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"Aerialbots over America!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	June1986
Cover date	October 1986
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Penciler	Don Perlin
Inkers	Ian Akin andBrian Garvey
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Janice Chiang
Editor	Michael Carlin
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

The newest Autobots, the Aerialbots, are sent to the rescue when Bombshell enslaves the mind of a human in order to seize the hydroelectric power of Hoover Dam.

Synopsis

"Aaagh! Talking bugs! That's far more scary than a talking gun!"

Following the repair of thespace bridge,Megatron summons theInsecticons to Earth, and modifies them with nativealternate modes. Using his tiny insect form,Bombshell is able to implant one of his mind-controllingcerebro-shells in the brain of hydroelectric engineerRicky Vasquez, who he then uses to discreetly transport Megatron—disguised in his pistol mode—into the power plant atHoover Dam. At Megatron's direction, Vasquez takes the plant personnel hostage and orders the dam shut down.

Meanwhile,Skids returns to theArk withDonny Finkleberg to inform the Autobots thatseven Autobots were recently accidentally transported toEarth over the space bridge.Ratchet is not overly convinced by Finkleberg's intel, andOptimus Prime sendsJetfire and Finkleberg to investigate to verify his claims. A news report then alerts theAutobots to the hostage situation at the hydroelectric plant, and, recognizing Megatron's hand at work, Prime decides to send the newest Autobots in to deal with the situation: theAerialbots! Freshly created byWheeljack using thecombiner technology stolen from the Decepticons, and brought to life with Optimus'Creation Matrix, these five air warriors are quickly sent into action despite the fact that onlySilverbolt's personality programming has been completed.

Back at Hoover Dam, the Decepticons open thespace bridge directly in front of the dam wall.Ramjet,Thrust, andDirge emerge through the portal ahead of a massive drill connected to a pipeline that extends back through the bridge toCybertron. The drill begins to burrow through the dam, intending to funnel all the water behind it through the bridge, so that it can be used to generate hydroelectric power for the Decepticons on their homeworld. The Aerialbots soon arrive and engage the Decepticon jets in a dogfight, each side using their special powers and weapons to give the other a tough battle, until eventually, the Decepticons retreat. The Aerialbots proceed to merge into their combined form,Superion, to destroy the drill, but meet fresh resistance in the form of Megatron himself, still in his gun mode, being wielded by Vasquez. With the Aerialbots' incomplete personalities lacking any directive to protect human life, Superion almost kills Vasquez until Silverbolt is able to wrest away control of their combined form and forces them to separate. The mission seems doomed to failure until Vasquez's daughterMaria breaks through the police line around the dam and calls out to her father, giving Vasquez the strength to break the cerebro-shell's control, and instead fire Megatron at the drill, destroying it, and shutting down the space bridge. While Vasquez reunites with hiswife and daughter, the Insecticons recover Megatron and the Decepticons withdraw—except for Bombshell, who secretly hitches a ride on Silverbolt's wing...

Elsewhere, Finkleberg leads Jetfire to the last known location of the "Cybertron Seven", and though there is no sign of them, a puddle of Cybertronian fuel serves as proof that the human is telling the truth. Jetfire makes preparations to track the newly arrived Autobots... who, unbeknownst to him, have been taken captive by the new top-secret government task force, theRapid Anti-robot Assault Team! The seven are now being held in RAAT's base at an airstrip inNew Jersey, where their heads are being removed from their bodies and hung on the wall as trophies at the behest of the unit's leader...Circuit Breaker!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"But can we depend on this feeble fleshling?"
"Does iron rust red? With one of mycerebro-shells planted in his brain module, he'd eatnuclear waste if I asked him to. Fleshling, there's a grease spot on my foot. See if you can clean it... with yourtongue!"

—Shrapnel promptsBombshell to be a jackass.

It may be best not to think where Megatron’s trigger is in his robot mode.

"But Ratchet, he's a human! Humans don't rust!"
"But they sweat!...Bring the human back after you dehumidify him."

—Skids andRatchet

"How can we believe him? As Robot-Master he went on television andlied about us, gave all the Autobots a bad name! Let me do a littlecorrective surgery on him, Optimus - I'll get the truth out of himpiece by piece."

—AndRatchet showing very little morality.

"Pull my trigger, fleshling!Pull my trigger!"

—Megatron says terrible things to a mind-controlled Ricky Vasquez

Notes

Continuity notes

• This issue takes place onJuly 4,1986 (but see "UK printing" below for additional notes).
• The Insecticons and the second-year Decepticon jets were previously introduced inissues #17-18, as members of the Decepticon forces on Cybertron. Megatron notes that their arrival on Earth has been made possible by the successful repair of the space bridge following the damage the Autobots inflicted upon it in issue #18.
• Prime is seen nursing an injury he received saving Skids' life inissue #19 (pictured at right; but again, see "UK printing").
• Donny discovered that the "Cybertron Seven", as Jetfire calls them, came over the space bridge in issue #19. The seven are revealed to have been captured off-panel soon after that; we'll see how in the next issue.
• The Aerialbots are constructed using the combiner data the Autobots acquired from the Decepticons in issue #19. In the UK version of the series, they've been in the works for longer, having been inspired by a vision from the Creation Matrix inUK issues #63-65.
• Circuit Breaker last appeared inissue #9.

Transformers references

• This issue makes abig point of drawing on the new characters' profiles toshowcase many of their special powers, weapons, and weaknesses. Thrust's engines force Skydive to land; Dirge broadcasts his fear-frequency; Fireflight uses his fire-fog missiles; Ramjet flies straight into Slingshot; Slingshot uses his VTOL capabilities; Air Raid uses his torque rifle; Shrapnel zaps Slingshot; Kickback kicks both a door and Air Raid; and Superion's single-minded drive to destroy Decepticons causes him to endanger human life.

Real-life references

• The issue is mostly set in and around the real-life Hoover Dam, in the Black Canyon (right). A tour guide reels off facts and figures about the dam including its service area of Nevada, Arizona and California.
• Both a reporter and a bratty kid identify Silverbolt's alternate form with curious precision as an SST (supersonic transport), rather than the less generic, more commonly known Concorde.

Continuity and plotting errors

• On page 12, Jetfire refers to the Cybertronian game of "Basketrek". His words imply he has played it and knows the "ballobots" involved with the game from personal experience... but Jetfire was created on Earth and has never been to Cybertron, so while he might have read up on it since coming online, the familiar tone he uses to describe it sits ill.
• Megatron seems to need Ricky to pull his trigger to be able to fire in gun mode, but in previous issues (particularlyissue #13) Megatron could do this without aid.
• Ricky just walks right past the security guard at the dam with Megatron in hand, and the man—who even speaks to him directly—doesn't notice!

Artwork and technical errors

"Dirge, do you like movies about gladiators?"

• Throughout this issue, the Insecticons are coloured with non-final colour schemes; Kickback and Shrapnel are missing yellow details on their knees, while Bombshell is missing red panels on the sides of his legs. Additionally, Kickback's chest is orange instead of yellow, but it's hard to fault this one; Shrapnel and Bombshell's chests remain orange on their final models, making Kickback's finalized yellow the odd-one-out.
• Also throughout the issue, the color of Donny Finkleberg's clothing has changed; whereas last issue his shirt was green and his pants were brown, in this issue, his shirt is orange and his pants green (right).
• Cover: Fireflight is white instead of red. The three Decepticons are all off-color in ways too numerous to list; most notably Dirge and Thrust lack their orange chest-cockpits, and Ramjet's got a fleshy pink face and incorrect orange accents on his feet and shoulder intakes.
• Page 1: In the issue's indicia, the cover date is given as October1987 rather than 1986.
• Page 3: None of the Decepticons' insignia are coloured in, all left blank white. In panel four, Bombshell's mouth-grill is left white and his eyes coloured the same blue-black as the rest of his helmet, instead of vice versa.
• Pages 6–7: Ratchet's hands are white instead of red. Optimus Prime's legs are solid blue; both his thighs and the gas tanks on his boots should be white.
  • Page 6, panel 2: Ratchet's head is an orangey-red instead of solid red, and his knees are red instead of white.
  • Page 6, panel 4: Ratchet's Autobot symbol is uncolored. His hands are still white.
  • Page 7, panel 6: Wheeljack's body is solid blue, but this might be intended as a shadowing effect.
• Page 8, panel 1: Silverbolt's pelvis is red instead of white. His kneecaps are solid yellow instead of yellow and white, and he's missing yellow details on his feet. Slingshot's face is white instead of red.
• Page 9, panel 4: The first of several instances of missing yellow ink causes Shrapnel and Bombshell's chest-cockpits to appear magenta instead of orange.
• Page 10: Again, missing yellow ink makes Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust's cockpits, and Dirge's wings, magenta instead of orange (see right). Also: Ramjet's helmet and pelvis are blue-black instead of white; Dirge's feet and forearms are blue instead of blue-black, and his helmet is blue-black instead of blue; and Thrust's guns are blue instead of red and blue-black, and he's missing the blue-black tip of his conehead.
• Page 12: Jetfire's Autobot symbol is uncolored. He has blue feet instead of white.
• Page 13, panel 5: Ramjet is entirely blue-black from the waist up.
• Page 14:
  • Panel 5: Thrust's cockpit and a strip of his fuselage is blue-black, instead of orange and red, respectively.
  • Panel 7: Ramjet's cockpit is red instead of orange, as is the area of his nosecone beneath, which should be white.
  • Panel 8: The area beneath Slingshot's cockpit is red instead of white. His left wing has a purple square on it, which should be white like the rest of it.
• Page 15: Dirge's wings and cockpit again appear magenta instead of orange due to missing yellow ink.
• Page 16:
  • Panel 2: Shrapnel and Bombshell's chest-cockpits are light blue instead of orange.
  • Panel 5: Misattributed speech bubbles result in a line meant for Ramjet, addressed to Thrust, being spokenby Thrust, and a reply from Thrust being spoken by Dirge.
  • Panel 5-6: Ramjet's fuselage is coloured red instead of white, apart from his nosecone, which is blue-black where it should be white. The orange of all three jets' cockpits incorrectly extends out to strips running down their fuselage. Part of Thrust's nosecone is orange where it should be red.
• Page 17:
  • Panel 7: Slingshot is coloured as Air Raid. He's also missing the damage he sustained when Ramjet rammed him.
  • Panel 9: Skydive is colored as Fireflight.
• Page 18, panel 7: Once again, Ramjet's cockpit is magenta instead of orange.
• Pages 18–20: It's not worth the time to talk about Superion, because in the Marvel comic, he's coloured differently in almost every single panel he appears in. It's hard to even say what constitutes "correct" when it comes to his character model and colors due to his vaguely-drawn and remarkably inconsistent portrayal in classic media (including the cartoon; seehis article for more). We'll note for the sake of noting that on these pages, his right arm is twice colored in Fireflight-red, and twice in Air Raid-black.
• Page 21:
  • Panel 2: One last time, Bombshell's cockpit is magenta instead of orange. His insect-legs are yellow instead of blue-black.
  • Panel 5: Blaster's torso and arms are solid red, lacking his yellow cassette door and blue biceps, and his legs are two shades of blue instead of grey.
• Page 22: Blaster's head is two shades of blue, instead of a yellow face with a red helmet (see right).

UK printing

Issue #89:

• Published:22nd November, 1986
• Cover date:29th November, 1986
• Back-up strips:Spitfire and the Troubleshooters ("Beginnings", Part 4) andRobo-Capers
• AtoZ:Air Raid andAstrotrain. This feature replaces theFact File seen in previous issues, reprinting profiles and art fromThe Transformers Universe limited series. In its first few installments, the text is nearly unreadable due to being printed on a patterned background.
• Despite the fact that the events of thepreceding UK story were dated by issue #84 to October 1986 (reflecting the real-world publication date of the issue), the caption datingthis story's events to July 4 is not removed or edited.
• After Megatron mentions the repair of the space bridge, a footnote directing readers to US issue #18 is changed to read "after last issue" (#88) rather than the UK issue that actually reprinted US #18 (#69), due to UK #88 featuring a scene of Megatron specifically ordering the bridge repaired.
• The circumstances under which Optimus Prime was injured are completely changed for UK continuity. There was an extended 17-issue gap between the reprint of US issue #19 (in which he was wounded) and the reprint of this issue, far too long for Prime to sit around with an unrepaired gash in his side. Thus, in UK continuity, events are changed so that the wound Prime sustained in US issue #19 was repaired, and he wascoincidentally re-injured in the same place during his mysterious disappearance betweenissues #78-88. The footnote explaining Prime's wound that previously directed readers to US issue #19 is edited to point them instead to "Transformation", the editorial section on the second page of the issue, where it is explained that the mystery of Prime's disappearance and his injury will be solved in the upcomingissue #100 (see right).
• Speaking of discontinuity between the US and the UK, the UK printing does not alter or remove Prime's lines about the arrival of the "Cybertron Seven" being "the most serious turn of events" since the Transformers landed on Earth, which is... anodd thing to say when the Autobots have spent the last nine or so issues fightinga super-powered Decepticon whotraveled back in time from the friggin' future.

Issue #90:

• Published:29th November, 1986
• Cover date:6th December, 1986
• Back-up strips:Spitfire and the Troubleshooters ("Beginnings", Part 5) andRobo-Capers
• Other features: Spot-the-difference competition to win one of 20The Transformers: The Movie posters (right). The art used for the puzzle is black-and-white lineart of Kup, Blurr, and Hot Rod, taken from issue #88. This competition also ran in the concurrent issue ofSpider-Man andZoids.

Other trivia

• The narration pegs Superion's height as "eight stories", roughly 100 feet or 30.5 metres.
• For the most part, Silverbolt's jet mode actually makes an attempt to bein scale with the rest of the jets! It's even used in the plot as he carries a wounded Slingshot on his wing.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: 16 members of Optimus Prime's forces confirmed active after Skids returns and the Aerialbots come online; 5 rogue Dinobots; 7 held captive by RAAT; 14 in repair bay. (42 total)
• Decepticons: 16 active as Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust, and the Insecticons arrive on Earth; 7 offline. (23 total)

Courtesy of my...

• Skydive fires a laser-guidedmissile.
• Dirge fires air-to-air missiles.
• Fireflight saves some humans from falling rocks with hisfire-fog missiles.
• Air Raid tells Ramjet that his fuselage is twisted "courtesy of mytorque rifle!"

Covers (3)

• US issue #21: Aerialbots vs. Coneheads, byHerb Trimpe.
• UK issue #89: Insecticons control Ricky Vasquez, byRobin Smith.
• UK issue #90: reuse of art from US cover with new coloring byRobin Bouttell.

• 

  US issue #21 - Wait, wrong way!

• 

  UK issue #89 - Actually,Slaves of the Insecticons is a different book altogether.

• 

  UK issue #90 - UK Silverbolt seems to be a robo-racist.

Reprints

• 

  Transformers: Showdown TPB (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Transformers: Showdown HC (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Classic Transformers Volume 2 (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• 

  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 2
  (IDW Publishing, 2012)

• 

  Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 6: Target: 2006
  (Hachette Partworks, 2016)

IDWClassic Transformers edits

When this issue was reprinted inClassic Transformers Volume 2, IDW had not secured the license to include the names and images of Marvel-original character Circuit Breaker. Hence, on the issue's final page, her image was replaced with a silhouette and the speech bubble with her name was removed.

IDWTransformers Classics edits

ForThe 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'sDefinitive G1 Collection.

• Page 4, panel 2: Screen-tone dots on the roof of Ricky Vasquez's car have been removed, despite the same effect used on some rocks in panel 1 remaining.
• Page 14, panel 8: The purple spot on Slingshot's wing is corrected to white.
• Page 16, panel 5: An effort is made to fix the misattributed dialogue, but only Dirge's response is altered, meaning that the panel is now even more nonsensical, as seen at right.
• Page 16, panel 5-6: Ramjet's red fuselage is corrected to white.
• Page 19, panel 1: Colored Fireflight-red in the original version, Superion's right arm is here changed to light-blue/white.
• Page 22: The skin of Circuit Breaker's body is a slightly yellower hue than the skin of her face, making it look like she's wearing a full bodysuit.

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US

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• Olympic prizes or cash - between pages 7 & 8
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UK

• S.T.A.R.S. membership kit (both issues)
• The Transformers: The Movie (issue #89)
• Marvel Super Heroes: The Heroic Role-Playing Game (both issues)