Club Con!

"Hi, I'm Starscream. Fly me!"

=Marvel US issue #47= (Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #194-195)

Script: Bob Budiansky Art: Jose Delbo Inks: Dave Hunt Lettering: Bill Oakley Colors: Nelson Yomtov Editor: Don Daley Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco Cover: Bob Budiansky
 * Major characters (in order of appearance): Starscream, Optimus Prime, Fortress Maximus, Blaster, Grimlock, Ratbat, Overbite, Seawing, Nautilator, Skalor, Tentakill, Snaptrap
 * Originally published: December, 1988

Synopsis
Optimus Prime and his advisors are puzzled over the Decepticons' latest scheme: Ratbat and his soldiers have converted their desert island headquarters into a tourist resort for humans named Club Con, even advertising it on television. It seems clear that this is partially to have an endless supply of human shields and/or hostages to deter Autobot attacks, but Prime suspects there is more to it. He summons Blaster for a mission to investigate the island.

Later in Portland, Oregon, Sparkplug Witwicky and Jesse are discussing how worried they are about his missing son, Buster, when Blaster drops in on them. He has a plan to sneak onto Club Con, but needs a human "owner" to carry him in. Sparkplug is more than willing to jump at the chance to help find and free Buster, but Jesse gently reminds him that he's too old and ugly to fit in at a resort. She offers to take his place on the surveillance mission, and Blaster accepts.

In the mechanical tower that sits just beneath the surface of Club Con, Ratbat is extraordinarily anxious about the success of their latest "operation", as it has been issued from High Command back on Cybertron.

As Jesse and the disguised Blaster arrive on Club Con, they are greeted by the club's manager, Starscream. At the beach, Jesse leaves Blaster to his surveillance work and goes for a swim. Out past the safety buoys, though, she runs into a school of Seacons patrolling the waters, and sees them enter the mechanical construction underneath the island. Returning to the beach, she gathers up a recalcitrant Blaster in a waterproof baggie and takes him back down to the airlock she saw the Seacons enter earlier.

Sneaking around, Jesse spots a human-sized door, and enters it to find Buster held prisoner inside. Blaster questions him about the Decepticons' plans, and Buster relates what he has overheard. Several hundred years ago, the Autobots of Cybertron sent specially-encoded information to Earth on a pair of mini-cassettes. The message craft was damaged on arrival, though, and the cassettes wound up in a pirate's treasure chest, only for that pirate ship to be sunk in the middle of the ocean. The Decepticons of Cybertron recently learned of this long-lost mission and, suspecting the value of the information, commanded Ratbat and the Decepticons of Earth to find that sunken treasure chest and the cassettes inside. Club Con is a blind to cover their salvage operation.

Unable to break Buster free without revealing himself, Blaster promises to return when he can. On their way out, however, Jesse and Blaster spot the Seacons returning from the deep, having successfully uncovered the treasure chest. Against Blaster's recriminations, Jesse sneaks over and retrieves the cassettes right from under the Decepticons' olfactory sensors while Snaptrap is praising his team's efficiency to Ratbat. When they notice the missing tapes, though, Ratbat immediately recognizes Jesse's water-dripping footprints as belonging to a fleshling, and sends the Seacons to fetch.

Back on dry land, Jesse is ready to catch the first plane out with Blaster, but the Seacons pop up onto the beach and begin ransacking through the crowd in order to find the cassettes. Blaster feels compelled to transform and protect the humans, but is quickly overwhelmed by the six Seacons. Out of necessity, he spits the cassettes back out into the water, and transforms back into his smaller form in the confusion. Armed with the information but not the cassettes themselves, Blaster leaves with Jesse and vows to return as soon as he can.

Errors

 * A Battlecharger is erroneously depicted among Club Con's staff.
 * Another Battlecharger (or possibly the same one) is erroneously depicted among the Autobots training with Blaster.
 * Outback is also depicted among Blaster's training partners. It's possible he dropped in from Cybertron for some sparring, but more than likely this is erroneous placement as well.
 * Its not clear what exactly Blaster would've done if Jessie HADN'T snuck into the Decepticon base with him. Was he just going to sit there and eavesdrop, or what?
 * The mini-cassette backstory is several layers of screwed up. First, it depicts Sunstreaker and a normal-sized Defensor on Cybertron when they shouldn't be. Next, it assumes the Autobots of Cybertron knew the Ark's crew was on Earth several hundred years before the latter group awoke on Earth, which is nonsense and unsubstantiated. Then, as we'll see in later issues, the information they send to Earth only becomes relevant in the present...several hundred years after it was first sent. FUBAR.

Items of note

 * This is technically the first appearance of the Autobots of Earth since US #41. This issue establishes that Optimus Prime has now officially returned as overall Autobot leader, and Blaster, Grimlock, and Fortress Maximus all seem comfortable being under his command.
 * Starscream is now fully repaired and back working with the Decepticons as Ratbat's lieutenant commander, after being recovered from the Ark in US #41. In UK continuity, Starscream was revived quite some time earlier, prior to US #21 chronologically, but this is still his first appearance back with the Decepticons for UK readers as well.
 * Instead of publishing a new Transformers Universe limited series, Marvel began shortening the main stories and including profiles for the Headmasters-era and beyond characters in the back. Profiles for Snapdragon, Highbrow and Apeface are found after the main story.