?

Synopsis

Optimus Prime explodes! Having acquired Prime's mind on a floppy disk, the Autobots on the Steelhaven have initiated Project Prime, an attempt to build a new body for the Autobot leader. The team isn't having much luck, as the ship's resources have been depleted by reconstructing Fortress Maximus and Goldbug and creating the Autobot Pretenders. Hot Rod, however, has tracked down the Ark; Fortress Maximus decides to approach Grimlock, leader of the Autobots on Earth, for help.

Grimlock: Tyrant, bully, metrosexual.

Grimlock doesn't want to help, and instead demands Fortress Maximus hand over the fugitive Goldbug. Maximus refuses, but to avoid a conflict, Goldbug surrenders. Grimlock is still not satisfied; he challenges Fortress Maximus to one-on-one battle for the leadership of the Autobots under the archaic Code of Combat.

In the brig, Goldbug finds Blaster, strapped to an energy-sucking variable voltage harness. Blaster has become apathetic from his time wasting away, but Goldbug talks him into fighting in the injured Fortress Maximus's place.

Elsewhere, Soundwave has been tracking the Steelhaven... which has led him to the Ark as well. Ratbat is pleased at the chance to destroy all of Earth's Autobots at once.

The two ships land on the Moon. The crews from both the Ark and the Steelhaven assemble to watch Grimlock and Blaster fight it out.

The battle soon draws Blaster and Grimlock away from the rest of the Autobots. In their absence, Ratbat's Decepticons unleash their attack. Onslaught leads the Decepticon assault on the Autobots, while Bonecrusher leads the Constructicons in an attack on the unmanned Ark, to retrieve Decepticon prisoners.

Without strong leadership, the Autobots are losing the battle, so (rather than taking command) Fortress Maximus orders Goldbug to take the skeleton crew on the Steelhaven and leave the scene.

Grimlock goes from brutal tyrant to doofus in 22 pages.

So much for democracy!

Grimlock and Blaster are still fighting when Blaster notices the battle going on far in the distance. Setting their differences aside, the two Autobots rejoin the battle. Working together, Grimlock and Blaster manage to turn back the Decepticons and damage their ship enough to force a full Decepticon retreat.

Grimlock finally accepts the possibility of working with others, noting that he and Blaster are an effective team. With the Ark and many Autobots damaged, repair work is urgent. But Fortress Maximus notes that the Steelhaven will be unable to help; seeing the need for a true great leader, he has sent the ship to Nebulos, the one place with the technology to properly rebuild Optimus Prime.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Goldbug: "We were so close, Brainstorm."
Brainstorm: "Yes we were, Goldbug."
Fortress Maximus: "Highbrow, can we try again?"
Highbrow: "There's nothing left to try with, Fortress Maximus."
Fortress Maximus: "Then Optimus Prime is no more."

"Surely a ship as large as you say the Ark is will have the facilities to rebuild Optimus Prime, Goldbug. And you'll be able to see all your old friends again!"
"Er, yes...I will, won't I..."

—Fortress Maximus and a much less enthusiastic Goldbug

"Commander, again I beg you - return the Ark to Earth. We left our enemies, the Decepticons, there. Who knows what horrors they're inflicting on the native humans!"
"Who cares!"

—Ratchet still hasn't learned Grimlock is the worst leader ever.

"A human?! Human commands Autobots?! NEVER!!"
"Looks like never is now, commander!"
"Shut up, Ratchet!"

—Grimlock and Ratchet, who is enjoying this way too much.

"A personal visit -- ?"
"Blaster!"
"A video-letter would have been sufficient, Goldbug."
"What happened to you?!"
"Grimlock sent me on vacation. Permanent vacation."

—Blaster and Goldbug discussing the hospitality of the new Autobot commander.

"The Autobots can all go to the scrapyard before I get involved again."
"Then don't do it for the Autobots...do it for yourself. Do it to get even with Grimlock."

—Blaster and Goldbug

"Grimlock's energo-sword cut you in two, Blaster!"
"Got news for you, Grimmy...it'll take more than bad intentions to carve me up! Skill always helps."

—Grimlock: 0, Blaster: 1

"A great Autobot warrior you're not, Brawn! But take it from Swindle, you have a bright future as space parts!"

—Swindle

"The Autobots are getting trounced! This can't be happening! This can't!"
"But it is, Buster Witwicky - and at minimum energy cost to us! What a banner day this will become in the annals of Decepticon fuel accounting!"

—Buster and Ratbat

"Surrender yet, toaster-head?"
"No understand meaning of "surrender", Blaster!"
"Doesn't surprise me."
"You make fun of Grimlock again?"

—Blaster: 2, Grimlock: 0

"Steelhaven leaving! Is trick by you and Fullstrength Motleypuss!"

—Grimlock

"Me commander of Autobots. All Autobots. But me no act like it. Me forget them when me should protect them."

—Grimlock finally gets it.

"Wh-what's happening?! The ship is going haywire!"
"Bad for fuel economy, Ratbat."
"Fleshling, I do not...find you amusing!"

—Ratbat sassed by Buster

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Cover: Red Alert is colored like Sideswipe; Nosecone is block colored orange when everyone around him is colored normally.
• Page 4, as Fortress Maximus is introducing his top officers, Pointblank is drawn as... somebody else? And Landmine has a conehead?
• Page 9, panel 5: Ratbat's face panel is colored all-yellow, as if it were a huge eye.
• In what is almost certainly an art error rather than a scripted appearance, Broadside and Outback make brief appearances, their first in the US. This is a bit of an oddity since characters tended not to 'just appear' in the Marvel comics without some explanation of how they got there. Artist José Delbo, who had to draw over 120 different Transformers for this issue's 3-way battle — many of them in multiple modes — may simply have "oopsied," while trying to cram them all in. In the UK stories both characters were active on Cybertron, and changes were made when the story was reprinted to accommodate this. (see below)
• A huge crowd of Decepticons is shown surrounding the Autobots... but the combined forces of the Ark and the Steelhaven should outnumber Ratbat's Decepticons by 2 to 1 or more.
• In the far back of the huge disembarking group shot, Slingshot is drawn with his nosecone on both shoulders. Slingshot's character art is drawn from an extreme worm's eye angle, putting the nosecone seemingly on Slingshot's left shoulder, and apparently Delbo duplicated one on his other shoulder to make him symmetrical.

Continuity errors

• Helicopters should not be able to fly in a vacuum, but obviously no one ever told Vortex.
• None of Fortress Maximus's Autobots are seen after they exit the Steelhaven. It's only the older toys shown getting their butts kicked.

Continuity notes

Protectobots, where art thou?

What, no "Kbooomm" this time?

• Unlike in the cartoon, writer Bob Budiansky always made sure sound didn't travel in space sequences in the Transformers comic. To this end there's no 'sound effects' during the entire 13-page moon battle sequence. The Transformers used radio to communicate over these pages.
• The absence of sound in space even plays a part in the plot—Grimlock and Blaster don't notice the Decepticon attack on their fellows immediately because they can't hear the battle.
• The big group shot of the disembarking Autobots is the first real appearance some characters have had for dozens of issues. Sunstreaker, in particular, was last seen in issue #10, still deactivated from Shockwave's demonstration in issue #5, and hadn't been online since the original miniseries. Many of the other Autobots who are seen exiting the Ark had "disappeared" long ago to make room for newer characters.
• The Protectobots are curiously absent. The last time they were relevant to the story, they were on Earth, disobeying Grimlock's orders to bring in Blaster for execution... for disobeying orders. With this conspicuous omission from a groupshot that is otherwise so completist, it's tempting to conclude they never returned to the fold!
  • It's not clear-cut, however. Hot Spot, Blades and First Aid were all shown on board the Ark in "Spacehikers!". First Aid even seems to get a speaking line in a crowd shot. It's entirely possible that these were art errors: within the story, the Protectobots were last seen watching Blast Off take off from Earth. The Ark immediately starts pursuing Blast Off and takes him on board; shortly thereafter, the various Protectobots are seen on the ship - there's hardly any time for them to get back to the ship. ("Spacehikers!" has something of a reputation for featuring Autobots aboard the Ark who shouldn't be there.)
• There's also no Warpath for absolutely no reason.
• The massed Autobots apparently sit around on the Moon licking their wounds until issue #47, at the beginning of which they are all back on Earth. It's implicitly clear that Optimus Prime eventually picks them up using the Steelhaven (after rescuing Sky Lynx from the Cosmic Carnival), re-assumes command, and then they all return to Earth, but it's not depicted outright.
• Though not mentioned, Blast Off and Dirge were among the Decepticons in Autobot custody, and may have been retrieved as well. Blast Off had been captured in Spacehikers!, and Dirge (US continuity only) was blown out of the sky in Ashes, Ashes.... Neither showed up for the remainder of the US continuity.
• The opening splash page of Optimus Prime's would-be new body blowing up is a direct homage to his death scene in US #24.
• The Decepticons retrieved by the Constructicons in this issue were captured in battle with Omega Supreme way back in US #19.
• Optimus Prime was put on a disc after his death in US #24.
• There are numerous references to the previous issue, including the acquiring of the Prime disc, the rebuilding of Goldbug, and the creation of the Pretenders.
• Fortress Maximus was still recovering from his battle with Shockwave in issue #39.

UK printing

• The title was given a second "L." (Because that's the correct spelling in the Queen's English, you colonial fools.)

Issue #174

• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Pit-Fall" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Jazz and Jetfire
• In Grim Grams, Grimlock states that he doesn't want a toy of his Cybertronian form to be created and that people should be happy with him as he is!
• A flashback to the events of "Spacehikers!" (actually re-drawing a panel from that story) again includes an appearance by Sandstorm, among the Autobots encouraging Blaster to assume leadership of the Autobots. Unfortunately, in the UK-originated material, Sandstorm was with the Wreckers on Cybertron and could not possibly have been present on the Ark at this time. It's possible that this non-speaking block colored Autobot was instead a Generic lookalike (from a pure continuity standpoint,) though artist José Delbo certainly intended it to be Sandstorm.

Issue #175

• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Pit-Fall" and Combat Colin
• In Grim Grams, Grimlock identified the Generic transformer from the opening splash page of UK issue #164 as "Chuffer".

In the UK, I was replaced by some other dude!

• Issue #175 features some of the most aggressive art edits done to a US story to bring it into line with UK continuity. Because Broadside was a member of the Wreckers, (and on Cybertron at this time,) Broadside's close-up had to be edited to turn him a new character; the head partially redrawn and his blue parts colored green, creating a new, generic robot. (detail at right)
• Likewise, Skids was in Limbo at this point in UK continuity, so the image of him leaving the Ark with the other Autobots was given a new head and headlamps. Ironically his new head resembles that of Crosscut, which is how Skids would come to be portrayed in later UK stories anyway.
• The boxes containing the rescued Decepticons were edited to remove and rearrange the names, since most of the "inactive" Decepticons defeated by Omega Supreme had already been revived during the UK's "Target: 2006" storyline. The Constructicons' mission now only freed Rumble and Buzzsaw (and possibly Blast Off and Skywarp, the latter of whom had been absent since his "destruction" in Target 2006 but back among Ratbat's forces in their next appearance.) Long Haul's dialog to his fellow Constructicons was also altered, discarding a statement about the many Decepticons they had to free and replacing it with a much vaguer "We have a lot more work to do!" In US continuity the rescued Decepticons were: Buzzsaw, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Rumble, Frenzy and Starscream (and possibly Blast Off and Dirge).

Other trivia

• How can one not love the nicknames all through this issue? "Doc Ratchet", "Grimbo", and of course Grimlock's constant reworking of Fortress Maximus's name. He calls him "Fruitloop Multipuck", "Forktongue Maxiface", and even the ever-classic "Fullstrength Motleypuss".
• The letters page of this issue featured two competitions, Spot the Shingo and a competition to name all the Transformers pouring from the Ark on page 10 of the issue. The prizes were not really disclosed.
• This was the last issue reprinted in the Danish run of the series published by Atlantic ApS.

Bot Roster

• Ark Autobots: 46 active as all the long-inert 1984 Autobots suddenly show up again, and Goldbug is restored; 5 bodyless Throttlebots. (51 total)
• Steelhaven Autobots: 28 active.
• Ratbat's Decepticons: 32 active; 8 presumably rescued from the Ark; 4 offline/missing. (44 total)
• Scorponok's Decepticons: 25 active.

Courtesy of my...

• Forget Blaster and Grimlock, the real stars of this issue were the electro-scrambler and energo-sword: "Energy feedback, courtesy of my electro-scrambler, tinhead".

Covers (3)

• US issue #41 cover: battle royal, by José Delbo and Dave Hunt.
• UK issue #174 cover: Grimlock and Spike, by Jeff Anderson.
• UK issue #175 cover: Grimlock and Blaster, by Lee Sullivan.

• 

  US issue #41 – Or: How to give José Delbo a nervous breakdown

• 

  UK issue #174 – Use the FLAT of your blade, Grimlock!

• 

  UK issue #175 – Grimlock won't stop dancing for anyone.

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US

• G.I. Joe personalized action figure - inside front cover
• Comic book conventions / Marvel Super Hero Pins - between pages 4 & 5
• American Comics - between pages 5 & 6
• Comic distributors and Sketchy ads - between pages 7 & 8
• Daredevil, introducing Typhoid Mary - between pages 8 & 9
• Comic distributors and Sketchy ads - between pages 16 & 17
• Marvel Super Mart - between pages 17 & 18
• Bullpen Bulletins and checklist - between pages 19 & 20
• The Avengers #291 - between pages 20 & 21
• Transmissions
• Marvel subscription service
• Konami NES video games: Jackal and Contra - inside back cover
• TSR Top Secret/S.I. RPG (back cover)

UK

Issue 174

• Transformers Collected Comics #9 and Thundercats Collected Comics #3 - page 14
• Galaxy Rangers comic - page 16
• Visionaries - back cover

Issue 175

• Powermasters - page 9
• Marvel Bumper Comic - page 16
• Peter PEZ Pursues the Photons - back cover

Reprints

• Transformers: Maximum Force TPB – Scorponok, a Targetmaster gun, the Steelhaven and half of Skullgrin's head, by Andrew Wildman.
• Transformers: Maximum Force HC – Skullgrin, by Peter Snejbjerg.
• Classic Transformers Volume 3 – Panels from US issues #35, #36, #42 and #44, by José Delbo, Don Perlin, Dave Hunt, Don Hudson, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, and Nel Yomtov.
• The Transformers Classics, Vol. 4 – Starscream, by Guido Guidi.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 11: The Legacy of Unicron – Wreck-Gar (from More than Meets the Eye) over an interior image of Unicron (from UK issue #148), by Don Figueroa and Dan Reed.

• 

  Maximum Force TPB
  (Titan Books, 2004)

• 

  Maximum Force HC
  (Titan Books, 2004)

• 

  Classic Transformers Volume 3
  (IDW Publishing, 2009)

• 

  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 4
  (IDW Publishing, 2012)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 11: The Legacy of Unicron
  (Hachette Partworks, 2018)