Aerialbots over America!

Donny Finkleberg tries to escape from Ravage, and gets some help from Skids and a new friend.

Marvel US issue #21

(Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #89-90)

Script: Bob Budiansky
Pencils: Don Perlin
Inks: Ian Akin and Brian Garvey
Lettering: Janice Chiang
Colors: Nelson Yomtov
Editor: Michael Carlin

• Major characters (in order of appearance): Bombshell, Ricky Vasquez, Kickback, Megatron, Shrapnel, Ratchet, Skids, Optimus Prime, Donny Finkleberg, Jetfire, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Silverbolt, Slingshot, Fireflight, Air Raid, Skydive, Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust
• Originally published: October, 1986

Synopsis

Bombshell uses a cerebro-shell to force hydroelectric engineer Ricky Vasquez to bring Megatron into the plant at Hoover Dam, as part of a plan to steal the plant's energy and transport it to Cybertron. Meanwhile, Skids returns to the Ark with Donny Finkleberg to inform them that seven Autobots were accidentally transported to Earth. Optimus Prime send Jetfire and Finkleberg to investigate. The Autobots then receive word of the invasion of the hydroelectric plant, and the Aerialbots, recently created by Wheeljack using the stolen combiner technology, are dispatched to deal with the situation. Only the Aerialbot leader, Silverbolt has been given a complete personality, and the other Aerialbots are not yet programmed to defend human life. When the Aerialbots combine into Superion, Silverbolt must fight to influence the combined form from within in order to keep Superion from killing Vasquez. Forced to disassemble rather than kill Vasquez, the mission seems doomed to failure. But Vasquez, seeing his daughter break through the police line to call out to her daddy, breaks through the cerebro-shell programming, and fires Megatron into the space bridge, causing it to return to Cybertron. As the Aerialbots fly away, Bombshell hitches a ride on Silverbolt's wing. Meanwhile, at an airstrip in New Jersey, the new arrived Autobots from Cybertron have been found, by RAAT, led by Circuit Breaker!

Errors

• On page 12, Jetfire refers to a game they played on Cybertron. Yet, having been given life on Earth (immediately preceding issue 14), Jetfire has never been to Cybertron.
• Dirge's wings and cockpit are pink on pages 10 and 15.

Items of note

• The Insecticons second year Decepticon jets first arrive on Earth in this issue
• References to past issues:

• Prime is seen nursing an injury he recieved saving Skids life in issue #19. This injury would play a big part in the next couple of issues.
• The cliffhanger features Circuit Breaker mounting the heads of the Cybertron Seven on the wall of her RAAT base. This also happenned in issue #19.

UK Printing

• Issue #89 featured an Insecticons cover by artist Robin Smith.
• Issue #90 used a recoloured cover art from US issue #21 with new speech balloons. The new colouring was done in a more painterly style.
• Issue #89 featured the debut of a new feature called The Transformers A-Z. This was merely reprinting (sometimes slightly truncated) profiles from the Transformers Universe limited series. #89 featured nearly unreadable (due to the background they were printed on) profiles on Air Raid and Astrotrain.
• The injury Prime is nursing in this issue is actually the source of a sutble continuity change between the US and UK comics. The cause of the injury is different depending on which version of the comic you're reading.

In the US version Prime was wounded fighting to save Skids during Command Performances, 2 issues previously. In the UK version there was a 17 issue gap between this story and Command Performances, so the hole in his side was repaired, and he was later re-injured in exactly the same spot.

The exact origin of Prime's new injury remained a mystery until issue #100. All we knew at this point was that Prime was somehow damaged while he was displaced in limbo during Target: 2006.