The Cosmic Carnival!

Things get weirder...

=Marvel US issue #44= (Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #178-179)

Writer: Bob Budiansky Pencil Art: Frank Springer Inker: Danny Bulanadi Letterer: Bill Oakley Colorist: Nelson Yomtov Editor: Don Daley Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco Cover: Frank Springer


 * Major Characters (in order of appearance): Optimus Prime, Goldbug, Slapdash, Joyride, Getaway, Sky Lynx


 * Originally published: September, 1988

Synopsis
On their way back to Earth and the Ark on-board Steelhaven, Optimus Prime and his comrades are confronted by a laser-beamed advertisement for "The Cosmic Carnival". Prime is ready to forego visiting the show, until it projects an image of the Autobot Sky Lynx among the show's attractions. Curious and suspicious, Optimus changes course to investigate.

Optimus Prime and Goldbug enter the carnival and begin searching the travelling show / starship, when they come across a quartet of Earth children on display in the sideshow: the Spacehikers! When Goldbug tries to retrieve the captive humans, the energy field around their cage knock him back with considerable force. After Prime demands to see the proprietor, the kids' handler Berko takes them to see Mr. Big Top. Big Top refuses to release the children, as they have signed a binary coded contract along with Sky Lynx, making them virtually his indentured slaves until they pay off their debt.

To show he's not a total slug, Big Top gives them two free passes to the main event. In the arena, the Autobots observe Sky Lynx's act, and meet up with him backstage after the show. Sky Lynx relates his story, about how he and the kids stopped off at the cosmic carnival after escaping from the Dinobots a few months back. When they couldn't pay for their admission, however, Sky Lynx signed on as a "temporary" performer to pay off his debt. He and the kids have been stuck there ever since.

Unable to think of a way around the contract or the bomb planted in the kids' cell, Optimus and Goldbug helplessly head over to say good-bye to the children. They are confronted by Berko again, who explains his story: an alien abductee brought aboard the carnival, he eventually became a trustee and worked his way out of the sideshow. So long as the kids inhabit the cell, he stays free. A loner all his life, Berko is shocked when Optimus offers to free him and take him back to Earth as well.

Berko suddenly has a remarkable change of heart, and begins arranging to get the kids free. He sends Optimus to collect Sky Lynx from the arena, where his next act is beginning. Prime tries to batter a way to the exit for him and Sky Lynx, but Big Top throws the other performers in their path. After dealing with a gilashark, crazed jugglers, and Rorza the Rocket...guy, they make their exit.

Goldbug and Berko have freed the kids, but Big Top gets in their way and knocks Goldbug around. "Buggo" manages to right himself, though, and knocks Big Top into the open cage. Leaving Big Top to a suitably ironic fate as a sideshow freak, the humans and Autobots take off and leave the carnival to the rubes.

Errors

 * When the Nebulan Powermasters are shown standing in front of their armors, each is standing in front of the wrong one. Rev is even standing by the evil Nebulan Hi-Test's armor.

Items of note

 * Optimus Prime says "There is more than meets the eye here." In-continuity catch phrases are funny.
 * Sky Lynx is displayed as a Triple-Changer here, changing from lynx to dino-bird to space shuttle with separating into two components at all.