The Living Nightlights!

Introducing the Sleepfast - the first light that needs no physical switch.

=Marvel UK issue #271=

Writer: Simon Furman Art: John Marshall Art: Stephen Baskerville Letters: Helen Stone


 * Major characters (in order of appearance): Wheeljack, Snarl and Mindwipe.


 * Originally published: 19th May 1990. Cover date ("off sale") 26th May 1990.

Synopsis
A television advert introduces the Sleepfast, a humanoid light that one can switch on and off by thought alone. Just the thing for turning the lights out from bed!

Wheeljack and Snarl break into the Sleepfast warehouse. Snarl is worried both that they are committing a crime but also finds the Sleepfasts scarey. However Wheeljack believes they are dangerous after he examined one and discovered it uses Cybertronian technology. Even worse they are alive and it can put the user under subliminal control. They must find the mastermind behind the scheme and stop him soon. Elsewhere an unseen figure switches off a monitor and comments that Wheeljack is right and must be eliminated.

In the warehouse Wheeljack and Snarl are suddenly taken by surrise as hoardes of Sleepfasts come to life and attack them. There are far too many to overcome and they are subdued. Then the mastermind reveals himself - it is Mindwipe! The Decepticons have thrown him out just because he tried to enthrall Scorponok but he now plans to use a human army to rule the planet. He raises his gun but Wheeljack and Snarl immediately think "Light on!" and activate the Sleepfasts. Wheeljack explains that the massive light overloads Mindwipe's neural circuity and "scared the Living Nightlights out of him!", a pun that Snarl hates so he turns off the lights.

Errors

 * Snarl's shoulder wings disappear in some panels.

Items of note

 * The story is named after the James Bond movie The Living Daylights.


 * This is the only story in the Earthforce period to make reference to Scorponok and give any indication as to the existance of a third force of Decepticons.


 * In the US story "Eye of the Storm" Mindwipe would leave Scorponok's Decepticons but under very different circumstances from those mentioned here. It all joins the melting pot of theories on where Earthforce fits into continuity.

Reprints

 * This story was reprinted in the Titan Books trade paperback "Earthforce".