Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Command Performance
Written by: Bob Budiansky
Penciled by: Don Perlin
Inked by: Ian Aikin & Brian Garvey
Colored by: Nel Yomtov
Lettered by: Janice Chiang
Editor: Michael Carlin
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Lets go back to the 1980s for some vintage 80s Transformers goodness and murder sprees. Yes murder sprees. Even though it was a kids comic, Marvel’s version of the Transformers comic contained numerous stories where a Transformer would suddenly snap and start shooting everyone in sight like they were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. From Shockwave to Starscream to Omega Supreme to Thunderwing to Unicron, Marvel would feed robot mass murder stories to kids who would gleefully eat them up with a spoon.
This issue is a famous issue and one of note due to how quickly its big event was quickly dismissed. In this issue Omega Supreme, one of the big ticket toy items of the 1980s, finally made his introduction in the Transformers comic. Costing around $40, Omega Supreme was the first Transformer to get a massive and huge push by Hasbro towards their customer base, little kids who loved Transformers and had parents who would buy them for their kids to keep them quiet and make up for their lousy parenting.
Omega Supreme however would fall victim to the fickle fancy of Hasbro and of the Transformer fans however as Hasbro would soon be shilling brand new ultra-expensive Transformers like Metroplex, Trypticon, Scorponoks, and the mother of all Transformers Fortress Maximus. A twenty year gap between Season 2 and the Transformers Movie/Season 3 helped further shift Omega Supreme out of sight and out of mind. Omega Supreme’s last real appearance of note would be in Transformers #50 where Starscream, during his own personal killing spree, gunned down the mighty Omega Supreme in one shot.
The issue opens with Optimus Prime unveiling Omega Supreme to the Autobot army and explaining away some bit of foreshadowing a couple of issues early in regards to Omega Supreme’s debut. In Transformers #14 Prime had several of the second wave of Transformers figures built using some disembodied brain pods that were inside the Ark. Prime had one brain pod left so he had Grapple (one of the newly built Bots) build a “Super-Guardian” to defend the Ark.
Omega Supreme is introduced and shows his stuff to the rest of his new teammates. In his vehicle mode he forms a scout tank, a track which the scout tank moves on, and rocket launcher located inside the track. Omega’s parts quickly merge into his giant robot form as Optimus Prime announces the reason behind the construction of Omega Supreme: to guard the Ark while the Autobots attack the Decepticons’ coal mine base so that they can steal the secrets of the gesalt/combiner technology. This of course is the set-up for the creation of the Aerialbots several issues later…
Grimlock then makes his appearance and laughs at Prime’s announcement that the Bots will flee as soon as they get the Gesalt technology and announces that the Dinobots are leaving. Prime tells them to not let the door hit them on their way out not knowing that they will come back and literally enslave the Autobots and make everyone else their personal slaves once Prime was dead.
As the Bots roll out, we cut back to the Decepticon Coal Mine of Love as Shockwave and Megatron face off over who should lead the Cons. Stuck in the middle of this lover’s quarrel is Donny Finkleberg, a comic writer hired by the US Government to pretend to be the leader of the Transformers in order to basically turn the public against both sides so that they can kill both the Autobots and the Decepticons without complaint. As he decides it’s time to escape from this hell, Megatron calls out the Decepticons still beholden to him (Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw) to head out and great the new recruits from Cybertron that are supposed to be arriving that afternoon.
As a convey of Autobots (consisting of Prime, Bumblebee, Grapple, Wheeljack, Hoist, Tracks, Smokescreen, and Skids) head towards their destination, Skids accidentally hits another car who’s driver vows horrible vengence against Skids. He follows the Autobots to the Decepticon Coal Mine of Love befor being stopped by armed forces that are on the outskirts of the base. As the Autobots storm the base, Megatron and company are just leaving and decide on a totally different course of action: attack the Ark! Of course he TOTALLY ignores the fact that Prime is only attacking with 33% of the Earth based Autobot army but having the remaining 66% waiting for him is the least of his worries…
As the Autobots blast through the defenses Shockwave calls upon the Constructicons to defeat the Autobots as Bumblebee scans the Decepticons as they merge with a tricorder that records all of the details required for the Autobots to create their own gesalts. Their mission accomplished, Prime gives the retreat signal as Donny flees in the ensuing chaos with Ravage in hot pursuit.
Finally we cut to the Megatron’s forces attacking the Ark as they are met by the Super-Guardian Omega Supreme. While spouting dialogue that would make Darkwing Duck sue for trademark violation, Omega Supreme KILLS the entire Decepticon army with the exception of Megatron and Laserbeak, who barely escape with their lives. Meanwhile the Autobots are attacked by both the army and Ravage, who knocks Skids out as the rest of the Autobots make a quick retreat, leaving Skids to be left behind.
Finally the issue ends with some retarded aftermath discussions as the Autobots cheerfully declare themselves the winners of today’s activity despite abandoning one of their own while an even more retarded event happens at the Decepticon Coal Mine of Love. Despite getting 90% of his troops killed, including all of Soundwave’s tape minions save for Laserbeak, Megatron declares that his attack on the Ark proves he is fit to lead the Decepticons because he “showed the Autobots that they can never let their guard down for an instant”. Shockwave, obviously plotting out how fast he can call the Predacons on Cybertron to come to Earth and kill Megatron for him, decides to give into Megatron’s insane ramblings and concedes leadership of the Decepticons to Megatron. And Megatron, being an idiot as usual, doesn’t make his first act as leader the act of killing Shockwave dead so he doesn’t betray him.
