Volcanicus comic 2

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Publisher	TakaraTomy Mall
First published	September 25, 2020
Manga	Hayato Sakamoto
Colorist	Gufu Kandagawa (p1, 2, 5, 6, 8), Josh Perez (p3, 4) Ricken (p7, 10), Kamizono (p9)
Color assist by	Lebanon Sugi
Editor	Kouji Nimura
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Chronology	2050

Firmly on the side of humanity, the Dinobots go to war with all other Transformers!

Synopsis

At Earth Defense Command HQ, Marissa Faireborn and her fellow former Kiss Players are flustered by the Technobots' decision to join the Selectors' rebellion, as per Commander Optimus Prime's orders. Hot Rod also takes his leave, to Shaoshao Li's consternation. Elsewhere, the Aerialbots also leave their old friend Jumal's company. Reconsidering, Hot Rod stays and orders the Technobots to combine into Computron and calculate humanity's chances of winning this war. Computicon concludes that, with both Autobots and Decepticons having joined the Selectors' cause, the likelihood of man's victory is nearly... zero. But there's also another factor to consider—the Dinobots.

Optimus Prime, on behalf of the Cybertron Alliance, makes an announcement to humanity that their demand is simple: Freedom for the Selectors and their own independent nation on Earth. This plan hits a snag as the Dinobots finally arrive at Neo Scramble City, their tempers inflamed by the comatose Carly Witwicky. The angered Dinobots head off to fight the combined Autobot-Decepticon army. One by one, Autobot and Decepticon alike fall to the might of the Dinobots. Shockwave attempts to use his upgraded body to fight Grimlock, but even he isn't of much use against his bestial strength. Optimus Prime finally faces off against the Dinobot leader and begs him to stop...

Sick of being told to calm down, Grimlock prepares a decapitating strike on Optimus Prime, but finds that he cannot follow through, his Magma Blade stopping inches before Optimus's neck. Optimus again tells him to calm down and think back to his original construction, reminding him that, fearing the Dinobots' brute strength and primitive minds, the Autobots installed a failsafe inside them that would allow for acts of rebellion and dissent, but prevent the taking of a life. Rung is furious at this revelation, arguing that it proves the Dinobots were built as slaves to the Autobots, making them no different from the humans or Quintessons. Grimlock then chews out the already-shocked Prime, arguing that, since they were built stupid, the Dinobots never had any freedom or respect in the first place. The only people who had ever respected them were the humans, and that, Grimlock explains, is why they are fighting against the Cybertron Alliance as the humans' allies. Optimus falls to his knees, now fully cognizant of how many mistakes he's made. The fight is not over yet, however, as Sky Lynx arrives, having beaten the other four Dinobots and ready to take on Grimlock.

Meanwhile, Computron finishes his calculation, revealing to Hot Rod that the humans have a 90% chance of winning if the Dinobots side with them. He then disengages his combination and the Technobots fly off to help Grimlock, noting that they could never betray their creator. Grimlock and the Technobots then combine into Volcaticon, who asks Sky Lynx to team up with them, both being dinosaur-type robots. Sky Lynx declines, calling Grimlock an idiot while he fights for all Selectors. From within the combination, Grimlock asserts that he'll just get smarter, downloading Computron's intelligence back into himself. The Technobots lock on to Sky Lynx's weaknesses and Volcaticon fires an electric pulse, splitting Sky Lynx apart and leaving him paralyzed, but very much alive. Grimlock then explains how he became intelligent by absorbing data from Vector Sigma all those years ago, then resolves to use his intellect to find a peaceful solution to the Selectors' rebellion.

However, a desperate Spike has already brought a Quintesson Judge to the Mother Computer, asking the computer whether or not they should form an alliance. The Mother Computer says they should, noting that as fellow creator species it was only a matter of time. The Quintesson is delighted and agrees to help, though Spike grimaces as it promises there will be a hefty fee for this assistance. Corrosive gas bombs are dropped on the assembled Transformers, with Grimlock and Optimus both giving the command to take defensive positions. As Optimus grimly notes that they only have three minutes to survive, Rodimus points out five incoming warriors coming from the moonlit sky...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Continuity notes

• Armada Thrust is still present with the Aerialbots after having joined them in the Legends manga.
• Runamuck riding Blast Off's shuttle mode is a call-back to Runamuck's testing of Death Crystals in the Transformers episode, "Chaos".
• Like the unexplained appearances of Skywarp and Thundercracker in the previous chapter, Shrapnel is shown here to be alive and well despite having been turned into a Sweep back in The Transformers: The Movie.
• In the big charge, Ironhide and Chromia are giving one-another a thumbs up, in reference to their love for each other shown in "The Search for Alpha Trion".
• Wheeljack and Ratchet are shown building Grimlock, as seen in "S.O.S. Dinobots". The failsafe originates in a dub change in "War of the Dinobots", where the Dinobots' inability to kill Optimus Prime is explained as the "safety circuits within their computers" being still functional, rather than their traces of their "Autobot training" remaining in their circuits.
• Grimlock explains how he once became a genius and created the Technobots, as seen in "Grimlock's New Brain". However, the anti-electrons that were the source of his intelligence go unmentioned, and the actual source of his new intellect is given as Vector Sigma, Grimlock having downloaded its data through biting the malfunctioning generator shown in the episode. This seems to be a subtle explanation for why the Technobots were born as living beings with personalities, the residual energy of Vector Sigma granting them life as it did the Aerialbots and Stunticons.
• Sky Lynx is once again included under a nebulous umbrella with the Dinobots; having previously been examined for dinosaur transform static in "Thief in the Night" and both being counted as members of the Primitives in "Call of the Primitives".

Transformers references

• This story depicts many characters updated to new War for Cybertron Trilogy toy bodies, with some returning to Japanese continuity after absences of many years.
• Notably, this is the Japanese continuity debut for the complete trio of Spinister, Singe, and Hairsplitter/Shrute, who were never released in Japan in the 1980s.
• Similarly, this issue marks the debuts of Red Wing, Sandstorm (the Seeker), Lifeline, and Trenchfoot.
• Volcaticon is controlled primarily by Grimlock, with his Technobot limbs retaining their own individual consciousness, similar to other Japanese-original combiners showcased in this series, including King Poseidon and God Neptune.

Errors

• Swoop's forehead is frequently (but not always) colored red, rather than the toy's grey.
• Ion Storm is mistakenly colored in vehicle mode like Siege Thundercracker, with red forward wingtips and vertical cockpit stripes, presumably due to an erroneous stock photo supplied to everyone by Hasbro. The true Ion Storm toy employs grey instead of Thundercracker's red.

Other notes

• While the five incoming warriors are once again left in shadow like the Dinobots at the end of the second God Neptune comic, it's pretty obvious that they're the Terrorcons, established as Quintesson creations in "The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 3".

References

• Volcanicus comic 2 part 1 at TakaraTomy Mall
• Volcanicus comic 2 part 2 at TakaraTomy Mall
• Volcanicus comic 2 translation by Mohair Translations
• Lettered version of the above translation by Fanofcoolstuff27