Prime Time!

	; It may be prime time, but we only aired in syndication.
	"Prime Time!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Shipping date	September 24, 1985
On-sale date	October 15, 1985
Cover date	January 1986
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Penciler	Herb Trimpe
Inker	Al Gordon
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Janice Chiang
Editor	Michael Carlin
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

This article is about the Marvel Comics issue. For other uses, see Prime Time.

The Autobots attempt to rescue Optimus Prime from the Decepticons.

Synopsis

"Here I come to save the daaaay!"

Having used the power of the Creation Matrix within his mind to rebuild and reprogram Jetfire, Buster Witwicky commands the giant jet to take him to the Decepticons' base of operations in Blackrock Aerospace Assembly Plant Number One, in hopes of rescuing Optimus Prime. Unfortunately, en route, Jetfire is intercepted by human military aircraft, and the dizzying dives and loops Jetfire automatically executes to evade them, heedless of his human passenger, cause Buster to lose consciousness. Without Buster to control him, Jetfire reverts to his original pre-programmed mission and delivers the boy to Shockwave, who hooks Buster up to his machines with the intention of using the Matrix to give life to the new fleet of Decepticon jets he has used the plant to construct.

Meanwhile, an Autobot convoy speeds toward the plant on a rescue mission, bringing Optimus Prime's body with them, planning to reattach their leader's head to it once he is safely rescued. Unfortunately, the Autobots are unaware that Soundwave has discovered the monitoring device that has been allowing them to listen in on the Decepticons, and Shockwave now uses it to lure them into a trap, "announcing" his plan to have Jetfire dump Prime's head in a nearby swamp. The Autobots speed to the location, arriving just in time to see Jetfire drop Prime's head—but when they recover it and return it to Prime's body, they discover they have been duped: the head is a phony, which takes control of Prime's body and directs it to open fire on the Autobots! Caught by surprise, many of the Autobots are cut down, and are totally unprepared for the Soundwave and the Cassettes to arrive on scene and take up the fight.

At the plant, Buster recovers consciousness and is able to use the Creation Matrix to control Jetfire once more. At Buster's direction, Jetfire knocks out Shockwave and departs for the swamp with the real head of Optimus Prime. Once in range, Optimus is able to take remote control of his body, and has it rip the fake head off his shoulders so he can reattach himself to it. With Prime back in action, the tables are quickly turned in the Autobots' favor as Optimus smashes apart Soundwave and his minions.

Shockwave, meanwhile, recovers to find that Optimus's head is gone, and that the plant's hostage human workforce has overpowered Rumble and escaped. Coldly furious, Shockwave heads for the swamp to finish Prime off personally, but Prime triumphs in their battle when he hurls Shockwave into the swamp. As the Decepticon leader helplessly sinks into the muck, the Autobots urge Optimus to blast him and finish him off once for all, but Prime, fearing for Buster's safety, simply leaves Shockwave to vanish into the swamp's depths while rushes back to the plant. There, he finds that Buster has been released by the human workers and the other Decepticons have fled. He takes back the Creation Matrix from Buster and mulls over the fact that innocent human lives are in danger because of their war.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bumblebee (3) Optimus Prime (8) Prowl (9) Hound (10) Gears (11) Huffer (12) Brawn (13) Jazz (14) Sideswipe (15) Ironhide (16) Trailbreaker (17) Windcharger (18) Cliffjumper (19)	Jetfire (1) Rumble (5) Shockwave (6) Soundwave (7) Buzzsaw (20) Frenzy (21) Ravage (22) Laserbeak (23)	Buster Witwicky (2) Sparkplug Witwicky (4)

Quotes

"The Autobots all lie in smoking ruins! We've won!"
"Wrong, Soundwave."
"Silence, slave!"
"I can be silent no more!"
"Very well, puppet. What is it you want?"
"I want... you!"

—Soundwave messed with the wrong Optimus Prime

Notes

Continuity notes

Buster flashes back to the events of issue #5 (when he found Optimus's head), issue #6 (when Optimus Prime transferred the Matrix to him), and issue #11 (when he encountered Jetfire and used the Matrix to stop him). It is revealed that between last issue and this one, Buster reprogrammed Jetfire's brain to obey him.
Shockwave continues to hold Rumble responsible for allowing Buster to sneak into the Ark and obtain the Matrix from Optimus, as seen in issue #5, which Shockwave himself discovered last issue.
It is not immediately apparent, as most of them appear to be operational at the end of this issue, but the injuries sustained by the eleven Autobots who come to Optimus Prime's rescue (right) will be revealed in issue #14 to have put them on the "inactive" list, essentially removing them from the comic's cast for the next three years. Of the 1984 cast, only Optimus, Mirage, Bluestreak, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Bumblebee remain active, with the Dinobots existing in off-panel limbo.
However, perhaps owing to the fact that this wasn't actually very obvious at the time of this issue's publication, the next few UK-exclusive stories ("Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!") continue to show many of the injured characters as being operational. Following that, the UK story "Dinobot Hunt!" was used to patch over this plot hole a bit, subjecting several Autobots to severe injuries, thereby creating a new reason for them to be offline in the subsequently-published US issue #14. Not all the characters taken out in this issue would be accounted for by "Dinobot Hunt," however, and multiple later UK stories would continue to show them being active despite the US stories having phased them out of the cast.

Transformers references

As seen in the previous issue, the jets being worked on by the plant's human workers look like upcoming 1985 Decepticon jet characters; specifically, this issue, they all look like Dirge (as seen at right). This issue confirms that these were intended by Shockwave to be the next wave of his Earth-made Decepticon troops, brought to life by the Matrix, but it remains unknown if this was genuinely intended as a way to introduce Dirge (and his fellow jets Thrust and Ramjet) that didn't pan out, or if the artist was merely using the jets' character models as generics.

Continuity and plotting errors

Where's Mirage? Bumblebee and Bluestreak were out on a mission to look for Buster when the Autobot rescue team departed last issue; Sunstreaker is offline; Ratchet's presumably standing guard at the Ark so as to not leave it unattended; and assuming Wheeljack is still not back to 100% after the injuries he suffered at Circuit Breaker's hands in issue #9, Mirage is the only 1984 Autobot without an excuse to not be part of this issue's events.

Artwork and technical errors

As in the previous issue, Jetfire continues to be rendered in a preliminary colour scheme that adds larger areas of red to his jet mode, and makes his wings red in robot mode.
Shockwave, meanwhile, once again has blue shoulders, as seen in both last issue and issue #9.
Soundwave is a very dark purple in this issue, as opposed to his normal fuchsia.
Optimus Prime's eyes fluctuate back and forth from their standard yellow to uncolored white all through the issue.
Page 3, panel 6: Jetfire has an Autobot symbol instead of a Decepticon one.
Page 5:
- Panel 4: Shockwave is absolutely huge as he crushes one of the jets, being able to pick it up in one hand (see right).
- Panel 5: As Shockwave crushes the jet, the front portion of it is left uncolored (making it look yellow, like the background).
Page 6, panel 4: Huffer's exhaust pipes are colored orange like the rest of his cab.
Page 7, panel 6: Though it's colored purple like a 'Con symbol, Jetfire's got an Autobot symbol again.
Page 10:
- Panel 4: Jazz is colored like Bluestreak, while Sideswipe is colored like Gears.
- Panel 5: Prowl's Autobot insignia is uncolored.
Page 11, panel 4: Windcharger's torso is red instead of grey, and Cliffjumper's got a blue-black section on the back of his head, which is still there in the next panel.
Page 13: Jetfire's symbol is still colored Decepticon-purple, but it's drawn very vaguely, looking like an odd mash of the 'Bot and 'Con insignia.
Page 14:
- Panel 1: Though not quite as egregious as on page 5, Shockwave once again looks overlarge as Jetfire punches him, compared to the jets and humans.
- Panel 4: The idea that the human workers would attack Rumble without hesitations, greater numbers or not, rather suggests this scene ought to have been drawn in a scale more reminiscent of the cartoon, where Rumble is only a few heads taller than an average human. Marvel Rumble is only a little shorter than an average 'bot!
Page 17, panel 4: Frenzy is colored like Rumble as Optimus takes him out.
Page 20, panel 1: Shockwave's gun is on his right arm instead of his left.

UK printing

Issue #39:

Published: 7th December, 1985
Cover date: 14th December, 1985
Back-up strips: Robo-Capers , Matt and the Cat , and Machine Man ("Victory" part 1 )
Fact File Interface: Scavenger

Issue #40:

Published: 14th December, 1985
Cover date: 21st December, 1985
Back-up strips: Robo-Capers , Machine Man ("Victory" part 2), and Matt and the Cat

Other trivia

Marvel Age #33 reported Sam de la Rosa as the inker of both this issue and "Shooting Star!" instead of Al Gordon. While de la Rosa would never work on Transformers, he did go on to ink a number of comics starring Venom.
The editorial "Bullpen Bulletins" page for this month included an explanation on the different styles of boxes (M shape vs square boxes with Comic Code seal) used on Marvel comics that show the price, date, and issue number.

Bot Roster

Autobots: 11 active, as Optimus Prime returns to active status; his 11 rescuers (Prowl, Hound, Gears, Huffer, Brawn, Jazz, Sideswipe, Ironhide, Trailbreaker, Cliffjumper, and Windcharger) join Sunstreaker on the inactive list. (23 total)
Decepticons: 15 active; Shockwave and Megatron missing in action; Jetfire is left lifeless. (18 total)

Courtesy of my...

Optimus Prime's laser rifle sees a lot of use.

Covers (3)

US issue #12: Prime attacks the Autobots, by Herb Trimpe.
UK issue #39: reuse of art from US cover.
UK issue #40: Prime vs Shockwave, by Jeff Anderson.

US issue #12 - His gun will turn you red, white and blue!
UK issue #39 - Ah, if only...
UK issue #40 - Head on!

Reprints

The Transformers Comics Magazine #6 (Marvel US, 1987)
Transformers: New Order paperback (Titan Books, 2003)
Transformers: New Order hardback (Titan Books, 2003)
Classic Transformers Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2008)
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)
Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 3: Dinobot Hunt (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2018)
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 3 (Mediaboy Mook, 2019)

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.

As usual, Soundwave's Marvel purple colors are erased and replaced with cartoon/toy blue.
Page 7, panel 6: Jetfire's Autobot symbol has been re-drawn as a Decepticon one (right).
Page 11, panel 1: For this panel alone, Optimus Prime's correct yellow eyes are changed to uncolored white. Okay. Whatever.

References

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