Ultra Magnus...to the Rescue?

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I am so sorry you have to look at this.
"Ultra Magnus...to the Rescue?"
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	July 8, 2004
Cover date	May 2004
Story	Adam Patyk with Brad Mick
Pencils	Rob Ruffolo
Inks	Erik Sander
Colors	David Cheung with Josh Perez
Letters	Shaun Linsao
Continuity	Robots in Disguise cartoon continuity

Optimus Prime must prevent the theft of a nuclear generator, but will Ultra Magnus complicate matters?

Synopsis

With resources running low, Megatron hatches a plan for himself and some of the Decepticons to distract the Autobots while Scourge and Sky-Byte lead the rest of the troops in stealing an experimental nuclear generator from a facility in Arizona, and Scourge quickly takes charge of the mission. When they arrive at their destination, Sky-Byte suddenly realises that he's been slighted and calls Scourge out for it, which only succeeds in causing bickering between the Predacons. Scourge urges all to "focus on the mission", and they attack the facility.

With Megatron handing the Autobot Brothers their skidplates in Oregon, and Rail Racer doing... something... somewhere else, the only 'Bot available to answer T-AI's call is Optimus Prime, who has just finished helping put out a fire in Wyoming. Prime drives off to face the Arizona posse, watched by two startled firemen and Ultra Magnus, who was apparently just hanging around stalking his brother.

Back in Arizona, the Preds and 'Cons are busy wrecking up the place, falling over each other in a bid to take out the security cameras before they really get to work. Optimus quickly arrives on the scene ready to kick some serious booty, but is beaten to the punch by Ultra Magnus, who seemingly followed him there. Magnus starts wailing on the bad guys, choosing to ignore Prime's pleas for him to lead the fight away from the facility where humans are at risk.

This gives Scourge an idea, and knowing that Ultra Magnus is still a good guy at heart, he directly threatens a human life to force the 'Bots to surrender. Sky-Byte points out that Scourge is deviating from the mission that was set for them by Megatron. Scourge dismisses this concern, and after being called "soft", Sky-Byte leaves him to it and sneaks off with his Predacon subordinates in tow.

For the sake of the humans, Prime and Magnus put down their weapons and surrender. Just as he is about to deliver the final blow to his enemies, Scourge is distracted by the Predacons walking past him carrying the nuclear generator, and the Autobots take the opportunity to both punch him in the face. More concerned about being upstaged in front of Megatron, Scourge orders the Decepticons to follow the Preds and they all escape having successfully completed their mission as Sky-Byte pens a Haiku inspired by Scourge's actions. Ultra Magnus, never willing to give up, goes after them.

Optimus instead chooses to stay behind and make sure none of the humans were harmed. Prowl, Side Burn, and X-Brawn show up claiming that Megatron had suddenly retreated from their fight, and Side Burn congratulates Prime on defeating seven enemies, thus saving the day by himself. Prime freely admits that "it took two of us... two Autobots" as he looks off into the distance to watch his brother driving away into the sunset.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I suppose kissing and making up is out of the question for you two?"

—Optimus observes Scourge and Sky-Byte bickering.

Scourge: You certainly talk tough for a poor man's Prime, Magnus. I think you're about to need all the help you can get.
Ultra Magnus: That's funny, coming from a spray-painted Optimus imitation.

—Mmmm, satire!

"More time spent on work
Less time spent on insulting
Sky-Byte won the day."

—Sky-Byte dishes out some constructive criticism.

Human: You saved my life! I don't know how to thank you!
Optimus Prime: Just wait until you get my bill.

—Ever the altruist.

Notes

Differences from the cartoon

• While this story tries to stay relatively faithful to the world of the cartoon, the overall look and art style of the Robots in Disguise cartoon was generally bright, colorful, and light-hearted. Whereas the art or this comic is more washed out, less colorful, and a bit on the drab side, going for a slightly more serious tone, but still paying occasional (albeit, more subtle) homage to the cartoon's lighter tone.
• There are also a fair number of visual differences from the cartoon that can largely be chalked up to artistic liberty and/or lack of proper access to the cartoon's designs/materials:
  • The adventure starts out in the "Decepticon base", which doesn't match the organic look of the interior of the Megastar used in the cartoon.
  • Sky-Byte is drawn with his shark body kibble pieces pointing upward, forming a big shell on his back, instead of spread outward like "wings" as they were drawn on his cartoon model.
  • Scourge is depicted with a flat, blocky torso whose smaller fake windows jut out from the body, instead of the fake windows being larger flat surfaces that angle outward to form a broader-chested torso for Scourge's cartoon model.
  • For most of the comic, Gas Skunk's robot mode is drawn without his beast mode's tail attached to his head, replaced in some panels by a spike instead. The tail appears when he's in beast mode, though.
  • Optimus's vehicle mode has a single-windowed windshield instead of a two-windowed one like in the cartoon. It also bears the white Autobot symbols that his Hasbro Robots in Disguise toy had, but which neither the original Takara Car Robots toy nor his cartoon model had.
  • Ultra Magnus's torso lacks the two little blue circles that form his pectorals. As his overall design seems to be directly based on his toy, it is plausible that the artist was going off a slightly-mistransformed version of the figure that didn't have those two pieces folded out from the toy's main chestplate.
  • Ultra Magnus's gun is depicted as just the missile launcher base with the two white missiles (which are gun barrels here, as they were in the cartoon), with both the weapon's cannon and gatling gun ends missing.
• Other minor differences:
  • The fact that the villains' base is referred to as the "Decepticon base" instead of the "Predacon base", when the Decepticons were only a subgroup in Robots in Disguise while the Predacons were the base's true owners—but this anomaly is understandable given how the Decepticons, rather than the Predacons, were back to being the mainstream Transformers villains at the time of this story's publication.
  • Megatron speaks of a Cybertron-based cell of Predacon benefactors who, up until this story's time, would regularly supply his team on Earth with energy from their homeworld. This was never said or shown to be the case in the cartoon, which presented Megatron's team as always having to fend for itself via energy raids. Though, Megatron did twice mention in the cartoon that he is in the service of a Predacon Council, so the benefactors mentioned here could possibly be additional agents of the council.
  • The comic doesn't shy away from using the words "dead" and "die" at least once each, when the cartoon's English dub avoided such terms due to Saban Entertainment's adherence to Fox Kids's broadcast standards and practices for children's television. Of course, this story being published in a comic means it wouldn't be subject to such stricter standards and could thus get away with it.
• Sky-Byte's order of "Predacons, TERRORIZE!" is used not as an activation code for transformation from beast mode to robot mode, but instead as a mere battle cry.

Continuity notes

• If this story is set within the cartoon's continuity, it would best fit coming somewhere between "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!" (given the appearance of the titular character in this story) and "Fortress Maximus" (due to Megatron's main focus still being on energy-gathering at this point). Probably somewhere closer to the latter since, while Magnus is still very cold and curt to Optimus in this story, he does not express any interest in obtaining the Matrix from his brother, which was his singleminded main objective until the episode "Power to Burn!". Therefore, the best estimate for this story's placement would be between "Power to Burn!" and "Fortress Maximus".
• According to the opening blurb, the Autobots are a covert police force who are aiding many other worlds throughout the galaxy.

Transformers references

• The title appears to be a reference to how the third and fourth episodes of the cartoon both had titles that ended with similar "to the Rescue" phrases: "Bullet Train to the Rescue" and "Spychangers to the Rescue".

Errors

• As the Predacons and Decepticons arrive at the Arizona facility, Slapper and Gas Skunk bicker about being in each other's way when the art shows Sky-Byte standing between the two of them.
• Though Optimus claims the fire he's attending is "taken care of", the art shows the house well ablaze.
• Scourge's sword has the dullest blade you can possibly imagine. It's practically a plank.
• When Scourge says "You again?!" in response to Optimus showing up, his speech balloon is white instead of black (see Trivia note below).
• Given the fact that the Autobots outnumber the Decepticons in RiD by about 3 to 1, it seems rather hard to swallow that their forces could be stretched so thin—especially with most of the Decepticons all in one place.

Other trivia

• Scourge's dialogue is presented in black speech bubbles, with a rather fetching red trim.
• The comic spells T-AI's name as "Tai" (or "TAI", as the dialogue is written in ALL CAPS).
• After Rollbar accidentally steps on Slapper's tongue, the Predacon thportth a lithp for the retht of the thtory.
• The facility which the Predacons and Decepticons raid isn't named, but a partially obscured sign on one of the buildings has the initials "AERP" or "AERF", and "Arizona Energy" beneath. If it is "AERF", it could stand for "Arizona Energy Research Facility".
• In 2015, Ask Vector Prime gave this story its own universal stream designation of Viron 704.08 Gamma.

Cover

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  20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special

• 20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special cover: the Predacons victorious over Megatron, by Don Figueroa.